#so I’d do the reverse for him I’m not big on sweet stuff lol

[jaredthebc]

I really can’t do anything without thinking about the blorbo. I’m having some ramen with Buldak sauce rn which slaps so ungodly hard, and I just pictured N having Buldak for the first time and exploding like a Victorian child

[tenfoldtranslation]

get rid of’ these eggs-- do I speak English?? -> use up these eggs

I really do use too many exclamation points

"The point of life is to enjoy it.""I don’t wanna stress." big mood

There is so much text on randomly difficult background patterns, I hope the letterer can manage... also fingers crossed the letterer is good this time

lmao this is the same joke as Fuku o Kiru Nara (ossan ka)

(how many people will get the meme reference?? if many, maybe just ’saw long cat’? probably not but) -> hopefully this will have a real translator's note

Apparently nekojita only applies to hot things, I always thought it was cold things too.

I wanted to put "Kh" instead of "Tch", but I think it might only be my family that makes that sound when they're disappointed...?

kigurumi -> snow suits (I’d cancel myself for this too) I was checking bc I think ’snow suit’ implies it’s a single piece, but so does ’kigurumi’, right?

moe -> cute (I’d cancel myself for this too) (on the same page even, that’s bad)

what’s that thing Katrina talked about, phatics?

They're like snow! -> They're like ice! (talking about how cold hands are) localization babey

okay it is two hands not hand

oh this is the ’don’t repeat the thing’ people were talking about (>手を出して　>手？)

I feel like Haa means the soft breath vs blow

I love this series' take on romance (except maybe [redacted character that hasn't shown up yet] ... and not exactly [redacted] but I appreciate it). Now I wanna readdd moreeee

Times when punctuation just works different (. having more emphasis than !)

oooh I have mochi to eat o.o (OH I DIDN’T NOTICE THE MOCHI IN THE PICTURE X( okay maybe mochi it is…)

also there's some really hilarious English used as graphic design on t-shirts (it's like, copy-pasted out of, idk, economics magazines?)

ah mostly they don’t use honorifics because they’re all family…

author’s note explains why we gets Valentines every year haha

we know bath salts aren’t just drugs right. I’m not sure there’s any way around calling them that. it’s become very hard to find information about regular bath salts…. -> went with 'bath powder'

oh it is gulp, nod is kokuri (it was 'gokuri')

lol jisho coming in with the ’efficacious chemicals’ definition ftw (of 'kusuri')

trying to figure out if non-drug bath salts have chlorine in them (it seemed like they have chloride, so hopefully that's close enough...)

Is [redacted] wearing anything on this page? A towel...?

flip that, reverse it (the prey is trying to become a predator -> The predator has become the prey.) It's obvious enough from context which is which

how many times have I read this and it still said "there here is"???? like three times at least?? (-> there he is)

soaked -> damp -> WET (LIKE THE BLORBOS *finger funs* yeah funs not guns huh)

shiver would work but gata is clattery right? -> chatter

Wait. -> Hold up. (saw Bet On It again too recently)

Trying so hard not to turn これ、どうしたんだい into "wots all this then" -> what's all this -> what's this stuff -> where did all this come fromf (UGH apparently there was a typo in my draft, sob)

not college, university (it's mostly the U.S. that says 'college') (though I guess this is for a U.S. audience anyway...)

押し付��る　oh good jisho says ’foist’

Translator’s notes I can’t include: why are you putting fruit in a cupcake THAT’S A MUFFIN --- I guess TECHNICALLY they're on top... D: (I had taken out 'cupcake' entirely but it ended up for now as) -> This cupcake is yummy. All the fruit pieces are delicious!

Still don't really know what おてんば means where it's used

うぷ Danganronpa

Translator's notes I can't include: "I have a friend who has a huge sweet tooth. I’ll hand these off to him." =how Japanese society functions

"[redacted]-sensei, you can have mine, let me try one of yours!" Mind is in the gutter again

ゴゴゴゴゴゴ I wish we could just replace these with wiggly lines

Having to figure out from when the chapter was originally published, the weather, and other context that the character was actually gone over spring break (between school years in Japan) and not over the summer as I assumed

Oh many I didn't even include the part where it said cats can't have shrimp, but in actuality it's only raw shrimp that a really a problem, but Japanese doesn't feel the need to specify that they'd be raw because why wouldn't they be (as a U.S.-ian I just assumed they were cooked)

Maybe [main character] is like yuruyaka

Trying to figure out how to say "school nurse" using words that a small child wouldn't understand (since it's 養護教諭 in Japanese)

It's bad when you're trying to figure out a synonym and all the synonyms are still in Japanese (shikkari -> reigi-tadashii)

I was gonna split this thought into two but the third part is relevant

"Leave it to us." ahh that’s the otoko ga iitai serifu top 3 (I was just listening to Ore no Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru)

this is the kind of stuff that’s actually hard to translate ToT "easy to eat" but that sounds silly in English -> This one’s not so sweet, so it’ll be a nice change.-> This one’s less sweet, so it will be a nice change.-> think of it like a palate cleanser

"True. But he’s still a walking disaster." Ah, that’s not what katabutsu means… -> "True. Though he could loosen up a little."

I found a non-volume version of the pages that still had the editorial text on the opening pages included, and some of them it's a CRIME that they weren't kept for the volume publication, they're already good but it made it so much better

"school lunch cook" Also it should be 'high school' but we'll get there

(rip & RIP pun…) so pumped for this

spongebob -1 hour leatahh-

profit, make out, kill, earn big, make the big bucks, earn a living

Kay, are you ready? (not [redacted])

" take out my feelings on" would be much different… and that’s not right, right? -> to cheer me up

some tricky sfx in this. おず? For あくあく, oh right I did look this one up… baby hands grabbing, hayaku shiro, しきりに口を開け閉めする, 一瞬驚きおそれるさま。 · 突然はげしく折れ曲がったり、動いたりするさま

wow this page is like, ALL SFX

解せぬ "Doesn't get it" memey (OH RIGHT IT WAS POP-TEPIC)

う〜ん okay yeah maybe it’s like うねる nvm うなされる

I keep working on this when there are cats nearby and it keeps being so relatable

Existing fandom saw a line that said ママ友 and interpreted the person in the panel as [main character's] mom and that's totally not right. I feel like ’mom friend’ means something different anyway, but I think in the end it's the best choice.

Phew, first draft of volume 1 turned in!! I'm so looking forward to once this gets announced and I can actually talk about it!! Hopefully it'll have more readers than the last series I worked on ^^; Especially because we really need to make it to some of the later volumes, like people need to buy it so we can get to at least, like, volume 8!

To celebrate, here's a short list of translation quandaries/thought/notes that would be too stupid to put into print!

’Bowl’ is better but I think it says ’皿’ so we’ll go with ’dish’

When the original says "evolve" but that's not how evolution works

’shitsuke’ is hard to translate

(ahh now I see why my editor was complaining about the apostrophes, they only show up as pointed the wrong direction when I copy-paste them out)

Apparently lay is transitive and lie is intransitive, who knew??

Silly owner! -> Tricks are for kids! (changed it to Stupid owner!)

KIDDEN (I can explain once the series gets announced)

Looking up the difference between sardines and anchovies

"Thanks" with your mouth full: could be "Danks" but that looks too much like "dank" (went with "Fanks")

MC is really great but there are several lines the get borderline creepy if you look at them wrong ("SFXCreep", "Ahh. You smell so clean.")

you KICK Miette?! (but that’s anachronistic to when this first came out ;o;)

Translator’s notes I can’t include: this reminds me of the eromanga days ("I’ll make sure it’s not scary. So relax, okay?")

(Followed by "I’m not blushing. Not blushing!!" It do be like that sometimes)

This series has a lot of one-page gags which is way different than the ones I worked on before, it's kind of nice to have it all condensed like that!

(It took me like, a dozen reads to finally get all the tiny story threads with the art and the jokes I think)

Oh wait I forgot to send this!! "[Page 36: The joke was originally a play on ’hayaoki wa sanmon no toku’, meaning ’there’s benefit to getting up early’, and [character] heard ’sanmon’ as ’salmon’.]"

(Same character) ohhh, [redacted]-yuki, light snow fall; small snow flakes (like her tips)

へーい -> Mmkay.

It's kinda refreshing, I guess, that we see [main character] without a shirt on a lot...?

About さんきゅー: lol I’m gonna says ’thanks’ is okay since it’s in hiragana (and then I changed... and snuck in Purrfect, thanks; that'll probably get changed. There's actually a spot where it says "Perfect" later, but I think changing it would interfere with a joke there.)

Translator’s notes I can’t include: since it doesn’t actually say body horror ("Like body horror?" -> "Like a horror movie.")

Translator’s notes I can’t include: ("don't make up a man to get mad at" -> "Don’t judge what you don’t know!")

thank goodness for Katekyo Hitman Reborn so I know what a 仮定教師 is

There's a panel that just says マーキング that kinda squicks me out for some reason.

doesn’t specify which meal but, dinner? could be both…? ("今日のご飯なぁに？" -> "Yuya, what are we having today?")

SANMA SAURY

oh same problem here actually, it’s not necessarily rice… (ご飯)

[character name] is named after another character I like from Ajin and acts like another character from D.Gray-man, so those influenced my first draft, but I think I have a solid enough grasp on his own character now after reading up to volume 10

see ’picked you up’ really doesn’t work here (for 拾う, because it means 'took in', but it could get confused with 'lifted off the ground')

too sexy for his shirt

if boku is uke and 俺 is seme, is オレ switch? >>

[main character] really doesn’t strike me as someone who’d say ’Tch’??!! -> "Got me."

oh, cat fight, I hadn’t noticed (I get so focused on the words sometimes it takes me way longer than it should to notice the art)

meager? flimsy? sparse? skimpy? paltry? *scant?

Translator’s notes I can’t include: also now it’s a sneaky Ajin reference (right?) OH that's why I wanted 'play ball' and not 'play catch'... (it did get changed to 'play catch' as of now)

LOTR potato song

just realized [character's name] looks like [redacted] Street

"ass backwards" would be really funny too (went with "Do you two know the phrase ‘cart before the horse’?)

Things on Walmart are called ’senbei’ so that means I can use 'senbei' too right

we were just doing this to Panda (scaring my friend's cat and her tail puffed up)

OMg the jisho example sentence for gikuri… 圭はその問いにギクリとさせられたが、頭を何でもないといいたそうに横に振る。 [redacted] is startled by that question, but shakes her head as it to say that it’s nothing

two very conflicting purposes for this line: not revealing [redacted]'s gender, and also conveying what the line means >>

not to mention it's about おっぱい and this isn't that kind of manga

I mean I guess we could just say 'buns' (instead of dango) but since we're launching directly into Otsukimi that seems unfair to the reader

(It was really funny how frequently things I was doing irl overlapped with what was happening in the manga as I worked on it! Christmas, mochi, snow, cats being cute...)

hey their names all use different writing systems

もみもみ-> knead knead, directly followed by こねこね→knead knead

"Super" seems too girly for [redacted female character]?

"You know, in other countries, they say a lion lived there [on the moon]." I swear I searched for at least half an hour and I cannot figure out what this is talking about. Hopefully someone else can figure it out.

oh like the wood getting in the mochi?? (from the thing you pound the mochi in, we had just been talking about that)

"The moon’s so pretty." -> I love you?

"now I’m translating and I don’t want to get up bc of the cats…"

Staying with my host sister in Tokyo-Chiba gave me perspective on what really counts as ’inaka’ LOL

I probably posted about this already, but over the 2.5 months of translating this, I've become hyper-aware of dekopons. They're everywhere! Even in the U.S.! Trader Joe's just featured them in their latest flyer!!

Translator’s notes I can’t include: deception by orange: ("OK BUT THEY HAVEN’T EXPLAINED THIS YET… god am I going to be sucked into ANOTHER red herring about oranges XnX" -> after Code Geass many moons ago)

"ああしてるとやっぱ男の子だな" -> "Boys will be boys." I dislike this line but I feel like this is an okay solution…? except [main character] isn’t like that XD is that making a new point? I mean I guess what he said in JP would be making the same point… < ah that’s funny because [main character] is supposed to be (speaking?) more feminine

"やっぱユーヤはかっこいいね" -> "You're handsome." this feels like a huge stretch but also supremely in prince [redacted] character?? like she says it offhand. okay well the first word on jisho for kakko ii is ’attractive’, so maybe handsome works? I still think this is the right choice

Tara-> cod means you get poetry like "I think we’ll do hot pot with cod for dinner."

Translator’s notes I can’t include: moyashi (?) ! (like D.Gray-man) -> string bean

is that too SpyxFamily? -> Borf (from わふん) (Went with WORF) (I did borrow "shock" for ガン though)

I thought it sounded dumb but I’m getting attached to it… ("Alarm of cuteness blast")

uptight? careful? particular? mindful? cautious…

Translator’s notes I can’t include: Knitting doesn’t work that way. Also even if it does, the clothes would look more knitted...

仕事、おつかれさま -> "We know you worked hard today." is this what gets me cancelled

最高気温10度 well actually that one works both ways XD XD XD whether it's Celsius or Fahrenheit, 10 degrees is still cold!!!

I don't think the book they're reading about Santa is any existing book in particular

"I’m not a kind" oops -> "I'm not a kid" (silly typo)

"It’s no fun receiving without giving in return." "Prepare yourself!!" (this is about presents, but... is that too sexual or am I just a bad person? it’s fine. bad person confirmed)

lol that puts "Roger!" in two of my series too

Heh sounds too lecherous but hmph sounds too dispassionate…

I really should be writing this 100% in caps all the time huh (since manga is usually lettered in all caps, it might be better to have an idea of what it might look like)

[bullshittierlists]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA V3 (and probably the other games, too, just to be safe)

So, just as a heads up, I made this list a few months ago, I think in the middle of chapter 4. I was going to update it, but I realized that any feelings I had were just made stronger and the list was still relatively accurate. Here are my thoughts:

I see no god up here other than me

Kirumi Tojo - As you may know about me, I can typically tell who my favorite characters are going to be before I indulge myself in a series. This has especially rung true throughout Danganronpa, I was able to correctly guess Taka and Gundham as my respective favorites before actually seeing them in action. Let me tell you that Kirumi surprised me. I originally guessed K1-B0 as my favorite and while he’s still up there, he is nowhere near Kirumi. I realized she was my favorite the moment chapter 2 ended. Not only were her execution and plan wonderful and brilliantly done, her last-ditch plea to convince everyone to let her live sold her for me. Not only did this plea make sense, it almost worked and I kinda wish it would’ve. Her motive was almost completely selfless and she worked damn hard to escape. Her execution was the only time I cried during this game because I wanted so badly for her to escape, but I knew that all of her efforts were futile. I know her biggest criticism is that her plan from hiding Ryoma’s body was completely unnecessary, but I like to believe she was just nervous and overthought the whole thing. I mean, this had to go perfectly in order for her to save her country, of course she’s going to add a few too many steps.

Miu Iruma - Okay, I know this is going to sound fake, but I actually really love the dichotomy of her character. The way that she acts so self-righteous but is actually quite self-conscious really stood out to me. Of course she’s funny and hot, too, but I feel it’s important to really appreciate the way her character was written. It amazes me that she was written to be the least likable character in the entire series and still ended up being one of my favorites.

You’re the best

K1-B0 - Yes, I type out his name every time. As I already mentioned, he was my original guess for favorite character, but it obviously didn’t work out that way. He stayed in his position of first for a while, but I always knew it wasn’t meant to last, I just didn’t know which character would take his place. Even besides my doubts, I still love K1-B0, I just wish more could’ve been done with him in the earlier chapters. There are several opportunities for him to be a really funny character and have good interactions with Kokichi and Miu, but he just comes off as annoying. I feel like he only really started to be utilized after Miu died with Monotaro and I really enjoyed their dynamic, I just wish we could’ve had some of this side of K1-B0 before this point.

Kokichi Oma - This spot probably isn’t as subjective as I’d like it to be. Every time Kokichi was on screen, I would get visibly annoyed, but I knew I was in for a treat figuring out his deeper intents behind what he’s saying. The only reason I really like Kokichi at all is because he’s fun to analyze. It gets boring to analyze Nagito because his motivation is pretty much just a mix of “hope” and “he’s crazy.” Kokichi’s character trait of lying makes it so fun to individually analyze each of his lines to figure out whether he’s telling the truth and why or why not. Other than that, I guess he has some funny dialogue with Miu sometimes.

Gonta Gokuhara - I really don’t know. I know this is way too early to be unsure about characters, but I just know I couldn’t put him any lower, but I also couldn’t put him any higher. He’s just such a sweetheart, but that’s about where the substance ends. I adored every time he was on my screen, but everything that would’ve been fun to analyze about him just leads back to Kokichi. I still really enjoy his presence, though. I’d like a big Gonta hug.

Kaede Akamatsu - I’ll just say it, I think she would’ve made for a better protagonist. I’ll talk about this later, but Shuichi’s character development doesn’t really feel like it goes anywhere and the twist doesn’t feel worth it because of that. I think the twist should still have been incorporated, but with the roles reversed. Either way, we got what we got, and what we got was tears from Clair de Lune. But seriously, she really is a great pianist. I’ve been trying to learn the piece for ages and it’s still too complicated for me. I mean, it’s in 9/8 for God’s sake. Good for her, regardless.

Tenko Chabashira - Tenko’s a weird case. I didn’t actually care for her that much until quite literally a few lines before she died. Fun fact: I spoiled this entire series for myself before I ended up playing it and I’m still mad at myself. This meant that I was just waiting for all of the deaths to happen, especially Tenko’s. I was fully aware that every line could be her last during the seance, but I wasn’t aware that she would pull on my heart strings before she went. When she tells Himiko that she’ll do the seance in her place so she can talk to Angie, I literally almost started crying. Before this, Tenko was just kind of annoying, but not too bad, but this moment really solidified her spot for me. She really just wanted to help Himiko and I wish she had chosen a better target for her affections.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Shuichi Saihara - Time to elaborate on what I said for Kaede. I actually really enjoyed Shuichi’s character development throughout the first three chapters. Before coming to Hope’s Peak, he was afraid to hurt people with his detective skills. Kaede notices this and helps him through it, passing the reins to Kaito once she passes. Shuichi convicts Kaede and later Kirumi, much to everyone’s detriment, but they’re all okay with it (Nobody was really super sad about Korekiyo to begin with, lol). Then, starting in chapter 4, everyone just kinda flips on him. Shuichi + the rest of the gang - Kokichi all believe that Gonta is innocent and Shuichi tries to prove this. Instead of supporting him, everyone (especially Kaito) tries to... stop him??? from proving it??? They’re all just in agreement that it wasn’t Gonta, but don’t want to proceed with the investigation to figure out who it was instead. It’s really frustrating and made my overall experience much less enjoyable. This is bumped up a few notches in chapter 5 with Maki. I understand that she was part of the whole case, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying that she won’t let me prove Kaito was the victim. It just feels like the character development was all for nothing and every student feels like a human obstacle (except K1-B0, of course). Still relatable and emo, though.

Rantaro Amami - I would make the joke everyone expects, but I’m on my laptop and I don’t know how to get to the emoji keyboard.

Ryoma Hoshi - I genuinely don’t have anything to say about Ryoma. He’s my halfway point because I don’t have anything particularly for him and I don’t have anything particularly against him, either. Go off, funky little cat man.

Kaito Momota - He got on my nerves in chapter 4, but he was a genuinely sweet character that I really enjoyed talking to. Any time he would talk about the stars, I would swoon because he’s just such a natural romantic. Not really my type, though. Very average.

Monophanie - Legally you can’t ask me why the monokubs are where they are. She’s voiced by Natalie Hoover (Sonia) and I guess that’s my only reasoning.

Monotaro - I really just liked his interactions with K1-B0 in chapter 4. Other than that, I greatly disliked his and Monophanie’s presence in Gonta’s execution. 0/10 worst use for monokubs.

Monodam - A nice, non-distracting addition to Korekiyo’s execution. But he had so much potential and just threw it all away. Apparently I’m a basketball dad from a high school movie now.

I remember you

Angie Yonaga - Many times, I’ve found myself asking who I ship from the series and this love triangle comes to mind. Of Angie, Himiko, and Tenko... I only really like Tenko. I don’t hate Angie’s cult stuff as much as everyone else seems to, but she didn’t have nearly enough of a presence for me to latch onto outside of the cult stuff, which was funny, I will admit.

Maki Harukawa - I was so excited the whole game for her to get cool. I knew she was going to get cool, I just didn’t know when or how. But then, it was chapter 5 already and she hadn’t gotten cool in my eyes yet. I was really meh on her by that chapter anyway, but her being annoying really knocked her down a few pegs. She got a couple extra points for surprising me during the case, but not enough to bump her up any spots.

Himiko Yumeno - I was rooting for her to be crushed under the rock at the end. She was fine before chapter 3, but then they tried to develop her with the Akane treatment and it didn’t work for me at all. She just got on my nerves during the third trial and continued to contribute nothing throughout the rest of the game. During chapter 5 and 6, it’s like the writers just completely forgot that she was there. This would’ve been fine if they weren’t the last couple of chapters and she was one of about 6 people left alive. She had a role to play and didn’t play it in the slightest. The most she was utilized after chapter 3 was as Miu’s replacement post-chapter 5. Someone needed to fill the dirty jokes quota and I guess Himiko was chosen. #GiveTenkoABetterLoveInterest2021

Monosuke - The only thing I remember him doing throughout the entire game was distract me from Kirumi’s exectuion. Not a fan.

You are the worst. Literal scum. Leave this planet and never return

Korekiyo Shinguji - Okay, listen. He’s not that bad. His design is actually one of the best, in my opinion and I love his dedication to his craft. However, he just creeps me out whenever he’s on screen and I’d prefer not to be around him. It’s not even the sister thing, I honestly think that’s funny and a nice change of pace, but his overall demeanor is creepy. Not to mention he’s played by Todd Haberkorn and he’s been in one too many roles recently. Hopefully I’ll get over it, but as for now, that loses him points.

Tsumugi Shirogane - I know, not exactly an unpopular opinion. She’s just annoying and downright pisses me off a lot of the time with her “plain” shtick. I already knew she was going to be the mastermind, so most of the game was just me waiting for her to reveal it. I swear, I almost couldn’t take it every time she said something like, “What if there isn’t a mastermind?” “What?? There’s a mastermind????” Just stfu Tsumugi. You all are lucky I don’t have the energy to talk about 3-6 right now.

Monokid - Hate the tongue sprite, that’s literally the only reason he’s down here. He’s also kind of annoying, but made the best addition to an execution out of all of the monokubs. His death was one of the few things that surprised me in this game and it was a welcome twist. I was sick of him by this point, but was still incredibly shocked when he was pushed into the execution. Then, his severed head rolls out to all of the students looking on in shock at Kaede’s death. Masterful. Still hate the tongue sprite.

There we go. Definitely my least favorite cast out of the whole series, but it’s still fun to love on and hate on a lot of the characters, as per usual. There are just a few too many in the middle tier (metaphorically speaking) that are either uninteresting or just don’t get their time to shine. Maybe they’ll eventually grow on me more, but I doubt it.

[queenlua]

finished Great Ace Attorney game 1; some scattered thoughts

((gonna be the last post on this for a while, because i REALLY need to get some other shit done for a week or two before i start game 2, lol))

* that’s... the end? of the game??  i mean, okay i know i can technically start playing #2 right away, but that wasn’t the case at the time of this game’s release, and GOD i’d be pissed if i thought that was all i was getting.  like, we still don’t know Kazuma’s mission? the importance of that Baskervilles manuscript? (and how the fuck Susato knew about it?) what made Holmes all cynical on London?  fuck’s sake, we don’t even know van Zieks’s deal yet!  normally Figuring Out The Prosecutor is the beating heart of an AA game, and here it’s like... “we’ll vaguely hint at some deal with him and Kazuma in the last five seconds” and that’s it.  (not that i’m opposed to the games changing up the formula, but none of the other major relationships are fleshed out enough to replace it... Sholmes is delightful but spends a lot of time off-stage, Susato’s charming but we just don’t know much about her, and i think those are basically the only viable candidates, lol.)

basically it feels like Takumi conceived the whole game as an extended prologue... idk, feels similar to the error he made in AA4, where he’s just plain keeping too many cards close to his chest.  that game suffered hugely from never really digging into Klavier (despite setting up the best potential plot hooks on the planet)... c’mon Takumi you don’t have to play the long game every time; this is supposed to be entertaining video game nonsense :P

er, okay, NOW THAT I’VE GOT THE COMPLAINING PART OUT OF THE WAY:

* pulling a fucking Edward Snowden in the middle of a courtroom, while the proto-GCHQ is yapping “STOP STOP” and the judge just shrugs like “well what do you want me to do about it, i can’t stop lawyers from lawyering,” was SO fun.  perfect combo of “absurd” and “badass” and “just plain fun,” which is indeed these games’ sweet spot.

* the level of polish in this game is absurd and makes it so viscerally fun to play.  the animations are delightful (in a way that, say, FE3H could stand to learn from, cough cough).  the music is fantastic.  the feel of stuff like cross-examinations, the “logic and reasoning spectaculars”, and jury examinations, is so satisfying.  reminds me of some of the joy of playing Persona 5; just a really lovingly- and carefully-crafted thing

* sholmes is, of course, fantastic.  whether he’s cheerfully blackmailing randos to book express trains, or stealing all the credit for your accomplishments like Your Neighborhood Dudebro Project Manager, or declaring life to be a joyless farce due to “not practicing violin for a long time and thus becoming bad at it, how cosmically unjust” (HIGHLY relatable bit, that), he’s just the perfect final form of Energetic Big Loud Dumb Excitable Occasional Genius

* all math departments should be renamed “LOGIC AND REASONING SPECTACULAR.”  next time i’m debugging code with a coworker i’m calling it a “LOGIC AND REASONING SPECTACULAR.”  those are so fun oh my god i just want to run out into the street and find things to LOGIC AND REASON ABOUT

* amazing how many times this games caused me to curse the concept of democracy itself.  started with that lol-worthy Reverse Twelve Angry Men in the first fifteen minutes of 1-3 and just did not stop.  god.  those juries.  the pain

* so many fun old-timey britishisms.  gotta figure out how to incorporate “what ineffable twaddle” into my vocabulary

* Iris and that eight-year-old chick in Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River should form a Club for Absurdly Precocious Preadolescent Girls.  who would win...

* can’t believe i didn’t make the Natsume-Soseki-you-know-like-the-irl-Natsume-Soseki connection until i finished playing.  amazing.  love nerds throwin in their fave novelist as an OC

[thedevildomdaily]

Demonic Possessions Ch 6: The Design Diva Strikes Again!

Here's the first of TWO chapters coming to ya on my days off as promised! Thanks for being patient and the well-wishes. I'm recovering pretty well.

Note: Here's the Master List for the full story. I recommend reading my stuff on my actual Blog if you enjoy OM! official music! Thank you so much for the support. Please let me hear from you in the comment section. I wanna talk OM!

Warnings: Swearing, NSFW (I told you I'd get to it soon lol)

Lilly squirmed around in her bed. Her pink and purple curls were sticking out around her pillow that she used to smother her own face. A hand with beautiful galaxy nails, courtesy of Asmodeus, was planted in the middle of it. She moaned and groaned, not wanting to wake up. That was until she felt movement in her bed!

Her hand clutched the pillow and tossed it quickly from her face in a hurry. She immediately looked down at the foot of her bed. There was a large mass beneath her giant, fluffy comforter. There was something in her bed!

Slowly mustering all of her courage, the human eased the comforter up and open. Her eye were squinting, afraid of what she was about to see at her feet. One eye opened, then the other.

“Hello~” there was a very sensual, yet familiar voice. A set of icy blue, glowing orbs stared at Lilly before she registered the female nephilim peering at her from the darkness beneath the covers.

Yes, it was Lena! A nearly naked Lena at that: she wore a lacy black thong that was completely see-through and an oversized tank top. Because she was on all-fours, the giant opening hung low enough to reveal her full chest. She giggled devilishly and licked her lips, staring at Lilly like a predator.

“L-L-Lena!?! What are you doing!?” Lilly gasped. Her beautiful, tanned skin was now bright red as she looked at the nephilim crawling closer, between her legs.

“You, if you’d let me babe…” she smirked and crawled closer, now close enough to anchor her hands on either side of the human’s hips. She tilted her head to the side, letting her long hair fall to the side, gently touching Lilly’s leg. She awaited her answer, knowing very well how tempting she looked in this precarious position.

Lilly gulped, and parted her lips for a moment, staring at Lena in almost a trance. A nod followed, then a motion for Lena to approach her further. The nephilim crept up and over the petite human and kissed her softly.

“Good choice…” Lena purred. Lilly laughed and pulled her into a deeper kiss. Her lips tasted sweet and her skin was like the finest silk in the three realms. The human wanted to explore every inch of her body.

The nephilim wasted no time to straddle her. Lilly gasped as she watched her remove her top, revealing her beautiful large breasts; They nearly made her cry, “You’re so fucking gorgeous Lena…”

Lena giggled, “Look who’s talking...you’re fucking hot. I’ve lived for thousands of years and never seen such perfect caramel skin and those lovely violet eyes. You’re bewitching Lilly.” She pulled the human into a deeper, more sensual kiss. Her hands wandered to the small of her back, slowly lifting her shirt up and off.

Unable to wait any longer, the mortal reversed their positions, pinning Lena on her back. She was dominant by nature, and while she knew she was no match for a powerful being like the nephilim, she wanted to take control. Lena seemed very welcoming to the idea.

Lilly ran her tongue across Lena’s left nipple as she softly groped the other. Hearing the other woman moan was music to her ears. It’s been so long since she’d shared her bed with anyone; a dry spell since the exchange program began.

Just as she began to inch Lena’s thong down, Lilly began to wonder why she was thinking so intently about things other than this drop-dead gorgeous creature beneath her and what was that sound in the distance…

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS MESS?!!!!”

The human woke to those words. A fucking dream!? NOOOOOOOOO! Pouting, she looked over at her temporary roomy, waking up on her couch; fully clothed and oblivious as to what was going on.

A series of profanities filled the entire House of Lamentation. Lena knew who it was and wanted to jump out of the nearest window and run away.

Mammon gave his one knock warning and popped his head in. “Are ya guys alright? Who was that?” Awe, he came to check on them.

“That was just my darling brother discovering my room you guys are lending me...and the sound of a nephilim experiencing a heart attack I’d imagine…”

*~*~*~

Lena quickly put on a robe and followed a series of ‘motherfuckers’, ‘sons-a-bitches’, and ‘dirty rat bastards’ to the attic. Both Lilly and Mammon accompanied her, despite the many warnings she gave them. “Major Diva warning alert...just saying…”

When they arrived upstairs, the trio found a raving mad Azri, Asmo, and Satan. The demons were standing in the doorway, quietly observing the nephilim as he inspected the room. He was listing every single thing that was wrong with the room.

“Good morning, my darling big brother…” Lena grinned evilly at him. This caused a chain-reaction of giggles.

“There’s not a damn good thing about it!” Azri responded with his hands on his hips, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner that they put you in the filth and squalor like those poor ‘Flowers in the Attic children’?! These are abhorrent living conditions Azralena!”

Lena had to fight hard not to laugh or tell him it was cleaned-up compared to what it was like after Belphegor took his stuff out that first night. He’d scream and faint like a goat if she did. “It’s not that bad bro. If anyone can fix it up, it’s you!”

Azri stopped his pacing and approached his little sister. Everyone held still, afraid of his reaction. He put his hands on her petite shoulders and looked down at Lena with a severe expression, “Lena,” he paused, “I may have to actually pray to celestial realm and every angelic fiber of my body for a fucking miracle to fix this abomination…”

“Is it really so horrible?” A deep voice boomed from behind them. Apparently, Lucifer had joined the fray.

“Oooh, Lucifer’s involved now...this is gonna be good…” Asmo whispered to his brothers and Lilly. There were smiles exchanged, but nobody was brave enough to laugh at this in front of the eldest brother.

“As a matter of fact it is Lucifer,” Azriel responded, “My sister deserves better than this. Are we not guests of Lord Diavolo’s? My sister has told me about ‘how cool Leviathan’s room is with the jellyfish and mega aquarium…” he then looked over at Asmodeus, “and his room is ‘absolutely beautiful’ she says. And it has a giant bathroom that looks like Regina George’s...and you give a dust-filled, cobwebbed attic with loose boards and….ARE THOSE EYES!!!!!?”

Azriel pointed to a whole in the wall on the north side. “This is unacceptable! As the eldest brother you must take responsibility to make sure my sister is staying in comfortable living quarters during her stay!”

Lena just tried to hide her face out of embarrassment. Why was he such a diva? She of course appreciated him looking after her like this, but sometimes he was just too much. This was definitely one of those cases.

“And what do you propose I do about it? My brothers each fixed their rooms on their own. This IS the House of Lamentation, not a human world resort.” Lucifer responded dryly. He did have a point there. One that only irritated the eldest nephilim. Lena felt the need to intervene before things got ugly.

“Hey guys, let’s just take a chill pill for a moment…” she said, holding her hands up as if to surrender to this mess.

‘Chill...pill…?” Lucifer looked at the female nephilim with a weary and perplexed expression.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s a metaphor…” Lena chuckled, “Look, I never meant things to get out of hand and Azri...you shouldn’t barge into someone’s home and go off like this...apologize. Now.”

After looking down at his short, little sister, Azriel sighed, “Sorry. Lena is right. I tend to...overreact when it comes to my siblings. I am in charge of the both of them.”

“I...can understand that.” Lucifer was willing to meet him halfway. From one eldest sibling to another.

“And Luci...fer” Lena almost tried a nickname but was not brave enough to go there yet. “Uhm, please allow my brother to remodel this room. I promise he is a professional in interior design as well as fashion. He will make structural repairs that could save future incidents. It’d give him peace of mind, I’ll be cozy, and you get a new roof out of it...for free.”

Lucifer eyed her, then her brother. They were both strangers, but if he was a professional, the demon believed he could be trusted enough for the task. “Very well. The two of you can do what you see fit in this room..and the roof if necessary. You’re not to do anything with any other room without my immediate permission alone. And, of course, you’re responsible for the remodeling costs. My brothers paid for the own rooms to be remodeled into what they are now. Even Mammon.”

All eyes shot to the Avatar of Greed and he felt it immediately, “HEY! What y’all look’n at! Of course I paid for my room to look as amazing as me, The Great Mammon!”

“He says that like we could actually believe him…” Satan muttered and the others agreed with him.

“Bet it was paid for from stolen belonging or money laundering schemes…” Lilly added.

“Most definitely.” Amso agreed.

“STOP TALK’N AS IF I’M NOT HERE!!!” Mammon yelled.

Lucifer cut his conversation with Lena and Azriel short to deal with his siblings. “MAMMOOON! Quit yelling so loudly. Get downstairs and eat breakfast. Now!”

The group, sans Azriel, did head down to eat breakfast. Those missing at the scene were filled in about the construction that was going to be done to Lena’s room by her brothers. Azriel was the design genius, but it was Zak that was the brawn behind the project. He was just more sensible and refused to show up so early in the morning.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly. In just a couple of days, the nephilim had adjusted nicely into their classes. Belmont Academy had a similar curriculum blended with human education as well. It was “hybrid education for hybrid youth” as Lena explained it. She talked Lilly into checking into it once she returned to the human realm after the exchange program.

At lunchtime, the group joined together and talked about the events that started their morning. Asmo and Mammon dramatically told everyone what happened, getting everyone laughing about it. Well everyone but the two nephilim.

“Why the fuck didn’t you stop him from showing up so early?” Lena asked Zak, pointing her fork at him.

“I told him not to. He lied, saying he wouldn’t, and took off when I hopped in the shower. For being the supposed ‘responsible one’, he’s horrible when it comes to using his design skills or cleanliness…”

Lena sighed and nodded, “The. worst.”

“You do have to hand it to him though,” Asmodeus chimed in, “Azri did stand toe-to-toe with Lucifer without batting a silvery eyelash. That’s crazy! And Lena! You got between them quickly to intervene and stopped them from bickering!”

“Well of course. The root cause is ultimately my fault. So I took responsibility for it. Besides, it was pretty stupid to begin with. Arguing over interior designing an attic. Really?” Lena laughed.

“OOOOH I GOT IT!,” An otherwise quiet Leviathan exclaimed, “Your superpower is the ability to calm even the most powerful foes, like Lucifer, down!?!”

Lena paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, her brother joining in. Even Solomon couldn't help but chuckle at the notion. “THAT’S HILARIOUS!!!” She began to choke and punched her chest to stop it. “That’d be great. And it would have probably stopped many of earth’s wars. But nope. That’s definitely not it Levi-kun!”

Her response embarrassed the third eldest demon brother. That was, until she called him Levi-kun; It brought up a whole different reason to be embarrassed.

~*~*~

The rest of the school day passed in the blink of an eye. The RAD students disbursed, with the Purgatory students wishing everyone good luck with the remodelling go on. It was code for ‘good luck not getting into another fight over it’.

On the way home, they decided to grab Hell’s Kitchen burgers to go. Of course Beel wanted to eat a dozen there first, so they divided between those playing arcade games, those ordering the food, and Belphie watching Beel eat and hopefully not go on a rampage.

“Yes! I got it!” Lena screamed. She was at the claw machine with Lilly and Leviathan.

“That’s amazing!” Lilly cheered.

Leviathan gave his signature scream of excitement and proceeded to tell the girls what character it was, and their backstory, and everything in between.

“So what I’m hearing is…this is a valuable part of a set...and that you’re collecting that set aren’t ya?” Lena asked.

“Yeah. I’m missing her and two others.” Levi admitted.

Lena grinned and handed it over to the demon. “Then you’ll get more value out of having this than I will. So you’d better take it then.”

“R-Really?” Levi asked, shocked that she would just give the figurine to him.

“Yes, really!” Lena chuckled, “I just wanted the thrill of winning. You can have the figure. I don’t know what I’m gonna have room for when Azri’s done and that clothing haul is moved in from Lilly’s room.”

“ARIGATO!!!!” Levi cheerfully thanked the nephilim and held up the figurine into the air to admire it.

Lilly lingered back, watching the two nerd-out, sighing inwardly. It was clear that Lena was getting a little attached to Leviathan. He wasn’t catching on, and it made it more adorable...and sickeningly sweet to her. Oh well, she’d have to rely on her dreams still, until she could find a hot demoness that was interested in her and not devouring her soul.

[star-spangled-steve]

His New Partner

Chapter 44: The Second Chance

Series Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Words: 1128

Warnings: Pregnancy, mentions of time travel, some fluff, light cussing.

A/N: This is a pretty short chapter but it was really sweet to write. Also, this does include Endgame spoilers, but I’m assuming that all of you have seen the movie by now anyways, lol.

“Alright, I’m heading out.” Steve spoke as he approached him and Y/N’s kitchen, car keys in hand. “I’ll be back in a couple hours.” He walked up to where his wife was standing at their stove, making herself a grilled cheese, and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.

The man was wearing a black leather jacket, a black shirt, dark grey pants, a black leather belt, and boots, and all that Y/N could focus on was how damn sexy he looked. No one could really blame her, though. Increased arousal was simply just a part of being pregnant. “W-Where are you going?” She stuttered out, eyes never straying from his body.

“Baby,” Steve chuckled, “your sandwich is burning.” He turned off the stove for her and she quickly snapped out of it, moving to take her grilled cheese out of the frying pan. “And I’m going to Tony’s.”

Y/N’s eyebrows furrowed, not used to them spending too much time together anymore. “Why?”

“Um...” her husband froze, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “just to hang out.”

“Stevie, honey,” the woman, who was at this point five months pregnant, shook her head in amusement as she cut her sandwich in half, “we both know that you’re a terrible liar.”

Steve puffed out a breath, disappointed at his failure. “Right. Well, I guess you’d have to find out eventually.”

“Find out what?” Y/N questioned.

“Uhm... okay, uh, before you get your hopes up, please know that there is a very small chance of this actually working.” The man explained to her slowly and clearly, wanting to get that through her head before he told her what it was.

“Okay...”

“Here, why don’t you sit?” He insisted, taking her plate from her and placing it on the kitchen table, pulling out her chair and tucking it back in once she was seated. Steve took the seat next to her and took her hands in his own, rubbing the backs of them softly. “There’s really no calm way to say this, or to respond to this, but, uh... we might be able to reverse the Snap.”

Y/N’s jaw dropped, her hand going up to cover her mouth in surprise. “W-What? For real? How? I thought that Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones.”

The man scooted his chair closer to hers, using a hand to rub her knee in hopes to keep her relaxed. “You remember me telling you about Ant-Man? Scott Lang?”

“Uh huh. Didn’t he get dusted?” The woman asked, taking a big bite out of her grilled cheese. She might have been extremely interested in what he was saying, but it didn’t mean that she was going to let her sandwich get cold. She was eating for two now.

“Well that’s what we had thought.” Steve explained. “But last night when I was visiting Nat, Scott showed up at the Compound. Turns out that he was stuck in a place called the Quantum Realm for these past five years, because the people who were supposed to get him out of there had gotten dusted.”

Y/N nodded, encouraging him to continue.

“The thing is, though, it only felt like five hours for him, not five years, because time works differently in the Quantum Realm. It’s... unpredictable. Meaning that we might be able to, and I know it sounds crazy, go back in time.”

“Like time travel?” His wife spoke with astonishment, having trouble believing what she was hearing. “I thought that was impossible.”

“Yeah, so did I.” Steve chuckled. “But apparently Scott thinks that we can go back and get the stones. That we could snap our own fingers and bring everybody back.”

“Oh-Oh my God, Steve.” A couple of tears began to spring into Y/N’s eyes, the reality of the situation hitting her. She might be able to get her son back. “This is incredible.”

“No, no, no.” Her husband shook his head, leaning forward to cup her cheeks. “Please don’t get your hopes up about this. There’s a very, very small chance of it actually working. There is so much scientific stuff that has to be worked out before we even consider doing this. That’s why we’re going to Tony’s.”

“‘We’re’? Who’s going?” Y/N questioned, finishing off the last bite of her food.

“Scott, Nat, and I.” Steve answered. He watched as her eyes got bigger and she bit her lip in anticipation, almost as if she was waiting for him to invite her. “You wanna’ come too, sweetheart?” He smirked, knowingly.

“I thought you’d never ask!” She giggled. “I’d love to see everybody again; Morgan, too. Though, I am so much bigger than the last time they saw me.”

“You look beautiful.” Steve stated. Y/N stood up from her seat and he placed his hands on her hips, gently pulling her forward so that she was standing in between his legs. The man pressed a kiss on her belly, his favourite thing to do, and looked up at her with a grin. “Our daughter is going to be so gorgeous too, just like her mother.” He spoke, the word ‘daughter’ still sounding so new, yet so exciting coming from his lips, as they had only found out that they were having a girl a couple weeks ago.

Y/N smiled at his sweetness. “She might be having a brother now too, if this all works out.”

Steve nodded, letting out a little chuckle. “Yeah, maybe.” He rubbed his hands lovingly on his wife’s growing belly. “You’d be such a great sister.” He spoke to the baby inside of her.

“She would be.” Y/N agreed, leaning down to press a kiss to her husband’s hair before turning away to go head upstairs. Not before putting her plate in the sink, though. “Alright, I’m gonna’ go change.”

“Be quick.” The man spoke as he stood up. “We probably should’ve left ten minutes ago.”

“‘Be quick’?” The woman paused her steps, glancing down at her belly and then back up at her husband with a raised eyebrow. “You try being quick when your stomach is the size of a pumpkin.”

“Right, right. Sorry.” Steve put his hands up in surrender, not wanting to make her irritable. “Take your time, angel.”

She gave him a playful eye-roll being heading up the stairs, unaware of her husband actually beginning to grow nervous behind her.

He had told her about the plan. That was good; step one was done. But the man couldn’t help but get anxious about what would happen if the plan didn’t work out. Y/N would be so disappointed and he absolutely hated disappointing his girl.

This had to work. This had to. This was their second chance, and Steve was going to make damn sure that they didn’t blow it.

Next Chapter

Feedback is always welcome!❤️

[mysterylover123]

Mysterylover watches Bleach Episodes 140-141

mysterylover123

1. So there’ve been like a billion Bleach analysis vids dropped in the last week. I was curious enough to check them out, but did my best to make sure I skipped past spoilers. That was interesting, especially since they dispelled a bunch of myths about the show (like getting ‘cancelled’ or ‘falling in popularity’), and validated something I’ve kinda begun to suspect: Namely, that Bleach is actually kinda good and most of the  critiques of it are things that are problems with any Shounen. Which is neat. Got me plenty hyped for this episode. 

2. Darnit we’re starting out with Ura’s fight. I’m still mad at you Ura. 

3. Rangi is so fiesty. Kick their asses Rangi! Also: So Hitsu is a full on WaterBender?! Damn that’s cool.

4. Oh Damn back to Ichi vs GJ. Ichi’s gonna get fucked up this time, I just know it. He’s so screwed. Thank god he’s a Shonen protag or I’d be worried he’d be dead. 

5. RUKIA WITH THE RESCUE!!!! YAS!!!! GO RUKIA VS GJ ROUND TWO. And Ruki Ices him up good and quick, then saves Ichi from being all bound. She’s awesome. I kinda have the feeling turning her back on frozen GJ is a bad idea. HE’s gonna pop outta that ice any minute now...

6.th YUP THERE HE GOES. GRabs Ruki’s head and looks like he’s sucking out her energy, only for...something to get in the way? OK who’s here to save Ruki now? (seriously we’ve got such a circle of saving). OK it’s uh...(checks subtitles) Shinji. Blond guy. OK. I guess he’s cool now.

7. So Shinji’s gonna fight GJ instead huh. DAmmit that’s so much more boring than Ruki fighting him. 

8. Wow GJ’s actually scared of Shinji huh? And damn that was a pretty big blast. Hope GJ’s not dead, he’s still a cool villain. LOL and Ichi and Ruki just stand there watching like ‘damn’. 

9. GJ yelling Damn really makes him seem like this show’s Vegeta. Like the badass villain rival whose role is to get his ass kicked all the time and be mad about it.

10. ULQUIORRA?!?! WTF WHY ARE YOU HERE? WHY ARE YOU INTERFERING IN THIS FIGHT? not that I’m complaining. I mean more Ulqui is always good. But wow they just left like that. Cause they  already got Orihime so they don’t need to bother with any of these losers I guess.

11. So Arrancars ascend through their light columns while Ulqui thinks judge-y thoughts about Ichi while flashing back to capturing Hime. Cause again, they’ve got her so they win. 

12. OOH Ulqui gave Hime a Phaser/Invisible bracelet huh? She can say goodbye to one person? (I’m going to guess it’ll be Ichigo, though my heart wants it to be Tatsuki). And damn there’s some serious Phantom of the Opera vibes in this sequence, huh? Hey, he is letting her say goodbye and spend 12 hours getting chores ready for everyone. That’s something. Most anime villain kidnappers are not that considerate.

13. Invisible Orihime sequence! And Phasing! Damn it’s like being a ghost. Spooky.  

14. THAT DOOF SAID TATSUKI’S NAME. AND HIME HEARD AND FREKED OUT OMG. SAY GOODBYE TO TASUKI HIME. DO IT DO IT DO IT!!! OMG SAD TATSUHIME MONTAGE. YAS WELCOME BACK TO THE FOLD

15. Tatsuki be looking right at Hime even though Hime’s invisible. That’s some serious soulmates stuff. 

16. Sad Ichigo & Rukia scene next, as of course the minute Hime disappears nobody can heal him right away. Damn they’re gonna lose their white mage healer this arc! Without Hime the squad is gonna be so screwed, they’re  worse than Deku at avoiding getting injured.

17. OOH this guy described his powers as being like a ‘time reversal’. Is that how Hime’s powers work too? DOES SHE HAVE ERI’S POWERS?! (or maybe not since Eri doesn’t talk to fairies).

18. Rukia immediately tries to reassert her position as Hime’s main femslash pairing by worrying about her and ditching the injured Ichigo to go find her. Even though she’s hungry and Ichi’s nice sisters have dinner ready for her. 

19. I like how Ichi’s family has just kinda accepted that Ruki now lives in Ichi’s room. Like, it’s just the way things are.

20. ORIHIME KITTY PRYDES HER WAY THROUGH THE WALL. She’s picking Ichi? darnit. Ah well. OK let’s see whatcha got for Ichi, Hime. She lists all her ships to make sure we know she still remembers them. 

21. She’s sweet about Ichi’s sisters spending the night! And gets embarassed about being in his bedroom. This sequence is so wholesome. (except the “your scent” line wtf hime you been memorizing that?) Anyway, she puts her hand on his. 

22. DON’T KISS HIM WHILE HE’S UNCONSCIOUS HIME!! GUY CAN’T CONSENT IF YOU DO THAT!! Anyway we get a cute IchiHime montage, to make sure we’ve covered all the main Hime shipping bases this episode. And thank god her tears wake him up before she can kiss him unconsciously. 

23. DAMMIT HIME YOU’RE GONNA MAKE ME CRY. She wanted to do all this stuff. Damn she likes sweets huh? oh god she’s gonna make me start bawling. She wants to live 5 lives. “I would have fallen in love with the same person five different times” HOLY SHIT HIME. You are smooth. That’s a hell of a line. 

24. “goodbye halcyon days”.

[cyanoscarlet]

2020 writing review

Thanks for the tag, @gladiowrites​! (I know it’s not a tag, but this is fun to do lol)

I.. honestly wrote a lot this 2020. No kidding. Quarantine productivity was real, but so is residency languishing by the wayside while everyone was busy surviving and adjusting. I highly doubt 2021 will be the same, but I’ll always cherish 2020 just because of the writing and nothing else.

This is gonna be long.

FIRST CREATION + MOST RECENT CREATION OF 2020

8:15 am  - Final Fantasy XV. Lunafreya. February 2020. - First piece ever written for the year. - Intended to be a Luna-centric AU, in which the Nox Fleurets were deposed and she’s now a regular teacher. Never managed to write anything beyond that, though, because residency. (Back then, I didn’t know it was gonna be the beginning of the end, so I had hopes. Oh well.)

irresistible!, or the summer ramblings of nene yashiro and everything that followed - Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun. Nene, Hanako. March 2020. - First one published on AO3 for 2020 (yes, there’s a distinction). - If you think the title sounds familiar, you’re right.

versus

first yuletide - Final Fantasy XV. Nyx. December 2020. - Written for the FFXV Secret Santa event on Twitter. - Before y’all object and say what unwinding is, that’s an old fic uploaded late.

ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE CREATIONS FROM 2020

Do I seriously have to choose? Omg.

take heart - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai/Chuuya. Gods/Humans AU. - Discovered so much about myself writing this. Also (hopefully) I managed to get into Dazai’s headspace correctly. He’s an extremely difficult character to write, so finishing this brought so much gratification.

you don’t raise heroes, you raise sons - Final Fantasy VIII. Laguna, Squall. Post-canon. - Probably my most heartfelt work of the year- scratch that, ever. Also happy with how I just let myself go writing this and didn’t need to think twice.

A CREATION YOU’RE REALLY PROUD OF

oneiric moments (or, five nights with you) - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai/Chuuya. - Written for the SKK Fic Exchange for Summer 2020. - Five interconnected fics. 18,985 words. - Might not be a big deal for others, but this was taxing because I don’t usually write long, multichaptered stuff. I got carried away, though. It ain’t as well-polished as my more recent stuff, but I’m proud of myself for pulling this off.

A NEW STYLE YOU TRIED THIS YEAR & A FIC THAT USES IT

I... don’t think I have tried anything of the sort. My repertoire is sorely limited compared to others, I’m afraid. I’d probably have an answer for “explored new themes,” but again, I’ve a limited arsenal, too, in that regard.

A CREATION THAT TOOK YOU FOREVER

all in a day’s work - Bungou Stray Dogs. Atsushi, Akutagawa. Cells at Work AU. - It’s still being written, with a lot of side stories planned but never drafted. - I fell out of love with BSD, recovered from that, then got busy with residency.

YOUR CREATION FROM 2020 THAT RECEIVED THE MOST NOTES KUDOS

Also take heart. While I am proud of it, I guess it hit the right spot for mainstream shippers, too, somewhat? My feelings about mainstream things have changed a lot because of things, but I am still happy.

A CREATION YOU THINK DESERVED MORE NOTES KUDOS

amīcitia - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai, Chuuya. Final Fantasy XV AU. - Petty indignancy for my self-indulgent baby aside, I’m also proud of how I wrote Dazai in this one, similar to take heart.  the fun they had - Bungou Stray Dogs. Kajii, Port Mafia Ensemble. - ... Guys. Please notice genfics.

A NEW FANDOM YOU JOINED AND A CREATION YOU MADE FOR IT

Everything I wrote for Bungou Stray Dogs. (I kid you not.)

If you want a single answer anyway:

on the flaming mountains - act-age. Chiyoko, Kei. Princess Iron Fan Arc. - arc words: “what shall i do with this ire?” - I wouldn’t really say I “left” the fandom, more like it fizzled out after Matsuki-sensei got arrested.

A CREATION YOU MADE THAT BREAKS YOUR HEART

a cycle of; - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai/Chuuya. Medico-legal AU. - Written out of much anger and frustration over things. Also because this in itself was frustrating to write.

Also  you don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. Because no matter how much I hate my family at so many points in my life, I know I can’t truly hate them from the bottom of my heart. This fic is a reminder of that.

A SIMPLE CREATION THAT YOU REALLY LOVE

express delivery for love - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai/Chuuya. Real World Quarantine AU. - It’s funny. It’s orthodox. It’s sweet. I don’t think it can get any better than that.

A CREATION THAT WAS INSPIRED BY ANOTHER ONE

rather be - Bungou Stray Dogs. Yosano. Pre-canon. - Inspired by yesterday is another world by @wctercress​ - The whole of primum non nocere, actually, but specifically this one, and the rest followed. - This is also my first BSD fic. Ever.

A FAVORITE CREATION CREATED BY SOMEONE ELSE

... You sure? There’s a lot, and this is just on the surface. (unleashes the proverbial waterfall)

The aforementioned yesterday is another world by @wctercress​

silencer and snow white days by EKmisao - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai, Chuuya. Dead Apple canon-divergent. - The aftermath of Dead Apple, in which one of two goes wrong. - They’re unrelated, I know. But they’re both sisters! Just trust me on this. - The proper entry for this would be silencer, but I can’t very well mention one without the other, so have both anyway. I read both only this year, after all. Waiting for Godot by @eternal-aegis​ - Bungou Stray Dogs. Dazai, Fyodor, Chuuya. Canon-divergent. - Amazing theme, amazing philosophy, amazing writing. It makes you think. It makes you analyze and explore. This writer definitely knows her stuff, and it shows. Catharsis by @gladiowrites​ - Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa, Gen. Caraway. Post-canon. - The denouement to the Caraway family drama we all deserve. I love how Rinoa is presented in this fic. She’s a normal person who makes mistakes and learns her lessons. So is Fury. Burned bridges don’t always have to stay down, and this fic illustrates that wonderfully.

Culmination by @gladiowrites​ - Final Fantasy VIII. Squall, Rinoa. Post-canon. - We can’t all have happy endings. This fic also illustrates that very well. While I, a Squinoa fan, personally ascribe to the happy ending Squall and Rinoa must have had after the events of FF8, this fic is so compelling and grounded and reflective and I totally buy this. 

Here Without You by @muselover1901​ - Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. Zen/Shirayuki. Real world quarantine AU. - One of the sweetest stories I’ve ever read this year. I can definitely relate to a lot of things in this fic. I’ve been rereading all of Muse’s ANS stuff whenever I feel down, and they all hit the spot.

Savor The Moment by @joeys-piano​ - Bungou Stray Dogs. Oda. Pre-canon. - Yes, yes, YES. One of the best stories I’ve ever read this year, ever. (And I mean stories, not fanfics.) Great character study about a man named Oda and a day in his life and a page (or three) out of his book of relationships. The love poured into this is simply overflowing and precious. I’ve been following Joey since this fic was being written, and I’m so proud of him.

False Equivalences by @slowquotesquill - Dai Gyakuten Saiban. Asougi, Ryuunosuke. Fullmetal Alchemist AU. - This fic also! Oh, My Heart. The cynicism of a state alchemist and the optimism of a foreign doctor. It perfectly hits the spot for everything FMA, and we all know that SQQ’s Asouryuu fics are always to die for. It’s the ultimate combo.

The whole Promptober Leo/Will/Despair series by @eternal-aegis - Kekkai Sensen. Various themes, many of which are dark/mature. - I’ve said this with Waiting for Godot, and I’ll say it again: Aegis knows her stuff. This is her exploring further in that direction, and you can feel the improvement with every fic in the series. I really love how adventurous these stories are, and how much depth you can go with every one. Her characterization is layered and exquisite, and the underlying lore is well-thought-out. - tl;dr: B3 Goddess.

Predestined by Galkimasera - Final Fantasy VIII. Rinoa, Squall. Reverse/Fateswap AU. - A very well-written reverse AU! The circumstances of Squall and Rinoa in this ‘verse fit so well and are so well thought out. I love this AU so much, you don’t even know. It also fills my nostalgic shipper’s heart with much joy at seeing quality content in this Year of our Lord 2020.

For auld lang syne, my dear by @by-nina - Fullmetal Alchemist. Roy, Riza. Canon-compliant + post-canon. - Holiday feels, snapshots through time, and all over showing Roy and Riza’s budding relationship over the years. And it does remind me of a lot of the SKK fics I’ve written (thematic-wise). This was such a treat to read and to follow. All her FMA fics are. She does Royai so much justice. Am not yet finished reading smoke without fire, but I’ll get to that, too!

SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE CONTENT CREATORS FROM THIS YEAR

Everyone in the answer above. There’s honestly a whole boatload of more, but this is getting too long already lololol

(might edit this when I feel like it, tho!)

[osakaso5]

Yuki Twelve Hits Rabbit Chat Part 3: Request Hits 2

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 | Part 5

Gaku: Sorry about the delay, I'm good!

Tsumugi: Is your phone alright, Yaotome-san..?

Gaku: Sorry about the trouble. It's back  to normal now.

Yuki: Back to normal?

Gaku: I installed the palm reading app Nanase was talking about. When I tried to check my reading, my phone froze up, so I had to delete it immediately.

Gaku: Nanase, that app was way too big!

Riku: Huh!?

Riku: B-but, maybe that was just a coincidence..!?

Yamato: Come to think of it, didn't you just talk about how slow your phone's been lately, Riku?

Tenn: Riku, delete that thing.

Iori: If you don't know how, then I'll do it for you.

Riku: Of course I know how to delete an app!

Tsumugi: That app must've taken up a lot of space..!

Mitsuki: Maybe it had a ton of palm reading data from all around the world on it!?

Yuki: And yet none of it was accurate?

Sogo: If you can't use the app, I could help you find a palm reading book.  

Riku: Sogo-san, you're so nice..!

Riku: 

Tsumugi: I'm glad Yaotome-san's phone is back in working order! It's about time we resume the requests.

Tsumugi: Mitsuki-san, it's your turn!

Mitsuki: Yep! Mine's to do a flavor test!

Mitsuki: I'll make sweets out of veggies, and you'll have to guess what ingredients I used for each one!

Yuki: Oh. Now that's a showdown

Mitsuki: Cook v.s. cook, lol

Tenn: You're very diligent, Mitsuki Izumi. You even made those donuts for my show

Mitsuki: It's mostly for the show, but I also just enjoy making stuff. Cooking is a ton of fun!

Mitsuki: Plus it helps me relax in between work!

Ryunosuke: Same here! For some reason, I often want to try some really complicated recipe when I'm busy.

Yuki: It's nice to be completely focused on what you're making

Yuki: All that cutting and frying feels therapeutic

Mitsuki: Yeah, exactly! It's like it completely clears your mind..!

Ryunosuke: I totally get what you mean..!

Riku: The three of you would make great moms!

Momo: Wouldn't they be a little too big to be moms!? lololol

Gaku: At least they'd provide a proper sense of security (lol)

Yamato: One of them's on the tiny side, though.

Mitsuki: Shut it, gramps!

Nagi: Cute and  reliable, Mitsuki has it all :-)))))

Yuki: I don't know what you'll make yet, but I'm sure I'll get all of them right.

Mitsuki: Don't think you'll beat me that easily!

Tsumugi: It'll be fun to see your culinary match!

Tsumugi: Yamato-san, you're next!

Yamato: Why don't you talk about your most memorable acting roles thus far?

Tamaki: Oh wow. An actual request

Tamaki: It's just like So-chan's

Gaku: I'm guessing you want all the advice you could get from a fellow actor, Nikaido.

Yamato: Nope. I just figured the listeners would like it, since a bunch of them are gonna be fans of his acting.

Yamato: He probably wouldn't talk about this stuff unless he was formally asked to, anyway.

Yuki: You don't have to hide your curiosity, you know

Sogo: It can be awe- inspiring to ask someone you admire for advice... I know the feeling very well.

Yamato: I told you, it's not for me..!

Riku: Yamato-san, are you blushing..!?

Nagi: Why are you blushing, Yamato?

Mitsuki: C'mon guys, leave him be.

Yamato: For some reason, you're the most annoying one of them all...

Iori: I'd forgotten just how many talents Yuki-san has. Songwriting, performing, acting... He's a flawless entertainer.

Yamato: His moodiness is a big flaw, though

Momo: Tsk tsk tsk! Yuki's moodiness is a part of what makes him so charming~ \(●´Ɛ`●)ノ

Yuki: It's nice to receive so many compliments

Yuki: This request project is great

Yamato: I don't remember complimenting you. But feel free to do my request if you get it.

Yuki: I'll tell you even without the request, if you come drink with Sogo-kun and I

Sogo: Thank you. I look forward to it..!

Yamato: 

Sogo: Yamato-san, I hope you'll join us!

Yamato: Fine, I'll go! You sure are putting a lot of pressure on me... (lol)

Yuki: ^^

Tsumugi: I'm sure Yuki-san's acting advice will be very useful..!

Tsumugi: Yaotome-san, you're up next.

Gaku: My request is a little like Nikaido's.

Gaku: Mine's to do a short play without a script.

Yuki: Like improv?

Gaku: Something like that, yeah. I'll write down a few situations and roles for you to pick from!

Gaku: Like Nikaido said, there's a  lot we could learn from your acting. I won't be able to see it over the radio, but I'm hoping I'll pick up something.

Yamato: I never said that.

Gaku: Huh? You didn't?

Yuki: You're so straightforward, Gaku-kun. What kind of roles did you have in mind?

Gaku: I haven't really thought of anything yet, but it'd be fun if they were something completely different from your usual self!

Gaku: Like a brutally strict tennis coach.

Tenn: He'd make a good Italian mafioso

Riku: Or a pilot..!

Rinto: Interesting... I'll have to keep all of this in mind for later.

Momo: Okarin, are you seriously writing this down lol

Gaku: I'll watch some movies and try to come up with more roles.

Yuki: I look forward to seeing what they'll be.

Tsumugi: I'm sure you'd be wonderful in any role!

Tsumugi: Tsunashi-san, are you ready to tell us your request?

Ryunosuke: Mine is to tell us the most impactful thing you've purchased recently.

Ryunosuke: It doesn't have to be expensive, anything unusual will do!

Yuki: I'm not sure what to choose

Yuki: I can't remember the last time I went shopping.

Momo: Our schedules have been packed, especially since the New Year's coming up..! (ノωノ)

Mitsuki: It's nice to have work, but around this time of the year all you wanna do with your free time is sleep!

Ryunosuke: It doesn't have to be that recent, just anything from the past year, lol

Yuki: Have you bought anything interesting recently?

Ryunosuke: Me?

Ryunosuke: I haven't gotten it yet, but that's something I'd like to buy!

Ryunosuke: I want to buy a new boat for my dad. Not that I'll be doing that any time soon...

Gaku: Don't be stupid. We'll be big enough to buy 10 or 20 boats in no time.

Tenn: It'll only take a moment, with all three of us. You can count on that

Ryunosuke: Thank you, Gaku and Tenn..!

Yuki: Buying things for other people is pretty nice

Yuki: Maybe I'll buy something for Momo or Okarin.

Yuki: Does either one of you want a car?

Momo: A car, lololol I'm fine with my current one, lololol

Rinto: I appreciate the sentiment, though!

Yuki: So no? It's tough getting presents for people

Yuki: Maybe I'll just try to remember something I've already bought.

Ryunosuke: Please do.

Tsumugi: Presents are harder to choose when they're for someone you really care about..!

Tsumugi: Momo-san, may we hear your request now?

Momo: Okay (>ω<)ノ

Momo: Mine's to make a request for me to fulfill during our Christmas live!

Momo: It's your birthday! That means you gotta accept my reverse request! \(*´∀`)ハ(´∀`*)ノ☆

Yuki: Momo...

Yuki: But I'm not really in the mood for something like that.

Momo: Huh!? So what kinda mood are you int!?

Yuki: I feel like it's my turn to do something for you

Yuki: So if you give me a reverse request, I'll hit you right back with a reverse reverse request.

Nagi: Reverse reverse? How complicated :-(((

Iori: In other words, you refuse not to get a request from Momo-san..?

Mitsuki: It's like they're playing hot potato with this request thing, lol

Momo: No! It's your birthday! ヾ(o゜д゜o)ノ゛

Yuki: That's exactly why I don't want to give in

Yuki: You can accept either this or a car from me

Momo: A car, lololol You were serious about that!? lololol

Momo: If you wanna get me a ride, then a bike or skateboard will do just fine!

Yuki: I'll go with that, then ^^

Kaoru: So you'll give anything as long as he'll accept.

Rinto: Why do you want to give Momo-kun things so badly?

Momo: Do you wanna ride together..? That'd make me really happy!

Tamaki: Skateboards sound fun

Tamaki: I wanna ride too, Momorin

Momo: Sure thing! And Yuki can, too!

Yuki: I'll watch you two have fun from my apartment

Yuki: It's cold outside

Momo: So you're still not gonna play with us, lololol Then what's the present for!?

Tsumugi: Could it be a Christmas present..?

Tsumugi: Lastly, it's time for your request for yourself, Yuki-san.

Yuki: Yeah

Yuki: I put a lot of thought into it.

Yuki: I decided on something I want, but I'm still not sure

Yuki: If another request wouldn't work better...

Tsumugi: Come to think of it, you did mention that you had a request in mind.

Tsumugi: Something so big that it would give you a heart attack..!

Riku: Huh!? Are you sure you want to make a request that big..!?

Yamato: Why'd you have to pick something that hard for yourself..?

Ryunosuke: You don't need to push yourself that hard for a radio show...

Yuki: It's not exactly for the show.

Yuki: If anything, I thought this project would motivate me to spit it out

Tsumugi: By the way, what is your request..?

Yuki: Tell my partner Momo how grateful I am to him

Yuki: Or something like that...

Yuki: Ah, what do I do

Yuki: I want to delete this chatlog...

Yuki: Aaah, seriously what do I do

Yuki: Momo stopped moving

Rinto: Momo-kun is gripping his phone in one hand and shaking...

Banri: So that's why you wanted to give Momo-kun a present... It all makes sense now.

Gaku: You just wanted to show your gratitude!

Yamato: You've got a pretty weird way of choosing a present, though (lol)

Yuki: Whatever

Iori: But won't it be even harder to say on a radio broadcast?

Yuki: I just realized that, myself...

Yuki: Oh well, it's only one request out of 12, so I probably won't get it

Yuki: Will I..?

Momo: You don't have to.

Momo: I don't need a present, either. Just the fact that you made this request is enough for me!

Momo: If I receive any more than this, I'll be so full of happiness that I'll explode...

Mitsuki: Momo-san's come back to life!

Tenn: He said he'd explode...

Momo: (((《☆★BOOM!!!★☆》)))

Mitsuki: And he did!

Momo: 。゜.+。*.゜(ノω・、)゜.+。*.゜。+。

Tsumugi: Re:vale's affection for each other is so touching... Thank you for a great request, Yuki-san!

Tsumugi: That's all for the requests. Thank you, everyone!

Yamato: Now it's time for his requests to us.

Momo: Now you have to request something from me..!

Choices/outcomes:

1. Do you have a request for us?

Yuki: No. But if I have to pick something, then I hope you continue being my friends. And come over for dinner sometime.

2. Do you have a request for TRIGGER?

Yuki: Rely on us more. That's what we're shouldering the burden of being top idols for

3. Do you have a request for Momo-san?

Yuki: Let's keep singing together, just the two of us

Yuki: Please

Momo: Yukiii! You're so cool... 。・゜・(/д`)・゜・。

Mitsuki: Happy birthday, Yuki-san! I hope you'll be a nice senpai and fellow chef to me this next year, too!

Kaoru: Happy birthday. Keep looking after TRIGGER.

Tamaki: Yukirin, hbd!!!

Iori: Happy birthday. I appreciate everything you've done for IDOLiSH7. I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Ryunosuke: Happy birthday! I look forward to your show!

Nagi: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I wish you a wonderful year.

Tenn: Happy birthday. We'll continue performing to the best of our abilities, so you may also rely on us.

Sogo: Yuki-san, happy birthday. I will be praying for your continued success.

Yamato: Happy birthday. Let's find a good day to go out for those drinks you mentioned.

Rinto: Yuki-kun, happy birthday! Let's do our best to wrap up this Twelve Hits! project.

Banri: Happy birthday. Keep looking out for MEZZO" and IDOLiSH7.

Tsumugi: Yuki-san, happy birthday!

Yuki: Thank you. I was excited for the requests, but my birthday is just as fun

Yuki: Celebrating, being celebrated, it all feels nice

Yuki: But before my birthday, there's still the radio broadcast. I'll be giving it my all, so you guys better listen

[bluinary]

gag anime that you need to watch maybe

 hi hello my name is juli and i will now gently guide ur attention to some top-notch shows, please pay attanetion

(this list is for people who don’t watch much anime or who are new to it. if ur a fucken weeb youve probably seen it all. dont @ me i want to help the kids)

ONE PUNCH MAN (the obvious 1st choice lol)

Genre: Action/ Shounen

Expectation: OP protagonist with riveting backstory fights to become the strongest hero, makes many friends along the way who recognize his talents and pure heart, big bad scary villains make him stronger

Reality: OP protagonist is already the strongest hero. His backstory? After fighting a lobster-man with nipples drawn on him with a Sharpie, Saitama decides to do a workout routine every day, and somehow ends up becoming the most powerful known being in the universe. His main issue is that now, he literally can take down any villain with a single punch, and he’s very bored of it.

Best Qualities: Animation is bomb, music is dope, humor is funnie, and Best Boy is a man whose superpower is riding a bicycle. Also Saitama egg head

If you were in a coma for all of 2015, this is the main thing u missed. Moving on.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (Monthly Girls’ Nozaki)

Genre: Romance/ Comedy/ Slice of Life

Expectation: Smol shoujo protag girl grows closer to her oblivious crush through a fated, if awkward, incident which reveals an embarrassing secret that has to be kept at all costs. Through one another they gain more quirky friends, help each other grow, and, eventually, the male lead realizes that what he needs has been beside him all along.

Reality: The crush writes romance manga, and that is literally all the man cares about. It’s not a secret, but when he told people they didn’t believe him. Nozaki and Sakura grow closer, but only because he confuses her confession with a request to be his Beta. They gain quirky friends through one another, but there is zero character development throughout the entire fucking cast. Every episode is run by Idiot Plot. All the characters share a singular brain cell. There’s a tall butch lady turning every girl in the school gay. Please watch

Best Quali-teas: Everyone is baby, lots of gay shenanigans, and toxic masculinity does not exist, the OP is pretty nice, too

I literally heard about this damn show, like, two months ago. This shit was released circa 2015. Pleeze watch

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. / Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan

Genre: Shounen/ Supernatural/ Fucking Everything tbh

Expectation: Slice-of-life supernatural where protag has psychic powers, albeit limited ones, and has to keep them a secret at all costs for fear of his safety. He has a few friends he loves and cherishes, and at least two girls who are in love with him that he has to choose between-- all of which are people he wants to protect from his double-life.

Reality: Kusuo is very aware that he is the protagonist of an anime, and he does not want to be. Born with pink hair? He rewrites the human genome to make colored hair normal. End of the world looming? He just keeps rewinding time so he doesn’t have to deal with it. Harem situation? He actively uses his powers to avoid all love interests at all times (see the above). The plot of each episode is him trying to stop the plot as quickly as possible without killing anyone. The main issue is that everyone around him is either dumb or just generally attractive to plot-driving circumstances, and they all, for some reason, want him to be in on their adventures.

Best Qualities: Heavy “me and the boys” energy, plenty of Idiot Plot, so funny that my 47yo mom who hates anime admitted that it’s funny, meta as fuck, occasionally sweet scenes, equally good dub and sub, Saiki is babie

The fandom for this shit is like. Nonexistent. Apparently it came out the same season as Mob Psycho 100, so that might be why. I almost didn’t watch it, but I got bored and it turned out to be a serious gem. Go watch if ur having a bad day, it will make u cry laughing

Sakamoto Desu Ga/ Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto

Genre: Slice of life/ Comedy

Expectation: God I don’t even know. I’d say a typical slice of life where the quiet kid is bullied but makes friends, there’s a love triangle as they grow up together through high school, yadda yadda, but look at this dude. I can’t imagine him being anything other than what he is-- a legend.

Reality: The entire show is just a question of how extra one man can be, and how well he can pull it off. Sakamoto is an “average” high school senior (in the sense that he has no supernatural abilities), but he’s....far more than that. He’s Sebastian Michaelis if he’d never been a demon. Everything always works out for him in the most ridiculous of ways-- he’s just that good. He makes a McDonald’s uniform look like Prada. He’s so smooth his bully ends up having a crush on him (and yes, it is a gay crush. no heteros in this show). 

Best Qualities: lots of homo content. the side characters, inspired by Sakamoto’s grace, all become better people, and you root for them. The circumstances are always average, but the presentation is fucking riveting. Watch to send ur depression into remission.

Another one no one talks about????? U all were so busy with ur broku no hero macadamias and ur Nartoes that you slept on this. Now’s the time to take back what was lost. Love yourself and binge this shit. 

Nichijou/ My Ordinary Life

Genre: Slice of Life/ Comedy

Expectation: Cute girls do cute, girly things and have fun with Their Close Good Friends (TM).

Reality: Cute girls get into very bizarre situations with extremely manic energies. Sometimes, the situations are normal, but the girls react in a bizarre, manic fashion. It will make you alarm-laugh.

Best Qualities: Adorable art style, little continuity, relatable as fuck

A nice little watch if you’re bored. I think the eps are on YouTube.

Pop Team Epic/ Poputepepiku

Genre: Only God Knows

Expectation: Probably a cutesy 4koma-type thing with 2 schoolgirls having shenanigans.

Reality: A regular acid trip with lesbian icons Popuko and Pipimi who are not schoolgirls, but gods. Like if Eric Andre and Hannibal Buress were turned into omnipotent anime icons. Watch at your own risk.

Best Qualities: Lots of unexpected parodies and references amongst a shitpost of a show. The OP is a bop. Popuko terrifies me, but also empowers me as a young woman because she will not hesitate to kill a bitch. She and Pipimi love each other a whole lot, so it is LGBTQ content, which is always a plus. 

I’m sure you’ve seen this one floating around. It will make you feel fear, and then laugh. Now, finally...

Ouran Highschool Host Club

Genre: Romance/ Comedy

Expectation: The protagonist is a girl who is mistaken for a boy and must be the servant of six rich, handsome young men, all of which are in love with her, and her secret must be kept at all costs. A reverse harem anime with plenty of fanservice.

Reality: Haruhi is a genderfluid queen who doesn’t give a fuck what others think she is. Because she broke a Conveniently-Placed Vase and is relatably poor, she has to pay off her debt by being a host herself-- which means male-presenting when flirting with her female classmates to make her dough. The six rich, handsome young men all share three brain cells, and most of those cells go to the character who has one line per episode (usually, it’s “Yeah”. I hope that VA got paid well). The only love interest-- the “leader” and most popular of the six men-- is so dead-set on their club being his Found Family, he confuses his romantic feelings for Haruhi with paternal ones. This is obvious to everyone but him. He never gets the brain cells. 

Best Qualities: Trans characters!! Lesbians!! Extreme “me and the boys” energy, except they’re all rich, so shenanigans skyrocket. Many 4th wall breaks. The most powerful Host looks like he’s 5. Any “fanservice” is never played straight. Takes the Found Family trope to a whole new level. Nice Parks & Rec-quality balance between hysterical and sweet. Everyone is in drag at some point.

I know all of us senior citizens grew up on this shit, but you younguns need to watch the classics to appreciate the newfangled stuff. I recommend watching when you’re in a cheesy rom-com mood. 

Honorable Mentions:

I can’t count these as gag anime, but they’re still ridiculously funny.

Mob Psycho 100

Scissor Seven

Kill la Kill

Cells at Work!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 

Ones I haven’t seen but have heard a lot about

Osomatsu-san

Himouto! Umaru-chan

Azumanga Daioh

Gin Tama

Sgt. Frog

Okay that is all just limke put this in ur feel-good tag because these shows will make you happy and donut for get to like and describe to my channel, where I post literally nothing at all ever good night.

[ziracona]

What has been your favorite ilm chapter to write? Your least favorite? Do you have any interesting fun facts that were in cut pieces? I love this fic and the research put in is astounding. You put so much love into this. I'm glad to have been a reader :)

Thank you so much for asking this, and I’m really happy you have liked it! : ) Researching all kinds of wild stuff has been one of the most fun parts. (I’m holding the start of the answer to each question you asked, bc I talked about the first one for a while lol).

I do have a favourite chapter! I think to read, it would be a lot harder question, and there’d be a bunch of chapters tied, but as an author, my favourite chapter is most definitely Speak for the Dead. I have a lot of favourite moments and chapters, but that’s the one I’m most proud of. There’s a really rare thing in writing I call “script perfection,” which is not like, a perfect script in comparison to other scripts, it just means the version of the script that got shot/published was the best version of that particular script there ever could have been. It’s incredibly rare, and very hard to do. Even with films and shows I love, usually there will be seconds, sometimes minutes, off and on, that are the best version of those seconds there could have ever been. And the rest of it is great! It’s maybe the second or third or eighth-best it could have been, and that’s still super impressive--like man--eigth-best is still so close to 1st, eigth best is freaking phenomenal. It’s something to be really proud of. But that’s as high as it almost ever gets. For anything. Only extremely rarely is an entire script at 96% or above on script perfection. (I would say for reference that Galaxy Quest and The Incredibles are two such films).

It isn’t the most important part of a script or a story at all. Not by a huge amount. The quality of the story itself is. I have plenty of films that never hit 90% or above script perfection that I still prefer over films that did (like, Galaxy Quest is an amazing film, and I’m in awe that it hit that level of refinement, but I still like The Two Towers, which definitely did not, better. Because Sam’s speech at the end of it is enough to power me for a whole year). But it’s still such a rare thing. And god, it’s hard. Any kind of media is done on some kind of budget (be it financial or energy or both), and time constraint, and also it’s just not easy to do. Again, true-final-draft achievement (which is probably a better name for this bc it’s less confusing) is far from the most important or valuable aspect of a film, or play, or book, and it’s not necessary to make a story amazing. But it’s still always /so/ cool to see. It’s cool to see a nine minute continuous stretch of it even, on screen. And out of all the chapters I’ve written, the only one I think hit true-final-draft at least 96% or above, was Speak for the Dead. And that’s not embarrassing or anything. It’s wild. And I’m super proud of that. I’m proud I got even one. Because a lot of even my favourite books don’t. They just have perfected scenes, and a lot of them, but are not the best draft they could have been. Which does absolutely nothing to negate their worth as phenomenal books, but. I’m really, really proud of Speak for the Dead, and very happy with myself for having been able to do that at least once. I kind of treasure that.

It’s also a special chapter to me, because I had it only very loosely outlined/planned for at all, and it kind of came together on its own, and everything just came together and fell into place just right, and this chapter I had been really unsure of before starting turned into my favourite one in the entire fic. I like what I write, and I enjoy reading it myself, but there’s a line in Speak for the Dead where Tapp is trying to explain everything to Meg, about himself and his past and his family, and he’s been going through this like, awful mass of confusion and trauma and guilt and regret that’s all come to a head in this one day, and he’s found out who Amanda is and can’t deal with that and the person he knew, and the way Sing died, the choices she went on to make, and there’s so much even he doesn’t understand about how the world is falling apart around him, but somehow he figures it out enough to say it to Meg. And he has a line: “You’re supposed to stay late and work the extra eight hours overnight to catch the killer so somebody doesn’t die; you’re not supposed to go home to your family and give your kid a hug. It’s not as important, in an equation. It was my responsibility. And I didn’t get that the other job had its own set of rules. That the cop’s supposed to let the bus with his partner fall, but the dad’s supposed to let the fifteen people go and save his kid—he’s supposed to go running through crowded subway tunnels chased by gunmen, consequences be damned, to get them away from where his kid’s hiding. I didn’t get it. I don’t know why. I loved him right, but I didn’t act like it, because I thought I was doing the right thing. But if everybody’s just numbers, you lose anything that matters, no matter how high the numbers go up. And you don’t realize until it’s way too late that you do just as much good really helping one person you signed on to protect as you could have ever done bouncing off the lives of a hundred people who go on to be the next Jigsaw.”

And like. I fucking love that line. God. It’s such a hard thing to articulate, what he’s going through in that moment, and I try, but I think I often don’t do as good a job. But every time I read that last line it’s like a gut punch. And I really love it. How the fuck could you possibly feel after going through the experience he’s just had? It’s such a specific, indescribable kind of big, whole-world-view devestating.

There’s also a lot of really sweet moments with Meg, and Adam drugged and injured but trying really hard to help, and it’s a super understated chapter in a lot of the moments? Tapp’s one of my favourites to write, because of the way he thinks. He tries so hard to be lawful good in a world where there’s just no law at all anymore. And he’s older by far than anyone else, and thinks about the world that way. Honestly, it’s one of the most serious chapters. It’s less graphic than say Proven or The End of the Line, but it deals with some very not remotely fantastic and not pretty themes. It’s heavy. But I like the way it tells itself. I enjoy working in references when they make things fun, or better, or more meaningful, and I got to do that a lot. Plus, it gave Ace and Tapp a bunch of one-on-one time they didn’t really get on-screen as much in any of the rest of the fic, but I really loved it. The way they try to look after the people they care for, and how they understand each other. I just really fucking loved that chapter. Also, Tapp beat someone to death with a reverse bear trap that was still attached to his head so he could save Meg from dying in a way that would be super lastingly traumatic, and if that’s not the most metal thing I’ve ever heard? I really love Tapp. And I love that he sticks to the things he does. Meg never learns what Amanda was going to do to her, not in fic, not after. And Tapp does change how he does things are talking to Meg at the end of that chapter. Tapp’s the one who immediately says they can’t go public with any information on Rin until she’s passed on, even though it could really help them prove their case and hypothetically better protect the world, because he’s not willing to see a kid forced to revert to being violent and feral against her will in self-defense, or locked up in a government black site to get that. He did good. Life has not been kind to this poor man, but thankfully, Meg Thomas has.

Least favourite? Way harder. Hmmm. Always whichever one I wrote most recently 😂

In complete seriousness, I don’t think I have one? I have like 6 I consider “slightly-less-interesting” than the rest, but I don’t have one I hate period, or just dislike a lot. Uhhhh. If I had to pick one right now, I’d say Core Essentials, because I haven’t read it in over a year and don’t remember it as well as many others, and of the small number of chapters in the “Damn, been a hot minute, huh?” group, it’s the one I remember the least. This rating may change next time I actually read it, lol.

Hmmm. Interesting fun facts in cut segments. In the original draft for Shrouded, Claudette went into Philip’s basement and got a really good look at the other side of the wall, through one of the cracks, and saw the Entity and almost gave herself a panic attack. The other side of the basement wall was described as looking like the sun, like just looking at light, but only at first, and then there was movement like a snake coiling or some huge creatuer deep underwater sliding across your vision, too big to see, but alive in there in the middle of the light, and moving around, and it horrified her. It was extremely creepy but pretty cool.

The original draft for The Wraith included Philip experiencing fragmented audio memories from Signifying Nothing/his time with Vigo & co. while he was mostly unconscious. It was really cool and I forgot because I haven’t read it in forever, but it hinted at /way/ more of the plot to those past events. I really liked the draft, but ended up changing it into what was published because I’d never done anything with his memories before, and I didn’t want to disorient the reader too much (probably a good call, but it was still a neat scene in the OG form).

It’s not in the fic, but canonically, after leaving the survivors camp at the end of The Wraith, Philip came up with his plan to leave himself a message in the bell, and then called the Entity. Trying to talk his way out immediately failed, and it was shitty to him and pissed him off, and Philip had considered what might work on something like the Entity before calling it, and knew he was dead either way, so he tried to fight it. More to see if it would work than anything. He knew he would forget it even if he did, but sometimes impulses lingered, and it was possible if it worked, it would help him think of it again. He used his blood and drew a protective symbol against demons on his palm without it noticing, then rushed it, and it wasn’t scared of him so it didn’t give a fuck, but he smacked it with the charm and that actually succeeded in burning its talon (very little, but enough to cause it actual pain) and it flipped out and got extremely angry, and immediately stabbed him through the skull, which is why he returned with that chunk of his mask gone and has a scar on his forehead now. Originally, I was considering writing some of the events between The Wraith and Dawn from Philip’s POV, but decided it was much better sticking with the survivors and their uncertainty completely. Got to live in the anxiety baybeeee.

I’m sure there’s more but you activated my trap card asking about Speak for the Dead - a special interest- and I already made this long, so I should stop for now. Thank you again so much for asking! I hope my answers made sense are we’re at least kinda enjoyable to read. 💙💙💙

[red-sterling]

thanks for answering!! i hope you don't mind if i send more charas...how about green and/or lillie?

fhgjkfdg aw yea thank u!! hopefully this doesn’t publish before i’m done typing lol

also this definitely needs a readmore bc i got emotional abt Green oops

Green

favorite thing about them

first of all: the fact that Green canonically has a rivals to best friends arc with Red fills me with so much joy and YES they are on their alolan honeymoon you cannot convince me otherwise

okay like. gen 1 Green just perfectly encompasses what it’s like to be a ten year old in a way? like ofc he’s written like a kid bc he is a kid, but i feel like the writing on him just feels so genuine as compared to some of the other 10 yr old rivals you get in other regions. even though he’s kinda a brat at the start, he kinda eases up a bit as you go along your journey and starts giving you progressively nicer/more praise-y end lines when you beat him (going from “i picked the wrong pokémon!” to “so, you are ready for boss rocket!”) but still retains this childlike rivalry and competitiveness and i love that about him

and like. fucking beating him at the Indigo League still completely breaks my heart because even after he did become the champion at age 10 the first thing that happens is you beat him and Prof Oak just yells at him for being bad at things and like. ow. 

this is why i headcanon that Red actually took awhile longer to get to Green like please. please give my boy a chance to be happy and proud

also Red was caught up with Team Rocket anyway so i imagine he must’ve fallen a little behind at some point? anyway

the development on him across regions is so choice!!! he’s so much more mellow and even kinda melancholic when you find him in gsc/hgss, like he’s calmed down over a few years and he obviously misses Red so much but like, it’s clear that Red is kinda the reason Green does settle down and he seems to have worked on his character and become a nicer person - and he still has that sassy flair to him! he’s just got that gradual slope from asshole rival to kinda aloof gym leader to friendly/sassy battle legend and aaaaa i love my boy so MUCH

also huge point: he’s so fucking driven??? he’s got the most drive and the most passion for battles/pokémon in general out of all the rivals i feel. he’s only closely matched by Silver, but Silver seems to be more aggressive than passionate, and somewhat out of necessity too (like, Giovanni abandoned him what was he to do), whereas Green just really like. he genuinely just cares so much about battles and about pokémon in general! he literally calls you in hgss and just rants about how many different kinds of pokémon there are in the world!!!

also in Alola he’s like???? just so sweet?????? he congratulates you and is like hey you’re really strong lets battle like!!!!!!!!! supportive boy!!!!! he has come so far over so many generations and i cry

also on Four Island when you play frlg he legitimately says “Be smelling ya!” when he leaves and how do you not love this idiot

least favorite thing about them

i mean. while i get that you beat Green right after he becomes the champion in the kanto games i feel like there should’ve been more pomp and circumstance for him and i’ll never forgive gamefreak for giving this boy his dream, then making you rip it away from him, and then watching his own gramps yell at him for fucking up like. again it’s that drive, i get why Red keeps such good pace w Green but i just feel like he worked so hard and he deserved so much better than that

also while i’m very biased towards him bc Big Emotions, i feel like if i knew this boy irl who was constantly i’m so great and you’re a loser i would probably punch him eventually lmao. in theory it’s kinda endearing but as a real person that’d be grating 

favorite line

on one hand, “smell ya later” is so fucking iconic, but on the other - 

“I’m Blue. Man, this guy called Red brought me down in a heartbeat. I haven’t seen him in a long time…I wonder where he is and what he’s up to… Come to think of it, you look a little bit like Red. Yeah, you do. Just…Just a little bit. Whatever…”

my namelessshipping heart

ALSO NOT CANON BUT GREEN RANTING TO YOU ABOUT RED AND GETTING SO DISTRACTED THAT HE FORGETS TO GIVE YOU THE POKÉDEX????? BIG GAY

brOTP

for long elaborate headcanon reasons, i see him as being a good brotp with Kris - i headcanon her as also being really driven the way Green is, but more quiet about it, she’s kinda a good balance to him and they probably do pokemon research together. i also feel like she kept him sane while Red was still missing/before they found him on a fuckin mountain

OTP

do i really need to tell you that i’m 100% namelessshipping

like they perfectly balance each other. Green has all this energy and all this spunk and Red is just like… so opposite of him y'know? he’s quiet and he’s more measured in his behavior i feel, he doesn’t really rush into things as much, and yet they both really just took Kanto by storm when they were kids, and i like how they have this foil dynamic and are both still so successful? they’re so different and they complement each other in that way, and they both find success in their own ways

like one of the reasons i hate that Green’s championship gets undersold so much is that he did beat you to the punch, and he has been one step ahead of you, and there’s so much passion there and it’s so loud - and yet you as Red are just as driven, you take down Team Rocket, you’re always right on his tail, so close but not quite there, you’re the only one who can keep up with him and you’re the only one he cares enough about to slow down for

so like. idk with even all my headcanons about namelessshipping aside (and i can infodump those another day lol), i feel like the in-game representation of them just works. they just work so well together, they balance each other without ever holding each other back, and there’s something really beautiful about that in a relationship y'know

…..i feel bad abt not putting as much infodump about isshushipping now but oh well

nOTP

i don’t really have a notp with him? i kinda like. i basically just do namelessshipping, but i don’t get a visceral eugh when i see other ships with him, just kinda a well it’s not nameless so i’ll be on my way. idek what other ships w him are popular?? i’ve been in nameless hell since 2012 so 

random headcanon

while Red is still living on Mount Silver, Green is not coping well with having him so far away, and so Green massively overworks himself to the point that he keeps just not being in his gym sometimes bc he’s bouncing between the gym, training multiple teams, pokémon research, and ofc going to visit Red whenever he can. this leads him to be kinda temperamental after he’s been working on 2 hours of sleep a day for like a week until he just has an emotional meltdown and crashes, and then he gets right back into it because he has no self preservation

…….. nicer headcanon; Red can only cook two (2) foods, so Green cooks all the food for them when they move in together. he has attempted to teach Red how to cook, but Red pretends not to understand so Green will keep making him food. Green knows Red is faking it and doesn’t call him out bc he thinks it’s cute

unpopular opinion

look i’ve played through classic red version a few times and when i say he wasn’t that much of a jerk, i do genuinely mean he was not that much of a jerk. he’s like ten. ten year olds are just Like That. i guess this isn’t too unpopular anymore but it was Back In The Day and in some parts of the fandom he’s still seen as a jerk and like Bro He Is Ten In RGB/FRLG cut him some slack

also genuinely unpopular - Green is taller than Red. i know namelessshipping has fallen into the bara Red and twink Green trope but i refuse to let go of tall Green/short Red fuckin fight me why dont you

song i associate with them

a lot of the Pray For The Wicked album by Panic! at the Disco gives me Green vibes, more for the sound than for lyrics necessarily, but for some reason Roaring 20s just like. has the sound of Green to me. it’s somewhere between flamboyant pride and underlying insecurity that i think really encapsulates Green (or at least his subtext)

favorite picture of them

i genuinely love his let’s go concept art he’s such a sweet good boy?? 

and for the life of me i cannot find the op source on this but this is my fave pic of Green/namelessshipping in general that i’ve had saved since like 2012 maybe???

yeah if anyone can help me source that i’d appreciate it bc reverse image search only brings me to pinterest and random wattpad links :/

update: source seems to be the artist くる (pixiv id=982894) on pixiv, even though the original post got taken down (ty anon!)

Lillie

favorite thing about them

by now i guess you know im a sucker for character development, but i think they did a really good job with her!! i feel like her turn is a bit more in moments than it is with Green, who gradually evolves (lol) over the course of Kanto/all the gens overall. you see more discrete moments where Lillie starts to shift and gain confidence in herself and i am so proud of her ???? like the way she gets excited when she sees Olivia doin’ her z-move stuff, she starts buying her own clothes and getting ahead of you, etc etc

and like, she still has moments where she’s scared, there’s still some fundamental Lillie in there yknow? you don’t lose any of that softness that characterizes Lillie, she just like… she gets better, she develops without losing her Lillie vibe and i love that abt her. she overcomes a lot of the shit she had to deal with when she was stuck with Lusamine, she stands up to Lusamine eventually, and ghfdkjsg gah she’s a sweet gorl i love and appreciate her

also like. the writing on her backstory is so subtle in-universe. like yeah she literally looks like Lusamine’s daughter and you see her in the opening cutscene leaving Aether, but as the protagonist - like as Selene lets say, there’s little hints about where Lillie came from, and if you suspend your disbelief and put yourself in the pc’s shoes, there’s subtly to her character arc that i like 

also like. when she changes her outfit and starts being more protagonist-y, like more confident and kinda bubbly instead of shy??? love that shit it’s so cute can i have custody of this child pls

least favorite thing about them

i like. sometimes feel like she’s too soft of a character for me to really get into? like i love her and Hau, they’re sweet good friends, but i tend to personally gravitate towards characters that create a little more tension (ie Green and N)

(though on that note, Hau can be kinda savage. he just calls Faba out and sarcastically calls Gladion “a ray of sunshine” at some point i think?? Lillie is just very tender and i will support her forever, but i think that also makes her almost too soft to keep me fixated on her yknow. it’s not even a flaw in her character but just not something i fawn over as much)

favorite line

“I’m so glad I got to meet everyone. I’m so glad I got to meet you.”

like that ending kills me but that line almost feels like. I Feel That So Much like i feel so happy to have met all these new characters and to have played these games, and i feel like some of the player’s energy and enjoyment of the game is channeled into this last line of hers 

also GET IN THE BAG

brOTP

probably her and Hau?? idk, i don’t have a specific brotp for her but i like her just hangin around w the other Alola kids, so like her, Hau, Gladion, and the protag kids. they’d raise hell together and Lillie continues to be the only one with some impulse control

(Gladion also has some impulse control but keeps getting annoyed by Hau and so he gets dragged into their nonsense anyway)

OTP

Selene and Lillie is. Good. idk what the ship name is but it’s canon

nOTP

i dont even know if people ship her with Gladion but incest is a big no-no in my house

random headcanon

when she goes to Kanto, i bet she’d pick Bulbasaur as a starter if she was given the opportunity - and if not, she’d probably catch a wild Vulpix 

unpopular opinion

idk if have any unpopular opinions for her?? 

song i associate with them

i have no reason to associate this with her but the Rainy Day theme from acgc just. has a vibe about it. i think a lot of ac music feels like it suits her

favorite picture of them

i found this art of her through a lofi remix of her theme awhile back and it’s so pleasing to look at? her hair is nice and the colors are so warm n happy gjhkfdgf

if you read this far, congratulations!!! and i’m sorry

[axemetaphor]

@ the oc ask game thing do all of em for Adam. I Dare Ya

oh shit asdfghjk i already did 2 so i’ll exclude those, but, HERE WE GO

🌹 Where in the world does your OC feel most at home? Is there any reason why? If it’s not the place they were born, where were they born? Is there a certain somebody that makes them feel at home where ever they may be? What does home mean to them?

He doesn’t remember much of Scotland, but he likely has an idealized concept of it that he considers home. In his mind, if he lived in the rolling green hills he often hears described, everything would be fine! He’d finally be entirely at peace. But that’s not his home, and he knows it.

For him, home isn’t really a place. Technically he still considers his mom’s house “home” simply because he’s used to referring to it as such, but it doesn’t feel like home. What feels like home to him is being with Flint and Domino. What feels like home is the three of them working on a case together and bantering back-and-forth as they drive to and from wherever the hell they need to go. What feels like home is staying up ‘til absurdly late hours playing video games with Domino and Joey and sometimes Lotte. That’s home.

🍁 Where does your OC go when they need to have some time to themself? Would they ever have their own “comfort corner” filled with all the things they like? Do they have a favourite spot outside that feels like its theirs and theirs alone?

Hm that’s actually interestin to think about. He barely knows New York and his space in the apartment is the living room, so, he doesn’t have His Room or smth to go hide in... He strikes me as the sort to like stargazing/skygazing, though, so maybe the roof. If he needs to think about something or calm down, he might take a walk to clear his head. He’s prone to anxiety and walks really help with that, afaik! 

🍂 Does your OC enjoy hugs? What do they do as a show of affection for: their friends, their family, their significant other(s) or for strangers? Over all what are they like with receiving affection from others?

Adam probably loves hugs, but is a bit skittish about them, mainly because he’s mindful of other people’s boundaries ! He doesn’t tend to easily trust kindness from strangers, or even from friends and family honestly, but he’d like hugs. He gives very nice hugs, he’s a very fluffy lad.

🌻 What little things do they notice about people or the world around them that make them happy? What tiny little treasures do they find in the normal every day that makes the world seem a little brighter for them?

He likes birds! And nature in general! He just likes living green things a lot. He likely notices plants and wildlife the most. That being said, everything about New York City is probably very new to him, so for a while he’d be dazzled by all the hustle-and-bustle. Especially the concept of “the city that never sleeps,” the eternal Something Is Happening Someplace.

As for people around him, he likely notices their neutral expression the most, and can probably pick up on what their mood is quite easily. If someone else is happy, he’s likely going to be happy, too! Unfortunately, this sort of a skill is likely a defense mechanism-

🌾 Describe your OC through the eyes of someone absolutely head-over-heels in love with them

this one was kinda tough lkjhgfd He’s a gentle dog with the prettiest unnervingly-bright-blue eyes around, and even when he hasn’t combed his mess of hair it manages to flop over his eyes in just the most adorable way. He handles everything with a certain level of delicacy that’s genuinely admirable. He’s always honest, even if it’d hurt him, fiercely loyal, and incredibly resourceful & hardy. He’s a little dumb but his heart’s in the right place, and he’s selfless to an almost dangerous degree. 

💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?

Adam is extremely good at taking care of other people and probably not very good at being taken-care-of lolol... He isn’t a terrible patient, just not the greatest one. He won’t be downright awful because he’s too sweet but he doesn’t like being fussed-over and feels guilty. Domino and Flint are both equally likely to take care of him when he’s sick, but Flint would probably be a little bit better at it by virtue of being More Adult than either of them lmao. Domino would Try, though!

🌿 What way does your OC show that they care without using words? What way do others show your OC that they’re cared about without using speech?

He strikes me as the type to Gently Lean On Someone when he really trusts them. He’d be likely to hug Domino when they’re having a rough time. He’s the type to pay attention closely when he really cares about someone or something.

Flint is likely to just do nice stuff for both of his kids--he doesn’t seem to be the type to be good at being emotional via words, so he probably shows that he cares by just doing little nice things here and there. Domino is probably the same, though their main way of showing Adam they really do love and trust him is simply the fact they let him hug them lol. As for the other characters he interacts with ... I’m not sure! 

🌳 What is your OC’s favourite way to relax after a stressful day? Do they have a favourite book to curl up with? A hobby? Or do they have a nice bubble bath and have an early night to bed?

He likes to play video games ! His favourite to relax is probably Minecraft. It’s chill and also Domino is terrible at it, so it’s really funny for him to watch them get lost and die a lot-

He does strike me as the type to maybe like a calming bath, though. Maybe he’d just chill in silence, or maybe he’s listen to some soft music. 

🌲 How deeply does your OC feel? Are they typically empathetic or do they have a hard time connecting with others in this way? What are they like when offering support and comfort to someone they care for?

He’s a very empathetic doggo, but he has a tough time making it a two-way street. He doesn’t open up very easily, albeit less-obviously-so than Domino. He’s more likely to deflect others’ questions about his emotions and focus on the other person’s feelings more.

🌺 What does your OC do to calm down when they’re scared or after a nightmare? Do they have any special comfort items or need to be reassured by a specific person? How do they handle this if they’re alone?

When he wakes up after a nightmare, he usually hugs a pillow, or Domino if they’re awake. He just doesn’t want to be all alone again. Domino is the most-comforting person to him, with Flint maybe being second-place--or tied with Joey. 

🌸 What are some of their favourite things and why? List as many as you can think of!

He loves video games, snack foods, gentle rainstorms, green hills and the outdoors in general, that light-in-the-chest happy feeling he gets when he’s Genuinely Praised, the smell of coffee in the early morning, waking up next to his family, road trips, peanut butter (though he has to be mindful of Flint’s allergies--), hugging Domino, the stars at night in a smog-free sky...

🌼 Who are this characters friends and found family? How did they meet, how long have they been friends for, could they ever be something more than just friends? What do they look for in a friend or a romantic partner?

Adam’s only biological relative is his sibling Domino! The two were adopted by Flint Paper, who Adam sees as a father figure. He considers Joey (owned by @archielemon) his big sister, as Domino and Joey already sorta.. mutually adopted each other as siblings lolol. By extension he might also see Kathy, Joey’s girlfriend (also owned by @archielemon) as a big-sister-in-law (technically--they’re not married, but, yknow). He also sees Lotte (owned by @keenflapcowboytaco) as a younger sister. Adam doesn’t have many friends yet, but he admires Sam a fair amount. Max, however, scares the shit out of him. 

Adam doesn’t have any romantic interests at present, nor a canon sexuality, because his mother was so stifling he never got any sort of opportunity to figure himself out. He has no idea what he would want in a partner or if he would want one at all.

Questions for You!

💫What is your favourite fact about this character and why?

this is Another Really Hard question! I’d have to say ... my favourite fact is how he admires Sam but is scared of Max. Especially since Max just wants to be his friend kjhgfdsa. If Adam wants to talk to Sam he’s gotta brave talking to Max, too, poour guy--

☄️ Does this OC deserve better treatment from you? Do you make them suffer just a little bit too much? Be nice to them!

asdfghjkl all of my OCs suffer too much at my hands, i am Sorry, My Children,

🌠 On a scale of 1 - 10 how Baby is your OC? BONUS when asking this question rate the OC yourself as see if the reply matches up!!

100000/10 he is Pupy and he cannot change this. He is More Pupy than Domino is

💦 If you as the writer could erase one traumatic event from this OC’s life what would it be and why?

oh fuck LMAO there are. so many. hm. well. Even though it was better for Domino to leave, Adam really wishes they’d stuck around. If he had them there, maybe they could have left together, instead, and been stronger for it.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 6. Argus Limited

This is a re-posting from Oct. 27th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Volume Six is here, folks! I am so very, stupidly excited for this season. Heartfelt thanks go out to my friend who was all, “lol yeah sure” when I begged to use their FIRST account to watch. There are heroes in this world and they’re one of them.

A quick note about recaps from here on out: they will (my productivity willing) be uploaded sometime on Thursday or Friday proceeding the new episode. This is partly so that I’m not scrambling to post immediately afterwards—stress and bad writing all around—and partly so that, you know, we can actually recap stuff before the next episode airs. So yeah, that’s the goal.

Let’s do it!

We open on a gorgeous, snowy scene with ROOSTER TEETH PRESENTS smack dab in the middle. You know that feeling you get when you hear the Harry Potter theme at the beginning of a new film and the whole theater loses their shit? Same with Doctor Who and Star Wars? Whatever your preferred fandom, the point is I get the same chills when RWBY comes back and it’s excellent.

The animation really is gorgeous though and I sigh happily whenever I see it, thinking back to the days when cookies disappeared directly into Ruby’s mouth. There’s nostalgia, sure, but it doesn’t beat this detail.

We hear the distant sound of a train and then we’re thrown into exactly what we’ve wanted for literal years now: Team RWBY back together again, fighting not creepy adults but just some good, old fashioned grimm. They’re chimeras and… griffins? Ngl I’m not entirely sure, but they’re big, flying, fire-breathing nasties, so that’s really all we need to know. Luckily everyone falls back into old habits, easily supporting one another and executing perfect attacks (a contrast to the residual tension we’ll see in just a bit). Ruby is so busy posing after a successful kill that she misses the grimm coming at her from behind. Weiss saves her ass with a cheeky, “Thank me later!” At the end of the fight we get a reversal wherein a hit nearly sends Weiss tumbling off the side of the train, though Ruby grabs her at the last second with her own, “Thank me later!” It’s a fun little exchange made better when we think back to the Vytal Tournament. Weiss still “had her back” then too, but was more resistant to Ruby’s proclamation that they’re BFFs. Now the teasing is on both ends.

Notably, Ruby saves Weiss by taking her into her semblance, creating a cloud of rose petals that are half red, half white. Now combined with the old team-ups and some shots in the new opening, this has led a number of fans (myself included) to wonder if a WhiteRose pairing is in our future. Which also means that the ship wars are in full swing. Needless to say I’m not about that nonsense and I’ll only point out here what I said episodes back: if it’s a queer relationship with one of our main girls, and not a random side character who was previously out to murder a whole family? I’m on board.

Back in the fight though. The rest of team RNJR appears with Nora exclaiming, “Why is it always something?” God that’s a mood. Welcome to adulthood, kid. It’s just one crisis after another—except in your case the crises are objectively more dangerous. Sorry about that. We get to see Jaune’s improved reflexes as he fends off all the fireballs with his shield while Ren and Nora team up to knock some of the monsters out.

Honestly, I love this trope in action stories. Where—as Nora does here—a character just shouts out a friend’s name to get their attention and they immediately know what kind of move they’re about to pull off. It’s made more hilarious to me given that RWBY once had attack names and Jaune at least made the attempt with JNPR...but apparently they're not needed anymore. So unrealistic, yet so very cool when used.

So yeah, things are going pretty smoothly… up until Oscar yells out “Tunnel!” Ruby saves Weiss from falling, they manage to get over or between the cars, and in the sudden darkness we transition to what we only realize later is a flashback. At least, I didn’t realize it until later. Totally thought we’d had a time skip and they were just hopping another train…

My stupidity aside, before we hit the train station we actually see a familiar hallway filled with angry voices discussing the disaster at Haven—one of which is Adam’s. I really enjoyed this technique, wherein we slowly pan across the room as the voices grow more frantic and the sounds of fighting break out, the camera revealing bodies scattered across the floor. By the time we reach the throne—and Adam on it— we realize that the fight occurred prior to this moment, something that Adam is now remembering. He goes all skyward scream on us as he howls menacingly. Okay, dude. Compared to Cinder and Salem you’re really not all that.

Now we’re at the train station where Qrow is narrating a letter to Ironwood. Hell yes, please bring back the badass, protective Ironwood who defended the students at Beacon and stood up for Weiss. I’d be very pleased if he joins the RWBY gang by the Volume’s end. Qrow’s optimistic about the trip—they’ve plans to reach Ironwood before the letter does, which says either good things about Remnant’s transportation or bad things about its mail—though of course we as the audience know it’s not going to be nearly that simple. We learn that only two weeks have passed since the battle, but people are still reeling from all the implications. Lionheart tragically lost his life defending the school and oh, some students coincidentally were there and did some stuff. Excellent choice in showing us the mindless crowds while we hear this, the naive masses who, yes, would absolutely believe a story like this.

It’s easy to criticize no one supposedly noticing Salem, magic, the finger Ozpin has in every pie, etc. but ultimately people believe what they’re told—especially when it’s much easier to swallow than the truth.

Enough of the doom and gloom though. Ruby is having the time of her life.

Qrow: “What’s with the running?”

Ruby: “What’s with the standing?!”

I love this girl so very much and it’s wonderful when we get to see her acting like the kid she is. She uses her semblance with abandon because yeah, if I could turn into rose petals I’d be doing that all the time too. Ruby teases Yang with something from the gift shop and I really hope we get to see what that is. Yes, we end the episode with everyone left stranded in the wilderness, but if Yang’s bike can survive then so can Ruby’s souvenirs.

(Seriously though they presumably lost all their luggage that sucks.)

Everyone else is in top, feel-good form too. Nora daydreams about hitting the beach, complete with a thought bubble of topless Ren and a beachball. Weiss quips about how she spent all last Volume getting out of Atlas, thanks, but Ruby reassures her that at least she’s back with the team now. When two jokers arrive boasting about how they’ll be the ones keeping the train safe from grimm, Ruby and Yang act exactly as nieces should when your cool uncle is telling them off. AKA, making fun of them behind his back.

God they must have been terrors as toddlers. I mean we already know Yang carted Ruby off into the woods one day so yeah, I’m pretty confident in expressing my surprise that Tai doesn’t have a full head of gray hair.

The two Nice Guys go on to specify that they’ll provide extra protection for a “generous tip,” which—while essentially a throwaway line—reminds us how most of the world functions outside of our close-knit cast. Money, and more specifically Schnee money, quite literally dictates who lives and who dies. Not everything about RWBY is fantasy oriented…

We learn that everyone is just waiting on Blake— “as usual”—and we cut to her with Ilia as the two of them say their goodbyes. Ilia will be helping Ghira lead the Faunus in a “new movement” and is supposedly 100% on the straight and narrow now. Cool? I guess? To be honest I’m fine with her taking a back seat for this Volume. There’s a moment where we get a shot of Ilia and Blake’s feet, the former’s angled forward in a classic kiss pose, and I was super glad to see that they were just sharing a hug. I really don’t want the first LGBTQIA kiss on RWBY to be iffy on consent, considering that Ilia knows Blake isn’t interested. Hug though? That was super sweet.

Sun and Neptune show up to say their goodbyes too. They’re heading to Vacuo to meet up with the rest of their team because, in Sun’s words, he’s the “worst leader” ever. You kinda are, dude? I loved Sun up until they had him following Blake without her permission and continuing to do so after she asked for space, all in the name of the guy supposedly knowing what the girl really needs. The reminder that Sun abandoned his team to do this just reinforces how much I dislike that plot-line.

Sun gets the kiss—on the cheek—and after leaving Neptune lectures him on “letting [Blake] go.” Except it’s not about you? Blake is off to quite literally save the world and the fact that these guys view that as a threat to any potential relationship is… icky. Ugh. Oh well. They’re presumably gonna be offscreen for a while.

The train finally arrives and everyone piles in. We’re back to bunk beds! And of course Team RWBY is situated exactly as they were in Beacon’s dorms. Weiss gets annoyed with Ruby’s cloak hanging down over the side. Blake has a book in her lap. Ruby challenges Yang to a video game. Cue nostalgia. I fully expect fluffy AU fics where they ride the train all the way to Atlas and treat the trip as one giant, dramatic sleepover. This is non-negotiable.

Tension seeps back in though when Yang moves to pull her luggage from the rack and Blake immediately hops up to help her. In a super guilty “I know I fucked up and now I’m gonna smother you” way. Really excellent voice acting here. Yang ends up reassuring her. No, things aren’t perfect between them yet… but they’re definitely improving.

While short, for me this scene was perfectly balanced between acknowledging the girls’ complicated relationship without totally undermining the happy mood. Nicely done.

Then Qrow shows up with a drink. A drink with a slice of orange on the side. I have never enjoyed a moment more and I was so surprised I didn't take a screenshot of it. Clearly I was too distracted and am I too lazy to go back for one now? You betcha. The point is everything is fine, dandy, and filled with alcohol.

So of course RT goes and ruins it for me. Something hits the train and in a split second everyone is on high alert. A quick peek out the window reveals grimm and Blake mutters darkly that it’s “just my luck.”

Qrow: “Not yours.”

Are they gonna leave the safety of the train to those bozos from before? Hell no. Especially when one guy is grabbed right when the fight starts. I mean, poor dude, but he also kinda sucked as a Huntsmen. He wouldn’t have even made it past Beacon’s initiation, let alone graduated.

…I guess he’s kind of like early Jaune? Useless, wannabe hero who acts more confident than he actually is? Aw, now I really do feel bad.

He’s grimm food though. Gotta move on with our lives.

The other dude isn’t doing too well either, though RWBY and NJR + Oscar quickly show up, coming full circle to where we began the episode. Oscar insists that he’s got this fight under control which tells me (hopefully) that in the past two weeks they’ve had serious conversations about if and when Ozpin gets to have control. That’s super great, though I do wish we could have seen it. Flashbacks, maybe?

As the fight begins Ruby announces that the plan amounts to “don’t let anyone else die.” Uh...Ruby? Buddy. Pal. This is why people die. Because they didn’t have plans! Pyrrha—god rest her reckless soul—went off after a freaking Maiden by herself. Jaune got Amber killed because he didn’t obey the plan of watching the door. Lionheart frantically calls Salem with no real plan for what he’s going to offer her in exchange for his life! Plans are important, Ruby. You’re the team strategist. It was a badass line, I grant you, but please do not.

Luckily, no one (else) dies. That would have been pretty brutal for a premier. +1 point for world building where we see that trains like this have built in defenses to fight off grimm. -2 points for how useless it ends up being. As Qrow quickly points out, the turrets are drawing all the grimm to the front of the train where the passengers are. So, not good. Oscar is charged with telling the surviving goon to knock it off already while Qrow faces off against the super fierce chimera grimm. Not gonna lie though, when its tail first started up I thought Qrow was getting attacked by a dove…

This time when we hit the tunnel everyone makes it back safely inside with the exception of Goon #2 who gets his arm injured in the scramble. He’s literally crying on the ground when, in a pretty harsh move, Qrow drags him up and demands to know what the hell all that was. Civility and benefit of the doubt? Not Qrow’s strong points. It allows Ruby to take control of the situation though. How do you make sure that your cast of kids is continually calling the shots?  A) isolate them and B) when you can’t do that have the adults act like children instead. We see that a fair bit in RWBY.  

Jaune steps in to heal the guy’s arm, which is an unexpected surprise. I honestly thought we'd get a whole Volume’s worth of him figuring out how to access and control his semblance, though I suppose once it manifests you’ve got the basics down. We’ve seen that semblances can be improved upon—Ruby turning other people she carries into petals; Ren dampening the emotions of a whole train—so presumably Jaune will be able to heal more complex and life-threatening things in the future. We also hear in the ensuing conversation that he can amplify someone else’s aura…to be decided what exactly that means, how it connects to healing, and what the limits of the skill is.

During some theorizing about the attack Ozpin brings up that grimm are attracted to the relic they’re carrying and… oh boy. Here we go. Is it tradition that every recap the fandom goes for Ozpin’s throat while I stand here defending him? Might be. Let’s create a (semi) comprehensive list:

This might have been less of a secret and more of a slip. The guy is thousands of years old and the forces they’re dealing with are stupidly complicated. He can’t info dump every detail of a multi-century war in one sitting. So—

He might have thought this was one of those innocuous things that shouldn’t take precedent right now. Not the sort of thing he needs to worry them with. He claims in the promo that he didn't lie to the group and he quite possibly didn't. There's a big difference between lying and not telling someone every single possible thing that might be pertinent. Especially when—

We know that grimm are already attracted to people/negative emotion and they’re sequestered within a whole train full of presumably stressed travelers. There’s no reason to think the artifact would put them in more danger than they already are and therefore isn't at the top of the list of revelations to dole out. Especially with—

Qrow and his bad luck semblance. He literally just implied that the grimm were there because of him. There’s a reason he didn’t want Ruby near him during the fight with Tyrian and now they’re all stuck together in close quarters. The grimm were coming anyway. Even if we didn't have Qrow's semblance and big crowds we can also assume as much because of—

Those turrets. They weren’t there for a fashion statement. The whole train was crazy armored. They’re clearly very used to getting attacked on this route. It's a normal thing.

All of which is to say that the relic is one of MANY reasons why they might have gotten a buttload of grimm on their tail. Ozpin mentions this as one possibility in a very “Here’s something else to consider” way and everyone (characters and fandom alike) jump on him like he’s solely responsible for this predicament. Besides, what would they have done differently? Not carry the relic? That’s not an option. Be more on guard? They’re already constantly on guard. None of their actions would have changed had they known.

Really though, it’s the keeping of secrets that people are mad about, not necessarily what the secret is. So if we ignore the possibility above that Ozpin legit didn’t think this was worth mentioning/even forgot about it, we have a) he withheld the information because it might have made them wary about traveling with others, but they need to get to Atlas as fast as possible and the train is the best way to do that. So yeah, that’s a possible change, though I agree with Ozpin’s theoretical logic here. It was worth the risk.

b) he didn’t tell them because—again—worry is a negative emotion and that might have just doubled their problem. Awful as it is, knowing you're carrying a thing that might attract more grimm is one of the best ways to make sure that you do, in fact, attract them. Knowing what the relic does is dangerous. 

c) he doesn’t trust them with all the information about these super powerful relics that are going to decide the fate of their world. Which honestly? Kind of fair. Yeah, I know he promised them no more secrets, but this is a centuries old, god-like entity making a promise to a child. It’s not even really a matter of trust anymore. We’ve got a core group of nine here and everyone has someone else they’re close to. Ruby isn’t going to keep secrets from Tai. Blake will probably fill Sun in when she sees him again. Weiss is close to her sister. Etc. In short, as soon as this many people know a secret it isn't a secret anymore. Ozpin is no doubt aware that anything he tells to their now massive group is fair game and he has to carefully consider what he wants to risk going public/landing in Salem's hands. A general doesn't tell every lieutenant the details of every plan. That's a good way to lose the war. Fate of the world vs. a promise made to Yang? C’mon. There are priorities here.

d) finally, we’ve seen evidence—particularly after the iconic food fight—that Ozpin desperately wants his students to be kids as long as they can. He might keep information to himself simply because he doesn’t want to burden them. And given all the reasons listed above for why they'd be dealing with grimm anyway, what's the harm in giving them what little peace he can? It's not perfect reasoning and if this is the case the others have a right to be annoyed, but it's understandable. It certainly doesn't make Ozpin the monster I see countless posts painting him as.

Plus, Yang? I’m not sure you have the right to get indignant about keeping secrets right now. Granted, there’s some ambiguity surrounding whether she’s mentioned Raven as the Spring Maiden, but regardless we haven’t seen any evidence that she’s told the group the details of what happened down in the vault. That’s a pretty big thing to be keeping to yourself.

A lot bigger than, “Oh yeah this relic attracts the thing we’re attracting anyway. My bad.”

Why the relic attracts grimm is another question. Because it’s connected to the original brothers? Just because Salem wants it and she seems to be the grimms’ creator? We’ll have to see.

Ruby interrupts everyone’s fury to point out that they have bigger issues at the moment and Ozpin’s expression kind of kills me? He looks so shocked to have anyone standing up for him, even if it’s a defense of practicality instead of his actions. I wonder if this Volume is going to have the team starting to lose a little faith in Ruby. Given the clear divide here (angry Ren, Nora, Weiss, Yang, and Blake on one side; Ruby, Oscar, Ozpin on the other) this might be a major theme moving forward. It would make a lot of sense too given Ruby's past relationship with Ozpin. To Yang he's just her headmaster; to Ruby he's the headmaster that let her into her dream school early. To Blake he's someone who wanted information from her before she was ready to give it; to Ruby he's the adult who gave her advice at the dance and was emotionally open with her about committing more mistakes "than any man, woman, or child." No matter how far she's come, they'll always be a part of Weiss that sees Ozpin as the teacher who didn't give her the leadership position she thought she deserved; to Ruby he's the man that has put a staggering amount of trust in her: by letting her into his school, giving her a team, sending her to Mountain Glenn, etc.

Now, it might be time for Ruby to put her trust in Ozpin.

Fight temporarily averted, they decide to separate the teams… which felt a little forced to me. I mean I get it. As said, giant group. It’s hard to write and keep track of that many, so let’s knock three offstage for a while. Jaune, Ren, and Nora will see the people to safety while Ruby and the rest of the gang eventually catch up. We get a glimpse of Maria—the old lady with awesome glasses—clearly plotting something and then everyone heads back to the roof to finish the fight with the grimm.

Blake has a quick vision of Adam; the last time she separated a train car. Excellent touch there. Ruby tells Ren to use his semblance through the scroll, but we also get a glimpse of their signals getting weaker. Another nice touch considering how important we know the scrolls are throughout the RWBY universe: how the team keeps in contact during the Volume Four short, the damage that the fall of the CCT tower has caused, etc.

We get a final, epic showdown with a massive grimm where everyone’s teamwork proves to be some top tier stuff. Blake and Yang capture it using Blake’s ribbon. Weiss freezes off its wings. Then—in a fantastic split screen—Ruby and Qrow both use their scythes to cut the creature in two. I’m here for the power family moves.

Only problem is that a final fireball from the grimm hits the train, derailing their section. Weiss keeps them all from dying an awful death, but now they’re kind of stranded.

I mean, they already were stranded before, but I guess the hope was the back of the train would have carried them farther down the tracks before losing momentum?

In the final scene we have an unexpected voice happily proclaiming that they’re still alive but boy, that was a close one! Maria hobbles out, having clearly planned to be with this group when they went their own way.

My personal theory? She knows (and to some extent recognizes) Ozpin. I can’t believe he wasn’t involved in a conflict like the Great War. Hell, he was probably at the center of it and Maria looks very old by RWBY standards. We have no concept of how long people in this world can live so I don’t think it’s a stretch to put her in her 90s or well over 100—old enough to have fought in the War and potentially recognize one of the central figures, even in a new reincarnation depending on her instincts, knowledge, and semblance. Her name lends a bit of credence to her age, if nothing else. As far as I know “Maria” doesn’t mean/isn’t evocative of a color… though I’m far from an expert. Could totally be wrong about that.

Regardless, we’ll see. More info arrives next week!

Other Details of Note

The grimm are at a distance when we first spot them and they actually look a lot like crows. The same motif we’ve seen with Raven and Qrow’s entrances but, you know, bad.

I really liked Qrow’s line to Ironwood about how they’re bringing “more than bad news.” It’s appropriately vague—can’t go admitting that Oz is back with the group—and at the same time quite up-lifting.

I personally take Ozpin’s “I hope they’re not from Beacon” as more of a joke than a true worry. If you’re telling me that this old as balls control freak doesn’t remember every student that’s ever passed through those doors… I don’t believe you.

When Blake is saying goodbye to Ilia and Sun we have lots of animation for her ears, helping to express her emotions. It says a lot about her character development that she hasn’t re-adopted the bow in such a crowded, human packed space.

Neptune is pursuing the “wrong tree” okay lol that was good.

When Neptune and Sun discuss re-uniting the team we briefly hear the soundtrack from their Vytal Festival match. Excellent.

Interestingly, Oscar gives Ozpin control immediately during the conversation about the relic, almost like he already knew what was going to be revealed and understood that it was important… I wonder how much they’re sharing thoughts now, two weeks later.

Here, have a beach Ren and happy birb. Yes, I went back for the screenshots...

[manabingu]

Haruka Nanami = soft girl

This has been sitting in my inbox since yesterday MY BAD! I wanted to answer this earlier but got distracted by deadlines of some stuff ANYWAY. Thanks for sending me an ask about Nanami CUZ I BEEN WANTIN TO TALK ABOUT MY HOME GIRL FOR AWHILE BUT NEVER GET THE CHANCE TO! So thanks~*~*~*

THIS GIRL RIGHT HERE. NANAMI HARUKA ^^^^ I WOULD DIE FOR HER.

Honestly, I’m that one person in every fandom that tends to fall in love with characters who I feel get undeserved hate or are either a minor character who gets glossed over. And be like….YALL??? Why you so mean to such adorable, innocent,sweet, hardworking, wouldn’t hurt a fly characters and then say that characters who are LITERAL murderers and criminals are the “precious cinnamon rolls who can do no wrong” only cuz you attracted to them??? yall thas sad. Listen…I’m honestly tired of people who bash on the anime and only play the games cuz they think it’s boring. Yes, you can have your opinion & I respect that, but I’ve seen some people whom have a pretty steadily growing following just bash on Nanami or some of their “not best boys” for reasons that make no sense to me & I been bottling this for awhile but Imma just SPEAK today cuz I’m on fire. ANYWAY BACK TO MY QUEEN.

LET ME HAVE MY NANAMI HARUKA TED TALK. Debunking complaints

Complaint I’ve heard: She’s boring

IN MY PERSONAL OPINION. NANAMI HARUKA IS ONE OF THE BEST LEADS IN ANY IDOL/ REVERSE HAREM ANIME I HAVE SEEN TO DATE.

She’s FAR from boring. She kind of reminds me of one of my other favorite lead heroines of all time. Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. Both are humble & haven’t really had much in their life. Let’s talk about her story, she is a girl who was born with with bad health so much so that her parents sent her to grow up and live with her grandma in the countryside where the air was cleaner & less polluted than the city where they live. While she stayed with grandma, she learned to play piano by ear & she really didn’t grow up with much technology. She states in episode one that she didn’t even have a TV so anytime anyone in her class makes a reference to a famous celebrity she doesn’t know who they are. If I had to guess she only probably had books, toys, & a record player at grandma’s house AND I think she was home-schooled? Which means that that her only other friend besides her grandma & possibly the local neighborhood kids was grandma’s piano.

 I think she’s highly relateable too. I sure have had similar experience (trust me, my immune system is TerRibLe XD so I feel home girl) But I knew the moment I saw that part in episode 1 where she describes how music LITERALLY saved her life, THAT is when I knew I would protect this girl for the rest of my life cuz I just yelled at my screen SAME GURL! SAAAAAAME TTuTT/ In Nanami’s case, she went by herself to the city to visit her parents, she thought since she no longer was a kid, her health wouldn’t be too endangered but she she got there she got REALLY lost & the noise pollution was so overwhelming that her anxiety gave her a panic attack. AND THIS IS WHY I REALLY LIKE UTAPRI. BECAUSE THEY GET HELLA REAL HELLA FAST. THIS KIND OF THING IS NOT SOME KINDA MADE UP THING. LET ME SIT YALL DOWN AND TELL YOU A STORY.

Listen- I remember when I was like 16ish I went to New York with a cousin & as a person who comes from a small town- being in the city BY YOURSELF for the first time, it’s SO SCARY to someone who has anxiety. I was dropped off in Manhattan while she ran a work errand she gave me money for food & encouraged me to explore. As soon as they left, I looked around thinking OH GOD WHAT NOW?? I saw a cathedral close by and I RAN for it. I was so scared being alone I went to a small corner of the cathedral and started crying & tweeting, which got some comforting responses from native NY people that followed me & I texted the friend that was closest to me (if you count Virginia close lol) But he called me & just talked to me & helped me feel better. He encouraged me to not stay in one place & to go find a place I like & perhaps if I was too anxious, to go stay there till I was picked up. IT TOOK ME 30 MINUTES to get courage enough to walk to the Barnes & Noble/Starbucks that was close & I stayed there texting him the rest of the time. So ANYTIME people talk crap about Nanami’s panic attack in the city I’m gonna politely tell them to get out of my face cuz that’s a VERY real emotion. The thing that saved Nanami was hearing a singer in a giant screen singing a soothing song. THE MUSIC HELPED CALM DOWN HER ANXIETY. EXCUSE ME. YALL CAN’T SAY THAT YOU’VE NEVER BEEN SOOTHED BY A SONG IN YOUR LIFE. WE ALL BEEN THERE. WHEN WE WERE SO DOWN THAT LISTENING TO A SONG MADE US FEEL BETTER. I know that happened with me. Just like Nanami, I had a time in my life where I was just ready for death, I had lost hope to live but hearing ONE. SONG by my favorite singer, literally stopped me. So I can relate how she felt about HAYATO in the city. And how afterwards she was so inspired by it that she wanted to try to have a career dealing with music. HER REASON FOR WANTING TO BECOME A COMPOSER IS BECAUSE SHE KNOWS WHAT IT’S LIKE TO FEEL SAD AND SCARED. SO SHE WANTS TO MAKE MUSIC THAT CAN TOUCH PEOPLE’S HEARTS & IF THEY’RE HAVING A BAD DAY, SHE CAN CHEER THEM UP WITH A SONG. IF THAT ISN’T THE GREATEST REASONING TO GO FIGHT FOR A DREAM, I DUNNO WHAT IS.

AND SHE KNOWS THAT THE ODDS ARE AGAINST HER. BUT SHE DOESN’T THROW IN THE TOWEL EASILY. I FREAKING LOVE HER FOR THAT. NANAMI. HARUKA. IS. NOT. WEAK.

Once she was of age, she applied for THE most prestigious music academy in her area. She was nearly late to the entrance exam cuz she helped a lost child find their mom while she was running in a snowstorm to the school. And because she was noticed to have that high moral compass by the principal, she was allowed to take the exam and made it in. And even when she DID get in, she was bullied by all the rich kids for not being able to read sheet music & not being taught by a private piano teacher when she was asked to play in front of everyone. She KNEW that she can play piano but she was self taught & played by ear. ((THIS STRUCK ME HARD TOO. Because I am self taught too- as a singer, I thought that if I didn’t have access to all these things & I didn’t know how to sight read I’d never be taken seriously or that I was less worthy to be called a musician than my peers)) But did she give up??? NO. HOME GIRL RAN TO THE LIBRARY and she studied her ass off to not let her first assignment project partner down. I COULD GO ON FOR HOURS ABOUT THE FIRST SEASON ALONE. SHE WAS THROWN SO MANY CURVE BALLS TO CRUSH HER SPIRIT AND DESPITE HER ANXIETY KEPT FIGHTING FOR HER DREAM.

But you know what? She also showed me THAT IT’S OK TO FALL DOWN TO ROCK BOTTOM. It’s OK to feel like giving up especially when your confidence has been crushed to a pulp by everyone. YALL, I FREAKING BAWLED MY EYES OUT WHEN SHE FOUND OUT THAT STARISH - THE BAND SHE SINGLE-HANDEDLY  (and with some magical fate strings pulled by Cecil)) CREATED WAS GONNA DEBUT WITHOUT HER. She was asked by the principal if she thought HER music could compete with pros already established and household names already in the business. She didn’t want her friends to give up their dreams of debuting so she agreed to step down as STARISH’s composer AGAINST their demands for her to not give up. She went home and cried to her grandmother that she felt SO outclassed. And you know what? I’m GLAD Utapri shared this kind of story because I’m sure it has happened to a lot of people.

Nanami is a really kind, compassionate, selfless human being. She does anything and everything so that all her family & friends can be happy at the expense of her own happiness. She takes it to the extreme that she is PUSHED and forced to FOR ONCE think selfishly and do something for herself. Her purity & kindness won the respect of her classmates & teachers so much so that they always want to support her dream of  becoming a songwriter. When STARISH came to her house cuz they heard she ran away- she openly admitted  IN TEARS that SHE wanted to be STARISH’s composer, she didn’t want anyone else to write for them because she had fun with her friends and she didn’t want that to stop. ((The principal overheard her and said FINALLY! SOMETIMES ITS OK TO BE SELFISH WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR DREAM! Its ok to be kind but also think of your own feelings sometimes too. I think young, budding artists need to hear this. )) SHE GIVES ME HOPE CUZ I BE THE SAME WAY SOMETIMES WITH MY STUFF SO YEAH ;~~~~~;/

SOMETIMES When I watch a show that has harem elements to it, I really judge the protag that everyone is falling for and I think about if the harem people’s feelings are justified enough for them to actually fall in love with the protag. And you know what? In Nanami’s case?? ITS A BIG OL HELL YEAH IT’S JUSTIFIED.

FrICK- I fell in love with Nanami too??? How could I not??? I AM A BIGASS SAP FOR INNOCENT, SHY, CHARACTERS WHO TRY THEIR BEST EVEN THOUGH THEY SCARED AF CUZ OF CONFIDENCE ISSUES.

She’s a wonderful, compassionate, gifted person who just needs love and support and you know she’ll be there for you too and it’s mutual. She works SUPER hard at her job, she’s endearing, she makes you wanna just protect her cuz if she is sad lord I will probably go on a rampage. This girl doesn’t deserve to go through more than she already has. I love and respect Nanami. A female protagonist doesn’t need to be bitchy, slutty, or badass to be considered “interesting”. 

HECK, one time I heard someone say “This show would be 10x if Nanami was a guy. UMMMM???? WTF??? Ok, listen, I’m in the lgbt spectrum, & I’m sick of people saying that Utapri would be better if Nanami was a boy. Why is it so bad that she’s a girl?? Like- I would like ONE reasonable explanation that doesn’t involve fetishizing your personal fantasies. When people fetishize an lgbt relationship- you’re causing that type of relationship to not be taken seriously irl. If we wanna make this the norm, we gotta treat it like it’s a natural occurrence. Not force something for the sake of fanservice. There are barely any well written female protags like Nanami out there in the world and if we change her, we are taking out one of the best from the list. I want more shows to write good, memorable  female protags like Nanami. I wouldn’t be against her being a boy. But only if the reason was for good reasons and to explore character development dynamics. Cuz I enjoy content that has actual substance. SERIOUSLY- If Utapri was ONLY fanservice, I would despise it. BUT IT’S NOT. It tackles real issues & speaks about people in the industry and they don’t sugarcoat ANYTHING. They show you the harsh realities but they also give you hope to keep doing what you love even if you gotta work extra harder than your peers who might be more experienced than you.

And THAT is what I learned from Nanami Haruka. And I will defend my songwriting princess till I die. Thank you.

[monokuroo]

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Or at least post-Valentine in my part of the world. I hoped you have a wonderful date with your significant other.

But if you’re like me who’d rather hang out with my 2D husbandos (yes I have a sad layf lol), then let the eligible dads of Dream Daddy be your date!

If you tell me 2 years ago that I’m going to play and love Dream Daddy, I would probably laugh my ass off.

Released in 2017 by Game Grumps, Dream Daddy is a dating sim where you can customize your ‘dadsona’ and as the name suggests, you can date different kinds of dads. There are 7 dads in total but let’s start by making the dadsona who will date these dads.

At the start of the game, you’d be prompted to customize a dad to your liking. Think of it as the simplified version of the Create-A-Sim menu in The Sims.

So here’s my dadsona, Bae Summers.

Isn’t he good-looking? I loved that egg nipz shirt! hehe

Once you meet all the dads, it’s time to date! You have to message them on the game’s version of Facebook, the Dadbook. Each dad has 3 dates that need to be passed. Aim for S or A rank to ensure a good ending.

Or, if you’re like me, you can turn to guides such as these https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1085165969 and https://allgamers.com/article/2932/dream-daddy—guide-to-unlocking-all-dad-endings.

You’ve done all the things above and now you’re ready to push that message button. So the next question would be…

Who is your Dream Daddy?

You’ll see mine at the end. 😉

Craig Cahn

The main reason I got this game! After watching Kelsey from this video I had the urge to get his end!

MC’s college buddy and partner-in-crime. But when they meet again, Craig is already a responsible father of three.

Wait, there’s more.

He’s also a businessman, running a sports business. Also, he’s a health junkie. He trains every day, jogging around the neighborhood with his baby strapped on his body. To top it all, he coaches his twins’ softball team. Such a busybody.

Bae: My ultimate sexual fantasy is you. 😏😏😏

Craig’s ending, his route, heck even his kids did not disappoint! I would play his route again and again just to see his daughter River. She’s, like, the cutest kid in this game!

Seriously, though, I’m shipping MC with Craig because their bond is something. I love the whole bromance to more-than-bros going on. The confession scene at the end is sweet and cute. Too bad the game’s pretty short. I would have liked to see more of these two.

That third date, though. 🤩

Another reason to love Craig’s route is that, unlike the other dads, he has none of those minigames. So you can just safely play through this route without worries of a failed date.

(There’s a mini-game where Craig invites you to do the treadmill. But in my game, it didn’t appear on his route. Rather, he invites you when you are in another dad’s route.)

Mat Sella

Mat is the owner of the coffee shop in the neighborhood. He loves music, coffee, and his daughter Carmensita.

After ogling at Craig, I’m not sure I’d like Mat. But there’s a certain charm to his awkward personality. Like how he looks flustered when meeting people, which, at first glance, is totally unlike him.

Bae is so thirsty I kennot. 😂

But Matt’s really sweet and thoughtful to everyone. Contrary to his belief that he doesn’t like crowds, he’s rather good at taking care of people. It’s nice to see him complimenting MC’s personality. Together, they look like cute awkward teens and that’s…adorable.

The last date and the scenes leading up to the ending are so sweet. I loved how they get so flirty with each other. Mat is just giggling and flirting with the MC. That’s the happiest I’ve seen him in the game.

Brian Harding

Brian is MC’s rival dad. From the first time Brian and MC meet, this dad keeps on one-upping our MC. So for the rest of the route, they work through their rivalry thing.

Hence, this route contains the most nerve-wracking minigames! Brian invites the MC in different activities such as playing golf and fishing. And since, MC is competitive as ever, you as the player have to win them all!

So if you’re planning to get all of Steam’s achievements, I can only wish you luck. I admire you for having the patience I can never have. Because you’ll need a lot of it to finish Brian’s minigames, especially the golf part.

As for Brian and MC as a couple, I find it hard to see any chemistry between them because of their constant rivalry. But once I realized what Brian is doing, I found it cute. It’s nice to see them sort out their differences in the end.

Also, his daughter, Daisy, is a bit of an uptight at first. She keeps on correcting Amanda’s jokes which had me rolling my eyes a lot of times. But Amanda’s really chill so she teaches Daisy to be a bit more laid-back. Then, the two of them makes an adorable pair of siblings.

Robert Small

Robert looks wild and gruff, someone giving off a dangerous vibe.

MC’s first encounter with him is when he and Amanda visit Mat’s coffee shop. There, Robert checks out MC, staring darkly from the corners of the shop. I admit, he gives off a creepy vibe on that scene.

If MC decides to go out at night, he’ll go to a pub where he’ll be properly introduced to Robert.

Anyway, the other characters call Robert as an enigma. He’s such a mystery to everyone due to the cryptic way he speaks. You can never EVER get a straight answer from him. I can’t help but roll my eyes every time he speaks like that…

One of those rare moments that get him to speak what he really thinks.

…I guess I really am no good with people like him because it feels like he’s belittling other people with the way he speaks.

Surprisingly, I loved the ending. Robert did have some baggage. But I think he has the most realistic ending. I appreciated his no kiss-and-tell personality because at least he’s really clear with what he wanted in his relationship with MC.

Another surprising part of this route is Mary. It is already weird to have her hitting on MC on his first night in the neighborhood. Being friends with Robert, she is not someone to be messed with.

But Mary’s actually a really good friend. She doesn’t look like it, but she cares for Robert. And I appreciate her for that.

Damien Bloodmarch

When I watch Let’s Plays of the game, whenever players meet Damien, they’ll all have the same reaction — “Vampire Dad? No way!” But whenever I scrolled through the comments, everyone says that Damien is just misunderstood.

Those mixed reactions are really intriguing.

Damien dresses and acts like a Goth and has a love for the Victorian Era. Because of this, he gives off a standoff-ish vibe.

Damien is a sweet and romantic guy. Underneath his classy look lies a cute cinnamon roll. He proves that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  His route is like watching a slow and old-school romance unfold. Like, how he prefers handwritten letters (with seals!) over Dadbook messaging.

And I loved how everyone could tell that they’re sooo in love with each other to the point of teasing them. I even love the part where Amanda saw them kissing in front of their door because that’s like a reversal of their position as dad and daughter.

Also, he’s a fudanshi. 😏

  He has a collection of SasuNaru fic? 😏

Hugo Vega

Hugo is Amanda’s teacher. Being a person of authority, he’s pretty uptight.

Hugo is, well, nerdy. Other than teaching middle and high schoolers, he writes scholarly stuff and he’s very knowledgable with high brow lit.

He’s knowledgable. Period.

But he has another hobby: wrestling. He’s got a room of wrestling things. And it goes without saying that he knows a lot about it, a huge fanboy. That and those teach-me-wrestling-moves had me 😏.

Thing is, I enjoyed Hugo and his son, Ernest moments more in Damien’s route. Unlike Damien’s son, Ernest didn’t really show his appreciation for Hugo in his dad’s route. Meanwhile, in Damien’s, due to certain events, the relationship between Hugo and Ernest have a big leap. They have a more familial atmosphere around them in the end.

Or maybe, Ernest is busy on other things…

Joseph Christiansen

I have mixed feelings about this dad.

Joseph freaking Christiansen is a youth minister at the church. He’s the husband of Mary and father to the freakishly looking kids, Chris, Christian, Christie, and Chrish.

My initial reaction when I meet him and his family: YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU CAN DATE HIM!?

Just look at their names. I feel like I’m committing a sin.

Also, he spends most of his route being extra sticky to MC, like being sweet and clingy. I could definitely picture him staring longingly to MC, giving off mixed signals.

It’s uncomfortable knowing Joseph is married to Mary. She’s not the nicest neighbor. But after playing Robert and Damien’s routes where she is a good friend, she’s grown on me.

AND NOW I’M SNATCHING HER HUSBAND.

You’re being such a good friend MC. 🙄

So other than the names and his wife’s existence, Joseph intrigues me in the previous routes. During Amanda’s graduation party where MC talks to each character, Joseph asks MC to hang out with him anytime he’s free. He’s not telling MC that in a casual way. It’s more of like this:

… which is like silently pleading MC to notice him.

When MC did, he so brilliantly dumped him.

Which brings me to another reason why this route brings me discomfort.

Joseph’s best end is in the opposite direction with the other dads. After flirting around, he’d tell you that he’ll go back to his wife. And that’s perfectly okay. That’s a good thing, mending a broken family.

But it feels like MC is subjected to a needless embarrassment and rejection for someone who’s only stringing him along. He’s just a rebound, a one-night stand.

I couldn’t help but compare Joseph with Robert, because of their internal issues and how they treat MC. Thanks to this, I ended up liking Robert more, mainly because he’s very clear with what he wants and puts a distance from MC as he fixes his life.

Now I kind of regretting leaving Joseph for last since it taints a charming game. It’s like Joseph lives in a different world, far from the sweet worlds of the other dads.

===

So to answer my question above:

Craig is the love of my life in this game. Though I loved everyone, in all fairness. I just especially loved him. Even MC agrees,

For my favorite in the game – Craig > Damien = Mat > Robert = Hugo > Brian > Joseph. Or it can actually be Craig = Damien = Mat = Robert = Hugo >Brian >>> Joseph.

Everyone is farrrr better than Joseph. lol

So who’s likely to be your date among the dads of Dream Daddy?

As of this writing, Steam is having its Daily Deals and Dream Daddy is included. Snag this game over there and have a fun post-Vday celebration!

Next post will be my one and only reason to play Dream Daddy.

The Eligible Dads of Dream Daddy #dreamdaddy Happy Valentine's Day! Or at least post-Valentine in my part of the world. I hoped you have a wonderful date with your significant other.