#so i can have her drop some specific references lol

[flythesail]

I want to start writing the next chapter but Qimir's backstory needs to cook a bit longer

[cxrrodedcoffin]

Sweet Understanding - Emily Prentiss

Likes are always appreciated but reblogs and feedback keep artists going!

——

Summary: Reader has a rough day at work and Emily knows just how to relieve some stress.

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: reader has sensory issues but specific condition is not mentioned. inspired by my real life experiences, i have adhd and get very easily overstimulated so i did get a little self indulgent with this one lol

TW: fingering, oral sex, praise kink, afab reader, use of “girl” and she/her pronouns in reference to reader, mentions of sensory issues, borderline excessive use of pet names, reader is submissive & slightly unsure of herself

Rating: R, there’s a lot of fluff here but it develops into smut so 18+ only please!

——

You shut the door a little too hard behind you as you dropped your bag to the floor, sigh of relief falling from your lips.

“What’s wrong baby?” Emily questioned, getting up from her place on the couch to walk over to you. Her slender arms wrapped around your frame, pulling you into a much-needed hug after the day you’d had.

“Work was awful, my whole body is sore and I had to fight through how overstimulated everything about that place makes me all day.” You stumbled over your words, your brain struggling to form a coherent thought with how low your social battery was from all of the interactions you had to engage in throughout the day.

“I’m sorry you had a tough day sweet girl, is there anything I can do to help?” Her hand cupped your cheek, thumb swiping softly over your skin. You lean into her touch, looking into her eyes as you search for any semblance of hesitation, but there is none. Emily doesn’t have any reservations about your relationship, she knows how tough your sensory issues are to handle and all she wants is to make life a little easier for you in any way she can. You’re too precious to her, she never wants to see you in pain if she can help it.

“Maybe a bath…together?” You suggest, crimson blush rising over your cheeks. You’re still a little shy to initiate intimacy of any kind, learning to ask for touch from the one person who’s touch you desire most is all so foreign to you after a lifetime of discomfort with contact from others.

“That is an excellent idea, can you get the water running angel? I just have to grab a couple things and I’ll be right in.” You nod and she kisses you on the forehead before parting, making you way to your ensuite bathroom. When Emily was apartment hunting she specifically wanted a tub deep enough to fit two people. As strong as the front she puts up is, she’s really a romantic at heart, and recreating a romcom bubble bath scene had been on her bucket list for awhile. You were grateful for that now, illicit thoughts floating through your mind as you watched the water slowly fill up the tub.

Emily finally joined you, setting your favorite scented lotion on the bathroom counter and pouring some bubble bath into the still-rising water.

“Give me your hands, sweetheart.” She cooed, opening the bottle of lotion and taking a small amount into her palms. She took your hands in hers, her fingers gently massaging the tired muscles in your palms and giving the cracked skin on the back of your hands some much-needed moisture. She knew you couldn’t stand the feeling of your hands being dry, it was one of the seemingly small things that she could help, and she didn’t mind getting to have a little extra time holding your hand.

Once she finished, she helped lift your top over your head, goosebumps forming as the cool air hit your bare skin. You both continued to undress until you were completely bare, your nipples perking at the exposure.

Emily took your hand, letting you brace yourself against her for extra stability as you stepped into the tub, sinking into the warm water. Once you were properly settled she stepped in behind you, her back resting against the side of the tub as she pulled your hips back so you were between her legs, your back flush with her chest. You snuggled into her, resting your head on her shoulder and enjoying the way the warm water soothed your aching legs.

“You’re so beautiful babydoll.” Her voice was smooth, and her praise caused your cheeks to flush again.

“Thank you my love.” You purred, relaxing fully against her. Her fingers began to trace patterns up your sides, fingertips dancing along the sides of your breasts. A chill ran up your spine at the sensitive touch, a dull ache growing between your thighs. Her touch became more intense, hands cupping your breasts, gently kneading as your nipples rubbed against her palms. You whined, growing desperate for more.

“What do you need, sweet girl?” She asked, rolling your nipples between her fingers in hopes of eliciting more sounds from you. It worked, whimpers falling from your lips as she tweaked your sensitive buds.

“Touch me please.” You whine, squirming against her.

“I’m already touching you angel, you need to be more specific.”

“Between my legs, please.” You can’t articulate exactly what you want because you’re honestly not sure, you just want her to do whatever she wants with your pussy.

Her right hand movies to your inner thigh, fingers inching closer until she traces your labia, teasingly rubbing just beside your clit. You whine in frustration before taking her hand in yours and placing her fingers on your clit.

“Right here.” You sigh, closing your eyes in anticipation. She rubs slowly at first, almost agonizingly so before picking up the pace, rubbing quick circles over your bundle of nerves. The water begins to sway ever so slightly around you, her arm movements creating gentle waves. You nuzzle your forehead against her neck, soft moans falling just beneath her ear, spurring her on. Before you know it she’s dipping her index and middle fingers inside of you, thumb taking over rubbing your clit as she curls her fingers inside of you.

You’re losing all semblance of reality, only able to focus on her slender fingers pumping expertly into you, coaxing out desperate whimpers as your release draws closer and closer.

Your walls start to contract around her fingers, telling her you were teetering on the edge of release.

“That’s it sweetheart, let go.” She whispers, holding her pace steady until you cry out, a broken sob wracking your body as euphoria washes over you, the tension that had built up throughout the day finally releasing.

Emily slows her ministrations, helping you work through your orgasm before withdrawing her fingers from your pulsing cunt. She plants a kiss on your forehead once more, looking lovingly into your hazy eyes.

“So good for me, angel.” She praises, letting you recover for a moment. You plant kisses along her jawline, taking your hand in yours.

“Thank you.” You sigh, content to sit here with her until the end of time.

“I’m always happy to help you, no matter what.”

“I know, but you’re always so busy and I don’t want to add any stress, it’s not fair to you.” Guilt starts to creep in slightly as you realize you hadn’t asked how her day was when you got home.

“Baby, the team hasn’t had a case in 2 weeks, I’ve done nothing but paperwork all day. You are under a lot more stress than I am right now, and I know you’ll return the favor so don’t worry about it.” She reassured, squeezing your hand.

“Can I do that now? Return the favor, I mean.” You start to rise from the tub, reaching out your hand to help Emily up. She smiles at you, nodding approval as she steps out. The two of you quickly dry off, trailing into the bedroom.

“How do you want me?” She questions, okay with whatever position is most comfortable for you.

“Sit against the headboard and spread your legs, please.” You tell her, always polite even in your desires. She does just what you ask, giving you a full view of her gorgeous cunt. You climb on the bed with her, moving to lay on your stomach with your head between her legs. You look up at her longingly and she smiles down at you, lightly nodding to give you the go ahead.

You dive in, tongue lapping long flat stripes through her folds, desperate to taste as much of her as possible. You were hungry, savoring the delicious taste of her arousal as you dipped your tongue inside of her. Her hand found its way to your hair, fingers tangling in soft strands as she pulled you closer.

Your hand joined your mouth, fingers sliding into her to feel the warmth of her walls pulsing around them. Your tongue gave kitten licks to her clit, slowly increasing pressure and pace until you had her moaning and grinding her hips against you. You wrapped your lips around her bundle of nerves, sucking as you curled your fingers, knowing just how to take her over the edge. You needed to taste her cum, desperate for the sight of her milky white release on your fingers.

“Don’t stop baby, almost there!” She moaned, lightly tugging your hair as her grip locked.

You used your free hand to reach up and tweak her nipple, the added sensation delicious enough to finally give her the release you both were so desperate for. You gently licked her clit, helping her ride the wave until she relaxed, her cries of ecstasy turning to pants of relief. You removed your fingers, sucking them clean before pressing your tongue flat against her entrance to lap up the rest of her arousal.

“You are incredible.” Her words took a moment to register but the moment they did you could feel your heart swell, she was the incredible one. She made you feel more comfortable than anyone else in your life ever had, and you were so grateful for her.

“I love you.” You climbed up to lay beside her, pulling her in for a kiss. She returned the favor, her arms wrapping around your waist.

“I love you too sweet girl.”

You laid your head on her chest, her fingers toying with your hair until you drifted off to sleep.

——

tag list: @pleasantwitchgarden

DM me or send me an ask if you’d like to be added to my taglist :) I’ll be doing separate tag lists for specific characters as well so let me know if you’d like to be on my general or a specific one.

[max-nico]

Y'all I got more of my random Sonic headcanons 🗣️

Silver loves to doodle, Tails can always tell if he's stopped by his workshop because he doodles in the corner of his blue prints

Shadow can't stand sleeping on his back because he was in stasis for so long, plus it gives him sleep paralysis

Charmy is a thumb sucker💔

Vector's been trying to break the habit but nothing seems to be working

One time Silver gave Amy a recipe from the future, when he got back all of his cookbooks with similar recipes changed in some way. Could've been the cover, title, or the recipe itself

For some reason, the new recipe was even better than the old one

Shadow, as the ultimate lifeform, has 30/20 vision somehow

Blaze is at least part wildcat. Whether that's a panther, lion, puma, or something completely different I know it is within her

Everyone listens to Vanilla. Everyone. Even the other adults

Espio is constantly putting himself in needlessly dangerous situations to 'see if his body can take it'. Nobody likes that he does this

Tails hates being referred to as Sonic's baby/kid brother. If anything, he's a sidekick or a little brother and that's only because Sonic is taller than him, not because he's a kid

Surge and Wave get really competitive on hoverboards, but it's all in good fun (mostly)

Tails is incredibly smart and incredibly gullible, like I know he's fallen for "updog" at least once, and has fallen for the "someone wrote gullible on the ceiling" joke multiple times

You will hurt his feelings if you point this out

No one in team dark can cook, they tried to get lessons from Amy and Vanilla (both together and separately) they are banned from both kitchens now

Dw !! Vanilla is still willing to give them lessons, just only at one of their houses from now on :) (her kitchen will never recover)

If Sonic is passing through town and sees some particularly cool merch of his friends he'll stop to grab it, if he has time

If Sonic doesn't know where Tails is sometimes they have a little bit of a scavenger hunt, or maybe hide n go seek is the better term

Tails will periodically send pictures of where he is, dropping hints if he thinks they're necessary, and Sonic has to find them (Sonic doesn't know Tails invented this game so Sonic keeps his tracking skills sharp during down time)

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other duos or trios adopted this game as well. I imagine specifically team dark would get carried away with this

One time some stranger held a phone up to Shadows face out of nowhere and asked him about his political views. Shadow smiled and said "whichever ones you don't agree with" and then teleported away

And that's all I have for now I think... It's been a while since I posted one of these, but it's still just as fun to write lol

Feel free to give me more headcanons in the reblogs or whatever, and my askbox is always open (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

[kanmom51]

PJM2 is coming

MUSE

I literally cannot contain my excitiement.

Sitting her, at work may I say, putting these words on paper, so to speak, because f***ing hell, wtf JM?

Where to start?

The colour concepts? The choice of name? Choice of font (That JM popping to eye)? The flower? The links to TTU (notes sheet and flower)? The whole play with Closer than this? The dropped lyrics?

This man is a friggin genius (not that we didn't know this already)...

There is so much to talk about, and he hasn't even started with the promotions, and we haven't even seen the concept photos or the album and the songs. Name, colours, 2 lines of lyrics and we have our hands full already. They certainly know what they are doing.

Before I jump in, I want to, once again, state very loudly and clearly that everything written here are my opinions, which are based on what we've been handed so far, and could change the more we are shown.

So, let's get it...

JM fetching this from the purple locker (which we don't see are purple off the bat and only when the lights turn on). Notes for The Truth Untold.

His wittle thumb with his crescent moon.

The notes title : La lettra - The letter. Hmm... interesting.

And then this:

We have the flower:

and this that makes me believe that yes indeed, it is the silhouette of a Smeralso.

Some of this I am yet to see where is going. like the referencing of "the letter", The truth untold, the flower... (she says, all while thinking of the choice this Festa to stream LY Seoul final with said song and the changes that JM and JK chose to make to it)...

All that and more in one little short clip.

And then we have that little 'chat' opened up by BH, and those lyrics. Oh, those lyrics.

All references that indeed can be connected with army. I mean, that's what JM is king of.

All also a clear reference to a one Jeon Jungkook, if you are only willing to look and see.

Rain

Snow

Crying

We have this:

Which they have BOTH chose to bring up once again in 2023, JK happening to do so during JM's Face promos, not to mention the rain reference in SNTY (and of course, goes without saying Still with you, but that's back in 2020, while they have both managed to bring it up and reference it once again in 2023).

Remember this?

Oh, and what about this?

And then we have these:

Remember JM tearing up after winning MMA for BS&T ?

JM getting emotional and crying only followed by JK tearing up.

*If you haven't seen this one yet, go watch the full live.

And who can forget JK during MOTS ONE as well, seeing JM crying, distress clearly showing on his face, just waiting for the moment he can go and comfort JM.

If these are actual lyrics for a song to come or lyrics that were dropped, one thing we know, and that these words, these lines, they were written by JM, and he made a clear choice to share them with us.

And in doing so, sorry, I'm still not believing this all while sitting here gushing and knowing this was coming (no, I didn't know this specifically was coming, but the feeling that they were going big or going home, that I've had ever since July 2023... took some time and many tribulations, but we are getting there folks). Sidetracked as I always am, lol.

Back on track.... in doing so, JM is basically standing on a rooftop screaming at the top of his lungs:

Not 1, not 2, but 3 JK references in that little shared piece of lyrics clearly written by JM, for an album we are yet to see and hear.

Anyone, and I mean anyone that is a BTS army, that has seen original content, that has followed their Twitter account or seen older tweets, that are open and willing to see it, will KNOW that these lyrics are JAYKAY!!!!!

And let me backtrack a second here...

Cause I did mention that these references could be understood as if they are made for army, right?

So yeah. Army references or JK references? I am going to say both, leaning very much to the JK side of it. Cause that's how they do it. Time after time after time.

Let's mention the colour choices as well.

We have the background colours.

We have the yellow.

And then we have the album concepts.

2 concepts.

Blooming

and Serenade.

Which happens to be Yellow, same colour threaded through Serendipity.

And we even have purple thrown in there too.

Notice how all the lockers are painted purple. The colour of army you may say, but also JK's colour (so again, army and JK?).

And he's pulling out the music sheet from this purple locker.

Those lockers representing his inspiration for his music perhaps?

Giving us these lyrics, then telling us the album is called Muse (or telling us the name of the album and it's meaning and then dropping those lyrics, take your pick regarding the timing, cause basically, same same), showing us the music being extracted from those purple lockers... ya think his muse is that entity he's talking about in those lyrics perhaps (even more so if we see the references as both for army and JK)?

Rhetorical question, btw.

And then we have the mint green.

Perhaps this is what JM was talking about when he told us in his birthday live, if memory serves me right, about going to the starting point, or more so starting from the beginning trying to figure out himself as an artist?

Also, cannot help but think of this image here:

I cannot wait to see his concept photos, and where this is all going.

We talked about JK being so loud during 2023 (well, he's had his super loud moments before that, but 2023 and his lives were smoking). And JM, well it felt (and I say felt, cause it's not really true, and I'll explain why) was quieter, more subdued, especially during JK's Golden promotions.

But here's the thing.

JM and JK have their own special oh so different ways of being loud and showing us themselves (and it shows even more so seeing that JK, for whatever reasons he had for it, did not write his songs for Golden - not saying he did not have influence on the lyrics or choice of songs with lyrics he wanted). JK did it through his choices in his photo shoots and styling for his songs and album. He did it with his lives and his total fanboying over JM. And JM, he does it through his art, which includes also but not only his lyrics.

Those two are both loud as fuck. And JM, well if these sneak lyrics are a promo of more to come (which, they probably are seeing that we have Face to fall back on as an example), then he's as loud as a frigging foghorn.

And last but not least, before I go:

Lookie here...

D-31

[thelivingautomaton]

MANNNNNNNNN ok. not to get my SEVERANCE brainworms all over the place but i literally cannot stop thinking about this show. also i keep reading theories on reddit and some of them are really good and some are unbelievably stupid/media-illiterate. so i am dumping my wild predictions/theorizing/thoughts on season 2 here. Please Enjoy Every Bullet Point Equally(TM)

OKAY let's get the big one out of the way: it seems pretty apparent now that cold harbor (and maybe all of the datasets mdr is given to "refine") is binning memories/experiences/brainwaves into severance chips, likely in order to reformat or rebuild someone's personality from the ground up.

this reddit post sums a lot of the evidence up but tl;dr you see an electron microscopy image of neural axons, as well as an etCO2 statistic, which is typically used to monitor respiration of someone who's in a coma or on ventilation

MOREOVER, the four aspects of mdr's data line up with kier eagan's four tempers (woe, frolic, dread, malice -- i've also seen it pointed out that this aligns with the four mdr workers, and in the original pilot script there's a reference to "needing" four workers, but iirc they all work on separate files??), and apparently one of his Whole Things(TM) was the idea that you can neatly sort a person's entire personality into those four boxes

the numbers provoke an emotional response in the refiner based on their interpretation of the data, which we can surmise is likely neural/electrical signals of some kind, specifically from brains that have been frozen or cryogenically preserved and are slowly being thawed. hence all the stress over "finishing" files on time, before they "expire" (i.e. brain thaws too much)

the opening credits for season 2 places a HUGE emphasis on big swollen misshapen heads, on brains, and also on ice...including a blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse of a crashed car sinking into the ice, which takes us into our next big point:

gemma obviously didn't die in the car crash BUT!!! lumon taking her and (presumably) replacing her body with a double (mark says he identified her but that she was also "burned" so that's obviously questionable) was actually something of a random fluke. for whatever reason the circumstances of her death made it so that she was ideal to use as a guinea pig for "part-time employment"

again, kind of going off the s2 opening credits here and the image of the car sinking into the ice -- obvs mark visited the tree where she crashed, but i feel like i remember he had to drive on a bridge overlooking a body of water to get there? maybe gemma and the car both fell in and were frozen (since everything in SEVERANCE apparently happens in the wintertime, lol)

i mean, it wouldn't surprise me if we learn that the car accident was "arranged" by lumon??? (either purely to harvest bodies or potentially if gemma turns out to have been involved in anti-eagan stuff on the DL) but idk, i don't love the idea cos i don't like it when shows try to tie LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE THING together into the big overarching mystery, y'know? like, some things are really just down to dumb luck and chance

i also don't think miss casey herself is a clone of gemma, so either her body was WAY less fucked up by the car crash physically than we might otherwise think, or lumon has some top-secret super-healing tech on the testing floor. maybe both!

ANYWAY, remember "allentown"? mark s's first-day fluke, where he completed a file in one day? that was him refining gemma into miss casey the first time around. YADDA YADDA LOVE TRANSCENDS SEVERANCE he literally put the splintered icy fragments of his dead wife back together again because she LIVES IN HIS VEINS guys. and now he's doing it AGAIN with cold harbor. this is why lumon was so desperate to keep him around even while they fired irving and dylan at the drop of a hat: they know he can get the job done, ESPECIALLY when it comes to working on gemma/miss casey. (see also: mark w commenting about how his team from the branch that shut down never made quota)

i've seen the idea tossed around that all the refiners are assigned to someone who was emotionally close to their outie (e.g. irving's deceased father) but i really don't think that's the case -- like, dylan says mark's freshman fluke let lumon devise new techniques for refining to cut down on the time it takes to finish a file, and istg i can see it perfectly in my head: cobel asking mark s how the FUCK he managed to do that and him just being like "i don't know, the numbers looked...scary??????" and her just. rolling with it.

(also i feel like that's why dylan's generally a good refiner -- he can read people! his outie knew what to say and how to act to impress the door factory guy in s2e2!)

so lumon really really needs cold harbor to work. if it's not because they care about gemma SPECIFICALLY for some secret reason, it must be that they care about the technique. lumon (i.e. the board and/or the eagan family), like so many corporate overlords before them, are selling immortality.

i'm on the fence about whether they're trying to resurrect/immortalize kier eagan specifically -- like it would make the most thematic sense, and they have a ton of material FROM his life certainly to work with, but he's supposed to have died in 1939 and cryonics tech just wasn't advanced enough at the time. but also the world of SEVERANCE is pretty distinct from our own so i guess it's plausible

i feel much more confident in saying they're trying to get the technique working specifically for the sake of current ceo jame eagan, who is an old decrepit fart. imo the "revolving" he mentions to helly in the s1 finale is key to this -- like, it kind of sounds like eagan-speak for rotating through/swapping into a new body???

this MIGHT be where the idea of cloning becomes involved, which i can see supported by the emphasis in the s2 opening credits on babies (including baby kier at the end ofc), but i also just had the even more fucked up thought that what if the end goal is to upload the eagans' personalities (and those of their chosen cronies) into the bodies of severed workers. hence the continued necessity for a severed working underclass as well as their ruling higher-ups -- it's a body farm, an endless cycle of severed workers toiling away to let the rich live on and then having their bodies/minds/souls co-opted when they've lost their other utility. oh my god helly was right THEY LITERALLY ARE LIVESTOCK

guys holy shit what if the season ends with jame (or KIER) eagan's personality getting uploaded into miss casey's chip and overwriting miss casey (and also gemma?? idk i feel like mark scout/mark s are both going to have to come to terms with the idea that gemma as she was is capital-g Gone, even if her body and brain are still sort of alive). and then season 3 has dichen lachman chewing the scenery as creepy old man eagan. I THINK IT WOULD BE FUN AND ALSO FUCKED UP

okay so what about cobel, right? like, obviously she's been drinking the eagan kool-aid, she is All In on immortalizing kier (or jame or whoever). but there's more to it than that!!! she's the one harping on about reintegration being real and possible, AND she's desperate seeking for any signs of it during mark s and miss casey's wellness sessions. why? cobel wants to revive her mother charlotte (we see her medical tag on cobel's eagan shrine), but she wants HER MOTHER, not a blank slate -- in other words she's rooting for the chips to not function properly in order to truly resurrect someone who's been dead

in particular i think this is why she flipped her lid on mark at the end of s2e2 when he asked what she knew about gemma -- like, idk maybe it's confirmation bias at play but to me her primal scream felt like it was coming from a place of...jealousy? like, "how DARE you ask me that, how are YOU the one who's allowed to get your loved one back and I'M being promoted up the ladder so lumon can get me out of the way even though MY motivations are pure". that kind of thing

cobel's attitude towards lumon and helena in s2e2 is SUUUUUUPER ambiguous -- i think she's going to turn from outright enemy into kind of a weird "enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing this season?? especially since i got the feeling that she really did kind of care about mark and devon in her own supremely weird, fucked-up way

oh god you guys. what if her "mrs selvig" persona was cobel imitating her own mother, mid-atlantic accent and corny outdated references to clark gable and all. FUCK

also the fact that she's looking for miss casey and mark s to remember each other implies that reintegration is possible even without outside interference with the chip itself (i.e. however reghabi reintegrated petey). and you know what?

i think she's right.

THE BIG BOY THEORY: MARK SCOUT AND MARK S WILL START TO SPONTANEOUSLY REINTEGRATE THIS SEASON

i will live and die on this hill, ben stiller i swear to FUCK

what's the overriding symbolism in the season 1 opening credits?? the line between innie and outie is porous (or "mushy", if you will). black sludge seeping from the trash cans that's made of all your other selves (also reflecting how irving dreams of his outie's black paint). mark's innie and outie selves constantly chasing circles around one another until at the end they both collapse on the bed...and then collapse together as a single person.

what's the overriding symbolism in the season 2 opening credits???? not just "mark scout, i.e. mark in red pajamas, delving into lumon's mysteries", not just "mushy confusion of innie and outie feelings re: helly and miss casey" -- mark's innie and outie selves working together. innie mark pulling outie mark out of the severance chip. innie mark hoisting up the curtain dividing outer and inner worlds to let outie mark through. innie mark CARRYING OUTIE MARK IN HIS ARMS. do you see the fucking vision.

of course that's also coupled with the final image of the credits: mark bursting through and out of his own head. which i think emphasizes that there's going to be conflict as well as cooperation between mark's disparate selves (especially when it comes to everything involving the helly/mark/casey love triangle)

why did mark look like he was having a goddamn seizure when he was coming down the elevator. why did he glimpse a mysterious figure following him in the hallway. WHY THE FUCK WAS HIS VERY FIRST INSTINCT TO BOLT FOR WELLNESS AND LOOK FOR MISS CASEY!!!!! (okay this could also conceivably be due to him yelling to devon that she was alive literally one second ago but still)

i think mark's "spontaneous reintegration" is also more or less an insane fluke, basically a product of the fact that he's now working on gemma/miss casey's refinement data AGAIN and both his innie and outie selves are starting to blur together regarding their shock and turmoil over the realization that gemma is alive (and probably loads of other stuff too while we're at it).

but idk, maybe spontaneous reintegration also occurs naturally over time? irving is also having some bleed-through and iirc he's been at lumon the longest of all of them

shit dude. what if outie burt ALSO has bleed-through and that's why he followed irving and was crying. honestly what the fuck was even the deal with that, i don't know!!!!

anyway i imagine that "spontaneous reintegration" would really put a kibosh in lumon's plans to permanently rewire and wipe the brains of severed folks in order to pave the way for an immortal ruling class. also i thought the way they did petey's hallucinatory flip-flopping between his lives/selves was awesome and i would like more of that, please. (also: i miss petey, y'all)

i think if they do end up going this route it's gonna be spoonfed to us pretty slowly though -- like, s2 will slowly build up the mystery of "what the fuck's going on with mark reintegrating", then s3 is his two selves coming to terms with...All Of That

those are all of my big idea theories but i also have some smaller bullet points to address:

dylan's gonna visit his family in the """visitation suite""" and it 100% is going to be paid lumon actors. and the giveaway is gonna come at the end of the episode when we cut back to outie dylan's life and his wife (or one of his other kids, who knows) is terminally sick (maybe wheelchair- or bed-bound?), hence outie dylan's desperation to find another job post-firing

that is one million percent helena eagan down on the severed floor (although i can see the argument for it being helly r and she's just not comfortable sharing her real experience on the outside). her shady story aside, i think britt lower is CRUSHING IT as "helena pretending to be helly but it's kind of off-putting and fake because it's helena's idea of how helly would behave". like, it's giving me the same vibes as in FRINGE when fauxlivia pretends to be olivia and then seduces/sleeps with peter. real ones know

RICKEN IS NOT A FUCKING SECRET EAGAN!!!!!! DEVON IS NOT SECRETLY IN ON ANYTHING (besides keeping her brother safe)!!!!!! HIS FRIENDS ARE JUST PRETENTIOUS SHITHEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!

as much as i would literally chew glass (positive) for mark s and miss casey to be A Thing, i feel like narratively and thematically it's not gonna work with the show's overarching themes of like, struggling to process grief and selfhood and figuring out what makes you you (or someone else their own independent self). gemma is Gone and you can't bring her back and you can't cut yourself off from the grief and the pain. mark has to reintegrate (literally and metaphorically/emotionally) in order to resolve his issues and move on

this show is so!!!!!! OOOOOUUUUGGGGHHGHGHH

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 14: Initial Thoughts

What an episode! I can't believe that we're probably starting to near the end of the Trial. But, considering we're almost there, we DEFINITELY have a lot to talk about. It's a longer episode, and there's a LOT to go over, so buckle in!

SPOILER WARNING FOR DRDT CH 2 PART 2!

T/W: Murder, hanging (with depictions)

The Reactions

Hu is literally so pretty.

I wasn't expecting her to get a whole mechanic defending Nico, but it makes sense. Letting other students cut in during the Class Trial is a great way to draw specific attention to a character point, and it's very clear that Hu's over-defense of Nico is going to be important moving forwards.

RIP to my "using the weight rack as the carousel" theory. The fan probably makes more sense. I just still have no idea how the 300-ish pound or whatever weight rack managed to get knocked over in the struggle.

I'm glad they directly pointed this out. Trying to kill everyone in the Class Trial was the EXACT thing Hu was so pressed about David doing. It's a weird double standard to be so forgiving of Nico when they tried to do the same thing.

Insane thing to say if Eden is the culprit and killed Arei because she didn't believe her. Then again, if my explanation for a lot of Eden Trial dialogue is "she's speaking out of regret for killing Arei now that she knows Arei was being legit," maybe she's just calling herself cruel as well.

This is honestly very valid.

Do you think "here" implies Nico trusts someone in the outside world? Based on their secret, it seems like they probably didn't have many friends. Could also be referring to animals? Or Mai Akasaki?

Big psychic damage to Hu though, considering we know she thrives on other people relying on her. She wants Nico to be someone who relies on her sooo bad, but they just... don't.

Like, girl. They literally JUST said that they don't trust anyone. That includes you.

She's clearly projecting in some way, though, which is definitely an oof. I wonder if Hu wishes she had someone who was undeniably on her side in the past...?

(To be clear: I think Hu is a very well written and interesting character. She fits the fucked up vibes of Despair Time, but coming from a more surprising angle of "that really nice and caring person can also be fucked up." She's just clearly in the wrong here, so I get to clown on her as I clown on everyone else.)

Ace is honestly so valid for this. Like, yeah he's kind of a bully and he sucks sometimes, but. Like. He did almost get murdered and people are, like, mad at him for it? Huh???

If Ace does end up being the Chapter 2 killer because he snapped, I honestly think he's so valid for that.

It is my personal agenda to record every instance of J being notably anti-murder. I don't know where it's going but if it does go somewhere I want my credit because it is Apparent.

(The entire fanbase nods in agreement.)

I know some people definitely still think/thought that Hu and/or Nico was responsible for the crime, so we've all DEFINITELY been squinting at that alibi. I fully believe it's true, but that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't put it past Hu to make a fake alibi to protect Nico. Idk if Nico would go along with it, though.

I got so jumpscared by the Closing Argument-style CG.

I'm so glad we did get a definitive answer on how this thing worked. I was so afraid that we were just gonna solve the Arei murder method and the exact solution of Ace's would be a "left to audience interpretation" kind of thing.

I'm not exactly sure where the blood on Ace's fingertips comes from? Maybe he cut his hand on the wire when he was trying to struggle after he woke up or something.

This makes so much more sense than anything I saw theorized though, lol. The fan falling from drop hanging totally checks out as a way that the murder mechanism could fail.

I have NO fucking clue why Nico opted for this as the murder mechanism, though. I get wanting to use Hu's wire to frame her, but why didn't you just cut Ace's throat with the wire in the first place???

where did their cape go :(

Potentially suspicious line from Ace? I don't know what he's referring to as "go through all this." Like, maybe just reliving the murder attempt, I guess...? Could also be going through the Class Trial, though, if Ace killed as a result of Nico trying to kill him.

*Levi's secret quote looms*

Things that make me think Nico is either a victim or a survivor. Like, are you really gonna say this and then go try to kill someone else? ...Or Ace again, I guess??

Fun fact: this was actually what guided me to my initial killer picks, before I discussed with anyone else or read any theories! I thought the killer was trying to frame Nico, so it had to be Eden or Ace. The tape and everything else was just what locked it in for me. It's fun to see Teruko follow more or less the same path that I did when I was trying to solve the mystery :)

TAPE TIME :D

The use of the Bound Wrists truth bullet actually really confused me at first bc I didn't realize we were just talking about the tape. I was like, were Arei's wrists bound because Ace's were and it was intended to be another similarity???

Maybe Eden's just being nice, but I find it really suspicious that her instinct after all this time is "didn't MonoTV take it" and not "oh I guess Ace is probably the murderer."

Teruko has now outlined two different ways that it makes sense if the killer was in the gym that night. If I were Eden, and I were innocent, I would be realizing that there's a very small suspect pool left, and I know that I'm not the killer, giving me additional information. Instead, she's questioning the validity of the tape argument, which isn't useful for narrowing down the killer-- it's useful for keeping the suspect pool wider and not leaving herself as one of three (but basically two) options.

I kinda get why people are upset with Rose here, but it's also kind of an oof because they're only mad because Rose is really smart. Like, no one's out here like "oh my god Ace you didn't recognize the tape??" Y'know, because they think he's stupid. Rose has a really good memory, which raises the standards really high, which sets Rose up for failure.

In Rose's defense, she also never saw the tape in Nico's gym murder OR on the carousel for Arei's murder. She only saw the pieces in the trash can, which seemed to be inside out. Against Rose's defense, it would probably have been for the best if she'd gone in to look at the crime scene.

Am I tripping, or is "fish misunderstanding" a weird way for David to phrase this? The misunderstanding with Teruko was assuming that the murder happened last night, which was in fact because of the fish-- but the thing Teruko should have noticed, which makes it Teruko's mistake specifically, was the body swinging.

I'm probably reading into things too hard, but it's so hard with David. What do you know!!!

Damn, Teruko is SPEEDRUNNING this character arc. Considering we basically know she's locked in for all 6 chapters, I'm really surprised to see her making this much progress this fast.

I'm guessing that this means that Teruko is probably due for a major setback sometime sooner or later. But, interestingly, this makes me feel like Teruko realizing that working alone doesn't work isn't her character arc's end destination; it's the willingness to open herself up to caring about others even in the face of the consequences of losing someone you love. Teruko is closing herself off from everyone because she knows she's going to lose them. Maybe her end destination is allowing herself to love people, even if she might lose them someday.

This was fruity as hell btw. I'm starting to think Rose may be our replacement support if Charles does die in Chapter 3.

It's so funny that this is basically Teruko claiming in-universe protag privilege. Go off, queen.

I also said something along the lines of "Hu are we really doing this again." Totally forgot that the BDA is still relevant, lol.

I personally find the way Veronika phrased this to be very telling from an author's POV. Veronika doesn't say "she must not have committed the murder," she says "she must not have witnessed the murder." It would be totally reasonable for any of the students to forget that the rule is written in a way where a killer could fail to see the moment of murder, but DRDTdev wanted to draw attention to the rule's exact phrasing again, which is a deviation from the phrasing in the canon games.

To be clear here, I stand by this even if Eden isn't the killer and the BDA group really is Eden/Whit/Teruko. I still think it could be a reminder for a future chapter when it comes up. But, I don't think it makes sense to change the phrasing of a base rule unless there's a specific reason you want it to be different. Whether now or later, this feels like a reminder that it IS possible for the blackened to trigger the BDA.

I don't necessarily "believe David," per se, but I do think it's interesting that we're drawing attention to this. I don't really think it matters, especially because I doubt the characters remember, but I'd place my bets on Eden being the last one because of that, "Teruko, wait!" thing.

It doesn't matter because, if David or anyone else saw the body, no one can confirm which two of Teruko, Whit and Eden set off the BDA, but it's an interesting note.

It's so funny how no one, fanbase or in-universe, can tell if David is lying though. Like, he COULD have seen it, but he also easily could just be making shit up to try to throw the Trial again.

will I EVER understand what the fuck this man is cooking

Why. I thought you wanted to end the killing game to finish what Xander started. I don't know what's happening :( /pos

My guess for now is just that he's still trying to kill Teruko, in keeping with Xander's plans?? Idk how making her more distrustful makes her more likely to die, though.

I do find it very interesting that Eden's approach/reaction has been to be very quiet and freaked out whereas Ace's approach/reaction is to freak out VERY loudly. Ace's is fitting because what does he do other than freak out loudly, but I might have expected Eden to do... idk, something else? It makes enough sense though, considering either the group is right to suspect her, or she's still coping with losing Arei a little bit ago.

...*squints REALLY fucking hard*

The music and voice acting in this section is REALLY fucking good. It's sad/charming/soft enough that it feels like it could be genuine, but there's still a little something that makes you have to question whether or not it's real. You WANT to believe Eden, but it's so hard to do so fully.

Y'all think Eden's crying is reminding Teruko of whatever Arei's crying reminded her of?

i'm out of images :(

I really like Teruko assuming that Eden is innocent first. She's too distrusting and also reasonable (it is life or death after all) to just hard clear Eden based on nothing, but she's offering a bit of a reprieve to Eden. Eden's friendship means that she isn't going to get immediately targeted in her most down moment, and that's it. It's a small way to show Eden she does care.

On another note, the fact that Eden got to hug Teruko and that Teruko said the "let go of me" NOW is honestly one of the main reasons I trust Eden more. I felt like that was obviously going to happen, but I was expecting the post-Trial. Putting it here is wild.

Theory Update/Analysis

Oh boy, it's accusing time! It makes sense that we're going to start with Ace. At this point, I can honestly see it going either way. Major props to DRDTdev either way, but ESPECIALLY if Eden really is the culprit. I was so confident in it, but they're really making me question my assumptions.

I think that both Ace and Eden have good reasons to be the blackened or not to be, and good reasons to die here or to not. I'm going to do my best to make a list of reasons for both characters and give a bit of my thoughts on them. They're roughly ranked in most to least important order imo, but I didn't think too hard about it.

EDEN

Reasons Eden Would Be The Blackened:

THE TAPE: It would be easier for her to take the tape than Ace, as attention was on Ace in the gym. The tape's disappearance from the background also happens to coincide with Ace knocking her over and her standing back up.

THE NOTE: Eden already knows all the info she would need to know to write that note. She could have put the note back together to give herself a defense, to try to disprove herself as the culprit with her handwriting, because Rose was going to do it anyways, and/or to frame Arturo if she didn't know he had an alibi. I think any of these reasons, or a combination of these reasons, are enough to make it possible, and while Ace could've overheard, it's definitely less easy for him.

NOT BELIEVING AREI: Both Arei and Charles have, in this trial, been shown to question whether or not Eden believed Arei wanted to be Eden's friend. If Eden simply did, this plot point goes nowhere.

A GOOD PERSON: Eden has been called a good person, but other than that freaky CG, nothing has really come of it. Is the plot relevance of Eden being a good person really going to resolve by saying "Eden is a good person, she'd never kill her friend!"? If a good person isn't gold, Eden still feels like a missing piece of that puzzle.

INCENTIVE TO FRAME NICO: This one's a bit more of a reach, but I don't really understand the point of framing Nico if you're Ace. Of course Ace is going to insist Nico is the murderer no matter what. If you're Eden, you have a direct audience to setting it up similarly: Ace. If you can get Ace to go all in on Nico, that's one less person who was in the Gym who suspects you. Eden and Teruko feel less likely to say "oh well it looks like Nico's murder so it MUST be Nico."

HEAVY FOCUS IN CH 2: DRDTdev seems to give the chapter death's important content shortly before their deaths. Eden has been one of the most prominent characters this chapter, which could be a bad sign.

Reasons Eden Wouldn't Be the Blackened

HER EMOTIONAL REACTIONS: I think I stand with everyone else when I say that the thing giving me pause with Eden!Culprit is how devastated she truly seems to be. I do still think it could be a combo of guilt and panic over the prospect of dying, but it's hard to justify everything.

HER FRIENDSHIP WITH AREI: Sort of a spinoff of the last one, but Arei was at least offering to Eden to be friends and to protect her. If Eden did believe that, to any extent at all, it's hard to imagine her killing Arei in cold blood.

THE FISH: The biggest question when it comes to evidence as to how Eden could be the killer. If Nico fed the fish and they were all still there last night, and Eden had an alibi until after the Relax Room closed, how would she have gotten the fish to add to the crime scene?

THE BDA: Easy to ignore imo considering we've already called it into question within the series proper, but still worth talking about. For Eden to be the culprit, either someone else saw the body first and isn't claiming to have (or it's David), or we're burning the "Eden didn't witness the crime and thus could still trigger the BDA" card here.

GENDER BALANCE: Possibly an irrelevant point, but it is true that we've had 2 women and 1 man die so far. If a man was the killer, it'd keep it even. Unlikely to be relevant as any disparity could be easily balanced out in Chapter 3 with (presumably) 3 death slots.

Points About Eden That Could Go Either Way

THE FORK CG: I firmly believe that this could be setting up for Eden being a more important character throughout the series or to die after a moment of intrigue, possibly letting us explore/imply more in her post-death bonus episode.

RELATIONSHIP WITH HU: Hu has lost David as a sane ally. Nico is telling her that they don't want her speaking for them and that they don't trust her. Would DRDTdev prefer to fully isolate Hu moving into Chapter 3 by getting rid of Eden, or to leave Hu with one friend who still believes in her.

CHARLES HAVING EDEN'S SECRET: By telling us Eden's secret ahead of time by Charles revealing it to Teruko, extra focus was given to Eden's secret. Was this just the easiest way to get everyone's secrets revealed based on character dynamics, or was it meant to imply that Eden's secret is extra important? Is that because she's the killer? Is it a #ArEden sweep???

ACE

(why are they both orange)

Reasons Ace Would Be The Blackened:

NO EVIDENCE-BASED ISSUES: This is the biggest and strongest point across the whole board imo. There is no tangible, evidence-based reason why Ace COULDN'T have done the crime. Out of all 13 currently surviving students, he's the only one who that's true for. That obviously makes him a viable suspect.

WOULD ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DO IT: Ace has been Freaking The Fuck Out this chapter. I could VERY easily see him deciding to kill here. I don't think anyone is trying to argue that Ace is too emotionally attached to the cast to try to kill all of them, because he clearly isn't.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?: I'm not really sure where Ace's character is going to go from here. I'd be interested in seeing more from him, but, like, where is his character arching to if not a killer? Ace is so disliked and intense that it's hard to imagine him really, fully pivoting and caring about others, but if he can't do that, is he destined to be a killer eventually?

HEAVY FOCUS IN CH 2: DRDTdev seems to give the chapter's death important content shortly before their deaths. Ace has been one of the most prominent characters this chapter, which could be a bad sign.

Reasons Ace Wouldn't Be the Blackened

OBVIOUSNESS & POINT OF CHARACTER: Of course Ace would be willing to kill Arei or whoever and the rest of the students. This is kind of the inverse of my "would absolutely fucking do it" point-- I don't know exactly how much surprise it would carry if Ace were to be the culprit. And, more than that, I feel like the point of Ace is that he is a victim here, but he's so unlikable that no one wants to acknowledge that or believe in him. I think it'd be an interesting comparison, if everyone really wants Ace to be the killer, but he just isn't. To everyone's dismay, Ace is still here. Now what?

SECRET LARGELY UNRESOLVED: Ace's secret hasn't really had any plot relevance yet. It seems like most people's do. I'm like lowkey expecting them to bring back the starvation motive from SDR2 in Chapter 4 and have SOMETHING happen with Ace there. Either way, while it could be reserved for his bonus episode (a la Min and Xander), I'd expect that his secret would have more main-story impact before he dies.

EXISTENCE OF SCRUM DEBATE: We're suspecting Ace first, but we still haven't done the scrum debate for this trial. Unless the scrum debate is "do we just vote for Ace without ever really pursuing Eden" and the answer is "yes," I don't see how we get out of this suspecting Ace period with a scrum debate without at least entertaining the idea of Ace's innocence.

STRONG CONNECTIONS TO OTHER CAST MEMBERS: Ace is very relevant to the Levi, Nico and Hu plotlines right now. Are they really going to just... get rid of him, when that's what both Nico and Hu would want?

ABILITY TO FIGURE OUT THE CONTRAPTION: Ace would not only have to recognize the way in which Nico was trying to kill him (which, to be fair is easier if he did wake up partway through), he would also have to conceptualize and figure out how to make the playground contraption successfully. I think Eden's clockmaking skills and... generally higher intelligence imo would be better suited to that.

COWARDICE: Ace is so fucking scared of everything. Would he want to put himself into harm's way by becoming the killer and having a do or die moment in the Trial? But, is he more scared of dying as a victim in the killing game, after seeing how close Nico came to killing him?

Points About Ace That Could Go Either Way

TAYLOR LORE DROP: Ace's friend, named Taylor per a Q&A with the dev, got vagued about in this Trial. Is that something to be pursued in a later Ace free time (following the one with Levi), or is that something that's going to be explained further in Ace's bonus episode (which could VERY easily be about friendship, considering it's Mai fucking Akasaki as the other person in the convo).

ACE'S BREAKDOWN @ LEVI: When Ace said he didn't fall for Levi caring about him at all, was that him affirming himself that it was the correct decision to try to kill, even if it'd put Levi's life at stake, who he previously kinda liked? Or was he lying to himself, and, at least previously, he wouldn't have wanted to kill Levi, no matter how harsh he seemed on the surface?

Well, that's all I got! Please let me know if you can come up with any more points for any of the 6 categories, because I'm very very curious to hear them! I'm thinking I might try to do an expansion on this in a separate post before next episode if I have time, exploring the ins and outs of each point with more textual evidence to back it up. I'd love to discuss any reader-suggested points too, if y'all have some in mind!

For now, I'm still personally leaning towards Eden as the culprit over Ace, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it be either of them. Well, other than the fact that my reaction to the killer being revealed is going to be :O no matter what.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Reverse 1999 and the Nature of Tragedy: Analysis on how the tragic structure is used and potentially why (spoilers for Chapters 2,3 and 6 mainly)

Reverse 1999 loves tragic characters, we don't go any patch without suffering. Here Im going to explore how the tragic structure in literature is presented in the game through at least three main story chapters.

Tender is the Night (although I have covered aspects already in previous Chapter Two analysis)

Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien

E Lucevan le Stelle

What is Tragedy?

Tragedy is often described as a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character (thank you Oxford Languages)

Yes this is common knowledge but the core to a tragic narrative is the inescapability on the tragic ending - the way I usually describe tragdies is like a cake no matter how you slice it, it is either too sweet or stale and never a perfect bite.

Tragedy in Tender is the Night

This will be short as I have analysis on the chapter in previous posts so here will be specific bits. Schneider here can be considered the tragic character as she ultimately gets taken by the storm, while I don't consider her to have a traditional tragic flaw the status as a human pretending to be a arcanist does doom her character. She is denied by the Foundation/ the Chicago Branch so attempts to find safety in the Manus by lying that she was adopted into the Greco family, however likely Manus had captured Mariam and after being tortured by them reveals Schneider's identity.

Throughout Chapter Two there is a moments of false hope that she might be saved, somehow surviving multiple bullets (I mean really she was shot so many times arcane healing must do wonders) . It is only the very end to we realise Schneider was never going to survive (gameplay does trick us as well since we can play as her in the boss fight of Ch.1 and for some reason still in the final tutorial stage which I only found out at lvl 40 when I wanted clear drops lol).

Tragedy in Chapter Three

A large part in tragedy is the helplessness the audience feels at being aware of all events yet unable to prevent events from happening. We get the perspective of Constantine setting up the conditions for the Breakaway attempt to occur on the day of the Storm, even making us watch chess board style how Vertin and her friends are lured into a trap. Tragic characters do not need to experience a literal death, as Vertin could be considered the tragic heroine here, her hubris being the hope and desire for the outside world that led her to attempt to leave SPDM. Ofc she doesn't die but her actions result in the reversal of her friends and cementing her role as the Timekeeper.

The point of no return could be seen in the children choosing to escape on an earlier date, unable to see the scheming and manipulation of Constantine to create loopholes the children view as opportunities to escape rather than a trap.

Tragedy in Chapter Six

This is a big one as operas and plays tend to be tragedies themselves. Isokania is a tragic relationship as both Isolde and Kakania regardless if they lived each other were doomed from the start: being an unethical doctor and patient relationship, Kakania not being a licensed doctor therefore completely misjudging her patient's wellbeing, Isolde's own mental instability, dangers of her arcane powers, the history of her family ... the list goes on. Even if they ended up together they would not truly be happy.

Isolde is a tragic character, other than being a reference to Tosca, she is doomed by the nature of the arcane power and the nature of her family. A family own for misfortune as a result of their arcane skills (her sister dying at age 3 to a seance) + the social pressures of being an upper class woman in the 1910s.

Book six having a reference to 'A Streetcar named Desire?'

So we already know Book Six reference multiple tragic operas such as Tosca but I want to suggest the final chapter in this patch potential makes reference to a 1940s tragic play called "A Streetcar Named Desire".

(This is a stretch since Tennesse Williams published the play in the 1940s not the 1910s)

So. In this scene Kakania attempts to interrogate Isolde on the nature of The Salvation, to confront the fact that she was the co-creator to the painting, the fire was caused by Theophil who hoped to end both his and his sister's suffering but was shot by Isolde instead.

It is notable that Isolde repeatedly asks for the lights in the room to be turned down, refusing to look at the truth in the painting. While we could just view this standalone I think we could make a guess or suggestion that this scene is meant to reference another tragedy.

(Maybe there is an older tragic play that employs a similar scene but Ive only studied this one, someone can tell me in comments)

A Streetcar Named Desire sees a fading Southern Belle Blanche Dubois move into New Orleans with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley effectively as a last resort, her past is filled with "leaky roofs" and instability with sleeping with men to survive, alongside the destruction of the Old South leads to her to seek refuge with her only surviving family.

She almost finds salvation here, finding love in an ordinary man named Mitch. However this is a tragedy. Late into the play Stanley, Stella's husband confronts Blanche on her lies about her past, putting a light to her deception in order to reinforce is own authority over the house. Eventually succeeding in sending Blanche to a mental hostpital (Im summarising a play, I may miss other details and this is long)

And what about Isolde? Like Blanche she is forced to confront the truth she had tried to repress in her memory, remember in a previous seesion with Kakania the detail that she shot Theophil with intent (again who allowed her a gun and who taught her? I guess she can channel the spirit of a sharpshooter?) is omitted, similar to how Blanche in the play distorts the truth with lie, the "what SHOULD be true" could be viewed as Isolde making the world her stage, everything as a performance that never ends.

The idea of having to confront the truth of events being forced into the light is similar to Blanche's reoccurring motif of bring adverse to strong light, revealing all her flaws. However the person forcing them to see the truth is different, where Kakania acts out of a determination to right her wrongs and find the Storm Immunity Ritual to save everyone, Stanley (similar to Mr Karl) acts out of self preservation and malice.

Here's the big one: why does Reverse 1999 employ so much tragedy?

Tragedies are usually employed as a message to the audience, a commentary on the state of the world about people/ individual facing the impossible force of society, its expections and its demand for conformity.

There can be many answers, we still have more chapters to explore the narratives of this game but so far it seems Reverse 1999 wants to tell a story about overcoming adversity, to not be defined by others or your past, to "beat onboard boats against the current" (see what I did there?) even if the odds are surmountable. It is a struggle for both the truth and the future even if the odds are against you.

(This is giant speculation, nothing concrete but yeah feed the brainrot)

(We could analyse each 'focus character' of each patch because I think they generally follow this theme but that's alot, the game is still updating and i have uni soon so)

[campbyler]

Hello!!

I’ve had an unpublished modern au byler fic in the works for an embarrassing amount of time and I’ve noticed that you two talk about characterization a lot, which has been my main struggle. I’ve figured out choices to make for characters and how they relate to choices and characteristics of the canon characters in the show, but I’m not sure if the reasoning behind those choices and traits will translate to readers.

I love the fic and I feel like y’all did a great job with making those reasonings clear in your writing without directly saying it, so I’d love to know if you have any specific tricks for that!

Also sorry if this kind of formal, I’m stuck in email mode with finals coming up :|

hello! soooo sorry this is such a late response — i was thinking it over when it came in and then i ended up talking about something similar on another ask and totally blanked 😔 thank you so much for asking for our input, i’ll try to be as concise as i can! (<- edit from future me who has finished typing up her answer to this ask: famous last words. you were not concise. at all. oh my god i’m sorry) i know you said you already made your initial characterization choices and everything so please bear with me while i word vomit and rehash what was probably part of your thought process anyways just to be able to follow my own train of thought lol

some general thoughts here that thea and i have been mulling over for the last few months regarding how we’ve written our fic and choices we have made for it: we’re both well aware that acswy is not everyone’s cup of tea for many reasons, but i’m specifically bringing this up in response to your ask because every once in a while, we do see someone refer to our mike and will as being written out of character, whether or not that’s a deterrent for them in reading. and i want to make it clear that this doesn’t bother us and nothing im about to say is meant to sound defensive or like we’re making a case to people who feel this way — we have our reasons for making the decisions that we did and also already heavily retconned our og concept for them on account of it having been pretty ooc at the time, even to us, so we’re confident with where we are now — but it has made us think about what people actually consider to be “out of character.” this brings me to my first point re: characterization which is, to us, the importance of differentiating between something that the character in the source material doesn’t/probably wouldn’t do versus something that is more of a direct contradiction to the character themselves. for example, we’ve seen people say (often while reading for the first time) that will is ooc specifically in the first couple chapters of acswy, a big reason being because he’s “mean to mike.” it is, of course, vastly different from how he acts in the show and is probably a slightly jarring dynamic to be dropped into right off the bat, especially since the entire premise of the fic is that the reader has almost zero context for why he’s behaving this way, and even more so at the beginning of the fic before his and mike’s relationship develops further. to me and thea as writers, the importance lies more so in the context for it all: how mike and will would turn out after growing up without each other as best friends, with a lot of the cultural pressures of the 1980s removed but having some new ones of the 2010s/20s introduced; not going to high school together, being in the same friend group for years and getting closer over time with many interests in common, but also facing a lot of conflict and having that friend group be geographically separated while a lot of it goes down.

and with this context, what we would consider to be ooc would be if we just like. made will a straight up DICK or something lol. no nuance involved, constantly berating mike with no reason to do so, even with their unknown history, like just ragging on him all the time and never backing down, even when mike isn’t engaging (side note: giant personal pet peeve of mine that max constantly gets written this way but i digress). we see in the show that will is often snarky and sarcastic and will stand up for himself when needed, especially with mike — which imo is another sign of will’s trust in him and their bond, that he can be honest with mike and not fear genuine retribution, and in acswy, he knows mike will meet him where he’s at. he sometimes isn’t afraid to hit a sore spot, but he would never ever just be a jerk for the hell of it -> we even see him apologize after their fight in s4, despite it clearly being a very emotional moment for him and a lot of truth behind what he was saying. whether he intended for it to come out that way or not, he still felt bad for reacting that way and apologized to mike’s face about it. likewise, there’s a reason acswy will acts the way he does with mike specifically, and we were also intentional with making mike match his energy like he does in canon, which will counts on, even — the way these boys BICKER, oh my god — and he has his own ways of pushing will’s buttons which prove to be very effective. even in the early chapters there are a lot of moments of softness and real friendship between them that (we hope!!) make it pretty clear that it takes some effort to maintain this facade, that there is more than enough of their “canon” bond and dynamic and chemistry where being friends and having fun together is a much more natural state to exist in, and is where they usual end up during those brief periods where they let that mask slip. same principle if we had made mike some uber-jerk who had completely different interests than he does in the show (we are so glad that book annotator and zelda fan mike wheeler is ringing true for you all ☺️), or someone who’s super self confident and popular and charming (outside of will’s very unreliable pov) once he and will start hooking up. i think most people would look at that and look back at canon mike wheeler and say yeah that is Not my mike, because making will an actual asshole or making mike any of these things would be going against core character traits that are central to their arcs in the show. will wouldn’t be will if he was generally a confrontational dick, and mike wouldn’t be mike if he was popular and exuded self confidence and so on. that’s just not them! so to summarize, i guess the question to us is more along the lines of “would they ‘not do this’ in the show out of circumstance/lack of necessity (e.g: canon byler going to the same schools until s4, never having a reason for rivalry to develop, growing up living in close proximity to each other and all of their mutual friends, etc) or would they ‘not do this’ in the show because it’s antithetical to the way they have been written?” we find it much more interesting to put a character in a situation and then essentially work backwards in a way to see how they would react to it, rather than putting them in situations that correlate to things we have seen before, and therefore would probably result in them reacting in a way we have seen them do before.

and now coming back to what i think you were actually asking: i think my biggest tip to making those references without it being said outright is honestly just to have faith in both your readers And the creative choices you make. which sounds like a bit of a cop out answer but i simply can’t understate the important of trusting your readers to pick up what you’re putting down, and to trust that they’ll read between the lines for you. a lot of my favorite characterization moments in aus are ones that are really really subtle, where a character does or says something that is clearly a callback to something in the source media, but it isn’t explained in a way that’s actually calling attention to it — it always seems much more natural that way, like whatever they did is just a progression of who they are in that story instead of the author trying to make a point or force a connection. just off the top of my head a small example might be how i see so many authors in non-magic/no upside down aus still make will really struggle with the cold, often just as a throwaway line or paragraph which imo is much more effective for me than trying to explain why he’s feeling this way. or having him enjoy the same media as in the show in a slightly varied and less direct way (e.g: being into the new star wars shows as a continuation of his canon interests, putting him in theater club to play off of the posters we saw in his room, etc). i think it also helps to have something specific in mind that you’re trying to tie back, like an important moment for that character’s story or something that stood out in the source material. like, i love writing lucas and dustin bickering over stupid stuff bc it takes me back to them in s1 in the principal’s office or s2 in general, or one of my personal favs in my own fics was one where i had will be on a constant rotation of fun patterned socks. he’s creative, he’s an artist, it’s (hopefully) a pretty clear connection to make once i write it in, and i really do think a modern version of him would get a kick out of something like that! and sometimes people just won’t pick up on what you’re trying to say and that’s okay too! everyone reads fics a little differently so some connections might be more obvious to some people than others and so on. from my experience as a reader, i find it pretty easy to connect the dots between an intentional and thoughtful moment of characterization vs one that doesn’t quite hit the nail on the head, or the author felt the need to spell out for the reader which maybe took me out of the moment a little too much or something. to me, making those choices and translating canon to an au is honestly the hardest part, especially with a modern au and a show like st that is So defined by the period it’s set in, so if you’ve already got that out of the way i genuinely think you have the rest of it in the bag as well. unless you worked through it in the month it took me to get to this in which case i am so so so sorry LOL

okay that’s been my word vomit of the day, hopefully any of this made sense or was useful at all, but thank you again for your kind words and support and for thinking to ask us! always always happy to chat writing, even if it takes me a million words to do it 😗

[loudclan-clangen]

Fierce x Silt would be an ABSOLUTE POWER COUPLE and you are welcome to ship them all you want (as always) but in cannon Fiercestripe would never, even for a moment, consider taking another mate. If Wildfirecry dies before her she will wait that shit out cause she's not single, her husband is just in starclan. I honestly think that even without Wildfirecry in the picture she's just too much of a caretaker/mom friend to ever be in a relationship with someone younger than her. Fiercestripe needs her mate to be the one person in her life that she is not worried about if that makes sense? She'll help find Silt a nice new boyfriend who is not 48 moons older than her and they can be crochety grandparents in the elder's den together.

No. <3

Thank you! And do not be sorry because YES! You're so right! She's seeing herself in the stars and so she doesn't look any farther into it but it's just an image she's projecting, not something someone is showing her. She also doesn't put any thought into the fact that in order to walk amongst the stars she would have to pass away so, she's literally seeing a future where she dies due to her own inflated self image and it just inflates her self image more. It's a self fulfilling prophecy and it makes me love her and her story so much!

It was not intentional as I haven't watched centaurworld, but upon listening to it I see what you mean! It definitely fits in with what I was trying to reference, which are those kinda ominous lullabies (hush a bye baby was the specific one that came to mind while drawing), but to be honest with you it's a relatively minor detail in the overall comic. What the character is saying is a lot less important than what the character is about to do so i didn't put a ton of thought into it.

Thank you! I am also shocked by how little time has passed in story like what do you mean we aren't even at two years yet? Eklutna wasn't even here for a moon? How is that possible?! I know that Moon 21 brought and is still bringing a LOT of people to the blog and I am so grateful for that! Loudclan gained like 200 followers over my break and that's AWESOME but also a little bit terrifying tbh. Don't worry I also got attached to Mothtree and I was like lying in bed thinking about the fact that she dies for like three whole months while I and everyone else drew cute art of her.

Thank you! I'm so happy to be at a point where I'm happy with my art and my process and that has a lot to do with all the support I've gotten from you guys! You're an awesome community who has encouraged my growth at every opportunity and I couldn't be luckier! All that said I hope you get to enjoy a minor version of the same process all over again as I get back in the routine of drawing cats again after my break lol.

I mean... they are kinda yellow... could that mean... PACKMAN IS THE BABYDADDY?!?!?!

I did really enjoy my break! I got to go to Greece and Germany with some of my best friends and then I came home and cracked down on school work (which wasn't necessarily fun, but feels good to be done with), and now I am rested and relaxed and ready to get back into it!

Thank you! I try to put a lot of thought into them! Things like that are generally the first thing that I envision when I'm formulating a comic page and then I build the rest of it around that original idea which I hope helps to make the pages more dynamic and less repetitive.

Thank you, I can't wait to finally drop Part 2! Only 5 more days!

[sphnyspinspin]

OMG, I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SHARE THIS AU FOR A MINUTE—

Meet my Magnificence Reforged AU Connie!

Though Scorponok only ever referred to her as Experiment: A9-2416 (usually in Decepticon dialect).

Her story is that Scorponok created her as an experiment to see what would happen if an organic was able to produce a set of chemicals that are deemed somewhat powerful, yet common, by organic standards but emphasized to a certain degree with the help of Cybertronian technology. Entirely inspired by the mere Earth-Human conceptual myth known as the—

Indomitable Human Spirit.

What Scorponok was able to take away from eight years of properly caring for the experiment is that these chemicals that fuel basic organic functioning can be utilized exponentially to a degree where a full grown one of these things could even rival some of Cybertron’s strongest warriors. Maybe even the galaxy’s toughest warriors wouldn’t be able to stand a chance.

It became labeled as Adrenalineregon.

(dope naming skills I know)

It turned out to be some crazy-powerful stuff once injected into a strong enough specimen.

Now why would Scorponok need to make something like this? Power? Recognition? Fun? All of the above honestly. But it’s also because in this Alternate Universe the Decepticons won the war for Cybertron, and Megatron has already built his perfect Decepticon Army to conquer the rest of the known universe, and he and the Grand Architect thought their Army of Tarn clones needed a little more pep-in-their-step.

You heard me. TARN. CLONE. ARMY.

(this isn’t a specifically cyberverse based timeline I just took the tarn army as inspo)

But what they didn’t expect was for the Tarn clones to go insane and turn on each other when being on mere drops of Adrenalineregon. Resulting in a mass extinction of Tarn Clones, with too many bodies to count, therefore being dropped on top of Scorpnok’s planet sized lab to remind him of the consequences of his actions.

EX: A9-2416 was, at the time, forever curious about the outside world, since she’s never been above the expansive laboratory planet’s surface. It always felt as if some unseen beings were trying to lead her to her escape every day since as long as she can remember. Small sign after small sign, guiding her to even bigger signs that kept getting her closer and closer to the way out. Of course, Scorponok always stopped her from getting too close.

A9-2416 always hated the amount of gruesome tests she had to do afterwards as punishment for misbehaving.

Until on her ninth birthday, A9-2416 finally made it to the exit, and Scorponok got exceptionally pissed off so much that in self-defense A9-2416 grabbed the nearest cannon she knew how to operate and blasted it through his spark. She cried a lot that day.

BUT HEY! Her life didn’t stay too depressing for long, because soon after she committed her very first act of murder, she became good buddies with the little voices in the walls that have been apparently guiding her throughout her life!

THE LOSTBOT BOTBOTS!!

(lol I’m nowhere near finished with every Lost Bot design, I just wanted to finish these couple few and make this post for the AU)

MEET THE LOST BOTS CLAN OF THE BOTBOTS!

They’ve been trapped on Scorponok’s Lab-planet-tory (im so funny) for decades along with the other Botbots who remained in hiding. But this clan was the only one brave enough to get anywhere near Scorponok’s main stomping grounds. What they didn’t expect to find was some weird sentient purple meat-potato in a makeshift industrial cradle. Turns out it was just a baby. And that baby turned out to be A9-2416. Who soon became known as Connie.

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After A9-2416 escaped the inner dwellings of the lab and joined the Lost Bots on their little side quests up on the surface, she later changed her name to Constance, hence her more well-known nickname being Connie. The name change was suggested by her Botbot friends who knew a bit about Earth human culture and used their knowledge to help Connie have the most happy and carefree life that she could ask for.

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Also the TEG Lost Light crew is there because I’m still obsessed with that fic 👍✨

@deepfriedhopesanddreams @viewer-of-many @celestite-caroline @asmoteeth @novafire-is-thinking @dragonsgirl572 @autistic-fool-with-ideas @mysticfoxdesigns @hyp3rfixation-h3ll

[authoratmidnight]

So, now that I've finished watching (rewatching technically) Transformers Animated I wanna babble about it a bit.

My short, spoiler free take is: It's actually really good and I like what they were doing in this universe.

Longer, not spoiler free rambles under the cut-

So like, I did watch this a long time ago, when it first aired. Problem is I really don't/didn't remember like, anything? Or like, major plot things.

A non comprehensive list of things I /did/ remember from Animated:

Prowl was my fav bc b/c a ninja motor bike is cool

I loved this version of Bumblebee. His design looked like a lil kitty cat, a lil tiger, one of my fav Bees. Just a lil guy. Lil baby.

Black Arachnia, her hitting on Optimus and once being Elita One

the Dinobots, Grimlock specifically. love me some dino robots

the 'Sari is the a robot' reveal

their space ship transforms into a massive robot

Blurr gets cubed and everyone debating on if he was alive or not (he is. as pointed out, bots turn grey here when they die and cube!Blurr was NOT grey, so that's some fridge horror for you)

Prowl died and I was VERY sad about this

Weird Al voiced a robot called Wreck Gar and there was a 'dare to be stupid' reference in the episode

So like, while I don't remember-remember it, I remember things from it and I seem to recall I did enjoy it (given I recall Prowl's death I clearly DID watch it to the end so I clearly didn't hate it). And upon rewatching it I can 100% this appealing to younger me (quick math says I would have been, about 16 when it aired. which is older than I thought tbh).

It wasn't my first foray into Transformers either, tho I think the first one I probably really enjoyed and watched all of. I seem to recall watching some of Beast Wars and Armada (legit the ONLY part of Armada I remember was that bit where Optimus died out in space lmao), so I knew OF Transformers to some degree. Plus I think I'd learned surface level information from my dad. But it was the first series I did fully consume and enjoyed. So I could have done worse. But given I don't actually remember my first watch of it too well I can't say if it was better or as good as I remember b/c I don't remember lol. But it is good.

That said, what ARE my thoughts on it?

The Story/Setting:

Knowing what I DO know about Transformers now I can see how different it is from most continuities and how the lore differs (Prime and Magnus just seem to be like, ranks/titles, and Prime doesn't seem to hold nearly the weight as in like every other continuity). But like, I don't hate it. It's actually kind of a fresh change. And it does some unique things, like how characters can just be, taken apart and still live so long as their spark remains undamaged/their body isn't to badly damaged (we literally have heads getting popped off like barbie dolls and everyone is fine lol).

It manages to flop between goofy as fuck and, actually a bit grim at times, and it works (once again, solidifying my belief that Transformers is and always has been, funny as shit and people who poo-poo on the humor are boring edgelords)

I kinda fuck with this universe actually, wish we HAD gotten that s4.

And the changes it makes to the CHARACTERS to fit with the universe is neat too and it, kinda works.

The Characters:

So like, this version of Optimus (and the main core cast of Autobots really) is like, just A Guy. Like, the most Just a Guy that Optimus could possibly be. He's not this war weary, battle hardened warrior and great renowned leader. He is literally just A Guy. The equivalent of a college drop out. And the meeting with Megatron at the start of the series is literally their first meeting. No history here.

And I think that's kind of an interesting take. (Also I found a really funny fic the other day that's basically 'Megatron realizes that the 'elite warriors' they've been fighting are in fact just Some Guys and the revelation is MORTIFYING' i'll link it later).

Prowl. I'm sorry but this my guy. This is my Prowl. I know he is totally different than like every other Prowl in existence but UNFORTUNATELY this was my introduction tot he character and the robo ninja that turns into a bike imprinted on teenage me's psyche b/c honestly that concept fucks. He's my favourite and I was super sad when he died.

Also just 'robot ninja' is fucking cool haha

I loved this Bumblebee's design, it slaps. He's like a lil kitty man. He's so much fun. Yapped so much that when they made the movies they're like 'ok we NEED to shut this guy up' haha.

I think I totally forgot Bulkhead was in Animated but like, I love this dude??? Don't get me wrong I like Prime Bulkhead as well but Animated Bulkhead just, is so fun, and they did MORE with him aside from 'smashes shit real good'. He gets to have a special interest and be good at ONE (1) thing and that's space bridges. And he picks up art as a hobby! He has character and personality, I love it.

Honestly, the Autobots just being a bunch of regular guys (well, 4 regular guys and one war vet who REALLY wishes he'd retired long ago) is such a fun dynamic to have instead. And it works.

The Voices:

So like, I know Peter Cullen is THE voice of Optimus (despite the fact that I think more people that aren't him have voiced the character than he has but I digress) but in this case, NOT casting him actually makes sense. As I said, Optimus here is just A Guy. And a young one as well. Like Orion in Transformers One. So the deep, older sounding voice of OP Optimus wouldn't fit the character. And this voice does.

I DO however find it really funny that the voice actor for Optimus (David Kaye) previously voiced Megatron in other Transformers series. Man could voice a whole Optimus-Megatron fight on his own now.

Honestly, all the voice choices fit the characters as established in this series.

Special mention to Shockwave, who apparently is voiced by his OG VOICE ACTOR. That's kinda dope. And he has a perfectly spooky voice (also I really enjoyed this version of Shockwave. Man is out here being Megatron's specialist little boy and loving it)

Also I love that the opening is just a remix/modernized version of the OP opening that we all know. That's cool and it slaps.

Yeah, TFA does aim a biiiit younger for it's audience than some series but that's not a bad thing and it's still a damn good show. It's not like "kiddy" in that patronizing way. It's good and it holds up well I think.

Also here's that fic I mentioned earlier, go read it it's funny.

Revelations

[softseaside]

After finally introducing Ni'onthe's crew one by one, let me finally formally introduce you to Blauauge (=“blue eye”) who's giving me brainrot for over a year now💙⚓

Blauauge is a tiefling barbarian and the third mate of the Soft Seaside, the ship that Ni'onthe sailed with for two years prior to the main campaign. I created him and the whole crew way back in 2021 when I wrote Ni’onthe’s backstory (more about Ni'onthe's crew here).

I’ve always planned for him to be my back-up character, should she ever die (that hopefully never happens lol). For now, he is a NPC in my mini-campaign called "Stille und Sturm" (which is just my modified self-indulgent version of "Dragons of Stormwreck Isle"). There, the party travels with the Ni'onthe's crew to solve problems on her home island

He seems like an angry, tough guy on the outside who gets irritated very quickly and often fights in taverns, but on the inside, he is a really insecure and overcompensates a lot. He's just a good and soft boy who genuinely cares about his loved ones but has problems showing and receiving affection 👀 (A lot of my fave characters are angry tsundere b*tch boys who are actually super soft and insecure and he is no exception, he is a big tsundere 💙) He is extremely loyal towards his captain and crew and takes his duties very seriously. He and Ni’onthe were really good friends.

(old art from 2021)

Blauauge likes drinking and fishing, he swears a lot and is liked by animals. He hates nobility and rich people. He believes that a good brawl is the best way to get to know a new city and become closer with someone. His choice of weapons are his fists and an anchor.

His name “Blauauge” which translates to “blue eye” is a german pun because he often has a black eye because of all the tavern brawls (black eye also translates into “blue eye” in german). But it's also a reference to his very bright blue eyes.

Sailor tattoos with actual meaning:

dagger with a rose (loyality and willing to fight everything, even something as sweet as a rose

“HOLD FAST” (for a good grip for rigging)

compass rose (always finding your way home)

Other tattoos:

waves

his crew’s slogan and flag

anchor (his character themes are anchors and storms)

I...eeeeeeeeh...like him a total normal amount so stay tuned for LOOOTS of art of him 💙

Old designs, some backstory lore drop and context for his role as NPC under the cut

(I changed his design quite a lot so please keep in mind when I post some of my older art! Also, I still have a lot to learn about drawing trans anatomy so if you see anything depicted wrong in my newer art, please dm me so I can learn!)

Old Design and Concept

As a big ass Fire Emblem Fan, I really liked the idea of a duo of two color-coded ship officers who are the complete opposite of each other, just like the iconic red-green knight-duos in FE.

Since sailors in media often have unique nicknames that are related to them, I also wanted to give them funny names that are very similar to each other to to immediately tell that they belong together. And that's how Blauauge (german for "blue eye") and Rotauge (german for "red eye") came to be!

Rotauge and Blauauge are complete opposites but get along very well…veeeeeery well 👀 Rotauge is a safe space for Blauauge where he can calm down and Rotauge likes Blauauge's company a lot.

Blauauge's design changed quite a bit since 2024 (2021, 2023, early 2024)

I still like the old design a lot, especially I already received so much art for it already and the yellow top scars were kinda iconic LMAO But I always felt like his old design didn’t show off his sailor background enough.

FUN FACT: “Blauauge” is the german term for blue-eyes, a specific kind of fishes with very bright blue eyes! I didn’t know about them when I created him, so after finishing his design, I was REALLY surprised to learn about them and coincidentally used a similar color palette sdlfkjsdlfkj

Backstory

Blauauge was born and raised on the streets of Neverwinter until Captain Sheryl took him to SoftSeaside at the age of 10. Sheryl noticed him because of his striking blue eyes and his defiant nature. When they met, he had a black eye (in german = blue eye) and gave him the nickname "Blauauge" ("blue eye" in german), which he eventually chose as his own when he transitioned. On the ship he learned to read, write and live the life of the sea. Before she took him in, he barely spoke and tried to survive by making a living by participating in underground fights. As a tiefling, he experienced a lot of racism (especially by nobility and rich people) when he was younger and even though, society changed a lot since the scars still remain. He's also feeling very disconnected to his heritage since he didn't have any contact with other tieflings. (because in this household we project our trauma on our OCs ✨)

Blauauge has been sailing on the ship for 16 years since he was 10 years old and with passing years, more people joined the crew permanently. He will never admit it but he loves them all very dearly and would do anything to protect them. Blauauge became the third mate of the ship, a role he holds with a lot of pride and he takes his duties very seriously. (While he was trying to survive on the streets, he really didn't have the headspace to think about gender (lmao) but after being adopted, he finally had a safe space to figure stuff out and his crew was really supportive during his transition for which he is extremely thankful for.)

And then, one day, a optimistic fish-looking goofball called Ni'onthe joined the crew, hehe ✨ In the beginning, he found her pretty annoying but her positive personality was really refreshing and he saw a lot of similarities (blue and yellow, trans, athelete, soft and caring) Since he is four years older than her, Ni'onthe kinda became a little sister for them. He and Ni’onthe were really good friends and was protective other her, taking her out for meals, showing her how to sail and checking on her (she really missed her parents in the beginning).

And even though, they had a lot of fun and a great time, Ni'onthe decided to leave to gain more experience and awaken her Ki. Blauauge was ✨ distraught ✨ by that and he really misses her a lot. This really got him thinking and since then, even though he loves his crew, he craves for adventures and wonders if he isn't missing something if he stays on the ship…But he is also scared to leave his loved ones behind, scared that he will not return or worse…to return and realize that he doesn't belong anymore.

Right now, he is an NPC in the mini-campaign that I'm dming right now (It's a modified self-indulgent OC version of StormWreck Isle, lol).

Quick campaign summary

As for now, during my campaign, while the party is solving the problems on the island, Blauauge does through his own fucking character arc while helping out in the village. Loyalty towards his crew and fear of leaving his home vs. the call for adventures and being very jealous that the party is fighting some monsters LMAO

However, Blauauge is currently being falsely accused of theft and banned from the temple because the party's rogue Nería (played by @/allbutnotthis) broke into the room of the grand master of the Order of Eldath to find a item. However, she got caught by Blauauge before she was able to lock the door. She gatekept, gaslighted, girlbossed her way out of this situation by using his weaknesses (aka his loyalty and softness towards his crew) against him. Blauauge believed her and promised to not snitch on her because she helped to save the ship from sinking earlier in the campaign. However, because Nería is such a good liar and Blauauge is a really bad liar, the grand master believes that Blauauge attempted to steal something and banned him from the temple temporarely until he is proven innocent or proves that he is trustworthy after all.

Let's see how this turns out LMAO

[aihoshiino]

chapter 144 thoughts!

I don't think any other chapter of Oshi no Ko has ever baffled and confounded me quite like this one. Viewed solely in isolation this is a perfectly fine, functional chapter but as the followup to 143 and everything it contained, I actually feel like I'm losing my mind a bit. 143 might as well not have happened for all the weight it's given in this chapter. Ruby is not remotely acting like a girl who just tongued her crush of 18 years and in general, the total absence of any reference or cushioning of the shock of that event is just so loud and so jarring and so completely out of touch with how OnK has handled romantic developments in the past.

Both AquAka kisses had at least a scene or two in the chapter immediately following of characters reacting to and reflecting on both the event itself and the status quo change it represents in the relationship. Even 124 has that scene of Ruby clinging onto Aqua to let the viewer know what the new dynamic between them is going to be from now on. This chapter has nothing of the sort; I wasn't kidding when it says it feels like the kiss never even happened. The only thing I can point to is Ruby's little "we have sensei at home" exchange with Tsukuyomi but that's… kind of just exactly what she would've said even before the kiss. So if it has resulted in absolutely no change to their dynamic that we can see thus far, what was the point in ending the chapter on that note?

The part of me that is cynical and jaded can't help but suspect that this is intentionally hot button reaction bait paced specifically for the purposes of keeping OnK a trendy topic in the lead up to season 2 of the anime airing, But Who's To Say, Really.

I also had my worries about this last chapter, but unless we skip back in time to address it, it really looks like we've skipped over the remainder of the KamiAi romance and everything to do with the early stages of Ai's pregnancy. This is incredibly frustrating to me - they're parts of Ai's story I had been incredibly curious about and was excited to see her thoughts and feelings on, even filtered through fiction. In general, the way the Movie Arc has been increasingly dropping its focus on actually conveying Ai's story has been a real sore point for me. I fully acknowledge this rankles me more than perhaps it should because I am so deeply invested in Ai above any other character but… fuck, man! Once again, remember when this was supposed to be an arc about her? About her inner life, her pain and struggles and Aqua and Ruby working to a better understanding of her? I was excited for the Movie Arc specifically because I thought we were going to get peeks at parts of Ai's life we weren't privy to beforehand, but at this point it almost feels like Akasaka has just lost interest in following through.

Not only that but… uh, where's that KamiAi breakup scene, Akasaka? The one we were promised during the script reading? That huge I CAN'T LOVE YOU elephant that's been patiently sitting in the room? I can only assume that the 15YL version of this breakup happens after the twins are born or maybe even when Kamiki visited Ai at the hospital the night the kids were born but. What the fuck is even going on here anymore lol. The Oshi no Brainrot discord has been kicking around a joke theory that we were seeing the events of the Movie Arc out of their actual chronological order and it is becoming increasingly less of a joke in my brain because I can't make any sense of its progression otherwise.

oh my god i'm almost 1000 words in and i haven't started talking about the actual point of this chapter yet. god help me.

Anyway, MY SON IS HERE LET'S GO MELT!!!!!!

Ngl, I've always been a little disappointed that we didn't see much more of Melt in this arc, both just because I like him and because I think there's some really interesting potential in drawing on the parallels between Melt and Kamiki. I'm not the first to point out that Melt's experience with a dubiously consensual sexual encounter at the hands of an upperclassman - when he wasn't that much older than Hikaru was when Airi began abusing him - echoes at least in spirit Kamiki's experiences as a CSA victim; both were young boys, noted to be pretty and desirable, who were taken advantage of by older female figures. I think it would be extremely interesting and a great character moment for Melt to have some degree of engagement with that material and maybe to have some thoughts about it. It feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity to pass up on that, but I also acknowledge that Melt is ultimately not a huge mover and shaker in the overall story and I don't know how that would've fit into the Movie Arc as it stands, so I'll just have to make eyes at the AO3 tag and hope someone writes a fic about it.

Anyway as a lot of people predicted… here's Ruby being a jackass to Melt about his performance!!! Joking aside, I will admit it's a little jarring to see Ruby being so hostile to Melt over this…? Gorou is a sore spot for her, obviously and she would undoubtedly have high standards for his role in the movie. In addition, Ruby being snitty with people who rub her the wrong way definitely isn't new for her, but it still feels kind of odd both coming off her own struggles to connect with Ai through acting and her little "holy shit other people have feelings" breakthrough in the wake of the RBKN fight for her to be like this about it. I do think this is mostly just supposed to be just goofs and I'm overthinking it, it was just one of those things that kind of gave me pause as I was reading.

ruby's little little princess shirt is really good though, as is her referring to herself as a fan of the 'original work'. both of those got a solid sensible chuckle out of me.

Another thing that gave me pause for a very different reason was Melt and Ruby's exchange about his little merch pin. First and foremost, I think this is a really good Melt moment; while we saw him busting his ass to improve his acting in Tokyo Blade, that was very much when he had something to prove. Here, he really does seem to be going above and beyond for what is basically a bit part purely out of a desire to improve his craft and a passion for acting overall. It's nice to see the story double down in this being a lesson he did properly take away from Sweet Today and that he has committed to acting upon it (no pun intended) in the long term, not just when under outside pressure to do so.

The other thing that jumped out to me about this exchange is that… technically speaking, both Ruby and Melt are wrong, here? It's a very nice, flowery description of Gorou and it certainly lines up with his more positive traits but the idea of him not wearing his Ai merch in front of Ai herself is actually incorrect. Gorou is depicted (in the anime, anyway) as openly wearing the charm at what's implied to be all times, even in front of Ai herself. The manga also implies by way of where the charm is on his person when Ruby finds his body that this is also the case in that version of events, too. I don't think it's a retcon and may be an unimportant detail in the grand scheme of things but it did pique my interest.

There's a few ways to take this, I think; a more positive spin is that this is in line with what the story wants us to take away from 15 Year Lie as a production, where the literal granular facts of its events are sometimes less important than and can be bent in favour of supporting the emotional narrative it wants to convey. Melt may not literally be correct here, but he at least achieves the spirit of the right answer in his efforts. "Lies are love", after all.

However, given that Ruby enthusiastically endorses this interpretation - and is thus wrong alongside Melt - this could potentially be an indication of there being cracks in Ruby's rose-tinted view of Gorou. This strikes me as a fascinating idea and one I hope the series plays with; it would follow quite naturally from last chapter's framing of Gorou as Ruby's 'idol' that she's 'gachikoi' for. Oshi no Ko has pretty consistently portrayed the idol/fan relationship as inherently unequal, even when approached with the best of intentions and to truly know someone, you must let them off their pedestal first. She has sort of begun this process with Ai, just through empathizing with her during the 15YL production but we have yet to see anything similar happen with Gorou - if anything, we see the opposite here, where she asserts herself as the authority on Gorou's character as if she has the final say on who he was and what he felt and thought.

But the thing is, how well can Ruby really say that she knew him? They were only in each others' lives for a few months and in that time, she was only exposed to a very narrow slice of his life and his personality. Hell, you could even argue that Akane knows more about Gorou than Ruby does, given that we have no indication that Ruby or Sarina was ever privy to the details of his birth and his home life. Again, it's entirely possible that I'm reading too much into this, but now the idea is in my brain I'm simmering on it a bit. If nothing else, I hope the series takes the time to prod and poke at this angle, especially now it has made the fan/idol aspect of this dynamic explicit and textual.

Ruby and Melt's little senpai/kouhai dynamic has the potential to be really cute and I do hope the series actually spends some time on it. I've always thought a RBML friendship could be really fun to watch play out and seeing Melt gain some confidence in himself by teaching someone else could be really great. But with how unfocused the Movie Arc has been, it's really hard to get my hopes up that we'll be sticking with this even past this chapter lol

oh hey there crow girl we thought you were dead

Surprisingly, I don't have a lot to really say about her little lore drop here, since it's mostly mystery boxing and implications and, man. It's been 69 (nice) chapters since she first started showing up ominously muttering about supernatural things and while I don't mind her presence and I think she's evolved into a fun character, it's a little hard for me to get interested in these little supernatural tidbits until they resolve into something that feels meaningful for the characters.

This isn't helped by the fact that we don't really know what kami means in the context she uses it here. While 'god' and 'gods' are not strictly incorrect as translations, I think an English speaking viewer is primed to think of Abrahamic, capital G-Gods, which isn't necessarily correct. The term kami is a catchall that covers all manner of things from divinities to venerated earthbound humans, so kami can perhaps best be understood as being an umbrella term for something like 'an otherworldly being', which I think better lines up with Tsukuyomi's assertion that those who have memories of past lives are like kami in of themselves.

Ultimately though until we know what kami really means and amounts to in Oshi no Ko, it's hard to say what this means for the characters and I am ultimately only really interested in the characters. So until we know what this actually amounts to in-story, I'm just kind of nodding long with whatever Crow Girl says because sure. This might as well happen.

can we talk about how fucking funny her anime antagonist jump out of the tree was, by the way

break next week, or so i've heard... one of these days, we'll beat the allegations....

[danketsuround]

First name basis - regarding Kuwana's one-sided relationship with Mitsuru through a cultural and linguistic lens

I haven't seen anyone else point this out so I wanted to mention it because I think it provides some insight to Kuwana and Mitsuru's relationship to each other despite them never having the opportunity to interact in game.

Has anyone else noticed that Kuwana refers to all of his former students by their last names? (Yui) Mamiya, (Yasushi) Akaike, (Shinya) Kawai, (Yoko) Sawa - then, Mitsuru (Kusumoto).

It could be argued that Kuwana refers to Mitsuru by his first name in order for players to be able to immediately distinguish between "Kusumoto" (Reiko) and "Kusumoto" (Mitsuru), but I also read it as how Kitakata unintentionally ostracized Mitsuru from his peers: how, in turn, Kuwana treats Mitsuru more preciously than others.

Tellingly, Kuwana refers to Mamiya and Sawa with the -kun honorific. Most people who have a rudimentary understanding of Japanese know that -kun is often used for young(er) boys. However, using -kun for adult women is more of a formality. In Sawa's case, I believe -kun is used for her out of mutual respect. -kun can also be used by male teachers to refer to their female students.

Despite never seeing Kitakata interact with any of his students in the past, we can infer from the above information that his way of addressing his former students, at least, has not changed.

Kuwana does not refer to Kawai with any honorifics because he is dead and they clearly do not have a close relationship. He uses -san with Akaike or none at all.

However, Kuwana also occasionally uses -kun with Mitsuru - not out of formality like Mamiya, or respect like Sawa, but rather, because Kuwana still views Mitsuru-kun as a child, or the schoolboy he knew long ago.

**** It's worth noting that Kuwana sometimes does not use honorifics with Mitsuru at all. Similar to Akaike, this is more closely related to how Kuwana used to be his teacher (you may drop honorifics of those who are socially inferior, like teachers with students) and not how Reiko NEVER uses honorifics with Mitsuru because they are family members.

To me, this is why -kun popping up occasionally is rather important. It demonstrates that Kuwana believes in a close relationship or kinship with Mitsuru that he never had.

This presents itself in other ways. Firstly, I'd like to note how he speaks to Kusumoto Reiko. Reiko is the only person Kuwana uses honorific language with (です・ます specifically, keigo, but not full seppuku zarei 許してください type of keigo, just a more formal/distant way of speaking, she mostly returns the formality - Kuwana seems to lower himself when speaking to her. Literally and figuratively, lol).

He also uses the fairly distant-yet-respectful sounding 「あなた」 with her. It's no question that he respects her undyingly ("virtuous and capable"!), yet I believe it is very interesting he refers to Mitsuru using -kun when speaking to her as well! He speaks about Mitsuru with her as if they all know each other well.

Take this line from the finale, while speaking to Reiko on the phone after Ehara's trial ended:

"Enough is enough. You and your son have been through enough hell. I want to protect Mitsuru-kun too. Almost as much as his mother."

(This is my favorite line. It's darling.)

Here, Kuwana is recognizing Reiko's struggles while veeeeeery preciously reminding her that he deeply cares for Mitsuru-kun - comparing himself, almost (and boldly so) to that of a maternal/parental figure.

While I don't think that Kuwana actually views himself as a parental figure to Mitsuru, it is important to note that Mitsuru is quite literally the figurehead and motivation to Kuwana's vigilantism:

"If it means I can prevent another Mitsuru Kusumoto, yes, I will keep killing." (Chapter 10)

"Mitsuru and all those kids... For them to have justice, this is what I had to become!" (Chapter 11)

"The day Mitsuru leapt from the roof, I vowed to atone for the rest of my life." (Chapter 11)

"Do you have any idea what [Mitsuru] was like thirteen years ago? Then you have no right to speak to me that way!" (Chapter 11)

This might be a good place to note that Kitakata's name change is referential to the date Mitsuru attempted suicide (September 17th): Kuwana, Ku (9) + wa (1) + na (7) - it's goroawase! Plus 仁 (Jin) meaning humanity, virtue, goodness.

I'd like to use all of this to talk about a much broader and darker theme. As I wrote in the beginning of this post, I believe Kitakata referring to Mitsuru by his first name - unlike the rest of his classmates - had unforeseen consequences. Being called by your first name by teachers is the choice of that teacher, and it is a very deliberate choice in high school. Kitakata "othered" Mitsuru, unintentionally showing him that he was not deserving of the same respect as his classmates.

Kuwana mentions that he thought he was well-liked by his students, even going as far as to not believe that that level of violence, abuse, and bullying could be happening right under his nose. While I don't believe Kitakata ever willingly participated in bullying Mitsuru, Mitsuru still remained outcasted in his own homeroom until the day he fell into a coma. In part, thanks to the way Kitakata singled him out.

By taking this to heart, Kuwana developed this idea that he and Mitsuru are foiled - that his selfish vigilantism is all for "Mitsuru's sake". In Chapter 11, Kuwana says "Mitsuru and all those kids..." - this shows an inability to recognize Mitsuru as anything other than a victim and a child. Mitsuru is not "Kusumoto-kun" or "Mitsuru-san", he is: Mitsuru-kun. An innocent young boy.

Kitakata may have unintentionally put a target on Mitsuru in class, but Kuwana singles Mitsuru out intentionally - by feeling so indebted to him that Kuwana, frankly, develops a parasocial relationship to Mitsuru's tragedy. And in a way, Mitsuru had become his unintended victim twice.

Moreover, the child he failed to protect, and the one he hurt the most.

[bmpmp3]

and wait hold on do people know about this. hold on. FOR those who are intrigued by voicevox humming here's another cool thing!

Openutau support!!

like all of both openutau and voicevox its got its FOSS type funkiness here and there, but i think it's a fun thing to play around with for those who are more comfortable with OU's interface, or those who want a pitch-snappy flat base to tune in while still having the fun tone of speaking synths being made to sing, or even those who don't know japanese and are not quite ready to fully dive into an untranslated software BUT are at least ready to dip their toes in. also like i mentioned up there its free and opensource so u got nothing to lose LOL

I don't think I can explain setting up Voicevox 'cause I don't remember so you're on your own with that BUT check out this post with some troubleshooting advice AND i CAN explain (maybe kind of poorly) how to set up voicevox for openutau:

FIRST OF ALL. have voicevox installed and open it, keep it open in the background for the entire time you want to use it in openutau.

SECONDLY you should download "Voicevox_Singer.zip" from here, then open up OpenUtau, and drag and drop the zip file into OU and let it install. Then you should close and reopen OU and now in the singer select menu, you should have a voicevox submenu in the singer selection!

and that's about it for installation LOL All the names will be in Japanese, unfortunately you can't change them in their yaml files or anything without them breaking (at least in my test it didn't work) so if you're not familiar with some Japanese writing you'll have to cross reference it with translations from a vsynth wiki or something. Or you could just click them until you see the portrait of the character you want and favourite it for later. I'm only a beginner but katakana and hiragana gets you pretty far with vocal synth names, plus a group of these guys are colour names and those are some of the mere 20 kanji i know <3

Voicevox also only supports hiragana, including the small tsu っ as a glottal stop type situation, so keep that in mind. Luckily, OpenUtau makes it easy to write lyrics even if you don't have Japanese input on because of romaji to hiragana functions and the lyric finder in the input box.

Another important thing about Voicevox Humming, in the "song" section of Voicevox there's three "parameters" you can set to change how the voice sings your song: the emotion style, the range, and the volume.

On the left is showing that this is set to Zundamon's crying talk bank (namidame), her range is set to 6, and her volume is set to 4. The emotion modes depend on the character, some characters only have a default style, while some have many, and in the case of Ritsu (and I believe another upcoming voice, that utau Lit?) one style is actually made specifically for singing rather than just being talk bank data.

In OpenUtau, emotion styles are mapped to the voice colour function which isn't too difficult to grasp. Again the names are all in Japanese (and honestly they're very stylized and colloquial so most of them are beyond my abilities LOL) so listen to them on the website and look at the character portraits, maybe look at translations too to get a grasp on what they all are. I don't know what Kotarou's bieeeeeeen means but he looks and sounds scared as fuck so that's probably his scared emotion mode LOL

Here's a screenshot of Ryuusei's in the voice colour section in OU, from top to bottom is like, hotblooded, happy, kinda pissed off, normal, seductive?, and sad little man:

The other two parameters that matter for VV in OU are Volume and Tone Shift, which i've put above the voice color panel in the above screenshot. THESE... are tricky. I THINK. I think, that maybe MAYBE tone shift might be mapped to range? but I'm not sure the scaling or direction, it's default is -36 to 36 in OU though. Volume LIKELY maps to volume, again at a different scaling though, from 0-200 with 100 as default (compared to VV's default 0 that can go positive or negative, and I don't. think it has a cap? I love you FOSS)

In Voicevox Humming proper, it's pretty easy to figure out range - you just move it up and down until the autopitch fits the notes, maybe shift it gently to get a closer match, if you're insane like me and doing a song with a large range you can always do my method of rendering like 5-10 different versions of the same song in different ranges and then splicing the best takes in mother fuckinggg fruity loops babyyyyy

In OU it's a lot less predictable. Normally you'd have the deeper voices in the negative ranges and the higher voices in the positive, but in OU my best results have all been setting "tone shift" to positive values, often above 15. If I knew more Japanese and more about coding maybe I'd be able to figure some more things out, but for now my only advice is just press W and keep the waveform view on in OU and mess around until you find something you like!

Volume is easier at least, if it's closer to 0 it's quieter and whispery all the way to just like raw VV engine noise, and if it's above 100 to 200 it's a little more projected! Often I like to find a spot in "tone shift" where things are relatively volume steady, and then use the "volume" parameter to make it properly powerful or gentle depending on what I'm going for.

Here's some tests I did, I'll explain what settings below:

Zundamon test, three versions of the same small bit of singing:

actual Voicevox engine render for reference. She's on her normal talk emotion, her range is 6, and her volume is 7.

Voicevox for OU render, normal talk emotion, 0 tone shift, 100 volume. More metallic UTAU sound while still having the pronunciation charms of an AI based talk voicebank.

Voicevox for OU render, namidame (teary eye) talk emotion, 0 tone shift, 100 volume. Totally different mouth openness and lots of lisp, very expressive while still being a flat base!

Kotarou normal talk emotion test, three versions:

main voicevox engine render for reference, -10 range, 7 volume.

Voicevox for OU render, 0 tone shift, 100 volume. He's very quiet and a little shaky.

Voicevox for OU render, 20 tone shift, 100 volume. He's a little more stable.

Kotarou bieen (scared?) talk emotion test, two versions:

main Voicevox engine render for reference, -6 range, 7 volume. sobbing type sound lol

Voicevox for OU render, 16 tone shift, 160 volume. what was that breathy gasp sound at the end. it only happened in OU not the VV version. is finfin holding him at gunpoint.

Kotarou's singing an octave down from Zundamon, but they're both good examples of very goofy very mascot-y vocals LOL

Now have a Voicevox for OU render of Ryuusei as an example of a much deeper voice since he's the resident big blue baritone. Happy talk emotion, 22 tone shift, 130 volume. He's the trickiest to work with via OU that I've tested, it's hard to find his tone shift sweet spot. At least he's having a good time.

and here's a test of that big titty woman who can turn into a plush toy. or a plush toy that can turn into a big titty woman? human then plush then human then plushie talk emotions, 13 tone shift, 170 volume.

this is showing a fun little thing you can do, you can (kinda) mix emotion styles within the same track! only kind of though, there needs to be a space with no notes between the switch, otherwise it'll keep with the same emotion from the first note of a string of notes. If you want to shift in the middle of a sentence you'll have to do my splicing multiple renders in a DAW method as seen before LOL

all these tests of course are flat, no pitch drawings in the VV renders and no pitch or vibratos in the OU renders. for fun heres a very fast very lazy tune + mix with Tsumugi, since her V6 is coming out sometime soon

theres a lot of toys to play with! i personally prefer using the renders from the main software, but the sound of the OU support is pretty fun and I think it could be used in cool ways!

[outivv]

https://x.com/dailycaelus/status/1812890084045389960?t=pnMzWIplb4Qsjeu200JClw&s=19

Very important information!

Long story short an anon insider from Hoyoverse is stating that while raising awarness on social media apps is great. We should take a step further and start dropping reviewing on any Playstore Site that has Genshin.

Express why you are dissatisfied and use hastages to bring more awarness. As for right now the Playstore reviews are dropping that it went from a 4 star review to 3.0 review. Hoyoverse is desperately trying to get reviews back by adding bots.

We shouldn't be just doing this with Genshin. Do this with ALL HOYOVERSE GAMES. Honkai Star Rail, Tears of Themis, ZZZ, etc.

HSR is facing the same problem as Genshin with Boothill being Native American coded, Penacony reloving around Jazz but have no Black character, Aventurine being Romani etc.

YEA YES!! I tried talking about this in my Hoyoverse boycott post, but I only touched on it briefly- but Hoyoverse games IN GENERAL are the overall problem. Tears of Themis has issues with being orientalist- and just shitty. Zenless Zone Zero apparently has actual blackface! Not good! Uhhh- outside of the record store on one of the little record poster thingies I believe. Honkai impact third has… straight up racism, and a subpar character plot about learning to love your skin color no matter what and she just goes “ummm actually no :)”, and oh my god I haven’t talked much on Honkai Star rail on this account but ykw I’ll go further into it.

Boothill- Boothill is based off of Native American culture, and is supposed to also be Latino. In the CN ORIGINAL translation of the game- his planet is named after two very real Native American tribes, his backstory recreates the same colonization that happened to native Americans specifically- calling Boothill’s people savages, and putting them in reservations after completely carpet bombing his planet, killing most of the population, and destroying the ecosystem. However, despite this Boothill has nothing to show for his heritage, or the fact that he is based around native, and Hispanic people except for the fact that he’s a cowboy- and even then sometimes I feel like he’s played up in game as like actually stupid for comedic relief when he’s not stupid AT ALL. (Sorry, Boothill’s one of my favs and a bad hyperfixation so I’m super passionate about how he needs proper representation)

Aventurine- aventurine is called a slur by sparkle, both sparkle and dr ratio point out specific racist stereotypes against aventurine that are usually targeted at Romani people which is who aventurine, and his entire home planet are based off of (that’s why I’m not a huge fan of Dr ratio x aventurine personally. Dr ratio isn’t racist imo, he’s just lowkey fucking mean and said the wrong thing to the wrong person). Aventurine’s backstory is also fucked in my opinion, and the way people in the fandom take his backstory and treat him as a character only really started getting bad bad after we found out he was Romani, but that’s a fandom issue- it’s still something to comment on.

Arlan- while Arlan is the darkest character Hoyoverse has made to date, he also has his talent names beeee references to slavery. Straight up. “Shackle breaker”, “frenzied punishment”, “swift harvest”, and then his eidolons- “breaking free”, and “hammer and tongs”. Not cool, kinda fucked up.

And that’s just the characters I can think of off the top of my head- not including Jade and her shit cause I know she has some stuff that’s like fucked up about her and ik she’s racist I just haven’t done my research on how she is racist and like gathered all the evidence basically lol, but that’s also just the characters, not to mention what you said anon- how penacony is based off of the jazz age but has no playable black characters? Girl whatttt? Gimmie a slay ass like black singer who’s besties with Robin, cmon now- don’t a coward Hoyoverse, you know DAMN WELL that she would sell too.

Hoyoverse games overall are like this, so please pay attention to all Hoyoverse games, and Hoyoverse mostly only listens to the App Store reviews so PLEASEEEEE go and review bomb ONLY Hoyoverse games. Start with Genshin and Honkai Star rail, go to Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai Impact 3rd then finish with Tears of Themis, don’t do it all at once if you can’t!! Just go review all of them one stars!!