#so when they’re ‘off the air’ so to speak (i.e. living in our brain) everyone’s vibing backstage and having a great time

[transintellectualistic]

Everyone please look at Shrimp’s source’s wiki page and tell me that this man’s existence and role in our brain is not the funniest shit ever.

Source: Megalomaniac. War criminal. Cult leader. Mad scientist with a god complex. His misdeeds could fill a novel and his blind lust for power, self-gratification and total dominion over all that breathes have doomed billions to live lives in suffering and squalor. Mortal enemy and personal tormentor of basically any remotely important character in the game. Huge fucking incel.

System: Literally just some office worker. His worst crimes are trying to give us a caffeine addiction and spending way too much time writing spreadsheets. I’d say he needs Ritalin but honestly, he is the Ritalin. Give this man a vacation, god. Also very, very aroace.

Source’s relationship to Source!Nelum: Toxic. Manipulative. Maddeningly horny. Every facet of her identity has been shaped by his calculated decisions over millennia, all made with striking precision just so he could be with the one person he thought would love him unconditionally. There is an entire 6-hour-long narrative quest dedicated to his final Hail Mary attempt at making her his and the near-destruction of the solar system that results in the aftermath.

System’s relationship to Nelum: Yeah they’re buddies. They’re pals. No hard feelings here. If we had a proper headspace they’d go golfing together. There’s not even anything romantic going on they’re just chill colleagues. Again, extreme aroaceness going on in both sides of the equation here!

HE NAMED HIMSELF SHRIMP. LIKE TJE FUCKING CRUSTACEAN

^ “remember this is who you’re being mean to when you’re making fun of me” type of shit

(I love you Shrimp I wouldn’t have you any other way <3)

[phoenixtakaramono]

Character Design Thoughts for Shen Yuan & Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky in ‘The Untold Tale’

(This is a Follow Up to This Post)

Hello, @averydrearydiana! Loved reading through your tags! I’m excited that you’re excited! Since I’m also seeing comments on AO3 speculating about how our transmigrators are going to appear as in The Untold Tale, I might as well give my current thoughts and have this archived on tumblr for future reference.

A fun fact about TUT is that a lot of the imagery in the story is inspired by Chinese PVs and popular C-dramas and literature. Since TUT is conceived as a lovestory to SVSSS, one element that I’d wanted to incorporate is playful attempts at satirical genre deconstruction. With that comes with me playfully poking fun at some clichés or things I’ve noticed in Chinese works.

Shen Yuan’s Celestial Design

Before I talk about his mortal appearance, I have to give a lil context about his celestial design in the story. We already know what he looks like as the celestial fortuneteller in TUT’s cover art that I’ve already posted on tumblr. As everyone knows, I was heavily inspired by this Chinese PV:

(TUT ch1 - Excerpt)

Among the things I’ve noticed are the fictional characters with white hair. We have a whole subculture of fans liking male character designs with white hair in anime and animation. Taking that a step further, they’ve even shown up in C-dramas, i.e. Teng She from Love and Redemption (technically more blond than platinum white, but shhhhh, just let me have this), Dong Hua Dijun from Eternal Love of Dream aka Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (rest assured, I’m aware of the source material’s controversy, but let’s not get into that here), etc. One of the tags for TUT is Opposites Attract. Luo Binghe’s color coordination is aligned with black and red mostly. Now, visually speaking, what’s the opposite of that?

The yin yang symbol.

Fun fact, besides black vs white, green (SY) is the complementary color of red (LBG) on the color wheel. Now taking everything I’ve said, to take it even one step further, my thought process at the time was, “why not go the extra mile then and just have SY be albino? Within context of the Heavenly Realm, that character design makes sense.” TUT is me subtly riffing off what I can (for the good ol’ meta humor), but making the content come across as a legitimate story experience. As Protagonist A and Protagonist B, LBG and SY have to look visually striking together. With all that said, let’s talk about....

(In reference to the original tumblr post)

Shen Yuan (Mortal)

I’ll keep some elements of his albinism from his celestial form (light sensitivity and pale skin mostly), but SY’s mortal form is essentially SY pre-transmigration but within context of the xianxia genre.

For his appearance, let’s just keep this Author’s Note^ and TUT’s summary in the back of our brains. This is the fanvid I was originally inspired by for SY’s mortal appearance:

(TUT Summary - Excerpt)

For what he wears, I’m currently feeling very heavily inspired by this PV:

His mortal appearance wouldn’t be considered as “strange” or “otherworldly” compared to the “ethereal fairy-like beauty” SY retains in the Heavenly Realm, but as a side-effect of the 【PROTAGONIST’S HALO】 and his +20 CHARISMA stat, he would still be considered attractive to people even when he takes on a mortal appearance. (Mainly, I like the idea of Bing gē taking large shots of vinegar seeing SY turning heads no matter which appearance SY takes on, and Luo Binghe glaring at these “insects” for even “daring to lay their unworthy eyes on his fated person.” The thought of it just makes me laugh.)

What I mean by how SY’s mortal form being very much based on how SY appeared pre-transmigration but in the xianxia genre context, I mean he’ll have his dark hair (but longer), a “scholarly air” (as a nod to his novelist background), dark eyes, and even his glasses technically (the divine monocle mentioned in ch3, which is also a subtle nod to Sha Po Lang and a riff on men wearing monocles in other Chinese works andit’salsoforeshadowingbutshhhh).

(TUT ch3 - Excerpt)

Shen Yuan originally was an author in his forties pre-transmigration, so I like the idea him having a mature air about him in the Cultivation World as well. So for both our Protagonist B’s celestial and mortal appearances, the idea is that you can look at him and immediately recognize him as a protagonist of the danmei setting. My only two prerequisites are that his appearance screams “hello, I’m Protagonist B” and that he appears in “scholarly” attire.

Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky (Mortal)

Keeping in mind the original tumblr post where I wrote my thoughts on who I’m transmigrating him as, currently I’m thinking it’s a combination of these two PVs for his mortal form:

As a nod to him being a successful novelist, I wanted him to also appear scholarly. A scholarly crown prince, if you will. For his attire, imagine all the C-drama clothing you’ve seen actors wear in period dramas, and you already have a good idea already of the direction I’m heading down.

As the prince of the cannon fodder emperor, I very much like the idea of Airplane perhaps having a baby face and brown hair (as a small nod to fanon!SQH from SVSSS) but with a great body (a huge source of inspiration are clothing worn by Prince Yu and Prince Jing of the three princes from the C-drama Nirvana in Fire). Since Airplane will also be able to select his Character Creation stats like Shen Yuan had, one thing I’m fairly certain is that he will max out his CONSTITUTION—because “game logic” and not wanting to die. (For those who don’t know, the CON stat in tabletop RPs essentially indicates a person’s overall health, wellbeing, and vigor checks...so him maxing it out is equivalent to him being as invulnerable as a cockroach. A high CON means overall healthiness, which means your character probably is full of energy and vitality, can heal rapidly, and will rarely get sick—if ever. Low CON usually means a higher susceptibility to sickness and disease, wounds that fester and linger, and a general fatigue would haunt you, etc.) Like how SY zeroed in on his CHA, Airplane would have prioritized +20 CON (+5 modifier), especially knowing the fate that’d await him as a prince and the vicious environment that is expected for palace intrigue plots (the harem is a big factor, with concubines and consorts and even the empress sabotaging each other—just to win the favor of one man). Against poison or whatnot which is a cliché in palace intrigue plots, rather than relying on luck, you typically stand a better chance of passing the CON check if you have a high modifier aiding your checks. He’s basically become impervious to illnesses, most poisons (probably being able to spring back quickly), and is considered the healthiest prince in all the mortal imperial line. <- This could be taken both seriously and humorously simultaneously.

Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky (Deity/ Celestial)

For Xiàng Tiān Dà Fēijī’s “actual divine body” that is currently asleep and won’t be awakened until Airplane completes his mortal trial to “regain his cultivation powers,” the face should obviously be similar but, as Xiàng Tiān Dà Fēijī, he would appear regal and dignified as a god of this world:

Imagine something along the lines of mortal Airplane as the man on the right, celestial Shen Yuan in the center, and deity/ celestial Airplane as the man on the left. I envision a respectable appearance that would knock the air out of Mobei jūn and make him recognize Airplane despite any visual dissimilarities, and in a way we have the Four Beauties of China: Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan, Mobei jūn, and Xiàng Tiān Dà Fēijī.

I will say I currently have an idea of making Airplane have “golden” eyes in both his celestial and mortal forms. (Spoiler alert: in my notes, I’d written down to give Airplane yellow eyes as an Easter egg to Yanxi Palace, I believe, where there was an episode where someone of the imperial harem schemed against the empress and almost had the newborn baby killed because that and the yellow skin was an inauspicious omen. We later find out through a timely intervention that the true reason was due to jaundice—because of the diet/ pregnancy cravings she ate for a period of time which resulted in her son’s symptoms. With Airplane’s high CON and another trope I’m bringing in which’ll have to do with the Medicine King’s Valley/ Valley of the Medicine King, his yellow eyes are the only side effect that lingered from that traumatic event which would have killed him had they gotten away with their scheme. A lot of palace dramas have to do with the vicious harem plots, so this would potentially be one such example.) The reason being that this is the identifying marker for MBJ to clue in that they’re the same man he will have loved. And I think that has romantic potential.

Misc.

Now addressing the other tags, yes, essentially speaking, Mobei jūn might just very well experience his very own Big Damn Reunion trope that Bing mèi had suffered from SVSSS. Poor MBJ. He’s in a tumultuous ride of his own with him considering Airplane as his own fated person, hahaha. But for the Moshang dynamic, I want him—a demon—to find himself taken with Airplane in his mortal guise—and subsequently his true celestial appearance once he finds out. I very much also want SY to jokingly snark to his fellow transmigrator-and-writing-colleague about him getting in a relationship with his own “creation” (MBJ). And Airplane would jokingly snark back about SY “ruining his ‘first son’ as well” (LBG). If you can read between the lines of that, then kudos. I’m glad to hear you’re looking forward to the palace intrigue.

I’m especially very happy to hear you’re looking forward to the descriptions! I personally love worldbuilding in the stories I consume I’m an interior designer and realtor irl, so I’m glad my love of house details and landscape, etc shows in TUT. For the pseudohistorical vibe, in the Mortal Realm, I will be referencing the Forbidden City of our Chinese history and a couple popular period C-dramas. Take the settings of period C-dramas like Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, Yanxi Palace, and Nirvana in Fire as examples for what will be awaiting us when we finally meet Airplane in his mortal body. In the Heavenly Realm, the descriptions will be heavily referencing shows that contain aesthetics such as those of Ashes of Love, Love and Redemption, and Eternal Dream.

Take this with a grain of salt just in case I change my mind later on, but in the chapter when we meet Airplane for the first time, I probably won’t say which character he is in the first scene. I’ll give plenty of hints in the first scene so that you all can make your guesses before the big reveal, but I’m fairly confident you all or most of you will be able to pinpoint who he is among the cannon fodders. We’ll meet the emperor, who is discussing with his sons about the matter regarding the approaching calamity that is Luo Binghe. Then when we transition into the second scene, we’ll know exactly which “royal prince OC” it is that our beloved Airplane has transmigrated into, hahaha.

(*Keep in mind, for everything written above, some details are subject to change. Nothing is official until it appears in the story, or I’ve actually drawn my ideas out and posted online to both my tumblr and twitter. These are just my current thoughts.)

A goal of mine for TUT is to make the story widely accessible, meaning it doesn’t matter if the reader is new to the SVSSS fandom or aren’t familiar with the Easter egg references or meta jokes or subtext or even the Chinese culture, or even if English is not their first language. Having knowledge beforehand might help someone notice more hidden details in TUT, yes, but it is a humble wish of this writer for her esteemed readers to be able to dive into the story and get the enjoyable feeling like they’re reading a genuine danmei novel. It really makes me smile whenever I hear feedback that I am able to emulate that experience.

Very exciting developments indeed are in store!

[talatomaz]

fear | paige dineen x fem!teen!reader

a/n: i’ve been rewatching Scorpion lately and couldn’t get this idea out of my head. this is based around 3x17. it’s a criminally underrated show and so original. also this is the first fic i’ve written in months so, sorry if it’s shit /lh

warnings: mentions of death/coma

word count: 3.1k

masterlist | navigation | request rules

reader is paige’s 18 year old daughter and sometimes helps out team scorpion but when she inadvertently inhales poisonous fumes, she soon finds herself on the brink of death, hallucinating her deepest darkest fear

i do not give you permission to repost or translate my fics on any platform - likes/reblogs are okay and are much appreciated

“Here.”

You said, placing a George Washington style hat on your younger brother’s head.

“Did you know that these are called tricorns and were referred to as-“

“Cocked hats? Yes, and they were worn not only by the aristocracy, but also as common civilian dress, and as part of military uniforms.”

You explained, interrupting Ralph as he stopped adjusting the hat and looked up at you with surprise.

“I was a history major, remember? You’re not the only one who knows things.” You joked, smiling when he did.

“So why am I wearing this tricorn?” Your genius brother asked.

“Well, you’ve got a history project due about Washington and what better way to understand his actions than by getting into his persona and pretending to be him?”

“You’ve been spending too much time around Toby.” Ralph smirked.

“Hey!”

You and your brother turned to face Happy and Toby who had just entered the garage.

“I’ll have you know that I’m a world-class behaviourist.”

“Shut it, doc.” Happy said, but there was no malice in her words.

“Where’s everyone?”

“Mum and Walter went out somewhere and Cabe’s with Allie at Sly’s desk because Sly’s asleep and drooling over himself.”

“Ew.” You said, replying to your brother.

As Happy and Toby left to find Cabe, you and Ralph continued discussing George Washington. You were both interrupted when you heard your mother’s voice.

“Morning!”

Yours and Ralph’s faces lit up when you saw she was holding a bag from Fro-Yo-Ma. Ever since Walter had got himself banned after a petty argument with the manager about a loyalty card which resulted in him having a black eye, you had all been unable to attend the establishment.

You smiled when an idea formed in your head and faced your brother once more,

“Hey, how about we sneak up to Mum whilst she’s distracted and grab our fro-yos?”

Ralph nodded in agreement and you both cautiously approached your mum who was busy telling the team that the frozen treats were for after lunch. As you both flanked your mother, you glanced over at Ralph and gave him a slight nod. Then you grabbed a tub each and began to sneak away as quietly as you came but your Mum looked at you both in confusion.

“Quick. Run, Ralph.”

Ignoring your mother’s laugh, you took a hold of Ralph’s free hand and ran back to the corner of garage you were studying in.

“I got to stop leaving them with you people.” Paige said.

Halfway through eating the frozen yogurt, you heard Cabe announce that Scorpion had a case.

Like your Mum, you weren’t a genius but you did help Scorpion anytime they were down a member, especially now since Toby had said he’d stay back to help Ralph with his project.

You were a little hurt that Ralph welcomed his help more-so than yours, despite you being the History expert, but nonetheless, you brushed it off and gathered your things to join the team’s trip to Greenland.

                ✧── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

Arriving at the Granse World Seed Vault, you tugged at the lapels of your winter coat, trying to keep some of the warmth in you which was a large feat considering you were stuck in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere.

The winds, that could only be described as gusting, blew through your hair, further obstructing your view as you entered the building.

Moving the hair from your face, you shivered and looked up to see that the vault was desolate.

“Well, now we know why nobody ever comes out here.” Sly stated.

You all watched as Walter failed to use the key card resulting in Happy jump starting the generator using the battery from the snowcat you travelled in.

Then you all split up to go and complete your tasks.

Your Mum and Walter remained at the entrance whilst Happy started to repair the generator, Cabe went to the breakroom, Sly went to the server room and you went to find the operations centre to locate the power conduit which you needed to switch off and on again.

The dark hallway you were in suddenly brightened meaning Happy had managed to fix one of the power sources. You let out a breath of relief; you didn’t exactly welcome the idea of wandering around a pitch black vault alone where no one had been for almost a year.

You then began to cough as the vents let out some sort of yellow dust. The smell was putrid, almost making you heave.

“God, that smell is awful. So much for this being an antiseptic facility.” You groaned.

“Well, this facility self-purifies its air, but the system's been down for days, so the seeds have decayed a bit, the vents are just stirring up seed dust.” Walter said through your comms.

“Speaking of stirring up, I can only imagine what kind of trouble is being stirred up in the garage. I worry about his maturity level.”

“Mum, don’t worry. Ralph’s the most mature person I know.”

“Oh honey, I know. I was talking about Toby.”

You snickered to yourself and then stopped when you realised you’d found the Ops Centre.

“Guys, I figured out what caused the surge.”

You listened as Sly’s voice crackled through your comms.

After he had finished explaining, you spoke, “So the whole place went dark because the programmers forgot to synchronize their watches?”

“Right! But if I can get the operating system's clock lined up with Finland's, then I'll have this fixed.”

Sylvester paused for a brief moment and when he spoke again, his voice came out in a panicked whisper.

“Is anyone else getting a weird vibe? Like...like we're not alone?”

“Hey, Sly. It’s okay. Just breathe.” You said calmly before telling him to follow your breathing pattern to regulate his own.

“Good job, y/n. Sly, everything’s going to be fine. Fix the server’s clock and we’ll be out of here soon.”

You smiled at your mother’s praise and went to find the panel switch.

You enjoyed working with your Mum, loving the fact that you got to spend more time with her since starting University. But sometimes, you found yourself feeling...lonely because most of your Mum’s attention was focused on Ralph and the rest of the team.

You understood Ralph, in the broadest of terms, that was. You loved him as much as your mum and you knew her looking after Scorpion was her job but it still hurt you because you didn’t have anything in common with the rest of them.

THUD

You jumped when the door behind you slammed shut.

“Mum? I’m locked in.” You shouted out worryingly.

“It’s okay, sweetie. Our blast doors are locked too.” Your Mum said, her voice calming you with every word.

“The vault prioritizes keeping seeds safe so it must go into lockdown when it's most vulnerable, i.e. a reboot. So the doors will open in 40 minutes when the reboot is done. Everything is fine.”

Walter explained before you winced at the shriek that came through on your comms.

“Sly, what the hell?” You yelled, rubbing your ear, as if trying to sooth the pain.

“They’re in here. They’re in here.” The genius repeated as your brows furrowed in confusion.

“Sly, what’s going on?”

“Sylvester, do you copy?”

“Sly!”

You all started to shout in concern, scared for Sly’s safety, before stilling when the latter’s screams fell quiet.

“I was right. I’m not alone. It’s chickens!”

How the hell had chickens got into the seed vault? You thought to yourself.

“Hey guys. I didn’t want Sly to hear us.” Toby said.

You figured your Mum must have called him and patched him through to your comms.

You all listened as Toby explained how Sly was suffering from a psychotic break but when he commented on some yellow dust, he realised that you had all breathed in seed fungus that affected the fear centre in your brain.

You started to get even more concerned when it became apparent that Happy and Cabe were hallucinating but you were shamefully relieved that the ergot spores hadn’t affected you. You weren’t sure you wanted to experience your darkest fear, especially when you were surrounded by your Mum and the team.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Mum. I’m not seeing or hearing anything.” You reassured her, hearing her sigh of relief.

“Okay, thank god. We’ll get you out soon enough, okay, sweetie?”

You blinked, turning around when you heard your mother’s voice behind you.

“Y/N?” Paige said through your comms.

But you just blinked again, because you could see your Mum in front of you and you couldn’t distinguish the look on her face.

“Mum, what’s wrong?” You said.

“What? Nothing’s wrong. Toby. Walt. What’s happening?” Paige said frantically.

“Y/N must have inhaled the ergot too and she’s now trapped in her false reality.” Toby explained.

“We got to get her out of there, Walter.”

Paige said, near tears, before falling silent as she watched you on the security camera. She saw you sit on a chair and converse with an imaginary Paige.

“Mum, what did I do? I’m sorry.” You said, tears forming in your eyes at your mother’s words.

“I told you, I don’t love you. Scorpion is my family. They’re geniuses and you’re not.”

“Mum, please.” Your voice broke, as you started to plead with her.

“I-I can’t watch this. I need to get her out of there. Y/N, listen to me. I am here!”

Paige ran up to the blast doors and started to bang on the reinforced steel. Her attempts, however, were futile, because she knew that the doors wouldn’t open until you, Cabe, Happy and Sly had completed your tasks.

“Paige, you have to keep it together.” Toby said.

“No, my daughter is living her worst fear and I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“I know. I want to help Happy too. But we can’t until we figure out what psychological baggage the fungus is unpacking.”

“And we might need to hurry because Sly is getting unsure of foot.”

Walter said as Paige returned to his side to see Sly having trouble keeping his balance.

“God, we need to get them out of there. The exposure seems extensive which means their blood vessels are being constricted, especially in the brain meaning-“

“Less blood flow. And less blood flow means less oxygen. And less oxygen means...coma.” Walter finished solemnly.

“We have to talk them lucid so they can finish their tasks. I’ll take Happy. Walt, you take Cabe. Ralph, you have your work cut out for you with Sly. And Paige-“

“I’ll help y/n. Y/N? Y/N, honey, if you can hear me, I need you to flip the switch on the panel next to you. Y/N?”

“Y/N!”

“I’m sorry, Mum. Please don’t yell. What did I do wrong?”

“I told you, you’re just not special so why should I waste my time with you?”

“Please, Mum. I’m sorry I’m not special enough. I’m sorry I’m not smart like everyone else. Please don’t send me away.”

Paige’s heart broke as she watched you cry on her screen.

“Y/N, I love you so much. You are special. I love you.” Paige cried, tears dropping down her face.

“Toby, it’s not working. I can’t get through to y/n!”

“Ralph and I may have come up with another idea. You need to go back to the point when these fears started and attack that seminal moment.”

“Okay, so she’s talking about not being smart enough. I can only guess that this started when I joined the team. Y/N? Baby, can you hear me?”

Paige’s voice softened as she spoke to you once more.

“Yes, Mum?” You replied, sniffling as your tears continued to fall down your face.

“Oh, honey. Just because you’re not a genius like the rest of these guys, doesn’t mean you’re not special.”

“But I’m not.”

“Y/N, yes, you are. You’ve been special since the moment you were born. Since the moment I first held you in my arms. You’re my baby, y/n. You are special in your own way.”

Your Mum grabbed your hand and held them to her heart.

“You feel that?”

“Y-Your heartbeat?” You asked, feeling the light repetitive beating under your palm.

“Yes. My heartbeat. More importantly, my heart. You are my heart, y/n. You have been for 18 years. I grew up with you. You made me into the person I am today. The person I am now. I love you so much.”

“Yes, you’re not as smart as Ralph or Walter or the rest of the team but neither am I. Y/N, you are bright, intelligent. You are twice the person I am. You care so much about everyone. Your heart is beautiful.”

Your mother gently dropped your hand in her lap and lifted her own to cradle your face.

“That’s what makes you special.” She moved to place a soft kiss on your forehead.

“Now, y/n. I’m already so proud of you but I need you to do one thing for me. I need you to turn the switch in front of you off and on again.”

Paige held her breath as she and Walter watched you slowly stand up on your shaky legs and walk over to the panel that had the power conduit switch attached to it.

“Done.” Your voice echoed on the security monitor.

“Good girl.”

“I’m kinda sleepy, Mum. I’m just going to take a quick nap.” Your voice quietened as you lay down on the floor.

“Uh, Toby. Y/N flipped the switch but she’s really sleepy and I can’t get her to wake up.”

“Oh god, Happy, Sly and Cabe are out too. They’re in comas. They need medical assistance stat or they will die.”

“Walter.” Paige whispered, unable to speak any louder due to fear of losing you.

“We can synthesize a treatment!”

Toby then explained the different seeds they needed to mix together to make the medicine whilst Ralph hacked the vault’s database to locate them.

Once Paige and Walter had manufactured oxygen tubes out of PVC pipes, they hastily made their way to the vault before stopping when they saw you unconscious on the ground.

Paige ran to your side, still holding her breath, and quickly checked for a pulse, relaxing slightly when she felt it, albeit it was weak, but it was still there. She ran her thumb against your cheek in a gentle caress and then followed Walter to the vault, passing the others, also unconscious, on their way.

Easily finding the required seeds, the duo made the medicine oil but when a chemical fire broke out, Walter stayed to put it out whilst Paige ran to give the oil to the rest of you.

She found Cabe first, then Happy and Sly. Once she had rendered them conscious, she ran off in pursuit of the Operations Centre where you were.

Carefully but quickly, she lifted your head to rest against her leg as she poured the oil beneath your tongue.

“Come on, sweetie. Wake up. Open your eyes. Please, God.” She murmured to herself.

You opened your eyes with some difficulty, wincing at the light above you.

“Mum? What happened?” You groaned, sitting up.

“Thank God, you’re okay. I thought I’d lost you.”

Ignoring your question, your Mum gathered you in her arms and hugged you tight against her.

“I love you so much, y/n.”

Hugging her back, you rested your head against the crook of her neck, “I love you too.”

“Guys, come on, we gotta go.”

You both looked up to see Happy standing at the door. With the help of your Mum, you stood up and she then grabbed your hand and you all ran back to the entrance.

                ✧── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

You had all safely arrived back home and managed to make it in time for Sly’s debate.

You sat in the chair next to Happy, slowly falling asleep, exhausted from the ordeals of the day.

Soon after you’d left the Vault and were on your way home, the grogginess of the poisonous fungus had fully left your system, allowing you to remember your hallucination. You’d barely said more than two words on the plane ride home, unsure of the right words to say to your Mum who had undoubtedly heard your fear.

“Hey, sweetie. Stay awake for a little while longer. We’re going home. Sly’s going to look after Ralph tonight.”

Your mother said, resting her hand on your shoulder to rouse you. You nodded in response and got up, following her to her car.

Similar to the plane, the car ride was silent. Not necessarily an awkward silence, but it was far from comfortable. You felt the constant glances your Mum gave you as she drove on the quiet roads. You noticed her lips part a few times too, as if she was about to say something but then stopped herself at the last moment.

Arriving home, your Mum unlocked the door and you made a beeline to your bedroom to get changed into your nightie. As you laid in your bed, you heard a soft knock on your door.

Inviting your Mum in, you saw she had changed too. She sat on your bed, the lamp providing some light in the room.

“Honey, can we talk?”

Not waiting for an answer, she got into the bed beside you and rested against the headboard.

“I want to talk about what happened earlier.”

There was no need for her to clarify what she meant.

“Do we have to?”

“Yes, y/n, we do. It broke my heart to see you cry today. And it hurt even more to hear that I was the reason why. I’ve never ever wanted to cause you any pain and the fact that I was a part of your deepest fear just-“

When her voice faltered, you looked up to see quiet tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Mum, I’m sorry.”

“Baby, you have nothing to apologise for. I’m sorry that you felt like you weren’t special. But I meant what I said back there. You are special in your own way. Yes, I love you and Ralph in different ways but you mean so much to me. I’m surrounded by geniuses all the time, and frankly, it gets tiring. So I’m glad I have you. You bring me back down to Earth. You’re my heart and soul, y/n.”

Not knowing the right words to say, you simply lay your head against your mother’s chest and hugged her close.

“I love you, Mum.”

“I love you too, baby. I always have and I always will.”

Soon enough, both of your tears stopped and you fell asleep in her arms, her hands gently stroking your hair as she cradled you against her.

You may not have been a genius but you were smart enough to realise that no matter what, your Mum would always love you.

[alistonjdrake]

June’s World Building Cheat Sheet: Part Two -Let’s Talk the Talk

*Again, more like 4 years but who’s counting?

Anyone who knows me knows that I love languages. I have a great appreciation for them but a very small brain and while I speak a little bit of a handful of them, I confess I’m only fluent in English. But honestly, that might not even be true. Language is my favorite part of creating fantasy worlds. Let’s start this one with a short rant.

Punch the Common Tongue in the Face

The “common tongue” appears in fantasy novels as that language that everyone speaks. Everyone. Where did they learn it? Who created it? What defines it as the common language of all people, even when the two nations might be on opposite sides of the world and never interact? I don’t know but I’ve always hated it. I am NOT talking about a lingua franca which is a common language developed between native speakers whose languages are different. Consider them like languages of trade or what might develop on a border but like say if one develops between Escan and the Kells in my setting, it probably wouldn’t be so common that someone in Slovy (very far away) would know it. Lingua francas are very valid though. Would love to see more of them. Absolutely fuck the common tongue.

What Language You Speak

Languages are very important. Beyond...y’know...being the way we communicate with each other. It also dictates how and even where we might stand in society. It’ll give clues as to where we’re from and given that some words exist in languages but not in others, it’ll also influence how we relate to the world around us. I juggle a lot of languages in my setting and mentioning languages or how many your character may speak can say a lot about them. It can even clue into the current state of the world.

A thing I think about almost every time I write a scene is “what language are my characters speaking?” When I have a lot of characters from several different countries and I can say for sure “oh they’re speaking Escan” it says a lot more about the setting than one would think.  or not 

Like. Alright. Everyone in the room is speaking Escan but only one person is a native speaker. Why? Well, Escan is an Empire, it’s taken over a lot of land, they’ve set up a lot of schools and such for the sole purpose of having their language become dominant. Because of Escan’s prominence as a worldly power, their language then became synonymous throughout the world as being “educated” or high-class some a group of people who aren’t from there might speak it because it’s more respected. Mentioning what language my characters are speaking is such a small detail but it adds to the world's development. Your characters aren’t speaking the language you’re typing in. They’re speaking their own. (I mean...unless your story takes place in the real world then I guess...disregard this).

Some nations had court languages. Languages that were not native to the country itself but was considered pompous enough to only be spoken by rich folk and it’s a detail I love to steal. Or think about what came first. The language or the country? Do certain languages have other implications rather than being just a form of communication? (i.e languages used only for holy texts). Are there dead languages? Ones really hard to learn? What do characters do when presented with someone who does not speak the same language as them? Would they expect them to be able to? Does anyone flex how many languages they can speak? 

I personally love having multilingual characters at least to live through them and also because there’s a lot of world building you can get away with by just...adding it to the conversation. Which brings me to a point I want to mention but that’s better left to my next fancy header.

How You Speak

This means dialects, accents, word choice, you name it. This stuff all seems so obvious in the real world. I’m from New England. I speak differently than my mom who lives in Georgia. These are things we all notice and talk about now but sometimes gets overlooked in writing. 

I mentioned court languages above. Let’s go back to the Escana Empire. Let’s take a look at the capital city of Graza and our main character, Prince Argus. 

Argus has lived in Graza is whole life. His native language is Escan. In one scene he meets another Escana citizen who grew up in a different town, is not a member of the nobility/royal class and she says she can hardly understand him despite speaking the same language. 

This is because the people who rule the empire are want to sound a certain way. They like to spell their words a certain way. They even speak and pronounce some of their words a way that’s not common in the rest of the country. Their accents are obviously different. Now. Is it a hugely important detail? Probably not but knowing that people in Graza speak the same language differently than the people in the middle of nowhere adds something to my setting. It gives the defined rules of “everyone speaks the same language I made up” more breathing room and it makes it feel like there’s this rich history behind these decisions that brought Argus to speaking his native language in a different way than this character speaks her’s.

Characters should speak differently. Not just in dialogue but it could help you write dialogue that grounds them more in their setting if you know certain intentions and choices behind their word choice. The detail I wanted to mention was in a scene where a character had to translate something she noted the way people who speak Geg (another precious fictional language) refer to themselves in a way that seems arrogant to others because it’s pronounced and spelled a similar way that they’d refer to their monarch. But you’d only see someone from the upper classes do this. Someone who works in a shop and owns like 2 pairs of shoes would not do this. Or maybe they would if they were particularly feeling themselves that day. 

The way we speak our languages can be a great factor to show the specifics of a setting. It gives an air of variety to something you never actually have to show (can you write out your language's alphabet and write full sentences of it? Sure but you don’t have to). And even so much as mentioning what languages character choose to speak might say a lot about them and the world they live in and could also just continue to have an impact on your world. Going back to Geg, there’s two forms of it. Lowlander Geg and Highlander Geg. Highlander Geg actually sounds a lot more like a language that isn’t Geg at all and it actually upsets a lot of the people who speak Lowlander Geg. Or How Escan is very close to another language, which shares similarities to yet another language and Argus translates to the second language first whenever he needs to write or speak in the third. 

How I Create Languages

 A lot of people seem to find this daunting. When I tell people there’s at least 12 in my setting they act as if I’ve done something impressive. I haven’t. 

So. I want to create a language. Usually, I have an idea of what I want it to sound like and what I want to base it off of first. I have a few things I can string together to create the rest of the language, and by that I mean a few other names and words I’ll end up sprinkling into the story (and the rare full sentence) to give it a sense of realness. 

It’s important of course to keep these inspirations consistent unless the language has since developed outside influences or if no word in the base language exists for the word that’s being borrowed. I don’t dive too deep in the history of the language’s creation but there are distinct sounds I usually keep in mind. What sounds or spelling variations are common? What came first? Written or spoken? How has their language influenced the culture? (Do they have certain sayings, a focus on its written form, etc)

Speaking of, we’ll start on cultures and such next. Which will likely be or longest saga and might dive back into language but I’m not worried about that now. 

Tagging interested parties: @emofairykei​ @asablehart​ @space-cadead​ @mirror-of-too-many-books​ @shattered-starrs​

[faithhopedreamslove]

The 100 7x10 thoughts

Phew, what an episode! Normally, I write my reviews after a few days of the episode airing, but my brain is going a mile a minute with this one! The theme of this episode was about the soul of humanity - what makes us human, whether love is a weakness or a strength, when the ends justify the means and when they don’t.  This played out through multiple scenes in this episode. I can see JRoth and the writers starting to weave the final threads of this show together as they said they would, coming back to the larger themes that the show intended to explore.

- “Get the flock out of here.” This line was hilarious and deserves its own bullet point.

- I love seeing strategic Clarke back in the saddle. She was in her element negotiating with Cadogan and leading the group huddle with her people. 

- Echo not really being brainwashed by Cadogan’s clan wasn’t a surprise. Her wanting vengeance also wasn’t a surprise (more on that later...)

- Murphy taking care of Madi was the scene I didn’t know I needed. Murphy’s kindness with children, his wanting to protect the weaker faithful Sanctumites - honestly, he’s probably the character who has shown the most growth in the entire show. For that reason, I’m so afraid the writers are going to kill him off - the cockroach who always fought for his own survival finally sacrificing himself for others - the irony practically writes itself. But I really hope they surprise me and let him live happily ever after with Emori and have lots of kids of his own that he can be protective of.

- Speaking of irony, Cadogan preaches to his flock that they must abandon all emotional attachments and sacrifice their identities for the greater whole. Yet, he hasn’t given up his love for Callie or his desire to connect with her again. 

- I loved Clarke and Octavia’s reunion. It was so true to character for both of them. They didn’t need many words to express the pain that they both felt. They connected - friend to friend, woman to woman, leader to leader, and two people who loved Bellamy dearly and knew it. 

- The moment between Octavia and Miller was well done also. It felt like they were finally putting Bloodreina to rest, once and for all.

- The conversation between Diyoza and Hope was extremely powerful and ties to the theme that I mentioned earlier. Diyoza is trying to save Hope’s soul. Diyoza was considered a terrorist on Earth - she killed people for the causes she believed in, likely innocent people among them. And then you have Hope telling her that there are no innocent people here (an echo of what Maya said about Mount Weather), and the horror on Diyoza’s face says it all. She sees her daughter walking down the same path she did, and she doesn’t want that for her.

- Cadogan and Gabriel’s conversation continued this theme. Cadogan believes that humans need to give up their humanity to win the final war and transcend; Gabriel believes there can be no transcendence once you’ve sacrificed your humanity. They also touched on the theme introduced to us by Lexa - love is weakness. Another instance of the writers tying threads together. Cadogan points out that love is to be betrayed, to be hurt. I loved Gabriel’s response: You can’t fight a war for the soul of the human race with an inhuman army.

- Clarke leading everyone out of the room to let Octavia decide what to do with Levitt on her own was a beautiful moment of connection between these two. Again, leader to leader, woman to woman, these two respect and understand each other. It was a nod to their shared history.

- I love that they gave Jordan and Niylah some screen time, and had Jordan make an important discovery based on his cultural background. It confirmed what I’ve suspected all along - that the supposed “war to end all wars” is a metaphor of some kind. Human beings have always been their own worst enemies. I believe that to transcend means to win the war against oneself, against one’s baser nature and to rise above for the greater good. So it makes sense that it would be a test. Now the question is, who will take this test - Bellamy or Clarke? Because let’s face it - it’s going to be one of our leads. Or will they find a way to take it together, and that’s how the show ends?

- Now getting to the fight between Indra and Shidheida. Normally, I hate the flashing scenes between Sanctum and Bardo. But this time, Sanctum truly tied with the theme of the episode. The fight between Shidheida and Indra isn’t just a conclave, it’s also a fight for the soul of humanity. Shidheida represents the absolute worst of human nature - he’s a murderous, power-hungry leader who will trample over anyone to rise to the top. Indra represents the soul - she was willing to die herself, but she could not allow a child, who represents human innocence, to die at Shidheida’s hands. It’s telling that one of Shidheida’s loyal followers questioned him later as to whether he also means to kill the children too - I think this foreshadows Wonkru eventually overthrowing Shidheida and killing him because they also desire to do better, to be better.

- And hats off to Madi jumping in like the badass Clarke raised her to be. She knew she didn’t have a chance of winning, but she refused to kneel to this murderer. And she wanted to give Indra a chance to win, sacrificing herself. I love this child.

- Now we get to the *big* scene - Echo nearly killing off an entire civilization. There was SO much that happened in this one scene. It was the culmination of what this episode has been building up to - saving the soul of humanity and doing better. It’s no coincidence that they’ve been paralleling this episode to Mount Weather. Echo is about to do what Clarke did - kill an entire bunker full of people. But as she rightly pointed out, Clarke did it because she was trying to save the people she loved. Echo is doing it purely for vengeance. This is a key distinction because over the years, Bellamy and Clarke have judged themselves the most harshly for everything they’ve done, even though they’ve always tried to keep their people’s (and sometimes the human race’s) best interests at heart. But they came to Sanctum vowing to do better, i.e. transcend. Echo has not been able to transcend. Yes, her character grew on the Ring - Raven referenced that. But since she left the Ring, and especially since she came to Bardo, she has reverted to her old self. She is killing people without remorse, and she’s willing to kill an entire bunker full of unsuspecting people to take revenge. The writers have set her up as a direct contrast to Bellamy and Clarke, who are trying to do better, and Echo, who isn’t.

- And now for the dialogue that has the Becho and Bellarke fans in a tizzy. Clarke makes an attempt to stop Echo, using her own experience to warn Echo that there’s no coming back from something like this (she may have forgotten that Echo had a hand in killing her people at Mount Weather, but that’s beside the point.)  And then Clarke pulls out her final card, the one that she thinks will finally sway Echo - “This is not what Bellamy would have wanted.” To which Echo responds, “You have no idea what Bellamy wanted.” Echo claimed that Bellamy would be seeking revenge just as she was, if she, Clarke, or Octavia had been killed. But here’s the rub - we as viewers know that Bellamy wouldn’t do that, because he didn’t do it when he thought Russell had killed Clarke in the last season. He wanted to take revenge with every fiber of his being, but he wanted to honor what Clarke would have wanted. He transcended his base desire for vengeance. And Clarke knows this, because she saw it all through Josephine’s memories.

- Raven’s speech to Echo had so many layers to it. It makes me wish that we as viewers got to see some of their time on the Ring, because I feel like we’re being told to swallow the fact that they’re like sisters when we haven’t seen any foundation for that relationship. Just as we were told to swallow Bellamy and Echo’s relationship. Unknowingly, Raven is making the distinction between the heart and the head Bellamy Blake. Heart!Bellamy killed 300 Grounders, because he was hurting over Gina’s death and Clarke’s disappearance. Head!Bellamy is who they spent 6 years on the Ring with, and who came back down to Earth for a brief amount of time. That’s who Echo fell in love with. But unbeknownst to her and everyone else, Heart!Bellamy came back at the end of season 6, when he nearly sacrificed everyone and everything just to save Clarke. After not taking vengeance and trying to secure safety for his people, because that’s what Clarke would have wanted - him using his head - he threw all that to the wind and went back to leading with his heart when he realized he had a chance to save her life. So I have a feeling that the Bellamy that Echo loves will not be the one who returns to them, but it will be Clarke’s Bellamy.

- Echo’s breakdown at the end made me sad, both for her and for Clarke. Echo clearly does love Bellamy and is deeply grieving for him. Yes, she has spent more time with him than Clarke has, and they were in a relationship. She’s going to grieve him, no doubt. But Clarke hasn’t had a chance to break down yet. She just lost her mother, and now Bellamy, who was her partner, her family, her soulmate. But she has to keep it together to keep leading her people and make sure they get back safely. I’m so tired of this poor woman not getting a chance to deal with her emotions in anything resembling a healthy manner.

- Oh, Diyoza. There’s so much to say about this one brief scene. She made the ultimate sacrifice to save Hope’s soul. She knew there would be no coming back from this for her daughter if she killed all those people. Her final words to her daughter: “Don’t waste this, little one. Be better than me,” were so damn heartbreaking. This was the crescendo in the point that the writers have been making this whole episode - that humanity has a chance to finally do better, if only we’re willing to take it.

- And the preview for next week’s episode deserves a bullet point, because BELLAMY! Oh, the parallels I’m hoping we’ll see with Bellamy being all alone on an entire planet, for who knows how long. I just hope and pray we also get a Bellarke reunion next week by the end of the episode, because it’s about damn time.

Overall, I was prepared to hate this episode if it didn’t have Bellamy in it, and I surprisingly found myself really liking it. The story is finally moving forward (no more flashbacks!), and the writers are pulling together the threads of the story that they’ve been telling for the past 7 seasons. My one hesitation is that I’m not sure that the writers will make Bellarke canon, and honestly that will hugely impact how I feel about the show when it’s over. Not just because I’m a hopeless romantic, but because I will truly consider it bad storytelling if those two don’t end up together after all of this build-up. I guess we have 6 more episodes left to find out!

[httplovecraft1890]

The Theme of Free Will in Yandere Simulator

So in the past, I’ve speculated at length about what some broad story points might be for Yandere Simulator and while I’ve revised my opinion on the significance of a character like Fun Girl (her statement of “YOU BELIEVE EVERYTHING I SAY. I WONDER WHAT ELSE I CAN TRICK YOU INTO BELIEVING?” feels a bit embarrassing in hindsight) I do think there are broad strokes that can be taken from what I wrote and applied to newer story points that’ve been shared with us since. You can consider everything below a refinement of those original ideas, I suppose. Let’s start by going back and revisiting Saikou Corp. Note: some of this information doesn’t have a specific source other than vague recollections aside from what YandereDev has said on Twitter, Reddit, etc. so apologies in advance.

What, exactly, do we know about Saisho Saikou? If we’re taking Fun Girl less as an actual plot point herself and more as a vehicle to deliver exposition to the audience then we can summarize a fair few things:

He was drafted into the service of the Imperial Japanese Army at age 17 in the closing days of the war. This retroactively confirms his date of birth was some time in 1928, meaning Saisho is 91 in 2019.

Saisho was confined to kitchen duty after being transferred to Okinawa at first. This changed after a bomb tore his dorm apart and he was trapped with the corpses of his friends for hours until he was rescued by other troops. During the attempted retreat after their rescue operation he called them cowards for wanting to fall back in the face of American forces. The memories of being stuck there with his dead friends still haunts him.

After being moved to a bunker, he was under constant stress from air raids and a chronic lack of sleep as well as malnourishment. When the U.S. finally found their hiding spot he tried to pull a pin on a grenade but it failed to detonate; he was promptly captured afterwards.

- From the June 1, 2018 Fun Girl text files We know little of his life after the war at the moment other than in 1946 he was reduced to running the company that would become Saikou Corporation out of his family’s garage (much like the company it parodies, Sony, was forced to do at first in our world by its creators). Given his later characterization I suspect that he probably ruthlessly took advantage of the breaking of up so many of the zaibatsu (large financial or industrial conglomerates owned by specific families; Mitsubishi is an example) by the American occupying forces following the war. In the decades following his country’s defeat Saisho created an enormous megacorporation that makes most of the consumer products seen in Yandere Simulator’s universe. As Headmaster Shuyona later relates to us, once he puts his mind to something he never takes no for an answer. Aside from the obvious wealth aspect that it grants him, though, what else is at work in his mind?

Like so many others, the defeat of Japan in the war simply unimaginable to him and, as far as he’s concerned, even if everyone else surrendered he never did.

The brainwashing and propaganda of the early Showa period never left him; as more and more Western influence began to creep into Japan, the more he began to freak out about it. Progressive politics and democracy are things he utterly despises.

Unsurprisingly, his reactionary politics have a racial component to them. For Saisho, the only people fit to rule the world are the Japanese and that if only everyone else realized it, there’d be a worldwide utopia. Though not outright confirmed, this also goes some way to explaining the almost eugenics-like obsession with ‘purity’ in the modern Saikou clan.

Even so, probably through careful PR stunts and knowing when to keep his mouth shut, Saisho’s worst beliefs aren’t known to the public.

- From the December 1, 2018 build’s Fun Girl files

It’s with some surprise then we know for a fact that Saisho wanted his firstborn daughter to inherit the company after he was ready to retire and only kept his son, Megami’s dad, as a backup. Despite the grueling and inhuman training that each Saikou generation seems to be put through, it seems that Saisho did genuinely love his daughter based on what Headmaster Shuyona confirms in Headmaster’s Tape #1. While this seems incongruous at first with his far right politics I think it’s helpful to see it less as a belief in equality between men and women, but instead that since she was a Saikou, she was inherently a cut above others because of that. Not many fathers would have schools built for their children in their honor if something wasn’t genuine, I think.

Megami’s aunt is a very interesting character at the moment. We know nothing about her other than the fact that she was first in line for the proverbial throne and hasn’t spoken to Saisho in 30 years because of him disowning her after they got into an argument. Fun Girl seems to hint that the conversation revolved around her trying to remember a supposed sister of hers (i.e., her) but this might just be her trolling us all. I think there’s something else very important given that time frame we also need to keep in mind: the date. What’s 30 minus 2019? 1989.

If we assume for a moment that Akademi opening its doors in 1985 was her first year, then following traditional Japanese high school length, it stands to reason her graduation occurred in 1988. The following year, Ryoba’s murder of the girl who was almost certainly Headmaster Shuyona’s daughter must’ve sent serious shock waves through Buraza Town. Megami’s aunt would’ve probably followed the proceedings with a lot of interest and I think a reason she parted ways with Saisho is because Saikou almost certainly tipped the scales in favor of Ryoba during her trial against the journalist. Why? Because of the country’s insanely high conviction rate. It’s greater than 99%. You’d practically need a miracle to get through it all and make the person who tried to take you to court look like a monster for doing so - something we know she pulled off. It’s not something that she could’ve done on her own without money changing hands or judges being properly blackmailed and flipping the media circus around. Headmaster’s Tape #6 also confirms that by 1999 Ryoba had seemingly regular contact with Saisho and Megami’s dad but it’s easy to extrapolate that they must’ve been speaking with one another prior to then; after all, just because Shuyona didn’t know about it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen (it doesn’t help him either that Saisho almost certainly sees him as a useful idiot). Learning a dark secret like this about your own family, coupled with the hell they put you through growing up, would break anyone and I think it’s a good explanation of why she left. If we accept that Saikou Corporation are Ryoba’s and Mr. Aishi’s employers then several things fall into place - why they haven’t ever had to move, why they live in a well off neighborhood, how they can simply up and leave for 10 weeks at a time to a foreign country - and the picture comes into focus. One of the things that Fun Girl seems to confirm is that Saisho’s love for Japan is equally as strong as what Ayano feels for Senpai. Knowing what we know about how the Aishi family curse seems to work, that’s pretty bone chilling. Coupled with every other horrible thing he thinks, combined with his vast wealth and influence, and it’s a recipe for disaster. The question becomes, however, what the point of all of this is. What could a murderous young woman possibly offer one of the most powerful companies in the world? Her body and mind. Stick with me here. Pretend you’re a scientist working for Saikou Corporation and you’re tasked with finding out what makes Ryoba tick; we’ll ignore for the moment any possible supernatural angle that the story might develop to explain their condition. The Aishi ‘curse’ seems to be a psychological condition, effecting the maternal line, that results in its carriers possessing severely stunted emotional growth, antisocial personality traits, flat affects, monotone voices, etc. This begins to alter in the host, however, an intermittent time after puberty in their late teens when, through various circumstances, meeting an individual causes an unknown psychological trigger to occur, acting as a kind of drug that for a time rewires the brain to enter a euphoria-like state wherein they begin to function on a neurotypical level, but only in contact with the source of this change (19 being the median age when an Aishi woman typically marries their victim). What if you could isolate the factors that cause such a thing to occur? 30 years is a long time to study something, after all, and decades’ worth of research must’ve meant some kind of breakthrough. Assuming that Saikou Corporation is like any other megacorporation in fiction then they’re sure to have their hands in medical technology. Imagine taking the research you’ve done on a so-called ‘yandere’ and began to try recreating it. After all, the idea of being able to use certain external symbols or things as stimuli is practically dystopian in its usefulness. Like, say, introducing a corporate symbol and ensuring its customers only felt a sense of satisfaction when buying a certain product.

Let’s go further than that. What if you could engender the same feelings of emptiness, followed by unbridled joy, when looking at something as simple as a flag? Not only could you brainwash an entire nation, but any other place on earth that allows the services you provide as a global company...

From this perspective, the “why?” of Saikou Corporation involving themselves with Ryoba becomes evident. After coming to this piece of speculation, if it is the case, something else also really clicked for me. Two things, actually. The first is that it’d give new meaning to the speech Megami tells you on the Skype chat you can have with her at school:

Is someone there?...Ah! It's you...Why have you come here? Have you come here to taunt me? Do you even know who I am? I know who you are. I know WHAT you are. My father won't allow me to attend school while you are..."active". He has a reason for tolerating your presence at this school. I don't. You are a vulgar creature that is only allowed to exist because you serve a purpose. If it was my decision, then every last one of you would be exterminated. Have fun while you can. If you and I ever cross paths...you're going to have a bad time.

The purpose is to further Saikou Corporation’s knowledge of the yandere condition and to find further ways to exploit it. Megami’s dad is in on this scheme and has purposefully kept Megami off campus while Ayano is on her murder spree as a way to keep her safe. What’s more, Ayano isn’t the only yandere that’s active either. Such a statement is more revealing than you might imagine it to be too. I think it’s pretty accepted at this point that the journalist’s wife was a yandere herself. He tells us as much in Mysterious Tape #6

But as soon as we met, she wanted to spend every waking moment with me. She wouldn't let me out of her sight, and got possessive if another woman so much as looked at me.

I quickly began to depend on her for everything. It wasn't long before I couldn't live without her. I certainly wasn't in any state to take care of myself... I was like an adult-sized baby. Helpless and vulnerable. Who knows...maybe that's what she was attracted to. Maybe she just wanted to experience the sensation of owning a person. Maybe she wanted to keep a human pet.

Isn’t it odd how she showed up in his life only a year after his ordeal with Ryoba in court? How his marriage to her didn’t involve them leaving the town at all? If I were him, I would’ve probably left it behind a long time ago, especially if it brought up memories as traumatic as what he’d experienced (and the fact he was directly threatened by Ryoba too). But instead his marriage and alcoholism caused him to never get out until it was too late. The timing seems... convenient, doesn’t it? Almost as if it were planned.

It wouldn’t be hard, I think, to sic some girl afflicted with the condition on someone either in hopes they’d ‘imprint’ on them or alternatively try to induce that very same response in them somehow. It’s a safe bet, again, considering how long Saikou Corp. would’ve had to pour over the data they’d collected. There surely would’ve been theories on how it happened and they’d be unethical enough to try it on human test subjects. So if they could do that, who might it happen to?

I think that an overarching narrative theme in-game is going to be that of free will. Let’s consider for a moment both Megami and Ayano as parallels to one another. Both are incredibly driven women who will stop at nothing to get what they desire - order for Megami, Senpai for Ayano - with familial histories of treachery and abuse. If Megami’s life has been lain down before her without her having much say in the matter, how does this similar struggle reflect in Ayano? Arguably, Megami could have everything she ever materially wanted in life just as Ayano has in the form of the feelings Senpai gives her but the issue goes deeper. If the price for Megami was having every moment planned out for her, is it not possible that the feelings Ayano has are just as manufactured? I don’t mean that in the ‘love at first sight’ kind of way; I’m questioning if the meeting with Senpai was something that was set up for her to go through, a test to see if this poor schmuck could be the thing that would let them begin to move onto a new test subject to put them through their glorified obstacle course (Akademi). Not to mention the fact that it essentially occurs right after Ryoba and Mr. Aishi leave for America is an immediate red flag. If Megami is trying to stop Ayano, though, then it must mean that she’s rebelling against the wishes of Saikou Corporation itself. After all, they don’t want something that they’ve put years of investment into slipping through the fingers if they can help it. The end game she has in mind is anyone’s guess at this point but I suspect it will be the purge of anything related to the above secret project. As such, there’s going to have to be someone to offer us an alternative to bringing down the current iteration of Saikou - and I think we also have an inkling of who’s going to aid us in bringing her down.

Kencho is emblematic of the status quo. He desperately desires his father’s approval (the one who’s likely continuing his father’s wishes and pursuing this whole endeavor to begin with) and will do anything to gain it. If Megami steps out of line too much, he’s certain to know that means she’ll fall from grace. He’s only been prevented from doing anything about his current situation because he’s only second best and hurting Megami would upset his dad. However, if she were to have an unfortunate accident... well, it isn’t as if he could be ignored anymore. In exchange, I imagine he’ll give Ayano exactly what her mother had: a nice house, a life untouched by anyone who’d take Taro or Taeko away from her, and a way for the two of them to have children if you go the latter route. All Ayano has to do is just give in to being a pawn like her mother did, like Kencho did, and like his father did. Or she can, at last, have the first real choice she’s ever had in her life by siding with Megami and tearing it all down (with Senpai still the promised reward in exchange for her help, certainly...).

[kuwarter]

Venom (2018): In Defense of Critics (Spoilers!)

Venom (2018) has been out for about a week now in the United States, and already I’ve noticed a lot of divisive opinions on whether or not the movie is a steaming pile of hot garbage.

To be fair I can see both sides of the dumpster on this one, as the film was relatively entertaining and had some funny moments, but there was also a darker side. Nay, a dumber side.

Please allow me to take you on a journey through my brain as I sat in a theater watching this movie.

Side Note: I’m not a professional critic, I’m merely a monster-fucker who spent $15.00 to sit through what amounts to a soft-core fetish film for 2 1/2 hours. These are merely my opinions and hopefully won’t affect your ability to enjoy Venom (2018).

The Good:

1. I loved Venom’s design and his overall relationship with Eddie Brock. He had a couple humorous lines and his general demeanor was entertaining to watch.

2. The setting was wonderful. San Francisco was bright and colorful, and a breath of fresh air considering most of the Marvel movies are set in New York. (I love you, New York, but there’s only so many times I can see Times Square in a film before the pandering becomes too much to handle.)

3. The acting was decent and Eddie Brock had good chemistry with everyone else in the film.

4. Sony ADR’d every mispronunciation of “Symbiote” in the film and replaced it with the globally accepted pronunciation like God intended.

5. Anne’s new boyfriend wasn’t a tool.

The Bad:

1. The Symbiotes’ reason for wanting to take over Earth didn’t make any god damn sense.

It’s explained that the Symbiote race is flying through space on an asteroid, and Riot intends to go back into space, gather up the other (millions) of Symbiotes, and bring them to Earth to bond with humans and slurp up their insides like a 7-11 slushie on a hot day.

This had me scratching my head for two reasons:

A. Space is big. Like, REALLY big. How long were the Symbiotes cruising along on this asteroid before they were found by astronauts? Did they need to eat while on the asteroid? If not, why the flying fuck does it matter so much that they use up all of Earth’s resources? Is it just for shits and giggles?

B. From the exposition in the film it was explained that the Symbiotes could live just fine without a host in a low-oxygen environment (i.e. space). It was only when they were brought to Earth with all of it’s sweet, sweet oxygen that they had to bond with humans. Why even come back to Earth, then? Just stay in space and continue your asteroid rave party.

2. Two Symbiotes were killed off for no reason whatsoever.

The movie tried to explain this away by stating that only the “perfect host” (such as Eddie “Tight Ass” Brock) could fully bond with a genetically-chosen Symbiote. However, Riot jumps from human-to-human on a magical journey from Malaysia to San Francisco and doesn’t seem to give two shits about the need for a “perfect host.” He’s able to use his temporary hosts’ bodies with no trouble what-so-ever, and can even use his Symbiotic weapons while bonded with this bunch of randos.

So then why the fuck couldn’t the other Symbiotes bond with their human guinea pigs, bust down the glass walls with their alien strength, and get the fuck out of Dodge? It don’t make no sense, fam.

C. Venom’s character development occurs over two scenes and comes out of nowhere.

Venom begins the movie stating that he intends to ride Eddie around like a pack mule until he has a chance to get back up to space and gather the other Symbiotes for a rousing game of “Take Over Earth.” He clearly doesn’t think much of Earth, and says as much throughout the first half of the film. Then all of a sudden Venom sees the San Francisco skyline and decides that, no wait, he actually likes Earth and wants to stay with his fellow Loser, Eddie.

Now, I don’t know if maybe there were more scenes of Venom slowly growing to appreciate Earth culture that were cut from the film. If so, Sony needs to be slapped about the face and put in a corner for a solid 30 minute time-out.

THIS IS NOT GOOD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, SONY. YOU CAN’T JUST HAVE CHARACTERS CHANGE THEIR MINDS ON A WHIM - THEY HAVE TO HAVE A REASON TO DO IT.

D. Too many plot conveniences

There are multiple scenes in this film where the characters do things that no normal human being would do, simply because the film needs to move them from point A to point B.

For example: Anne catches Eddie de-Venomfying and instead of taking him to a secured government facility to rid him of his alien parasite, she takes him to a normal human hospital.

Yeah, that’ll take care of it.

Venom is also totally cool with this idea, despite having already been to a hospital and experiencing an MRI first hand, which very clearly hurts him. Why? Why would he do this, Sony? Venom should be yelling at Eddie that they can’t go to the hospital, not encouraging it.

And speaking of Eddie, he and his canonical alien lover have their studio-mandated Low Point at the end of Act 2, where Eddie rids himself of Venom and leaves our precious Symbiote to die alone in his own puddle of teeth and misery. Eddie then walks out of the MRI room, down the hospital hallway, and is immediately kidnapped by a bunch of evil goons who happened to know exactly where he would be at that point in time.

Okay.

Venom then teams up with Anne for 0.2 seconds, makes out hardcore with Eddie, and then they’re back to being Best Host and Goo Alien 2k18.

Wow Sony, it’s almost like they didn’t need to be separated in the first place.

Fancy. That.

In Conclusion:

My rating: 5/10

The plot was dumb and the writing was hackneyed and lazy, but Venom was adorable and the action was entertaining enough to keep my attention for the entire run time. I might even be willing to watch it again, but only on Blu-Ray so I can skip the first hour and jump right to Venom’s appearance.

[maewestside]

LIVE! SHOTS! FIRED! Or Each Day I Wake Up Drownin (Ten Ways to Combat the #Bot45 Blues)… by heidi siegmund cuda, aka @maewestside

I once asked a tv reporter in a local market how she handled the sturm und drang of the nightly gore. She said, “Beats being the guy with the machete in his head.”

Point. Well. Taken.

Bleading meant leading, til that one fateful day, the sales guys who’d taken over the front office determined vapidity sold better in the 18 to 49 demo$ than even the quadruple axe murder bits, and by then, new$ had already lost its way. Truth wasn’t factored into the rating$.

LIVE. SHOTS. FIRED.

A famed erstwhile entertainment reporter said she knew there was trouble afoot when each night, she had the lead story in a local hourlong newscast. During sweeps.

As live shots at death scenes and backlots became normcore, and the procession of vapidity, with occasional interludes of gore, is what passed for news, brains suffer dry rot.

So here we are.

MEAN STREETS

While admiring the dewy mug of a very young Harvey Keitel in “Mean Streets,” his enlightened thuggy character Charlie utters these words: “You don’t f**k around with the infinite.”

Do you hear that Scamalot? That’s the thunderous gallop of karma approaching, catching up to each and every player that figgered he could game the system with impunity, while the Great Unwashed was none the wiser. Chaaa.

With the outing of each pervy anchorhack, a Very Vichy MSM, and digital CEO$ who bent over to the pick up the rubles from enemie$ both foreign and domestic while profiting off the mining of our data, things are looking clearer.

Not.

Time keeps on slipping… slipping… slipping… Kochdrip… drip… drip… drip. The Un-Mercer-ful bot and weaponized our data… Churchy Stinklair is buying more local tv new$. Our media is owned by churchy billionaire misanthrope$ and run by corporations.

REAL FAKE NEW$

But let’s make no mistake about it: when Scamalot cries “Fake”… that’s on a whole notha level.

Fringe Media still flatters the Real Fake President because it’s owned and operated by those who installed him as a pukey puppet #burpfarthurl. Fux und Blackbart profited bigly off the ascent of Dummkopf45, but alas, so did the rest of the media which is why it’s swi$hy. Sometimes excellent, but mostly shit. Money vs Truth… a conumdrum.

EACH DAY I WAKE UP DROWNIN’

Having spent the holiday weekend mining the brains of intellectuals, activists and good cooks to combat the blues of our country’s Current State of Fuckery, I’ve comprised a list of Ten Things that may help those who wake up to this shite each day and feel like they’re drowning, i.e., sensitive to the crushing enormity of the labor of Democracy as real fake new$ pounds our shores, while Really Bad Men (and a Few Ponzi Women) disrupt all that is good about our country to line their own pocket$ and the pocket$ of those who put them in power #sad pffft.

TEN THINGS TO PONDER AS YOU BATTLE THE KLEPTOCRACY IDIOCRACY:

1. BACK TO THE FUTURE How to End the Oil + War Economy Now and Clean Up Our Air in About 100 Years: Use Fossil Fuel exclusively for commercial air travel. We’ve known how crushing greenhouse gases are on our environment for decades but we’ve allowed penny loafered lobbyists paid for by Big Oil a seat at the science table. Enough.

2. ELECTRIC AVENUE In two decades, electric cars will be normcore. Start now. Working from home and/or giving up your wheels best thing you can do for the environment; monitoring your own carbon footprint, big step.

3. SEEK REAL NEWS Until the Fourth Estate is Truly Unshackled to Do Good Work Always, Rather Than Just Spotty Sometimes, learn who owns your news outlets. For example, the Guardian is an excellent source for American news (it’s run by a trust and doesn’t need to run truth past the sales dept) and follow our twitter crew at @foxycuda and @tahoesquaw1… while Tahoe curates the critical news from around the world and finds the truth within Vichym MSM, I try to explain its import in verbiage suitable for a postmod CyberRevo. (Thus the comparisons to Charles Dickens and Hunter S. Thompson, for which I am grateful, but also blame Anita Loos, Dorothy Parker and Lenny Bruce for illiciting my pen-to-jugular style.) We are at war for truth and that requires wit in the form of better catchphrases i.e. #treasonsgreetings

4. WE ARE THE SANE MAJORITY We, the Sane Majority, are constantly told our countrymen and women are devolving into apey, when in fact, the Sane Majority is kind, and da small base comprised of the greedy, the churchy, and those who haven’t gotten off their block of un-opportunity. Those numbers are shrinky dinking as truth grows from the concrete street art. But you wouldn’t know cuz it Vichy MSM is still writing puffpieces on Not-Zees and the various Thug$ of Scamalot, while terrifying us with continual closeups of dictators, including our own. Move along. Or just join the Fringe Apey and watch the reboot of “Jersey Shore” as your Democracy burns and more journos die globally whilst trying to warn us of fascism #sad pffft… a better idea: flip the House in 2018 and #nullify45.

5. MAFIA STATE OF MIND Thank you to Tahoesquaw1, who wouldn’t rest until she knew I watched all three Zembla docs on the Fuckery of Dummkopf45 (“The Dangerous Friends of Donald Trump”), and a new doc on the radiation poisoning of UK citizen Alexander Litvinenko (”Hunting the KGB Killers”), whose dying image serves as a reminder that radiation sandwiches are coming if we don’t speak truth to power collectively. I feel compelled to be among the twactivists that remind the kindly people who are being brainwashed by Fux und Blackbart und Churchy Stincklair, that dictator$ and anchorhack$ aren’t our friends. We are combatting evil in the form of well-OIL-ed infotainment amplified by Bots preprogrammed by enemies both foreign and domestic, and it’s leading to a major identity crisis of the churchy, who give pederasts a pass if it serves their tax bracket or real fake narrative. Peel it back and seek the truth. Eyes wide open. 

6. SING TOGETHER Who among you doesn’t have a brazen friend with a guitar? I joined Artivists LA and activist Samuel Curtis for some Resistance Caroling on Black Friday in Santa Monica, and the song we sang “We Shall Not Be Moved,” is still on heavy rotation in my mind, soothing me hourly as I recall revolutions of my youth sparked by peaceful music. Resistance Caroling is good for the soul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX7OW2MJRO0&t=10s

7. BE HAPPY Although many of us haven’t felt joy due to the deranged Pageant Owner in the White House and his sub par toadie$, it’s our duty to manage self care during this time, and that means doing things that bring you some semblance of happiness. I interviewed Dr. David Reiss, one of the 27 mental health experts who authored “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” and he said it’s imperative we manage self-care during these dark days and to never lose site of truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5XGeJ5Y8UI&t=26s

8. BREATHE Please be patient with humanity and remember everybody hurts, sometimes. As battle fatigue sets in for those who can’t believe a Pageant Owner Mobster is still our Real Fake President, despite how much factual information on the corruption from within we spit daily, it takes its toll on fractured nerves. If we divide troops now, we lose. We are the Sane Majority, and we will only win if we invite everyone to the party and keep them there. Even the glory hunters. Practice humility daily and realize those who don’t get it now, will eventually.

9. MOTHER EARTH Give us the keys. Y’all fukcin shit up. Imperative, we mandate the Nosferatu Cabinet of Scamalot to wear branding patches on their sleeves: #bigoil #bigtobacco #bigprison #nra #churchyfuckery #botbymercer #botbykoch #rupertscurvy etc. We can’t allow denier creeper$ to ruin our fragile environmental protections and continue to embarrass us on an international level. We already fought for these protections. GOP becoming the official doosh party poopers of the environment ramped up recently, as billionaires bot lobbyists to run interference on truth using God’s name so they could get one last $wig off the Oil + War economies. (See number one.) Use the system to get Scott Pruitt out of our EPA where he does not belong. And further, use the system to oust all the Real Fake President’s cozyboy$, aka war mongering pals thirsting for arms deal$. Old paradigm dies hard but it’s time.

10. BE DISGUSTED I was horrified to learn by a gal whose grandfather was stiffed by Trump, that many of her peers just think the Meinshit Show is funny. Ya, it’s a “Pussy” riot. Our Real Fake President cozie$ up to his dictator pal$ who kill, incarcerate, poison, torture or have people killed because they can. Go ahead, please remain comfortably numb while waiting for the door knock. Me? I’m gonna remain disgusted so I can continue fighting. Even for those who don’t get it. Especially them.

(Below, the author in Laguna Beach Nov. 2, 2016; last photo before the election. She wants her happiness back.)