#still keeping it my main. it's a sustainable interest i feel and also in terms of the franchise's continuation/content to come

[prvtocol]

i'm really gonna have to wait a year+ until this rpc revives huh...

[catboybiologist]

Y'all ready for a certified neurodivergent moment?

I had to sit through a thing I absolutely did not need any info from, and typed up a massive outline of the soulsborne pokemon game I just talked about. Massively cringe, yes, but hey it's not just living in my head anymore.

I've had this idea brewing in my head for a while now, pretty much ever since PLA came out (and I found it kinda disappointing tbh). Even though Hoenn has lots of love, it still feels like the most "grand" region in terms of the scale and themes of its lore, so I liked the idea of using it for a legends game that focused on the initial clash of Kyogre and Groudon. I had so many ideas brew in my head, and I guess now I sloppily typed them out.

Obviously this isn't actual game design. This is just me being cringey and detailing my dream pokemon game. At 26 years old. Anyways.

Pokemon Legends: Jirachi

In the times when Hoenn was young, the earth and seas shook. Titans roam the land- powerful individual pokemon that shape their environment to their liking. Humans and pokemon work together to keep them under control, but the earth and sea themselves shake, and Titans only grow more numerous. One day, a human wishes on a shooting star to become a hero and save their land, and something from up there answered.

In this game, Jirachi would be a kind of invisible "questmaster", giving an in-game reason for path markers, quest markers, and points of interest marked in stardust and sparkles. Once the main plot is completed, Jirachi would be able to join your party.

Core combat

The gameplay would be souls-like or Monster Hunter like, but with direct parallels to mainline pokemon mechanics. The six stats would be the same, and the four moves your pokemon can learn would be equivalent to the attack interface of a soulslike game- four trigger buttons. You would take direct control of one "primary" pokemon at a time, and use it as a souls-like character.

HP, Def, and SpDef would be largely the same, with the added benefit that less damage taken means more resistance to trips and staggers.

Atk and SpAtk are also pretty clear cut, scales your damage output per move.

Speed would be analogous to stamina or endurance. Dodging would work as in soulsborne games, and consume stamina. Most pokemon walking, running, attack speed, and dodging speed would be largely equivalent, but high speed pokemon would be able to sustain rapidfire attacking, frequent dodging, and continuous sprinting for longer.

Accuracy would be reworked into lock-on or charge up time- eg, a low accuracy move requires you to stay in one place for a longer amount of time before releasing, to charge up or lock on (imagine how swag ass this would look with focus blast).

PP would correspond to cooldown time. Each move would be infinite use, but have a cool-down after its used. So a move with high accuracy, but low PP, could be used instantly, but not spammed. High PP, weaker moves would then see an increased niche as a "default" light attack that can be spammed.

Attacks could also be ranged, up close, AoE, and have other features that would need to be tweaked and balanced in implementation. They wouldn't one to one map onto their in game counterparts, but this would at least provide a vague guide for how these moves work that builds on players assumed existing knowledge of pokemon games.

Special attributes, like never-miss moves and priority moves, would have features that play into this- eg, priority moves could be spammed with no cooldown, and never-miss moves would be immune to inhibiting effects.

Stat changes could be temporary effects applied to yourself when using the move, like a buffing spell in soulsborne games.

Nonvolatile status effects (paralysis, burn, sleep, etc) would work similar to monster hunter- invisibly accumulating triggers that occur as a side effect to to moves, or in the case of moves that directly trigger status like Spore or Thunder Wave, they would not do direct damage, but instead add massive amounts to the accumulated status trigger.

Field effects (weather, terrain, and special effects like wind, gravity, etc) could be set by regular pokemon moves in small areas, but would also be frequently encountered in the overworld.

Examples: the vibes of potential starter pokemon.

This is all just for the purpose of giving examples of how I envision some of this stuff working. Assume each pokemon would have regional variants that scaled their stats appropriately. This is just to show how different playstyles from the mainline games would translate to this format.

Lucario: example mixed offensive pokemon

Moves like aura sphere could be used with no lock on time, and little to no cooldown, forming the basis of a normal, light, ranged attack.

Moves like Close Combat would have no lock on, but give a temporary debuff and have a long cooldown time before they could be initiated again, making for a quick to use but infrequent heavy attack.

Swords dance and/or nasty plot could be used to provide a temporary buff for a period of time.

Focus blast would take a long time to charge and lock on, making you a sitting duck.

Reuniclus: example tanky pokemon

Light Screen and Barrier could lay down static areas on the ground. When an ally pokemon is located within them, they provide their corresponding defensive buffs. Cooldown for reusing them starts when these floor areas disappear.

Recover could be used to heal, but would have a long cooldown.

Liepard: example technical pokemon

Yawn would inflict direct sleep "buildup", but over time as opposed to instantly.

Fake out would instantly proc a stagger from the enemy, but could only be used in a certain time range upon being sent out.

Moves like taunt and torment function as usual.

The trainer and overworld traversal

Even though the player has direct control over pokemon, the MC is still a trainer, and pokemon are still capture in balls.

The trainer would be on the sidelines, with idle animations ordering the pokemon to do stuff.

Only one "controllable" pokemon could be outside of a pokeball at a time, or all of them could be stowed in pokeballs to directly control the trainer. The trainer can interact with NPCs, gather items, etc.

The trainer would also order "helper" pokemon. One or two "helpers" could be added independent of the party that would follow the trainer around constantly. Each pokemon has a list of field "helper" abilities they're capable of doing, independent of what moves they know. By targeting something that a helper pokemon can interact with in the world, the trainer would order that pokemon to zip out and interact with it. Think Republic commando. This takes the role of HMs and other field moves. For areas that require things like Surf of dive, the helper pokemon would exert a field of influence that essentially allowed the primary pokemon to act normally- eg, a surf helper would cause an area of surging upwards surface chop that lets the primary pokemon walk on water, or a dive helper would create small air bubbles centered around wherever the primary pokemon breathes from.

The trainer can also provide small support in the form of items, but this would be limited to encourage sensible use of stat boosting moves.

Pokemon would still be captured in pokeballs, but after they are fainted by the primary pokemon. Fainted pokemon could either be captured in a pokeball, or "relieved" of unique held items and resources before releasing them.

Pokemon would not gain experience by defeating opponents. Instead, each one would have material requirements to both level up and "customize" them. Like upgrading a weapon in Monster Hunter, every pokemon would have unique material requirements to level up, change nature, upgrade IVs, allocate EVs, or learn and relearn certain moves. This incentivizes a postgame loop, but could be curved to make the main game give you adequate materials to avoid excessive grinding.

The gameplay and story structure

The gameplay loop is basically monster hunter.

There would be a large number of normal-sized pokemon out in the world, that could be easily defeated and either captured and looted. But, frequently, a "Titan" would appear- a large, boss variant of a particular pokemon. Some pokemon can only be captured from their defeated titan forms, even if they appear in their regular forms.

These titan forms would appear semi-randomly, and requests to "quiet" them by defeating them would take the form of quests posted in the hub regions. These quests would then essentially be a monster hunter hunt- going out and fighting a particular titan.

Titan forms could be unique, or vaguely modeled after existing megas.

The world is divided into 8 main regions, and at least one "bonus" region. There would be 4 ocean regions, and 4 land regions. Each region would be seperate, but open to explore within that region (damn you can really see how much I've played MH:W)

Each region would have a drop table of pokemon that could potentially appear as titans.

Each region would also have one, single titan pokemon that gives the region its character. These 9 titans would be new, unique regional variants.

Each region, and by extension, each boss titan, would be directly associated with a different regional effect. So essentially, the boss titan and the field effect of a region would be reflective of its character.

The plot, like monster hunter, would be a gameplay loop of increasingly powerful titans within a region, building to the boss titans of each region. Once the 8 primary titans are defeated, it triggers the endgame main plotline.

The world

As mentioned previously, the bulk of the gameplay loop and storyline would be defeating increasingly more powerful "titan" pokemon, until you encounter a particular individual pokemon that is actively shaping that region and has ultimately caused the other titans along the way to be empowered.

Each region would have a dominant type, several field effects that come and go within certain parts of the area, and a unique boss titan. Each boss titan is about equivalent difficulty, and the player is encouraged to spread their efforts around to proceed through the "tiers" of titans evenly across the world before making it to the boss.

Hubs: Slateport, Lilycove.

Self explanatory, these would be the hub towns. Like in PLA, no other cities would be founded yet. Mt. Pyre would be integrated as part of Lilycove, and important characters and exposition could happen there. It would be an active cathedral. Kyogre and Groudon wouldn't be "known", but vague, amorphous titans of earth, sea, and sky would be referenced.

Land Regions

Meteor Cliffs and the Tranquil Plain

A gentle, grassy plain south of Mt. Chimney gives way to its southern slope. The slope, pockmarked with craters, has not been extensively explored, but is thought to hold deep caverns.

Regional effect: Pyschic Terrain

Regional Titan boss: Metagross (Steel/Pyschic)

Main game route equivalents: Meteor Falls, Rustboro City, Petalburg Woods, Petalburg City, Oldale Town, Littleroot town, 101, 102, 103, 104, 116, 115

Towering Forest

A deep, lush forest, sometimes so dense that you can't see the sky, fed by the crystal clear river cutting through it. The tangle of the canopy shudders under the weight of unseen pokemon above.

Regional effect: Grassy Terrain

Regional Titan boss: Tropius (Grass/Steel)

Main game route equivalents: Fortree city, Safari Zone, 119, 120, 121, 123

Jagged Stones

Deep, rugged canyons hide a basin-like desert, where a raging sandstorm elicits mirage-like visions.

Regional effect: sandstorm

Regional Titan boss: Tyranitar (Rock/Dragon)

Main game route equivalents: Verdanturf town, 117, 111, 112, all desert subregions

Volcanic Slopes

The peaks, caverns, and North slope of Mt. Chimney know no peace from the continuous onslaught of lava.

Regional effect: harsh sunlight

Regional Titan boss: Camerupt (Fire/Ground)

Main game route equivalents: Mt. Chimney, Jagged Pass, Fiery Path, Lavaridge, Fallarbor, 113, 114

Oceanic regions

Thunder Bay

An unrelenting, static haze hovers over the inlets of of Thunder Bay, impeding exploration of its deep subterranean caverns.

Regional effect: electric terrain

Regional Titan boss: Manectric (Electric/Dark)

Main game route equivalents: Mauville, New Mauville (replaced by a cave entrance), Cycling Road, 118, 110, 134, 133

Shifting Floes

A chill falls over the NorthEast seas of Hoenn, a climatic anomaly. Scattered islands and shifting ice platforms are continually coated with a snowstorm.

Regional effect: snowstorm

Regional Titan boss: Froslass (ice/ghost)

Main game region equivalents: Mossdeep, Shoal cave, 124, 125, parts of 126 and 127

Misted islands

A mysterious area of the ocean in which islands seem to shift locations as they phase in and out of sight.

Primary Area effect: Misty Terrain

Regional Titan Boss: Altaria (Dragon/fairy)

Main game route equivalents: Dewford Town, Granite Cave, Southern Island, Mirage Island (location changed), 105, 106, 107, 108, 109

Deep Blue

The open expanse of the ocean, and the islands within it, hold secrets beyond comprehension in their depths and constant storms. It is said that there is as much below as there is above.

Primary Area effect: rain/underwater (same effects as rain)

Regional Titan Boss: Wailord (water)

Main game route equivalents: Sootopolis city, Cave of Origin, Sky Pillar, Ever Grande City, Pacifidlog, Seafloor cavern, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, parts of 126 and 127

Special Area: the Delta Stream

Ripping across Hoenn's skies is an air current known as the Delta Stream, which powerful pokemon use as a causeway between regions and across the world.

Only accessible in the postgame, and with a "helper" pokemon that can fly. This entire region is above the clouds, and the only points that poke up are the peak of Mt. Chimney, Sky Pillar, and an updraft over Mt. Pyre.

Primary area effect: tailwind

Regional Titan Boss: Salamence (Flying/Dragon)

The Endgame Plot: after the titans are quieted

Once every boss has been defeated, the endgame storyline starts. Despite every titan being quieted, the land still quakes, and the seas still swell. The elders of Mt. Pyre urge you to investigate these at their source: the inner lava chamber of Mt. Chimney (subregion of Volcanic Slopes), and the depths of the seafloor (subregion of Deep Blue).

As you can probably guess, this is the introduction to Kyogre and Groudon.

The first fight with each of them uses your own pokemon, and gives you a "false" win- after you "faint" them in a suspiciously easy battle, they each revive into their primal forms, and head to the mountain island that would become Sootopolis. Hear, they battle on a kaiju-like scale. The MC watches the destruction from Mt. Pyre.

For the second time in the game's story, the MC makes a wish: this is beyond me. I wish a savior would come. Jirachi directly unveils itself for the first time to answer the call, touches the MC, and speeds off into the distance. A cutscene follows Jirachi to Sky Pillar (only a raw, uncarved spike of rock at this point), where Rayquaza is seen coiled around the top. Jirachi leads Rayquaza into the upper atmosphere, where it undergoes a primal/mega evolution. It pivots, shooting down towards earth, building speed.

The player takes control of M-Rayquaza as it slams down to earth, staggering Kyogre and Groudon away from each other, and engages in a special fight where they have to defeat both of them.

After this, Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza may each be found at Seafloor cavern, Mt. Chimney, and sky pillar respectively, and may be defeated and captured. But its highly implied that they only go along with this willingly, and will freely resume their duties as the lords of the land once the MC passes on.

After the plot is completed, steps and murals start being carved into Sky Pillar, allowing access to the Delta Stream.

The post game would allow for infinitely generating Titans, rematches with previously captured Boss Titans as "enrichment" for them, and general gameplay loop grinding for items to train pokemon.

Yay, okay, no ones gonna read this far but uh. Yeah. That's the general idea I had. Hope it made at least some sense LOL

[valarioncy]

Ko-Fi, Commisions, and Debt! Oh My!

Hello Hollowers and non-Hollowers. I @ahyesthesufferingoftvteens (Cursi) am collaborating with Valarioncy on this post to deliver a message to those still following the both of us, and to those that may follow us in the future!.

We currently have a joint Ko-Fi Account and are accepting donations and commisions! access to our Ko-Fi is down below all the long-winded explanation! But first...

Who are you guys?

Cy - Heeeeeey, it's ya boi Cy. This here is my Tumblr account. I'm an artist and writer, autistic, asexual, and plural. I have interest in all kinds of media, animation in particular. Writing is my main passion in terms of what I like to do creatively, but I'm not very capable of doing writing commissions. Art commissions though, I'm able to do! Provided it doesn't involve designing; I'm not able to do that at this time, although I would like to in future. :0 (Seriously, go to Cursi for anything involving design!) I've been primarily doing artwork for the Hollow, which can be found on my Instagram, although I haven't been active there for a while. I also specialize in OCs and SFW furry art, plus animals of many kinds. My art style is very graphic-novel-esque, with a predominantly Canadian influence. (No, I am not nor have I ever been Canadian, I don't know how this happened.) Feel free to commission me; I'll specify exactly what I'm doing in one of the fine sections below! ^_^

Cursi - I'm the Cursed Hollower you all know and love! I'm ok with any pronouns and my gender is whatever pisses you off the most (Genderqueer)! While I'm not as much of an artist as Cy, I pride myself in my creative writing and character development/design! If you want to know how my writing is, I'd suggest looking into my latest fanfiction: Come Sweet Death, in The Hollow (Cartoon) Category on A03...don't look at anything else, it's severely outdated and absolute trash.

So what's the news, Cy and Co?

Me, Cursi, and Valarioncy are two creatives/artists that primarily create content for The Hollow, as most of you may know.

We also like to make original projects. I'm trying to whip up an original series based off of my The Hollow Magical Girl AU, and Cy has mutliple different projects. One particular series we're working on: Green's Academy, is being worked on by both of us plus a third party.

Unfortunetly, there's a problem that's been holding us back. At the current moment, me and Cy are couch-surfing and trying to look for jobs to sustain our needs and wants and, potentially, get ourselves our own abode! This is predictably difficult due to our neurodivergancies, but without the second problem we have, this isn't are main woes. We have food stamps, so we're not going hungry.

The other FAR BIGGER problem is that I, Cursi...am $1,600 in credit card debt, and I recently missed my payment this month because I have only ten bucks in my bank account to keep it alive.

How the heck did you gain so much debt?

Now you're probably wondering how on earth I GOT $1,600 dollars in credit card debt. To make a long story short:

I flew to Valarioncy's state to help them with their homelessness situation with a healthy sum of about 3,000 dollars.

One of the other friends we had with us turned out to be severely abusive and held us down from escaping such a horrible situation.

Now that that friend is gone, our other friend is in a group home, and me and Cy are slightly more stabilized, the damage left behind is severe...especially on my poor credit card that had to extend our unwanted motel stays.

Needless to say I'm an absolute mess over this. I don't like being in debt, at all. Cy is trying to calm me down but I'm clinging onto my sanity for dear life.

But yeah, because of this debt that affects both of us, considering we're basically family at this point, we need cash. And because it's hard to get a job, we aren't getting an influx of cash...you can probably see where this is going now.

I like your creative works! How can I help?

Well you're just in luck, buddy-o. Me and Cy have created a joint Ko-Fi Account! We're accepting commissions AND donations! Ain't that just great!

Hey Cy! Tell us about your commision prices! --------------------

Cy: Right now, I'm pretty much up to doing digital flat-colored/minimal shading busts and full-bodies with transparent backgrounds. I get busts done a whole lot faster than full-bodies but I'm capable of doing full-bodies so I'm gonna include them! Pretty much all I need is a good reference for the character. I can do human, animal, and furry, SFW only.

-------------------- Thank you Cy! Go ahead and personally DM Cy for a commision if you're interested!

As for me, I'm open to ghost-writing and lore-development for the small small price of...um...$3? maybe $5? I know Cy will get on me for potentially underselling myself but they do that to themselves. Hehe. (PLEASE PAY THEM MORE THAN 3 to 5 BUCKS!!!!!!! -Cy)

We're also accepting donations. Any amount would be of great help! Even just $1 will make our day, seriously. $1 is more than we normally get nowadays!

Of course, if you can't donate, that's totally fine! Please spread the word and reblog this post and the many posts me and Cy make! You can pay us with some good classic feedback-dopamine!

One Last Link to our Ko-Fi!

Thank you for listening! Thanks for the support!

[licncourt]

Your louis stan nitpicks are not inconsequential and deserve to be given it's due importance. It's not hate, just pointing out the obvious. Out of everyone, I at least, want to know your takes on the differences between show louis and book louis, as meta discourse. And I'm glad there are still movie fans out there, I adore the movie, and I adore the series. <3

Thank you for being interested in my thoughts!! I sat on this ask for a while because I wanted to see at least a majority of the episodes before giving my opinions on characterization, but I think I've seen enough now to talk a bit. For now, I'm going to hit the few main things I noticed as a Louis enjoyer first and a person second but also a fan of the show.

-

While I think it makes sense that this version of Louis has more externalized anger than the book version and is more keen on killing people who "deserve it" (like that racist asshole from ep 2), I don't like that the idea of feeding on evildoers being attributed to Louis. The crux of Louis' morality (as hypocritical as it is) and therefore his character is his approach to killing. He thinks vampires killing humans to sustain themselves wrong no matter the circumstances (once again, really missing the prostitute scene in the show) and feeds at random to keep things "fair". He drinks from animals right from the beginning and never lets Lestat tell him a damn thing.

Attributing Lestat’s supposed principles about only killing evildoers and having Louis go along with the human victims kind of waters down the hypocrisy that defines Louis. He's a black and white moralist who talks about ethics and fairness while living in luxury off the backs of the people he exploits. Louis is meant to have horse blinders on. He balks at vampirism from day one with this righteous, unwavering fury and not an ounce of concession or self-awareness.

Louis making exceptions for racists is one thing, but he's doing that AND pitching the idea of feeding on evildoers AND going along with the human victims for literal years before turning to rats. I want to see his Louis Bullshit in action!! And that means he should have more convictions and worse justification for them.

I get why the writers, in terms of racial optics, may have changed Claudia’s turning from Lestat’s babytrap moment to him granting Louis' request, but reasoning aside.....I don't like the change at all. Firstly, the Claudia babytrap is a HUGE moment for Lestat as a character that I miss, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Honestly, I just don't buy Louis requesting that anyone, let alone a child, be made a vampire. Yes, he feels guilty for her injuries, but in the book he's even MORE directly responsible for her near-death state (having fed on her) and doesn't even consider asking for her to be turned. He tries to physically stop Lestat from doing it in spite of his guilt.

The creation of a vampire is the most repellent act anyone can commit in Louis' mind. He has two fledglings in the books: one he created as an act of devotion for Claudia and he says that it destroyed his soul and his humanity to do it, even for her. The second was made under the influence of magical compulsion and that was a significant factor in his suicide attempt. He risked Lestat hating him and ruining his life rather than grant his request to be turned again while stuck in a mortal body. I just can't imagine Louis asking for this and the show certainly didn't sell me on the change.

As strange as this sounds, I wish he was...worse? Yet again, I understand why they may not have done that, but I think it's a detriment to his complexity. Although it's not nearly as egregious, I feel like the show is making the same mistake as the movie in portraying Louis to be more ethical and moral than Lestat.

Like I said before, Louis' character hinges on the idea that he wants to be a good person, but he's not. He's all talk and no action, so ignorant that his hypocrisy is invisible to him. He's so torn up about his sexuality that he doesn't have a spare thought for the fact that he owns slaves. In the book, he admits that his objections to killing initially were largely aesthetic. He refuses to kill the prostitute Lestat was torturing because winning the philosophical argument meant more to him than her suffering. Louis doesn't have the moral high ground.

Part of what makes him so interesting is that he's so hopelessly terrible even though he thinks he's in some eternal struggle to be good. He's a martyr more than he's a good person, and I think it's somewhat reductive to portray him as flawed but ultimately a good guy.

Book Louis fought with Paul and laughed in his face in the last moments before his death. He had no sense of irony when it came to his Kantian ethics as a slave owner. He loved Claudia with his entire soul but still hurt her deeply with his selfishness. He protested the torture of the prostitute but pushed her away in disgust when she clung to him for help. He has many sweet and sympathetic traits, but you should never lose sight of his brand of awfulness, even if it's more subtle than Lestat’s.

I would love to see AMC Louis defensive about his ownership of the brothel, more concerned about what it means for his soul than about the exploitation of the women who work there. I wanted to see him fight with Lestat while the tenor slowly choked to death on his own blood. I wanted to see Claudia rankling as he treated her like an inanimate object and a doll for his own comfort. I wanted to see him committing acts of mundane evil, not just kill racists in a particularly gruesome way and snap at his family.

-

Basically I wish they would hit harder with his Louis brand of nonsense and his particular kind of self-pitying, histrionic martyrdom. AMC Louis is a little too upstanding sometimes, I need him to be a little more evil and a little more pathetic about it. The other changes make sense in context, I just need that Louis morality hellscape, man.

Bonus: a meta post I made talking about Louis' moral compass , one I contributed to on the same topic, and how some of that ties into his key themes of hunger and control

[paldean-ranger-brandy]

I go by Shay, mostly. Lots of nicknames too, but what’s one more to that list?

Anyhow! Absol genetics, specifically the ones that determine coloration, are capable of a rare (and I mean REALLY rare) mutation that causes both colors to show at once!

It’s so rare, because the Absol has to not only have the mutation (which is almost unheard of in and of itself), but also have the right genetics to be shiny. In fact, only three instances have been recorded of this phenomena!

It’s actually a mutation to the general gene area that gives them their ability to detect disasters, which bears a strong similarity to the main genes for color. It weakens the sense somewhat, reducing it to short term effects, but it affects the colors as well!

The result is a shift in color depending on the amount of duress the detection is under- if it gets triggered often, a common blue color will show. But if the Absol is in a safer, less disaster prone environment, their horn, stone, and claws will instead grow in red! If they sustained any damage to their tail, that will also heal with a red color!

I actually found all this out because Geddy, my partner Absol, turned out to have this trait- she always was blue back when I lived in Kalos, due to my home being in a mountainous region. But after moving here to Paldea, her horn and such actually began growing in red instead- prompting the research! She ended up being the third dichromatic Absol to be found and recorded, though is exempt from any testing due to a region difference.

There have been a couple occasions when a small time frame of blue occurred, but those were always short and just left little stripes in the otherwise smooth red.

Hope you found this as interesting as I did!

@nightshade-sanctuary

Bleh my very first thought was not to post this at all, because I don't want to advertise that you have a super rare pokemon on site. Shit is like honey for poachers. BUT I'm sure you thought of this too, and also I know you have security there and I love nothing more than spreading knowledge.

That is super neat. Geneology sure is something. Not something I understand, but damn if it doesn't exist and cause weird shit. I'm glad that, according to your absol at least, Paldea is still safe enough to keep it the 'safe' colour. Makes me feel a little less guilty about not being able to advance my mission around all these paradox escapees.

Give Geddy a big ol' pet for me.

[mkpenvs3000w23]

Unit 2: Environmental Interpreter

In todays day and age, I believe that anyone who decides they want to do something for the environment, can choose something they are passionate about and can get involved. Especially with the media impact on the general public, it is important that everyone is aware of environmental events around the world.

An ideal job for me as an environmental interpreter would be focussed on plastics. I know a lot of people grew up using plastic bottles and although a lot of lifestyle changes have occurred all over the world where people have moved towards reusable bottles and more sustainable products, there are still a lot of misconceptions out there. The picture below is one I found of Tim Hortons old packaging! In a course (I cannot remember the name), we had the opportunity to look into plastics to see how much damage products with BPA caused to the environment. And although we were unable to dive deep into the details, it has always been something interesting to me. I have also noticed it is prevalent in most classes (turtles life spans are shorter due to plastics in the ocean).  Looking specifically at oxo-degradable plastics (seen as biodegradable), a lot of people fail to acknowledge that these plastics still take a very long time to degrade completely because they are mode up of microplastic fragments (Kubowicz and Booth 2017). This is just one example of false information the general public may believe due to lack of research.

A tactile/kinesthetic and auditory program in which everyday products are shown to teens along with the effects on the environment and humans would be beneficial. In terms of spreading awareness, everyone does seem to know that plastics are bad for the environment, however, the connection to humans where our community lacks. In my experience, working with children ranging 5-18 everyday, I find that teens often have the “if it doesn’t effect me, I don’t care” attitude, so showing them that the plastic they are using will end up affecting them is crucial. Something as simple as a guest speaker can be effective. Personally, I took an Indigenous studies course in high school with a guest speaker component. I got to leave class, so I was automatically interested. That class was one that I still remember to this day, the interactive components and information really stuck with me. If a guest speaker can have that effect on even one individual, I feel they have made an impact. Multiple different skillsets can be used for this program, a team of researchers, presenters, etc. Having individuals like myself who have the skillset of working with kids everyday, would help keep the information interesting.

Going back to the environmental interpreters’ roles, I think the value of the role varies by the place you are in. In places like Greece, there is no professional training for environmental interpreters (Skanavis and Giannoulis 2009). It is interesting to see the approaches vary in developed versus less-developed countries (Skanavis and Giannoulis 2009). A lot of the time, in less developed countries, the main focus is providing food and work for the people living there so the environmental interpreters are seen as a not so important component. What do you think? Should there be more of an emphasis on the training programs for environmental educators?

References

Kubowicz, S., & Booth, A. M. (2017). Biodegradability of plastics: challenges and misconceptions.

Skanavis, C., & Giannoulis, C. (2009). A training model for environmental educators and interpreters employed in Greek protected areas and ecotourism settings. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 16(3), 164-176.

[choicesenthusiast]

Representation at Pixelberry: The Follow-Up

One year ago, on June 15, 2020, Pixelberry released a statement regarding representation at the company. Here is the LINK to the original blog post, and here was MY RESPONSE. Oh, how naïve and optimistic I was. It contained a list of goals and promises they hoped to accomplish within a year. Well, a year has passed, and here is my attempt to hold PB accountable. I'll be going over the five main points of their representation plan and if they achieved what they promised. All criticisms are about content released after June 15th. Long post beware, but I'm not putting it under a read more because I feel like it's important for all to see.

1. Commitment to diversity of Love Interests - FAIL

We’ve already been moving towards having Love Interests have customizable skin tones. We will continue to do this with some stories, while also having some characters with clear ethnic identities. At the same time when we have multiple love interests of different ethnicities, we are aiming for those Love Interests to have equal game time.

"LIs with customizable skin tones" mean they come in three flavours: white, black, and ambiguously Asian/Latinx interchangeably. So far I have rarely seen an LI as connected to their culture/ethnicity as Rafael Aveiro, and he just talked about his Vovo's food if he ever were on screen. They had many chances with the other OH LIs as well. Even Ayna Seth and Tatum Mendoza were confirmed to be Indian and Filipino, respectively, though FA gets a little leeway, as it was set in a fictional west-European continent.

As for equal game time? I'm sure the biggest example we can all think of was the mess that was Open Heart 3, which was written during the hiatus (which only existed because they were going to straight up kill Rafael in Book 2). Game time was not equal among LIs, and the white male LI was heavily favoured. PB also continues to pay female LIs dirt by giving them no screen time. In addition to that, LGBT+ players, who are consistently underrepresented, receive one (1) unprepared pride month survey, prpbably only because someone asked them about it on Twitter.

This is the meat and potatoes of everything because it's what they're outputting to their audience. It's what the people see. Given that things haven't been going so well lately in this department, consider this promise a big fat fail.

2. More authentic and diverse hairstyles for people of color - QUESTIONABLE

Our team will focus on providing more authentic and representative hairstyles. We are prioritizing these hairstyles outside of our normal book processes and will introduce them in new books as they are ready.

While, yes, they have added two new hairstyles in WEH, they also just took Jade Bonet's hair and recycled it for LoA F!MC. PB recycles all their hair more often than not.

3. More diverse book covers - QUESTIONABLE

This is an initiative we started in January of this year. As a result the number of Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, mixed, and other characters on new book covers increased from 35% of characters in 2019 to 60% characters in the first half of 2020. However, the number of black characters is still not high enough this year. More are already scheduled for books later this year. We will make sure that Black characters are well represented on our covers in the future.

"Diverse" does not just mean by race, but also gender, sexual orientation, etc. FA has the only recent MLM cover. And don't tell me that the FA and LoA covers are any different from each other. The only black characters on covers are Zoey Wade (QB), and Black!Gabe Ricci (LoA) and Bastien (WB), which aren't even their canon races unless you choose them to be. This is the case for many single-LI books, such as Cassian Keane (W:ABR, which technically premiered on Mar. 16, but the sentiment is the same), Sam Dalton (TNA), and Dakota Winchester (WEH). Not to mention the customizable/multi LI books like DS, RT, BaBu2, MTFL, etc. Majority of these covers are just cishet couples delicately cradling each other's bodies or whatever. And we're not even gonna get into how PB literally put the Open Heart LIs in order of their favouritism on Book 3's cover.

4. Writers/Staff - QUESTIONABLE

We will be engaging in professional training on historical and current racism for our writers to ensure more of them have a better understanding and more context for views of diverse characters in Choices. We will also create a program that gives more authority to people of color in the studio to advise writers and artists on more authentic portrayals in both writing and art of black, brown, and minority characters.

A story with a Black-led cast is something I have asked for in the past, but failed to follow-up on. We will very likely start this with a Black-led cast story led by Chelsa, one of Pixelberry's Black writers.

We will increase the number of diverse writers we source for new stories, starting with hiring more Black and Latinx writers to lead the charge.

For all teams at Pixelberry we will actively work to bring in more Black and Latinx candidates with the goal to increase the number of Black and Latinx employees at Pixelberry. Although Pixelberry is over 50% female, on teams where females are not at 50% we will actively work to source more female candidates.

This promise seemed like a copout from the start because we have no way of knowing who works on what at PB unless we very meticulously stalk their LinkedIn or Twitter or whatever. We have no solid statistics except for what they feed us. I do know, however, that they recently let the Ms. Match writers go and were hiring for external writers, but there really is no way of knowing what's going on behind-the-scenes with their 112+ employees, and of course there would be NDAs involved. We are yet to see a book with an all-Black cast, and receive rare development updates with new books. Actually, I think a really good way to promote diversity is to do staff showcases on their social media. Just a way to show the public who's responsible for what. Writers, game devs, the art team, etc. Don't think it'll happen, but it's always a good idea.

5. Donations - QUESTIONABLE

Pixelberry will also be making $100,000 in donations to Black Girls Code, the Black Writers Collective, and the Latinx Writers Collective at Techqueria. Rather than as a lump sum, we will be making these donations over the course of a year to remind us that we are not making short term changes, but are committed to long term sustainable actions. We’ll also be donating up to an additional $100k from profits for this week, 6/15-6/21.

There has been no proof, no receipts, no evidence from PB that they have donated anything to anyone, and as far as we're concerned, their word doesn't mean anything. No news or updates news about it. I would love to believe that they did something, but as you can see, I've become quite the pessimist. BWC still uses PB's old logo (like, pre-Choices) on their sponsors page, and the last interaction they've had with BGC was in 2013. They don't even follow each other on Instagram. In fact, BGC received a huge donation from MacKenzie Scott, formerly Bezos last July. Yes, that billionaire Bezos, and that got coverage from them. Obviously donations don't need to be for publicity, but in this case I think it's important there should be proof. Again, it's really hard to tell with these behind-the-scenes things, but given how PB loves to gloat and hates to keep promises, we can assume that none of this happened.

~~~

So, what's the takeaway? That PB's fallen down the drainhole of shitty content and empty promises and has no intention of climbing out as long as they still make that bank? Seems counterproductive, because good representation gets good feedback and income. They pump out bad books with barebones "representation" if you can call it that, then drop their precious merch and pretend all is fine and dandy. But just as I suspected one year ago, none of this matters, because people forget things, and people move on, and shit gets swept under rugs. Yet, here I am, yelling at a company in a post I for sure doubt they'll see. Because if not me, then who?

@playchoices Your move. It's been your move for a year now. When will you actually make it?

[obsessedwvampbois]

𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐋 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬

Oh boy so this is gonna make people really mad. I have listened to a total of 52 songs from the Diabolik Lovers franchise (that I could find) and ranked them for the hell of it. For this ranking I will be including all character songs, openings (both anime and game) along with the remixes. I will not be counting solo versions of songs (eg. Gin no bara), soundtrack bgm or the endings themes.

My ranking is based on these things:

how well does the song fit the character/s or game, both in lyrics and aesthetic

the overall production and performance of the song

is the song a bop? would I willingly listen to it again?

Couple of disclaimers: I do not speak Japanese so I will be crediting the translations of each song as I go through them along with any think pieces / essays that I come across. If there is any song I missed, please let me know and I’ll slot it into the rankings, its hard to find one source that has all the songs recorded. Finally, just a reminder because I know I'm gonna make someone mad, this is my list! If you don't like it make your own or ignore mine, I'm only one person and my opinion is not final!

With that in mind, my rankings are below the cut

*Least Best*

These are the songs I will probably never listen to again. I have a few gripes with them that I'll talk about in my explanation.

52. 誓いのカンパネラ (Chikai no Campanella)

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This song is just super underwhelming overall. The guitar is my favourite thing about the song but that's it. There is so much build up for a boring chorus. The lyrics don't have much for me either.

51. 血戦のDies irae (Kessen no Dies irae)

Tsukinami Brothers

~translation~

On the opposite end, this song is so overwhelming. There are so many elements to follow and its hard to keep up. This is the first time I'll bring it up but the volume of the voices is so quiet compared to the backing track, its frustrating. The lyrics is what brings it up a notch as it talks about the day of wrath (dies irae) as the day the founders take over. I was also low key hoping to hear some version of the dies irae song hidden in the background but I couldn't hear any.

50. S.O.S-ΑtoΩ-

Tsukinami Brothers

~translation~

This song just feels so forgettable, I just feel like there isn't much to comment on. There are some interesting lyrics sprinkled out like comparing literal self mutilation to abstinence. Also the actual delivery of 'S ah O ah S ah', I can't take it seriously.

49. Dystopia

Kino

~translation~

This had an interesting start because I hadn't heard anything similar for DL but then after a few lines the tone change was just a nope for me. Again, Kino's voice is super quiet and the constant barrage of all these instruments that don't really gel together its confusing. Overall, it didn't leave much of an impression and I couldn't really visualised DL in the song.

48. 吸愛ラビリンス (Kyūai Labyrinth)

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

Praise for the saxophone! Props to that because it shines here and is really the only memorable thing besides that final line of the chorus. The song does give the vibe of the Vandead Carnival with its more playful energy though. The lyrics feel really typical, like there are so many times I read lyrics about drinking blood before I get bored.

47. 極限(UNLIMITED) BLOOD -Remix ver.-

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation w/ original ver.~

I don't think I really need to hear EDM/dubstep and Diabolik Lovers again thanks. It feels super dated and the vocoded singing is a little much for my taste. Good source material and the stripped back vocals at some points is quite nice.

46. 愛しきPain (Itoshiki Pein)

Subaru

~translation~

First off please never let me see Subaru near a fedora again thanks. Overall I felt bored with this song, like its nice, but that it. There are similar sounding songs that just hit home similar themes a lot stronger later on. The best part of this song is the spoken word but it feels weird for Subaru to be singing such a slow song.

45. Luv Apple Juice

Ruki & Azusa

~translation~

Yes, I am counting Ruki's spoken word, its my list. Lyrics are a must read with references to Adam, Eve and Eden throughout. Again, the voices are super quiet and with how fast paced the instrumentals are its annoying. The tempo also backfires because these are two of the more 'chill' characters. The last complaint is that the speed of Ruki's speaking compared to Azusa's singing just isn't right.

44. DIE IS CAST

Kou & Yuma

~translation~

This has to be my least favourite opening to a song, the staccato is just really grating to me. The way I'd describe the chorus is loud, the same note over and over again isn't appealing. The lyrics are an interesting read but nothing feels super important. The highlight of the song is the pre-chorus, thanks production!

43. カレイドナイト (Kaleido Night)

Kanato & Subaru

~translation~

This song is just generic, like overall. The sound, the lyrics, the production. There just wasn't must for me to listen to without zoning out.

*Average*

These songs don't leave too much of a lasting impression on me, but I still enjoy them.

42. 苺の罪 (Ichigo no Tsumi) (strawberry sin)

Reiji

~translation~

First of the generic rock songs! I couldn't really find much in the lyrics of note I think the actual performance of the song is my favourite element here.

41. 真夜中の饗宴( MIDNIGHT PLEASURE) -Remix ver.

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation w/ original~

One the best part of the original is that opening section with the steps, it creates some nice anticipation for the coming song. The chorus this time round feels a little low energy after the hype of the pre-chorus. After watching the actual opening with the remix, I kind of wish they had the voice over, the song is so chill the last chorus could have it to make it feel more grandiose.

40. ZERO

Subaru

~translation~

Second generic rock song, this time it actually suits Subaru's brand! The lyrics do have some hints to Subaru as a character which is better. My sustaining thought is that this sounds like an off brand Arcadia.

39. Bloody★Mayim★Mayim

Sakamaki Brothers

~translation~

This has to have one of the strongest hooks for DL. For how many people sing in the song, it's easy to keep track of and the chemistry between them all is in sync. The main issue is that it feels like its missing some element to make it shine, the lyrics aren't in-depth too which brings it down another peg. The bridge/interlude is the best part though as I can visualise some mini story within the song here.

38. ADDICTED (2) PHANTOM

Ayato

~translation~

This song would be so much higher if I felt like it was more memorable cuz the lyrics here really shine. My interpretation is that this is Ayato questioning where his love stops and his sadistic nature to satiate his desires begin, can he separate the two? He both loves and despises the idea of draining his s/o dry. Another gripe with the song is that its not quite Ayato's aesthetic sonically.

37. Kindan no 666 (Three Six)

Kou & Azusa

~translation~

What puts this song so low is the majority of the instrumental, it takes a backseat here when I feel there could be more added. Props to percussion, drums are great though. After watching the MB opening so many times its hard to not see DL. Lyrics match with this one line here describing Kou in a nutshell:

"Sin spread from mouth to mouth, saying 'I’ll be gentle' pulls the trigger on a casual disaster!"

36. Iolite (アイオライト )

Shu

~translation~

I don't know why the producers associate electro-pop with Shu, I can't really see it much. I think they should have gone full glitch-pop instead considering how the song does a deep dive into his mind and thought process. Again, I think the voice is also quiet here but the instrumentals have some great moments, especially the strings.

35. 常夜KNOW UNDERSKIN

Sakamaki

~translation~

Well this gives Sakamaki vibes, nice guitar! Again, I like how it isn't overwhelming despite the amount of people involved. Lyrics aren't super impactful but super catchy.

34. 冷たい血 (Tsumetai Chi)

Ruki

~translation~

You have to read the lyrics while reading this, please! Its surprisingly wholesome and emotional overall. Again, there is the issue of the voice being way to quiet as the instrumentals swallow him whole after the second clock tick. The delivery is really well timed and production does a great job adding elements that works with the lyrics. There is a subtle echo to the voice that feels super enchanting as he comes to terms with the fact that he has fallen in love. Biggest drawback obviously is that this is just spoken word.

33. KISS♥MARK

Shu

~translation~

This song delves into the more perverse side of Shu, but we haven't really reached the level of Laito (we'll get there). The phone feels a little out of character but it suits that narrative. The straight cut out of music for the intermission was a bit abrasive but the transition back to music makes me forget about that with how slick it is. At least its better than a generic rock song.

32. カモフラージュ (Camouflage)

Shu & Laito

~translation~

What a great match up for subject matter, my interpretation is a denial and inability to accept oneself, ultimately using a mask to hide. So please look up the lyrics for some gems. However, after the 'against the blood' nothing really hit that same point sonically, furthermore its not the most aesthetically fitting for the two characters.

*Great*

These songs I actively enjoy, think about and do listen to occasionally and would recommend you check it out too.

31. >REDRUM<-

Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This song is full of anagrams in the lyrics, I mean look at the song title. Its super catchy and is hard to forget about. The bridge is the weakest part of this song but it is made up by the distortion of vocals after the final chorus.

30. Fanatic of Night

Sakamaki Brothers

~translation~

Well time to party, talk about a bop and a half! Its just so fun, even though its to exactly DL to me, but that's Lunatic Parade for you. Shout out to the guitarist and percussion once again.

29. Bad Howling

Shu, Ayato & Kou

~translation~

This is super catchy, its nice to hear Kou in the opening song this time round, it spices things up. Theres some really nice elements played with the vocals as they sing over one another that is really well balanced. The biggest peg down is that I don't get super DL vibes and the lyrics aren't the deepest.

28. I.M.I.T.A.T.I.O.N. G.A.M.E

Kino

~translation~

Overall this song is a little generic and doesn't sound like DL but! There is a lot to love here too. Starting off with the performance, I really like the vibrato in his voice and the decent of notes at the end of the chorus is just, yes. It a nice hook and the lyrics are pretty good too. My only other complaint is that the drums mask some smaller elements in the background of the song which would have been nice to hear more in the forefront.

27. 極限(UNLIMITED) BLOOD

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This is where the rankings get pretty hard cuz I wish this was higher but oh well. the dramatic shift from the opening piano to the song is so abrupt but it gets you pumped. The intermission does a good job of changing things up without cutting tension. The lyrics themselves seem to be from the view of the Adam project during more blood and the unquenchable thirst they get in the story.

26. アルカディア (Arcadia)

Ayato

~translation~

Immediately I get Ayato vibes from this song and the rapping does help too with a nice flow that isn't too jarring from the rest of the song. These lyrics are basically Addicted2Phantom on steroids, I can't see anyone else other than Ayato in them.

25. Kekkyoku Night

Ayato

~translation~

Don't know why but the guitar melody just seems like I had heard it before but I can't put my finger on it. The bass is super slick here and I really enjoy it. The vocal distortion at the start of the verse sets a scene for him to hunt down this person and its a narrative choice. The main issue is that I wish there was a little more pizzaz to the chorus.

24. Kaikan DEATH-TRUCTION

Kanato

~translation~

Spoilers but I have placed both a Kanato's songs pretty high up so this was a little bit of a let down after the other two. The main issues here is that I don't really get too much of Kanato in the song and the yelling before the chorus is a little much. This, to me, is a self reflection from Kanato which is a good switch up from his last two songs. Overall, the song is abrasive in a good way that isn't overwhelming and the 8-bit section is my fave.

23. 血濡れた密会 (BLOODY SABBATH)

Laito

~translation~

Oh boy, look these lyrics up for a good time. This song is about his hook up with a women with the song getting progressively darker as it goes on. Nice psycho reference but I don't know if it does much in the end. Really catchy hook and the escalation of the final chorus is just so good. Also I'm just going to leave this line from the song here:

“You wend all out with the rodeo girl play? So then, let’s grind!!!”

22. 幻日理論-Parhelion Logic

Ayato

~translation~

This song is meant to be kind of an open letter to Cordelia and my word these lyrics are haunting. It fits the vibe of Haunted Dark Bridal so well, super strong overall. I just wish there was a stronger performance vocally.

21. 暴言シンドローム (Seiron Syndrome)

Yuma

~translation~

Yuma, to me has some pretty good observation skills and its really highlighted here. The first line just hits the nail on the head in terms of how rough he is both in and out of the bedroom. This song is the best of the 'generic rock' with production being really smooth despite the high energy, it matches him really well. First line:

The pain of your sprained neck won’t subside

20. 蠱惑のParade (Kowaku no Parade)

Reiji & Kanato

~translation~

We got another catchy banger here! This song just screams 'the two of us are here to hunt you down and we won't stop till we get a taste.' I mean this song is super pleasing aesthetically and great lyrics to boot!

19. KILLYOU,AGAIN

Azusa

~translation~

The strings are an immediate attention grabber and its hold it throughout the whole song. Super catchy, and these lyrics are Azusa, especially this chorus. Id be interested to hear what people think about the second verse in particular cuz there's a lot to read into:

"In a worn out state of mind, no matter how many nights we question it... We’ve idealised too much."

18. SQueeze…

Subaru

~translation~

Okay before anything else, the squeeze at the start is goofy, I can't take it seriously. Anyway, I can't help but tap my foot to this song. Third times the charm, finally hitting Subaru's aesthetic to a T. The voice is a little quiet on the track but what takes over just sounds so good. The contrast of the bell and the guitar is just, yes thank you. The pre-chorus is a nice mix up to the status quo and these lyrics are great too.

17. 愛の檻 (Ai no Ori)

Ayato & Laito

~translation~

The opening is a nice tone setter for a haunting head bopper. These voices work together so well, just like how the sirens work with the strings. The singular violin during the bridge is great, praise to anyone who can do that my god. The string motif climaxes at the final chorus and it creates an awesome song!

16. 月蝕(Eclipse)

Kou, Yuma & Azusa

~translation~

Well we have a nice build up ballad here. The opening is a little out of place but I forget about it as it builds to this final chorus with the tempo getting faster and faster. The stripped back production also ends up aiding the song in the end with its punches and message. Speaking of which; I get the idea this is about watching some either currently or in retrospective how their personality changes after turning into a vampire; a loss of innocence. How fitting for the Mukami's.

“Despising the sunlight that filters through the blinds is only inevitable, I suppose”

*Faves*

This is what I think the best of the best is. It reflects the themes, ideas and characters of Diabolik Lovers in the best way possible. When people ask me what music from the franchise to listen to, I point to these songs.

15. Count off

Kino

~translation~

There is so much to talk about here, this is a mix of singing and spoken piece and it works so well for me. The delivery over this contagious beat I can't help but get hints of a k-pop vibe here. The movement to singing then vocoded voice are interesting and fun. The bridge switch up too is great, my only wish is that the choir hand a little more presence in the final chorus cuz its fun the first times round, it would be a nice call back.

14. A Certain Prophet's Fate [とある預言者の、運命 Toaru Yogensha no Unmei]

Reiji

~translation~

I can visualise a Nutella Kookie moodboard with this opening alone. To me, this is Reiji explain his views on women with allusions to Faust too, not the Ikemen version relax. there are some cool allusions to his mother in the lyrics too. The bass is so cool to listen out for and the guitar nodding to the chorus at the end is a nice way to end. I was just hoping for a little continuation to the opening like Reiji finding this person escaping on horseback.

13. CHAOS☆PARTY

Laito

~translation~

Aaaaaand another innuendo song from Laito, what a surprise! The jazzy, circus-pop vibes are super fun and catchy, I love it. It's like an upgraded version of Bloody Sabbath to me. The distortion on the guitar is also great to listen out for.

"Don’t decide where’s the critical point, grind as you feel it,

Till the moon oh, mockingly"

12. Mr.ButterflyMask

Reiji

~translation~

The opening may be cliche but it works so well, this is such a deep dive into Reiji's psyche; his mother, inferiority complex and village burning to name a few. The actual song is easy to remember which makes it even better here, the descending notes at the end of the chorus is a highlight.

"Burnt black, that awful land mark"

11. 真夜中の饗宴 (MIDNIGHT PLEASURE)

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

The song to start it all, thank god it's such a highlight. I get so hyped from hearing the opening footsteps; mirroring the prologue with You stepping into the mansion for the first time. I feel so nostalgic for this and I'm hyped to play the game every time I hear this. The spoken section is the high point in terms of the HDB aesthetic but these lyrics maaaannn:

"With a scream that shatters the moon itself I’ll give you this extraordinary pain called “love”!"

10. Guilty×Guilty!!!

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

I'm gonna get crucified for putting this above midnight pleasure but my list and this is my fave game op. The only peg down is the lyrics but it makes up so much for the actual sound variation. The unnerving energy from this scifi-y noise, it screams danger with the Tsunami arrival. The variation between the two verses in robs what places it high and the bridge is excellent to boot.

9. Farewell Song

Shu

~translation~

If I had to make one song recommendation outside of DL with this list it is this song here. The lyrics and melody match up the same way and both are strong in their own right. Onto the song, these lyrics really shine wrangling with ideas and the thought process of depression; something that hits close to home for me. With the inclusion of the destructive nature vampires its truely impactful. The sound of the song aids these lyrics too while all sounding like Shu.

Without pause, the drops of a drizzle had begun to weep...

...Comforting the screams of the things you’ve touched"

8. Mr.SADISTIC NIGHT

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This is my favourite opening of all the games and anime and it is the most on theme with the DL franchise, not just the one game. The guitar rifts at the start are just sooooo iconic. The actual line "Mr Sadistic Night" is delivered so well too. I mean the song speaks for itself. I will make the observation though that this song is the epitome of kids unknowingly singing a song with dirty lyrics.

"If I’m so aroused by the snare of your enticing blood

Tonight, as I thrust deep into you, a lust for death awakens from within you!"

7. 悪魔的（Devil's）Spire!!!!

Kou

~translation~

This song is just Kou at his best, I can imagine him singing this at a concert as a debut single. It has all the elements of a catchy pop song with some sinister elements that just reflects his personality. Production has my praise here too. The song seems to be a friends with benefits situation Kou has as he recounts the tale. Also, more innuendos:

"In the deep red velvet sheets, Do you want to taste my forbidden syrup?"

6. Operation X

Tsukinami Brothers

~translation~

Haven't seen these guys in a while! You can tell production had fun adding all these medical sounds in the back like the sirens and heart monitor. The song itself is super catchy too, that bass just hits you at the core! The lyrics look like the Tsukinami's observation of You as she has become entangled with all these vampires and the situation just seems to spiral even more out of control.

"The risk spreads further the deeper you get involved...

...The more you give up, the more that guy mocks you"

5. GRATEFUL★DEAD★MARCH

Kanato

~translation~

Production had fun again, you can tell. It's more upbeat there is still a sinister vibe here. The constant switch ups within the song all flow so well. I feel genuine despair listening to this chorus, like Kanato is mocking or toying with me before going in for the kill. My only complaint is that the slowing down at the end is a bit of a mood killer.

4. 切断★舞踏会 (KIRISAKI CARNIVAL)

Kanato

~translation~

In terms of character aesthetic, this is sheer perfection. There is a narrative within this song that you need to look at the lyrics for the best experience. The sound effects act as a good way to heighten the story as they match the lyrics. One moment to note it both the chorus and pre-chorus as they act as the extreme ends on Kanato's personality and it creates a great dichotomy when placed together.

3. Q.E.D.

laito

~translation~

My favourite solo song, and the one I constantly visit the most. Laito is a complex character and this song does a self reflection in the best way possible.I would also recommend reading this great analysis by everything laito because I can't do a proper analysis justice. For the song itself, the piano is a great mood setter as it acts as if we are approaching Laito as he plays the piano about to go into one of his many monologues to himself. The intercut from the piano to the guitar is abrupt but it works so well as if there are crack in his facade showing through. The change back to the piano is great too and isn't distracting in any way. I also think this is such an emotional performance, like I can feel the sadness and despair along with almost a self deprecating humour to the delivery. Top notch stuff

2. 罠-If You’re Diablo- (Wana -If You’re Diablo-)

Mukami Brothers

~translation~

I want mention first off that the spoken word from Ruki is such an aid here, the pace is slower, more haunting and despair-inducing in tone. The speaking adds a nice break to the vocals. The chorus in particular packs such a punch its kind of nice to lie on the ground and just let the song envelop you. The lyrics give the impression that there is a mutually destructive relationship here with the Mukami's mentioning of betrayal yet they suck the blood of this person. There is also a feeling of hopelessness that the Mukami's know they can never achieve their goal of becoming Adam.

"I'd been resigned to become Adam since who-knows-when...

I continue to hate this fate, my prayers in zero"

1. Gin no Bara

Sakamaki Brothers

~translation~

And we're finally at the end! This song encapsulates everything that Diabolik Lovers is. Vocally, it's really catchy with such a somber vibe, because that's what DL is. It's a dark series but you can see that darkness with each backstory, the actions these characters take and just the overall hopelessness in this one song. The Sakamaki's all singing together packs such a punch too. There are so many gems in these lyrics, to literally acknowledging the pain and suffering their mothers' caused and coming to terms with the actions they have committed as they fall in love.

"The proof remains on your neck while you sleep quietly Even if an eternal curse awaits me beyond those overflowing tears

I now hold this love and pain in my chest"

*SHOUTOUTS*

I want to give a huge shout out to the following people. They have helped immensely with translation and just overall accessibility to the songs because they would be 1000 times more harder to find without them.

Silvermoon249 (Live Journal)

Asyqin98 Creator (YouTube)

S I s o v o l i (Youtube)

DIABOLIK LOVERS (YouTube)

Dialovers otaka (Tumblr)

Starlight voices (Tumblr)

Cannonette (Tumblr) @canonette

The Precious Sugar Chan (Tumblr)

One final note, I would recommend listening to these with headphones because the audio sometimes does that thing where it jumps from ear to ear and it creates the best effect to be more involved in the atmosphere.

[random-thought-depository]

Continuing from my last post about science fictional “hyperspaces” (wow, I think that might be the most viral original post I ever wrote; it’s amazing what being reblogged by @argumate can do for a post!):

As a science fiction writer, these are the features I find attractive about “hyperspace” that incline me to favor it over other explanations for “fast” interstellar communication and travel:

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Hyperspace lets space still feel big. Wormholes/portals and instantaneous “jump drives” tend to make space feel small (though wormholes lend themselves nicely to space outside the wormhole network feeling big and to a feeling of sharp discontinuity between “known” or “civilized” space within the network and “unknown” or “wild” space where the network doesn’t reach). Start-anywhere go-anywhere jump drives without serious limitations have the additional issue that they’re more-or-less equivalent to teleporters, so they create the ultimate MAD setting where defending multiple fixed locations from a peer adversary is very difficult, and they minimize the strategic advantages of sustainable stationary banditry over unsustainable hyper-exploitive mobile banditry, and since the likely implications of that are very depressing I prefer to avoid it (except maybe if I was deliberately setting out to write a dystopia or explore the idea).

I want space to feel big in my writing, to give the reader some feeling of the vastness, grandeur, and inhuman scale of the universe. For my main science fiction setting, I think I’ll give hyperspace travel an effective “speed” of something like 5-10 c in Sol’s local neighborhood. That way interstellar journeys are more manageable than they’d be with journeys through our space, but journeys to other inhabited solar systems usually take at least a year or two (Sol to Alpha Centauri may be less than a year in hyperspace, but add in travel time to and from the Sol and Alpha Centauri hyper-limits, which is probably going to be at least a couple of months for each leg, and it’s probably about a year).

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Hyperspace feels more like the sort of thing that might plausibly be useable to almost hairless apes with near-future-ish technology. With warp drives and wormholes and jump drives and so on I get the niggling feeling that’s the sort of thing you should probably have to be on approximately the level of an Orion’s Arm Archialect to do. Real theoretical warp drive and wormhole proposals tend to involve stuff like exotic forms of matter and energy and very large amounts of energy. Hyperspace would be a natural phenomenon, so it’s easier to explain it in terms of people exploiting natural phenomena we just don’t know about now, no weirder than being able to travel faster than rowing would allow by building a sail to catch the wind.

You can say that there are some rare atoms that naturally have a structure that extends into hyperspace. With human senses and 2020s technology they just look like ordinary atoms of silicon, iron, etc., but with the right kind of machinery you can detect them, sift them out of the surrounding 3D atoms, and concentrate them. Once you’ve got enough of them, you can make them the core of a pair of transmitters that you can use to send and receive radio messages through hyperspace. With more energy, you can “push” on these structures and “push” those atoms into hyperspace, and then if those atoms are part of a larger solid object the rest of the object and anything touching it gets dragged along with them (with a certain size limit, perhaps related to mass being “pushed” and energy used, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally sending the whole Earth into hyperspace the first time you try this - that’d be one heck of an oops; maybe a later disproven small theoretical possibility of that happening would go down into the history books along with “before they exploded Trinity they were worried it might ignite the atmosphere”); thus you can send a whole ship into hyperspace instead of just information. When you want to leave hyperspace you can reverse the operation and “push” the ship back into our space.

That gives you a nice highly valuable “handwavium” that can be a hook for various plot and worldbuilding points, e.g. there’s not much obvious economic reason to colonize Mars IRL except maybe tourism (anything you could mine there you get more easily from near-Earth asteroids, and it’s too inhospitable to make much sense as a settler colony), but maybe there’s a huge mother lode of these hyperspace-touching atoms somewhere on Mars. These hyperspace-touching atoms would be especially valuable if the process of using them for communication or in hyperdrives “strained” these structures and at some predictable rate caused some of them to “snap,” causing the atoms to become ordinary 3D atoms of silicon or iron or uranium or whatever. Then there’d be a continuous need for (relatively) large amounts of new ones even in a steady-state economy; you couldn’t just keep recycling them and recycling them and just do a little mining to make up for recycling inefficiencies. This would also be an interesting limit on use of hyperspace; using hyperspace radio or doing a hyperjump involves destroying a small amount of a precious resource, so people wouldn’t want to do it frivolously. This might augment that sphere analogy limitation on hyperspace communication I talked about in my other post; even if a hyperspace radio message from Saturn to Earth got there a little ahead of a radio message through our space, you’d probably send a radio message through our space for anything that isn’t time-critical, because the message arriving ten minutes sooner usually just isn’t worth the predictable cost in “snapped” hyperspace-touching atoms.

--------------

Hyperspace would be an environment, so you can do interesting things with it.

Since hyperspace offers a short-cut because it’s more compact than our space, I like to pull on the idea that it’s like our space but in a more compact state, so it’s similar to what our space looked like when the universe was younger and smaller. Going to hyperspace might be a little like time travelling back to a few tens or hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, before the first stars formed. The environment of hyperspace might be a little like the inside of a giant molecular cloud, but “warmer” and extremely impoverished in heavy elements. The gas density might be a few thousand to a few billion atoms per cubic centimeter (by comparison, sea level air is about 10^19 molecules per cubic centimeter while the interstellar medium averages around 1 atom per cubic centimeter). The gasses and plasmas in hyperspace would be almost pure hydrogen and helium. The cosmic microwave background temperature in hyperspace might be around 50 K; that’s warm in comparison to what it is in our space (around 3 K), and warm enough to probably be a big part of the reason hyperspace has no stars (present day star-forming giant molecular cloud regions have gas temperatures around 10-20 K), but by human standards it’s deeply cold; it’s upper atmosphere of Uranus temperature. With no stars, I’d guess hyperspace would be a place of more-or-less total darkness outside the range of any lights humans passing through might bring with them.

Alternately, if I want hyperspace to have a murky and mysterious quality and be a place where visibility isn’t good and sensors don’t work well (so a vibe a bit like B5 hyperspace), I could say the Big Bang nucleosynthesis era lasted longer in hyperspace and there produced a substantial amount of heavy elements, some of which then condensed into dust (probably more like smoke if it’s similar to interstellar dust in our space - nanometer to micrometer particles). This dust would probably be pretty insubstantial on human scale distances (again, if it’s like the interstellar medium matter in hyperspace would be about 99% mostly hydrogen and helium gas and plasma and 1% dust, and even a relatively “dense” hyperspace with billions of atoms per cm^3 would have less than a billionth the gas density of sea level air), but over AUs it would scatter light and that effect might add up. This would make hyperspace similar to a dark nebula.

If I want to take the “hyperspace is a scary place” further, I could add sources of energy that might further confuse sensors and add dangerous radiation and other dangers to the mix. Maybe hyperspace has a few large black holes or something, with energetic accretion disks and polar jets fed by all that relatively dense gas and adding turbulence to it. Or maybe spacetime in hyperspace is “lumpier” than spacetime in our space and hyperspace has weird “rivers” formed by something related to whatever force drives cosmic expansion and some of the gas/plasma gets caught in that and accelerated to large fractions of the speed of light and then slams into the low-velocity material in the “still” parts in places, creating lots of turbulence and various other interesting and scary things (powerful magnetic fields, radiation, locally intense heat, maybe some of these collision zones are even giant naturally occurring inertial confinement fusion reactors; maybe that’s where the heavy elements in the dust come from). Maybe hyperspace has a lot of cosmic strings; it makes a certain intuitive sense that, hyperspace being more compact than our space, its cosmic eggshell might be densely veined with cracks.

This gets into another interesting aspect; hyperspace might have something equivalent to terrain; hyperspace travel may be easier in some directions than others. And there’s lots of worldbuilding and plot hooks you could hang from that idea.

For example, let’s look at that idea of hyperspace having “rivers” formed of exotic spacetime structures and filled with gas/plasma streams moving at high fractions of the speed of light. If the edge of these “rivers” has a gradual enough velocity gradient and the plasma in the “rivers” is ionized, with enough skill a spacecraft pilot might be able to catch that “current” with a magsail and ride it, then when they’d gotten about as far as they needed to go they could leave the “river” and do magsail braking against low-velocity plasma in the “still” areas. Just gotta be careful to stay well away from the dangerous collision zones! This might be a huge part of the short-cut offered by hyperspace travel! It could be that distances across hyperspace are only modestly shorter than distances across our space (say, Alpha Centauri is 1 light year away in hyperspace), but the really big savings is you can catch one of these hyperspace “currents” and use it to get up to large fractions of c without expending any fuel. A set-up like that does raise some awkward questions about conservation of energy, but I could say something like “the hyperspace ‘rivers’ are areas where dark energy is being converted into kinetic energy, slightly slowing down the expansion of the universe in the process.” It’s not like we know much about how dark energy works, or even what it is, so for all we know that’s a thing that might happen under certain conditions.

Those collision zones would generate substantial radiation, including light, so unlike a calm hyperspace a turbulent hyperspace with energetic “currents” would probably have light. Don’t know how bright it would be; all that dust (made of heavy elements built up over the eons by inertial confinement fusion in collision zones, I like that idea!) would absorb a lot of light over cosmic distances, and stars are pretty bright but most of our space is pretty dark.

That set-up would make hyperspace travel kind of like sailing; there would be “currents” or “winds” you want to catch, and travel might be a lot faster along directions where the currents are favorable. Travel times in hyperspace might only loosely correlate with distance; Alpha Centauri might take longer to reach than Zeta Reticuli. There would also be hazards you’d need to avoid, e.g. the collision zones.

Maybe part of the explanation for the Fermi Paradox might be that Earth is in the middle of a big “still” part of hyperspace; few ships went here because we’re in the middle of a cosmic doldrums that takes years to crawl across.

With a set-up like this, hyperspace may have “weather” that influences interstellar commerce, and “climate change” on historical timescales that influences the trajectories of interstellar societies. Ages when hyperspace is particularly turbulent might cause Dark Ages as hyperspace travel becomes very dangerous. Ages when hyperspace becomes unusually calm might also cause Dark Ages as there are no fast hyperspace “currents” to ride and hyperspace travel becomes relatively slow. In one age hyperspace “currents” may be arranged such that a world is isolated; a few thousand years later the hyperspace “currents” might have shifted and that previously isolated world might be much more accessible and back in the mainstream of interstellar civilization.

One wrinkle: a turbulent, energetic, opaque hyperspace such as this probably wouldn’t be good for sending radio signals across. Maybe the universe actually has multiple “basement” levels, hyperspace is just the one that’s “closest” to our “living room” level and the only one that’s “close” enough that ships can travel to and from it, but there’s a clearer layer that’s “farther away” but still “close” enough that you can send radio signals through it, and that “deeper” clear layer is the one used for interstellar communication. Bonus idea I like: the deep clear layer is even more compact than hyperspace (by orders of magnitude) so it’s overall a much better short-cut in every way except being “too far away” to send ships through it, so finding a way to send ships through it is a huge potential breakthrough that tantalizes generations of scientists and engineers who so far have not managed to figure out a way to do it.

Really, on that note, I like the idea that the universe is analogous to an onion with many “layers,” and hyperspace and the deep clear layer are just the layers that are most easily accessible from our space. There are a lot of “basements” below the deep clear layer, and generally as you get farther “down” the “basements” get smaller, denser, and hotter; going “down” is a little like time travelling to eras closer and closer to the Big Bang (though this isn’t a completely reliable rule - the deep clear layer is smaller than hyperspace and perhaps warmer, but seems to be a lot emptier; maybe most of its matter has been sucked into black holes?). Maybe the whole thing is a bit timey wimey wibbly wobbly and if you go “down” far enough you eventually hit what 2020s science knows as the moment of the Big Bang. As well as “basements” there are also “attics,” but they’re less accessible because going “up” is harder than going “down.” If going “down” into the basements is a little like time travelling to the early universe, going “up” into the attics is a little like time travelling to the deep future, to places that look kind of like what our space may look like in the deep future black hole era (assuming the Big Rip doesn’t destroy our universe before that deep future proton decay story has time to play out). The “attics” are vast, empty, and deeply cold; cosmic microwave background temperatures a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero and precious little else to generate energy, maybe one atom in every cubic kilometer of space. They probably expanded too quickly for stars to ever form there. The total number of layers might be large; maybe hundreds or thousands, maybe billions, maybe a number so big it would need to be expressed in scientific notation. I like this idea because it makes hyperspace feel less implausibly convenient for humans; we’re just taking advantage of a particularly convenient part of a big macrostructure that’s mostly inaccessible to us.

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Hyperspace is a natural phenomenon, so it probably isn’t going to be neatly quarantined to just being a thing humans can use for communication and travel. Hyperspace-related phenomena are going to show up in nature, and this offers a neat explanation for any exotic soft SF-ish natural phenomena you may be interested in incorporating into your setting.

Hyperspace (and other “basements” of our universe) also gives you a built-in parsimonious explanation for any other bits of soft SF technology your setting might feature. Want your setting to have e.g. Star Trek style forcefields? You can say they work through interaction with one of the “basement” layers of the universe.

On that note, I have an idea for a more hard SF version of the Babylon 5 “going beyond the Rim” thing or Stargate ascension, based on the “onion universe” concept I described above, which might serve as a partial explanation for the Fermi Paradox. Maybe some “layers” of the “onion” are “superhabitable” to advanced machine intelligences (though not to primitive flesh and blood beings like us). You know the aestivation hypothesis? If advanced machine intelligences could move to an “attic” they wouldn’t have to wait billions of years for our space to cool down; the cosmic microwave background temperatures in many of the “attics” would already be some tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Maybe they could move to a nice big cold “attic” and live there and “mine” a nice compact “basement” that is rich in matter and energy, getting the best of both worlds. Most of these “attics” and “basements” would be completely inaccessible to humans, but beings with better technology and more resources might be able to access many more of them (or maybe even get beyond the “onion” and search the entire multiverse for universes with conditions more to their liking). So the universe’s most powerful and most enduring civilizations might usually leave our space and move to another “layer” or universe that has conditions more ideal for them, and thus be mostly undetectable to us.

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See: the concept of hyperspace is loaded with potential plot and worldbuilding hooks if you use a little imagination, and I like that!

[lovelywingsart]

Blood of the Lambs (18+)

-- Karl Heisenberg X OC (AFAB, She/They) --

This directly after Mistakes of the Lambs, hence the name, and is literally just a small bit of shameless smut. uwu Short smut in my terms, but smut nonetheless. I actually enjoyed writing this one more than the others that are currently WIPs... And I have quite a few NSFW WIPs :'D They're just hard for me to finish, honestly.

This also takes place with this little chain of sketch events just like 'Mistakes'!

**Remember, check out the Masterlist for more! <3**

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*Warnings?: Blood, pain(removal of a bullet), mild bodily harm, NSFW: blood kink, mild choking, overstimulation/drawn out orgasm, light fingering, more implied at the end

Summary: After the bodies are set up to avoid suspicion, Karl helps Emelia with the issue that is the bullet in her arm. But turns out there's a little more he's interested in... And turns out she isn't exactly arguing.

Emelia sat on the chair in the workshop on the surface, her head back against the top as she took deep, wavering breaths. She was still covered in wet blood that barely dried despite the warmth of the factory and workshop, the red liquid staining her shirt and skin. But she didn't care... Her main concern was the pain her body was in as it trembled lightly, even as she sat perfectly still. It was painful to even blink... The full transformations always caused pain during and after... She barely did them for that reason, other than the fact that she could just barely control the Cadou enough to keep the form stable in the first place. But the damage sustained from the bullets of the villagers added a little more pain, and she found it difficult to heal fully even after reverting back. She could still feel the bullet lodged in her shoulder when she moved it... Even if she flexed her arm just slightly. It was there. She could also feel that the muscle had partially healed around it how it could, and she knew damn well it would hurt like hell to get it out. She debated on even telling the man when he returned... That was, if he didn't sense it first.

From going up to the surface-level building and the fact that he went out immediately in the first place, she knew it was night. At what time of night, she had no idea, and it made the thought of him going out a little easier despite still admittedly being worried. He'd be fine... He was a careful man, and would have wanted to wait until nightfall anyway. He'd be safer in the shadows and they both knew it. He was already gone for a while. A little under an hour, maybe... Setting up a bear attack was easier said than done, albeit not hard, and he most certainly allowed the Lycans get to the remains to clear any other trace of her own intervention. Hell, maybe the remains would be picked clean by the surrounding wildlife by sunrise... While he kept two of the bodies for Soldat production and experiments, the others were far too mangled to even attempt it unless he wanted a pain of a job, and she knew better than to suggest it.

It was then that a door opened, making her flinch at the sound as her senses had also been overloaded for a short time. But she couldn't help but feel relief as Heisenberg walked in with a sigh.

"It wasn't easy with those mooching assholes, but the bodies are out there and far the hell away from here." He said simply, shrugging off the jacket he wore. He wasn't tired, but it was evident he had decided not to go back out unless absolutely dire. He looked at her as she moved her hand into a slight thumbs up with a wince, and he frowned. "Still hurts?"

He was met with a tiny nod.

"Like hell..." she managed, her voice soft and somewhat hoarse from her vocal chords being strained. He kept his eyes on her before his attention was drawn to the hole in her shoulder once more. He concentrated for a moment, only to suddenly make his way over.

"It's still in your shoulder." He said simply, stopping in front of her. She grunted in response.

"I'm fine..." she mumbled, but he shook his head.

"Hm. Can you still feel it when you move?"

"... Yes..." she replied hesitantly, frowning as he raised a brow.

"Then it needs to be removed. It'll damage the nerves and bone, and suddenly you won't have an arm."

"It won't, I'll be fine-"

"You'll be handicapped if I don't, Emelia. You know that." He replied, quickly moving for the small bit of medical supplies he always kept around. "While I don't necessarily care of you are or not because you'll work either way, I'd rather you stay whole. Making a fake limb isn't as easy as it looks."

"You would know..." she muttered. He shrugged.

"I do, actually. It would be better for you, too. You're already missing a fucking eye." He couldn't help but smirk as she gave a huff. "Don't think you want a fake arm in your other form, do you?"

She shook her head slowly and watched with a narrowed eye as he neared her again, simply kneeling in front of her. He held out a hand.

"Give me your arm." He demanded, and she just barely complied.

"Dare I ask how you'll get it out..." she mumbled, hesitantly setting her forearm in his hand. She gave a wincing huff as he patted her arm in a near playful manor. He chuckled.

"You don't even need to ask, Doll."

"And exactly how much pain do you plan on causing me...?"

She watched as he pulled her arm towards him, feeling her muscles tense as he inspected the blood covered area. But he couldn't help the slight wandering eye, forcing himself to look back at the hole in her arm instead of the rest of her blood soaked skin. Why did she look... alluring? She was covered in blood, not chocolate... What the hell??

"Well, it'll hurt like hell, I can tell you that much." He said simply, reaching up to prod carefully around the area to get a physical feeling of where the object was located while she flinched. He HAD to ignore those thoughts for now... Not to mention she was still in pain from the mutation. No way in hell she'd do anything... Right? Oh, he almost wished...

It was easy to find in the underside if her arm before he straightened himself. He covered it with his palm for a moment, meeting her eye as he looked up. "Ready?"

"No, but I-" she started, only to stop with a pained cry as he lifted his hand away with a small pulse. She could feel the bullet move in the muscle and against the bone, pulling and tugging its way out as he kept his hand hovering over her arm with a surprising amount of concentration. Even he knew he could do more damage than good by removing it like this, and he needed to prevent that... But this was the easiest way unless either of them wanted to knock her out for a minor surgery, and something told him he'd lose another limb if he even suggested that.

Her free hand flew to keep her arm down from instantly swatting him away, and she bit her lip to avoid fully screaming. Her eye screwed shut with tears and pained whimpers as she felt another rush of pain as he used his power to pull again. It hurt... It hurt more than getting shot initially... Fresh blood began to seep down her already covered arm as the bullet tore through newly healed tissue, and Heisenberg frowned as she started to squirm slightly.

"Stay STILL..." he grumbled, holding her arm steady with a harder grip.

She tried. She really did try as he pushed against the skin, helping to push the small piece of metal out. But she twisted her forearm slightly to grab onto his, and he flinched when she squeezed. The pulses of his power stopped for a moment.

"Break my arm and we're gonna have an issue..." he growled, glancing at her. She nodded.

"N-Not trying to..." She replied simply, her voice strained. He shook his head and looked back at the hole, inspecting it one last time. The silver of the bullet was just slightly visible through the fresh blood, and he knew it was out of the dangerous area of her arm. Any severe damage was avoided, thankfully...

"I can see it." He said, hovering his palm a little closer. "I'm going to go for one last tug. It's gonna hurt like a bitch, but it'll be out..."

"J-Just do it, then."

He couldn't help but arch a brow, but nodded.

"Alright then." He adjusted his grip, holding onto her arm tight enough for the skin to turn red and shifting to the side away from her legs. If he didn't, there was a chance he'd go flying, or get a few broken ribs, at the very least. "One... Two..."

He didn't even say three. She let out a loud, pained cry as he flexed his fingers back, his power ripping the bullet from her flesh in one final tug. He let go and backed away almost instantly as she tried kicking at him, allowing her to curl to herself and press her still bloody palm against the now fresh bleeding wound with a whine and a groan.

"F-... FUCK..." Emelia managed with a gasp, her body shaking from the small bit of adrenaline that shot through her system from the pain. Her arm trembled violently as she flexed her fingers to test feeling in them.

She took deep breaths as Heisenberg slowly returned to his place crouched in front of her, holding out his hand with the bullet in his palm.

"Standard ammo, straight shot out from the muscle. No fragments, no chips... You'll be fine." He assured, watching as she looked at the bullet with more pained tears that she was clearly fighting off.

She glared at the little piece of metal before giving a growling huff.

"I'll melt it down later..." she grumbled, managing to straighten herself out just slightly, albeit shakily. She then ran her tongue against her bitten lip and he froze, his shoulders going stiff. Fuck.

'Blood, not chocolate. BLOOD, NOT CHOCOLATE.' he thought, watching as she finally managed to lean back against the chair with a groan. But it may as well be the same god damn thing!! He simply set the bullet on the table next to them, instead reaching to grab the gauze and green liquid he had retrieved beforehand. His mind ran as he reached forward to wipe away what he could of the blood with a clean rag.

"Need a distraction?" He asked suddenly, unable to keep his mouth from moving as he poured the liquid onto a piece of gauze. She looked at him with a flinch, now suspicious as he pressed the material to her arm.

"'Distraction'?" She asked, moving her hand slightly as she felt the wound heal slowly. "You're not one for 'distractions', Heisenberg..."

"It's an honest question."

Emelia watched him carefully, catching his glances towards her as he worked on her arm. But not her face entirely... No, his gaze wandered over her mouth and neck, all the way down to where the crimson liquid covered her shirt. She licked her lip again slightly, clearing off the small beads of blood from her own teeth, watching his eyes move and his mouth twitch with a small interest. It took her only a moment before she realized exactly what went through the mans head, now somewhat familiar with the spark that appeared in the pale yellow of his eyes. She tilted her head slightly.

"You're find this attractive, don't you?" She said simply, making the man pause his movements. He looked at her, meeting her eye.

"... And if I do?" He asked. She raised a brow.

"That implies a few things."

"It only looks good on you, Doll, not a cold corpse."

He finally turned to fully face her once he wrapped her bicep in some small bandages, setting an arm across her legs once he was finished as he propped himself up. She kept herself back against the chair, still sore, but secretly somewhat amused by the new development as she watched his face.

"And yet you've never come forward when I assist with the Soldats..." she said, watching a smirk cross his features.

"Who's to say I don't 'suffer' in silence, hm?" He chuckled, tapping her thigh lightly. "But I will say there's a little something better about it being fresh compared to an average work day."

"Oh?" She questioned. Well, this was... intriguing. But she couldn't help but be amused enough to enjoy it just slightly. He chuckled again.

"That's not saying I want you to tear those poor bastards apart more often..." he shrugged, but gave a grin. "But I won't stop you if they try again."

"You were angry that I didn't leave Soldat material."

"That was before I came back to this." He reached up and dragged his thumb across her chin, smearing blood across her skin just a little more. "And seeing as you did so to defend us and the factory... Well, I believe the attraction is well deserved. I just wish you hadn't gotten hurt from it."

She let her chin rest in his hand for a moment before sticking out her tongue to lick away the blood his thumb had gathered. The look that entered his features was enough to tell her that he had much more self control than he let on.

"You realize I'm still sore?" She said casually, reaching her hand up to tap along the inside of his arm up to his elbow. It was a common gesture, and one he knew all too well at this point. He suddenly straightened himself, managing to rest in between her knees with a chuckle as he leaned up and held her face.

"Oh, I know."

His reply was simple, and left no time for her to respond as he grabbed the back of her neck and nearly crushed his mouth to hers. Despite wincing with the movements, she returned the kiss as fiercely as it was given, feeling as his other arm snaked around her waist. She could still taste the copper-like substance on her tongue as he nipped at her lip almost immediately, and she could tell he did as well as he paused once the kiss was deepened. But of course it didn't stop him, much to her slowly appearing delight. She held onto him as he leaned up further, ending up somewhat kneeling on the chair between her knees, himself. Was the chair big enough for both of them? Most definitely not. But did the idea of being shoved against it to make room for him bother her? Absolutely not.

That's almost exactly what happened as his hand went from her jaw to around her neck, pressing her into the chair effortlessly. She only grunted in an uncomfortable sore pain, but both ignored it as his other arm moved to roam her shirt and pull it away from her chest. They could hear the sound of the fabric sticking to her skin as it was pulled away, and he chuckled in the kiss.

"Arms up Doll, or it's getting ripped." He purred against her lips, and she gladly obliged, albeit with a pained grunt.

He only pulled away to assist the removal of the shirt, and she paused once she caught sight of the blood on his own lips- blood that promptly disappeared with his tongue trailing over them with a smirk. Her eye widened slightly as her face heated up.

"I'm not the only one then, hm?" He played, glancing down at her now bare, blood-smeared chest. "Don't think I don't catch your eye when we work."

"That would make me a hypocrite then, wouldn't it?" She replied, a nervous smirk appearing as she felt him move to remove his gloves.

"I believe so." He chuckled, kneeling back down in front of her, yet grabbing her hips and tugging them forward. She let out another sore grunt, but held onto his shoulders. "But not just blood, Doll."

"What do you mean...?" She questioned, though was only half serious. She knew exactly what he meant as he leaned to kiss and bite at her neck, though his awareness of it genuinely surprised her.

"You think I look at you now like you're a piece of melted sweets, hm?" He chuckled again, pulling her forward more to press his hips against hers at the edge of the chair. She let out a soft whine. "I see you when you look at me like you've seen a steak. You're not allowed to judge me for this."

"N-Not my fault you can be fun to look at, Metalhead..." she challenged. She felt his smirk at her neck.

"Not my fault you look like an entire goddamn meal like this then, Emmy."

She said nothing as he bit at her neck again, only letting out a surprised gasp as she felt him send pulses through the piercings. Her back arched against him as his hands ran over her skin, smearing what blood she had on her chest down to her hips before tugging at the tied jumpsuit. She managed to move through the pulses with soft whines and whimpers, shakily fumbling with the buttons of his own shirt. He couldn't help but chuckle in mild amusement, simply pausing the pulses for a few moments. He was met with another whine, this time of mild irritation, but she managed to undo the buttons before the pulses started again and before the jumpsuit and everything under it was pulled past her thighs with ease.

She let out a small gasp as one of his hands moved to between her legs, keeping them apart as he rubbed against the piercing and moist warmth around it. His other arm wrapped around her waist as he inserted two fingers immediately, and she gave a gasping whine.

"H-Heis...-" she started, holding onto his shoulders.

It actually hurt with every muscle still sore, but she ignored the light throbbing in favor of the sparks of pleasure that now shot up her spine, which amplified as his mouth left her neck and found its way down to her breast. The thin layer of blood was promptly licked away before he focused in the piercing, his tongue running over it and the sensitive flesh before lightly biting down. He switched to the other piercing within a few seconds, the sounds of her whines and whimpers gracing his ears as his fingers moved quickly. It didn't last long as he let out a low groan, removing his arm from around her to undo his belt and pants. The taste of blood and the feel of the increasing moisture around his fingers drove him insane... She tasted like a dessert, and he fucking wanted it.

He removed his mouth from her chest, kissing and biting up to her neck once more while constantly licking away the blood from his lips. He suddenly removed his fingers, earning an irritated whine, but he caught her eye as he brought them to his lips. He watched her face turn even more red as he dragged his tongue along one of them, though the look in her eye was unwavering. He almost seemed to savor the mixture of her and the blood itself, the combination making him growl almost possessively before he put his fingers to her lips.

"Open." He grumbled, pleased as she did so immediately. She flinched as he pushed his fingers over her tongue, whining at the taste, yet still closing her mouth around them.

He leaned up suddenly, enjoying her surprised noise as he used his hand to press her back against the chair by her chin while moving forward to rub against her roughly. He wasted no time in nearly shoving himself inside of her, earning a surprised moan as he groaned, himself.

"Fuck-" he grumbled, glancing at her as he pulled his fingers from her mouth. She whimpered as she licked her lips, her breaths coming as small pants.

"K-Karl, please-" she started, though she didn't need to finish.

He started moving immediately, gripping her hips with careful force. She nearly wrapped her legs around his waist as he moved. Her whines and whimpers quickly turned into gasps and moans as his pace quickened, the chair creaking under them slightly with the rhythm he set. The taste of blood and her sweetness mixed with sound of her moans filled his senses, feeling her nearly cling to his shoulders.

"H-HEIS- KARL- F-FUCK-!!~" she gasped, feeling the pulses of the piercings increase just slightly.

Her nails dug into the fabric of the shirt he wore. The throbbing pain of her muscles only seemed to amplify the feeling as he suddenly slipped a hand in between them, his thumb finding the bundle of nerves against the piercing. Her back arched against his chest at the feeling, and she suddenly let out quiet, wavering cry as a sudden orgasm flooded through her, making her thighs tremble and nearly trap him against her. He then stopped suddenly, pressing his hips roughly against hers and reaching up to grab her by the neck. He pressed her back against the chair and kept his eyes on her, yet continued moving his thumb.

"Come on, Doll, come on. Keep going." He purred lowly, watching as her hands shot down to grip the armrests as she nearly thrashed and trembled under him. He rubbed quickly and rough, dragging out the orgasm for much, much longer.

"F-FUCK, FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK- KARL-!" She managed, simply repeating his name as she spasms continued. He grunted as he felt the tightness around him, feeling close himself simply by watching her. Fuck, was it a show...

Her nails dug into the arm rests of the chair, staining and tearing apart the fabric while giving him a rather clear view of her chest and trembling muscles. Her lips were parted as higher pitched whines escaped them from the feeling. She nearly had tears in her eye before he started to move again, his thumb still rapidly moving against her.

She couldn't help but shift her legs around his waist, letting him closer. She couldn't keep her eye open... Hell, she could barely think, and she was only one orgasm in. She finally grabbed onto his arm that held her against the chair, needing something to hold on to- No, she needed HIM to hold on to. A needy whine left her parted lips as he suddenly moved his hand from her throat, instead grabbing her jaw and forcing her to look at him.

"What do you want, Emmy?" He growled, his voice strained with each thrust. She barely managed to look at him, moans and whines breaking up her words as she attempted to speak.

"Y-.... Y-You... I-..." She tried, the very sudden overstimulation from the pulsing metals almost stopping her immediately. But she kept a hold on his arm with a shaky grip as if it grounded her thoughts. "M-MORE....-"

"You'll get more, Doll, just do it again."

"P-PLEASE-"

She was interrupted as he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers, only allowing the moans to seep through as he increased the movements of his thumb and thrusts. It was then that she reached and grabbed the back of his shirt with her other hand once more, letting out a multitude of cries and moans against his lips as she was hit by another strong orgasm. Again her legs tightened around his waist, keeping him against her as he finally grunted his own release. The movement of his thumb slowed slightly as he came, and her muscles trembled with numbing pleasure as she clung to him. Few tears rolled down her cheek as she squeezed her eye shut, letting out more whines and whimpers at the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach that only calmed as his thumb finally stopped moving.

The kiss settled down after his own trembling muscles relaxed, and he finally pulled away once he could fully feel her shaking. She slumped into the chair under him, panting and attempting to catch her breath as her body shook. He pressed his forehead to hers in a calming gesture, breathing heavily, himself.

"Are you alright?" He asked quietly, reaching to wipe away the tears on her cheek before setting his hand along her side. She nodded slightly, finally managing to look at him.

"I-It doesn't... Doesn't h-hurt anymore..." she managed, and he chuckled.

"That was part of the plan, Doll." He replied. She kept her hold on him, though lessened her grip just slightly as he removed his other hand from her throat to hold her cheek.

"'Part of'...?"

"Well, the other part was to fuck you senseless until you washed off."

She couldn't help but give a breathy chuckle as he smiled.

"It may have worked..."

"Hm." He hummed, leaning up slightly. "Not completely, Emmy. You're still talking."

"I'm exhausted..."

"You're still awake, too." He grinned. She rolled her eye, managing to shift a bit under him with a quiet grunt.

There was silence as they each caught their breath, and Emelia nearly went limp in the chair. How the hell was she still here? Wouldn't she have slid off by now?? The thought made her chuckle. Heisenberg looked at her with mild amusement.

"What's so funny?" He asked, merely leaning on one of the chair arms. She shook her head.

"I'm amazed you kept me here of all places..." she mused glancing over at the table. "Usually it's up there... Or on the floor..." she nodded to the door- "Or the room."

"Well, I'm not opposed to going to the room anyway." He said simply, suddenly wrapping his arms around her. She watched with suspicion, only to give a yelp in surprise as he lifted her up against his chest.

"HEY-" She started, whining as he gave a quick thrust before standing up, keeping her on and against him as she held onto him tightly.

"We've got a few hours to spare..." he chuckled, making his way to the door. She gave a huff.

"Hours?!" She growled, earning a quick kiss to the cheek that instantly silenced her.

"When I said 'fuck you senseless', I mean to put emphasis on the 'senseless' aspect." He said. "So, in order to not destroy your physical being, I say a bed is easier than a chair or a table."

"And if I don't want to be?!"

"Well, I'd assume you'd be telling me to stop or attempting to walk yourself instead of clinging to me like a damn possum." He played. She gave an annoyed huff, but remained still. Well, maybe she COULD finish her work later... Plus, she really was exhausted, and the thought of ignoring and numbing the slowly returning pain with pleasure was rather appealing.

"... You'll let me sleep afterwards?" She asked quietly, finally nuzzling to his shoulder. He chuckled.

"After I'm done with you, yes."

"And when will that be?"

"Until you either fall asleep or can't speak, Doll."

She was silent for a moment before cracking a smile and giving a light chuckle.

"I look forward to it, then..."

He returned the chuckle, making his way through the door that led into the room.

"Good. And we won't be showering until afterwards, or at least in the middle of it."

"... Deal."

[thevindicativevordan]

How do you feel about the way New Krypton was resolved? To me it felt really callous. Like DC was just sweeping it all aside with the Kryptonians being genocided, and then the whole world moves on a week later.

Two words: Wasted potential.

This should have been Superman's Sinestro Corps War, his big event/storyline that completely rejuvenated his sales and brought in a ton of new readers. It had all the hallmarks of being the big shakeup that the Superman franchise desperately needed: it gave Superman a big conflict that allowed him to punch stuff while also not being something he could solve solely by punching, it centered all of his big villains and gave them the revamps they needed (particularly Zod as I'll get to later), it involved all the other members of the Superfamily (bar Conner who was dead at the time) and gave them stuff to do, it even brought in the Legion of Superheroes at one point! The setup was all there to do something great, to give Superman that big event storyline he hadn't had since Death of Superman (or President Luthor if you're feeling generous).

And DC completely fucked it up.

First you had Busiek and Johns, the guys who were doing the actual setup and who had been doing great work beforehand, both leave the books right as the event was kicking off. Busiek to go do Trinity and Johns to go prepare Blackest Night, both leaving their big event to be executed by new writers who had not been involved in the process of conceptualizing this event. Then you had Clark taken out of Superman and Action Comics, those titles given to Z-Listers, and Clark himself dropped into a brand new mini. No offense to those who like Mon-El but there was never a chance in hell of him sustaining his own book as the lead guy unless Johns was writing it. Then you hilariously had the first son of Clark and Lois, Chris Kent, aged up in a bizarre way and made a costumed hero himself with a romance to boot in a deeply unpopular move (funny how history repeats itself, although I like what's unfolding with Jon a lot more). So of course the sales tanked, and what happened next was inevitable.

DC panicked and hit the reset button so hard a planet exploded and everyone died, except for Kal, Kara, and Zod plus some of his loyalists.

God I was pissed because while the side books may have floundered, the main mini itself following Clark on New Krypton? That was really good in my opinion.

Clark was forced into an interesting position: a second chance at life with his people, at the cost of renouncing ties with his adopted homeworld. Can Kal-El find a way of keeping the peace between the two worlds, with the leadership on both ends preparing for war? That's an exciting and enticing premise or at least it was for me! I loved the storyline also because it took the usual cliche storyline of Superman losing his powers and flipped it: what if there was an entire new planet full of guys who were just as strong as he was? What makes Superman special then? And we got to see the answer: his brains and his experience.

It was cool seeing Clark kick ass, seeing him navigate the politics of the Guilds and Kryptonian society. There was so much worldbuilding going on at the same time, old Kryptonian animals and plants being recreated on New Krypton, the dissatisfaction within the Labor Guild, the military spoiling for a fight, Kal's internal struggles with everyone seeing Zod as a hero and him having to try to work quietly to change that, it was all really fun to read about for me. There were also those hints of long term plotlines being set up, such as those aliens from Saturn who were also super powered, and were letting the newcomers know they were keeping an eye on things. I seriously thought we were going to get a Solar War with every race in the Sol system fighting each other for dominance. And the Superman/Zod dynamic has never been better than it was in this storyline.

The two did not like each other, but there was a grudging respect being built up between the two. Kal was coming to appreciate that Zod genuinely cared about protecting the Kryptonians, and Zod was coming to respect Clark's skills and insights. Zod was sympathetic and understandable in his goals while also still being a ruthless son of a bitch, which is exactly how I prefer he be depicted.

In all honesty this was the first big Zod story I read and it shaped my perceptions of how he should be. You also had General Sam Lane on the other side, putting together Project 7734 to tackle the Kryptonians, drafting Lex Luthor, Metallo, and others to his side. Hell this was the last and as far as I know only story to pit the Big 3 of Lex, Brainiac, and Zod against one another, something I would dearly love to see tried again. All these major players working their own agendas simply isn't something you usually get in Superman books. Lex working to kill Superman and the other Kryptonians of course, but also out to steal knowledge from Brainiac and secure his freedom. Brainiac wanting to recapture the Kryptonians. Zod and Lane out to preemptively destroy one another, with Zod seeding Kryptonian sleeper agents back on Earth. Superman's Rogues got good showings as the dangerous threats they are in this story, I'll say that much.

All of it torched in the end alas. DC definitely wanted it all swept under the rug and forgotten. I liked the retcon of Grounded really being Superman suffering a massive case of PTSD which is why he was being an asshole under JMS, but I doubt that was the original intention. You're right, Clark having to experience the pain of losing his people as an adult, and Kara having to re-experience it along with the death of her mother, really should've gotten more focus. But they wanted it gone and done with.

You know what kills me? Not even a few years later they'd reboot the whole damn universe anyway, so what was the point of taking Superman back to his "status quo"? They should've just said fuck it and let the writers go wild in the final years before the New 52, let New Krypton play out as it was intended to, it was all going to get rebooted anyway. Of course New 52 was a rush job I understand, so they didn't know ahead of time what would happen, but I can't help but be bitter.

The potential New Krypton offered is one I would 100% love to see revisited, in an animated movie or in that upcoming My Adventures With Superman cartoon. The animated side keeps changing the stories as they adapt them anyway, and I would love to see the ending to New Krypton get changed. Give me the original Johns/Busiek plan for the event, or give me something else entirely, it can't be a bigger disappointment than what we ultimately got anyway.

[him-e]

what did you think of shadow and bone? have you read the books? i only read the duology

Thoughts on Shadow and Bone, now that you've probably seen it?

I think the show is alright? It lacks a real wow factor as far as I’m concerned, but it’s enjoyable. It’s especially enjoyable in those parts I didn’t anticipate to like / didn’t even know would be there. 

Whereas the main selling points leave a lot to be desired.

The good stuff: the visuals. The aesthetic. The overall concept. Production, casting and costumes are excellent, the setting is fascinating. The worldbuilding isn’t perfect and is sometimes confusing, which is probably due to the show jumping ahead of the books and introducing elements that happen much later in the book saga, but I’m loving the vague steampunk-y vibe of it mixed with more typical fantasy stuff and slavic-inspired lore, the fact that it’s set in dystopian Russia rather than your usual ye olde England.

I find it interesting that in this ‘verse the Grisha are simultaneously superstars, privileged elite, legendary creatures and despised outcasts, according to the context and the type of magic they wield. It’s A Lot, and so far it’s all a bit underdeveloped and messy, like a patchwork of different narratives and tropes sewn together without an organic worldbuilding structure. (there are hints to a past when they were hunted, but how did they go from that to being, essentially, an institutionalized asset to the government isn’t clear yet. There’s huge narrative potential in this, and I hope future seasons will delve into those aspects)

Many of the supporting characters are surprisingly solid. I appreciated that Genya and Zoya eventually sort of traded places, subverting the audience’s assumptions about them and their own character stereotypes, despite the little screentime they were given.

Breakout characters/ships for me were Nina/Matthias, and even more so the Crows, i.e. the stuff I didn’t see coming and knew nothing about (having only read the first book). (I thought the entire Crows subplot was handled in a somewhat convoluted way, at least in the first episodes; it was hard to keep track of who wanted Alina and why, but the Crows’ chemistry is so strong it carried the whole Plot B on its shoulders).

HELNIK. As an enemies to lovers dynamic, Helnik was SUPER on the nose, I’d say bordering on clichéd with the unapologetic, straight outta fanfiction use of classic tropes like “we need to team up to survive” and “there’s only one bed and we’ll freeze to death if we don’t take our conveniently damp clothes off and keep each other warm with the heat of our naked bodies” (not that I’m complaining, but i like to pine for my ships a bit before getting to the juicy tropetown part, tyvm). And then they’re suddenly on opposite sides again because of a tragic misunderstanding - does Bardugo hate high-conflict dynamics? It certainly seems so, because between Helnik and Darklina I’m starting to see a pattern where the slow burn and blossoming mutual trust is rushed and painted in broad, stereotypical strokes to get as fast as possible to the part where they *hate each other again* and that’s... huh. Something.

^That’s probably why I’m almost more interested in Kaz x Inej, because their relationship feels a bit more nuanced, a bit more mysterious, and a bit more unpredictable. (I didn’t bother spoiling myself about them, so I really don’t know where they’re going, but it’s refreshing to see a dynamic that the narrative isn’t scrambling to define in one direction or the other as quickly as possible)

-

Now, as for Darklina VS Malina... I found exactly what I expected. 

Both are ship dynamics I’m, on principle, very much into (light heroine/dark villain, pining friends to lovers) but both are also much less interesting than they claim to be, or could have been with different narrative choices. I’ll concede that the show characters are all more fleshed out and likable than their book counterparts, and the cringe parts I vaguely remembered from the books played out differently. And, well, Ben Barnes dominates the scene, he’s hot as HELL, literally every single second he’s on screen is a fuck you to Bardugo’s attempts to make his character lame and uninteresting and I’m LOVING it, lol.

But yeah, B Barnes aside, Darklina is intrinsically, deliberately made to be unshippable. 

It makes me mad, because it’s - archetypally speaking - made of shipping dynamite: yin/yang-sun and moon, opposites attract, COMPLEMENTARY POWERS AND SO ON. And what does Bardugo do with these ingredients? A FUCKING DELIBERATE DISASTER:

^ Placing the kiss so early on (season 1, episode five) effectively kills the romantic tension that was (correctly) building up until that point, and leaves the audience very little to still hope for, in terms of emotional evolution of the dynamic. 

Bardugo lays all the good stuff down as early and quickly as possible (the bonding, the conflicted attraction, the recognizing the other as one’s equal, etc) only to turn the tables and pull the rug so y’all sick creepyshippers won’t have anything to look forward to, because THEY’VE ALREADY HOOKED UP AND THAT BELONGS TO THE PAST, IT’S OVER, THEY’RE ENEMIES. This, combined to the fact that she falls for him *without* knowing who he really is, is the opposite of what I want from a heroine/villain ship (it’s basically lovers to enemies, and while that can be valid too, I wanted to see more pining and more prolonged, tormented symbolic attraction to the Shadow/Animus on Alina’s part). 

But here’s the trick: it’s not marketed as lovers to enemies - it has all the aesthetics and trappings of an enemies to lovers (the Darkling is, from the get go, villain-presenting, starting from his name), so it genuinely feels like a trollfic, or at the very least a cautionary tale *against* shipping the heroine with the tall dark brooding young villain, and I don’t think it’s cool at all. It makes the story WAY less interesting, because it humanizes the villain early on (when it’s not yet useful or poignant to the story, because it’s unearned) but it’s a red herring. The real plot twist is that the villain shouldn’t be sympathized with, just defeated: there’s a promise of nuanced storytelling, that is quickly denied and tossed aside. So is the idea of incorporating your Shadow (a notion that Bardugo must be familiar with, otherwise she wouldn’t have structured Alina and the Darkling as polar opposites who complement each other, but that she categorically refutes)

Then we have Malina. The good ship.

Look, I’m not that biased against it. I don’t want to be biased on principle against a friends to lovers dynamic that antagonizes a heroine/villain one, because every narrative is different, and for personal reasons I can deeply relate to the idea of being (unspeakably) in love with your best friend. So there are aspects of Malina that I can definitely be into, but it troubles me that in this specific context it’s framed as a regression. It’s Alina’s comfort zone, a fading dream of happiness from an idealized childhood, to sustain which the heroine systematically stunts her growth and literally repressed her own powers, something that in the books made her sickly and weak. But the narrative weirdly romanticizes this codependency, often making her tunnel vision re: going back to Mal her primary goal and centering on him her entire backstory/motivation, to the point that when she starts acting more serious re: her powers and alleged mission to destroy the Fold, it feels inorganic and unearned. 

Mal is intrinsically extraneous to Alina’s powers, he doesn’t share them, he doesn’t understand them, he has little to offer to help her with them, and so the feeling is that he’s also extraneous to her heroine’s journey, aside from being a sort of sidekick or safe harbor to eventually come back to. People have compared him to Raoul from Phantom of the Opera, and yeah, he has the same ~magic neutralizer~ vibe, tbh.

The narrative also polarizes Mal’s normalcy and relative “safety” against Aleksander’s sexy evil, framing Alina’s quasi-platonic fixation on the former as a better and purer form of love than her (much more visible and palpable) attraction to the latter. This is exacerbated by the show almost entirely relying on scenes of them as kids to convey their bond. I’m sure there are ways to depict innocent pining for your best friend that don’t involve obsessively focusing on flashbacks of two CHILDREN running in a meadow and looking exactly like brother and sister. LIKE. I get it, they’re like soulmates in every possible way, BUT DO THEY WANT TO KISS EACH OTHER?

Which brings me to a general complain: for a young adult saga centering on a young heroine and full of so many hot people, this story is weirdly unsexy? There are a lot of shippable dynamics, but they’re done in such a careless, ineffective way that makes ZERO EFFORT to work on stuff like slow burn, pining and romantic tension, and when it does it’s so heavy handed that the viewer doesn’t feel encouraged at all to fill the blanks with their imagination and start anticipating things (which is, imo, the ESSENCE of shipping). The one dynamic that got vaguely close to this is, again, Kaz and Inej, and coincidentally it’s also the one we didn’t get confirmed as romantic YET. Other than that, where’s the slow burn? What ship am I supposed to agonize over during the hiatus to season two? Has shipping become something to feel ashamed of, like an embarrassing relative you no longer want to invite in your home?

Anyway, back to Alina/Darkling/Mal, this is how the story reads to me:

girl suspects to be special, carefully pretends to be normal so she can stay with Good Boy

the girl’s powers eventually manifest; she’s forcibly separated from Good Boy

the girl’s powers attract Bad Boy who is her equal and opposite but is also a major asshole

girl initially falls for Bad Boy; has to learn a hard lesson that nobody that sexy will ever want her for who she is, he’s just trying to exploit her

also, no, there is no such thing as a Power Couple

girl is literally given a slave collar by Bad Boy through which he harnesses her power (a parody of the Twin Scars trope)

you know how the story initially suggested that the joint powers of Darkness and Light would defeat evil? LOL NO, Darkness is actually evil itself and the way you destroy evil is using Light to destroy Darkness, forget that whole Jungian bullshit of integrating your shadow, silly!

conclusion: girl realizes being special sucks. She was right all along! Hiding and suppressing her powers was the best choice! She goes back to the start, to the same Good Boy she was meekly pining for prior to the start of the story.

... there’s an uncomfortable overall subtext that reads a lot like a cautionary tale against - look, not just against darkships and villain/heroine pairings, but also *overpowered* heroines and, well... change? Growth?

Like, it’s certainly a Choice that Alina starts the story *already* in love with Mal. That she always knew it was him. The realization could have happened later (making the dynamic much more shippable, too), but no. 

[areyougonnabe]

Fic Writer Questions!

tagged by @palamedessextus !!! thank u i love to procrastinate on writing by writing about writing

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

110 on my main account (+ 4 on my sneaky sock for Crimes™ lol)

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

614,551 on my main account which is. hm. a lot

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

obvi the main ones are the terror (50 fics) and good omens (35 fics). beyond that: TMA, the OA, doctor who, LOST, red dwarf, what we do in the shadows, the aubreyad, legends of tomorrow, banished, MCU, bbc ghosts, jeeves & wooster, russian doll, true detective, twin peaks, fleabag, & it's always sunny.

so technically 19, but wow a LOT of those are because i am a fiend for crossovers. (true detective x red dwarf... twin peaks x hannibal... the OA x lost.... russian doll x doctor who...) and many of the others were one-offs for yuletide. i'm pretty monofannish when it comes to writing!

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

lol they're all going to be for good omens... let's see

1. "it's a new craze" - the podcast fic. imho this fic is the definition of "The Claw," a.k.a. the phenomenon that sees some fics plucked out from the fray to become super popular. i'm not denying that it's good! i still think it's pretty clever! but its popularity was probably as much a function of timing as of quality

2. "what a way to make a living" - the uber driver fic. honestly still pretty proud of this one, it flows well and is structurally interesting and genuinely very funny and the perfect length. i had a blast in good omens fandom writing comedic fic, this one

3. "dearly departed" - another one i'm still very happy with. my first ever finished multi-chapter fic & the story that proved to me i could sustain a plot and original characters and also that people would actually enjoy it. so a pretty big deal!

4. "blame it on my juice, baby!" - the fake love potion one. i wrote this fic while delirious with horrible fever cooped up in a tiny council flat airbnb bedroom in london. i think it's still pretty strong although since writing it i've developed a severe aversion to the "meddling friend engineers a get-together" trope in fic & so cringe a bit when i read it back, lmao

5. "greatest hits" - the one with the original songs! the songs are still good.... the fic is ehhhhhhh i guess.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

i don't respond to comments on most of my gomens fic anymore because 🤷‍♀️ but i do try to reply to everything i get on my terror fic/smaller fandom stories! my replies are usually very lame but i do like to take the time to thank people for reading.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

i usually don't write angsty endings because i'm a weenie BUT the one exception is probably my terror/TMA crossover which cannot be said to end well by any means lol

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

dearly departed has a very lovely ending... i will also plug my OA fic heat rises which is GREAT and has a GREAT ending and nobody read it because nobody watched the OA. i'm fine it's fine

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

as mentioned above, yes, compulsively... award for craziest simply has to go to It's Always Sunny In Another Dimension which is, yes, an IASIP x OA crossover. i apologize for nothing

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

not that i can recall, [bubbe voice] tenks gad!!!

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

i do i do.... when i first picked up fic writing again after college i thought smut would forever totally beyond me but after some very kind encouragement from friends i tried my hand at it & was off to the races.

i would not say i am an expert at it by any means but i have a lot of fun with it, & people seem to generally appreciate it, so i will keep going!

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

also no, phew

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, a bunch of my gomens fics have been translated into chinese and russian, which is so so super cool!

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yuh, i had a few legendary cowrites in GO! the slow show metafic with cherry @fremulon and the shitscript crossover extravaganza with hallie @kalelraejepsen !!! both tremendously fun experiences

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

that is a very tough one. if you go by my ao3 bookmarks it's aziraphale/crowley, which might be true still tbh... but i dunno. maybe ten/rose because that shit never leaves you.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

in terms of fic i already started posting, there's my one terror WIP with amnesiac tozer that i swear i WILL finish one day... and same goes for my good omens music & lyrics AU, which i fully expect to pick back up and finish off when i inevitably return to the fandom for series 2.

as far as stuff that never made it out of drafts, i started a hodgson-centric fic a few weeks ago that i got like 4k into before realizing i need to seriously refine my approach. so hopefully after exe fest i will get around to that!

16) What are your writing strengths?

well i am funny. so i've got that going for me. other than that ummmm i don't know. i don't think of myself as a particularly good or strong writer bc i really am just here for a laff. i think i can turn a phrase well and get the most out of imagery; i'm good at coming up with compelling story concepts and weird gimmicks, i guess?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

i fundamentally don't know or understand how People Actually Act And Feel so i have a hard time getting realistic or interesting reactions and conflicts out of characters. my plots (when my stories have them at all) are very powered by external events, i wouldn't call myself a character-driven writer by any means. for the same reasons i struggle with voice and dialogue beyond superficial signposting via vocabulary/syntax. also, sustaining a long story/finding enough Stuff To Happen to fill it up/having the patience to keep writing... is something i need to work on for sure.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i'm a lame american who only speaks english so honestly i don't really have thoughts!

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

i distinctly remember hand-writing in my notebook two or three pages worth of a story about what happened to the main precog in "minority report" after watching the movie when i was like seven. the first fandom i actually wrote fic for and posted it online was probably doctor who circa 2010 ish? but my warrior cats RP career predates that by a few years and i did a LOT of writing there. oh warriorsforest39 dot proboards dot com you are missed....

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

SEX GHOST AU! SEX GHOST AU!

tagging folks :))) @laissezferre @titleleaf @theburialofstrawberries @girdedheraround @flanneryoconnorfanfiction @wreathedwith if u want!!

[a-little-slice-of-fandom]

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Irish-ness of Dracula, if you wanna ramble about it!

(Okay I just want to apologise for how long this took to answer because I know it’s been sitting in my inbox for over a month but..depression and work happened and I just didn’t have the time or energy to complete it. I seriously do apologise for this but I hope you enjoy the post anyway!)

So the first thing I need to clear up is this: the concept of a monster or a demon that feeds upon the life force of humans is not limited to one singular culture or folklore. In fact, this core concept is a wider cultural phenomenon and variations of it exist across both countries and continents. And no one country can take sole credit for the this core concept of vampires. Anyone who tries to claim otherwise either doesn’t know much about vampires or is intentionally being disingenuous. There can be cultural variations that are specific to certain folklores (and to just blatantly steal these would be cultural appropriation), but the main idea of vampires exists across a wide range of folklores and no singular person, group of people or culture can take credit for the creation of vampires.

However, arguably it was the work of Bram Stoker that aided in the solidification of the concept of Vampires that we know today. While there were other authors from a wide range of nationalities who wrote about Vampires before Stoker (including John William Polidori who wrote the Vampyre in 1819)...Dracula is the best known. (Now I personally believe that’s because Dracula is an absolutely banging novel, although I do concede that the prevalence of adaptations of Dracula from the 1920’s to today helps keep Dracula in the forefront of audiences minds.) In addition, it’s important to remember that Stoker was inspired by another Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, who wrote the novel Carmilla. As far as I know, Le Fanu and Stoker actually worked together on a magazine!

Another thing I think that needs clarification is the common belief that Stoker heavily/religiously based Dracula on the historical figure Vlad the Impailer. This is heavily debated by scholars. While there’s an obvious, undeniable similarity between the names of these two...the similarities start to wain after this, with only small similarities between the two and there’s even literal contradictions between the history of Vlad the Impailer and Dracula’s history in the novel. In fact, there’s not much indication that Stoker based the character Dracula off Vlad the Impailer, or even that he had a working knowledge of Vlad the Impailer beyond the name. In all 124 pages of his notes, there’s nothing to indicate that Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula came from Vlad the Impailer.

(Plus Dracula in the novel wasn’t even originally called Dracula...he was called Count Wampyr in the original drafts of the novel and this was only changed, from what I can gather, in the last couple of drafts.)

In fact, I’d personally argue that that connection between Vlad the Impailer and Dracula is actually something that’s been retroactively added by other artists, for example the 1992 film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” heavily leaned into this idea that Dracula and Vald the Impailer were one in the same, and as time has progressed people assume that these elements were in the original novel when that’s simply untrue! Stoker didn’t write that! It’s a retroactive addition by other artists that’s just assumed by the masses to be canon. This phenomenon is actually super interesting and it’s absolutely not limited to Stoker’s novel Dracula/the modern day perception of Dracula (another example would be Mary Shelley’s version of Frankenstein versus the modern day perception Frankenstein). I’m not sure if there’s a word for what this is, but I like the term “cultural canon”, where something that’s been added in by other artists has become as good as canon within the minds of the masses and as such is ingrained within the cultural perception of something, despite it having no basis within the original piece or even directly contradicting what is in canon.

(Now I’ll absolutely concede that Stoker taking the name of a historical figure and possibly their likeness from another country and making them into a literal monster is something that should be discussed. I don’t know how Vlad the Impailer is viewed within Romania - whether he’s viewed positively or negatively or a mixture - but regardless he was a historical figure and Stoker did eventually use that name for his own creative purposes. Again, Stoker didn’t say that Dracula and Vlad the Impailer were the same person, that’s other artists doing, but there’s still issues with Stoker that needs to be discussed)

Now, I’ve seen people talk about how Stoker took a lot of inspiration from the Baltic folklore surrounding vampires for his novel, but I don’t really know this folklore very well and therefore I don’t feel like I’m qualified to discuss it. If anyone is more well versed in this topic wants to add to this post then they’re more than welcome to! I don’t deny that Stoker too inspiration from places other than Ireland (like the novel is set in Whitby) but I just feel like people over hype the relation between stokers Dracula and Vlad the Impailer.

Now, onto the Irish mythology side!

So the most obvious inspiration for Dracula comes from the story of Abhartach. here is a link to an actual, respectable retelling of the story of Abhartach which I’d highly recommend people read (it’s really not that long) but the key points go as follows:

There was this Irish chieftain called Abhartach, who was really cruel and the townsfolk didn’t really like him. So, the townsfolk and another cheiftain (known as Cathain) banded together to kill Abhartach. They did succeed in killing him (yay), however, Abhartach just sort of...rose from the dead and began another reign of terror (not yay). However, Abhartach needed to be sustained by blood and required a bowlful every day to sustain his energy. Cathain comes back and kills Abhartach once again, but Abhartach rises from the dead once more and now needs more blood. Abhartach is only banished when Cathain uses a word made from yew wood and wounds Abhartach with it. Abhartach is buried upside down with a grant stone over the grave to stop Abhartach rising once again.

Sound familiar? The similarities between Abhartach and Dracula are undeniable! Yes, there’s some differences between the two but the core story here is almost identical. I could totally reword that paragraph, omitting the names, and it would be indistinguishable from a short summary of Dracula! Even the way that the main characters find out about the wooden weapon that can kill the monster is similar, as both Jonathan and Cathain go to wiser and older members of their community to learn more.

(Also please mythology blogs don’t come for me I know my retelling was an incredible oversimplification but I’m writing on my iPad and my thumbs are starting to hurt. People have wrote full papers on the similarities between Dracula and Abhartach and there’s so many more people more qualified than me, I’m just an 18 year old trying to make a fun and interesting tumblr post. Again, if anyone wants add anything like extra sources or more information or even to point out my mistakes then I more than welcome the additions)

Another piece of folklore that’s also said to have inspired Dracula is the Dearg Due. Now there’s multiple different versions of the tale, but the version I have heard goes like this:

There’s a noble woman who wants to marry a penniless peasant boy, but her dad disapproves and wants her to marry another man who is much richer. The rich man and the noble woman were eventually married but the woman didn’t love the rich man. In retaliation, the rich man locked the woman in a windowless castle where she starved to death. The woman was buried by the locals who took pity on her, but because she was buried hungry she came back to life and drank the blood of her father and her husband as revenge. The version I heard says that the dearg due now basically wanders ireland drinking the blood of men who have hurt or wronged women (as one should) but there’s other endings to the story.

(Again is anyone has a reliable source they want to share then please feel free to add!)

So this is another Irish piece of folklore that clearly includes some elements that we now associate with vampires. Now people (including Wikipedia) claim that this story was specifically what Stoker based Dracula on, and while I definitely think that Stoker was aware of this story and took inspiration from it, I personally think that the Dearg Due inspired the concept of Dracula’s wives more than Dracula himself.

However the key point still stands: Stoker was likely aware of these legends and even the most staunchly anti-Irish person would have to concede that there’s similarities between all three stories. And very rarely are these similarities discussed in classes about Dracula...which I feel is a real disservice. I don’t think students should have to have an intense knowledge of Irish mythology (my knowledge is spotty at best) nor do I think it should be an exam question...but even a brief acknowledgment of “hey, Stoker was inspired by these stories and you can clearly see similarities between them” would be nice. Moreover, it further solidifies my original argument that Stoker was, at least to some extent, Irish and that his Irishness inherently influenced his work.

Also...the social context of what was going on in Ireland in this period can’t be ignored! Again, while Stoker did spend time in both England and Romania, he spent a lot of his life in Ireland and therefore would have known what was going on in his own country.

Dracula was published in 1897, which is exactly 50 years after the worst year of the Irish Famine/ The Great Hunger/An Gorta Mór. Now I don’t have time to do a whole history of the Great Hunger but the effects of the famine were greatly exacerbated by the horrific mismanagement of Ireland by the British government and the British system of ruling in Ireland. How many people died during the famine isn’t clear, but we do know that the population of Ireland at the time was 8 million and the population today is 6 million...200 years later and we still haven’t recovered. So while we all like to joke about the fact that Stoker wrote about an unfeeling member of the aristocracy literally feeding off others with no remorse and basically ruining their lives...are we really going to pretend that there isn’t social commentary there? Scholars specifically think that Stoker was commenting on the absentee landlords (basically British aristocrats who owned land in Ireland but didn’t live there and as such didn’t care about the well being of their tenants) who would often have tenants forced off the land when they couldn’t pay rent...despite the fact that their tenenants were already starving and had no money because their only source of food and income failed.

(I’m not being shady by the way, I also love to joke about the social implications of Dracula, but I feel like people forget that the jokes have actual points behind them)

There was also a cholera epidemic in Ireland in 1832 which is generally accepted to be one of Stoker’s biggest inspirations. You can read more about the epidemic here if you wish, but I’ll summarise what I feel are the key points. Not only was Stoker’s mother from county Sligo and lived through this cholera epidemic, but Stoker also asked her to write down her memories of the epidemic and used her accounts to aid in his research of the cholera epidemic. Now the fact that he was actively researching this should indicate that it would influence his work, especially considering the situation in county Sligo was incredibly morbid. There’s accounts of the 20 carpenters in Sligo town being unable to make enough coffins to keep up with the amount of people dying, resulting in hundreds of dead bodies just lying on the street. However, the most horrific account from this epidemic was the stories of terrified nurses placing cholera patients into mass graves while they were still alive. Stoker himself literally stated that Dracula was “inspired by the idea of someone being buried before they were fully dead”. So while at first there seems to be very little relation between the novel and a medical epidemic, it quickly becomes clear that Stoker’s fascination with this historical event influenced his writing.

My overall point is that Stoker’s irishness inherently influenced his writing. Writers don’t write in their own little bubble, divorced from the world around them, their views and work are shaped by their position in society and their upbringing (it’s why I dislike death of the author as a literary theory). So when people try to claim that Dracula is a piece of British literature...it indicates either a lack of understanding of the context in which Stoker was writing in or a wilful ignorance founded on colonialist ideas. His influences are so obvious to me as an Irish woman but they rarely get discussed, and even if they are it’s seen as overreaching! To call Dracula British literature and to ignore the inherent Irishness of the novel does a great disservice to Stoker!

Anyways I really hope you enjoyed this discussion my love! Once again I apologise for how long this took to write. Also I’m sorry if this comes off as argumentative or anything, that absolutely wasn’t my intention, I just have a particular style of writing long posts haha.

[generallypo]

[   Constellation ’Director of the False Last Act’ is looking at you.   ]

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dark academia!hsy, yeeee! the white coat is fantastic, but unlike kdj and yjh, she doesn’t really switch up the color scheme. no, her bum-aesthetic purple hoodie does not count. i think she’s super hot. i yell about how much i love her under the cut.

------

yo han sooyoung is actually amazing, incredible, powerful, witty, drop-dead sexy... what makes her so irresistible? let me explain

1) yeah, kdj takes the kdj company to end of the scenarios, but please. how many times does he have to kill himself to get there? not to mention his intentional (and unintentional) kill count? 

sure, he does the job, but damn is he kind of inefficient about it. say what you like about hsy’s methods or personality, but the 1863rd round far surpasses the 1864th in terms of the lives preserved while still managing to take the team to the end.

without the benefit of cheat-like knowledge, skills, and resurrections, hsy almost single-handedly orchestrates the events of the 1863rd round to a satisfying finale. kmw, problematic as he is, survives and becomes an admittedly better person, yjh finds a timeline where he can rest in peace, and the rest of the cast have their eyes set on the hopeful end of all scenarios. all this, while only being HALF of a person (hsy originally split off into two after misusing her avatar ability). do her actions lead to the happiest ending? no. but it’s the one that sacrifices the least and saves the most. for the greater good, in other words. 

hsy may be an intrinsically selfish person, but unlike kdj, she has the ability to grasp the entire picture and avoid tunnel-visioning into a crappier, more convoluted and self-sacrificial solution. ironically, it ends up saving more lives. perks of being a talented writer, i guess. 

and the 1864th hsy emerges as a leader in her own right as well. the epilogue arc shows her assuming roughly the same role as her 1863rd self in kdj’s absence: yjh breaks off from the main group (AND BECOMES A TERRORIST AKFDJDSLKSL HAHAHA) to assume a similarly antagonistic role to the remaining members of kdj company. as a result, she’s the most powerful lawful incarnation remaining, and once more the incarnations circle around her for direction.

2) independent, confident, competent (hot and kinda shameless about it). this woman has the most delightfully unrepentant attitude towards life -- how to defeat the man with the strongest defensive ability without dealing a single blow? summon a horde of your naked dancing clones to terrify his innocent sensibilities, and then cackle at his helplessness. the fact that her sponsor is literally the chuuni-est cringefest in the entire galaxy and she gives no fucks about him is just additional comedic gold. her undisguised disgust for what should otherwise be a highly respected/feared entity is a clear indicator of her supremely dominant position over everyone else, and i admire her consistent irreverence of everyone and everything.

hsy is the only character who can consistently bully kdj, brush off his deflections, and bully him again. 1863rd round hsy gives kdj about 50 migraines in the span of 5 minutes of conversation before confirming her superior wit. jhw comes close, but unfortunately, she actually respects the rat bastard. i wish i could mention yjh, but let’s be real: he -- and just about every existing version of him -- has been whipped for the guy for at least 250+ chapters now. 

hsy, on the other hand, has no regard for anything except herself... man, i respect that so much. what a queen. 

and i won’t lie! i didn’t like her in the first fifty or so chapters. plagiarism? homicide? kind-of-in-general-just-being-an-obstacle-to-kdj’s-plans? yeah, i almost fell into the trap of disliking her purely because she didn’t cave immediately in the grand scheme of kdj’s plotting -- thereby denying me the power rush that came with seeing kdj bulldoze his way through the puny attempts of small fry characters. she’s neither a friend nor a despicable foe, but rather someone who acts independently and in her own self-interest, WITH the ability to thwart major players if need be. aka, the one who frustrated kdj’s plans -- and me -- the most. 

going by my previous isekai/power-fantasy trope experience, i figured she’d get pegged into the sexy-but-sassy harem candidate, or get killed off if that didn’t work out. in hindsight, i’m just pretty fucking dumb, but honestly, i can accept that with gratitude -- 

-- because in fact. the whole ‘she-gets-in-my-way-so-she-either-goes-into-the-harem-or-dies’ trope in light novels/webnovels and the like, is, frankly, misogynistic and boring as hell. i had some admittedly low expectations for ORV, which consequently blasted my ass to the moon and left me there sobbing for 42 years as i mourned my stupidity and paid my respects to its incredible ending and character development. hsy is a particular delight, especially in her meta awareness of these tropes -- blatantly stating she isn’t obligated to kdj for saving her life and declaring the damsel-in-distress cliche as ridiculous, for example. 

and it really is, because suspension bridge effect aside, you’re not gonna want to bang a total shady stranger in the middle of the apocalypse. it’s the little statements of self-awareness, self-worth, and frankness that build up hsy’s charm. as ORV progresses, these little windows of her personality bloom as her presence takes stage center -- and then BAM! you really get to know how strong she is, how hugely capable of love she is, how subtly but wonderfully she expresses it, how she leads and protects those close to her, and how damn good she is at it. hsy is amazing. we stan an iconic queen -- no, black flameS EMPRESS. *kneeling*.

3) writes an entire EPIC, just to keep one lonely, broken fifteen-year-old alive. like. at that point in ORV, i knew. i knew. hsy is the fucking GOAT. seeing her spend the rest of her life on WOS, making sure it reaches completion because it’s the only thing that will sustain kdj until the advent of the scenarios... that hits too hard. inadvertently, it also damns the rest of the world to the terror and tragedy that the star stream brings.. but that’s the call she makes in order to save kdj’s life. 

obviously, there’s no precise beginning to the timelines -- ORV is so neatly crafted in its cycle of writer, protagonist, and reader -- but i’d have to argue that hsy holds the greatest power in the trinity. creating the existence known as ‘yoo joonghyuk’ and granting life-changing hope to an otherwise forgotten boy.. is pretty powerful. yjh, for the most part, is a slave to the scenarios (until he breaks free in the 1863rd and 1864th rounds, in particular), while kdj (unwittingly) admits it himself: he’s truly the most powerless god in existence. i forget exactly where he mentions it, but it’s in response to lgy’s reverent commentary that, with all his knowledge and presumed confidence, kdj seems like the protagonist of story or a god to him. kdj’s inner monologue, of course, is appropriately self-deprecating and scarily accurate.

in a lot of ways, WOS -- and ORV itself, really -- is a love letter to readers. it’s a two-way connection, writer and reader, between someone who creates with all their passions and someone who consumes and responds with equally sincere feelings. Ways Of Survival -- the story of a man who defied death and grief and great powers far beyond his being -- is a fictional guide to surviving in a ruined world. but to a battered, bullied, and ostracized boy, it’s not just escapism, or wish fulfilment anymore. WOS is the map to navigating the hell of his reality. there’s a certain power in the right words being spoken -- or in this case, written -- at the right time, even if it’s only for the temporary burst of endorphins upon reading an especially delightful chapter. even if it’s forgotten the next day, you’ve managed to connect. you’ve touched another person’s heart. you made them think about questions they’ve never considered before; maybe, you made them smile. 

what can i say but the honest truth? ORV, without a shadow of doubt, has most certainly reached me. i’m a goner for this story and its excellent characters -- long, long gone. something has changed, something that wasn’t there the previous day. 

the mark has been made on the reader -- small as it is, it’s irrevocable. behold, in all of its little magnificence: the power of a writer, and their story.

[biomedmillie]

University tips for Freshers from a final-year student

1. Don’t study the course material the summer before the course start date

I’ve known so many well intentioned students to do this (including myself!), but it is a fruitless enterprise that ends up wasting precious relaxation time. For a start, lecturers and course coordinators are constantly changing the material that ends up on the exam year upon year, and so in most instances students end up studying subjects with little or no current relevance for the course they are about to embark upon. Furthermore, course prospectus’ are infamously vague, and on more than one occasion I have studied material based upon the course plan that has no relevance whatsoever! University is stressful no matter what year you are entering, and as a first year you may be facing many other new experiences, such as living on your own, being independent and self-sustaining, that bring challenges and difficulties of their own. So don’t spend the summer stressing; use it as a reset point to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed upon that first week of university, so you can face up to those changes! If you want to be proactive but not waste your time, I suggest looking at the reading lists for each course, and lightly looking over any topics that peak your interest. From my experience, reading lists are much less likely to change year to year, and can provide interesting background information for your course- but keep the stress to a minimum!

2. Try not to party too much in Fresher’s week!

This one is so tempting to do, but there’s a few reasons why this isn’t a good idea! First off, fresher’s weeks or ‘Fresher’s festivals’ are often very overpriced and aimed at getting naive students to spend as much of that new student loan as they can before they realise how expensive food shopping and laundry is (tip; it can get very pricey!). Also, in most universities, and definitely in my case, important orientation lectures are held where attendance is mandatory on that first week of term, and it is vital you attend. In the case of science students such as myself, this includes proper usage of microscopes, lab safety protocols, grading schemes and how markings work, your tutorial assignment and can even be work due the next week! I know you might be thinking ‘I’ve heard all this in A-levels’, but universities operate to a different calibration entirely; marking is ranked on percentages rather than a curve, there are no As and Bs, and lab protocols are ALOT stricter. You are working in a higher academic environment, and as such higher academic conduct is expected of you! And this does not just apply to science students; those studying classical subjects will have specific referencing lessons (science students also have this, but only use the Harvard format), new academic writing styles, research methods etc. With all this important information, you don’t want to be hungover or worse miss the orientation and start off on the wrong foot. But if you’re worrying that not going out every night will mean you won’t make friends, don’t fret; most students, including myself, made friends with those on their course after a few months, or through living arrangements. Freshers is by no means your only chance to make friends, there are plenty of opportunities at university to do that, and after a couple of weeks you’ll find great mates!

3. Wait a bit before buying all those expensive textbooks

I’ve been guilty of this, every single year! The fact is, you don’t need every single item on the reading list, and this can even rack up to hundreds of pounds! You can find out which books you might need to buy in the first few weeks of your course, depending on library availability, how much your lecturer relies on the text for course support and content, and your personal ability in the course. Books that are in high demand at the library and the ones you can never seem to get hold off you may need to pay for, but if the book is available the majority of the time you can often rent for weeks on end, and just renew the rent when the time is up. In that case, there is no reason to buy your own copy if the library has enough to sustain demand. In the case of course content and lecturers, the reliance on the textbooks recommended varies greatly; in one course the textbook didn’t feel necessary whatsoever, in another it was a great supporting body that followed the course accurately, and other times the lecturers had used the entire information within the textbook AS their lecture content. It is only when the textbook can be utilised as supporting information that it can elevate your study, otherwise it can be irrelevant or the exact information you just heard in your lecture. Get used to each teaching style in those first few weeks, and make an informed decision whether the information required by the textbook is already fulfilled, irrelevant or would prove to be an excellent resource. Furthermore, textbooks are dense in information, but lacking in higher qualities of information that can push your grade into those top marks, so adjust your need for the textbook according to ability. If you are excelling at a certain course, the information a textbook can provide will be too basic and I would encourage you to push yourself to reading academic journals and papers to earn those top-tier marks. However, if you are really struggling with a course, stick to the basics and give a good thorough read of the textbook; it is unlikely you will understand those higher materials without at least understanding the basics, and you can still get a good grade without reading those complex sources. Both of these scenarios occurred to me in second-year; I bought textbooks for both microbiology and molecular biology, and while I found my microbiology textbook too basic and looked to higher scientific journals, the molecular biology textbook turned out to be a godsend! Everyone has different natural abilities, so I suggest to adjust your study to those needs, and your wallet will thank you in the process!

4. Find a method of note-taking that works FOR YOU

I’ve seen so many peers struggling because they just haven’t found the right form of note-taking for them, and instead follow a method that most do which I highly discourage! The method in question is where the student preemptively downloads the lecture PowerPoint, and makes notes in the space below of details the lecturer may mention. Now, this method works great if you are really on top of your note-taking and have a lot of extra time, but there’s a few reasons why I don’t recommend it. First off, by only making notes on those specific details students often miss the main body of text that acts as the core material, and as such must complete this mass of information at a later date. From my experience, students don’t have the time to do this and as such the material never becomes completed, leaving notes weeks or even months behind. Another method is handwriting. EVERYTHING. While I do agree that you remember more when you are handwriting notes (because it takes longer), this is way too time consuming and results in the same backlog of the previous methods, where your notes are always constantly behind on the lecture material. What I would recommend is a note methodology that incorporates both handwriting and typing up lecture notes, in a way that is not time-consuming. My own personal method utilises a Cornell template, whereby I copy and paste or type up the main body of text from the lecture the night before, and handwrite details of what the lecturer is saying in the columns. If you have the extra time, try reading through the lecture the night before also, and thinking of questions you have for the lecturer about any information you don’t understand. There are multiple iterations of this that I’ve seen, such as using post-its or writing on typed lecture notes, but all the most efficient in terms of time and memory utilise both typing and handwriting. That way you avoid that nasty note backlog, and can experiment with structures and templates that work with your study style. So don’t follow the crowd, and find a method that works best for you!

5. Have Fun!

University is a life-altering experience where most find their independence, and make friends for life. Whilst you should study hard and invest in your future, I wish I had told myself to go easier in my first year; you can still get a First whilst having fun, and you’re only going to have this period of your life for a few short years before you enter the world of work, so enjoy it! Study should never be your entire life, and those rest days are just as important, so try not to overdo your first year and just focus on enjoying that university experience; you’ll have plenty of time for study and stress in those second and third years! (Trust me...)

Note from the author: I hope this article helped to quell some of those fresher nerves, and gives advice I wish I had known in my first year! Comment below if you’re a second or third year with your advice for freshers, and new students feel free to comment with your hopes for the new academic year! I wish you love and luck!