#the name of this main character has now been changed and I am currently also wondering if the old title “Liebeslied” should be changed too | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

animesmolbean · 5 months ago

Text

Words Hold Power

An “The Umbrella Academy” fanfiction

Five x Reader

(Female)

Author's Note: Welcome to my The Umbrella Academy fanfiction! I'm so excited to share this story with you all! TUA is my favorite Netflix show! I'm very sad to see it's in its final season, but all great shows come to an end! But at least we'll get to rewatch it over and over again, lol.

Speaking of which, please, no spoilers for S4 since I have not watched it yet. I'll let you guys know where I am in S4 in coming posts.

With that said, I just wanted to tell you guys this. There was one hesitation I had with writing this story. Handling Viktor's character. I know about the journey of this character and Elliot Page's journey as well. I know about the transition, and I wanted to tell you how I planned on approaching this.

I did research on this topic and wanted to be sure I was handling it correctly. I researched how I should write transgender characters and their journeys throughout the story.

I also read other TUA fanfictions for research to see how other authors handle it, and like the research, it's a mixed bag. Some use Viktor only, and some show the name change.

After researching, I decided on an approach.

I will follow what the show does and show the transition story Viktor has. I chose this because I believe it's a beautiful journey, and the show does a great job handling the topic.

One last thing, all the main characters (The Hargreeves siblings) are aged up a little.

With all that said, I hope you enjoy the first chapter! ♥️

~Character Info~

Reader's ability is cursed speech. She can make anyone do what she says with only a few words. It's similar to Allison's, except she doesn't need to say certain words first like her, and her ability is much more powerful. To the point where she has to be extremely careful about what she says.

(As you can tell, this was inspired by the anime character, Toge Inumaki from Jujutsu Kaisen.)

Chapter 1: We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals (Family Reunion)

On the twelfth hour of the first day of October 1985, forty-three women around the world gave birth.

This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women have been pregnant when the day first began.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.

He got eight of them.

Many years later, the kids grew up and went on with their lives as adults.

There was Number One, aka Luther Hargreeves. Big, strong and was currently on the moon, studying and preparing for whatever his mission was.

There was Number Two, aka Diego Hargreeves. Impulsive, brave and works as a vigilante of sorts.

There was Number Three, aka Allison Hargreeves. Famous actress who was currently on the red carpet in front of paparazzi.

There was Number Four, aka Klaus. A lazy, free-spirited soul who is currently leaving rehab and using the money he got from the rehab to buy drugs. He ended up in the back of an ambulance.

And, there was Number Seven, aka Vanya Hargreeves. She was quiet, timid, and was currently leaving the theater after practicing her violin.

However, their lives would change forever with one broadcast.

Their father was now dead.

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

☂

Vanya rode a taxi to her childhood home. A place she lived for many years.

The Umbrella Academy.

A tall condo-like building with a black gate.

Vanya approached the building and opened the doors, whose windows were decorated by umbrellas.

The foyer was fancy still. The middle was open with a chandelier hanging above a small round table in the middle. Tall, smooth white beams holding the sides which held the second floor. A staircase that leads to that second floor was behind the small round table.

It was just as Vayna remembered it. Every little detail was still there.

“Hey, Mom.”

Vanya called to the woman in the living room. Said woman sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace, which currently had a fire going. She stayed still as she stared into the dancing flames.

“Mom?”

“Vanya?”

A familiar voice turned Vanya’s attention elsewhere.

“You're actually here.”

She turned and saw her sister, Allison coming down the stairs.

“Hey, Allison.”

“Hey sis.”

Allison now stood before her sister. She chuckled and brought the other girl into a hug, which Vanya quietly but graciously returned.

“Ah. What is she doing here?”

A new voice spoke through the quiet foyer.

“You don't belong here. Not after what you did.”

It was Diego.

“You're seriously gonna do this today?” Allison spoke up, her tone telling that she wasn't in the mood for the male's attitude.

“Way to dress for the occasion, by the way.” She added, mocking Diego’s attire as he ascended the stairs. He was still in his “hero” gear; knives and everything.

“At least I'm wearing black.” Diego shot back nonchalantly as he turned left on the stairs, disappearing from the girls’ views.

Vanya, now uncomfortable, spoke up quietly, “You know what? I- Maybe he's right. And I shouldn't-”

“Forget about him.” Allison interrupted her. “I'm glad you're here.” She spoke softly. Vanya’s lips quirked up a little at Allison's words. The sisters shared a moment of silence.

☂

Diego arrived at his late father's room, to see Luther there checking the windows. He leaned against the doorframe.

“I can save you some time. They're all locked. No forced entry, no sign of struggle. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

As he spoke, he walked over to Luther who was also walking towards him.

“Oh, you got big, Luther. What's the secret, huh? Protein shakes? Low carbs?” Diego asked mockingly.

“What do you want?” Luther asked, not wanting to deal with Diego's attitude.

Diego reached into his pocket and pulled out a few folded pieces of paper, handing them to Luther. “The autopsy report.”

After he teasingly tried to pull them away from Luther, the latter brother snatched them out of his hand.

“And you have this, why?” Luther asked.

“Well, that's because I… broke into the coroner's office.” Diego explained as he sat down in an armchair. “And surprise, surprise, Dad's death was… normal. Just a boring, old heart failure.”

“Yeah, so?” Luther looked at Diego.

“So, why are you in here, checking all the windows?”

“Were you the first one on the scene?” Luther asked.

“Pogo found him.” Diego answered.

“Yeah, I talked with Pogo. He said he couldn't find Dad's monocle.”

“And your point being?” Diego asked in a bored tone.

“Can you think of a single time you saw Dad and he wasn't wearing that monocle? No. Which means someone took it. Which means there's a chance he wasn't alone when he died.”

Diego sat up from the armchair. “There is no mystery here. Nothing to avenge. Nothing to solve, nothing like that. It's just a sad old man who kicked it in a big empty house. Just like he deserved.”

“You should leave.” Lither spoke, not liking Diego's tone with that last sentence he spoke.

“Whatever you say, brother.” Diego said in a mocking tone as he turned to leave. Before he did, he turned back to Luther. “By the way, did you visit (Your Name) yet?”

Luther shook his head. “No. I was about to, actually.”

“You know where she is.” Diego simply said.

☂

Vanya entered the living room, looking around at the interior. She spotted a comic and new articles on their group, The Umbrella Academy. She looked at the bookshelves and pulled out one book in particular.

The title read, “Extra Ordinary My Life as Number Seven”

It was her autobiography book. The one she wrote when she left the academy.

She observed it solemnly until a voice spoke out.

“Welcome home, Ms. Vanya.”

She turned and saw Pogo, a human sized monkey dressed formally with a cane and glasses.

Vanya walked over to him and hugged him. Pogo hugged back with a hum. “So good to see you.” He noticed the book in her hand. “Ah, yes, your autobiography.”

“Do you know, um…” Vanya paused before continuing. “Did he ever read it?”

Pogo thought for a moment before replying, “Not that I'm aware of.”

Vanya turned her attention to the portrait above the fireplace. It showed a boy, around seventeen in age, sitting with a neutral but sophisticated look on his face.

“How long has it been since Five disappeared?” She asked.

Pogo turned to look at the portrait too. “It's been sixteen years, four months, and fourteen days.” The two looked at each other. “Your father insisted I keep track.”

“And… how long has (Your Name) been in that coma?”

“Sixteen years, four months, and six days.” Pogo replied.

“You wanna know something stupid? I always used to leave the lights on for him. I was scared that he would come back, it would be late, and the house would be dark and he wouldn't be able to find us, so he'd leave again. And he would take (Your Name) with him. So, every night I'd make a little snack and make sure all the lights were on.”

Pogo nodded. “Oh, I remember your snacks. I'm pretty sure I stepped in half those peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches, and those (Favorite type of Cookie) cookies.” He sighed a couple times before he spoke again, “Your father always believed that Number Five was still out there somewhere. He also believed that one day (Your Name) would wake up. He never lost hope.”

“And look where that got him.” Vanya said solemnly.

☂

Allison went up to her late father's study, looking around the area. The familiarity of it brought up a memory.

〰️

Reginald Hargreeves was working in his office, as usual, when Grace knocked on the door. She entered before closing the door.

“The children are ready for bed, sir. They wanted to say goodnight.”

She turned and walked a couple of paces and opened the sliding door.

On the other side revealed the eight children, all wearing matching pajamas. Allison was in the center while the others surrounded her. Little (Your Name) stood between her and Five, a black cloth face mask covering her mouth and nose.

The children were all smiling as they waited for their father to acknowledge them. But he was so into his work that he didn't even glance up at them.

Sensing the awkwardness, Grace quickly dismissed the kids. The kids, of course, were disappointed but not surprised. As they left slowly, (Your Name) tugged on Allison's sleeve, silently asking her to come.

“I'll be there in a minute (Your Name).” The girl whispered. (Your Name) tilted her head to the side. Allison spoke again, “Why don't you go hang out with Five for a bit before bed? I know you planned on it.” She gave the masked girl a small smile. (Your Name) felt her cheeks warm up, but she nodded, leaving and quietly walking over to Five. The boy saw her coming and, with a nod of his head, gestured to her to follow him. (Your Name) nodded and started to walk beside him. As she did, she heard Allison,

“He's always busy.”

〰️

“Where's the cash, Dad?”

The sound of a voice diverted Allison's attention and she walked over to her father's desk, hearing clamoring noises. She leaned forward to look to see who was over there.

“Klaus? What are you doing in here?” She asked.

Said boy looked up and gasped at the sight of his sister. “Oh! Allison! Wow, is that you?” He asked as he stood up. He embraced her slowly; Allison slowly returned the hug. “Long time. Too long.” He pulled away. “Hey, I was hoping to see you, actually, because I wanted to get your autograph. Add it to my collection!” He planted his chin onto his hands.

Allison let her brother act because it was how he always behaved when she noticed the white paper bracelet on his left wrist. “Just out of rehab?” She asked.

“No, no. No, no, no, no. No. I'm done with all of that.” Klaus replied with a sigh as he removed the bracelet. “I just came down here to prove to myself that the old man was really gone.” He smiled. “And he is! He's dead. Yeah!” He clapped, making Allison smile a little, shaking her head a bit.

“You know how I know? Because if he were alive, not one of us would be allowed to set foot in this room.” Allison silently agreed with Klaus.

“He was always in here, our whole childhood, plotting his next torment, right?” He said with a chuckle as he sat in the armchair behind the desk, putting his feet on the desk. “Remember how he used to look at us? That scowl?” He pointed to the man's portrait onto the wall behind him. “Thank Christ, he's not our real father, so we couldn't inherit those cold, dead eyes!” He stretched his eyelids to show more of his eyeballs. He fake screams, making Allison chuckle a little as Klaus started to dramatically imitate their late father.

“Get out of his chair.”

Klaus turned his head and saw Luther standing by the doorway. “Oh, wow, Luther! Wow, you really, uh… You really filled out over the years, huh?” Klaus said as he stood and flexed his arm muscles.

“Klaus.” Luther warned.

“Save the lecture. I was already leaving. You guys can talk amongst yourselves. I am going to visit (Your Name). Oh! The precious little sister of ours.” He chuckled softly. Before he could leave though, Luther stopped him. “Drop it.”

“Ex-squeeze me?” Klaus said.

“Do it. Now.” Luther ordered.

Klaus pulled his arm away from Luther and went back to the desk and started to empty out his pockets, which held a few of his late father's belongings. “It's just an advance on our inheritance! That's all it is!” Allison chuckled silently at her brother. “No need to get your little panties in a bunch.” With that, Klaus left, closing the door; leaving Luther and Allison alone in the room.

“So, Klaus is still Klaus, in case you are wondering.” Luther started.

“You know, after all these years, I find it strangely comforting.” Allison stated.

“Did you see Diego?” Luther asked.

“With his stupid outfit?” Allison added in amusement.

“Oh, I know. Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom?” Lauther asked.

“Like in the shower?” Allison asked for confirmation.

“Yeah.” Luther confirmed.

“Yes, absolutely!” Allison laughed.

The two went on to talk about how their lives are going now that they are adults. Luther was the only one to stay while the rest went their separate ways. Their conversation ended talking about Allison's family and her powers.

〰️

A little later, everyone congregated in the living room. The fire was still going in the fireplace as everyone sat in silence.

Luther started talking about doing a memorial service for their late father. Some like Allison were mostly confused by this or making fun of it like Klaus.

“Is that my skirt?” Allison asked, noticing Klaus wearing a skirt now.

“Oh, yeah this. I found it in your room. It's a little dated, I know, but it's very breathy on the bits.”

Luther stopped Klaus before he could go further and started to talk about their father's death. He had a theory that he didn't die simply of heart failure. He recounted how he was acting suspicious and requested Klaus to try to communicate with him. Klaus was not interested.

“I can't just call Dad into the afterlife and be like, “Dad, could you just stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?”

“Since when? That's your thing.” Luther said.

“I'm not in the right… frame of mind.”

“You're high?” Allison asked, not surprised.

“Yeah! Yeah!” Klaus laughed. “I mean, how are you not listening to this nonsense?”

“Well, sober up, this is important.” Luther said.

Klaus only sighed.

When Luther started talking about the missing monocle, Diego concluded that Luther was suspicious of all of them, saying that Luther thought one of them killed their dad. This caused everyone to get upset. Diego insulted Luther's leadership, Klaus got up and jokingly said that he might as well go murder their Mom and (Your Name), unless she was already dead. Vanya left in silence and. Allison left in silence as well. Luther tried to defend himself, but it was too late.

They weren't always like this. When they were kids, they were tight knit.

〰️

17 YEARS AGO

“This is Jim Hellerman, reporting live for Channel 2 News outside of the Capital West Bank at Main and Sixth. A group of heavily armed men stormed the bank not three hours ago and took an unknown number of hostages.”

The armed men surveyed the bank as they pointed their guns at the bound up hostages and pushed them behind the counter as they proceeded with the robbery.

Unexpectedly, a girl with curly black hair, in a school uniform and mask, walked casually to one of the robbers.

It was Allison.

“Hey, get back with the others.” The robber ordered the girl.

“I heard a rumor.” Allison spoke.

“What? What did you say?”

Allison leaned forward and used her ability, “I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot.”

The robber pointed his gun at one of his partners and promptly shot him in the foot, knocking him down. The hostages screamed at the sound of the gun.

Suddenly, someone, dressed in a boy's school uniform with a mask came crashing down from a window above and landed behind the counter. It was Luther. He punched one robber and threw him out the window with surprising strength.

Then, another kid dressed like Luther came from the other side of the bank. “Guns are for sissies. Real men throw knives.” He threw two long knives at one of the robbers only for them to redirect to another robber and immediately killed him.

There were now only two robbers left in the lobby.

One of them climbed onto the desk and pointed his gun shakily at the three kids. “Get back, you freaks.”

“Hey, be careful up there, buddy.” Diego, the knife throwing kid taunted.

“Get back now!”

“Wouldn't want you to get hurt.” Allison taunted as well.

“Or what?”

A fourth kid appeared seemingly out of nowhere, sitting criss cross on the desk. A taunting smirk on his face. This was Number Five.

The robber shot at Five, but he disappeared and reappeared on the other side. When the robber turned around and tried to shoot him again, he suddenly realized that he was not holding a gun.

“Ooh! That's one badass stapler!” Five taunted before smacking the guy's hand holding the stapler into his head. This knocked the robber over.

All they had to do now was get rid of the robbers in the vault.

Or so they thought.

There was one more.

He loaded his fun and his gun cocked, catching the kids off guard.

“Down you freaks!” He yelled.

Suddenly, running from a hidden place behind a wall was a fifth kid, dressed like Allison, as she pulled down her face mask. She directed her attention to the robber.

“Explode!”

The single word echoed loudly through the bank, and just before the guy could turn his gun to the girl, his body suddenly exploded, body parts, guts, and blood spreading out everywhere. The hostages screamed in fear. The girl quickly covered her face again, breathing heavily as she ran to her siblings.

She gestured to all of them. They couldn't see much of her face, but they could tell she was worried by the look in her eyes.

“We're okay. Thanks (Your Name).” Allison said.

(Your Name) hummed, nodding as she walked over to behind the desk with the others, while two more kids dressed like the rest of the boys joined them. Five looked at her. “That was pretty badass. Good work.” He complimented, giving her a smile. (Your Name) felt her cheeks warm up a little, and she tilted her head a bit and closed her eyes. Most people wouldn't be able to tell her expression behind the mask, but Five knew she was smiling at him in thanks.

“Do we really have to do this?” A meek voice asked.

“Come on, Ben. There's more guys in the vault.” Luther told the boy.

Ben sighed as he walked to the vault door. “I didn't sign up for this.”

He entered as the hostages all ran for their lives out of the bank. Inside the vault, the last of the robbers were eyeing slaughtered by Ben's ability. He screeched and roared as his tentacles ripped them apart and threw them against the walls. Blood splattered all over the windows.

Once it was quiet, Ben came out, covered in blood. “Can we go home now?” He asked, his breathing shaky.

It was time to leave.

The seven kids started walking towards the entrance of the bank. (Your Name) pulled out a small vial and turned the cap. She pulled the bottom part of her mask up and put the bottle to her lips. She tilted her head back and started swallowing the liquid. She finished it and placed the empty bottle back in her pocket.

“Are you feeling okay?”

Five's voice made (Your Name) turn to him. She nodded and hummed in thanks. Five offered his arm to her. “Ready?” He asked. The girl nodded again, and she hooked her arm with Five's. Five smiled at her, and they started walking after their siblings.

The seven kids emerged from the back as the news reporters pointed their cameras at the group, and they all clamored to try to talk to them.

Above on the top of a building nearby, stood Reginald Hargreeves, observing the other kids with a mini telescope. An eighth kid, dressed like Allison and (Your Name), minus the mask, stood next to him.

“Why can't I go play with the others?” The girl asked.

“We've been through this before, Number Seven. I'm afraid there's just nothing special about you.” Reginald said as he lowered his telescope.

The girl looked down. “Oh.”

Eventually, Reginald came down to stand with the children.

“Our world is changing. Has changed. There are some among us gifted with abilities far beyond the ordinary. I have adopted seven such children.”

‘You mean eight.’ (Your Name) thought to herself as she looked down temporarily, her arm still linked with Five's.

“I give you the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy.”

Many news reporters asked many questions.

“What happened to their parents?” One asked.

“They were suitably compensated.” Reginald replied.

“Are you concerned about the welfare of the children?” Another asked.

“Of course. As I am for the fate of the world.” Reginald said.

〰️

☂

Everyone was in separate rooms, having their alone time after the little dispute from earlier. Klaus was still in the living room, trying to talk to their late father but he ended up knocking the vase filled with his ashes over.

Luther was walking through the hallways, reminiscing until he got to his room.

Allison was looking through her belongings until she found a gold heart locket with ‘A+L’ carved onto the front.

Klaus took the vase into the kitchen where he proceeded to take more pills.

Diego laid on the couch in the living room, playing with one of his knives.

Vanya sat on the stairs, a solemn look on her face.

Luther eventually found a familiar record and played it on the record player.

“I Think We're Alone Now” by Tiffany started to play.

Everyone heard the familiar tune all throughout the house and they all started to dance in their respective rooms.

Childhood nostalgia ran through their bodies as they all danced like no one was watching. Even Pogo moved a little to the beat.

But suddenly, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed.

The music stopped as the house reacted to the violent disturbance.

The siblings all ran to the courtyard and saw a giant hole, surrounded by blue lightning.

“What is it?” Vanya asked.

“Don't get too close!” Allison warned.

“Yeah, no shit.” Diego said.

“Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly. Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two.

“Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan.” Diego insulted.

“Out of the way!” Klaus exclaimed as he came out with a fire extinguisher and tried to spray it but it was out of steam. So, he just threw it at the mysterious anomaly only for it to get sucked in.

“What is that gonna do?” Allison asked.

“I don't know. Do you have a better idea?” Klaus asked.

The anomaly got stronger and Luther ushered everyone behind him to protect them. Klaus wanted to run. Luther and Allison held hands.

The electrical crackling intensified and someone emerged from the anomaly, arms out. It disappeared and the person fell out of the sky and landed on the ground. The sky cleared up as the siblings walked towards the person, who stood up. He was dressed in a suit way too big for him.

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?” Klaus asked.

The boy known as Five looked at himself then back at the siblings.

“Shit.”

☂

The six were now in the kitchen. Five was busy making a sandwich while the others watched in shock.

“What's the date? The exact date.” Five asked.

“The 24th.” Vanya replied.

“Of what?”

“March.”

“Good.”

Luther spoke up. “So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?”

Five didn't reply. He just continued with making his sandwich.

Silence fell for a couple of seconds until Luther stood up. “It's been seventeen years.”

Five scoffed. “It's been a lot longer than that.” He blinked over to the cabinet.

“I haven't missed that.” Luther muttered.

“Where'd you go?” Diego asked.

“The future. It's shit, by the way.” Five replied as he blinked back to the table.

“Called it.” Klaus said.

“I should've listened to the old man. You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice.” Five looked up at the siblings. “Nice dress.” He told Klaus.

“Oh, well, danke!” Klaus said, playing with the article of clothing.

“Wait, how did you get back?” Vanya asked.

“In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time.” Five explained.

“That makes no sense.” Diego spoke up.

“Well, it would if you were smarter.” Five sasses.

Diego stood up to confront the boy but Luther stopped him, holding him back.

“How long were you there?” He asked.

“Forty-one years. Give or take.”

Luther and Diego sat back down. “So what are you saying? That you're fifty-eight?” The former asked.

Five looked at Luther. “No, my consciousness is fifty-eight.” He finished his sandwich. “Apparently, my body is now seventeen again.”

“Wait, how does that even work?” Vanya asked.

“Delores kept saying the equations were off. Eh.” Five took a bite out of his sandwich. “Bet she's laughing now.”

Vanya was confused. “Delores?”

Five ignored her and looked at the newspaper that told him about Reginald Hargreeves’ death. “Guess I missed the funeral.”

“How'd you know about that?” Luther asked.

“What part of the future do you not understand?” Five asked. “Heart failure, huh?”

“Yeah.” “No.” Diego and Luther said together.

Five hummed before clicking his tongue. “Nice to see nothing's changed.” Then, he got a good look at his siblings again. He realized that one was missing. “By the way, where's (Your Name)?”

The other five siblings looked at each other, solemn expressions on their faces now. “Well…” Vanya started. “There isn't an easy way to say this.” Allison said. “She's in a coma.” “She's dead.” Klaus and Diego finished. “Diego!” Allison scolded.

Five looked at his siblings, a subtle look of worry on his face, but on the inside, his heart was beating faster. “What happened?”

“Well…. like I said… this isn't easy to say.” As Allison tried to explain, they suddenly heard soft footsteps approaching the kitchen. They slowly turned their heads and what they saw shook them to the core.

There stood…

(Your Name).

Klaus yelled in surprise.

“Holy shit.” Diego said.

Everyone else looked in surprise.

(Your Name) was alive.

#the umbrella academy #tua #tua season one #five hargreeves #five hargreaves x reader #five hargreaves x you #five x reader #five x y/n #five x you #tua five #tua fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #x reader #x y/n #x female reader #x fem!reader #x female y/n

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y2klostandfound · 7 months ago

Text

Yoshinaga Takumi (Game Design Director and Scenario Writer), Moro Mayumi (Designer and Modeling Team Leader) and Yumiko Miyabe (Art Director) Interview about Space Channel 5 on 4Gamer.net (11/11/2022)

Translation in English:

An interview to celebrate the second anniversary of the "Space Channel 5 Uki Uki Music Festival Online". The two designers look back on the secret behind the birth of Ulala and the Morolians.

Writer: Tetsuya Inamoto / Photographer: Yusuke Masuda

Two years have passed since the online event "Space Channel 5 Uki Uki Music Festival Online" was held on November 13, 2020. The event was held to commemorate the "20th anniversary" of the musical action game "Space Channel 5"

(hereinafter referred to as SC5), which was released for the Dreamcast in 1999 , and the release of "Space Channel 5 VR Aratakata☆Dancing Show (Space Channel 5 VR Kinda Funky News Flash)" (PC / PlayStation 4 / Meta Quest , hereinafter referred to as SC5 VR) in February 2020. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, the original plan was changed to an online live performance without an audience. It has been decided that the live goods that were scheduled to be sold before and after the event will finally be sold online from this fall.

I am prepared for comments like "Now?" and "I forgot!", but this is a rare opportunity to deliver an article related to SC5. So, following the developer talk to commemorate the "almost 20th anniversary" delivered by 4Gamer in 2020, I offered to interview the design development team of the game who were not involved in the talk, and they kindly accepted. I immediately gathered two people.

Appearing this time will be Yumiko Miyabe, the art director for SC5, and Moro Mayumi , the designer. Miyabe, the "mother of Ulala," and Moro, the "mother of the Morolians," are in charge of not only the characters, but also the world view and background construction. They have kept many of the art pieces they worked on during development, and this time they looked at them and talked about those times. Also, Takumi Yoshinaga of Sega, who was the chief planner at the beginning of development and also participated as an advisor in SC5 VR, joined us to supplement the topics related to the development.

Takumi Yoshinaga (left)

Game design director and scenario writer for Space Channel 5. He is the father of SC5, having launched the project with director Takashi Yuda and been mainly responsible for game design. He is still with Sega and is involved in the development of the Puyo Puyo series, as well as working as a story and game design advisor for Space Channel 5 VR: Arakata☆Dancing Show (Space Channel 5 VR Kinda Funky News Flash), developed and released by Grounding.

Moro Mayumi (center)

Designer and modeling team leader for Space Channel 5. As a designer who joined the company at the same time as Miyabe, she was involved in the development of Sega Saturn titles, and worked with Miyabe in the Digital Media Production Department before joining the 9th Research and Development Department, where she was one of the first to design the enemy characters, the Morolians. She is also in charge of CG modeling production as the modeling chief. She was appointed art director for Space Channel 5 Part 2.

Yumiko Miraye (right), currently working in the Communications Promotion Division of the General Affairs Department of Sega Sammy Holdings, is involved in planning important company events

. She was the art director of "Space Channel 5." As a designer, she worked primarily on movies for Sega Saturn titles, and after working in the Digital Media Production Department, she joined the 9th Research and Development Department, where she was responsible for designing the main character Ulala, as well as other characters and stages. She later served as director for "Space Channel 5 Part 2." Currently, alongside her work as an artist, she produces and sells soft vinyl figures of Ulala and the Morolians under the brand name "Space Sofubi Dan," officially licensed by Sega.

Two designers who joined the company at the same time participated in "Space Channel 5," which required a female sense.

4Gamer:

　Thank you for joining us today. I previously heard that when you gathered the development team at 4Gamer, Miyabe-san and Moro-san joined the Digital Media Production Department around 1997.

Yumiko Miyabe (hereinafter, Miyabe-san):

　At that time, we were part of Sega's First CS Research and Development Department. At that time, Sega had a lot of hardcore male fans, but a project was launched in which a female character would be the main character, and in order to appeal to a wider audience, I was asked to be a staff member who could be involved in the development from a female perspective.

　Yuda-san (Yuda Takashi, SC5 Director) asked me for advice because he thought that I have a more general player-like sense than he does and that I'm also knowledgeable about fashionable things. However, at that time, I was in my 20s and had just joined the company for the third year, so I thought it might be a burden to be in charge of the design alone, and I nominated Moro-san, who was a designer at the same time as me, to join us.

Mayumi Moro (hereinafter, Moro):

　Although we were on separate teams, the home console development departments were on the same floor, and there were no walls between us, so we all got along well. I also remember when Miyabe-chan approached me. "Yuda-san told me he had a plan for me, and I replied, 'I'll do it if you're with me, Moro-san,' and he was like, 'What do you think?'" (laughs).

Miyabe:

　I remember what Yuda said when he called out to me. "I'll put your name in the credits" (laughs). I'd had my name in the credits before, but I thought it was a great honor to have my name listed as a "character designer".

4Gamer:

　That's a killer line (laughs). By the way, what titles had you two been involved in up until then?

Miyabe:

　When we joined the company in 1994, it was the year the Sega Saturn was launched, and when I first joined the company, I was involved in the production of the opening movie for "NiGHTS".

Moro:

　I was originally part of the "Victory Goal" team. Next, I worked on "Let's Make a J-League Pro Soccer Club!" I was in charge of field design for "AZEL (AZEL Panzer Dragoon RPG)" and also helped with "Sakura Wars".

4Gamer:

　And then Yuda invited me three years later in 1997.

Miyabe:

　As far as I remember, I think there were 11 people in total, including me and Moro-san. Just as we were starting to feel like we were going to do something new with this group, we were transferred to another department.

4Gamer:

　I was transferred to the Digital Media Production Department.

Moro:

　That was a strange event. I had to transfer departments to be involved in the development of SC5.

Takumi Yoshinaga (hereinafter, Yoshinaga):

　SC5 could not be made on CS due to line restrictions, so we, the development team, were entrusted to the Digital Media Production Department led by Makino (Yoshifumi Makino). This department has been working on video-based titles since the Sega Saturn era, and since Yuda and Makino were good friends, the transfer of the development team went smoothly.

4Gamer:

　As for your job, was it "general" design?

Moro:

　Yes, I was really happy when they asked me to do not only character design but also concept art. I originally joined a game company because I wanted to do character design, but I had not been able to do character design until then. At that time, Yuda said, "I want to leave the general design to female staff," and I was like, "What a wonderful offer, Miyabe-chan, thank you for bringing me such a wonderful job!" (laughs).

Miyabe:

　You're welcome (laughs).

Based on the "retro-future" concept proposed by Director Yuda, the designers created the world of SC5.

Moro:

　In order to work in design, I had to be transferred to another department, so I was a little hesitant about that, but I didn't think I'd get a chance like this again, and it seemed interesting to do something new, so in the end I said, "I'll go."

4Gamer:

　Miyabe-san, you were entrusted with the important role of art director, but did you feel any pressure?

Miyabe-san:

　Yuda-san had made the concept of SC5 clear, so I was able to proceed without any hesitation except at the beginning. I was instructed to think in the so-called "retro-future" direction, for example, for televisions, instead of remote controls, they should have evolved dial-type channels, and for cooking utensils, instead of microwaves, they should have frying pans flying in the air, like the future that people in the past would imagine. Always taking care of that led to a design that is "like SC5". As

　for the background design, we all came up with a specific direction, referring to the Art Deco style of New York in the 1900s, and we proceeded without deviating from that. I realized how much easier it is when the foundation is solid, and by not deviating from that, I was able to design it well when the sequel came out later.

4Gamer:

　What was the process for constructing the worldview from the design stage?

Moro:

　First, we designed the "Spaceport" stage at the beginning of the game, and then used this as a basis for the rest of the design.

Miyabe:

　It was a very extravagant way of making it, including actually making a model of the rocket for the spaceport. I remember looking at the rocket model and talking about curved surfaces like, "This R is good, but this R is not good." Through such exchanges, we continued to work on it until Yuda was satisfied.

4Gamer:

　Was it easy to design the game because the concept was solid?

Miyabe:

　No, that's not the case. It took months to complete the spaceport for the first stage, and one day I was called in and scolded, "You're the art director! Why haven't you done it yet?" I remember that

　Yuda was going on a business trip to the United States for a week, and he made me promise to finish it by the time he came back, so I, Moro, and Okazaki (Ken Okazaki, SC5 designer) were all blue in the face, and we made a schedule for the three of us, minute by minute, and somehow we managed to complete it.

Moro:

　At the beginning, we made it down to the smallest details. I made the outside of the spaceport, and Miyabe designed the interior. This was my first time designing a field like this, and it was a concept art that was completed after many revisions, so it's a memorable piece.

Miyabe:

　I don't think you'd spend this much time on game development these days. We even made things that didn't appear in the video.

Moro:

　The background of SC5 Part 1 was a movie, so we drew three-dimensional drawings and cross-sections and sent them to a CG production company. We were desperate to convey it as faithfully as possible. (Showing a picture of a file) This is an example of an instruction manual, and it specified not only the color, but also the material of the walls and the degree of reflection.

4Gamer:

　So it was an analog method of showing the drawings you made and making the CG.

Moro:

　Yes. Even after the CG was completed, we had to go back and forth with the CG company and say, "This is wrong, so please fix it." It was a very difficult process, but it was worth it in the end because we were able to get a satisfactory result.

Yoshinaga:

　Strictly speaking, the designer gave the drawings to the CG company and had them model it, and then we received the simplified model, attached the camera here, and had them render it again in earnest. It was a very inefficient way of making things, which is hard to imagine now. I think it was the first time that both Miyabe and Moro had done this job, so I imagine it must have been difficult.

Miyabe:

　It was tough (laughs). But it showed us how high Yuda-san's goals were. Even though we had been told "this is not right" every time we drew it, we were able to put it into the best possible form in the last week, which was a huge event for us.

4Gamer:

　When was that?

Miyabe:

　It was when I was still at Otorii. The team next to me was making "Jet Set Radio", and I remember struggling to see it from the side.

　After the spaceport was built and the design was coming together to a certain extent, Mizuguchi-san (Mizuguchi Tetsuya, SC5 producer) joined us, and the number of people increased and the scale of the project grew, and it became easier to talk about various things from that point on.

4Gamer:

　So that was the timing when Mizuguchi-san joined us.

Miyabe:

　Mizuguchi-san is amazing. I once accompanied him to a presentation to the president, and at that time Mizuguchi-san did not bring any materials. He had such presentation skills and political power that he was able to explain everything verbally and convince him. Thanks to him, the development after that became much easier.

4Gamer:

　Mizuguchi's joining was a big turning point for SC5.

Miyabe:

　Yes, that was true. Whenever there was a concert that we wanted to use as a reference for production, he would immediately say, "Go see it," and the environment changed completely.

Moro:

　He was very tolerant of the input of his staff. The reason why the department was moved to Shibuya was because "if we're in Shibuya, we can catch the current trends, so if we're making cutting-edge games, we should move there" (laughs). From plays to concerts to exhibitions, he let us go to anything that could be used as a reference for game development as part of our work.

Miyabe:

　Like opera. I also remember going to Sabu-chan's play.

Moro:

　I went! I think it was Kitajima Saburo's "Matsuri." He said it had all the entertainment for the masses, so we had to make sure to see it.

Yoshinaga:

　It was a very easygoing time, so we would go to a late-night movie, go back to the office, work, and go home in the morning, or go shopping on our days off and stop by the office on our way home. Work and private life were not really separated, and the company felt like another room.

Moro:

　We decorated the basement floor with potted plants, and when someone's birthday came, we all bought presents and celebrated. It wasn't the atmosphere of a game development environment.

Yoshinaga:

　I wore a Morolian costume and went out to Shibuya. It wasn't a promotion or anything, just for fun.

Miyabe:

　When I went to Center Street at night wearing a costume, I got harassed by a gang and barely made it back home (laughs). Anyway, Yoshinaga and I were always stuck in development, so we did that kind of diversion (laughs).

4Gamer:

　It's not because it was a long time ago, but because it was a department led by Mizuguchi.

The design of the main character, Ulala, was extremely difficult. The shocking fact that she didn't have a face until just before the end of development

Miyabe:

　I think so. It wouldn't have been allowed at Otorii (laughs).

4Gamer:

　How did you proceed with the character designs? I read in articles from back then that Ulala was difficult...

Miyabe:

　That's right. The Morolians were actually easy to create, already completed by the time they were at the Great Torii, but the main character just never made it...

Moro:

　There was a design competition for the main character. Miyabe and I had drawn candidates that we put up on the wall, and the staff voted for them. My design was pretty basic, but Miyabe's design was superior from the get-go, and I thought "I've lost" just by looking at it.

Miyabe:

　I don't remember... The first thing Yuda told me about the main character was, "Make him a character that can be recognized just by his silhouette, like Astro Boy." At that time, I decided on this hairstyle, which (showing an illustration) is an arrangement of the hairstyle of women in 1960s science fiction movies, with the top of the head high and the ends curled, with the ends divided into two. At the time, there were no words for "two tails" or "pigtails," so I explained it as "two ponytails tied high on the head."

4Gamer:

　At this point, it seems like Ulala's atmosphere was pretty solidified...

Miyabe:

　We had a good feeling about the hairstyle from this stage. It was a hairstyle that we hadn't seen much on game characters, and it met Yuda-san's conditions.

　But it was a long journey from here to the Ulala you know today. We didn't decide on the face until the very end...

4Gamer:

　The face? The illustration doesn't give the impression that she's drastically different...

Miyabe:

　The body model was already complete, but the face was missing. It was already too late to make the illustrations, so I drew the CG textures myself and attached them to the model to check. Even after moving from Otorii to Shibuya, the face was not complete, and in the end, Okazaki even got angry and said, "Miyabe-san, please stop messing around."

4Gamer:

　What was the turning point from there to completion?

Miyabe:

　I still think about what the trigger was, but there was no decisive moment. It was more than half a year of adjusting the drawings, shapes, and positions of the facial features little by little, and the optimal solution is what I can only say is that Ulala's face is what it is now.

Moro:

　When I was completing Ulala's face, I was researching makeup. I watched her struggle with making detailed adjustments, such as the thickness of her eyebrows, the color of her eyeshadow, and the thickness of her lips.

Miyabe:

　I was so desperate that I don't remember much (laughs). Anyway, I kept making it until it was good, and when I intuitively felt that "this is cute," I immediately added bones and motions, and there was a moment when it just clicked. To be honest, I don't know what the key points were that led to that point. When I was making it, I really thought that a miracle would happen.

4Gamer:

　So that miracle happened.

Miyabe:

　It may have been a miracle. Anyway, everyone around me was scolding me, and they were waiting... I was making it while thinking that it would never be finished...

4Gamer:

　What was the reaction of the staff to the completed Ulala?

Miyabe:

　I think it was good, but I don't remember much about it either (laughs).

4Gamer:

　(laughs). What about Yoshinaga-san?

Yoshinaga-san:

　I left the design, including the characters, to Yuda-san and the other designers, so I wasn't too worried myself, and when it was completed, I just said something simple like "I see" (laughs). I knew that they were worried, but I was in a state where I didn't have time to think about it. The game design work itself can be done without a face.

Moro:

　In the end, I think it was just Miyabe's insistence. No one could see the goal, it was just "Miyabe is satisfied".

4Gamer:

　It's wonderful to have an environment where you can work so thoroughly.

Yoshinaga:

Miyabe:

　That was really thanks to everyone around you. It was also helpful that programmer Nakanishi (Nakanishi Jin) created a tool called "Super Jin-kun" (laughs) at an early stage, which allows you to easily test play SC5 on the program.

It's a tool that allows you to play the game without SC5 footage, control the tempo of the music, and manage input with an Excel file. Because of that, the game itself could be separated from the design, and development could proceed while Miyabe was struggling.

Moro:

　Our design work was also progressing.

4Gamer:

　Moro, what other things did you design besides the Morolians?

Moro:

　I was also the leader of the modeling team. Miyabe-chan was designing ordinary characters in parallel, and the team modeled them one after another.

Miyabe:

　But Moro created things like "Space Granny."

Moro:

　That's right (laughs). And for me, Space Michael was probably the biggest job!

4Gamer:

　Did you design Michael, Moro-san?

Moro:

　I used my privilege as the modeling team leader to design him (laughs).

4Gamer:

　Were you unsure about Michael's outfit? The outfit in the PV at the time was quite different in impression, wasn't it?

Moro:

　We had a lot of discussions with everyone in the development team about what kind of atmosphere we wanted to create. In the end, we decided on that all-silver outfit that respected the PV.

4Gamer:

　By the way, who was in charge of the main characters other than Ulala?

Miyabe:

　Ulala and Pudding were me. And Jaguar's face.

4Gamer:

　Are the face and body in charge of different people?

Miyabe:

　As for Jaguar, Okazaki designed the body, and I designed the face. Okazaki said, "I can't make a face."

4Gamer:

　There was also a concept drawing for Fuse, who doesn't appear on screen.

Miyabe:

　I wonder if that was me? I don't remember it well, but when I revealed it on the official Twitter a while ago, I was surprised to see that fan art was already being made.

　(After discovering a CG of Ulala's face among the files) This is the finished version of Ulala.

4Gamer:

　Oh, it's Ulala!

Miyabe:

　Actually, there's a secret to the texture on this face. I just pasted a single drawing I made. As a result, the left and right sides are asymmetrical, and the shape of the eyes is slightly different, but that makes it look more human.

　This is a behind-the-scenes story, but when we were making "Space Channel 5 VR," Okamine-san (Mineko Okamura, SC5 assistant producer, SC5 VR director) told me, "Ulala just can't look cute," so I actually advised her that her face isn't symmetrical.

4Gamer:

　That's an unexpected technique. From an amateur's point of view, I feel like a symmetrical face would be more well-balanced...

Miyabe:

　I didn't intend it that way, and it's just a matter of hindsight, but I think that the analog-like, or human-like, feel led to the creation of an attractive 3D character's face.

Moro:

　Even though it's a single image, it's just the texture, so the eyelashes and mouth are made with different polygons and move, but the angle of the eyelashes is different on the left and right, and Miyabe-chan's attention to detail is also in that area.

Miyabe:

　It's all the product of chance, so it's scary to imagine what would have happened if that chance hadn't happened.

4Gamer:

　Did you compromise somewhere or give up?

Miyabe:

　That may be so. I'm really glad it was completed.

4Gamer:

　It was completed on May 30th, which is Ulala's birthday.

Miyabe:

　It was May 30th, 1999. I think it was the middle of the night, but I woke up Mizuguchi-san, who was taking a nap (laughs), and showed it to the remaining members and said, "Wow, that's good!" I was so happy that I printed it out and put it up all over the office (laughs). I remember that when Yuda-san came in the morning, he saw it, shook my hand and said, "Congratulations!" and I was really relieved.

4Gamer:

　That's a great story, but I'm sure the game was released at the end of 1999!?

Yoshinaga:

　That's incredible. The other day I was sorting through some old emails, and I found an email I'd sent to Mizuguchi reporting the master-up, which was dated November 20, 1999. The game was released on December 16, so it was a really incredible schedule.

4Gamer:

　Even back then, when there were only physical media, were you able to release it on schedule with the master-up at that time?

Yoshinaga:

　I think it was because software was produced in-house at that time (laughs). Maybe we benefited from that.

4Gamer:

　By the way, do you have any stories about the design of the Morolians?

Moro:

　When the design was almost at the very beginning, everyone was calling it "Moro alien" as a temporary name (because Moro made it). Later, when we had a meeting to decide on a name again, we were like, "Why not Morolian?" "Isn't it Morolian?" "Isn't Morolian good?" and it was decided as it was, and we were like, "All right!" (laughs).

　Following that same vein, I also designed boss characters, such as "Coco Tapioca" and "Morolina," as variations on the Morolians, and I drew them with their movements in mind.

4Gamer:

　Moro's design drawings and the game screen are almost the same.

Moro:

　As I put my hands to work, the image spreads and it's completed, so it was always fun and I don't remember having much trouble.

Miyabe:

　He's a genius. After the Morolian was completed, I was able to leave the design to Moro with confidence. I felt that he had a great sense. I once again thought that I was glad that I had him involved in the design.

4Gamer:

　How did you feel after the release?

Miyabe:

To be honest , I was just relieved when it was completed.

Moro:

　There was an atmosphere of having done it.

4Gamer:

　As media, we are most impressed by the promotion after the release...

Moro:

　That's right. They did some really fun promotions, like taking over Shibuya and playing SC5 on the big screen at Q Front. I was really happy that they were overflowing with the desire to have as many players as possible play such a fun game.

Miyabe:

　I think that Okamine's promotion planning skills were really amazing. It was a good way to incorporate the culture of Shibuya. It's hard to imagine that the Asahi Shimbun would publish an extra edition.

"Space Channel 5 Part 2": The position has changed. The hardships of being in a higher position are compounded.

Yoshinaga:

　Manga artists, musicians, and people who are now considered influencers have told us that SC5 is really fun, and it was very refreshing to see reactions from a different direction than the game industry.

4Gamer:

　Let's talk about "Space Channel 5 Part 2". Miyabe-san was the director and Moro-san was the art director for Part 2, but did the development structure change significantly?

Moro-san:

　Part 2 was full polygon, the development staff became larger, and the number of designers increased. However, it was difficult to convey the world view and concept that Yuda-san built in the previous work to the new members.

4Gamer:

　There were many things that were not written down, but were grasped by everyone's senses.

Moro-san:

　Yes. I thought that the SC5 series would continue in the future, so I decided not to do much design work myself, and to leave it to young people who can design to train them. I explained the design concept, but it was difficult to come up with a design that I was satisfied with. That's true, because the purpose was to train them, and most of the designers were inexperienced.

　However, we held design study sessions together, and after a few months, they gradually understood, and I was happy to see them create something good. Pine was also designed by Rie Miyauchi, one of the members, and the final stage also came up with ideas from members of the design team, and we were able to improve the quality of the final stage by saying things like, "Everyone is the best!"

Miyabe:

　Part 2's Purge was designed by Moro, right?

Moro:

　Yes. Purge's face is not as detailed as Miyabe's, but I spent a lot of time making it cool. The robot of the dancing troupe was also designed by me, and since it is a new character with the same position as the Morolian from the previous work, I created many variations so that it would not lose to the Morolian. It took a lot of time to decide which one to use, and I feel like I was told, "Moro, please stop messing around" (laughs).

4Gamer:

　I heard that Miyabe-san was appointed as director, so he was no longer involved in design?

Miyabe-san:

　Although I was a director, I felt that I was able to do my job with a lot of help from Yoshinaga-san. Mizuguchi-san also told me that it was better for a director not to do any work at all, but I didn't understand that, and I was worried that when I reported the progress, I would say that I hadn't done anything, so I started to take on design work myself. I designed Ulala's costume for Part 2.

4Gamer:

　Did you have any difficulties?

Miyabe-san:

　There was pressure that comes with a sequel. Mizuguchi-san, Yoshinaga-san, and I would get together every day and discuss the concept of Part 2 and how to come up with ideas, like "What does the tagline for the movie sequel say?"

Yoshinaga-san:

　That was also thanks to the environment at the time, because we all worked together at the company until late at night every day, and we had many opportunities to talk on a daily basis. Also, before Part 2, I think we went to see a musical in America.

Moro-san:

　We went to New York to see "STOMP". Mizuguchi-san suggested that we "broaden our horizons." I remember going to toy stores on Broadway with Yoshinaga-san and using the things I saw there as references. I was also very impressed when I went to E3 during the previous game, and SC5 was the only game I was able to go overseas for work.

4Gamer:

　So the influence of the environment that Mizuguchi-san created was reflected in the work in Part 2 as well?

Yoshinaga:

　I think that was the case. We had more staff, and we were able to make the game from a state where everything was already decided from the beginning. In the previous game, we had to reluctantly cut one stage due to schedule constraints, so for Part 2, we reflected on that and firmly decided the specifications and delivery date. It's only natural (laughs).

4Gamer:

　(laughs). There was a scene that was scrapped in the previous game.

Yoshinaga:

　I think it was between the third and fourth stages. It was a scene where a robot climbs a large building and fights.

4Gamer:

　Didn't you revive that scene in Part 2?

Moro:

　We didn't use it in Part 2. We weren't conscious of reusing it, and there was no point in forcing it in...

4Gamer:

　At the time of Part 2, the decision had already been made to withdraw from the Dreamcast, and it was also released on the PlayStation 2.

Moro:

　It was difficult to make it on the PS2. Compared to the Dreamcast, the texture capacity was smaller, so we struggled with how to make it look the same as the Dreamcast version with as few textures as possible.

4Gamer:

　Moro-san, your involvement in development has also changed significantly between your role as a designer in the previous game and your role as art director in Part 2.

Moro:

　That's right. In the previous game, I was drawing under the art director Miyabe-chan, but this time I was in Miyabe-chan's position and had to manage more than 20 designers as a middle manager.

　At first, I asked Miyabe-chan how I should make decisions as an art director, but then he told me something like, "You have to make the decisions yourself," and I reflected that it was true.

Miyabe:

　Moro-san has been a member of the development team since the beginning. We can communicate with each other, so all I can say is, "Do your best."

4Gamer:

　Thanks to all that hard work, the user response after the release was good, wasn't it?

Miyabe:

　Actually, when Part 2 was released, I had to leave my job due to various circumstances. While I was on the Azusa Express heading to my hometown of Nagano, Yoshinaga-san called me on my cell phone and said, "You've been inducted into the Platinum Hall of Fame! Not Gold (for the previous game), but Platinum!" in the review in Famitsu magazine, and I cried. It was impressive that Yoshinaga-san, who is usually calm, called me excitedly.

4Gamer:

　That's a good story! Although Part 2 is an older hardware, it has been ported to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and is still available.

Yoshinaga:

　Part 2 was well-received, so there were various developments. There were plans for a mobile phone app and typing software.

Fan support leads to the next step. The result is "Space Channel 5 VR Aratakata☆Dancing Show (Space Channel 5 Kinda Funky News Flash)."

4Gamer:

　As a Sega character, Ulala in a white costume has become established.

4Gamer:

　Time has passed since the release of SC5 Part 2, and Miyabe-san has become a freelance artist, and Moro-san has now been transferred to Sega Sammy Holdings, where he is working in a job unrelated to design. What were your thoughts when you found out that a new game, SC5 VR, would be released in 2020, the 20th year since the release of the game?

Miyabe:

　I thought that the worldview of SC5 would never go out of style, and the game system was complete, so I always thought that a new work on that line would come out at any time.

Moro:

　I thought, "Yoshinaga-san has finally made a new VR work!" I remember that when the anime "Sega Hard Girls" was aired, the director showed me the VR of SC5, and I thought that it had come true.

Yoshinaga:

　That's a bit of a jump in the story (laughs). When we were making the Sega Hard Girls anime, the director made a CG model of the SC5 field to be used in the main story, and at the launch party he showed us a demonstration of it in VR video.

4Gamer:

　Did that lead to the later KDDI VR demo or SC5 VR?

Yoshinaga:

　No, that's a completely different story. The projects after KDDI were led by Grounding (laughs).

4Gamer:

　Miyabe-san, you were in charge of designing new characters for SC5 VR. How was it?

Miyabe:

　As for the design, I received a personal request from Director Hotta (Noboru Hotta, SC5 VR Director). At first, he asked me to draw a single illustration of a character that would be the player's avatar, not for the main game, but for an event, so he asked me to draw a relatively light illustration. After I sent that, the modeled 3DCG was completed relatively quickly. I was a bit taken aback because I had expected the work process to be like the beginning of SC5's development, where the illustration would be made and then the level of completion would be improved.

　After that, he was able to appear in the main game of SC5 VR in a more polished form, so the scope of his activities was wider than initially expected.

Yoshinaga:

　I think the speed of completion was also due to the fact that it was for an event. It's completely different from the relaxed way of making things in the past.

　However, there were voices on the site saying "as expected" about the completion of the requested characters.

4Gamer:

　So the characters created for the event ended up appearing in SC5 VR as they were.

Miyabe:

　Yes. The player characters appear as twins of the player avatars in SC5 VR. There is also a new character, the space pirate "Jaguars", who was created relatively slowly under Hotta's supervision. Hotta is a very logical person when it comes to game development, and he was originally a designer, so he gave specific instructions such as "I want you to show a little more skin" for this character, which made it very easy for me as a designer.

4Gamer:

　Who designed Betsumoro?

Miyabe:

　I think Betsumoro was designed by Hotta. The Morolians were already a completed design, so I was surprised that they turned out to be such a great design. Even if it's a sequel, I realized that the world will expand if we leave it to new staff, not just the same development staff.

Yoshinaga:

　In SC5 VR, the Morolians speak and sing in human language for the first time, so I wanted their appearance to be clearly different, so I went for a monotone direction that wasn't colorful, and I thought white would be good, and it glowed faintly, and it became a color scheme unique to VR.

4Gamer:

　I was surprised that it was a new thing without any sense of incongruity.

　Now, while you have time, I'd like to ask you to say a word about the goods that will be on sale this time...

Miyabe:

　(Looking at the acrylic stand) I think the lemon yellow Ulala costume is amazing. This color was Yoshinaga-san's choice, wasn't it?

Moro:

　The way goods are made has changed since SC5. We made a lot of things back then, but now there are more familiar and usable things, and the content has diversified.

Miyabe:

　I think it's wonderful that fans cherish game goods, as they associate them with their memories of the work. I make figurines because I have such strong feelings about them.

Yoshinaga:

　How does it feel to license out a character you designed and make it?

Miyabe:

　There aren't many people who make figurines independently with this kind of contract. I sell them at events, and people who know Ulala come to buy them, and some are surprised to hear that I'm a designer, so I think I'm doing something complicated (laughs). Fortunately, Yoshinaga-san not only acted as a liaison, but also gave me advice on how to make and sell the figures, so I'd like to continue making things that everyone will be happy with, while relying on Yoshinaga-san when I'm in trouble (laughs).

The official "Ulala" soft vinyl figure is currently on sale at the "Space★Sofubidan" website, a toy manufacturer run by Miyabe. The prototype was created by character designer Ryo Taniguchi, who also created "Miraitowa" and "Someity."

4Gamer:

　It's been a long time, but I'd like to ask you two to say a few words to the fans who love the game and what Space Channel 5 means to them.

Miyabe:

　In my case, I'm like a relative in my current position. I'd be very happy to see their activities from afar, and I'll rush over if something happens. If there's anything I can help you with in the future, I'd be happy if you'd call out to me.

　I can only say "thank you" to the fans. I'm one of the fans now that I've left Sega, and I'd like to continue to work with fellow fans to promote SC5. I might be able to deliver the voices of the fans to Yoshinaga and Moro... so let's talk if we have the opportunity.

Moro:

　This is the first time I've done everything from concept art to character design, and it's a title that I have a lot of attachment to. When I see these goods, as someone who made the goods at the time, I would like to make them again, and if I can help, I would like to be called, just like Miyabe-chan.

　There are still many people who have been fans of SC5 since Part 1, and I'm overwhelmed that there are now two generations of people who love it. I'm very happy that it has been loved for so long. I think that the support of the fans will lead to the next step, just like SC5 VR, so I hope you will spread the word about the fun and cuteness of SC5 on social media. I sometimes see it and give it a "like" (laughs).

4Gamer:

　It's the kind of game where it wouldn't be surprising if something new suddenly happened with SC5. I look forward to your continued success. Thank you very much.

#space channel 5 #ulala

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stringsbasement · 3 months ago

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Hey so did family odd parents get a new series? Who’s the purple hair guy you ship with who I assume is Timmy. I just stumbled upon you blog by chance and I want to know what’s up with your blorbos.

Who are these people and why do I recognize them?

welcome, welcome! i'll be happy to tell you all about it :) i'll try to keep it short:

to recap, the original fairly oddparents show mainly revolved around timmy turner, a 10-year-old boy who was given magical fairy godparents who'll grant his every wish to help him cope with his miserable life. in the show, his found family of fairies consists of cosmo (godfather), wanda (godmother), and poof/peri "purple hair guy" (baby godbrother). the show aired on nickelodeon from 2001 - 2017, and it was popular enough that even people who didn't actively watch it might recognize it

the new series, fairly oddparents: a new wish, takes place decades after the original show's events. it follows a similar premise with a (mostly) new main cast of characters: hazel (protagonist), dev (deuteroganist), and their fairies. cosmo and wanda came out of their 10,000 year retirement to godparent hazel, and dev later on acquired a now-adult peri as his godparent

peri (originally named poof), for the entirety of the original airing, was only shown as a perfectly marketable sphere baby. so when he showed up as an actual adult with design elements taken from both his parents blended in a unique, balanced way, with a personality reminiscent of pilot cosmo (suave gentleman)... something changed inside me

and now here i am

as for the ship, i think you've mistaken dale with timmy

it's the brown hair and blue eyes. don't worry, if i didn't know the lore prior, i could believe this was the same character too!

timmy is peri's brother, and they've been raised as such since peri was born. they were separated after timmy lost his godfamily (and his memories) sometime after growing up and becoming independent. godparents are only ever temporary, afterall. these siblings are made especially tragic by the fact that timmy is the reason peri was born— fairies were banned to have children, until timmy wished for cosmo and wanda to have one because he wanted to see them happy

meanwhile, dale is dev's father, completely unrelated to timmy. He's an antagonist, a terrible father, and the reason for dev's misery. he first appeared as a one-off character in the original show as a poor child laborer who got trafficked into a sweatshop working for a lemonade factory (i cannot make this up). in the current show, he's an irredeemable rich jerk for who i hold absolutely zero respect for. but, from a character perspective, he's fun to watch, and i love it when he shows up to ruin my mood

the shipping comes from the fact that peri and dev gets separated by the end of the first season, so lots of people headcanon that peri came back for dev by disguising himself as his human babysitter, which he'd of course have to be hired for...

those circumstances make for very interesting potential conflicts and dynamics, so it's not hard to see why some might take to it

(lots of people have shouted at me and made it abundantly clear that i may have accidentally fanned the flames for that one, whoops

it's hilarious, because i don't actually care much for the peridale ship at all. i might draw more, but it's far from what i like about the franchise)

a new wish was well received because it took many issues people had with the original and improved upon it. they gave cosmo and wanda a healthier dynamic, for one (it essentially used to be full of "i hate my wife" and "my husband is a moron" jokes, which didn't work well in the long run). the people working on it has also shown clear passion for the project, which i don't see much with show revivals these days. the jokes land and the emotional moments have their weight, and above all, it does it's job at being entertaining

for a show i didn't think much about as a child, a new wish has done well to revive my passion for absolutely overanalyzing and reading up upon every little thing within a franchise. it's kind of rare that i rant and rave about a show this often. the only other contender that reaches this level of insanity being... well, niche enough that i dont get the chance to talk about it online, unfortunately

but yeah, that's the gist of it! i hope i was able to satiate your curiosity

#string rants

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rainsinheaven-if · 23 days ago

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☆彡Progress Report # O1

Hello! This is the first progress report for my upcoming IF Rains In Heaven. These progress reports will be posted periodically (either once a month or once every two months) to update everyone with how writing and coding is going.

☆ Deadlines and Goals Summary ☆

Current Word Count: 6.1K Prologue Progress: 99% completed Chapter 1 Progress: 50% completed Writing Completion Deadline: December 31st 2024 First Demo Completion Deadline: End of March 2025

Keep reading for a detailed report

☆ December progress ☆

As of today, I have written 6.1K words for both the Prologue and Chapter 1, unedited and uncoded. I'm almost done writing the scenes where MC first meets and gets to know Ethos, Oliver, and V. I should be about 50% done with writing Chapter 1.

Outside of story writing, I've been making changes to the personality and behavior statistics I plan on implementing for the MC. The statistics are now more aligned with traits someone may develop as a result of childhood trauma and abuse. I've also edited the story outline, moving certain scenes that was supposed to be in Chapter 1, into their own chapter. This was because I believed Chapter 1 would be too long if I inputted what was planned instead of splitting it. Now, Chapter 1 and 2 will be set when MC is 5 years old - the start of everything going downhill - and Chapter 3 will time skip to their current ages where MC is 20 years old. I am also contemplating make a small change to m!Y's name so that instead of Yaran, it would be something like Yale. Not sure yet though.

For the remaining half of December, I will continue to work on writing Chapter 1 and also placing the final touches to the UI on twine (i.e. saves, accessibility functions etc.) so that I can work on coding more freely in January.

☆ Goals for the New Year ☆

Coding of the prologue and Chapter 1 will (hopefully) start in January and last until the end of February. I do have classes then so the amount of work I put into coding each day will be limited.

The goal is to have the demo out and running by the end of March, but my personal target would be beginning or mid-March. I have no set date yet.

I'm also deciding whether to ask for beta-readers. I've never been confident in my writing and it would be helpful to have some people identify errors that I missed.

☆ Chapter 1 Teasers ☆

Chapter 1 (and 2) will officially introduce you to 4 out of 6 romantic interests, though that is not the main focus. These two chapters will mainly be focused developing skills, formulating opinions, detailing appearances, and the downfall of your relationship with your family.

Chapter 1 specifically, will be quite a rollercoaster. It starts happy and pure, but the ending turns dark and heartbreaking. You might be in for a ride!

☆ Final Words ☆

In the meantime, I will be answering any asks about the story and/or the characters. Some asks will take longer for me to respond to but I'll be sure to answer all of them, even if it's to say “I can't give you an answer that won’t spoil the story”. I'll also try to start posting character profiles for the characters. Probably starting with Nolan. Let me know what information you want to see about the characters!

Thank you for all the love I got in the past couple weeks. It hasn't even been a month and we’re at 400+ followers! I’m happy to know that many of you are excited for my IF and I hope I reach everyone’s expectations. Just a reminder though that this is my first time doing something like this (creating an IF) so please be patient and kind with my work.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Dated: December 14, 2024

#rains in heaven if #rih progress #rainsinheaven #rains in heaven #interactive fiction #twine if #twine wip #if wip

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lanternlit · 16 days ago

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smokedanced is now lanternlit

And with this I return, so excited to be writing again! Further changes...

I have moved Castiel and the Thirteenth Doctor here from their previous blogs (waywardfeathered/dochaes). If you were just followed, we were probably mutuals there! Hi! I plan to slowly follow everyone I had ongoing interactions with or asks I planned to reply to, on those blogs. Slowly, because I want to double check people's guidelines pages first. If you follow me back here, I plan to automatically reply to our things on this blog :)

I've rewritten my guidelines. The contents are mostly the same, but a lot has been reworded, and some minor things have been added or deleted, so it'd be awesome if you could give them a read. I guess this is technically optional, since they're mostly the same as before.

A few muses have been dropped. Kenna de Poitiers, Jeremy Bradshaw, Juliet Burke and Tyrion Lannister have been dropped as muses.

New muses have been added. Cas and Thirteen have been moved here from their previous blogs, and I have added Fifteenth Doctor as a muse. Jake, whom I added, um, nearly a year ago... finally has an about page, now, as well. You all get free shots to fire at me about how I had an OC among my muses for a year almost without any kind of an about page.

Some muses' stories have been altered. Namely, Mary Stuart is now a modern AU based muse, and I don't write her in Reign canon at least for the time being. Ella Finnegan has had her story altered, as well, basically the way her psychic abilities work have been changed. The latter will be easy to retcon in any ongoing interactions.

All muses have at least a dossier and a character premise page. This one is something I am proud of myself for, but also fuck, I got so frustrated trying to write the character premise pages that I can see it when I look at them, what with some of them having the most simple sentence structure and all, but I figured... better some information for my characters than none??? Everyone has something, now! Also, no more half the muses only having placeholder images on their pages! PRAISE THE ABSOL... I mean, my self-discipline. Because these past weeks I have just wanted to COME BACK AND WRITE, but I made myself have those tabs for all the characters first.

It is currently nearing 2am so pleaaaaase excuse me if this post is chaotic. Hi dash love you dash.

Lots of muses have been switched between their activity status. Current list goes:

primary muses: cas, hannibal, iris, izzy, jillian, the tardis, thirteen, will

secondary muses: edi, ed, ella, ever, garrus, lucius, mary, tali, ten

tertiary muses: charlie, clara, dean, river

test muses: chloe, eloise, fifteen, hurley, jake

Speaking of, right, Eloise has been released from "I need to rewatch Bridgerton first!" jail, and she's open for interactions sksksksksk

Guys, I don't remember what else I was meant to say.

The blog has had a bit of a makeover. Nobody look at my navigation page, the only thing I edited there so far was the colour scheme, it is outdated. I know me saying not to look is going to make people look but what can I do. Look at my muse directory and guidelines if you want to look at something, you sneaky sneaks.

The interest tracker has been updated. Chloe and Jake have been finally added on it. Cas and Thirteen have also been added on it. Fifteen has- you understand.

The tracker is the same one I've had before, but if you are interested in any of the added muses, please edit your responses. If you haven't done the tracker before, this would also be a very nice time to do it!

Going forward, I am going to go through my unaswered ooc messages and reply to people, I know there are a lot of you who have been on hold with plotting. Thank you so much for your patience. I am also going to start replying to things again, obviously. Now that my muse pages all have at least something on them, I can continue to work on them while my main focus for the blog is generally, well, roleplay. The pages being in such a state of WIP was a huge source of executive dysfunction for me.

I also plan to re-read everyone's guidelines just to make sure neither of us have edited ours so that we don't match anymore, but that'll not be done overnight with all of you.

I hope the url change isn't a huge inconvenience. If you could give this post a like, if you've seen it, that'd be awesome of you, though not at all necessary! I am genuinely very excited to be here again.

#; outofglow #long post is long #i don't feel like any of this should be under a readmore #i'll tag as long post when i reblog it after a few times though #hiii #i've been writing so much code recently i nearly begun to type this in html as well...#finger guns

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insertdisc5 · 2 years ago

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Devlog #14: Big News Incoming and Illustrations

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!). You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!!

LET’S GET TO IT. This month has some Big News about Big News Incoming! And also some illustrations!

The Big News Incoming first: In Stars and Time will be a part of Future of Play Direct on June 10, 8:00am PT | 11:00am ET | 5:00 pm CET! Future of Play is part of the Summer Games Fest and showcases a lot of incredible indie games, so I hope you’ll tune in. There might be a little something for you to see :> And...

In Stars and Time will also be a part of The Mix on June 8th! The Mix is an amazing games showcase over in LA. There will be a lot of press there, so I’m very excited to get some eyes on ISAT! Please stop by the booth and say hi to the lovely people from my publisher, Armor Games Studios, if you get the chance!

Alright! That’s it for the big news. Now for other big news.

Porting the game to Switch seems to be close to done! Currently, the porting team is taking care of optimization thingy things. The game is playable, but tends to drop frames every so often, so the team is optimizing the game to make sure it’s playing smoothly so Switch players can have the best possible experience! And…

The (hopefully) final round of Japanese localization is underway! Last April, the localization team sent back a couple of sentences that should be reworded now that they have further context. Now that those changes are implemented, they are playing it one more time to make sure everything works as intended!

I sadly don’t have a Fun Gamedev Thing to talk about this month (or… last month either…) because I moved elsewhere back in April and have been taking care of many things so my move went smoothly. Did you know that moving and getting used to a new town is hard work? So, here’s some things I posted on social media in the last couple months!

Here’s an illustration I drew a while back but only posted recently! I imagine that during their journey, everyone must’ve shared a bed at least once. This is also an occasion to show everyone’s sleepytimes clothes. Siffrin on that honk shoo honk shoo fit

Like many people, I have seen the Barbie movie trailer. So of course I had to redraw these iconic frames.

And someone over on Tumblr asked me about how I picked everyone’s names! Here it is copy-pasted for your convenience.

Siffrin: i think. i will wait until the game comes out before saying how i picked their name. ask me again later (it’s not a spoiler its just silly)

Mirabelle: her name was actually Prunille for the longest time, but I kept mixing it up and calling her Bonnie… so I went looking for another fruit sounding name (prunille>prune>plum in french) and Mirabelle fit her perfectly :> (Mirabelle is a kind of plum!)

Isabeau: it’s just a nice name. It actually is a girl name but i refuse to accept it because “beau” is the masculine form for “beautiful”, but either way it fits his character pretty well…

Odile: old sounding french name. that’s it. when i was early in preproduction her name was Isabeau actually (and she had a WAY different personality)

Bonnie: it’s a nickname and not their full name. have i said their full name yet? (checks the wiki) i did. Boniface is just a name that I had never heard before, and I could easily imagine Bonnie not liking it because it sounds “old and lame”. i think as they get older they would like it more and more

This is also a reminder that In Stars and Time has a wiki page. I am so grateful that this is a thing someone made. You know you've made it when your game has a wiki page!!!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

#in stars and time #devlog #game dev #indie game #game development #start again start again start again

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hexhomos · 1 year ago

Note

HI! hope your day is treating you well, i’ve been interested in doomreed for some time but cape comics are sort of daunting to me just because there’s so much content and i really don’t know where to begin. what do you suggest? thank you!

STRAIGHT OUT THE GATE ill say, read [ "My Dinner With Doom" ] (this is a rly high-qual upload, open it up on desktop!)

It's a key issue oneshot with a lil bit of backstory retelling, featuring a private dinner that happens in the 00's - a good entrance point if you're curious about doomreed in summarization + generally speaking a Real Good Comic overall.

LONG POST INCOMING THIS IS A LONG POST / click readmore

the fantastic four are one of marvel's darling old founding teams so there is pretty much... endless archival, ongoing, multimedia and games content popping up all the time.

They are also kinda one of the rare teams where the growth of the characters is consistent? The kids are allowed to grow older and events from every major run are carried/referenced by the next author so if you want to do chronological there's a lot of incentive and fun stuff.

If you wanna dip your toes into the F4 as a concept, check out:

*the #1 issue of Fantastic Four By Waid & Wieringo (1997) *Mythos: Fantastic Four (2007) [ *The FF (1994) movie that is up for free on youtube!! ] *Fantastic Four (2022) by Ryan North as the current ongoing!

(Some) Singles centered on Doom/Doomreed:

*Fantastic Four (1961) Annual 2 is Doom's original backstory issue *Marvel Two-in-One (2017) by Zdarsky issue #11 & Annual #1 are both crazy good but they spoil big events/conclusions from previous runs if u care abt that!!! (My current fav fic came from these issues.) *Doomgate (novel) by Jeffrey Lang is a good option if you want something that is mostly prose, instead of a comic or movie

NOW BEFORE YOU JUMP AHEAD WITH ANYTHING I *am* following [ this reading guide ] which breaks down specific issues relevant to their relationship as a line through all the different authors over the years.

[ There's also this 2021 guide w/ a few other story/AU highlights! The author said u can send the blog questions and theyll answer too ]

The 'Modern era' (late 90s/00s/10s/Now) Starts with Waid and McDuffie's stuff. The latter wrote My Dinner with Doom!

If you're scared by all the names, don't be - when searching for the issues, just pay attention to the year, # number & author/artist creds.

What I'm reading/liveblogging rn is Hickman's Secret wars era, generally regarded as yaoi ketamine; It's a good epic narrative entrance point if you want to jump into it, and it eventually led into this huge marvel event that changed the multiverse and even brought miles morales into the main timeline, so its BIG and it happened in multiple books - the best way to go about it is;

Pre-hickman:

Fantastic Four (1961) #551 #552 #553 ➡️ (these introduce main ideas we will touch again in secret wars)

Fantastic Four (1961) #558 to #562 ➡️

Doom appears in these too, first/last issues more heavily. Stuff here will be ref'd during the next era.

If you're having fun and want to keep reading you can! Just know that the next storyarc has gathered a largely mixed response bc..... its Millar going hammywammy....... not that necessary.......

anyway when you see hickmans name in the cover STOP and

Jump to actual Hickman secret wars era:

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman: The complete collection➡️

(optional, side plot) If you like Val + Doom, read specifically; *Fantastic Four (2014) #3 & #5 + Fantastic Four Annual (2014) #1 *Agent of Asgard #6 & #7 *Avengers World (2014) #15 & #16

New Avengers (2013) ➡️ check issues on picture, or, if you're a completionist, look for 'Avengers by Jonathan Hickman; complete collection' and skim for the doom/reed relevant bits. There's a lot of characters here but this is a buildup to the big secret wars. Secret Wars (2015) ➡️ (All issues!) Infamous Iron Man (2016) ➡️bendis' doom writing is not very good but hang in there because right after him: Marvel 2-In-One (2017) ➡️ (All issues!) is a banger. Yaoi btw.

You can basically read all the future/past ones as listed, or starting from the beginning of that author's period without worrying, bc they aren't as indebted to each other storywise.

You can also start somewhere else if you want or check out other single issues on the reading guides; It's not a crime! There's a lot of stuff with different takes and genres, I'm slowly chipping away at the secret wars era bc its just very thick and like a serious television drama attempt, except its also insanely funny sometimes.

(I'm still making my way through it so that's what I have at the moment!)

#doomreed #doctor doom #reed richards #victor von doom #marvel comics #reading guide #hexposts #fantastic four #dr doom #mr fantastic #mister fantastic #marvel #meta tag #fic rec

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book--brackets · 2 years ago

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Welcome to the now various book competitions I run!

Current Competition (Best Childhood Book #5) Masterpost

Hello! This initially started as Best Childhood Book, but I now also run Best Childhood World and Best Fantasy Book. Competitions run on a schedule of BCB > BCW > BFB with submissions opening occasionally to fill spots.

Since we need some clarification, the definition of childhood book in this competition is as follows: a book people read in childhood that must be for a YA age group or younger and has chapters. There is a difference between “children’s” book and “childhood” book. ANY book that met those requirements could be submitted, as I am striving to keep my personal opinion out of this competition for the most part. This definition will not change for the foreseeable future.

This masterpost will be updated with links to all the polls regularly, and each poll will last 7 days. If you vote, reblog if you can so more people can vote, and feel free to campaign for your personal favorite if you want!

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD BOOKS (320/320)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD WORLDS (192/192)

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN FOR FANTASY BOOKS (298/320)

Please submit with the name of the book and the author. Check the lists to see if anything has been submitted before trying yourself. If a book is part of a series, it will be listed under the series name (i.e. The Lightning Thief > Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Golden Compass > His Dark Materials). You can find the current list of childhood books here. A world will be listed with its series, and you can find the current list of worlds here. You can find the current list of fantasy books here.

Poll links and rules under the cut

Help decide parameters for submissions with some fringe cases: recently published YA, adult books lots of children/teens read, retelling worlds

First Competition (here)

Second Competition (here)

Third Competition (here)

Fourth Competition (here)

BCW First Competition (here)

BFB First Competition (here)

Rules/Guidelines

3 books per submission!

Submissions for Childhood Books

Must be a middle grade or young adult book

Must have chapters

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Submissions for Childhood Worlds

Must be the setting of a middle grade or young adult book.

Must be either a whole other world (i.e. Narnia, Panem), a setting largely separate from our own world (i.e. Hogwarts, Camp Half-Blood), or a specific setting within our own world that is invented for the purpose of that book (i.e. 221B Baker Street, Ferryport Landing)

Main characters have to have visited this place

Cannot be somewhere that already exists in our world outside that book

Submissions for Fantasy Books

Must be listed as 'fantasy' or some fantasy subgenre within the first three genres on Goodreads or Storygraph

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Must have chapters but can otherwise be for any age range

Polls

Be respectful (no hate, no harassment, I will block you)

I'm totally okay with spam reblogs; if you want to subject your followers to seventeen copies of a poll, you do you

If you're trying to get my attention about something, @ me or submit an ask, there's no guarantee I'll see all the reblogs

In preliminary polls, if a title gets less than 2% of the vote it will be removed from the list

Propaganda

Submit it to me as an ask; I won't be reblogging personal posts or reblogs of the polls

Promote the book you're supporting; it's okay to poke fun at the other books, but please don't attack them or the authors

Only ONE (1) propaganda post per user per book. I really don't want to clog people's dashes with sixty posts about voting for a single book

Asks

Be respectful, not just to me but to all the people who will end up seeing that ask when I post it

If you're asking about a poll or a rule or anything else, please check and see if it's in this post or elsewhere

Try to keep things focused on the competition/books

Competition Hall of Fame

Childhood Books First Competition: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Childhood Books Second Competition: Animorphs by K. A. Applegate

Childhood Books Third Competition: Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Childhood Books Fourth Competition: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Childhood Worlds First Competition: 35 Portland Row from Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Fantasy Books First Competition: The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

#poll #bracket #competition #best childhood book #best fantasy book #masterpost

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sancta-seraphina · 2 months ago

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Can yo u talk about some of the changes please? Just curious! but only if their not too spoilery

Hi anon,

I want to start this by saying I really did love the old 2019 version of Holiest. I think it's better now, but I loved that original version.

Actually, the longevity of the project is something a lot of people might not know about, so I wouldn't mind commenting on that, but after I answer the question.

About the chapters themselves:

One of the immediate changes for previous readers is that the entirety of the first chapter has been rewritten. It is much longer.

Chapters 2 through 5 have been reworked to accommodate for the removal of some characters (a separate topic).

Chapters 6, 7, and 8... I decided I didn't like, so those have been rewritten too. The content itself stayed the same. I just didn't like the writing, I felt it no longer reflected my writing style. I kept some things where I could suffer them, though. They also have some sparkly new scenes, which I will talk about below.

Chapter 9 is currently planned to be the same, however, I may just decide that I hate it. In which case, it will suffer the same fate as 6, 7, and 8 (same content, just rewritten).

As mentioned, a huge change was the removal of some of the characters who were, in my opinion, complicating and distracting from the story. This also included reducing the number of POVs (some scenes were simply rewritten to be from a different POV). Currently we have Lucifer as the main POV of the story for obvious reasons, with other scenes from the POV of Beelzebub, Jehoel, and newly, Metatron. The only thing that upsets me about this is that those characters who were removed were female, and my cast does not satisfy me in terms of having a lot of female characters.

Metatron is another significant change. Previously, he was only in three (3) scenes in the entire story, because I didn't actually need him until the last chapters despite him being so important (unlike The Harrowing, where he has a prominent role, Lord save us). But Metatron became really popular on my instagram, so I decided to work in more scenes with him and also to write from his POV [which you can get a preview of in today's excerpt].

The plot? Is the same. The worldbuilding? Also the same.

The map? I'm ignoring it (by which I mean procrastinating), BUT I've also made additional maps for the novel that can be previewed on my [patreon]. The illustrations? Uh, are not going to be the same and I'm kicking myself for it.

The method of publication? Totally different, it's no longer free—it's going to be a physical book now.

Anyways I hope that answered your question without spoiling too much.

The other thing that I wanted to discuss is the longevity of the project.

Although I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself right now to get the novel back out there, Holiest is nothing new, both to my long-term followers (hello to anyone who knew me in grad school or earlier, and also to all those who re-followed me upon changing blogs), and also to my life in general. It didn't have a name until 2016 or 2017 (I forget which), but my main character, yes I'm talking about Lucifer, literally dates back to 2007 and I still have my first drawing of him with that timestamp. Maybe I'll be brave enough to share it one day.

And the story has always had the same themes, even from its beginning days in '07, '08, and '09: with a heavy emphasis on mental illness/psychosis (of the devil in particular), angels in Hell, and Revelation-inspired visions/hallucinations.

As mentioned, the novel itself was completed in 2018 (I did not write during college/grad school due to lack of time, and I graduated in 2015. I do have endless artworks of the characters from throughout my time in college) and I began publishing in August of 2019. Also my patreon itself dates back to 2017.

But I like to take my time when creating, don't outsource my illustrations to others (please understand how much time art takes), and I am a company dancer in a ballet. So yes, it has been over five years now since first putting it online.

Anyways, although it's been updated, it is not changing in terms of what it is, it has been here for a VERY long time (which others can attest to), and it is also NOT going away.

#idk just needed to say that last part #almost dug out all the receipts for it too #i know there's a ton of other angel stories out there #but i want everyone to know that mine is not new and was not conceived even remotely recently #and my characters in particular are older than some people on here #social media just despises me and won't let me get popular #asks #anon asks #i'm sorry i got off topic there #ALSO SORRY i forgot about this for weeks

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majora-master064 · 1 month ago

Text

Hello.

I've been lurking here and there for quite some time, but I thought it'd be fun to finally say hello. Running people around in circles can only entertain for so long after all!

You may call me Ben. I use he/him pronouns, since that seems to be something you all care about?

My age is a fickle thing, especially after so long. But generally you can assume I'm somewhere in my late teens to early 20's.

My main interest is obviously Zelda, and while my favorite games are Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask, I've been making my way through the rest of the collection. Currently I'm playing Minish Cap.

I also enjoy horses, old digital technology (especially computers and game consoles), and I've been exploring video games in general.

Finally, I am a faithful Moon Child and follower of our goddess Luna. I was the youngest in my congregation to ascend, and it's by Her grace alone that I exist the way I do.

Please feel free to send me asks or reblog my posts to say hello. Recommend gamws, show me things I may find interesting, or ask me about my faith if you're interested. I'm always happy to engage prospective disciples or people who are simply curious.

As a final note some of my posts may include codes, cryptic text, and other such things. If you are struggling to read or understand them or face any other accessibility concerns on my page, please message me and I will do my best to assist. The game is no fun if not everyone can play, after all.

[OOC info, character docs, and possible TW's under the cut]

I welcome any and all types of blogs to interact here. You don't have to be a canon character, creepypasta based, or even a rp blog! My roleplay style is generally semi-lit in one on one rp, and the blog is generally written like an actual tumblr blog.

Hello hello! This is the Mun of the blog, and I welcome you. You may call me Chalk or Clover! I am 19 and use they/he/it pronouns. I operate in EST! My main blog is @meshiitsukaii and my messages are always open for concerns, questions, or ideas for roleplay!

Some Muse info that may be relevant:

My Ben is a mix of the "original" BEN_DROWNED from back in ye olden days of creepypasta and the Ben from the ARG. The ARGs lore has been mixed a bit and altered, so expect some things to be quite different.

Ben is a digital poltergeist, able to possess most electrical and digital spaces and move through them. The internet is like a playground for him, a place he can move through and interact with with ease.

Ben is best described as an age-slider. While some ghosts remain static and non-changing, often stuck in the same state, Ben is able to grow and change in many ways due to the nature of his ascension. This includes him having aged somewhat since the end of the events of the ARG and being freed from his statue form. But while he's grown some it's not a 1-1 of years passing, and he still will regress to younger forms/states of mind in certain situations, moods, or just because. This can be taken a bit like IRL age regression, but it isn't quite the same.

Possible TWs:

I will do my best to tag any and all needed TW, but please tell me if I miss something or you see something that you feel needs tagging.

Cults, religion, and religious trauma is possibly the biggest warning here. Ben was born and raised in an isolated community, and is still deep in the indoctrination. This will be something he unlearns and grows past, but as for now it is a large part of him.

Indoctrination, isolation, brainwashing and manipulation, cognitive dissonance

Apocalyptic thinking/doomsday cult, unhealthy magical thinking, end of the world scenarios

Ritualized suicide/murder (Ascension)

All of these things are often hidden in flowery language, but will be tagged nonetheless.

Internalized homophobia, ableism, misogyny

Medical neglect and educational neglect

#ben drowned #creepypasta #moon children #ben drowned arg #roleplay blog #rp #creepypasta rp #creepypasta roleplay #ask blog #creepypasta ask blog #new ask blog #new blog #benjamin lawman #long post #intro post #introduction

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animesmolbean · 5 months ago

Text

Words Hold Power

An “The Umbrella Academy” fanfiction

Five x Reader

(Male)

Speaking of which, please, no spoilers for S4 since I have not watched it yet. I'll let you guys know where I am in S4 in coming posts.

I did research on this topic and wanted to be sure I was handling it correctly. I researched how I should write transgender characters and their journeys throughout the story.

I also read other TUA fanfictions for research to see how other authors handle it, and like the research, it's a mixed bag. Some use Viktor only, and some show the name change.

After researching, I decided on an approach.

I will follow what the show does and show the transition story Viktor has. I chose this because I believe it's a beautiful journey, and the show does a great job handling the topic.

One last thing, all the main characters (The Hargreeves siblings) are aged up a little.

With all that said, I hope you enjoy the first chapter! ♥️

~Character Info~

(As you can tell, this was inspired by the anime character, Toge Inumaki from Jujutsu Kaisen.)

Chapter 1: We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals (Family Reunion)

On the twelfth hour of the first day of October 1985, forty-three women around the world gave birth.

This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women have been pregnant when the day first began.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.

He got eight of them.

Many years later, the kids grew up and went on with their lives as adults.

There was Number One, aka Luther Hargreeves. Big, strong and was currently on the moon, studying and preparing for whatever his mission was.

There was Number Two, aka Diego Hargreeves. Impulsive, brave and works as a vigilante of sorts.

There was Number Three, aka Allison Hargreeves. Famous actress who was currently on the red carpet in front of paparazzi.

There was Number Four, aka Klaus. A lazy, free-spirited soul who is currently leaving rehab and using the money he got from the rehab to buy drugs. He ended up in the back of an ambulance.

And, there was Number Seven, aka Vanya Hargreeves. She was quiet, timid and was currently leaving the theater after practicing her violin.

However, their lives would change forever with one broadcast.

Their father was now dead.

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY

☂

Vanya rode a taxi to her childhood home. A place she lived for many years.

The Umbrella Academy.

A tall condo-like building with a black gate.

Vanya approached the building and opened the doors, whose windows were decorated by umbrellas.

It was just as Vayna remembered it. Every little detail was still there.

“Hey, Mom.”

Vanya called to the woman in the living room. Said woman sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace which currently had a fire going. She stayed still as she stared into the dancing flames.

“Mom?”

“Vanya?”

A familiar voice turned Vanya’s attention elsewhere.

“You're actually here.”

She turned and saw her sister, Allison coming down the stairs.

“Hey, Allison.”

“Hey sis.”

Allison now stood before her sister. She chuckled and brought the other girl into a hug, which Vanya quietly but graciously returned.

“Ah. What is she doing here?”

A new voice spoke through the quiet foyer.

“You don't belong here. Not after what you did.”

It was Diego.

“You're seriously gonna do this today?” Allison spoke up, her tone telling that she wasn't in the mood for the male's attitude.

“Way to dress for the occasion, by the way.” She added, mocking Diego’s attire as he ascended the stairs. He was still in his “hero” gear; knives and everything.

“At least I'm wearing black.” Diego shot back nonchalantly as he turned left on the stairs, disappearing from the girls’ views.

Vanya, now uncomfortable, spoke up quietly, “You know what? I- Maybe he's right. And I shouldn't-”

“Forget about him.” Allison interrupted her. “I'm glad you're here.” She spoke softly. Vanya’s lips quirked up a little at Allison's words. The sisters shared a moment of silence.

☂

Diego arrived at his late father's room, to see Luther there checking the windows. He leaned against the doorframe.

“I can save you some time. They're all locked. No forced entry, no sign of struggle. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

As he spoke, he walked over to Luther who was also walking towards him.

“Oh, you got big, Luther. What's the secret, huh? Protein shakes? Low carbs?” Diego asked mockingly.

“What do you want?” Luther asked, not wanting to deal with Diego's attitude.

Diego reached into his pocket and pulled out a few folded pieces of paper, handing them to Luther. “The autopsy report.”

After he teasingly tried to pull them away from Luther, the latter brother snatched them out of his hand.

“And you have this, why?” Luther asked.

“Yeah, so?” Luther looked at Diego.

“So, why are you in here, checking all the windows?”

“Were you the first one on the scene?” Luther asked.

“Pogo found him.” Diego answered.

“Yeah, I talked with Pogo. He said he couldn't find Dad's monocle.”

“And your point being?” Diego asked in a bored tone.

“Can you think of a single time you saw Dad, and he wasn't wearing that monocle? No. Which means someone took it. Which means there's a chance he wasn't alone when he died.”

“You should leave.” Lither spoke, not liking Diego's tone with that last sentence he spoke.

“Whatever you say, brother.” Diego said in a mocking tone as he turned to leave. Before he did, he turned back to Luther. “By the way, did you visit (Your Name) yet?”

Luther shook his head. “No. I was about to, actually.”

“You know where he is.” Diego simply said.

☂

The title read, “Extra Ordinary My Life as Number Seven”

It was her autobiography book. The one she wrote when she left the academy.

She observed it solemnly, until a voice spoke out.

“Welcome home, Ms. Vanya.”

She turned and saw Pogo, a human sized monkey dressed formally with a cane and glasses.

Vanya walked over to him and hugged him. Pogo hugged back with a hum. “So good to see you.” He noticed the book in her hand. “Ah, yes, your autobiography.”

“Do you know, um…” Vanya paused before continuing. “Did he ever read it?”

Pogo thought for a moment before replying, “Not that I'm aware of.”

Vanya turned her attention to the portrait above the fireplace. It showed a boy, around seventeen in age, sitting with a neutral but sophisticated look on his face.

“How long has it been since Five disappeared?” She asked.

Pogo turned to look at the portrait too. “It's been sixteen years, four months, and fourteen days.” The two looked at each other. “Your father insisted I keep track.”

“And… how long has (Your Name) been in that coma?”

“Sixteen years, four months, and six days.” Pogo replied.

“You wanna know something stupid? I always used to leave the lights on for him. I was scared that he would come back, it would be late, and the house would be dark and he wouldn't be able to find us, so he'd leave again. And he would take (Your Name) with him. So, every night, I'd make a little snack and make sure all the lights were on.”

“And look where that got him.” Vanya said solemnly.

☂

Allison went up to her late father's study, looking around the area. The familiarity of it brought up a memory.

〰️

Reginald Hargreeves was working in his office, as usual, when Grace knocked on the door. She entered before closing the door.

“The children are ready for bed, sir. They wanted to say goodnight.”

She turned and walked a couple of paces and opened the sliding door.

The children were all smiling as they waited for their father to acknowledge them. But he was so into his work that he didn't even glance up at them.

“I'll be there in a minute (Your Name).” The girl whispered. (Your Name) tilted his head to the side. Allison spoke again, “Why don't you go hang out with Five for a bit before bed? I know you planned on it.” She gave the masked boy a small smile. (Your Name) felt his cheeks warm up, but he nodded, leaving and quietly walking over to Five. The boy saw him coming and, with a nod of his head, gestured to him to follow him. (Your Name) nodded and started to walk beside him. As he did, he heard Allison,

“He's always busy.”

〰️

“Where's the cash, Dad?”

The sound of a voice diverted Allison's attention and she walked over to her father's desk, hearing clamoring noises. She leaned forward to look to see who was over there.

“Klaus? What are you doing in here?” She asked.

Allison let her brother act because it was how he always behaved when she noticed the white paper bracelet on his left wrist. “Just out of rehab?” She asked.

“You know how I know? Because if he were alive, not one of us would be allowed to set foot in this room.” Allison silently agreed with Klaus.

“Get out of his chair.”

Klaus turned his head and saw Luther standing by the doorway. “Oh, wow, Luther! Wow, you really, uh… You really filled out over the years huh?” Klaus said as he stood and flexed his arm muscles.

“Klaus.” Luther warned.

“Save the lecture. I was already leaving. You guys can talk amongst yourselves. I am going to visit (Your Name). Oh! The precious little brother of ours.” He chuckled softly. Before he could leave though, Luther stopped him. “Drop it.”

“Ex-squeeze me?” Klaus said.

“Do it. Now.” Luther ordered.

“So, Klaus is still Klaus, in case you are wondering.” Luther started.

“You know, after all these years, I find it strangely comforting.” Allison stated.

“Did you see Diego?” Luther asked.

“With his stupid outfit?” Allison added in amusement.

“Oh, I know. Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom?” Lauther asked.

“Like in the shower?” Allison asked for confirmation.

“Yeah.” Luther confirmed.

“Yes, absolutely!” Allison laughed.

〰️

A little later, everyone congregated in the living room. The fire was still going in the fireplace as everyone sat in silence.

Luther started talking about doing a memorial service for their late father. Some like Allison were mostly confused by this, or making fun of it like Klaus.

“Is that my skirt?” Allison asked, noticing Klaus wearing a skirt now.

“Oh, yeah this. I found it in your room. It's a little dated, I know, but it's very breathy on the bits.”

“I can't just call Dad into the afterlife and be like, “Dad, could you just stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?”

“Since when? That's your thing.” Luther said.

“I'm not in the right… frame of mind.”

“You're high?” Allison asked, not surprised.

“Yeah! Yeah!” Klaus laughed. “I mean, how are you not listening to this nonsense?”

“Well, sober up, this is important.” Luther said.

Klaus only sighed.

When Luther started talking about the missing monocle, Diego concluded that Luther was suspicious of all of them, saying that Luther thought one of them killed their dad. This caused everyone to get upset. Diego insulted Luther's leadership, Klaus got up and jokingly said that he might as well go murder their Mom and (Your Name), unless he was already dead. Vanya left in silence and. Allison left in silence as well. Luther tried to defend himself, but it was too late.

They weren't always like this. When they were kids, they were tight knit.

〰️

17 YEARS AGO

The armed men surveyed the bank as they pointed their guns at the bound up hostages and pushed them behind the counter as they proceeded with the robbery.

Unexpectedly, a girl with curly black hair, in a school uniform and mask, walked casually to one of the robbers.

It was Allison.

“Hey, get back with the others.” The robber ordered the girl.

“I heard a rumor.” Allison spoke.

“What? What did you say?”

Allison leaned forward and used her ability, “I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot.”

The robber pointed his gun at one of his partners and promptly shot him in the foot, knocking him down. The hostages screamed at the sound of the gun.

Suddenly, someone dressed in a boy's school uniform with a mask came crashing down from a window above and landed behind the counter. It was Luther. He punched one robber and threw him out the window with surprising strength.

There were now only two robbers left in the lobby.

One of them climbed onto the desk and pointed his gun shakily at the three kids. “Get back, you freaks.”

“Hey, be careful up there, buddy.” Diego, the knife throwing kid taunted.

��Get back now!”

“Wouldn't want you to get hurt.” Allison taunted as well.

“Or what?”

A fourth kid appeared seemingly out of nowhere, sitting criss cross on the desk. A taunting smirk on his face. This was Number Five.

The robber shot at Five, but he disappeared and reappeared on the other side. When the robber turned around and tried to shoot him again, he suddenly realized that he was not holding a gun.

“Ooh! That's one badass stapler!” Five taunted before smacking the guy's hand holding the stapler into his head. This knocked the robber over.

All they had to do now was get rid of the robbers in the vault.

Or so they thought.

There was one more.

He loaded his gun and his gun cocked, catching the kids off guard.

“Down you freaks!” He yelled.

Suddenly, running from a hidden place behind a wall, was a fifth kid, dressed like the rest of the boys, as he pulled down his face mask. He directed his attention to the robber.

“Explode!”

The single word echoed loudly through the bank, and just before the guy could turn his gun to the boy, his body suddenly exploded, body parts, guts, and blood spreading out everywhere. The hostages screamed in fear. The boy quickly covered his face again, breathing heavily as he ran to his siblings.

He gestured to all of them. They couldn't see much of his face, but they could tell he was worried by the look in his eyes.

“We're okay. Thanks (Your Name).” Allison said.

(Your Name) hummed, nodding as he walked over to behind the desk with the others, while two more kids dressed like the rest of the boys joined them. Five looked at him. “That was pretty badass. Good work.” He complimented, giving him a smile. (Your Name) felt his cheeks warm up a little, and he tilted his head a bit and closed his eyes. Most people wouldn't be able to tell his expression behind the mask, but Five knew he was smiling at him in thanks.

“Do we really have to do this?” A meek voice asked.

“Come on, Ben. There's more guys in the vault.” Luther told the boy.

Ben sighed as he walked to the vault door. “I didn't sign up for this.”

Once it was quiet, Ben came out, covered in blood. “Can we go home now?” He asked, his breathing shaky.

It was time to leave.

The seven kids started walking towards the entrance of the bank. (Your Name) pulled out a small vial and turned the cap. He pulled the bottom part of his mask up and put the bottle to his lips. He tilted his head back and started swallowing the liquid. He finished it and placed the empty bottle back in his pocket.

“Are you feeling okay?”

Five's voice made (Your Name) turn to him. He nodded and hummed in thanks. Five offered his arm to him. “Ready?” He asked. The boy nodded again, and he hooked his arm with Five's. Five smiled at him, and they started walking after their siblings.

The seven kids emerged from the back as the news reporters pointed their cameras at the group, and they all clamored to try to talk to them.

Above on the top of a building nearby, stood Reginald Hargreeves, observing the other kids with a mini telescope. An eighth kid, dressed like Allison, stood next to him.

“Why can't I go play with the others?” The girl asked.

“We've been through this before, Number Seven. I'm afraid there's just nothing special about you.” Reginald said as he lowered his telescope.

The girl looked down. “Oh.”

Eventually, Reginald came down to stand with the children.

“Our world is changing. Has changed. There are some among us gifted with abilities far beyond the ordinary. I have adopted seven such children.”

‘You mean eight.’ (Your Name) thought to himself as he looked down temporarily, his arm still linked with Five's.

“I give you the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy.”

Many news reporters asked many questions.

“What happened to their parents?” One asked.

“They were suitably compensated.” Reginald replied.

“Are you concerned about the welfare of the children?” Another asked.

“Of course. As I am for the fate of the world.” Reginald said.

〰️

☂

Everyone was in separate rooms, having their alone time after the little dispute from earlier. Klaus was still in the living room, trying to talk to their late father, but he ended up knocking the vase filled with his ashes over.

Luther was walking through the hallways, reminiscing until he got to his room.

Allison was looking through her belongings until she found a gold heart locket with ‘A+L’ carved onto the front.

Klaus took the vase into the kitchen where he proceeded to take more pills.

Diego laid on the couch in the living room, playing with one of his knives.

Vanya sat on the stairs, a solemn look on her face.

Luther eventually found a familiar record and played it on the record player.

“I Think We're Alone Now” by Tiffany started to play.

Everyone heard the familiar tune all throughout the house and they all started to dance in their respective rooms.

Childhood nostalgia ran through their bodies as they all danced like no one was watching. Even Pogo moved a little to the beat.

But suddenly, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed.

The music stopped as the house reacted to the violent disturbance.

The siblings all ran to the courtyard and saw a giant hole, surrounded by blue lightning.

“What is it?” Vanya asked.

“Don't get too close!” Allison warned.

“Yeah, no shit.” Diego said.

“Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly. Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two.

“Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan.” Diego insulted.

“What is that gonna do?” Allison asked.

“I don't know. Do you have a better idea?” Klaus asked.

The anomaly got stronger and Luther ushered everyone behind him to protect them. Klaus wanted to run. Luther and Allison held hands.

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?” Klaus asked.

The boy known as Five looked at himself then back at the siblings.

“Shit.”

☂

The six were now in the kitchen. Five was busy making a sandwich while the others watched in shock.

“What's the date? The exact date.” Five asked.

“The 24th.” Vanya replied.

“Of what?”

“March.”

“Good.”

Luther spoke up. “So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?”

Five didn't reply. He just continued with making his sandwich.

Silence fell for a couple seconds until Luther stood up. “It's been seventeen years.”

Five scoffed. “It's been a lot longer than that.” He blinked over to the cabinet.

“I haven't missed that.” Luther muttered.

“Where'd you go?” Diego asked.

“The future. It's shit, by the way.” Five replied as he blinked back to the table.

“Called it.” Klaus said.

“I should've listened to the old man. You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice.” Five looked up at the siblings. “Nice dress.” He told Klaus.

“Oh, well, danke!” Klaus said, playing with the article of clothing.

“Wait, how did you get back?” Vanya asked.

“In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time.” Five explained.

“That makes no sense.” Diego spoke up.

“Well, it would if you were smarter.” Five sasses.

Diego stood up to confront the boy, but Luther stopped him, holding him back.

“How long were you there?” He asked.

“Forty-one years. Give or take.”

Luther and Diego sat back down. “So what are you saying? That you're fifty-eight?” The former asked.

Five looked at Luther. “No, my consciousness is fifty-eight.” He finished his sandwich. “Apparently, my body is now seventeen again.”

“Wait, how does that even work?” Vanya asked.

“Delores kept saying the equations were off. Eh.” Five took a bite out of his sandwich. “Bet she's laughing now.”

Vanya was confused. “Delores?”

Five ignored her and looked at the newspaper that told him about Reginald Hargreeves’ death. “Guess I missed the funeral.”

“How'd you know about that?” Luther asked.

“What part of the future do you not understand?” Five asked. “Heart failure, huh?”

“Yeah.” “No.” Diego and Luther said together.

Five hummed before clicking his tongue. “Nice to see nothing's changed.” Then, he got a good look at his siblings again. He realized that one was missing. “By the way, where's (Your Name)?”

The other five siblings looked at each other, solemn expressions on their faces now. “Well…” Vanya started. “There isn't an easy way to say this.” Allison said. “He's in a coma.” “He's dead.” Klaus and Diego finished. “Diego!” Allison scolded.

Five looked at his siblings, a subtle look of worry on his face, but on the inside, his heart was beating faster. “What happened?”

There stood…

(Your Name).

Klaus yelled in surprise.

“Holy shit.” Diego said.

Everyone else looked in surprise.

(Your Name) was alive.

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sugutoad · 2 months ago

Text

HOW TO MAKE A COVER PART 1

PART 2

We all the saying “never judge a book by its cover”, but be honest without yourself. There has at least been one time when you did pick or didn’t pick a book because of its cover. Anne many people make fanfics these days, but sometimes when you scrolling on Wattpad, it isn’t a stories name or summary that usually stops you from scrolling down a list of fics, it’s the cover that makes it stand out.

“But how do I make my cover stand out? I don’t know how to make one?” Simple trick: make it look good. It is natural for humans to take a liking to looking at good things.

WARNING: I am no master at making covers, this is something simple I decided to do to help a few people. But today, I will tech you make covers like these (both covers are made by me for a friend, do not steal or edit my work):

INTSTRUCTIONS:

Find a website obviously. Since I’m a broke bitch, I don’t spend my money on Photoshop or anything fancy. So lemme give you a free and easy app: IbisPaintX (it works on laptops, iPads, phones. But for this purpose, I recommend choosing an iPad).

2. Find some pictures. In order to make a cover, you obviously need pictures. I recommend adding 2~ faces in the cover so you have space for adding additional photos for fun that fit the theme. Also make sure to have at least one background photo so when you add your pictures on top, they’re istn too much white space showing. I recommend going on Pinterest to find photos. Also, remember to pick a theme. Are you going for something romantic? Something tragic? Or thriller? For this tutorial, I’ll be making a romantic cover, but my theme is more grayish (always try to plan on an image mentally before actually making anything). These will be my images for this tutorial:

(Keep in mind, you probably won’t be using all of your images. It is simply better to have lots of photos, in case a certain one might not workout. Throughout the process of making the actual cover, you might go around and change photos up or even add new ones as I do).

3. Once you get your photos, go to IbisPaintX and click on the plus sign.

This should open a chart (the image on the right) for you, that allows you to pick the size of your cavas. You can either make your own size, or choose one of the premade ones. I recommend the 768 x 1024 size.

4. Now we have our canvas! Currently it should be blank, but see that little number 1 at the bottom? That is used for layers. When you press thag, you should open to the setting in the second image. Click on the little camera circled.

It should open to this and you should pick 1-2 photos. These photos should add as our backgrounds. Every time you open a photo, It will pop up something that asks if you want to extract or remove any backgrounds, press cancel for every image until I say so.

Currently, the two photos look stiffer than my back. Let’s try to blend them together! In order to do that, you should head over to the erasers. When you go there, press on airbrush and lower the opacity (I normally use 45% to blend most photos)

Softly blend the two images and try to prevent any sort of white spots from forming. This should be our finished results:

5. The next step is quite similar. Now that you know how to add on images, continue to add more images on top and blend them into one another. DO NOT OVERDO THIS

BOOM! Jusr have fun in this process, add on images and remove, blend around. If the colors don’t fit that well together, it’s ok, we will work on that in future steps. But now, it’s time to add our main characters on the cover. I usually add them in the middle, since that is where the attention is most drawn. Simply add them on and erase the edges of the sides to make it proper. Do not erase too much in this step. We are not trying to make the picture blend in, but rather soften the edges of remove the background. Here, this is what I mean:

If there is any more photos at this point that you want to add, go ahead. The next step is merge all the layers. When you opened the layers, you would see how there are many. We are trying to merge them into one. When you open the layers button, there will be a merging button that I circled and simply press on it continuously until you have only one layer.

Our product should be this as of now:

OK YOU MUSF BE SAYING “THIS LOOKS PLAIN AND UGLY!”

I know it does. But because tumblr is a bitch and only allows a certain amount of photos, this will be split into part 1 and part 2. In this part, you learned how to ensemble a cover. In the next part, we will learn how to make it look good. This is PART 2

Thank you for staying this long! If you have any questions so far, please do ask me.

#sazh rambles #sazh covers #sazh writes #sazh helps #covers #book cover #fanfic #fanfic help #tips #art tips #art tutorial #guide

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schizosupport · 6 months ago

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I apologize if this is too personal, but what does it feel like to be multiple people at once? (Please correct me if my wording is off or ask for clarification if necessary)

Hey! So I think that this feels incredibly different for anyone who has this experience, and I don't think that my experience is particularly typical.. But at the end of the day I am only the authority on my own experiences, so I will talk about those.

For me, it's like. I'm rarely multiple people *at once*, though it does happen. Most of the time I'm kind of no-one. I have a hard time conceptualizing myself as a real coherent person, I'm somewhere outside of conscious existence. And then sometimes I'm someone. And when I'm Someone, it's not always the same Someone.

For me it started when I was struggling a lot with taking care of myself. I was living on my own, and the combination of adhd, negative symptoms and disorganisation meant that my living space was rotting around me and I was barely eating etc. I would spend hours upon hours just lying on my sofa and looking up into the ceiling.

At that point a dude named Elias started to be a thing. His name came from the word "alias" because he was like a secret alter-ego. Elias has higher standards than I did. And he was grumpy about it, but ultimately he was there to help me. Sometimes he would "take over" and break us out of the funk. He would feed me, try to make my space less of a health hazard, etc. Elias was also having an identity crisis of his own, because WHAT is he, WHY is he?

Around this time I had lost contact with a friend who had been my main social interaction for the past 11 years. It was a pretty toxic relationship, and one of the ways we "made it work" is that we would come up with roleplay characters who didn't hate each other and who didn't abuse each other, and then we would pretend to be anything from loving siblings to friends to lovers. It meant I had spent years cultivating different personas that were a necessity to my mental safety. They felt very real to me. When I fell asleep as one of them I would have their dreams etc.

So I think partially my brain was struggling because now I was "me" all the time - and who was I?

So there was Elias. Then came M, who was a direct descendant of one of the characters that I had used to be around my ex-friend.

And on top of this, I always have had the tendency to experience age-regression which may or may not be related, but would over time get entangled with this other thing.

In the beginning I was very cruel to Elias and M. I didn't consider them real people, but rather some fucked up play pretend of mine, so I thought I could abuse them freely the way I would abuse myself.

Things changed slowly after I met my fiancé, who was a DID system when we met. They didn't push me about it, but I could sense that they disapproved of the way I treated my "others". And so could the others. Elias bonded strongly with the main alter of my then-girlfriend. Eventually they would become a couple, and it wasn't until years later that I (Quinn) started dating said alter. So in a way it was also my brain's response to the divided identity of my loved one.

Anyways that's all just lore but like how does it feel... Well it's kinda just like. Sometimes I'm a different person with different sensibilities and exact relationships and vibe. And when I'm in such a mindstate, some of them have declared their own name and autonomy, and I don't think I get to invalidate that even though in my current mind-state it feels "not real". Because by now they've been telling me that *they* feel real for years, and who am I to deny them their existence?

At the end of the day the body/brain is real and we are all just different variations on that theme. Any of us is as real as anyone else of us.

#actuallypsychotic #plurality #glitch gets personal #actuallyschizo

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gascon-en-exil · 2 months ago

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Ranking the Jock Studio Love Interests, Take 1

The first demo for BLits's Jock Studio has been out for over a year. Now there's a second demo on the horizon slated to release before the year is out, one that promises to show off more of the distinctive mechanical features that are helping it to stand out from the crowd of the numerous gay dating sims that go light on gameplay in favor of focusing their efforts on interesting and clever writing and/or hardcore porn.

The demo we currently have though is very much focused on hooking players with those two elements, something I have to say it does fairly well. Based on that, in this post I'm going to be talking about each of the six love interests and what most grabs my attention about their writing and...other assets...in the first demo. As we get more prerelease material leading up to the full game coming out whenever it does (2025, hopefully?), I'll surely be revisiting this topic. But for now, here's the love interests ranked according to how personally engaging I find them. I also have my opinions on the two featured NPCs in the demo, as well as on (shockingly) the main character himself, but I feel like we need more info on them and what they're going to be doing in terms of the naughty stuff before I can really express my thoughts on those.

Note that while the pics in this post are SFW, some of the opinions are decidedly not.

#6. Leo

The twinkiest of the love interests which already doesn't do an awful lot for me. His explicit content calls attention to his feet which is also not something that gets me going. Personality-wise he's unfortunately rather bland at this point, being rather sunny (sun motifs are all over this guy) and maybe a little too involved and eager to please for his own good. His storyline will almost certainly feature some level of burnout and needing someone - the MC and/or the other jocks, because that's supposed to be a thing - to get him to focus on himself for a change. Again, not really a sexual vibe that interests me, nor is it likely to be character development that wows me.

I don't hate the guy...he's just the one that catches my attention least. Kind of a shame too, because unless NPC Jacques Laurent gets a bunch of unexpected development related to his being French and not just having that name because it's turned into wordplay to make the game's title Leo's the character who's most likely to be culturally relatable for me.

#5 Yuuto

He's hyperactive, makes weird non sequiturs, and is Japanese. That sums Yuuto up pretty well, to the point that he can feel a little exhausting while oddly being not that interesting if you're not into the "exotic" vibe of his theme instrumentation, food preferences, and uh...underwear. (This game taught me what fundoshi are.)

I do like that his zaniness includes a casual nudist streak because that's always good for some silly sexual situations, and also that his masturbation scene in the demo actually plays with his hyperactivity by having him cum too fast and then needing the MC to coach him through taking it slower for the camera. Generally speaking, I like that the demo emphasizes a different professional dynamic between each love interest and the MC when they're making their videos.

#4 Zayne

Insincere, self-assured playboy vibes - flirts with and possibly sleeps with a lot of people (women and men?) but is surely going to have to be taught the meaning of love. Not really my thing, nor am I really into his various piercings including studs on his dick although I'm sure those would feel interesting. It's a little hard not to compare Zayne to Claude from Fire Emblem Three Houses minus any sort of political angle, because he's got the same gimmick of being casually friendly and flirty coupled with the sense that he's hiding something and more guarded than he appears.

How that will play out in his storyline remains to be seen, but as with Claude I find it tougher to get into characters whose biggest draw comes from how mysterious they are. Here's to hoping that will translate to some fun stuff in bed...or on the filming couch, as the case may be. Basically, he's a character I could be really into, but I'll need to see more before I can make that call. It's possible too that something could be done with his apparent bisexuality, as he flirts publicly with his many female admirers while turning on the charm just as much in private for the MC.

#3 Avan

The imperious, overworked student council president...even though I'm not entirely certain that US universities even have student councils, and that this isn't just a carryover trope from anime. But anyway, that angle will hopefully play into the academic and student life sides of gameplay that prerelease info has been touting, to say nothing of him having some level of oversight on the game's titular club. Avan's definitely going to be busy during the special seasonal arcs that were part of the game's many stretch goals; getting him horny and relaxed is no doubt going to be on the table.

Twunkier than I'd normally be into, but his assured, slightly bossy vibes can be fun and could go a number of ways in sex scenes from power bottom to the uncommon twink/twunk top.

#2 Derek

Has the soft Dom energy I most often end up sleeping with in real life, and obviously a treat if you're into muscles and big dicks and probably total tops although with as much as this game is promising it wouldn't surprise me if every guy turns out to be at least a little vers.

More than that though I like Derek as a former adult film star with clearly mixed feelings on the industry even as he's getting back into it. Like Full Service, another dating sim I've covered, Jock Studio is ripe to explore the world of sex work (and male sex workers specifically) from the perspective of its participants, which is naturally something I gravitate toward and something that I hope gets handled with finesse. Derek in particular is an established professional working with a bunch of guys just getting into the industry, so I can see his storyline being something along the lines of his mentoring role getting subverted by the MC discovering he has some hidden baggage about his former work that he doesn't want to share with anyone else. Good stuff all around.

#1 Bryce

Oof. Bryce is already a polarizing character, and while evidently I'm a fan of what it looks like BLits is doing with him I've got a case to make here for putting him in my #1 slot.

BLits's earlier games, Camp Buddy and its sequel, exist in a world where men just aren't straight and it's basically never remarked on that literally every guy ever gets horny for other men. That's great for wish fulfillment, but it can get rather ridiculous at times. Jock Studio, by contrast, is going for a very different tone right from the start, with Bryce being a homophobic gay4pay frat boy who swears very loudly by his heterosexuality. While I understand how this could be very off-putting, even when you know from what kind of game this is that Bryce isn't really straight, I appreciate it as new territory for these developers. Internalized homophobia is a goldmine for character drama, and as with Derek there's also the opportunity to comment on elements of the gay porn industry: in this case, the fixation on "str8 acting" men and on porn scenarios involving "tricking" or "converting" straight guys into having gay sex. There's a lot that could be dug into with Byrce past his abrasive surface.

Additionally, of the three larger love interests Bryce is the one that comes closest to appealing to those who like softer/chubbier builds, even if he's still got the big glam muscles that Zayne and Derek have. His explicit scenes - and the MC's goofy intro to him - call attention to his sizeable pecs and ass (also armpits if you're into those), so that's fun. A lot of people are looking forward to Bryce turning into a big needy bottom...which would indeed be quite entertaining.

#Jock Studio #BLits #Gay dating sims

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