#some of these titles might not be exactly accurate because i didn't think to keep the dvds and the titles on wiki are a little different lo

[journeytojaburo]

ZZ thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, etc…

Favorite Characters:

Favorite episodes: Prelude of ZZ, Hot-Blooded Mashymre, Crybaby Cecilia, Sibling Love Blooming in the South Seas, Leina's Blood, An Afternoon in Dublin, Falling Sky, Ple-Two Under Gravity, Emary's Glory, Vibration, Warrior Once More

Favorite Mobile Suits/Armors:

What I Liked:

While I do think the pacing of the finale could've been better, I was pleasantly surprised by how much it took from the first Gundam's finale with how Judau and Haman's encounter outside of their mobile suits paralleled Amuro and Char's swordfight and how Judau returned to the Nahel Argama on the almost wrecked ZZ (though it actually survived this time)

Not that its predecessors didn't have jokes, but this show was so funny some episodes made me practically laugh until my stomach hurt which those other shows didn't do

On a related note of humor, I think this show handled the transition from wacky adventures to more serious dramatics pretty well. It still maintained some wackiness up until the end though, which is nice

I liked that Judau interacted a lot more with the people he met and locations he traveled to in his obligatory Earth adventure because it made the world seemed more fleshed out. I also like that Judau's experiences on Earth are part of why he wanted to protect it so fiercely, even though he never lived there before himself

What Ple and Ple-Two's stories had to say about personhood and identity really resonated with me as a twin even if they're not really that. Speaking of, I wonder if any other Gundam shows (future entries in the Universal Century or not) are going to have random super sci-fi cloning shenanigans

Kamille's recovery from the injury he got during the Zeta finale not being linear or "perfect" was a nice bit of realism I appreciated. The whole story concept exploring how someone who has psychic powers (vaguely) would heal from brain damage considering that's where many stories say those powers come from was really interesting

What I Disliked:

I think the finale did a good job of wrapping up the story, but I wish it more than literally 5 and a half minutes (yes I timed it) to do an epilogue because it felt really rushed. I think the one thing that got glossed over quickly that I was surprised by was Ple-Two's death because in any other case I feel like at least Judau's reaction to it would have been shown

I wish I had liked the plotline of Judau and his friends getting left to their own devices on the Nahel Argama better, but I don't feel like they dug deep enough into the consequences that it had beyond the scene of Judau punching Bright in the finale. Like on one hand, it would be cruel for the AEUG to cut off Judau from the support system he gained all of a sudden (and also the plot literally couldn't continue as it was), but surely they could've at least brought the rest of the former Argama bridge crew on as extra moral support or something. It just feels bizarre to me to do a "the youth are the hope for the future" message about sending teenagers to war

Going on an unrelated tangent because this isn't something I disliked but it's related to the previous point here...Apparently there's rumors that the reason why Sayla wasn't really present in Zeta or ZZ was because her voice actress (Yo Inoue) wasn't available, and I kinda wonder if the reason Bright basically disappears from the show around when the Nahel Argama enters the picture is because of a similar situation with Hirotaka Suzuoki LOL

The amount of jokes in this show that boiled down to "Haha, wouldn't it be funny if a woman was harassing a man and making him uncomfortable 🤪" with Chara being the main perpetrator of them was really annoying

I was hoping Emary would eventually get a stronger character outside being in love with Bright, and while she did, I don't feel like it was enough to still not get on my nerves (bless her heart though). I don't think she needed to do a 180 and completely rebuke Bright or something, but playing up her love for Bright all the way until her untimely end and not even showing Bright's reaction to her death is a little unsatisfying...

This one is really petty, but I really did not like the outfits Judau and pals picked up like halfway through the show (Ple especially) 😭 I genuinely had tears of joy in my eyes when they put their old ones back on

Overall Conclusion: This was a fun show that was a nice breather from the despair of Zeta, with its own brand of fascinating dramatics. I wish we lived in the world where it got at least one more episode to make the end feel complete, but it did its best with what it had.

[kimetsu-chan]

The Painter and the Muse

A/N: dude I love torturing Dazai sometimes, he’s not tragic enough in my eyes. This was heavily inspired by this headcanon/drabble I wrote, and this art by @drlqra (title was also inspired by their work, go check it out, its freaking awesome) (Some parts might not be accurate to canon, and I apologize for that)

TWs⚠️: mentions of death, panic attack(?), lmk if I missed anything^^

Dazai wasn’t quite sure when it started, but the sense of disarray had begun to overtake and cloud his mind. At first, he believed it was because he didn’t think he deserved the job Taneda offered him. Him? Working as a detective? After all the things he’d done?

But as time went on and as Dazai lived under the radar for longer and longer, he realized it was something entirely different. The feeling of something being so vastly wrong persisted, even when he grew accustomed to the idea of working in the light.

It didn’t strike Dazai that Oda could be the center of this… wrongness, that he could be the cause of Dazai’s distress.

It didn't hit him. Until it did, like a brick. He had been lying on his motel bed with his head hanging off the side, staring at Oda’s coat that was hanging off the back of a chair when it did.

What… did Oda even look like?

The revelation that he couldn’t even recall the face of his best friend, the man he was doing this all for, made him startle, and badly at that. He felt the hair on his arms begin to rise as he stared blankly at the coat. He didn’t feel like he could move; he couldn’t think, which scared him. He relied so heavily on his brain that the moment he couldn’t properly use it anymore, he quickly spiraled into panic.

And boy, was this one of the worst panic attacks he’s had in a while. Wh—how could he forget what Oda looked like?! How could he let that happen!?

Dazai hastily sprung up from his position and desperately reached for Oda’s coat. He felt like he had just committed the worst crime in existence, and maybe it was to Dazai. In his panicked daze, he wanted nothing more than to see Oda again. Not only because he missed him so terribly, but to reassure himself that he could remember his face.

The distraught boy draped the beige coat over his shoulders and hugged it so very tightly to his body as he moved to ball himself up in the nearest corner.

He bounced his leg rapidly, but the stimulation did nothing to calm his increasingly disturbed mind. Oh god, oh why, why why why? He didn’t even have the pictures they took in the bar the last time he, Oda, and Ango were together as friends; why didn’t he push to keep at least one?!

Dazai stared blankly and silently at the floor, trying to process why exactly he could remember. Oh, he hated this so much; he didn’t want to forget him.

Not for the first time, he wanted Oda back. He wanted him to tell Dazai it was okay and that he wouldn't be mad if he couldn’t remember him. But no, Oda was dead, and Dazai would never get his reassurances again.

Dazai wanted to snap out of it; the logical part of his brain was screaming at him to get a grip already. But the emotional part, which he’d worked so hard to tame, just ran rampant. Dazai couldn’t explain how much this hurt him; it destroyed him, like he was being eaten alive from the inside out.

He felt like this was the worst punishment he could have been given for all his wrongdoings, and maybe he deserved it. But wasn’t this too cruel a consequence? Even for him…?

He knew that, logically, there had to be some sort of solution; there just had to be, but finding a solution felt impossible for his overwhelmed mind.

He gave the idea of trying for a fix to his problem another go once he had regained control over his panic and had calmed down. He wracked his brain, frantically trying to think of anything. He couldn’t do photography, because, again, Oda wasn’t here, and he refused to go to Ango for the pictures. He’d live for the rest of time before he asked for anything from that man.

What solutions did that leave him, really? He couldn’t ask if anyone knew him, being a mafia member, Oda’s identify would be unknown to almost everyone.

So that left one last option. Art. Music, drawing, anything in the genre. But painting stood out the most to him, because paintings were always beautiful. And if he could preserve Oda in beauty, he’d be happy.

See, the problem wasn’t that Dazai forgot every single aspect of Oda’s appearance, it was that he couldn’t piece the individual features together.

He remembers the exact shade of auburn Oda’s hair was, he could picture every eyelash on his eye, but together it felt like a giant mess of blurred colors and shapes.

So maybe, just maybe, he could figure out how to perfectly paint his dear friend’s features, and figure out how to put the pieces together like a puzzle.

He needed to remember again, it’d kill him if he didn’t. He would do anything to remember. He spent the little money he had on canvases, paintbrushes, and paints of the highest quality he could afford. Anything he couldn’t afford, he just stole.

He was going to perfect the art of painting Oda to preserve his memory, and perfect it he did.

Atsushi thought it was odd, it perplexed him. Dazai didn’t seem to be the type of person to enjoy painting of all hobbies. Sure, he saw mini canvas with sceneries that held more than twice the effort than Dazai put into his work, but painting seemed like something so much tamer that he’d envision Dazai doing?

Well, at least Dazai enjoyed it. Or, he seemed to, at least.

Atsushi had only been to Dazai’s apartment a handful of times, and to say it was cluttered was an understatement. Not only was it filled with empty bottles of alcohol and canned crab, the entirety of one corner of Dazai’s room was absolutely littered with paint and artistic mediums alike.

Paint, brushes, pencils, charcoal, pastels, you name it.

But what far outnumbered any other item in the cramped room were canvases. Filled canvases, of the same person, over and over again.

Atsushi often wondered who that person was, what the name of the gentle looking muse that filled every inch of Dazai’s small, artistic space was. Whenever he asked, Dazai would gush about the paintings, but would never once identify the strange man. Atsushi figured it to be a touchy subject, so he eventually stopped asking.

It wasn’t until he found Dazai at a grave, sketching out a new painting of the same figure, that he realized the connection.

Maybe, painting would be good for Dazai.

If you enjoyed, please consider reblogging! It helps in reaching a larger audience^^

Taglist 🏷️: @larz-barz @mooechi @saffron0v0 @zenitsustherapist @gyutarowritings

@muichirolover14 @midnightmah07

[vampylily]

Notes from the new Rolling Stones Japan article with Pete and Patrick Pt.1 :

[WARNING: The article is in Japanese, I'm not a Japanese speaker. I'm machine translating the article from Japanese to Korean & English, and then doing paraphrasing in English. Thus, the wording is not entirely accurate, and may contain errors. Please don't consider this as a proper translation. This is so I can have a reference more than anything. ]

When the interviewer noted Patrick's Los Crudos t-shirt, he responded enthusiastically that it was a Chicago band! Pete was in a Napalm Death t-shirt.

Interviewer asked about how Summer Sonic was, especially since it was their first since 2019. Patrick said the show went like they hoped, which rarely happens (lol). Said Japanese audiences are special. He gets asked about how concerts in Japan are, but it's hard to explain unless you experience it. Said can't explain it well, but there's a lot of give and take of energy.

Interviewer asked about Pete saying there was a song inspired by Japan on the SMFS album. Pete said "The Kintsugi Kid" was the song about how he felt when he was in Japan, it's obvious by the title. "The Kintsugi Kid'' bridges "I Am My Own Muse" and "So Much (For) Stardust." Said Patrick wrote the songs but in his interpretation, the sonic landscape of the song reminds him of Japan.

Patrick said he's always been quite influenced by Japan, especially on this album. Said people might not register it from the sound, but he's been influenced by the Yellow Magic Orchestra & their synthesizer sounds. He didn't use much synthesizer on the album but a lot of the songs started with synthesizers. He got the same synthesizer Yellow Magic Orchestra used and started writing songs from there. He's a big fan of Studio Ghibli movies and loves Joe Hisaishi's music. Said when doing string/orchestra horn arrangements, he wanted to create a sound that was as appealing to the heart/poignant as his. Even though their music/sound was completely different, he wanted to try it. Said he especially tried to evoke the feeling he got on "The Pink Seashell."

Interviewer asked about TTTYG's 20th anniversary and how they could have done an anniversary tour but they didn't and instead released SMFS with gusto.

Pete said the most important thing is that you stick to what you think is right. Said there was a punk band he liked when he was younger, and they didn't change at all. Talked about how artists like David Bowie or the Clash changed their styles to almost unrecognizable lengths and how some fans left because of it. But when he listens to the albums after getting older, he can reflect on his own changes and find new appreciation for songs he might not have liked at the time.

Pete said celebrating the past too much feels patronizing and not very fall out boy-like. They continue making new music, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. Even if something doesn't work out as well, he's like [it is what it is/that happens], and that some people might say they liked it. He's got albums he likes and albums he dislikes from his own favourite artists. Said they always make new albums that challenge their past works. Of course they hope people like it, but getting good reviews/being appreciated isn't the only reason they continue making music.

Patrick said he doesn't like making an album to celebrate the 20th anniversary, or having an anniversary to showcase past songs. Reasons was that first, the past songs are always in rotation in their sets so they don't stop playing them. Second, like Pete said, they prefer to keep pursuing new music and that stance hasn't changed from 20 years ago. Said deviating from that feels dishonest like they're lying to themselves.

Pete was like [it's how Steven Spielberg didn't make E.T. Part 2.] Patrick was like [exactly!] and said that being honest with themselves was their pure form.

also there's a page 2 to the article but i'm tired :[. they talk about "emo" changing from a specific music genre to the word entering the mainstream vernacular, patrick talked about how when they started out they didin't consider themselves "emo," they were a hardcore band. said he liked playing hardcore though when he sang people used to tell him his voice was too cute. they focused on making the music they wanted to, and before they knew it, they were being called "emo." Pete talked about the word, how it encompasses too much, feeling restricted by that in the past, etc. Talked about wanting to become like Metallica in that the word Metallica has becomes its own thing, Metallica doesn't need a description, etc. Patrick talked about perfoming in Japan, from small venues way earlier to now, etc

-

-

I love long FOB articles and I quite liked this one.

Love that Patrick talked about musical inspirations and SMFS. It’s so cool to hear because I love how beautiful and grand the sounds are in SMFS, even with spoken tracks like The Pink Seashell or Baby Annihilation. 

Also him buying the same synthesizers is so real. He’s a music nerd <3 

They’ve been consistently talking about always wanting to make new music and looking to the future instead of the past. And getting questions about their sound changing since forever haha.

It's really cool that they're very self aware and how convinced they are about making new music. Love that Pete can look back at older albums and find new appreciation for them. I’d be down for another half dozen FOB albums if they are, so (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

The new Pete and Patrick photos!!! They've got such pretty eyes <333

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

reposting one i read on reddit that got removed but i just need to know what tumblr thinks:

AITA for finishing in my girlfriend during the full moon, thinking it was not possible for her to be fertile?

I know the title sounds weird, but I promise this isn't a shitpost, metaphor, or a joke. I (20M) was raised by a single dad, never knew my mom who left me as a baby, and growing up I didn't really have many female (or male, tbh) friends.

The reason I say this is that I don't know all that much about female anatomy; yes, I had sex ed in school, but seriously don't remember anything except "wear a condom", basically.

I met my girlfriend "Beth" (21F) in college and she's the best. It's my first relationship, her second. We've been together for a little more than a year now, and had sex for the first time about half a year ago. After the first couple times, Beth told me that she has a really regular and average period that she's been keeping track of with an app since she was literally 14, plus in the last few years she also started taking her temperature to get even more accurate results; I didn't understand exactly how this works, but she was so reassuring and confident I didn't question it.

Ok, now this is where I might start sounding like an idiot... So she told me her period is an extremely regular 28 days, and she has literally only strayed from this pattern once since she was 14. I also am aware that moon cycles are 28 days. (Correction here: since this incident, I Googled and it's actually about 29 days... but that's besides the point I guess.)

Women tend to be associated with the moon, like Artemis; I truly, deeply believed that the moon phases and all women's menstrual cycles were inherently connected, but just like, different women had their more fertile days with full moons whereas for some it corresponds to a different moon phase, like the new moon, and this is why women differed.

So the reason Beth told me about her period being super regular is that she was confident she knew when she was or was not fertile, and told me she wanted me to finish in her on safe days. We've been having sex like this for the last four months where she tells me the window of time she's safe, she's happy, I'm happy, it's working fine.

I started noticing that the moon tends to be really full and bright every time we have unprotected sex, maybe not necessarily always on a "true" full moon, but definitely around that time. I made a mental note that my girlfriend is a "fertile during a new moon (when you can't see the moon)" sort of girl. If you're wondering why I never just outright asked her about this, it just seemed really obvious to me and I didn't see the point in talking to her about something potentially a little embarrassing for no reason.

June 3rd was the most recent true full moon, and I decided to sort of surprise her by inviting her to my apartment and just pouncing on her wordlessly as soon as she came in. She was into it, we had sex, I finished inside her, she didn't complain or stop me at all.

While cooling off, she remarked that she didn't remember telling me about her safe days in a while, so I must be tracking her period, which she actually thought was sweet lol. I said, "well of course it's a safe day, the moon is so bright". She asked me what I meant, and I said something like "I know you can't possibly get pregnant during a full moon".

She seemed really confused and started getting a bit tense, questioning me more, and I, also confused, started explaining to her about the moon cycle thing I fully believed up until that moment.

This is where she freaked out completely, jumped up and asked me if I was a complete moron. She started yelling at me and freaking out about how insane and irresponsible I was for finishing in her. I was truly shocked I had no idea what to say, especially because it WAS still truly a safe day, but she actually just grabbed her stuff and stormed off before I could do anything.

Well, after she left I googled a bunch of stuff and yep, turns out I'm completely incorrect. That being said, it WAS still a safe day for Beth and she wasn't actually upset about me finishing in her or anything, just the reason I did, I guess. So, AITA?

So generally I don't want to rerun posts from reddit unless it's your own story, but we'll make an exception just this once

What are these acronyms?

[radioactive-earthshine]

Thoughts on House of Brainiac pt 1 in Action Comics #1064

We got a good balance of action and whimsy, I really enjoyed seeing Lois taking time for herself to just (attempt) to do mundane things for herself with adult friends on her one day off.

I love that Kon and Kenan are regularly babysitting Otho and Osul. Also ngl it's funny that Kon doesn't even have a hero title here he's just 'clone of superman and lex luthor.

Kara is on a date?! 👀 I might have missed something but I do not recall her dating anyone so this is a fun little detail.

John and Lana as we know are now engaged and this was a fun way to remind the reader of that detail.

Clark playing with the ocean here was just a cute scene and was beautifully done.

The headband is a bit much...

Naturally because this issue starts so blissfully mundane and domestic and happy we know shit is gonna hit the fan and shit hit that fan. But not before we were given a little crumb to chew on...

They were interrupted before it could be revealed but we can assume this is an anniversary of some kind- maybe their marriage, maybe the day they met, maybe the day Clark came back to life, something else. We don't know yet so we're left in the dark until that bit is revealed eventually.

Brainiac attacks Metropolis with the Czarnian army he had from a bottle-city and in the midst of the chaos Clark reveals that he doesn't have as much experience with Brainiac as Kara does - so we are not dealing with pre-Crisis OR pre-Flashpoint crisis canon in this case. Which was to be expected. Brainiac's encounters with Krypton pre-destruction has been a poignant part of Kara and Krypton's canon for a while now and would have been unwise to erase in my opinion. Having Clark leaning on her for direction is a welcome change from when he was exceedingly familiar with Brainiac.

As expected Brainiac is going straight after Luthor of whom they have had a long history together where Brainiac does in fact view him as the smartest human. Whether or not this is accurate is not really fairly quantifiable but Brainiac thinks he is, and that's what matters.

"Those Lobos" Amazing how LEX is calling Czarnians LOBOS. The smartest man on the planet people.

👀 We're gonna have to chew on this one.

Well Lex got what he wanted, his daughter to call him Dad.

Brainiac needs Lex's head for whatever he has planned and he took Lena and Mercy captive as a sort of bargaining chip to try to get Lex to comply, because this incarnation of Lex is not totally without feelings.

Lobos. Not Czarnians. Lobos.

He better start calling all Kryptonians Kal Els or Supermans.

While it is unlikely he had a direct hand in the attack this is likely something he started or helped to put in motion. And he confirms that he has an idea of what Brainiac is up to when he WARNS Clark to not allow Brainiac to obtain his family, or anyone WITH powers.

It is also interesting that he is referring to them as his family, not his 'brood' or 'kin'. Family.

Either way, Lex knows something more than what he is immediately revealing.

Remember, they CANNOT be captured. It's imperati-

.... Damnit.

So the worst thing just happened and all of Clark's family and close friends and several metas within Metropolis were snagged immediately.

However, Jon and Jay have NOT been shown to be captured (yet). We do not see either of them in this issue so it will be interesting to see if Jon (or Jay) will have some sort of part to play in this arc.

I wonder if Jay's powers would even let him BE captured in the first place. It might be likely that Williamson couldn't factor that in so he elected to keep it out entirely.

Huh. You know. THIS detail was originally Kieth Giffen's Czarnia when he made the back history of Lobo. Czarnia was such a utopia it didn't even have a police force because everyone simply... got along. Until Lobo was born and killed everyone. Now the Czarnian canon is quite different and for some reason every single member dresses exactly like Lobo which sigh while 'cool' makes the whole people feel one-dimensional and I do not LIKE it.

Just because I wear plunging neckline tops and yoga pants doesn't mean every human does as well. Heaven forbid if some alien species bases all of humanity based on my wardrobe. You're ALL wearing black and yellow.

Anyway, this "Lobo" is named General Chacal. And because he is named we're likely going to be dealing with him more.

ngl they are all so cute in their pink fairy bottles. Anyway, they're being taken into SPACE.

The last person to get nabbed is Lex who in an apparent show of self sacrifice prevents Clark from being taken. This could all be strategy but the comic is leading us to believe he does care for his daughter. So Brainiac wins this round.

The closing pages leaves a lot of mysteries still as to WHAT Brainiac is doing.

Thus far we know the following;

1.) He is LONELY and he wants to remedy that but he can't be normal about it. 2.) Lex and him have history involving his wildly important plan to not be lonely. 3.) His plan involves Kryptonians, and metas, so we can safely assume he is using their genetics in some facet. 4.) He NEEDS Lex to complete this plan. 5.) He intends to share his knowledge, what this means and with who is unknown but it could be he is intending to share it with other versions of himself due to the last page. 6.) Speaking of the last page, it is interesting because we are seeing a mosaic of different versions of Brainiac from across time and realities. It is still very much unknown what his plan is, he could be intending to make some sort of beefed up Frankenstein's monster version of a companion "Brainiac Queen" - or he might be planning on beefing himself up and a new population of Coluans or both. We simply do not know. Other mysteries; 1.) Destruction of Braal. - Why? 2.) I know Williamson mentioned he read L.E.G.I.O.N. so he is not ignorant that Brainiac DOES IN FACT ALREADY HAVE FAMILY that he's tried to kill multiple times. I hope he brings in Vril Dox II because if there EVER were an appropriate time, it is now. I'm really excited and next week we get pt2 in Superman 2023 #13. This is a big build up and it is hard to say where the fuck we're going.

[onlyhereforghosttrick]

A bit of a simple question, but is there any piece of media (movie, game, writing, music, etc) you think is underated/more people should know about (or that you just realy recommend). Feel free to answer with more than one if you want to.

I don't know how to determine if something is underrated so uh- prepare for an onslaught of hyperfixations from the past couple years (mostly video games (and even more so DS games as it turns out)).

Ghost Trick

I don't know how to accurately depict how much this one has influenced me. It gave me my love for foreshadowing in twists. And clever gameplay integrated with the story. And flashbacks. And non-linear stories in general. Just one problem: I can't say anything about This game without spoiling just SO much of it. By calling two characters by their accurate name, you can spoil the final twists of the game, so I have to walk a delicate balance I mostly just didn't bother with when recommending the game. Well, this is your push to play it. (It got a remaster last year, which would be the most accessible way to play it, but if you don't mind a bit if illegality or overpricedness, the original release is always an option.)

Professor Layton

One of the less significant interests of mine, it's like a puzzle game mixed with a point and click adventure where you have to solve a bunch of miniature logic, sliding, counting, or other puzzles to progress, ton of fun, would recommend. It's getting its seventh entry soon [despite the alleged 'no further plans for games here in the west' or whatever], and it looks really cool! Might end up checking it out when it releases... sadly, most of the series is relegated to the mobile ports so that's the only place you're really able to find them, aside from their original ds or 3ds games. [keep in mind, I might just be unaware of some obscure ports.]

Ace Attorney

Ace attorney is probably the one the most people will actually know about, this being a visual novel puzzle series where you work out logical contradictions in a courtroom setting to save clients from false convictions. Currently serves as one of the main inspiration for my current biggest project [which I admittedly don't have enough written to link here]. Arguably the easiest to play the full series of thanks to the recent collections coming out, spinoffs included.

The world ends with you

Twewy is one of the most recent inspirations on this list, following an amnesiac teenager through a week-long game of life and death. I haven't played the sequel in a while [and I can't anymore, thanks PS plus], so I don't exactly have enough info left to judge it, but the original is hectic multitasking at its peak. ...on the DS. I don't have final remix, so I can't testify as to its quality, although with how it kind of looks to me like they butchered the original's quirkiness thanks to the lack of dual screens, my recommendation would be to play the original on DS, then watch the cutscenes of A New Day [a story epilogue exclusive to Final Remix that preludes NEO] in a youtube video. Maybe I'm wrong about the butchering though- keep in mind, this opinion comes from a guy who think the ghost trick title screen in the remake was worsened by the addition of music. [mainly because it's not even original music, just the main theme- but that rant can wait for another day.]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

This one. Ho boy this one. The biggest influence in a while when it comes to executing non-linear storytelling and compelling characters. It took a while for me to find it and a bit longer to see the appeal, and boy was it worth it. Chances are if you find this blog, much less this post, you already know about pmd, but if you somehow don't, then allow me to recommend you play one of them, because trust me when I say they're ALL worth a try. [I haven't played super yet and I don't plan to play rescue team so I can't quite testify to those, but explorers and gates from my experience have all been pretty good with gameplay and excellent with story.]

Pokemon Adventures

Yes, another pokemon recommendation. No, I swear this is different. There's a chance you've at least heard of this without knowing the name. This being the manga where all the weirdly dark stuff happens, right? You know, like 6 of the unovan gym leaders being CRUCIFIED? [No, really.] While this manga is practically infamous for its content, as you might now, but I swear it's worth a read for the actual character it has, which is usually better than the games themselves at storytelling. And honestly, I'm glad ScarVi learned what made a good story, that being having actual characters involved rather than cardboard cutouts. ...Just a shame the game is tripping over its own feet half the time.

Ultrakill

This is a fun one, and I'm surprised not too many people know about it- basically, Ultrakill is a Devil May Cry-inspired First Person Shooter, where you play as a blood-fueled robot blasting his way through hell, where the whole game is designed to be as fast-paced as possible. If that sounds remotely interesting to you, I'd highly recommend you give it a try.

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom hearts, yes, the infamous crossover between disney and final fantasy. Some might argue this doesn't count as underrated, but 1. Did you hear me or not? I said I didn't know how to qualify if something is underrated, so... and 2. I feel like people really only know that Kingdom hearts has a weirdly told story and that very few people actually KNOW that story. So yeah, I'd recommend giving the story a chance if you can- just make sure to pay attention to DDD specifically, because A LOT of people get tripped up there. Oh, and for the mobile games [which yes they are important why do you think this series got the reputation it did], the official source isn't great- watch a fandub instead.

Jhariah

A pretty indie artist I listen to sometimes, great for if your prefered type of music is 'the bpm is a higher number than there are atoms in the known universe'. Some personal favorites of mine are Fire4Fun, Risk! Risk! Risk!, and Re:Concerns.

Rhythm Heaven

Rhythm heaven is one of the more obscure games on this list, but it's a good one- basically just a collection of rhythm minigames without any throughline whatsoever, and it's a ton of fun- but also REALLY HARD. Its last entry was Megamix on the 3DS, but it had entries on the DS, GBA, and Wii. Megamix was more a 'best of' compilation for the series to that point, so if you can only get one of them, get Megamix- even if it is by FAR the hardest to get [legitemately] due to the lack of physical releases in most regions.

Sorry this took so long to get done! Hope the answer is satisfactory.

[thankfulguy]

Using Tumblr for note-taking

I am the kind of person that takes notes in a haphazard, but frequent way. On average, on my phone, I add to or create 1-2 notes. If we count journal entries on my work computer, that goes up to maybe 3-4 notes a day on average.

My problem is not generating ideas, but ensuring that if I have the same idea twice, I don't accidentally write it twice.

This is similar to Joe Armstrong's talk at strange loop a few years ago, "The Mess We're In". I need a note reducing system.

Naturally, I looked into Zettelkasten, and nominally I still use it using Protesilaos Stavrou's excellent Denote package for Emacs. But when it comes to the linking process, it is really difficult for me to link the notes meaningfully. I have a feeling that this is why Luhmann was a genius and I am not. Perhaps I should reread How to take Smart Notes.

But Luhmann didn't think of himself as a genius. He said so repeatedly, and he likely thought that because he was following what was to him a pretty mechanical process. It just takes a lot of focus. I suppose this gives credence to the notion that genius is almost always the manifestation of one's ability to focus, and the degree of genius is proportional to the degree to which a person is able to focus.

I wonder if, however, what John Carmack talks about in his Facebook deep thoughts talk is related to this. That is, difficulty in refactoring notes is mostly the emotional attachment we have to our ideas.

Actually, I think it might be even deeper than that. There are lots of notes that start off small, but it feels like I'm just on a role and keep writing. (Is this blog post like that?) But atomic notes that make Zettelkasten go are the opposite of such a writing. However, the truth that I submit to suggests that Truth is static and stable. The Truth employed in a long essay is the same as the Truth encoded in a set of atomic notes that are linked together. So why do I find it so difficult to refactor a long, meandering journal-essay-idea-investigation into a set of reusable atomic notes?

The problem is two-edged. There is the doubt that doing so will yield atomized notes that are comprehensible at all, and then if the atomized notes aren't comprehensible, doesn't that mean that the essay's presuppositions are wrong via Occam's Razor?

There is also the difficulty of knowing at what level of analysis the notes should be atomized. Should a note title be a sentence? A single word? An assertion? A question?

At one point, I started putting tags on the notes in order to categorize them based on how confident I was that they were actually true, but that ended up being just as discouraging, and also difficult to stay consistent with.

Lastly, there was always the issue of personal duplicity. There would be days that I would think that a certain note contained a statement that was insightfully true. Then another day, after some strange experience, that note's truthfulness was cast into doubt.

But objective reality is objective reality? Innit? Well, yes, but that's not the issue here. While I believe by faith that objective reality exists, I have no way of proving this. My senses are not totally trustworthy. They're probably less than 99.999% trustworthy, which means at least 1 out of every 100,000 perceptions of mine are totally inaccurate. (What exactly a perception is is another discussion.) It's probably closer to 99.99%, actually. The reality-homunculus in my head, that is, my model of reality, is only accurate to a point. While I hope that it is convergent towards 100% accuracy, the simple truth is that any analog system has noise, and the brain is, I think, an analog system in the most literal sense.

Clearly, if a note that seems obviously true one day seems obviously false (or at least problematic) some other day, what do I do? Occam's razor would say, disabuse yourself of such tenuous "truths". Delete the note. Get rid of it. It's holding back better, even more obvious truths that might bolster the 99.9% of your perceived reality that hasn't changed.

Maybe that's why there were times where I felt like I was going insane: I was choosing to hold on to the tenuous 0.1% at the expense of the 99.9%.

-.-.-.

However, that leads to an interesting Question. With a capital Q.

"What if I told you that everything you believe is a lie, that everything you think is real, is fake, and everything you perceive as true, is false?" Matrix style.

The question then becomes, what subset of reality is necessary for survival? But that also presupposes that survival is a more fundamental good than the things in question.

How quickly can you rebuild your system of perception to a point where it presents a similar interface to the objective institutions that you, in some part of your soul, care about (society is what I'm thinking of in particular), so that you can effectively continue caring about them and enjoying them? I think this is sort of what Jordan Peterson was doing when he was in college, as he writes about in Maps of Meaning. I sort of think that this is what I was doing during my last job, when the only salient emotion I remember of that time was depression on the brink of despair, realizing that the job to which I was shackled for 8 hours every day was likely a net negative on society.

Questions like these invalidate the previous section if we assume that objective reality exists outside perceptive reality of our minds, and we subordinate perceptive reality's consistency to objective reality. What if you do need to risk the 99.9% if the 0.1% presents enough reason to claim that it is correct and the 99.9% is incorrect.

What kept me partially sane during that time were a few simple propositions:

God is Real

There is profit in all work

You don't know everything

Maybe you're just being proud and arrogant for questioning the system. Wait and see.

what I see now is that I was holding out at that job for something better for myself. I was resistant to asking questions because everyone seemed so busy. Wasn't I hired to be a help?

I had a lot of fear during that time. I was glad that I had a well-paying job, and I was afraid that life would become too difficult and that others' expectations of me would be squashed, and that who I wanted to be before others (as a good example) would be called into question. And I still can't decide if this was mostly pride or mostly humility.

Anyway... I'm not making any progress on this line of reasoning. And I didn't think I would really, but it needs to be stated in some canonical form. Of course, there are so many problems with how I've stated it; it's not very objective, and my biases are bleeding through these paragraphs still.

-.-.-.

Nonetheless, this is about belief in one's work and ability. I think the end conclusion is that truly, I don't know much. Each atomic note isn't created in service of building a system of truth for myself, but rather in hopes of revealing the objective Truth of reality. The moment it starts smelling untrue, I might see if it can be reworded without too many problems, but deleting it is probably the right course of action.

Yeah, refactoring a zettelkasten is a big project. Deleting a note or changing a note means potentially changing dozens of other notes.

As such, a very real question is about whether or not I should pursue a zettelkasten style in the first place. Do I find it fun like a hobby, or is it part of my "Christian Duty"? It's definitely not part of my duty as a Christian. I would be hoping to be able to write essays, keep track of ideas, and conceptually support my arguments.

But most of the time, conceptually supporting arguments lies in the realm of logical reasoning and mathematics. So maybe zettelkasten will work so long as each statement and idea is in some way linked via a logical or mathematically modeled relationship. Maybe we need typed edges between nodes in the zettelkasten?

[keefwho]

June 18 2024 - Tuesday

10:25pm

3/10

The title of this blog is very accurate lately. I dont know who I am, I don't always know why I write these entries. I know I want to express myself and document who I am/what I do but I don't always feel connected with it. In that sense, I am not always successful in using this journal for it's purpose.

This morning for no reason I can identify, I woke up extremely tired and without appetite. I didn't clean, instead I watched XQC on Kick react to some pretty good videos. I took my shower and made soup for breakfast since I didn't feel like eating anything else. I noticed I have 1 more day of coffee grounds so I need to go to the store tomorrow. I didn't start work on time and I didn't intent to stream either. I watched the Nintendo Direct and am looking forward to the new Zelda although I couldn't feel excited today. When DS was on her lunch break, she wanted content so I booted up my stream just for her which also kickstarted me actually working. She couldn't stay very long but I kept going until I had to work on secret versions of the commission I was doing. It was hard pushing my way through it, I wasn't happy with the piece and I had the daunting obligation to do really well with the fluids lest I hear complaints about it until it's perfect. I think he picked up that I wasn't in the greatest capacity and did my best though, which in my opinion fits within what I advertise. No one can expect perfection out of me, I can't even enforce that on my own works sometimes.

When I was done I spent a good amount of time re-installing KSP and trying to sort out the mod situation. It all feels like a waste of time because I fear that the save will become corrupt again. I might cull my modlist again for an even more basic playthrough.

For lunch I made a homemade tortilla and mixed smoked ham, veggies, and mozzarella cheese to put in it. I was hoping such a hardy and tasty meal would sort of revitalize me but it didn't. It was good though. After lunch I intended to get back to work or at the very least do the request but I found myself feeling too bad to do it. Instead I messed around with KSP more and watched Squeex on Twitch. At some point in the evening I had the brilliant idea to whip out my lovense toys to destroy my body which was actually just an attempt at trying to distract myself from how I was feeling. It kinda worked. Beforehand I just spent a lot of time laying naked on a towel in front of my heater enjoying the feeling. I called DS after doing my dishes and fiddling around with KSP even more before sitting back and enjoying the content she had on while she did some sewing on her fursuit. When she left to head upstairs, the physical way I was feeling all day finally took it's toll and I succumbed to the realization of how depressed I am and always have been. The weight of everything making me unhappy whether I can do something about it or not came crashing down on me. I had a good cry and deliberately opened up to DS about it briefly since I know this is exactly the kind of thing I can't keep keeping to myself. I felt bad because she had a good day and I felt like a weight pulling that down but I can't keep beating myself up with that kind of logic. I'm a hurt person experiencing something hard and all I really need is to know that someone hears me and cares about it. After she went to sleep I watched some Minecraft content.

Despite what I said at the beginning of the journal, I resonated with the stuff I did today now that I look back. I was here for it, I've been "here" my entire life. I'm not in a time loop, every day is brand new and another step in an everchanging life/world. I will find solutions to the things that drain my being and bring me sorrow.

[localwebslingers]

Peter found himself smiling softly, at the compliment, "Thanks…that means a lot." especially coming from MJ. Not just because he knew her, but because of her own title and influence in the field. He enjoyed photography, always had, that's why he was on yearbook in high school, worked at the paper on the campus at ESU for a little while, and to a lesser degree worked at the Bugle. Pictures of Spider-Man were never something he thought that he should feel proud of. None of them seemed impressive to him, maybe because the pictures were just of himself and that just didn't mean the same thing to him as it did to others who might pick up the paper. Or had an article that could use a picture to talk about the latest serious crime that was brought down.

He went quiet again as he listened to her answer, a small, bitter smile tugging at his lips. Parents, friends, cousins…Peter didn't have any of those. Actually, he was pretty sure MJ was the closest he had to a friend, and that was only as Spider-Man. She and May really were the only people keeping him feeling held together at this point. He tried not to think about it too much. Where he'd be exactly if he really had no one. MJ was right about one thing though, he wasn’t completely alone but he didn’t have anyone who really knew him. Not both sides of his life. Not anymore. Some days he was relieved by that, other days…

Crushing. That was a pretty, almost uncomfortably accurate word for the feeling.

“...kinda sounds like you worry about him a lot.” he said then, before quickly going on, “I mean, I don’t think it’s a bad thing, you know? If it’s really the way that you think it is,” and it was, it really was exactly that, “I bet he probably likes that, even if you don’t know everything about him, that you’re there if he needs it. Right? That’s gotta count for a lot with the kinds of things he does.” Peter knew for a fact that it did. There were days that it felt like MJ talking to him was the only thing keeping him grounded, “I can’t really help him with much, other than taking the pictures to try and show that he’s actually helping. Sometimes I can get over and check on him, see if he needs patched up after a hit if I can actually get to him. But he seems like he keeps people pretty distanced. If he doesn’t do that kinda thing with you? I’d say that’s pretty good.”

The numbers for the elevator continued their steady climb and, in a slightly desperate attempt to change the subject, Peter dug into his bag and held out a folder towards MJ, smiling a little and shrugged, “...you’re a fan of them, right? Thought maybe you’d want first chance to see them before they hit Jameson’s desk. Hot off the press, so to speak.”

MJ lifted an eyebrow at his words, her lips wavering between a smile and a frown like she was CONFUSED which emotion she actually felt. Of course it didn't surprise her to hear that the other major publications had been asking Peter for his photographs - the Bugle's exclusive use of his crystal clear shots had been the JEWEL in their crown for years, even if Jameson was loathe to admit it. The one thing they had to stand out over the competition. MJ's articles might be approaching Pulitzer Prize worthy, especially lately, but even she knew that the majority of people clicked on the link or bought the paper off the street based on two things and two things only - the HEADLINE and the PHOTO.

Peter was half of that equation and she, as an editor, was the other. She'd try not to read too far into that right now...

But then the question remained WHY Peter hadn't shopped his photos around. Working for Jameson was hardly a treat, even if his former prestige did still open some doors for the people beneath him that otherwise would be closed. But surely the Times, the Post, hell even the INQUIRER would be willing to fork over any amount of money that the photographer asked for in exchange for the exclusive right to his pictures. Why wouldn't he jump at that? Then again ... Peter didn't seem like the type to be consumed with a PAYDAY; he did come rolling into work on a skateboard after all, floppy boyish hair blowing in the wind his speed created. Maybe he just didn't realize the POWER he had. Or maybe he did and was choosing not to wield it for a reason beyond her understanding. "Well, then consider this your second opinion - they're great, Peter. You should be really proud." she grinned, nodding her head encouragingly.

MJ blew out a breath at his question about their mutual friend, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean ... NO, I don't." she admitted, tugging her bottom lip between her teeth in thought. "Not like, LITERALLY. I'm sure he's got parents, friends, cousins - no one can be that much of a loner, even in a place like New York, and NOT draw some eyeballs. He definitely has people. But I don't think he's got anyone who really ... knows him." she continued, lowering her gaze to the ugly linoleum flooring of the elevator and scuffing her boot against it. "I dunno, it's just ... something about the way he carries the WEIGHT of it all, you know? Like he can never put it down and there's no one to help with it. Like it's CRUSHING him." MJ frowned, shaking her head to banish the mental image of his panic attack that she'd witnessed.

"Must be HARD ... never being able to be your whole self with anyone. It makes me sad."

@localwebslingers

[beelovesnct]

𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩 [𝐞𝐩. 𝟑]

— episode 3

The episode begins with the introduction of the two trained professionals who will be evaluating the personalities of the members; Aiko could be seen bowing and clapping respectfully together with the boys.

They began by introducing what the HEXACO test was, and when asked if they had any idea of what it could be, Jisung answered that it might be related to the MBTI, while Jaemin and Jeno revealed they thought it was for psychopaths (with Aiko scoffing and commenting, "You're both crazy," under her breath.)

Before proceeding with their assessment, both professionals put out a disclaimer that the test was not one hundred percent accurate, rather simply something that a person could relate to and say, "Oh I feel that way sometimes,"

Jaemin's assessment: Mr. My Way

They first examined Jaemin's character, explaining that he's someone who abides by his own rules and standards, and makes it clear whenever those are not met. In short, he's a character who does things his way.

Immediately, the dreamies reacted with subtle shock, amazed at how close the results were to his actual personality; even Aiko was nodding her head along with their explanation, especially about how he was such a complicated character overall and had a hard time dissecting what he was actually like.

The host noticed this, and asked why she was nodding so much; Aiko then stated that "Even I'm surprised by Jaemin every time; he's like an onion that can reform its layers, sometimes he shows everything and other times nothing at all."

The professionals and even Jaemin himself were surprised by Aiko's specification, "That's exactly how we would point it out." They complimented her use of words.

Jeno's assessment: A scholar who gets hurt easily

For Jeno, they revealed that he's the type of person who holds everything in; so when asked about his infamous nickname, "Jeno-jam", he revealed that he was actually hurt the first few times when he was teased as such, only getting over it when he finally viewed it as a positive thing—something that was unique only to him.

When asked who called him that name, Renjun admitted that besides Aiko, everyone called him that even way back in their trainee days to which Jeno then confirmed.

Aiko was suddenly asked why she didn't tease Jeno, she replied with a stutter, "H-He was funny then," to which Haechan immediately responded with "Don't lie," bringing laughter to everyone.

Regaining her flustered composure, Aiko tried explaining again, "Just, he's reminded by them anyway, me teasing him would be a waste of time," She shrugged her shoulders cooly, but it failed to conceal her true emotions as the tip of her ears started turning red; especially with Mark's revelation,

"Actually, Aiko came to me one night when we were preparing for debut, she told me if I could tell the kids to stop teasing Jeno because she was worried his confidence would decrease,"

A bunch of oohs and aahs came after the confession; Aiko rolled her eyes but covered her face after, earning a "Tsundere!" comment from Jaemin.

Jeno simply smiled and side-hugged Aiko who was still crouched over with her face in her hands.

Ako was once again complimented, making the host joke if she was doing this to get more screen time, to which the boys denied altogether, "Aiko is really like that, she's observant. She knows when we're having problems without us having even to tell her, she has like a detector of some sort." Renjun said with much sincerity, making everyone nod in understanding (and Aiko embarrassed again so she settled on putting her entire face on Jeno's shoulder).

With such timing, the professionals intervened that that was exactly what they got from Aiko's personality test as well, and so the segment moved to Aiko's examination.

Aiko's assessment: Individualistic Tsundere

After seeing Aiko's HEXACO results, the members let out a sound of surprise, as much like Jeno's, Aiko's chart was very unconventional.

"As we can see, Aiko-nim's results were a 3-3 situation; her humility, emotionality, and conscientiousness were very high, but her extroversion, openness, and agreeableness were all lower than what is of standard."

"This is the reason why we gave you the title, 'Individualistic Tsundere'", they continued, and once again, even just from the title, the members gasp and showed their agreement.

"You are very individualistic, and that simply means that you enjoy being alone, and you actually value your alone time. For that reason, you are very independent and often won't turn to others for help." They began their explanation, the set quiet as all of the dreamies paid attention to what they were saying about their precious member, only nodding whenever they agreed with what was revealed.

"Wah, why is that so accurate," Renjun commented, his voice low as he glanced at Aiko who has kept silent right from the start when her results were shared.

"I've heard that you're lazy, right? Fans call you a cat because you laze around too much," The comparison brought a smile to Aiko's face as she nodded, confirming their thoughts.

"But I think that you're not lazy at all; as a result of your low extraversion and high conscientiousness, you're very picky with what you put your efforts in. In short, you're practical. You share the same 'My Way' attitude with Jaemin-nim, that if something does not interest you, you tend to back off completely."

The dreamies, once more, portrayed an appalled expression; this time, even Aiko was not excused as she felt immensely exposed to that particular revelation.

"Yah, this is so crazy," Mark chimed in, shaking his head in disbelief.

The professionals continued, seemingly pleased with the reaction, "There were some essay portions in the test, and Aiko-nim answered some of them—which I assume was in line with your interests, with essays that were good enough for college applications."

"Like with the David Statue, she made references to the art of human anatomy, and even stated possible reasons as to why Michaelangelo sculpted it; it was an amazing read,"

"But for those that she might have not found so interesting, she simply stated some simple phrases that weren't at all expounded."

"One question asked if you would steal money in the instance that you would never get caught, Aiko-nim simply stated, 'I'm rich enough, so no thank you.'" The disclosure didn't fail to bring smiles and laughter to both the members and hosts, finding Aiko's savage response too amusing. Aiko simply shook her head as she hid her face behind her hands once again, only regaining her composure once the topic was changed.

"It's also because of your lack of extroversion that you tend to hide how you care for others. You have really high emotionality, which means you have the tendency to be an empath—detecting whenever a person is down even if they don't show it; so you help them in any way you can—especially if they're important to you, but often would brush it off as nothing, hence we gave you the title, 'Tsundere'"

Jaemin nodded vigorously, displaying full-on his 'my way' attitude as he screamed his thoughts, "That's RIGHHHHHT."

The dreamies, though amused with Jaemin, sided with his thoughts, with Jisung declaring one particular story from their trainee days.

“Noona always sees right through any of us. She'd buy medicine from across the street during break times just so we won't have to suffer. She would then always lie that she already had those medicines with her, but she didn't know that we could see her right from the window."

At Jisung's confession, everyone visibly cooed; adoration in their eyes as they looked at Aiko (who waved her hands in front of her, trying to deny the accusation, but the dreamies won't let her have it). Jaemin, who was beside her, ruffled her hair fondly.

"With that, there are a lot of benefits with having you on the team, one of which is making sure that everybody's doing okay behind the scenes, but I do have a tip for you, Ms. Tsundere." The laughing seized, as the professional's tone was somber; Aiko listened intently, her face morphed into seriousness.

"Since you value independence, you have a tendency to keep all your problems in. You have no problem helping others, but you have a problem with them helping you. Remember that you are never a burden, so you can lean on others too."

For the nth time, all the dreamies portrayed an immense gesture of agreement, either commenting, "That's right, Aiko, stop holding everything in," "Be more like Jaeman"; or simply nodding their heads as they glanced at the neko-member, relieved that she heard those words outside of their own team (which means she'd probably take their advice since she views that there are no biases).

Aiko simply showed a smile, "I'll take that to heart, thank you." She responded politely.

The personality examination finished for Aiko and then continued to the other members until the host told everyone that it was the time for the next activity.

[o-wyrmlight]

1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 21, 22, 30

Feel free to take some off if I'm doing too many at once

1. Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

Honestly, I almost did re-write an old Kirby fanfic of mine from scratch. It's not on my AO3 at all--I initially wrote it on Fanfiction-dot-net when I was in Middle School and High School--but I didn't really have a solid framework for how the plot for it would develop. I got some ideas a year or two ago and was working on plotting out a whole re-write for it (the basic premise being 'Meta Knight crashes in Dreamland instead of Kirby), but it never really got horribly far. (And yes. It was very strongly inspired by another fanfic called Warrior of the Stars. It was a very good read, until I stopped reading it. It was fantastic.)

2. Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?

I want to write absolute and pure softness. Fluff, cuddles, warmth, hot chocolate--but I'm just not good at it. It doesn't settle right with me, writing soft things. I'm a lot more comfortable with writing angst. And it honestly does make me kind of sad.

5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

I don't??? Know??? Tagging is very important for other people to know what stories that they'd want to avoid or what to expect. I can't think of anything that I wouldn't want to tag even if it did apply for that reason. If anything, I probably over-tag. And a reason why some of my stories might not have some tags is because I don't know if it's pertinent enough for the tags to apply, you know?

7. Your favourite ao3 tag.

I don't know, dude--I just Vibe in AO3 for the most part. I don't really filter by tags, unless I'm just looking for stories by characters or pairings.

I do think that the 'No beta--we die like [insert fandom-related joke here]' tag is funny, though!

11. Three tropes that are fine but overrated

Answered!

21. Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?

HAHAHA. No, sweet summer child. My first Cookie Run fanfic that I made was meant to be a drabble. A drabble! Yet now it stands at 4.77k words! My Hollow Knight fanfic Mellow in Softness? I meant for that dumb Wyrm to leave the fucking Abyss in chapter 2 or 3, but no, he just had to be a sad, mopey little shit. My old Kirby fanfic? Don't remember the specifics, but it was on average 17 Microsoft Word pages. Sometimes 27. I was a writing maniac when I was in Middle School.

22. What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

It's the longing. It's the pining. It's the dynamics between the two characters shifting just so in each alternate universe or story and watching as it develops in its own colorful, floral ways. It's reading them and watching their chemistry together unfold. It's the inevitable knowledge that--whatever may happen to these stupid, precious, lovable idiots--they'll at the very least experience those happenings together.

It's just nice.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

A plot summary of yet another Team Fortress 2 fanfic that I wanted to work on but ended up never doing (Note: Mention of abuse and cyborgfication):

'Dell came from an abusive home with an abusive father who was obsessed with the idea of becoming and making his son a cyborg. When Dell gets word that his dad was released from prison on good behavior, he grows paranoid and frightened that he'll find his way to the base and finish the job that he started years and years ago. Title: The House of Violence'

It was meant to sort of explore PTSD and also the stress of being put suddenly in a dangerous situation that you didn't know what exactly to expect from. I guess that sort of goes without saying. I sort of mulled over the story for a bit but pretty much all of the details are pretty much forgotten.

[inky-duchess]

History Bites: Best Royal Romances

In History Bites, I pick the best moments of history and the antics historical figures in order to give you inspiration for your WIP. Think of History Bites like prompts, only juicer and 90% accurate (results may vary).

Love is one of the greatest reasons to do anything. Love will make people act strangely, become better people and level empires. In a world of arranged marriages and terrible spouses, some royals found happiness.

Antony and Cleopatra were the Ancient World's power couple. After Caesar's death, who had been Antony's mentor and the father to Cleopatra's son, Antony was sent to govern the Eastern Provinces. At Tarsus in Turkey, Cleopatra paid a visit to Antony. During the visit, Antony and Cleopatra got to know each other better and quickly things got romantic. It was not exactly the best thing for a Roman senator to have an Egyptian mistress and an odd thing for a famously intellectual Queen to take a notorious foolish hothead as her lover but the two were incredibly fond of one another. The two of them had three children, who Antony left the Roman Empire to in his will. The will was the final straw for Rome so it went to war with the couple, which ended in defeat. Antony committed suicide and Cleopatra sometime afterward.

Queen Victoria's marriage was an issue from the get go, because she needed a husband who was not her subject (because women were meant to obey their menfolk and a Queen shouldn't obey a subject) and one who was suitable. Victoria didn't like her cousin Albert when they met as teens but feel head over heels in love with him after they met again after Victoria became Queen. The two were rather smitten with each other and managed to pop out 9 kids. Victoria was distraught when Albert died and rarely wore anything but black for most of her life and rarely went out in public.

Josephine de Beauharnais was a wealthy French woman during the French Revolution which claimed the life of her first husband. Josephine caught the eye of the young Corsican soldier, Napoleon and the two quickly wed despite him being 6 years younger. Josephine was the perfect consort for Napoleon, she was an able diplomat and learned. When Napoleon was away, he often sent her raunchy letters which Josephine hilariously replied with nonchalance. Napoleon divorced Josephine because she was barren and he needed a heir. I doubt he stopped loving Josephine.

Charles II was not exactly the most monogamous of monarchs. The Merry Monarch and one of the few English Kings I think fondly of, had one declared mistress about five others. A friend of Charles saw Nell Gwyn playing on the London stage and decided to introduce her to his royal master, a wingman if you will. Nell and the King hit it off well because Nell wasn't as grasping as the other mistresses and knew how to make him laugh. She once took him fishing and when the monarch caught nothing, she tied a fried piece of fish to his line. She bore him too sons but felt as if Charles was not awarding them the right honours. When he came to visit them, she called one son over by saying "Come hither, you little bastard." Charles was angry at that but Nell reminded him that she had little else to refer to him by so Charles created a Dukedom for his sons. When Charles died, Nell remained monogamous to him telling one admirer than she would not "lay a dog where a deer that once lain."

Louis XIV was Charles's cousin and they shared a similar taste for mistresses. Madame de Montespan was married as Louis was but the two started a relationship together. Montespan was rather spoilt by Louis, earning the nickname "How much" by courtiers. Montespan and the King were together for a long period of time, having many children. A scandal came to light which involved a supposed witch and black masses where Montespan bought love potions and cursed the Queen. Montespan was lucky to avoid execution but she was dealt a personal blow: the King fell out of love with her. Montespan haunted the court as Louis moved on, keeping a bedroom for him at all times just in case he wished to visit. He never did. Louis moved on to the nanny of his bastard children by Montespan, the religious Madame de Maintenon. The two were kindred spirits and when the Queen died, Louis married Madame de Maintenon and the two lived the rest of their lives together.

Henry IV of France was married when he began a relationship with Gabrielle d'Estrees, a Catholic noblewoman during the Wars of Religion in France. Henry was increasingly fond of her despite their religious differences, even more than his wife at the time Marguerite of Valois. Gabrielle was a successful diplomat, going between the Protestant King and his Catholic nobility, smoothing relations by convincing Henry to become a Catholic. Gabrielle went to war with Henry, caring for his clothes and cooking his meals while on campaign. Henry was worried about her safety, especially when he saw bullet holes in her tent but Gabrielle refused to leave his side. Gabrielle sold her jewels to fund Henry's wars and once left the middle of a ball to rush to Henry's side. Her devotion led to Henry deciding to marry and crown her as his Queen. Gabrielle died suddenly before her wedding/coronation leaving Henry heartbroken.

Catherine the Great is on my list for worst marriages bur she found love after her husband was murdered. During her coup when she was making an important speech to rally the troops to her, a young cavalry officer named Grigory Potemkin offered her his own sword knot, a missing detail on her uniform. The two met years later and quickly fell in love. Catherine and Potemkin kept up their touching relationship throughout the wars with Turkey and Catherine's other lovers. They were incredibly close, Catherine giving him every honour and Potemkin helping her realise her dream of a navy. Potemkin died on the roadside, collapsing in front of his soldiers leaving Catherine heartbroken. It is rumoured by historians that the pair had been secretly married.

Have you ever seen bibles with King James written on the cover? Though King James was married and had sired numerous children with his wife, James had a string of noble young men as favourites, his favourite being George Villiers. James was incredibly fond of George, calling him "Steenie" after St. Stephen who canonically (no pun intended) had the face of an angel. When asked by Parliament about the close relationship, James replied that George was as close to him as Jesus was to his disciples. Though historians dispute whether they were actually gay (citing the fact that James had a wife and a loving relationship with her), it is entirely possible that James was bisexual. The two sent numerous letters to one another over the years, each rather touching

Inez de Castro is probably Portugal's most interesting Queen Consort. She was exhumed for her own coronation. Inez was the mistress of Prince Pedro and mother to his children. The King, Pedro's father, really did not want his son marrying his mistress so he had Inez murdered. Pedro was distraught at her death and hunted down the men who had done it, having their hearts torn out in revenge. He would never marry again so to make his children legitimate he had Inez exhumed and crowned Queen, forcing the nobility to kiss her hand and hail her as Queen. Nobody bothered Pedro about his kids again.

Though the film The Favourite (2017) is a skewed version of the relationship between Anne of England and Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, there is some proof to attest to the romantic relationship between the two. They knew each other from a young age and once escaped a house together to avoid the influence of Anne's father who at the time was embroiled in a battle to keep the throne against Anne's sister Mary. The two were incredibly close despite their rather differing personalities. Sarah did care for the Queen but had a habit of being quite abrasive and quick with cruel words which eventually ended the long lasting relationship between the two.

Peter I of Russia was an imposing man both in stature and in political policy. Peter dragged Russia toward Westernization and imposed radical reforms upon his country. Perhaps the greatest wave he made, was his marriage to Catherine, a laundress. Peter and Catherine were incredibly fond of each other, sharing an appetite of good living and each other. Peter did sleep about but Catherine joked about it in letters asking him whether he found any laundresses he liked. Peter fathered two daughters on Catherine but instead of handing control to them after he died he made his wife Empress Catherine I.

Perhaps my favourite royal romance story, is between Emperor Ai and his favourite Dong Xian. Emperor Ai and Dong Xian were chilling in bed together one day. Ai had to get up but Dong Xian was still asleep, laying on his sleeve. Rather than waking his lover, the Emperor cut off his own sleeve so he could get out of bed.

Emperor Hadrian is famous for his bitchin wall between Britannia and Caledonia. But Emperor Hadrian's greatest love would be the Greek Antinous. The emperor had Antonius come with him wherever he went and the two were fond of hunting and writing poetry. Antinous tragically drowned in the Nile, probably by accident but foul play cannot be ruled out.

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson or as you might know her Madame de Pompadour was told at nine years old that she would love a king. In her twenties it came true when she caught the eye of King Louis XV of France, earning her the title maîtresse-en-titre. Madame de Pompadour understood Louis in a way nobody else would. She knew how to read his emotions and knew how to keep him entertained. Though the two stopped sleeping together thanks to a medical condition Jeanne had, Louis kept her as his official mistress. Kings were not permitted to attend funerals so when Jeanne died, Louis couldn't go. He stood on his balcony in a downpour as her funeral carriage left Versailles, the only tribute he could pay the love of his life

Elizabeth Woodville's first husband was an early casualty in the Wars of the Roses, leaving her to care for two sons. Destitute, Elizabeth stood by the road to speak with the new York King of England. Edward IV was younger than her and was her enemy, yet the two fell in love and wed in secret. The court was furious at the marriage as Elizabeth was only the daughter of a baron. The marriage was extremely happy despite Edward's many mistresses and the unsettled times they lived in.

Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Woodville's daughter, was a highly sought after bride in Europe. Henry Tudor, her uncle Richard's enemy, proposed to her from abroad declaring her would wed her in the Cathedral of Reims. Henry invaded England and won the crown at the Battle of Bosworth. He married Elizabeth and the two, despite being born enemies, lived a happy marriage together. Henry was distraught when Elizabeth died and never remarried.

Mary Tudor, the daughter of Elizabeth of York, was at one point Europe's most eligible and beautiful Princess. She was offered as a bride to the Prince of Spain and then the King of France, who she was married to. Mary was briefly Queen of France but her aged husband died soon after the wedding. Mary returned to England but she had a secret, she had hastily wed her brother's childhood friend, Charles Brandon. Henry VIII, her brother, got so cross that he fined and banished the two of them from court. But he quickly forgave them and the couple returned to court where they spent their short but happy marriage.

Elizabeth II & Prince Philip have been married for decades. The Queen was only eight when she met Philip and the two became friends, writing to each other during WWII. After WWII, Philip renounced his his Danish and Greek titles to marry Elizabeth, becoming Prince Consort and Duke of Edinburgh. Despite Philip's infamous faux pas and wild behavior, the two have a stable and loving relationship.

Edward III & Philippa of Hainault were only children when Edward's mother planned their marriage to gain the military might of Philippa's father. Their marriage was a happy one that produced 12 children. Philippa accompanied Edward to the battlefield many times.

Edward II is on my list for worst marriages but he was a romantic at heart. Edward was very close to a knight named Piers Gaveston. Edward's father didn't like this bond and sent Gaveston away. Edward's first act as king was to recall Piers and bestowed titles and land upon him like there was no tomorrow. Piers was seen as a bad influence and because of this he was killed by a group of rebelling nobles. Edward grieved for years and eventually went on a revenge war against the nobles who had killed his lover.

Despite being Nazi-Sympathizing assholes, no one could doubt that Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII did truly love one another. Edward was King and Wallis was an American divorcee (sound familiar?), and there were laws starting that he could not marry a divorcee. But Edward couldn't give her up do he gave up his throne for her and the two went off to live in France together.

Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra (then Princess Alix of Hesse) were never meant to be married. Alexandra's grandmother Queen Victoria did not approve of the autocracy of Russia and would have preferred that she marry into England. Alexandra herself dithered on whether to marry Nicholas as it meant a change in religion for her. In the end, the two decided to wed and they had a relatively close marriage. Some of their letters still survive.

[eryiss]

Chapter Five -  The Cut

Summary: Freed and Laxus live incredibly different lives. Freed is a corporate lawyer in the capital city, and Laxus works as a handyman in a countryside hotel. Despite their differences, their lives collide when Freed inherits a house in Laxus’ village, and hires him to make the derelict building liveable. But the closer they get, the more they seem to offer each other. [Fraxus Multi-Chapter]

This was written as my admission for Fraxus Day 2020, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus​. Hope you enjoy it. Also, this chapter has mentions of bullying and descriptions of blood,

You can read this under the cut, on Fanfiction, or on Archive of Our Own. You can find the chapter masterpost here.

Chapter Five – The Cut

Melancholy wasn't the word. It wasn't.

Freed wasn't the type of person to get melancholy, he had never been governed by his emotions at all. He didn't look back on things fondly, nor did he feel a sense of sadness when parts of his life were over. Yes, of course things did make him emotional, but he was by no means the type of person to feel sad because something was over. Life moved on quickly, and so must he. It was the rational way to live his life.

It was a mantra he found himself repeating over and over again, as he walked through the house.

The nearly finished house.

The place was by no means a model home, but it worked as it needed to. Windows had been fixed, plumbing and electricals repaired, and structure reinforced. Walls were still stripped with remnants of old-fashioned wallpaper sticking to it, and the floorboards were bare, but it was a house again. It needed love, attention, and upgrading for anyone to actually want it. But it was liveable. Exactly what Freed had wanted. So, following the logic he lived his life by, he should want to sell the place instantly and get back to Era and work on his next case. It was the next logical step, and exactly what he should be doing.

Of course, he wasn't. Because despite it being in contrast with how he'd always lived, Freed felt an odd sense of reluctance to leave. He found himself more than once hovering over the call button on Gildarts' phone number, only to return his phone to his pocket with a muttered complaint of annoyance at himself.

It was pathetic really.

He tried to rationalise it, give his feeling a pragmatic explanation. He said it was because the house was an achievement for him. Something he had done with his hands. A practical achievement that stood out to him because most of his notable work was with the mind. And why would he want to leave something like that? It was a monument to what he could do when he put his mind to it, and he was proud.

But that was a lie, he knew that. The real reason he didn't want to sell the house was because it was the only thing tying him to Magnolia. And he wasn't ready to leave it yet.

Yes, of course he didn't need to own a house to visit the town. He had gained a solid friendship with Laxus, and had gained acquaintances with Laxus' own friends, and so he could justify visiting them from time to time. But the issue lay in that he didn't really want to come back from time to time. He'd gotten used to visiting for the weekends, and he didn't want to stop.

And he couldn't do that now. Not without everyone in the gossiping village knowing why he returned. Because they would, they'd see through it like glass, and Freed wasn't able to deal with that.

He wasn't good at being embarrassed. Never had been.

There were few situations in his life where he had actually been embarrassed, something that happened by design. There had been a few unfortunate instances in his teenage years that find themselves replaying in his head on random nights. So he had made a conscious effort to avoid any situation where embarrassment might occur. It was working well, all in all, and yet this village had this effect on him that made him question the choices that had kept him sane so far.

Freed shook his head. He wasn't getting melancholy, and he certainly wasn't getting self-reflective.

It did nobody any good.

He took a small sponge and slowly wiped down the table in Albion House's kitchen. It had been there when Freed had inherited it, and after Laxus had sanded it down and polished it, it was as workable as the rest of the house. Tonight was the first time the table was going to be used for its actual purpose. He and Laxus were going to have a meal together.

That didn't help the situation.

Because, clearly there was something more. Magnolia was a nice town, and the people in it were good to Freed, but nobody got that sentimental over a collection of buildings. People did, unfortunately, get sentimental about other people.

And annoyingly, Laxus was a good person. He was snarky, and had a bite to him, and he could challenge Freed without blinking. But he was also kind, and helpful, and when he was teaching Freed how to wire a socket or plumb in a toilet, he was patient and made sure to keep the mood light; particularly when Freed was on the edge of smashing the porcelain bastard with the wrench. He was a good man, and seemed to know how to handle Freed in whatever situation he was in.

Also, he was beautiful. Freed had withheld that admission for a while, but since they would likely part ways soon he wanted to be honest. Broad shoulders, a thin waist, striking blonde hair and bright eyes. Evergreen had been right; he was an Adonis.

It didn't help he had a rustic charm that attracted Freed more than it should.

Perhaps it was for the best that they wouldn't see much of each other. Freed wasn't the romantic type, he had more important things to do. And his attraction was born out of proximity. Laxus was an attractive man, but he was just a man. In one years' time, Freed would have forgotten about him, and his life would be normal again.

And hopefully those occasional dreams would pass too. Be them the disgustingly sweet, or the more… intense ones.

"Hey," A voice snapped Freed out of his thoughts. "I think it's clean."

Freed frowned, then looked down to the table he was cleaning. One particular part of the table in particular was shining more than others. Freed's hackles rose slightly at the teasing tone in Laxus' words, but he scolded himself in his head. Laxus hadn't known what he was thinking about, all he'd seen was Freed washing a table for far too long.

"Out of interest," Freed said, cautiously. "How long have you been here?"

"Fifteen minutes," Laxus grinned, raising the two pots of Chinese food. "Food might be cold."

"Fifteen minutes!" Freed exclaimed, almost horrified.

"It was like half a minute, moron," Laxus smirked, walking to the table, and placing their take-out on the table. "What were you thinkin' about that hard?"

"A case," Freed lied. He didn't have an active case at the moment, but he was probably going to be helping with one soon. When he went back to the city. Permanently. "It's nothing too troubling, really. It's actually quite an easy case really, but our client is high profile, and they might use our services again should they need it. So we need to be litigious and cordial."

"Can't imagine you enjoy being cordial," Laxus smirked. "Probably out of practice."

"And for that, I don't think I'll pay for my half of this," Freed said, reaching over and taking the pot of food from Laxus' hand.

"Kinda proving my point there, ain't ya?"

Freed smiled a little as he brought the chopsticks to his lips. They were having a meal together as a sort of goodbye evening – not helping with Freed's refusal to be melancholy about the situation. Because not only did it force him to confront the fact he's leaving, he has to do so with the man who's making it a lot harder to do so. Worse still, Laxus had looked so damn charming with a tediously honest smile when he'd suggested they eat together. It had sent a little jolt through Freed.

Bastard. Maybe he was doing it on purpose.

"I saw Cana while I was waiting for the food," Laxus spoke again, garnering Freed's attention again. "She mentioned that her dad's looking forward to seeing what we've done with the place, apparently he's been excited about it."

"Is he interested in buying it?" Freed asked, frowning.

"He's your estate agent, Freed," Laxus said in a deadpan voice, though he was clearly fighting a smile. "You should know that. It worries me that you don't know that."

"Gildarts is Cana's father?" Freed frowned further. "They have different surnames?"

"Fuck, sometimes I forget you ain't from here," Laxus laughed loudly, leaning back in his chair and grinning. "There's a hell of a lot you don't know, isn't there? Well, guess the best place to start is with Gildarts, ain't it. Or I guess a more accurate name is Gildarts, Man-Whore Extraordinaire."

And thus, Laxus began to tell the rumours and stories about what Gildarts was like when he was younger – he really did seem to earn the title Laxus had given him – before trailing off to the other stories about Magnolia. He spoke about his hometown with a level of enthusiasm that Freed enjoyed watching, and found himself getting enveloped in the worlds that Laxus was describing. Though he might not be quite as eloquent as Freed was, he certainly made up for it with boisterous laughter and an odd amount of glee at exposing his friends embarrassing stories.

It was almost enough to distract Freed from what Laxus had said. 'I forget you ain't from here.' It was a little sentence, probably a throwaway thought to Laxus, but it made Freed feel oddly comforted. As if he had been accepted into this little community.

A ridiculous idea, really.

He blinked to stop that train of thought, and focused on the story about Elfman. Apparently he had been dragged into some comic book convention by his sisters and had been forced to dress as a monster from a book series. He apparently hated every moment of it, and Laxus had spent the years following showing the pictures of him in the costume at every opportunity he could. To prove his point, Laxus had pulled out his phone and showed Freed.

It was a better costume that Freed expected. But it revealed far too much for the shy, younger version of Elfman that Laxus had described.

Freed did find himself distracted by Laxus, thankfully. But it wasn't quite enough, because as he listened, he absently lowered his left hand under the table and started to swirl his finger against the palm of his hand. Perhaps he wouldn't have noticed the return of his nervous tick, had it not been for the raised scar that he grazed lightly.

It was new, and when he touched it and thought back to its origin, any lie about not being melancholic was shattered.

~~~

"Shit. Fuck. Fuck."

Freed hissed, pain splitting from his left hand up into his arm. He stepped back slightly, eyes flickering to the large gash that he'd just given himself, along with the thick blood that was fighting to get from it. It was a nasty looking cut, and Freed found himself unable to look away from it.

Laxus, who had been crouching down and pushing new floorboards into place, glanced towards Freed with a slight grin. The expression fell when he saw blood drip onto the floor, and he stood up quickly and walked to Freed's side. He took Freed's injured hand in his own, and let out a small hiss of sympathy as he saw the cut. Ridiculously, Freed couldn't help but note that Laxus was holding his hand for the first time.

"That's pretty nasty," Laxus commented.

"Is it," Freed muttered. "I thought it was a papercut."

"Good, if you can be a dick then it ain't that bad," Laxus smiled. "Come on, we need to wash it."

Not removing his hand from Freed's wrist, he dragged the lawyer from the cottage's sitting room and into the kitchen. Freed didn't fight it, instead focusing on catching the droplets of blood rather than letting them land on the carpet and stain it. It was a good enough distraction from both the stinging pain that was running through him, and the presence of Laxus being so close.

It wasn't a distraction from the embarrassment of the situation. Because after being successful at almost every task Laxus had given him, he cut himself sawing off the edge of a floorboard. Out of all the tools he's used, he was bested by a sawblade.

"This ain't gonna hurt a bit," Laxus promised as he opened the faucet and dragged Freed's hand under the stream of water.

Laxus Dreyar was a lying bag of shit.

"Mother fucking crap-whore!" Freed practically yelled. There was a moment of silence, Freed almost panting with pain, and Laxus biting his lip. A second later, a loud, unabashed, raucous laughter filled the room. Laxus actually doubled over he was laughing so much, resting his hands on his thighs while Freed glared at him from the sink. "I'm glad you're enjoying this so much."

"I'm sorry," Laxus grinned, something almost akin to a giggle slipping out. "I really am."

"No you're not."

"I'm not," Laxus agreed. "It was fucking funny, man. I ain't ever seen ya acting like that. Just caught me off guard," He glanced up, met Freed's glare, and burst into laughter again. "I'll get a bandage. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Freed muttered. "And try not to fall, impale yourself on a spike and die. That would be awful."

"Don't worry. Only an idiot could get hurt in this place," Laxus laughed again, and if Freed had something in reach, he would have thrown it at the bastard's head.

When Laxus returned to the kitchen, he was holding the first aid kit that he had insisted they keep in the house; no doubt when the humour of Freed's injury and subsequent cussing died down, Laxus would gloat about how right he was with demanding the first aid kit. He carefully guided Freed's hand out from under the stream of water, and patted it dry softly with a towel. Freed winced a little at the pressure on his cut, but didn't say anything.

Slowly, with careful and practiced movements, Laxus wrapped the bandage around his hand. He managed to avoid trapping any of his fingers. Though the white fabric did get stained slightly, it seemed to trap the blood from pouring out too badly. The pain was subsiding slightly now, too.

It allowed him to appreciate how gentle Laxus was being. He wasn't used to thinking of Laxus being gentle.

"How do you know how to do this?" Freed asked, sitting at the kitchen table.

"I used to have to do it all the time," Laxus sighed a little as he spoke, removing his hands from the bandage and inspecting his handywork. He looked up to Freed, who was frowning at him slightly. "I had a lot going on when I was a teenager, got into a lot of fights. Well, that's how I saw it. Turns out I was kind of a bully."

Freed frowned deeper. "You were?"

"Yeah. Didn't think I was, at the time, but I went to therapy for a while and she called me out on it," Laxus shrugged. "But yeah, a couple times a month I'd fight some kid. Had a superiority complex or some shit, wanted everyone to worship me and do what I want. Cringey teenager shit and a lot of aggression, bad mix. Eventually, when the guys started to fight back, I needed to learn some basic first aid."

When Laxus looked up, Freed had an expression of curiosity on his face. It clearly wasn't what Laxus had expected.

"Was it the therapy that made you stop, then?" Freed asked, and Laxus seemed blind sighted for a moment.

"Er, no. Not exactly," Laxus shook his head. "There were two kids that pissed me off more than most, don't know why. So when things were getting bad, I kinda… targeted them more than anyone else. Natsu and Gajeel, you might have met them at some point. Fireman and mechanic. But they got pissed at me for taking things too far, jumped me, beat the shit out of me, then went to the principal and told him all the shit I've done. Got suspended, thought about myself, and started meetin' with Porlyusica; she's my therapist. She basically listed all the shit I've done and made me be better."

Freed took a moment to think through what he'd just heard. It was the best thing to do, he'd found out. Sometimes people let out their biggest, darkest secrets to him – the curse of being a lawyer – and your first thoughts on the matter were often unhelpful. So he took some time, and eventually asked the question that seemed most prudent.

"Your principal suspended you without evidence?" Freed asked.

"Oh he had plenty of evidence," Laxus laughed. "Hard to get shit past the guy when he's your grandfather."

"Makarov?" Freed frowned.

"Yeah, used to be in charge of the school. Only retired because the school board forced him to," Laxus grinned. "He started working at the hotel because he found retirement boring," Laxus smiled for a moment at the memory of his grandfather's sudden proclamation he was buying the hotel, before looking back to Freed, smile drooping slightly. "I just admitted to beating up kids and being a bully, why doesn't that bother you?"

"Some of my clients intentionally lower their workers' wages to increase their own paycheque, and then laugh about it," Freed shrugged. But Laxus nudged him, sensing there was more. "Nobody was there best in high school, I certainly wasn't."

"You were a bully too huh?" Laxus laughed, joking.

"Well, not exactly, but I wasn't the most kind," Freed leant back in his chair. "I was the smartest person there and wanted people to know it. I would start discussions on test results just so I could make sure everyone knew I'd gotten one hundred percent. And there was one boy, he wasn't the smartest, who sat beside me in most classes. Alphabetised seating plans and all. I could be rather… patronising to him. I think I had a crush on him, in retrospect. It was probably a twisted way of trying to deal with it."

"You don't seem like that now," Laxus commented. "Other than when you're joking, but I know that ain't serious. What changed?"

"Evergreen and Bickslow essentially told me that if I didn't get over myself, they'd stop being my friends," Freed smiled. "Other than them, I only had my parents. I couldn't lose them."

They sat in silence, Freed thinking back to the person he was in high school, Laxus perhaps doing the same thing. It was an odd feeling, sitting with someone who somewhat understood what it was like being ashamed of the person you used to be, but knowing you've grown past them. Most people, if they did feel like that, didn't talk about it. It was nice to know that, in Laxus, he had someone he could relate to.

It was also nice to know that he had just come out to Laxus and the blonde hadn't so much as blinked.

"I would have kicked your ass if we went to school together," Laxus declared, smirking.

"You would have tried," Freed corrected, allowing the mood to be lifted. "But, as a child I was also an award-winning fencer. I would have stabbed you before you could hurt me."

"Hard to stab someone when you've been knocked out," Laxus grinned cockily, making a fist. This had the unfortunate side effect of making his bicep flex, and therefore Freed had to avert his gaze.

They chuckled together, enjoying their joke that wasn't particularly funny. It was relaxing to be around with Laxus, and Freed felt as though he could be honest with him in a way that he couldn't be with others. Perhaps that was because he was the first person Freed had gotten to know deeply since his time in school. But that didn't matter, really. Because the important thing was that he enjoyed Laxus.

"Come on," Laxus spoke again. "I don't trust my bandage work. Let's go to the doctors, make sure you ain't gonna get infected or some shit."

And stupidly, Freed's heart fluttered at that.

~~~

"You really are distracted, ain't ya?"

Freed looked up from his hand, which he had placed on the table and was fiddling with, and towards Laxus. The blonde had an expression unknown to Freed, something between being amused and contemplative. Freed frowned.

"I suppose I am," Freed agreed. "I'm sorry. You wanted to do this and I'm being terrible company. What were you saying?"

"It ain't important," Laxus gave a half shrug. "You wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

"As I said, I've got an upcoming case that could be very good for my company," Freed quickly lied, because the truth was now completely untellable. "It's getting to me a little, but it's not as bad as you might think. I just need to rationalise everything."

"Right. So when I texted Evergreen a second ago and she said you don't have anything planned at work, she was lying?" Laxus crossed his arms, and Freed's eyes narrowed.

"You and Evergreen talk?"

"You can bullshit me all you want, but I'm gonna be able to see through it," Laxus said, ignoring Freed's question. "And you don't have to tell me what's actually bothering you, because if it ain't my business then it ain't my business."

Freed wanted to snipe at him. Ask him why, if he believed his words, was he still talking?

"I'm just gonna say this," Laxus continued. "Nothing has to be done if you don't want it to be."

And, in a way, there was the reality that Freed had been hiding from. Because, as much as he didn't want to leave Magnolia behind, he also didn't want to let himself think he could stay. The hard line he had always drawn with the house was that, once it was functional and sellable, he would sell it and get back to his normal life. Not only was it a goal for him to achieve, but it had also turned into a rule he had to follow.

Because his fondness for both the town and Laxus had been gradual, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by Freed. He told himself he had to leave the place behind at some point, and doing that once the house was sold was a way of holding himself accountable. Once the building work had been completed, there was nothing else for him to do in Magnolia.

But that was a lie.

And the only person keeping him true to the rule was himself.

"I always said that I would sell it once everything was fixed," Freed stated, voice flickering into the lawyer tone he denied having.

"Then say something else," Laxus retorted, as if Freed could do that. "Look, I don't know what your life is like when you're in the city. But I know you seem to like being here. So why don't you just keep coming?"

"I-" Freed paused. He needed to think. "My real life is in the city. I can't-"

"Who says that your real life is just in the city? You've been coming here every weekend for months now, it's as much a part of your life as anything," Laxus stated, and his smile made Freed's resolve crumble slightly.

"I told myself that once the house-"

"This isn't about the house" Laxus insisted. "This is about you, fucking idiot. I think being here makes you happy. And if something makes you happy, why stop because of some bullshit rule you set yourself? That ain't smart."

Freed thought, for a moment.

It was almost nauseating to hear Laxus speaking like this, and Freed couldn't explain why. Well, perhaps he could, but the explanation wasn't something he was willing to entertain. Because the only real reason Laxus would be so insistent on Freed returning to Magnolia as he had been doing was because he wanted to keep seeing Freed. He wanted Freed to stop coming as much as Freed wanted to.

But Freed couldn't allow himself to accept that. Because if he did, he'd start wondering why. And then maybe he'd trick himself into thinking that his silly crush was reciprocated. He couldn't.

"There is… more work I could do," Freed spoke without thinking.

"I guess there is," Laxus nodded. "So you're sticking around? For the house"

"For the house."

It wasn't for the house. They both knew it.

[since-it-must-be-so]

A Wild Sheep Chase: Chapter 2 of Choujin X!

It's here! I've gushed about the chapter over at my Twitter, but like I said in my previous post, I want to see how the story progresses and keep a log about it. So here it goes!

Background info on Ely Otsuta

So before we delve into Chapter 2 which almost exclusively featured Ely... Let's take note of the new things we learned about Ely:

She's from a rural prefecture. I think she lives in the mountainside specifically since that's where she grows her tomatoes.

She's a greenthumb (we already kinda knew this from the previous chapter but we learn more about her life pre-Choujin X). I understand that even if the soil is infertile, she's able to grow tomatoes so nutritious and plump. So plump, they resemble butts, hence, "bumbums!" It appears she uses advanced equipment for her farming stuff. So yeah, based on these, it's established Ely has a green thumb!

Oh, and it appears that it's clarified that her "Grandpapi" whom she talks about in the 1st chapter is an adoptive grandfather (not biological, hence, maybe in the future we'd know her parents and learn why Ely is special).

It's just me but I get the impression that Ely is being introduced as some sort of "fertility" choujin, since she also dreams of having 9 kids. Haha!

It's kinda weird though why the burning tomato has a face. Was it just from her dream, since after plucking a bumbum - she woke up? Hmm, after some thought, I think the burning tomato with a face is just from her dream.

Ely Wakes Up from Reality

When Ely woke up, she finds herself in the South Yamato prefecture. Okay, so I think this leaning tower of some sort has a significance to the story.

It's featured in every spread with the title "Choujin X" and also in the last chapter. Can you see it? Maybe it has something to do with how the powers are made, like pollution-related or a botched experiment. Dunno. Just my wild speculation.

A Wild Sheep Chase

This is the exciting part. So when Ely wakes up, Chandra Hume offers to "escort" her, but really it appears he wants to kidnap her. And from, *checks the manga* page 10 to 40, we have Ely running away from Chandra until she fell in what looks like a similar area where Tokio and Azuma fought Johnny Kiyoshi Takeyama.

The chase sequence consisting of 30 pages were so fun and I was smiling all the while I was reading! Ely is so cute trying to parkour her way through the buildings (kinda reminds me of Touka?? I miss Touka!). Chandra looks really cool, he seemed to be flying too, using his powers (more on that later)!

But not to be outdone, Ely borrows a "Roller Boy Yay-Yay" which basically is a scooter with something that resembles a driver's wheel. Its literal translation of ローラーBOYイェイ・イェイ -- which, checking Twitter and in Ishida's latest live stream, I think the locals found it hilarious too. Ishida is just unleashing his crazy here, I love it!

After that sequence, we get the tractor and sheep chase. Ah! I love it.. So what happened is that, Chandra and Ely fall off from their Roller Boy Yay-Yay. Ely who just claimed she can outrun Chandra if she were riding a tractor, suddenly found one right in front of her! Then Chandra lands near a gang... or should I say, a flock of sheep-bikers. They're all wearing these Kanji-printed tracksuits and basically look like they're a bunch of delinquents? They even describe themselves as "cryptid bikers"... Cryptid supposedly means mysterious? Idk why the weird choice of words for the translation though.

Funnily, I was just reading Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (羊をめぐる冒険 --- Hitsuji o meguru bōken or literally An Adventure Surrounding Sheep). I wonder if this scene something to do with this book?

Anyway, Chandra entices the sheep to help hip capture Ely by bribing them with a Docomo flip phone. I don't know why a flip phone - could mean the following: (a) the sheep are so poor, a flip phone is cool; (b) maybe flip phones are a status symbol in that universe; (c) maybe the setting is in the 2000s when the flip phones really were all the rage.

So they all chase Ely, but Chandra suddenly has a car too. Someone on Twitter said it's a Porsche? But I can't tell, though Chandra said his car is a four-wheel drive... Heh? Idk what to do with this info.

As for Ely, she is really good with the tractor as she said. The hilarity of outrunning motorcycles and what could be a Porsche. That tractor prowess! Later on, Chandra and the other sheep figure into an accident with a "safety-loving" truck (oh the irony, lol). Chandra flew off the car and so did his fancy shoes...

Ely didn't exactly come out unscathed. Ishida allocated 4 double spreads for this epic fall. Some of the sheep definitely should have died from that spectacular accident.

At first, Ely was smug about escaping the sheep. But then, I think she was moved by compassion and I think she hurt herself in order to revive the sheep. I just wonder though, how she learned to do that?

Then we get another awesome double spread of her transformation, similar to Tokio's. Augh Ishida-sensei. These are soooo good!!!!

Because of her transformation, the whole area was engulfed with smoked and I think the sheep were effectively revived. It appears Chandra saw all this (while he was regenerating... so we now know choujins or at least smoke choujins like Chandra has regenerative powers), hence he marveled at Ely's newfound power. It was kinda confirmed that Ely was responsible for keeping the casualties to a minimum. Specifically he said Ely possesses: quick judgment, though resolve, persistence... making her a human with the makings of a choujin... while also kinda noting Ely's silliness.

Here we go again with Chandra's "fancy gentleman" facade... Even the way he talks is fancy ("I am well-acquainted with the roads here") but more than that... he's self-important. I talked about my other views on his character on Reddit. I get the impression he's something of a "Choujin supremacist", you know what I mean? So, he wants to kinda recruit Ely into his organization or whatever.

Ely is righteous

So we see that Ely is further introduced as a good character, standing up against Chandra and rejecting his offer to be his pupil or something. Ely was clearly upset about the grandma getting hurt (did she die? I hope she didn't) and made it clear she would never join him. Chandra takes offense at this rejection, especially when Ely said Chandra is worse than a turd.

As Chandra tries to inflict pain on Ely (something about marking her on the face), she recalls her resolve from Chapter 1: drones for farming, a greenhouse, her grandpappy, a mansion, the big dog, paying back the kid for his roller boy yay-yay, the Goldilocks hubbie, nine kids... But just before we can see if she can fight Chandra off...

The most handsome man of all Sui Ishida's works (haha!)

This buff mysterious man with a bandana reminiscent of the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles seemed to have blown Chandra and Ely (also the cars and motorcycles) away by a mere clap of his hands. It appears even Chandra is afraid of this guy and recognizes him... he leaves the scene using his smoke powers before the guy can do serious damage. I think his power has something to do with wind since there was like a little hint with all the ventilation stuff in the setting.

The guy manages to create a circle of protection around Ely. He tells Ely that Chandra's modus is to target "people with aptitude like Ely". He helpfully mends Ely's punctured hand with his bandana.... And when Ely looks up at his face, what do you know? Haha!

Our girl Ely has a love interest! Haha.

Tokio's Gregor Samsa moment

I've observed from the manga I've read that characters with transformation abilities always, always go through this adjustment period with the power. Gregor Samsa, Peter Parker, our boy Kaneki... Anyway, it seems Tokio doesn't know or can't turn back into a normal-looking person. But the last panel sure is interesting because we have them experiencing this transformation at the same time. Also, since it reminds me of Touka and Ayato's volume cover. I hope they find each other soon though!

Types of Choujins and initial premises on the Power of Choujins

So there are 3 confirmed types so far: Flexi (Johnny), Bestial (our boy Tokio), and Smoke. It seems that pretty boy Hoshi doesn't have a category yet, but like I said I think his has something to do with air or ventilation lol.

We learned that Chandra is a Smoke Choujin, and Ely is now one too and she was may have been somehow infected by Chandra's smoke/fumes. It appears now that there are 2 ways to become a choujin: injection and inhalation. Chandra wonders if Ely was infected with his power... But I'm thinking the infection theory might not be that accurate. After all, it seems Ely has a green thumb.

But, I think as Chandra said, only some people have an aptitude for this. So, Ely and Tokio are examples. I wonder if Azuma also has choujin powers or did it not manifest yet? Is the aptitude inherent or something you can acquire? If so, what does Tokio have that Azuma doesn't, especially since everyone thinks Azuma is "better" than Tokio in all aspects?

We'll find out in Chapter 3 more or less!! I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes! I'd like to hear your thoughts or comments if any :)

[speeps-highway]

Something I noticed about the way Sonic is portrayed nowadays is that he is pretty much All Might. Colors and Gens didn't have the plot to fully show it and Lost World put all the blame for his actions. Forces however, he keeps the same careless attitude from Unleashed to Gens, everyone looks up for him as their savior and role model and even when he makes bad jokes against the villains he still ends up recking them like trash. He went from Goku/Luffy type of shonen hero to literally All Might.

I barely watch Anime so I have hardly any idea what you’re comparing him too, but let me make it clear:

Sonic’s portrayal in games suffers in localization a lot.

Adventure -> Shadow Portrayal

From SA1-06 there was a pretty general issue in the main series with unsatisfactory translations - SHtH messes up a lot of lines, and SA2 is almost completely broken at times (Teria, KAFOW, saying a broken version of the Japanese word for “Damn” when getting grabbed by a ghost)

On top of that I’m not sure what exactly went on and if it’s on purpose or not, but there was some kind of this obsession with giving the character cheesy one-liners, like in the 90s cartoons. Lines like this include “Something Buggin’ you”, “Come and get some Eggman” and “Crack that Eggman wide open”.

Sure, you can argue “Western sonic is different” but look at how that’s turned out in the past, not including giving Classic Sonic a mohawk. I’m sure even those people can notice how much lines like “Something Buggin’ You” are made fun of by people both in and outside of the fanbase. They might have worked well for AoStH and Satam, but they certainly don’t in the main series.

Japanese portrayals of Sonic were far less aggressive than their English counterparts. In fact, he keeps his cool pretty well but boy does he sound pissed in the rare event he actually does get angry. He’s been pretty consistent in acting this way in most, if not all of his appearances. In fact, there’s a character script from SA2 describing the character in exactly this way - you can see it here.

In some cases, this causes the games to lose subtle details like nods to other titles. For example a boy in Station Square who references Little Planet, or Sonic’s reaction to seeing Shadow in Heroes.

Secret Rings -> Black Knight Portrayal

Sonic is a depressed lover boy in 06 IMO. I don’t really want to get into that, so let’s skip that one.

Starting around the time of Secret Rings, Sonic games finally started to get localisations that were pretty accurate in both English and Japanese. There’s a reason the storybooks and Unleashed aren’t brought up nearly as much as the other games are for Sonic saying dumb lines. I mean, there’s still word differences, but they don’t go full on adding in random one-liners.

In fact, the only concern seemed to be the voice actors. For Sonic himself, even though Griffith eventually improved he was still nowhere near what Kanemaru (and that guy who voiced the Werehog, but I guess the decision to not have a seperate VA for that in English isn’t his fault) did for the character. (Unleashed example (J) (E), Black Knight example (J) (E))

Colors -> Lost World Portrayal

Starting with Colors though Sonic’s character took a weird turn: He was suddenly shouting cheese more than ever, and they were even showing up in the Japanese version. I think this is largely because they suddenly decided to have Sonic games be written in America by people wholly unfamiliar with the franchise. (Though in defense they’re not the entire problem)

The Japanese/English translation was back to being very different as well, mostly because the scripts included many more jokes and puns that couldn’t be translated well between the two. For instance, Cubot is a Cowboy in the English version but he’s a Ninja in the Japanese one. “Baldy Nosehair” is translated as “Mustached Egg” etc.

In the past, there weren’t a lot of lines you couldn’t easily find a way to translate. I think like, the line that got replaced with Ah Yeah This is Happenin’ is one of the only ones I can think of.

While it’s easy to shit on Colors Sonic, I think he did okay speaking for the game itself - it was lighter than the darker games that had been going on for the last 5 years. The problem isn’t that Colors Sonic existed, it’s that they kept him.

Generations got away pretty easy - there’s not much to even write for that after all. The only real change is the Time Eater scene to omit the reference to Dr. Robotnik.

Lost World is where he really falls apart, that game tried to raise the stakes with the planet draining and Tails kidnapping but in the end he just… couldn’t take himself seriously enough.

For some reason, really starting with Lost World the Japanese script took a wild turn. While Colors and Gens were relatively in the same style, Lost World’s Japanese version improved script in that everyone was generally more in-character. Remember what I said earlier about Sonic getting angry? Compare what he says to the Deadly Six when he sees Robo Tails in the English version to the Japanese one.

Even the jokes in Japanese Lost World are more suited to the character than they are in English. Eggman’s Jetpack at the end for example (J) (E). There’s lots of examples of differences in Lost World, too many to sensibly list really.

Forces Portrayal

IMO Forces has largely the same localization problems as SA1 - the lip syncing is always synced to Japanese (though lip syncing has never been good for both languages in one game) and the English script has a bunch of dumb sounding one-liners that get made fun of.

By now I’m sure you’re probably familiar with the whole “Sonic was tortured” and “Tails went mad” thing, but there’s still a lot of bad apples in the English version that aren’t there in the Japanese version.

The scene where Zavok opens Sonic’s prison cell is very different between the two (J) (E). I mean there’s still the problem about being stuck for 6 months, but Japanese Sonic is notably less fixated on butts here. He also doesn’t mention Chilli Dogs in that scene above while fighting him, or that “It’s been Generations” comment when he meets Classic Sonic.

Forces is definitely a step in the right direction for Sonic compared to Lost World though, even in the English version he’s far less quick to make jokes as he was before.

The game even restores an aspect of Sonic that was absent in Colors and Lost World - starting (and even finishing) the game alone. He was getting kinda circlejerky with Tails in those games, whereas in pretty much every major game other than Sonic 2 and 3 he’s always shown doing his own thing separated from characters like Tails and Knuckles initially and meets up with them afterwards - even if it’s a game like Heroes where it happens all at once in the intro movie.

I don’t know how Forces’ script was made, but if Nakamura is saying that the script was passed between Pontaff and Goya with the two making changes, they need to make sure that they both end up with the same result.

Passing the script between America and Japan is fine, but at the end of the day they need to make sure that both sides have scripts that match each other as close as possible, in order to avoid these character and plot inconsistencies.

Either way, by now presumably Pontaff have had more experience with writing for and have more solid past material for this series than the people who localised the SA1-era games. Considering I’ve heard Pontac refuses to talk about Sonic and Graff’s twitter got trashed by angry fans when he announced writing for the game, surely they should be aware of this characterization issue by now, but I don’t blame them if it ends up being something beyond their control, such as a lack of communication between SoA/SoJ or being forced to write the character that way anyway.

I think ultimately what Sonic the character is dealing with right now is the rotting corpse of 90s American Sonic, who died, came back from the dead, then died and came back again - a zombie that won’t stop falling apart, and the stench is catching up.

[atomi-cat]

Ok. So, to find out when the game itself takes place, you've gotta know when the studio was open. At first, I assumed that Bendy was a rubberhose toon from the height of that style of cartoons. That would put their timeline between 1925 and 1935. Since Sammy recognized Henry but Henry didn't know about the studio extensions in the basement, Henry would have had to leave the studio sometime around 1928. However, Henry also wasn't around for the instillation of the ink machine,… (Mo 1)

(2) which Sammy said was build “over their heads”. So Sammy was either: 1.) downstairs when the ink machine was built, or 2.) the tape recorder was moved downstairs. We also know from Wally’s recordings that Joey had “everyone” donate something from their workstations, so the employees at that time were pretty few. Each item can probably be associated with a specific person; the book is Joey’s the record Sammy’s, and I imagine the doll belinged to the guy who did toys. (Mo)

(3) But based on how small the company was at the time (and modelling it off Disney’s early years) I can’t imagine Henry wasn’t working there at that time; in fact, the inkwell could be his. So where’s the overlap, and how did Joey publish a book if the company was that small? Demonic hijinks definitely accounts for some of it, but the timing is weird. If (basing this assumption off Wally’s first recording) the ink machine was put up very soon after the pedestals, … (Mo)

(4) then it’s possible Henry left between the pedestals and the ink machine. That still doesn’t leave a lot of time for Henry knowing and being super close to all his coworkers, but it works. UNTIL I saw someone notice the “Buy Bonds” mark I hadn’t seen before on one of the episode posters. When I researched, I couldn’t find any examples of cartoon propaganda in WWI. WWII, however, is well known for it. Now we’d have to rework what we already figured out for a new timeperiod. (Mo)

(5) First off, why would this studio still be using rubberhose-style animation long after it had gone out of style? They probably started the studio right before rubberhose went out, and wouldn’t or couldn’t update it. That puts them starting the studio in the 1934-1935 range. That’s good, because it gives plenty of time between the founding to when it went mad. Wally said that the animations weren’t being finished on time anymore, which means they had a time schedule. (Mo)

(6?) A time schedule like that would probably be imposed by a distributer. At this time, probably the studio was doing a lot of work for the government and military and being funded by them (hence “Buy Bonds”). This is probably about the time that Joey really stopped caring about the actual animations. The extensions probably also happened around then. So when did Henry leave the studio? Probably right before the studio was doing animations for the military. (Mo)

(7) At that time, Joey was probably already starting to slip. There were probably already plans for an extension to the studio, and rudimentary plans for the ink machine. This would’ve been about 1940-1941. Henry would have been really familiar with everyone there, maybe to the point of leaving behind a keepsake that could later be used for the pedestals. The extensions are built, the ink machine installed, more employees hired, and the studio went under probably late 40’s. (Mo)

(8; last one, promise!) Whether the studio went under because of money or demonic issues is up for interpretation. So, assuming that demonic stuff means that Henry went back exactly 30 years after he left the studio, the game may take place in 1970 or 1971. All of that is, of course, a guess. I’ve found it fun to try to connect the game to the actuall history of animation. I guess only time and new chapters will reveal what really happened! Thanks for letting me do this. -Mo💚

Dang when you said it was the length of a novel you weren’t kidding.

Anyways, let’s try and go through this one thing at a time.

In your first point, we actually don’t know how much Henry knows or remembers. It’s entirely possible that Henry left the studio before the installation of the ink machine, but where this idea is sort of muddied is the brief image flashes Henry gets at the end of Chapter 1.

(pay no attention to the text at the bottom. I got these screenshots form my twitch playthough)

These images that we see could be something (or someone) implanting memories into Henry’s head, or these could also be repressed memories. It’s far too early to tell for sure.

While I’m of the opinion that Henry left before the ink machine was built, this still doesn’t really answer when the machine was built and when Henry left. Keep in mind that the game takes place 30 years after Henry left, so if Henry left before the Ink machine was installed, then it wouldn’t have been possible for the ink machine to be made during the early years of the company. If Henry left around 1928 as you suggest, then the current setting would take place around the 1950s, which contradicts your theory about the current setting taking place in the 1970s.

“Built over our heads” seems like an accurate thing for Sammy to say, since the rest of the studio seems to have been built underground. Which, I gotta say, feels like an odd decision in hind sight. I’m not too familiar with how animation workshops were built all those decades ago, but I would think that if they were gonna expand the workshop, they would be building upwards (with like a few floors underground for the boiler room or something). For the items, I think I mentioned this during my let’s play, but I kind of think the items on the pedestals are going to foreshadow what the themes for the next few chapters are. The only sour point in this theory is that there’s 6 items, and only 5 chapters. So either this theory is already debunked, or theMeatly has something else up his sleeve that he’s not telling us about.

“how did Joey publish a book if the company was that small?“

The small size of the company doesn’t necessarily mean the cartoons weren’t popular. Remember that Bendy was popular enough to get merchandise made, which was a big deal, even back in the day. As for the book, I’ve been curious about this too. I feel like I still need to look around a little more, but the earliest example I was able to find about a book talking about animation was in a magazine article published in 1968 (saw it over on this website). This is me just thinking out loud, but what if the book in the game was a manuscript or a prototype? Basically the plans for a book that was going to be published but never was. That would explain the different font styles that are used for the title and Joey’s name. Either that or “Illusion of Living” could also be just a journal Joey was writing notes in. Though going with that idea certainly adds even more ambiguity to the title and what it actually means. Another side note, but thinking about how the Bendy plushie looked in the game, Joey got really lucky to find someone who made the plushie look as cute as it did. Have you seen what old vintage toy merchandise looked like? It’s the stuff of nightmares I tell ya. Look up what some of Mickey’s old merch used to look like and I guarantee you’ll never find creepy pasta or SCP stories scary ever again. Anyways, I actually think the pedestals were put up after the ink machine was built. In the very first recording we hear in chapter 1, we first hear complaints about the ink machine, but then we hear about how Joey wanted people to donate things from their desk. Around the time of that recording, it makes it sound as though it was fairly recent event. We can also use this to get a better idea just how far into madness Joey was descending (assuming he didn’t already completely lose it).

Animation was a fairly new thing at the time, and the creation of characters like Felix the cat, and the Out of the Inkwell cartoons came just at the tail-end of WWI (1918), so it makes no sense for there to be propaganda cartoons for a war that ended. WWII happened during a big transition period for a lot of animation companies, not to mention doing propaganda cartoons, or advertising or encouraging the purchase of war bonds meant more cartoons could be funded. From what I understand, propaganda cartoons started being made roughly around 1941, a time when not every cartoon made the transition to color, yet. Here’s another interesting thing of note. Out of the official posters made for BATIM, only one of them has the ‘buy bonds’ thing on the poster. And that poster is “The Dancing Demon”. It’s also a fair note that the posters probably aren’t a good representation of what the actual animation in the cartoons, because for all we know, “the dancing demon” might have been the first Joey Drew cartoon to conform to the style of animation was being used at the time. In fact, knowing about all this now, adds a kind of marketing reason as to why Bendy’s head appears to be missing from the dancing demon poster. If that cartoon was made during the early 1940s, then not showing Bendy’s face may have been for the purpose of a  big face reveal- an introduction to a possible redesign. Mickey’s first redesign was in 1939, and 1940 was the official introduction of Bugs bunny, so I think something like that wouldn’t be too far out of the realm of possibility. Since we don’t know what the rest of the chapters have in store for us, I’m almost willing to bet we’ll see more cartoon posters (especially with the 2nd fanart contest underway). If more posters with the ‘buy bonds’ thing appear, then I think it would better support the idea of the studio being made around the decline of rubber hose animation. As for the time schedule thing, it would actually make less sense if they didn’t have a time schedule. Cartoons not meeting a deadline as always been a concern. That’s in part why cartoons characters had such a simple design, and one of the reasons why doing movie-length animation was such a big risk. I’m not saying this isn’t a clue as to all the problems going on in the studio, but compared to everything else that was going on, this could be seen as a more common problem, and is understandable if it’s been easily dismissed.

Henry leaving before the propaganda cartoons is possible, but then does that mean the ink machine was made in the 40s? Is the 40s when everything started going under? Honestly, the studio going under during the 40s is likely, but that still makes me wonder how long the ink machine was around. Actually this kinda makes me wonder if the ink machine was partially made to try and meet the demands of cartoons, or at the very least it would be a good cover up if it had ulterior purposes. As much as people like to make the comparison to Disney, a lot of BATIM’s Deisgn, and even possibly its timeline kinda takes after from the Fleischer brothers. The pie-shaped eyes, the human-looking female counter part, and even the timeline all feel like things that fit very well with Bendy and the Ink Machine. I’d almost even think the timeline of the Fleischer studios could be a good point of comparison for the game. I can’t get an exact date, but it looks as though Fleischer studio stopped making cartoons around the early 40s, which almost sounds it could be a possibility for when Joey’s studio went under. Still doesn’t exactly answer when the ink machine might have been built, but I think the early 40s might be more of a better guess for when the studio eventually closed down.

If the studio was ultimately done in by all the satanic rituals (which looks to be 99% on the mark), I would think that would either be covered up,or any mention about devil worship would be spoken along the lines of how someone talks about a ghost story or an urban legend. Basically treated as a story made to scare kids, or denture people trying to break into the building.If at some point the cartoons just stopped, all of the worked may have just got up and eventually left. It’s also entirely possible that at some point, the studio was just left to rot, with anyone who could get out, did, and then just never spoke about what happened. 

I think I mentioned this in a different post, but I also think the game taking place during the 1970s is almost confirmable. Not just from everything we talked about here, but because of the tapes that we see throughout the studio. I took some time to look at what old vintage tapes looked like a few decades back, and I noticed that the tape recorders from the 60s and 70s look pretty dang close to the design of the tape recorders we see in the game. 

(tape from the game)

(1960s tape recorder/player)

(1970s tape recorder/player)

You wanna know the spook/funny part about all this? If the game really does take place in the 1970s, that means the recordings had to have come from either the 1930s-40s, and that someone took the time to re-record them on a new device. Just for the purpose of placing them around the studio in the hopes you would find them and listen to them. It feels too deliberate to be coincidence.  The question now is who did all this? 

-phew!- This was a doozy, but this was fun to talk about! And yeah, I’m with you that it was fun to take some times and look into the history of animation to try and figure out. I’m such a sucker for stuff like this. XD Anyways, this was really interesting. Thanks for the discussion. ^^