#this is not COMPREHENSIVE by any means it's just a compilation of the best ones i have found that cover a wider range of things to consider

[sogoodtoletgo]

Artist friends, please don't use StickerMule

Full tweet

I've been on the "Fuck Stickermule" train for a few years now after they posted COVID conspiracy bullshit, and it was found out their CEO was a Trump / Anti-LGBTQ+ donor.

Take your business elsewhere. Just because they have good deals occasionally shouldn't mean they should be able to use your money to support shitty recipients.

Some businesses I'd recommend checking out:

StickerGuy -Been using Sticker Guy for like 15 years for my bands stickers over the years. They have some of the best vinyl stickers I've ever used and those things are practically indestructible. Ridiculously good prices too.

RockinMonkey - I've only ever used them for one run of holographic stickers but the quality is so good and I'd definitely go to them again if I were to get more printed.

StickerNinja - Never personally used but I've seen so many people recommend them and their quality shows on their socials. And I'm fairly certain they're BIPOC owned, super pro-LGBTQ+ and are very vocally Pro-Palestine which is a plus in my book!

StickerApp - has been getting a lot of positive feedback in the reblogs! Vograce - I've read some good things about them in the reblogs, and I've also seen some people on Tiktok showing off acrylic keychains they've made with their services!

EDIT [7/18/2024]:

Found this cool document full of information on other sticker / merch printers with a ton of comparisons and examples compiled by Theresa Chiechi! They also have a series of Tiktok videos linked on that page showing the different businesses they've tried. Be sure to check it out if you want a comprehensive look into your best options.

Please feel free to leave any other suggestions!

[exeggcute]

none of this is new info, but you know I have the "loves to write lists and compile links" disposition, so I thought it might be helpful to share some of the tips I've seen about how to make sure you're sharing legitimate palestinian evacuation fundraisers and bundle all those tips into a single handy reference post.

this is a spreadsheet of legitimate ("vetted") fundraisers on tumblr.

this post explains how the people who maintain this spreadsheet confirm the legitimacy of each fundraiser they add.

this podcast episode ("yousef and the fourth move") explains why evacuation fundraisers are often organized by people who don't live in gaza and/or who may not be immediate relatives of the people trying to evacuate. it's part three of a series about a man named yousef and his family; parts one and two aren't required listening for part three to make sense, but if you have a few hours to spare then I wholeheartedly recommend listening to all of them.

this is the process that I personally have been using to check whether a particular fundraiser has been vetted:

spreadsheet method

open the vetted fundraisers spreadsheet.

inside this spreadsheet, open the "find..." menu. on a windows computer, this shortcut is ctrl+F. on a mac, this shortcut is cmd+F. on a mobile device, click the three dots menu in the upper right corner of your screen, then select Find and replace.

search for the last name of the person or family in the fundraiser. you may get several results because last names obviously aren't unique; keep hitting "next" until you've looked at all the results.

if you find an entry in the spreadsheet that has the exact same name and whose gofundme link leads to the same fundraiser associated with the blog, it's legitimate. if you don't find an entry in the spreadsheet that matches the blog's fundraiser, that does not mean it's a scam. try the next method below!

tumblr search method

copy the username of the tumblr who originally posted the fundraiser and/or sent you a message asking you to boost the fundraiser. (for example, username123)

paste this username into tumblr's search bar.

for best results, click the All types drop-down menu, then select Text. since the search page is often dominated by asks sent by username123 (which people then answer and tag with their username), this helps narrow things down a bit.

look to see if any people who are not username123 have made posts confirming that username123 is legitimate. this includes people who've reblogged fundraisers and added notes, people who've compiled masterlists, and people sharing hyperlinks to other posts confirming a fundraiser's legitimacy. if the message seems to be "yep, looks legit," then it's safe to assume it's legit.

this is not a comprehensive list, but here are some of the usernames I've seen associated with "yep, looks legit"-type posts and who I've come to trust by association. (disclaimers: I am not mutuals with any of the users, and not all of them do the vetting firsthand, but the ones who don't vet posts themselves still seem to be careful about what they share and therefore are a good lead to follow. also, don't bug these people to vet fundraisers for you unless they've specifically indicated that they're open to that.)

90-ghost

el-shab-hussein

nabulsi

appsa

northgazaupdates

retvolution

communistchilchuck

neptunerings

a-shade-of-blue

shimamitsu

neither of these methods yielded anything definitive; what now?

it may just be too early to tell. unless a trusted source has shared overwhelming evidence that a particular fundraiser is a scam (which seems to be a very very rare occurrence), the best thing you can do is ignore it. don't report their blog as spam, because there's a good chance it's a legitimate fundraiser who just hasn't been vetted yet.

[borutosdad]

oh boy do i have resources :3c

with most things around web content, WCAG is your first and best point of call. the W3 site has a very comprehensive breakdown of what each item means and how to meet it. (WCAG 2 Overview, W3.org)

what WCAG does really well is discuss many facets of accessibility, from content to user pathways to technical specifics. this is often left out of discussions on accessibility -- often web accessibility conversations begin and end with "is this screen-reader friendly". (which isn't to say that everyone is really great about making things screen-reader friendly, because they're not.)

i'll link the rest of my resources under the cut. they're australia-centric because most of them i sourced for work and i am australian. but many are relevant regardless of where you are from.

i've also tried not to link a whole bunch of resources that all say the same thing. i have read all these documents and they've all been very helpful to me in increasing the accessibility of what i produce.

i've organised this list in order of what i feel is probably most relevant to people on tumblr reading this list. i'll cover:

General content guidance (readability, etc.)

Colour

Websites

Images and diagrams

Audio and video

Digital documents

PDFs (get their own special spot because they fucking SUCK irt accessibility)

Forms and surveys

General content guidance

Readability Guidelines (Content Design London) 

Accessible information (Inclusion Australia) A good introductory resource on Easy Read

Inclusive communication tips (Council for Intellectual Disability) 

Colour & graphic design

Contrast (W3C) 

Colour Contrast Analyser (Vision Australia. Blindness and low vision services) 

Communicating data with colour (Department of Transport and Planning, Victoria) 

AccessAbility 2: A practical handbook on accessible graphic design (RGD in Partnership with the Government of Ontario) 

A Guide to Understanding What Makes a Typeface Accessible (The Readability Group) 

Websites

Online accessibility toolkit (Government of South Australia) Great compilation which covers many different stages of a web build and accessibility considerations for different roles.

Accessibility testing toolkit (Digital.NSW) Walks you through running different types of tests on your page

Easy Checks – A First Review of Web Accessibility (W3C) Quick and easy checks to go through before hitting publish

Screen Reader Testing (University of Melbourne) Screen reader checker tools

Online and print inclusive design and legibility considerations (Vision Australia) 

Guidelines for producing accessible e-text (2018) (Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities) 

Images and diagrams

Alt decision tree (W3C) This is the best resource to learn about producing alt text, what to write, and when to use alt text!

Alternative Text (WebAIM) 

How to make social media accessible: Our top three tips (Vision Australia) 

Images (Australian Government Style Manual) 

Guidelines for producing accessible graphics (2022) (Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities)

Audio and video

Requirements and standards for video and audio (Australian Government Style Manual) 

Description of Visual Information | Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) | W3C 

Audio description for videos | Digital Accessibility​ (harvard.edu) 

Quick reference to audio and video requirements under WCAG (Media Access Australia)   

Sign language – Auslan (Better Health Channel) 

Making audio and video media accessible (W3C) 

Guidance on using captions, transcripts and audio descriptions (WebAIM) 

Audio description of visual information (W3C) 

Creating accessible videos (Education NSW) 

Digital documents

Ace by DAISY. A free tool to check accessibility of EPUB files

Microsoft Word documents (Digital.NSW) 

Microsoft Word accessibility (WebAIM) 

Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities (Microsoft) 

Create accessible Word documents video tutorials (Microsoft) 

Make your Google Doc more accessible (Google) 

Microsoft Excel (WebAIM) 

Make your Excel documents accessible to people with disabilities (Microsoft) 

Forms and surveys

Forms (Australian Government Style Manual) 

How to make more inclusive surveys (SurveyMonkey) 

Surveys (Listen Include Respect) 

last thing about this from me i promise. actually i don't, fuck you if you don't like it

the "old web" space is extremely hostile to disabled people. there is a show of patting themselves on the back for linking accessibility resources they've never read, while at the same time flat out promoting inaccessible practices. the thing is, they don't make the page slightly more difficult to read, they make it impossible to.

if you're photosensitive, using an inaccessible page can flat out give you seizures in the case of epilepsy, or otherwise cause massive disabling migraines and other painful effects. if you're a screen reader user, be it because of blindness, dyslexia, or other print disabilities, depending on exactly what nonsense you've done to your website, it can read things in a nonsensical order, refuse to read at all, or flat out CRASH.

if you're out here saying that html is so easy and anyone can learn it, put your effort where your own mouth is and learn accessibility standards. don't be so fucking apathetic - if you think inaccessibility will save you from data harvesting, you frankly deserve it getting stolen

[mecachrome]

silverstone 2024 landoscar post-race stage > full transcript + gifs

watching recordings of this stage genuinely makes my ears hurt because of the crowd noise and i also find the 132843 videos and photos so hard to keep track of so i was like... fuckit, let me transcribe it once and for all so i can have access to a written recap for reference! figured i'd post here in case it's of any use to anyone else... i compiled different fan-posted material to provide visuals from multiple angles whenever possible since i wanted to piece together a somewhat comprehensive summary; sources are linked but if any ops run across this post lmk if you'd like something removed 🙏

(tbh i mostly made this because i wanted the Three (3) instances of them touching in one post. sorry)

Host: Lando and Oscar. What can I say? Wow! Lando: Hello! Beautiful, huh? It's beautiful to see so many people here. H: This is the most people we've had all weekend. They've all come back for you guys, who've come and seen us after the race. How are you both doing? Oscar: (pauses) A lot better now! L: Yeah, better now. We're—we're both... (strokes Oscar's shoulder) we're both a little bit unhappy with how the race ended, but uhhh. You made our day.

"We're both… we're both a little unhappy..." (x)

O: Yes. You really have, so thank you! H: As you said, you were a little bit unhappy, but I have a feeling that every single one of you [fans] is absolutely ecstatic to have these guys up here. I mean, this is... potentially like one of the best crowds you guys have ever had, right? L: Oh no, this is, uh. I think this is even better than last year, so. O: Yeah. (crowd cheering) H: Oscar, what is it like getting all this love from the Brits? We love you! O: (slight pause) Weird, but I love it. So thank you everyone. I know there's a few Aussies here as well, so thanks everyone that's traveled far and wide, thanks everyone for putting up with the weather… Ummm. And yeah. Thanks for supporting us. H: We've got several Oscar signs. I just saw an Oscar sign here— (O: Thank you.) We've got "Let's go Oscar" here… (Crowd starts chanting Ohhh, Oscar Piastri) Lando. I've seen so many signs here saying that next year is your year, mate. "Champion next year." World champion next year for Lando Norris! (crowd cheering) O: (looks over and gently elbows Lando's arm)

(x) / (x)

H: These guys are all behind you! L: Aww... shit. Nah, I'm uh… I'm good. I'm just—you know, there's one race every year where you want to do better than anywhere else, and that's here. This is the one race, and things were going so beautifully, I was leading the majority of the race, and… yeah. It hurts! It hurts coming away from it knowing I almost could've won in my home race, and that's been my dream since I was a kid. So. I'm sorry! But… I'll save it for next year.  H: Hold on a minute. I don't think you need to apologize for anything. I think these guys are still absolutely over-the-moon. I think I can speak on behalf of every single person here to say that they're immensely proud of you and your performance this year. And that goes for you too, Oscar! The team as a whole. This is your team's home race... L: (stares at Oscar intensely and quickly pats his arm) O: (giggles)

(x) / (x)

H: And look at all the papaya! That's all I can say, look at it. O: Yeah. We have the best fans, so thank you very much. To steal that line from Lewis, we have the best fans.  H: What is it actually like being up here, though? Soaking this up. I mean, we never do this any other race; this is the only race we come back to after the race is done and see all of the fans. How special is it? L: It's, uh… it's quite easily the best race of the whole year. It's genuinely the most incredible feeling standing here, having so much support. It was a hard act to follow after Lewis was here, but we want to come back and we want to do better every single time. (gestures at teleprompter) You've only got two minutes left, but I could stay here all night. H: Okay! I just want to say, you do this to me often on stage. You always read my [teleprompter] and tell me when I need to wrap up.  L: (shrugs) H: (sarcastic) I've got it, thank you. Thank you very much. (notices crowd chanting for a shoey) Oh, they want a shoey! L: (softly, shaking head) No.  O: Not happening. H: I think that's a you thing, that's definitely an Aussie thing. O: Last year I got peer pressured. I'm not going to have it again. H: Can we peer pressure you again? O: (shakes head)

(x)

H: Lando, can we peer pressure him again, d'you reckon? L & O: (exchange knowing glances) O: I did one last year, though. L: (teasing) You're going to let down sooo many people!  O: …Well, since you put it that way. 

"You're going to let down sooo many people!" "...Well, since you put it that way." (x) / (x)

H: We've got the beer here! It's happening! (crowd cheering) L: (shakes can) H: Right. Get the shoe off, get the shoe off. (Oscar toes off his right shoe) Oh, the shoe is off! L: (chugs from can, then bends down to fill up Oscar's shoe) O: (pointing between them while Lando shakes his head) You're doing it too!!!  O: (drinks) H: Lando, I think you've got to!  O: (insistently hands Lando his shoe)

(x) / (x) / (x)

H: Everyone, make some noise for Lando. Top it up, Lando. Don't hold back. L: Cheers. (drinks, dumps out the rest, shakes Oscar's shoe out and then tosses it into crowd) O: (bends over and giggles helplessly) [x2]

(x)

H: Guys, absolutely sensational effort from you both. Fantastic. (to Oscar) I hope you've got a spare pair of shoes. O: (lilting) I don't even think that was the worst part of our day!

"I don't even think that was the worst part of our day!" (x)

H: Of course that wasn't the worst part of your day. You're up here with the best fans in the world. I'm being told that I've got to wrap up.  L: Wrap it up. (takes out phone) O: (shuffles behind Lando to snap a crowd selfie)

(x)

H: We have to let Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri go. (crowd booing; L: Boo!) But before we do, please make noise for the incredible, incredible McLaren drivers, and for their fantastic [inaudible] shoey! One last word before you go, for the fans. L: One last word? Uhh, I love you all, thanks so much for all the support. I can't wait for next year already. I'm excited, I want to come back. Um. (waves) O: (smiling) Yep. Thank you everyone. We've had a 2-4 and a 3-4 at Silverstone, I think next year is the year to make it a 1-2. L: Next year [inaudible]. O: Thanks for all your support. Thanks for putting up with the weather, uhhm. I know most of you choose to live in this country, but. Um. Anyway. Thank you very much, and we will see you next year, better! L & O: Thanks everyone. Thank you. (take official crowd photo) H: Fantastic. L: (hypes the crowd by waving his arms up and down) O: (takes signed cap to give to a fan before noticing and giggling at Lando's antics) O: (crawls to the edge of the stage and puts the cap on a young fan's head, signs her poster with Lando)

L: (goes around collecting things thrown onto the stage; first picks up 2 friendship bracelets that say ♥OSCAR♥ and ♥LANDO♥ (can be seen on the underside of his wrist in this video), then picks up a fanmade Oscar doll that he shows Oscar, then picks up one last friendship bracelet and holds it in his left hand as he leaves the stage) O: (takes a few steps away before turning back and chucking his remaining left shoe)

+ bonus: lando keeping the bracelets on

😵‍💫 end scene.....

[etoilesombre]

Hi im a new here i finally watched black sails after someone convinced me. And im changed. I'm. Yeah. I'm not who i was before. It's a bizarrely good show?

I'm so so so glad that so many ppl on ao3 agree with me that flint and silver need to fuck. Have fucked. Will fuck.

This will be all i think about for the next month or so.

If you have fic recs do let me know. I'm in dire need.

Hi my friend and welcome to hell! It's the best, right? ("Month" is a HIGHLY optimistic estimate about how long this will consume your brain...)

So honored that you asked for recs! I don't think I've ever compiled a general list of favorites, I had a great time and I think I'm happy with the results. This is by no means comprehensive, and obviously HIGHLY reflective of my own tastes, which are... uh.. I am known to not enjoy nice things very much. I invite others to reblog with their own favorites. Here we go...

Notes: These are in vaguely chronological order. I'm including word count and brief descriptions so you know what you're getting into but no warnings or anything, that's all on AO3. They are all silverflint and all explicit (I think, there might be one or two 'mature' in there but, this is the they need to, have, and will fuck list.) I didn't include any of my own work because presumably that's how you found my blog so you're aware, but I do have a pinned list, and if you want recs for mine or to talk about any of these just message, I will talk about silverflint all day.

Overall Recommendations:

The Most Unexpected Things by forbiddenarchives (~20k words) I think this one is a great starting point. It is very.. fic flavored fic, if that makes sense, in a great way. Hits the spot. The author's description is "season 2 if everyone were 5000% hornier" and that is accurate. Note this is marked as unfinished, but the place it wraps up feels totally reasonable to me.

As Good as Gone by spinninginfinityboy (~5.5k words) Complicated hot weird semi-hate sex on the way to Charles Town. A thing with a Spanish Dubloon that is emblazoned on my brain forever.

Combat by equestrianstatue (~10k words) A two part series, which I think captures the push-pull early frenemies vibe of s1-2 perfectly. Also the writing itself is stellar.

All alone in a moonlit shanty by PrimalScream (4.3k) Celebrating a good day hunting, Flint gets very drunk and tells the crew a dirty story. Silver tries to put him to bed, but he has different ideas. By far one of the lighter things on this list.

after the winnowing by princesskay (~14k) Set after Silver loses his leg, early in his recovery. Silk pajamas, multiple orgasms and overstimulation as well as their usual codependent fuckery.

What It Feels Like Not to Hurt by Robotboy (~9k) Another recovery fic. As the author says, it's 9k of slowburn watersports but really it's about Silver's pain and autonomy and humiliation and. Just. Even if it's not your usual cup of tea it's hot, give it a try.

vigia by doomcountry (~3k) A short, perfect rendering of their dynamic during early s3 raid times. Heartwrenching character study, excellent porn.

The Sack of James Flint by princesskay (~107k) So, yes, this is a novel length sub!Flint cock and ball torture series. I would make the argument that it is one of the best character studies in the fandom, for real. Absolutely worth your time, but fuck, it hurts your heart as much as your captain's balls in the end.

Concurrence by ember_firedrake (~2.5k) Mid s3. The first time they call each other by their first names. Now, that's not actually a thing I think they do, but, good porn and lower angst.

appreciation by nysscientia (~8k) Flint cultivates a certain aloof persona, but Silver sees right through it, and eventually they kiss about it.

Don't Fear The Ships (Fear The Black) by Farasha (~10k) - Silverflint use learning to sail as a coded way to flirt and talk about feelings (and eventually they kiss about it).

A Ship Is A Republic by Robotboy (~20k) A slow burn fic set during the inter-season sword training times. Love this dynamic, this author does power bottom Flint and sub Silver so fucking well.

deliverance is ours by the light of the stars by piratecaptainraven (3.1k) Flint sees Silver and Madi together, and doesn't stop watching when he should. They don't technically fuck in this, but its SO much pining, and the writing is poetic and gorgeous.

frail and fragile bars by ajaxthegreat (~21k) Possibly the hottest thing I've ever read, this rewrote my brain chemistry. Slow burn-ish. It captures that late season love and dependence and resentment and power struggle.

Cold, Dark, Depraved by notfelix (~10k) When fucking fixes absolutely nothing. This hurts in a way that feels, to me, similar to canon. I hate it (affectionate).

Opportunist by anonymous (~6.1k) This was part of the kinkmeme event (see below) and it fucking changed me. If I recommend one fic and only one fic to process the ending, it's this. It's awful. It's necrophilia and light cannibalism. It's the only thing I can imagine happening after, if Silver actually shoots Flint on that island. It makes me feel bad in the best way.

hand in unlovable hand by brinnanza, Jaynovz (~9.9k) Affectionately known as the worst ending AU, this is actually a great followup to the last one. How Silver copes, after Skeleton Island.

Bonus: AUs. I don't generally read AUs, but these two worked for me, in very different ways that still felt very silverflint.

did the twin flame bruise paint you blue by Jaynovz (138k) Novel length mod AU where silverflint broke up, and we see their relationship along two different timelines, before and after. Toxic fucked up goodness, lots of BDSM dynamics, bonus silvervane! All set in NYC.

holy ghost fire by ajaxthegreat (~52k) Appalachia horror au! The author clearly knows the area, and silverflint is already a ghost story, so it works really well. If you've ever been there you'll know how right it feels, if not, just trust me.

extra bonus: fic event collections and rec lists

kinkmeme

built on sand

beach blanket black sails

@jaynovz has also compiled a number of much more specific rec lists, which can be found at #jay's esoteric rec lists

[arctichotch]

the cod boys at the eras tour ✨

Johnny “Soap” MacTavish:

this man might actually be more excited for the show than you are.

he’s made his own friendship bracelets, handed some out on base. he would never mention it, but he saw ghost wearing his while training rookies.

a dedicated swiftie, knows the setlist off by heart. makes a list of surprise songs he wants.

only listened to taylor for you, but fell in love with her. wants to buy the poster from your show.

maybe tears up a little seeing how happy it makes you and loves that you guys can share this together.

beyond fascinated at the pyro during bad blood. maybe you shouldn’t tell him about the picture you sent to ghost of johnny eying up all the fire.

won’t take any mocking that he’s a taylor swift fan. that’s his singer and he will defend her to the death (not literally but close enough)

Simon “Ghost” Riley:

less into her and more reluctant to attend the show with you. doesn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to go with a friend instead of him. he doesn’t think he’d fit in.

definitely the tall ass boyfriend who blocks people’s view and feels bad about it.

allows you to jazz up a balaclava of his for the show. he normally wouldn’t wear one in public, but he doesn’t exactly feel comfortable in a crowd of thousands, especially with his scars. doesn’t want to scare kids (:()

listens to you talk for hours about taylor swift. anytime you guys are driving together, she’s playing.

wouldn’t consider himself a swiftie, but he knows his stuff. you saw him swaying at times and vibing to shake it off at the show.

you love any reference to ghosts in her songs, even though they’re mostly extremely depressing, because that’s your man!!!!

one of the best nights of his life, but he’d never admit that.

thinks the tortured poets department is one of the best albums ever made. listens to it constantly when he’s away from you.

John Price:

this dude is old!!! he’s not really that old, but acts a lot older than he is! so he honestly doesn’t have a clue who this “taylor swift” is when you two first get together.

boy, does he know her now.

honestly, a swiftie. he can’t deny it. she has some bangers.

cheered you on when you were in the ticketmaster battle to get tickets, not letting on that he was also in the queue on base with his own code. ended up surprising you with the tickets after your attempts failed. will never forget the look on your face.

(he definitely also had selfish reasons trying to get tickets. he just has to go!)

loves it. i mean he doesn’t look like he’s in the eras tour spirit but inside he’s feeling it. looks like someone’s grumpy scary dad, but also knows a solid 80% of the words.

he was big into rock and metal type bands when he was younger. went to tons of shows as a teenager before enlisting. this was his favourite he’s ever seen.

can’t stop admiring the technical aspects. finds it all fascinating. thinks he could’ve been a roadie in another life.

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick:

now this man has been a swiftie since before you two got together. teardrops on my guitar was his jam in secondary school.

glad he can be open with you about how much he enjoys taylor swift when you are together.

you both compiled a comprehensive list when trying to get tickets. with who was going to try for what shows, budgets, codes, dates, times. it reminded him of a mission brief. almost with the same stakes.

you ended up getting tickets for 3 shows across the UK.

had the best time at all of them. would go another 18 times if he could. kept noticing things at each show that he hadn’t seen before and you both kept pointing different cool things out to each other.

definitely one of the best summers of his life, and he got to do it with the love of his life by his side.

cried when the kids got brought up for the 22 hat.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Do you have any advice for vetting sources on I/P? I just got a book at a local bookstore and was wondering how I should go about determining any biases?

Great question. I addressed this in my I/P Reading List. I'm pasting below my section on the methodology and source vetting process I followed while compiling this list:

In compiling this list, my process and methodology were as follows: I first wrote down all the relevant works I could think of off the top of my head, all hailing from my fields of Biblical Studies and Modern Jewish History. I then reached out to my friends in Modern Middle Eastern History, Conflict Studies, Jewish History, etc for recommendations, lists, and insight; one of my friends, an ABD PhD candidate in Modern Middle Eastern History, was particularly helpful in helping me understand Israeli historiography, and pointing me towards the best works in the field of Arab Nationalism. After taking their recommendations, I conducted a series of google searches using “‘relevant search term’ site:.edu” to ensure that I received results from only academic domains. From there, I read syllabi for university courses, and examined comprehensive exam reading lists. After that, I searched the catalog of the New York Public Library using any and all relevant search terms, and I also conducted targeted searches on Amazon. By the time I finished, I had a 50 pages filled with book titles. My next step was to divide the list into categories, deleting irrelevant titles and repeats as I went along. After dividing the books into categories, I put each title through a rigorous fact checking process. I checked the publication material for each book to ensure that it was either a. published by an academic press with a built in peer review process, and/or b. written by an academic historian—either a faculty member, or someone with an MA or PhD in history. If I was still unsure after that step, I searched the title in the University of Maryland’s database system, and read the academic (meaning, peer reviewed) book reviews of the title. From there I either kept it on the list or removed it. As I approached the late-Ottoman period, I became extra-critical of relevant titles. At this point, I made sure to read book reviews from at least two academic journals in different fields/subfields to ensure not only the text’s legitimacy, but its ability to hold firm against the scrutiny of scholars in multiple fields. I tended to remove a work if the word “polemic” appeared in the reviews. This said, many of the works on this list, particularly, but not exclusively, in the Post-1948, Arab Nationalism and the Modern Middle East, Conflict Overviews, and Historiography Narratives, Memory and Theory categories will be slanted, or biased. Considering the topic at hand, this reality is both inevitable and perhaps necessary. I do advise you, however, to read any books you select from these categories critically. The vast majority of these books are academic histories (simply put, I don’t trust popular historians with this topic), so if you are not accustomed to that type of writing, be sure to read the Introduction of whichever books you select very carefully, and understand that you are reading to learn—not necessarily to enjoy. In terms of my categorization…it is imperfect and becomes admittedly fuzzy once we get into the late Ottoman Period. I’m not even 100% comfortable with some of these categories, but alas, if there is one thing I learned from Library Science it is that categories are both terrible and inevitable in the organization of information.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Malcolm Clark

Published: Jul 18, 2023

The LGBT movement is beginning to behave more like a religious cult than a human-rights lobby. It’s not just the Salem-like witch hunts it pursues against its critics. It’s also its flight from reason and its embrace of magical thinking.

This irrationalism is best illustrated by its recent embrace of the term ‘two-spirit’ (often shortened to ‘2S’), which in North America has been added to the lobby’s ever-growing acronym, meaning we are now expected to refer to – take a deep breath – the ‘2SLGBTQQIA+ community’.

The term two-spirit was first formally endorsed at a conference of Native American gay activists in 1990 in Winnipeg in Canada. It is a catch-all term to cover over 150 different words used by the various Indian tribes to describe what we think of today as gay, trans or various forms of gender-bending, such as cross-dressing. Two-spirit people, the conference declared, combine the masculine and the feminine spirits in one.

From the start, the whole exercise reeked of mystical hooey. Myra Laramee, the woman who proposed the term in 1990, said it had been given to her by ancestor spirits who appeared to her in a dream. The spirits, she said, had both male and female faces.

Incredibly, three decades on, there are now celebrities and politicians who endorse the concept or even identify as two-spirit. The term has found its way into one of Joe Biden’s presidential proclamations and is a constant feature of Canadian premier Justin Trudeau’s doe-eyed bleating about ‘2SLGBTQQIA+ rights’.

The term’s success is no doubt due in part to white guilt. There is a tendency to associate anything Native American with a lost wisdom that is beyond whitey’s comprehension. Ever since Marlon Brando sent ‘Apache’ activist Sacheen Littlefeather to collect his Oscar in 1973, nothing has signalled ethical superiority as much as someone wearing a feather headdress.

The problem is that too many will believe almost any old guff they are told about Native Americans. This is an open invitation to fakery. Ms Littlefeather, for example, may have built a career as a symbol of Native American womanhood. But after her death last year, she was exposed as a member of one of the fastest growing tribes in North America: the Pretendians. Her real name was Marie Louise Cruz. She was born to a white mother and a Mexican father, and her supposed Indian heritage had just been made up.

Much of the fashionable two-spirit shtick is just as fake. For one thing, it’s presented as an acknowledgment of the respect Indian tribes allegedly showed individuals who were gender non-conforming. Yet many of the words that two-spirit effectively replaces are derogatory terms.

In truth, there was a startling range of attitudes to the ‘two-spirited’ among the more than 500 separate indigenous Native American tribes. Certain tribes may have been relaxed about, say, effeminate men. Others were not. In his history of homosexuality, The Construction of Homosexuality (1998), David Greenberg points out that those who are now being called ‘two spirit’ were ridiculed by the Papago, held in contempt by the Choctaws, disliked by the Cocopa, treated by the Seven Nations with ‘the most sovereign contempt’ and “derided” by the Sioux. In the case of the Yuma, who lived in what is now Colorado, the two-spirited were sometimes treated as rape objects for the young men of the tribe.

The contradictions and incoherence of the two-spirit label may be explained by an uncomfortable fact. The two-spirit project was shaped from day one by complete mumbo-jumbo. The 1990 conference that adopted the term was inspired by a seminal book, Living the Spirit: A Gay Indian Anthology, published two years earlier. Its essays were compiled and edited by a young white academic called Will Roscoe. He was the historical adviser to the conference. And his work on gay people in Indian cultural history – a niche genre in the 1980s – had become the received wisdom on the subject.

Roscoe’s work had an unlikely origin story of its own. In 1979, he joined over 200 other naked gay men in the Arizona desert for an event dubbed the ‘Spiritual Conference for Radical Faeries���. It was here where he met Harry Hay, the man who would become his spiritual mentor and whose biography he would go on to write. The event was Hay’s brainchild and was driven by his conviction that gay men’s lives had become spiritually empty and dominated by shallow consumerism. For three days, Roscoe and the other men sought spiritual renewal in meditation, singing and classes in Native American dancing. There were also classes in auto-fellatio, lest anyone doubt this was a gay men’s event.

To say Hay, who died in 2002, was eccentric is to radically understate his weirdness. For one thing, he was a vocal supporter of paedophilia. As such, he once took a sandwich board to a Pride march proclaiming ‘NAMBLA walks with me’, in reference to the paedophilia-advocacy group, the North American Man / Boy Love Association. Hay also believed that gay men were a distinct third gender who had been gifted shamanic powers. According to Hay, these powers were recognised and revered by pre-Christian peoples, from Ancient Greece to, you guessed it, the indigenous tribes of North America.

For years, Hay had been experimenting with sweat lodges and dressing up in Indian garb in ways that would now be criticised as cultural appropriation. Despite this, Roscoe took Hay’s incoherent thesis – that gender-bending and spiritual enlightenment go hand in hand – and turned it into a piece of Native American history.

Unsurprisingly, given its provenance, Roscoe’s work is full of holes and lazy assumptions. To prove that two-spirit people combine the feminine and masculine spirits, Roscoe searched for evidence of gender non-conforming behaviour among the Indian tribes. The problem was that he had to mainly rely on the accounts of white settlers who had little understanding of Native cultures. And even when he didn’t rely on those sources, Roscoe still jumped to the wrong conclusions.

Take, for example, the case of Running Eagle, ‘the virgin woman warrior’ of the Blackfeet tribe, whom Roscoe was the first to label as two-spirit. As a girl, she rebelled against the usual girl chores and insisted on being taught how to hunt and fight. She became a noted warrior and declared she would never marry a man or submit to one.

Of course, none of this really means that Running Eagle was two-spirit, or that the tribe she hailed from was made up of LGBT pioneers. It merely shows that the Blackfeet were smart and adaptable enough to recognise martial talent in a girl and were able to make good use of a remarkable individual. Nevertheless, Roscoe’s description of her has become gospel and Running Eagle is now endlessly cited as an example of a two-spirit.

This is a mind-numbingly reductive approach. It’s based on the presumption that what we think of as feminine and masculine traits are fixed and stable across time and cultures. It dictates that no Native American man or woman who ever breaks a gender taboo or fails to conform to expectations can be anything but two-spirit. This is gender policing on steroids.

The two-spirit term also does Native American cultures a deep disservice. It assumes that 500 different tribes were both homogenous and static. As journalist Mary Annette Pember, herself Ojibwe, argues, it also erases ‘distinct cultural and language differences that Native peoples hold crucial to their identity’.

In some ways, it is entirely unsurprising that the wayward ‘2SLGBTQQIA+’ movement has fastened on to two-spirit, an invented term with a bogus pedigree. Far from paying tribute to Native American cultures in all their richness, it exploits them to make a cheap political point. Harry Hay and his fellow auto-fellators would be proud.

==

"Two spirit" is a great way of fabricating an interesting identity when you don't have one. And you can scream at people as "bigots," but without the guilt of lying about your great-grandparents being descendants of Sacagawea.

The fake mysticism goes along neatly with the notion of disembodied sexed thetans ("gender identity") which become trapped between worlds in the wrong meat bodies.

[luxraydyne]

Reconstructing Renju, or Luxraydyne's Renju Receipts

so uh. there were a couple art pieces i wanted to make about 50 years ago that i decided necessitated sifting every line of text in ai the somnium files (2019) to compile every Renju Crumb i could find. anyway i don't have any art. but what i do have is a nifty huge document with every renju mention in the game, including some silly annotations, which i can offer to artists writers and renju enjoyers for their perusal

turns out there's no neat way to organise this stuff to be more searchable since chronological order doesn't really work, so i have tried to create a sort of iceberg-ish format with the most surface-level info at the top and the esoteric interpretative junk at the bottom; in the reblogs i'm gonna add another version i like that's more fun to use but less comprehensive

(disclaimer: no aini in here, sorry, for one million dollars i will deal with the ramifications of my personal sleep paralysis demon, i simply could not be dealing with the migraine)

Sections for Navigation

Level One: File (literally just the stuff in the menu) Level Two: The Carousel Horse's Mouth (flashbacks) Level Three: Hearsay Evidence (direct-ish quotations) Level Four: Known Relationships (with subheadings) Level Five: Bittersweet Reminiscence (subjective memories) Level Six: Finding-Character-Through-What-Is-Out-of-Character Level Seven A: Renju's Experience of Dying (the mind) Level Seven B: Renju's Death Observed (the body) Level Eight: Renju As Ghost/Encryption/Abstraction Level Nine: Scraps, Symbols, YMMV

Level One: File

Age: 37 Birthday: April 13 Profession: Entertainment Company and Maid Cafe Manager Likes: Unusual things Dislikes: Ordinary things Hobbies: Work Skills: Enjoys songwriting Overview: Renju manages the entertainment office Lemniscate and [maid] cafe Sunfish Pocket. He is the ex-husband of Shoko Nadami and Mizuki’s father. He has been Date’s close friend for five years.

Level Two: The Carousel Horse’s Mouth

Renju: “It was my misunderstanding.” Date: “What do you mean?” Renju: “I thought that mothers love their children unconditionally. But some mothers just can’t do that. Well, no, maybe she does love her. But she has a hard time of it. Shoko was never hugged by her mother. Not because her mother wasn’t around. She was raised to never develop a sensitivity to affection. No hugs, no piggyback rides, nothing. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t know how to love Mizuki. When an animal raised in captivity gives birth, sometimes it just doesn’t know how to raise its young. It’s just like that.” Date: “I do feel bad about Shoko… But that doesn’t mean she’s blameless in all this. Someone has to put a stop to it.” Renju: “If I could have, I would have done it a long time ago.” Date: “What about counselling?”Renju: “I did recommend that. She told me, ‘I’m not sick, why should I go see a doctor? Mizuki is the problem, Mizuki is the sick one…’” Date: “Maybe it’s best if Mizuki and Shoko are separated.” Renju: “No, Mizuki would never leave Shoko. She wouldn’t hear of it. Mizuki and Shoko are practically attached at the hip.” Date: “Even with all the hitting?” Renju: “Yes. Even if she’s abused on a daily basis, even if she’s treated like garbage… Maybe… Mizuki is hungry for love. She craves praise and attention and physical affection. She wants it from her mother. That’s why she’s so attached.” Date: “Couldn’t you step in and take over the parenting?” Renju: “I have a company now.” Date: “Lemniscate.” Renju: “And we’re at a crucial stage of development. I can’t take even a single second out of my day to deal with a kid.” Date: “Hey, that’s your daughter you’re talking about. Maybe because you two can’t cooperate on raising a child, Shoko is having trouble coping.” Renju: “That might be it. Maybe this is partially my fault.” Date: … Mama: … Date: “Okay, I’m sorry, but I’m just gonna say it. You two are both awful parents.” - Tuesday (seisAI), Marble (flashback)

Renju: “Hey, Date. Have you ever seen a dead body?” Date: I remember Renju saying that to me, after he and I went through a bottle. Renju: “You’re a policeman. I don’t know what department, but I assume you aren’t handing out traffic tickets. So how about it?” Date: I didn’t answer. I turned the question around on him. Date: “What about you?” Renju: “Me? Well, yeah. Not just one. Countless bodies.” Date: … Renju: “When I was in high school, I had a pretty crazy job. You know the Kumakura gang? I was hooked up to one of their phone fraud scams. I just had to go collect the money from drop points and give it to the Kumakuras. It was an easy job. Eventually, I became friends with the higher-ups. They started taking me with them on jobs.” Date: “What jobs?” Renju: “The target was always an elderly person from the country with no family. Elderly folk who owned a lot of land, you know? They live every day in loneliness and desperation. You just have to be nice to them. That’s all it takes. Guys would get to know the old people, and they would set up and adoption process. After that… You just have to get them really drunk, throw them in the tub full of hot water… And they pass. Just like that. Heart attack, brain hemorrhage, or they simply go to sleep and drown. The police almost never investigate it. It always looked natural, like they died of old age. So the adopted gang members would inherit the land. Then we sell it and make massive profits.” Date: … Renju: “I watched a lot of people get killed like that. And I’ve seen journalists get killed for getting too close to the truth. So, I… I…” Date: … Renju: “Why am I telling you all this?” Date: … Renju: “Hm. Are you going to arrest me?” Date: I took a sip from my glass. I didn’t say anything for a while. Date: “You didn’t do it yourself, right?” Renju: “No, I was always the lookout. But still… Date, I…” Date: Tears fell to the counter, unending. We didn’t say another word until the ice in the glass had melted to nothing. - Monday (syuurAI), Marble (flashback)

Date cuts bluntly through Renju’s false brazenness and euphemism to the heart of this long rambling confession, that Renju was groomed by the Kumakura gang when he was in high school and now, being complicit in gruesome, cruel criminal activity, now has no way to expunge the trauma of what he remembers from himself, much like the trauma of digging up Manaka’s body, another double-meaning sitting beneath in all this

Renju: “Wait, you’re going to see So?” Manaka: “Yes. I want to talk to him in person.” Renju: “No, you can’t!” Manaka: “Why not?” Renju: … Hitomi: … Manaka: “Are you worried about my body? You don’t have to worry about that. I’m totally fine.” Hitomi: “But your stomach is still…” Manaka: “Oh, my doctor told me that’s normal. Your stomach doesn’t go down right away after giving birth.” Renju: “I’m not worried about your body! Ah, I don’t know how to explain it… So doesn’t care about you! And especially not your child!” Manaka: “I haven’t told him about giving birth… He contacted me for the first time in a while…” Renju: “So that’s why…” Hitomi: “He wants to know about the baby…” Renju: “He must be panicking. If anyone ever finds out his mistress had his baby, his political career would be over.” Manaka: “It’s not like it was an affair…” Hitomi: “His wife passed away after giving birth to his son, right?” Renju: “It would still be a big scandal. He impregnated a girl who just graduated high school. Don’t you see how that looks? He knew how the public would take it… That’s why he gave you the money to…deal with it.” Hitomi: … Manaka: … Renju: “There’s no way he’ll accept that child.” Manaka: “It’s okay. I told him I won’t cause any trouble.” Hitomi: … Renju: … Manaka: “But, could you take care of the baby? Just for a little bit? I’ll be right back.” Renju: … Hitomi: … Renju: “Fine. But take this with you, just in case. It’s a GPS transmitter. Just to be extra safe.” Manaka: … Hitomi: … Manaka: “I really don’t think I’ll need it… But okay. If it’ll make you feel better.” - (18 years ago) Sagan Residence

Renju may well have been an overly pessimistic, hypervigilant, somewhat neurotic personality already, in fact it's likely he was already traumatised given the Kumakuras had their teeth in him well and good in his teenage years, but I have an inkling Manaka's last words to him and Hitomi were a trauma that has remained raw with ever since and affected all the close relationships he had thereafter, especially with his own child

Renju: “Those are Kumakura men…” Hitomi (present): “We didn’t dare move. We couldn’t speak. We were barely breathing. We could only watch as it all unfolded. I knew what that hole was for. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything. I remember my heart beating so fast… Before long…” Initiate: “We good here?” Street Boss: “Yeah. Cover her.” Rohan: “Just a minute. Beautiful…” Hitomi: *gasp* Hitomi (present): “The Kumakura people covered Manka’s body, then left. Renju and I ran over…and dug up the grave with a tree branch… What we saw…” Hitomi: *sob* Hitomi: “Manaka… Manaka…” Hitomi: *sob* Hitomi: “We need to… We need to call the police…” Renju: “No, we can’t. Not yet.” Hitomi: “Why not?” Renju: “You don’t know who those guys are. They would do anything to keep this hidden. I’ve seen it happen myself. I know what they’re capable of. Anyway, think about it. Why would they do this? They thought Manaka and her baby were going to be trouble. Manaka’s stomach was still pretty big… I don’t think they know that she gave birth already. What do you think they’d do if they found out? They would take her and kill her too. And then…they’d come for us. They’d make it look like we disappeared. All of us would be…gone.” Hitomi (present): “Renju convinced me. He knew more about the dirty underbelly of society than anyone. He knew when something couldn’t be handled by the police. He said that they would do anything to kill the child. And I believed him. We had to protect Manaka’s baby… We had to, no matter what!” Hitomi: “Okay, I understand…” Hitomi (present): “I decided to trust him. We couldn’t leave Manaka’s body in the forest… We cleaned her up…and took her to the cold storage warehouse.” - (18 years ago) Mountains

Renju: “This warehouse is owned by Okiura Fishery. My father runs it. But it’s not in use right now. They’re moving operations to a better area. They’re actually looking for buyers right now.” Hitomi: … Renju: “But don’t worry. I’ll take over the warehouse.” Hitomi: “Are you sure?” Renju: “Yes. Don’t worry. I’ll keep everyone out. Everyone but you, of course.” Hitomi: … Renju: “I’ll give you a key. You can come visit any time you want to see Manaka.” Hitomi: “Manaka… Don’t worry about the baby. I’ll protect her. No matter what. And don’t worry about them, either. The people who did this to you… I will never forgive them. I’m sorry, Manaka… Sorry… I’m sorry… Manaka…” - (18 years ago) Cold Storage Warehouse

Renju helping the people he loves in the best way he seems to understand – keeping people the fuck away and doing More Work All The Time

Hitomi: “Did you get the birth certificate?” Renju: “The mob doctor took care of everything. I have the birth certificate, and I even picked up a mother and baby book. It wasn’t cheap…but you don’t have to worry about it. Just submit the birth certificate and everything will be taken care of.” Hitomi: … Renju: “You look worried.” Hitomi: “I feel like…I’m somehow betraying Manaka. She was the one who gave birth…” Renju: “Soon, you won’t even be able to think about that. Because a war is about to begin.” Hitomi: “A war?” Renju: “Between you and the baby. You won’t get a good night’s sleep for a long time. You might even start to resent Manaka for all this.” Hitomi: “Really…?” Renju: “Anyway, as soon as you submit the certificate, you will officially be her mother. Be sure to raise her responsibly. I’ll help. Occasionally.” Hitomi: “Occasionally, huh?” - (18 years ago) Sagan Residence

These two taking a different approach to their role in this game of House

Hitomi: “What should we name her? I was thinking about her name. How about ‘Iris’?” Renju: “Iris?” Hitomi: “The goddess of rainbows in Greek mythology. And the colored part of your eye.” Renju: “And the flower, too.” Hitomi: “Right.” Renju: “I thought it might have something to do with your name, Hitomi.” Hitomi: “Hm, not only that. It’s also from Manaka’s name. The kanji for Manaka uses the character for ‘love.’ And ‘Manaka’ reminds me of ‘manako,’ Japanese for ‘eye.’” Renju: “So both names have something to do with the eye.” Hitomi: “And ‘ai,’ which means love, will always be a part of ‘Iris.’” Renju: “So that’s how you came up with the name?” Hitomi: “Don’t you think it’s nice?” Renju: “Iris. Iris. Yeah. I really like it.” - (18 years ago) Sagan Residence

"We", already falling quite neatly into the role of mother and father in the absence of both; Renju and Hitomi grow into almost idealised doubles of So Sejima and Manaka in Iris's life

Hitomi: “About Manaka’s killer…” Renju: “I don’t really want to discuss this, but… There’s something you need to know.” Hitomi: … Renju: “After talking to the Kumakura gang… I found out who killed Manaka.” Hitomi: … Renju: “So’s son. Saito Sejima.” Hitomi: “How…? Saito is only…” Renju: “12 years old.” Hitomi: “Why? Why would a little boy do that?” Renju: “I don’t know the motive, but I know it’s true. So used his connections with the Kumakuras to cover up for his son. And all of the evidence of this scandal, of course.” Hitomi: “I’ll never forgive them. So, his son, or the Kumakuras!” Renju: “I feel the same way. But you can’t think about revenge now. You and the baby can’t lead a life like that.” Hitomi: “Ah…” Renju: “Just bear with it for now. The opportunity will come. So wait until the right moment. Okay?” - (18 years ago) Sagan Residence

Getting to hear Renju speak in his own (sober) voice is fascinating; he can be inappropriately terse, blunt, sometimes stilted and morbid, but compared to what we could infer about him from conversations in the present day with Mizuki and Iris, he is actually surprisingly compassionate and selfless as well as intelligent; we finally see for ourselves why Hitomi described him as kind above all else, when that seemed contradictory to what we knew. Renju seems to have a strange sort of charisma, brusque in a way that might come across as emotionally insensitive, but able to explain his reasoning in such a way that he is very persuasive; we have seen firsthand how his tendency suppress emotional feelings has done unintended harm to others, but in these flashbacks, at a mere 19 years of age Renju's ability to set any immediate feelings aside and assess a situation more practically and “objectively” may have saved his, Hitomi’s, and baby Iris’s lives several times over; in the absence of both her parents, Renju and Hitomi immediately form a ragtag partnership and their dual personalities work fortuitously, she needed them both in her life at that very moment. I add “set aside” in part because of the last flashback where Hitomi has an angry outburst and Renju senses her desire for revenge, and tells her gently to put that to one side “for now” so as to focus on caring for the baby; but as a caveat, he promises that their revenge can come later, he’s just waiting for a suitable opportunity.

Level Three: Hearsay Evidence

Date: “You’ve always got something smart to say, huh? You’re just like Renju.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Driving with Mizuki

Aiba: “In fact, the conversation about you taking care of Mizuki took place here, at Marble.” Date: “Really?” Aiba: “The topic was brought up several times afterward, but the first time was here. Four years ago, after drinking enough ‘liquid courage,’ Renju asked you to take care of Mizuki. At the time, Renju was recently divorced, buried in work at Lemniscate, and mentally unstable.” Date: … Aiba: “It was a display of excellent judgment. It was a good thing that he managed to swallow his pride.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Aiba here practically doing my job for me.

Moma: “I’ve never even gotten into an argument with the guy.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Kumakura Offices

Date: “What kind of person was your grandpa?” Mizuki: “I never met him. He died before I was born. But Daddy did tell me stories.” Date: “What kind of stories?” Mizuki: “Back when Grandpa was in Great Grandma’s tummy… She was on a passenger ship that got shipwrecked in a storm. She had to have the baby out on the ocean.” Date: “On the ocean?” Mizuki: “Yup. And then, Grandpa was raised by dolphins.” Date: “Hm?” Mizuki: “By the time he was 10, he was catching fish with his bare hands.” Date: … Mizuki: “And then Grandpa got up on land and learned language and culture and stuff. And then he decided to start up Okiura Fishery.” Date: … Aiba: … Date: “Sounds like a tall tale.” Mizuki: “Yeah, Grandpa was a legend. All the fishermen and sailors respected him.” Date: That can’t be true. But there’s a part of me that’s thinking…maybe. After all, Mizuki herself seems superhuman. I’d believe her grandpa was an incredible man. - Monday (youdAI), Date Residence

What a lovely thing to create for a young child. In one conversation with Mizuki we can suddenly understand what it was about Renju that was so loved, despite everything else.

Date: “Do you have any memories of Renju here?” Mizuki: “Sometimes we would talk when I came over to hang out.” Date: “What kind of things did you talk about?” Mizuki: “Nothing special, the usual.” Date: “‘The usual’?” Mizuki: “‘Are you doing well? Have you been eating right?’…” Date: “Ah, so that’s the usual.” - Tuesday (seisAI), Lemniscate

Mizuki: “But there’s more to it than that. There are other reasons. Daddy was totally taken in by her talent.” Date: “Her talent?” Mizuki: “Dancing, really. Her dancing is what got her into Lemniscate. He knew ever since she was young that she would be talented. He didn’t want any other agencies to have her.” Iris: “I didn’t know that…” Mizuki: “Daddy’s not the type to give compliments…” Iris: “Haha, this is kind of embarrassing… I didn’t know he thought of me that way.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Iris: “About three months ago, Mr. Okiura told me something… He said that I can’t dance.” Date: “Why?” Iris: “I dunno… He said something about being ‘over-reliant on dancing and neglecting my singing.’ ‘You should stop dancing for now and practice singing.’” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Bloom Park

Date: “About the shooting on Monday…” Saito: “Just mercenaries I hired. After I woke up Monday, I arranged the hit. They were expensive, but I had access to Renju’s bank account. I paid them with his money.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Level Four: Known Relationships

Shoko Nadami

Aiba: “Nadami, Shoko. 36 years old. Female. Residence: Meguro District. Met Date, Kaname five years ago through her husband, Okiura, Renju. Date and Renju were so-called “old drinking buddies.” Renju and Shoko had one child together. A daughter named Mizuki, the prime suspect of this case. Four years ago, they were divorced. Shoko returned to using her maiden name, Nadami.” - Saturday (saikAI), Boss’s Office

Renju and Shoko divorced when Mizuki was about 8. We know that Renju and Shoko married young, though no mention of her in flashbacks to 19-year-old Renju, meaning they were most likely in their early twenties when they were married and divorced after approximately a decade.

Date: Mizuki Okiura… The girl we found in the merry-go-round. She’s 12 years old, in the 6th grade. - Saturday (saikAI), Boss’s Office

They had Mizuki when Renju was 25 and Shoko was 22.

Date: “Do you know Renju’s ex-wife?” Hitomi: “Yes, I do… But I only met her twice. Once at Renju’s wedding, and then again just a few months ago. Why do you ask?” Date:“No reason.” - Saturday (saikAI), Sagan Residence

Date: “Why did you kill Shoko?” Mayumi: “Renju’s ex-wife, right? I did it…to get to him.” Date: “But the two divorced four years ago.” Mayumi: “Th-That doesn’t matter! The bonds of matrimony are eternal!” Date: “In your opinion. I don’t think Renju felt the same way.” - Tuesday (zugAI), Interrogation Room with Mayumi

Saito: “Like you guessed, my personality was in Shoko, Renju’s ex-wife. That made calling Renju easy. ‘I need to talk to you about something.’ He came over without question. I think it was around 4:00pm? I had him meet me at the chemical plant. I made Renju go to sleep… Psynced, switched personalities… And then stabbed Shoko’s discarded body with an ice pick.” - Tuesday (jinnAI), Interrogation Room with “Boss”

Kaname Date

Date: “Have you picked up Renju yet?” Boss: “He’s at a police station nearby, being interviewed. He’s not a suspect yet, just standard procedure stuff.” Date: Renju is Shoko’s ex-husband and Mizuki’s father. Not to mention, an old friend of mine… Date: “I wonder what Renju was doing last night… I did call him a few times. He didn’t answer.” Boss: “He didn’t?” Date: “No…” - Saturday (saikAI), Boss’s Office

Date: “Look, I don’t want to believe it either. I’ve known him for more than five years now. He’s like family to me.” Date: I’d never want to put cuffs on him. I would never want Mizuki to see that… - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Boss: “You look awful. Have you been sleeping any?” Date: “My best friend was murdered, Boss. I don’t have it in me to sleep right now.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Boss’s Office

Mama: “You used to come all the time. You and Ren, grumbling over your glasses of bourbon. Laughing, drowning each other’s sorrows… Sometimes getting into arguments… One time, it even became a real fight. You remember that?” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Marble

Date: Why did Renju come here Friday night? Was it to place Shoko’s body here…? Or did he have another reason? Renju is my friend. I want to believe him, but I don’t [know] how long I can keep defending him. Where is he? What is he doing? I’ve thought it over a thousand times. My head is heavy with it. - Tuesday (dakkAI), Bloom Park

Date: Hit him. Aiba: “This is for neglecting your responsibility to Mizuki, you coward! No use. I can’t hit him.” Date: “This Renju is still a teenager. He wouldn’t know Mizuki yet…” - PSYNCIN’ IN THE MOUNTaiN

It seems part of Renju, like Hitomi, stayed that scared teenager until the day he died, stuck in that one night quite literally frozen in time

Mama/Marble

Mama: “That’s right. And I won’t charge you this time. Just promise to get the bastards who did this to Ren for me.” Date: Right. This is for Renju. Date: “I promise.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Aiba: “This is a painting of Saint Sebastian. Saint Sebastian was a faithful Christian who lived under Roman emperor Diocletian. On January 20th, 288 A.D., he was martyred. This painting depicts his execution.”

Slaps St Sebastian's head. "This intertextuality can fit so much mileage in it."

Mama: “Something wrong, Date? You’re staring awful hard.” Date: “Nothing, just caught my eye.” Mama: “Why now, of all times? That’s been hanging there for a while.” Date: “Really?” Mama: “Yeah, it was a gift from Ren a while back. I’ve always had it there.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

So one assumes Date hadn't noticed or enquired about the picture until just now, even though it's been "hanging there" in the back for some considerable time. See what I mean about that mileage, baby?

This dialogue occurs on Sunday on both sides of the flowchart; on the right side, the exchange occurs with Mizuki present.

Iris Sagan

Iris: “Well, at first, all I did was stream from home. And then, not to sound cocky, but…I started getting pretty big. I started getting offers from agencies.” Date: “And one of them was Lemniscate?” Iris: “Well, not exactly.” Date: “Huh?” Iris: “My mom’s actually an old friend of the president of the agency.” Date: “A friend of Renju’s?” Iris: “Yeah. So, I asked him for advice one day. You know, you have to be careful. Even a place that looks legitimate, with an office and everything, can be sketchy. And my mom and I didn’t know anything about the industry at all… Anyway, one day, Mr. Okiura said to come see him at his office, and he hooked me up.” - Saturday (saikAI), Driving with Iris

Iris: “Marble. It’s a bar in Golden Yokocho.” Date: “You know about that place?” Iris: “Yeah, Mr. Okiura took me before…” - Sunday (gumAI), Driving with Iris

Iris: “Mr. Okiura helped me when I was just starting out. You know how my mom is single? He really supported her. He even changed my diaper when I was a little baby. I got hired by Lemniscate all because of him.” Mizuki: “Iris used to stream all her own content. Like singing and dancing and gaming and stuff. But before we knew it, she went viral.” Date: “Right, I heard about that. That’s how she started getting offers, right? But because Iris’s mom knows Renju, she decided to go with Lemniscate.” Mizuki: “But there’s more to it than that. There are other reasons. Daddy was totally taken in by her talent.” Date: “Her talent?” Mizuki: “Dancing, really. Her dancing is what got her into Lemniscate. He knew ever since she was young that she would be talented. He didn’t want any other agencies to have her.” Iris: “I didn’t know that…” Mizuki: “Daddy’s not the type to give compliments…” Iris: “Haha, this is kind of embarrassing… I didn’t know he thought of me that way.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Iris: “About three months ago, Mr. Okiura told me something… He said that I can’t dance.” Date: “Why?” Iris: “I dunno… He said something about being ‘over-reliant on dancing and neglecting my singing.’ ‘You should stop dancing for now and practice singing.’” Date: “But during your livestream…” Aiba: “She was dancing.” Iris: “Because I was…sad. After I stopped dancing, I lost so many fans… They said terrible things to me. Like that I’m worthless if I can’t dance.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Bloom Park

Doesn’t sound entirely out of character for Renju, counter-intuitive self-preservation instincts that cause him to neglect the feelings behind the actions of others; however, in this case we can be fairly sure there is some other motive behind this, we have it from Mizuki that Renju greatly admired Iris’s talent for dance and encouraged herself to build a fanbase/market around that. Hitomi recounted a couple of occasions where Iris accidentally hurt herself in her enthusiasm for dancing; one possibility is that Iris’ neurological condition, worsening over the past few months with her tumour and increasingly unpredictably hampering her motor function, and Renju became sufficiently uneasy about the possibility of Iris injuring herself again while dancing that he told her directly to stop (Iris says Renju told her that "I can’t dance", not that she "shouldn’t" and we know for sure that Iris has the ability to dance, suggesting something greater prohibiting her from doing so—rather how someone with a broken leg would say, "I can’t walk"), which is causing Iris emotional distress instead (and failing to really protect her from the physical risks, given she is continuing to dance on stream anyway to self soothe and placate her fanbase); this fits into a pattern of behaviour of taking drastic measures to protect those close to him from perceived danger and causing more emotional hurt in so doing

Iris: “Guess I’ll tell you now. Sunday, at 2:00am, I was visited by…” Date: … Aiba: … Iris: “Renju Okiura.” Date: “What?!” Iris: “He seemed really sick… Probably because of his injury. At the time, I had no idea what had happened to him. He was sweating buckets, and he came up to me with this begging look in his eyes… He said, ‘Come with me.’ He seemed really desperate. I couldn’t say no. So I got into his rental car… We went somewhere, I dunno where. Some deserted building. Mr. Okiura got out of the car, then grabbed my hand. He tried to pull me inside. I got scared… I pulled my hand away and ran.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Ikume Shrine

Good lord that’s twice someone just "couldn’t say no" the pretty please energy on this man must be insane Saito got mad lucky (that line is clearly subtext code for "adores and trusts Renju to the point of doing irrational things to try and help him even when he’s acting weird and OOC", though Iris’s self-preservation instinct ultimately prevails and changes her mind where Pewter never does)

Date: “Why didn’t you tell me this?” Iris: “Mr. Okiura has done so much for me. He took care of me as a kid. He helped me at Lemniscate… I wanted to trust him. No matter what happens, I can’t think of him as a bad person. I mean, he never did anything bad to me… He came to my house at two in the morning and tried to take me to an abandoned building, but… You never know. Maybe he wanted to show me some flowers, or…something that he found. Or it was like, a prank he was filming for the internet or something… That’s what I thought at the time. That’s…what I kept telling myself. But after hearing everything you’ve told me, I can’t see Mr. Okiura the same way. Maybe he’s a part of Naix. Maybe he’s trying to…” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Ikume Shrine

Saito: “I was still in Renju’s body. My next target was Iris. If I asked her to come to the abandoned factory, I knew she would be skeptical. So I called her to Sunfish Pocket. I even video called her. But for some reason, she said no. This was around 5:00pm. I was still Renju, the president of Lemniscate. I didn’t think I would have any trouble getting her to trust me, but…” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Hitomi Sagan

Hitomi: “Renju was my classmate at Eitoku High. We’ve known each other for 20 years now.” - Saturday (saikAI), Sagan Residence

Mizuki: “I saw So on my way home from the police station. Aiba: “Where?” Mizuki: “I was getting dropped off at home.” Date: “Was he alone?” Mizuki: “No, someone was walking next to him. My homeroom teacher…” Aiba: “Homeroom teacher?” Mizuki: “She’s also my mom’s best friend. It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later…” - Wednesday (sanpAI), Ikume Shrine

Either Shoko considers Hitomi to be her "best friend", having only met her twice, which is horribly depressing, or this is a translation bug and Mizuki should’ve said "dad’s best friend"

Hitomi: “I may have told you this already. I met Renju’s wife Shoko twice before. The first time at the wedding… The second time a month ago… That second time…was in the waiting room of the prison.” - Monday (jukkAI), Sagan Residence

Date: “You said you and Renju knew each other from high school, right?” Hitomi: “Yes, at Eitoku High.” Date: “And you work at the public school here?” Hitomi: “That’s right. A district elementary school.” Date: “Is that a coincidence? You becoming the teacher of your friend’s kid?” Hitomi: “Well, I hadn’t always planned on being a teacher, but… It wasn’t a coincidence that Mizuki ended up in my class. Renju seemed really intent on sending Mizuki to a school where I was teaching. They even moved to get into my school district. That was about five years ago, in spring.” Date: “Before the divorce?” Hitomi: “Yes… But I heard that Shoko didn’t have a problem with the move.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Date Residence

Date: “How is Mizuki at school?” Hitomi: “She’s a little quiet, but she’s a very clever girl. And more than anything, she is kind.” Date: “Kind?” Hitomi: “When I’m carrying heavy bags, she’ll come and help me without asking. When I’m troubled, she’ll sometimes pick flowers to give to me. Not that she has a perfect disciplinary record…but she’s a good girl.” Date: “What’s on her record?” Hitomi: “There are a few incidents. Once, she let out all the frogs that were going to be used for science class. Another time, she punched a bully so hard that he chipped a tooth.” Date: “Sounds like more than just ‘incidents’…” Hitomi: “But I like that about her… She’s a little clumsy… And just like Renju.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Date Residence

Hitomi: “Then, I heard footsteps. And then a bunch of men yelling. They were looking for him. When the voices and footsteps faded, he let me go. ‘Don’t call an ambulance, and don’t call the cops.’ I knew he had to be a criminal. So I took him to an underground clinic I knew.” Date: “You took him to a mob doctor?” Hitomi: “Renju’s friend. I only met him once.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sagan Residence

This meeting would've been when Renju and Hitomi left newborn Iris in his care before leaving to search for Manka's GPS signal

Date: “Where is Renju?” Hitomi: “Did something happen to him…? Did something happen to him…?” Date: There’s no point hiding it. I told her about Renju’s disappearance. Hitomi: “Right from the hospital…? I’m sorry… I have no idea.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sagan Residence

Date: “What about your parents?” Hitomi: “They died when I was 17. I was an orphan, and my relatives lived far away. Then might have taken me in, but I was already in my second-to-last year of high school. It wasn’t a good idea for me to move that late. So I decided to stay here, by myself.” Date: “And take care of Iris.” Hitomi: “Yes, all alone. But Renju would help sometimes.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sagan Residence

Date: “Her name is Manaka Iwai. She was killed when she was 19. She went to the same high school as you, and she was your best friend. Isn’t that right?” Hitomi: … Date: “Nothing to say for yourself? Hiding something?” Hitomi: … Date: “Maybe you killed her with Renju.” Hitomi: “That’s ridiculous!” Date: “Oh, now you’re talking. But we know Renju committed a crime. Illegally disposing of a body. And we can prove it.”- Tuesday (kenzAI), Interrogation Room with Hitomi

Aiba: “A flower bud. I cannot identify what variety.” Date: Worship it. Aiba: “‘Worship’ it?” Date: “Yeah.” Aiba: “I will pray to it as thought I am mourning the dead.” - PSYNCIN’ IN THE MOUNTaiN

Hitomi and Renju’s “God” is grief

Aiba: “This is… A picture of Hitomi, Renju, and Manaka.” Date: “Everyone is so young… Hold on to that.” - PSYNCIN’ IN THE MOUNTaiN

Mizuki Okiura

Date: “Renju is Mizuki’s legal guardian. Did you get permission from him?” Boss: “I couldn’t get in touch with him.” - Saturday (saikAI), Psync Room with Mizuki

May not be possible to say for sure, since Shoko is dead and everyone is obviously talking about her in the past tense and like she no longer exists, even if she was also a legal guardian of Mizuki, but from context clues it does seem likely that Mizuki was left in Renju’s sole care as part of divorce proceedings

Aiba: “When she is in a mood, it’s impossible to get her to talk. That’s the kind of girl she is.” Date: “Heh, sometimes I think you know her better than I do.” Aiba: “How long do you think I’ve been observing her?” Date: “It’s been four years now…” - Saturday (meikAI), Psync Room with Mizuki

Renju surrendered Mizuki into Date’s care four years ago, around the time of the divorce, when Mizuki was eight and seemingly very soon after Renju was seemingly given sole legal custody of her

Date: “Mizuki. Renju sent you that NILE message, didn’t he?” Mizuki: “What…?” Date: “I got this buddy of mine. Real bad personality, but real good with technology. I got some help from them.” Aiba: “‘Bad personality’?” Date: “There was a message sent at 8:05 last night. Does this sound familiar? ‘Mizuki, Daddy got caught up in something serious. Please come to Bloom Park’s merry-go-round right away. Daddy needs your help. Please, do as I say.’” Mizuki: “Yeah, that was it… It was from Daddy’s phone… But I didn’t want to say anything, because that would make Daddy a suspect, so…” Date: “So you kept quiet.” Mizuki: “Yeah… My dad’s never said anything like that to me, ever. That he was counting on me. I had to go.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

This dialogue occurs on both sides of the flowchart; on the right side, the exchange happens on Sunday at the Date Residence, with Hitomi present.

Mizuki: “I’m Renju’s daughter. Maybe I’ll notice something you don’t. Something only his daughter would know.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Driving with Mizuki

Turns out, asked the question, Mizuki can’t come up with anything. She does have something to add about Shoko though.

Date: “Do you have any memories of Renju here?” Mizuki: “Sometimes we would talk when I came over to hang out.” Date: “What kind of things did you talk about?” Mizuki: “Nothing special, the usual.” Date: “‘The usual’?” Mizuki: “‘Are you doing well? Have you been eating right?’…” Date: “Ah, so that’s the usual.” - Tuesday (seisAI), Lemniscate

These "usual" exchanges are something Mizuki says she craves in a father-figure, yet something about this with Renju doesn't sit right for her.

Mizuki: “That’s why maybe me and Mom and Daddy weren’t able to be a family. Our whole lives, we never could be ordinary. Even if I tried my hardest to be normal, it would just be awkward… Eventually, I got tired of trying.” Date: … Mizuki: “I killed them.” Date: “What?” Mizuki: “I…killed…Mom and Daddy.” - Tuesday (seisAI), Bloom Park

Date: “You’re her teacher?” Hitomi: “Yes, elementary school.” Date: “I didn’t know you taught at Mizuki’s school.” Hitomi: “I didn’t know Mizuki was living with you. I knew about her…circumstances with Renju, but… He described you as a relative. But I suppose not. Mizuki explained the situation to me.” Date: Mizuki lives here with me. But I’m not her legal guardian. That’s why I’ve never been to school with her or anything like that. That was all left to Renju. He might not be any good at raising her, but he is her father. He takes care of all the official stuff. That was one of the conditions for me taking in Mizuki. - Sunday (gyoukAI), Date Residence

Date: “Where is Renju?” Mizuki: “I don’t know where he is…” Date: “Can you think of anywhere he might go?” Mizuki: “No, not really… I don’t know where Daddy goes…” Date: “Did he visit you when you were in the hospital?” Mizuki: “No… But I didn’t expect him to. He’s always busy. He doesn’t care about me…” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Date Residence

Mermaid: “Mizuki comes here a lot. She’s really friendly with everyone.” Mizuki: “I like it here. Everyone treats me nice.” Date: “Is it because you’re the daughter of the owner?” Mizuki: “No, it’s not like that.” Mermaid: “We’re BFFs!” Aiba: “She wields extraordinary power with that trident.” Date: “The Okiura family is really something else.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

The mermaids seem to have given Mizuki an orichalcum trident, the highest "rank" of customer, for free

Date: “Do you know where your father is?” Mizuki: “If you’re asking me… He’s involved in all this, isn’t he?” Date: … Mizuki: “Is he the culprit?” Date: … Mizuki: “Did he really kill Mom?” Date: … Mizuki: “Well… I guess it’s understandable that he’d be a suspect. After Mom got killed, he didn’t even call. And he called me out to Bloom Park for some reason… I thought it was suspicious. But… But… I pretended not to notice. I didn’t want to acknowledge it. I wanted to believe in Daddy…” Date: … - Tuesday (dakkAI), Matsushita Diner

Very noticeable how much more readily pretty much everyone is able to "give up" (not quite an accurate term, Mizuki thinks her father murdered her mother based on pretty much the same little evidence available as Date who’s been otherwise occupied) on Renju in the route where he is assumed to still be alive for the duration, with less evidence than stacks up rapidly on left side of the flowchart when Mizuki and Date and even Boss are still giving him the benefit of the doubt until Saito literally spells out the truth (contrast Mizuki implying here that part of her always knew her father was the most likely candidate for Shoko’s killer, to her repeated assertions on the left side that he must be somehow innocent, which get "confirmed" when he is found strung up in Sunfish Pocket); it is as though Renju can only be vindicated in death – it is when his putrefying battered corpse is found on right side that everyone seems to collectively realise his innocence

Date: “Why didn’t you call the police?” Mizuki: “What was I supposed to do?! Daddy would have been in trouble!” Date: “So you kept quiet this whole time?” Mizuki: “Yeah…” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Ikume Shrine

Iris: “Uncle wants to know why you’re here.” Mizuki: … Iris: “‘No particular reason. Am I not allowed to be here? I inherited Daddy’s stock at Lemniscate. This is my company now, isn’t it natural that I’d be here?’ That’s what she said.” - Three months later (kassAI), Lemniscate

Pewter

Date: “You seem troubled, Pewter.” Pewter: “Two murders, one right after the other… How could I not be?” - Sunday (syokubAI), Boss’s Office

Date: “Why are you here, anyway?” Pewter: “Am I not allowed to be here?” Date: “No, I didn’t mean it like that..” Pewter: “I was here first. I was just talking to the Boss about Renju’s murder.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Boss’s Office

Date: “Any thoughts on the culprit?” Pewter: “Renju had his left eyeball removed.” Date: “Right, Shoko too.” Pewter: “So perhaps, Mr. Date, you are the killer. You’re missing your left eye. So you steal them from others. Date: … Aiba: … Pewter: “I’m kidding! Only a joke.” Date: “I’m too tired for your jokes right now, Pewter.” Pewter: “Actually… You lost your eye six years ago, correct?” - Sunday (syokubAI), Boss’s Office

Sometimes foreshadowing is relatively obvious. This is like, the second time minimum that Pewter has made an inappropriate "joke" about this exact subject, so starting to think that last line is more than merely a hint for us, the player.

Date: “This is… This is the wristwatch Renju always wore. No doubt about it. But how did this get here?” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Mama: “Well, there was the ‘watch incident’… I’m sure you remember that one.” Date: “Watch incident?” Mama: “You don’t remember? Your drunk ass spilled your beer on Ren’s watch. Ren was furious, yelling about how ‘this watch is more important than my life!’ Or whatever… He blew up on you. That was the only time I’ve ever seen Ren that mad. That’s why I remember it so well.” Date: “Was it this watch?” Date: I pulled out the watch I had in my pocket. It was the one I found in the oil drum at Sunfish Pocket. Mama: “Yeah, that’s it! Why do you have it?” Date: … Mama: “Was it…at the scene?” Date: … Mama: “Ren was given that watch by his lover. It was an anniversary gift, I think…” Mizuki: “Lover?” Mama: “Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot Mizuki was here…” Mizuki: “No, it’s fine.” Mama: “But of course, it wasn’t an affair. This was all after he was divorced.” Mizuki: “Daddy…had a new lover…” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Date: Pewter took the cigarette butt from me. Boss: “If the DNA on that cigarette butt…matches the bloodstain in the warehouse…” Pewter: “There would be no doubt that So Sejima is our mysterious polar bear.” Boss: “How long will it take to analyze?” Pewter: “If I had six hours…” Boss: “You’ve got three.” Pewter: “That’s totally unreasonable… But, I suppose. I will do my best to have this analyzed in three hours.” Date: “You folded pretty easily on that one.” Pewter: “I want to catch the criminal as soon as possible. That’s all.” Date: … Boss: … Pewter: “Now, because time is of the essence… Excuse me.” - Tuesday (seisAI)

For completeness, he does it in exactly two hours, 41 minutes.

Date: “Pewter, is it true? The results are in?!” Pewter: “Yes. The DNA I collected from the cigarette but is a positive match to the bloodstain from the warehouse.” Date: “Really…? It was So all along? He was the polar bear! He carved out Iris’s eye and stabbed Ota! And probably killed Renju and Shoko…” Aiba: “Making So Sejima the New Cyclops Killer…” Date: “Thank you, Pewter.” Pewter: “Don’t thank me yet. Hurry up and get So.” - Tuesday (seisAI)

Date: When I left the warehouse, I saw Pewter. What is he doing here? He walked up to me while I was trying to work it out. Pewter: “Date, I have to talk to you about something.” Date: “Huh…?” Pewter: About the Original Cyclops Serial Killings.” Date: … Aiba: … Date: “Why this, all of a sudden?” Pewter: “Because I want you to solve this case, Mr. Date. I want you to find who did this and bring them to justice. So if I can help you, even a little…” Date: “Why didn’t you say anything at ABIS?” Pewter: “The Boss was there. I couldn’t speak openly in front of her.” - Monday (jukkAI), Warehouse District

Date: Pewter looks grimly serious. - Monday (jukkAI), Warehouse District

Date: “Why are you so cooperative?” Pewter: “Because I know that the Boss is my enemy. I got the video from Aiba. I processed it and found that it showed no sign of tampering or editing. Which means there can be no mistake. The Boss shot and killed So Sejima. After pulling out his left eye. That makes the odds of her being the culprit behind the other murders very high. Or maybe she had accomplices. Either way, she’s a criminal. That’s why I am cooperating with you, Special Agent Date. I want it as bad as you do. The truth.” - Tuesday (jinnAI), Psync Room

Mama: “Yeah, his favourite watch. He got it from his new lover… An anniversary gift. Oh, this was of course after the divorce. Ren was so happy, he showed it off to me. He’s had that watch on him ever since.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Marble

Mama: “Can you come back again tonight? There’s a regular here who was good friends with Ren. They should be here tonight. If you ask him, he might have some information for you.” - Monday (syuurAI), Marble

Date: “Mama, I wanna ask you something.” Mama: “What is it?” Date: “Those gunmen were waiting for us. Did you tell anyone we were coming?” Aiba: “That’s right. You did tell Mama that you were coming. And that you were bringing Iris.” Mama: “Hm, well… I did tell one person…” Date: “Who?” Mama: “The person I was gonna have you meet, of course. Same guy who gave Ren his watch.” Date: “What’s his name?” Mama: “Futa, I think. Futa Amanoma.” Date: ! Aiba: ! Date: “What?!” Aiba: … Date: … Aiba: “That’s…Pewter…” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Marble

Date: “You told those men that Iris and I were going to Golden Yokocho, didn’t you?” Pewter: “Yes. I did. Renju hired them.” Date: “Renju did?” Iris: “Which means Mr. Okiura is in with Naix…” Pewter: “Naix?” Date: “Don’t play dumb. I know you’re with them.” Pewter: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just helping Renju.” Iris: “Did you help #89 get away?” Pewter: “How much does she know?” Date: “Just answer the question.” Pewter: … Iris: … Pewter: “Yes, I did.” Date: “It’s been bothering me… How was #89 able to escape from Metro so easily? And you were the one being held hostage. If you were helping him the whole time, it all makes sense.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Psync Control Room

Date: “Is it true that you were the one who gave Renju his watch?” Pewter: … Date: … Pewter: “Yes, that’s true.” Date: There was no need to ask anything else. Why did Pewter help Renju? His last answer was all I needed to hear. - Tuesday (dakkAI), Psync Control Room

Date: “Why did Renju escape with #89?” Pewter: “I don’t know. I-It’s true, please, believe me! Renju said that he needed him. That’s all I know.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Psync Control Room

Pewter: “Two days ago, Renju escaped from the hospital. Renju asked me on the phone to report everything about Shoko’s murder case. That’s what he wanted. Yesterday… The Boss told me that #89 was coming. Then, Renju asked… ‘Is there any way we can let #89 escape?’ I was conflicted. I thought hard about it… But it was Renju asking. Someone I love. And he sounded like he was on death’s doorstep. He was begging for help. I couldn’t say no. With my intelligence, I was quickly able to come up with a plan. You know what the results were.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Psync Control Room

Date: “I see. So where is Renju?” Pewter: “Even if I knew, why would I tell you?” Date: “Because you don’t want more holes in your body than you already have.” Pewter: “You can’t.” Date: “Why not?” Pewter: “Date, I didn’t tell you all this because you were threatening me. I genuinely wanted you to know. To understand. The truth, Date.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Psync Control Room

Moma: “That jackoff who took Tesa, Pewter, right? What’s his deal?” Date: “I think Renju asked him to do all of this.” Moma: “Renju?” Date: I told Moma about Renju and Pewter’s relationship. Moma: “Oh, that’s right… Renju was lookin’ for Tesa.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Warehouse District

Saito: “By Monday, Renju’s body was almost completely dead. And of course, my consciousness as well. That’s when I got a call. From a Mr. Amanoma… The man you call ‘Pewter.’” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Receptionist

Date: “Things have been pretty serious around here lately. Receptionist: “Yeah, totally. You never think about, like, my boss getting murdered, y’know? Like, what are even the chances? That’s like, the odds of hitting the lotto.” Date: … Receptionist: “But it was kinda lucky in a weird way? Some of my old friends hit me up, asking about it, y’know? Feels like we’re old alumni or something.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Lemniscate

Date: “Who hired this woman?” Mizuki: … Aiba: “The most likely scenario is that the final decision was made by the head of the company.” Date: “Renju.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Lemniscate

Kumakura Gang

Moma: “I’ve been looking after that guy since high school. It was the usual stuff. I had him help me with a lot of work.” Date: … Moma: “But now, it’s kind of the opposite, y’know? We’re getting work from him. Well, we were. Now that he’s dead though…” Date: “What ‘work’ did he have you do?” Moma: “Eh, the usual. If talent at his office was causing trouble or something…” Date: “You ever get into any disputes with Renju doing this ‘work’?” Moma: “No way, he paid good money. I’ve never even gotten into an argument with the guy.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Kumakura Offices

Mama: “You know about Renju and the Kumakura gang, right?” Date: “Yeah, I know. I heard it from his own mouth right here.” Mama: “Do they have anything to do with the talent scandal at Lemniscate?” Date: “Maybe now they do, since Renju is the president of Lemniscate. But even before that…Renju and the Kumakuras go way back. All the way back to high school.” - Monday (syuurAI), Marble

Bit sad that Date can remember when Renju drunkenly told him about the trauma of being present at multiple murders under coercion, but not about Renju getting uncharacteristically angry at him out of love; makes sense from a plot and characterisation standpoint, but still.

Date: “Who told you this?” Hitomi: “Renju told me.” Date: “But you said he wasn’t there.” Hitomi: “He heard some of this from the Kumakuras. Renju had connections with them…” - Tuesday (kokkAI), Psync Room with Hitomi

Hitomi: “Again, neither Renju or I saw this. We were just waiting at my house for Manaka to return. But she never came back. We tried to call her cell, but it didn’t connect. But then…we saw movement on the GPS.” Date: “The GPS Renju gave to Manaka?” Hitomi: “Yes. At first, we thought she was on her way home. But we saw the GPS getting further and further away from the city… Renju and I got nervous and decided to follow it.” Date: “What about the baby?” Hitomi: “We couldn’t take a baby with us, so… Renju gave the baby to the mob doctor he trusted.” - Tuesday (kokkAI), Psync Room with Hitomi

The ol’ Kumakura special. (Moma does exactly the same thing for Iris in Iris End, gives her a tiny GPS tracker to conceal on her person in case she goes missing, which she also does)

Manaka Iwai

Date: “It was covered by a cloth.” Aiba: “What is unnatural about that?” Date: “Isn’t it strange? The culprit hid the body because they didn’t want it to be found. But then they cover it with a cloth? That implies they thought that someone would eventually find it.” Aiba: “I explained earlier. The body may not have been hidden by the culprit. And even if they were responsible… It is not uncommon that murderers feel a sudden urge of remorse or pity for their victim.” Date: “So the cloth was a sign of pity?” Aiba: “That is a possibility.” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Warehouse District

Mizuki: “Okay. I’ll tell you about ‘Alice.’ It was about a month ago… I saw my daddy crying in the President’s office at Lemniscate… I was peeking through a crack in the door, so he didn’t see me. Daddy got up, then got into his car and drove away. I had never seen him like that before… I was curious, so I followed him in a taxi. That led me to the cold storage warehouse… He got out of his car and went inside. I followed right behind him, quietly. Daddy was standing next to the forklift in the back. I hid behind a shelf. I watched Daddy open the hood of the forklift. And then, after a little bit, he left. I wanted to know what he was looking at. I went over to the forklift and I looked under the hood myself. And then…” Date: “You saw Alice’s dead body.” Mizuki: “But at the time…I thought it was Iris…” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Ikume Shrine

Mizuki: “I asked around some, and… I found out that Daddy was managing the warehouse before I was born. After my grandpa died, Daddy took over. In exchange for managing the warehouse, he gave ownership of the company to someone else. I guess he didn’t want to let this place go. Or maybe he couldn’t let it go. That’s more accurate, I think… But I understand why. Inside that warehouse was…” Date: “Alice.” Mizuki: “On paper, Daddy has nothing to do with Okiura Fishery. Daddy was still managing the warehouse… And he was the only one allowed in there too. That was part of the agreement when he gave up the company. And the whole thing had to be a secret. He really stressed that point…” Date: “Hey, Mizuki. How long was he managing the warehouse?” Mizuki: … Date: … Mizuki: “For 18 years. That’s what the man told me.” Date: “18 years?! From that long ago?!” Mizuki: “Yes…” Date: … Mizuki: … - Tuesday (kenzAI), Ikume Shrine

Date: “Hitomi… I think I know what happened 18 years ago. You three were close. You, Manaka, and Renju. Manaka was murdered. You and Renju found the body in the mountains. And you brought it back to the cold storage warehouse.” Hitomi: … Date: “And my guess is So Sejima killed Manaka.” - Tuesday (kokkAI), Psync Room with Hitomi

Level Five: Bittersweet Reminiscence

Ota: “So, anyway, Mizuki reads my novels. I get notes and advice from her.” Date: “From a sixth grader?” Ota: “She’s surprisingly insightful. She has the talent to be an editor, for sure.”

Date: “Do you remember anything?” Mizuki: “Yeah, I do. I went to this amusement park when I was little… I was four. I remember it so clearly. This is where…I saw my mom and dad smile. I had so many happy memories here. The only happy memories I really have are from here. Memories of my family are…so bright and colorful. But now… This is where Mom…” - Saturday (meikAI), Bloom Park with Mizuki

Date: “You’ve always got something smart to say, huh? You’re just like Renju.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Driving with Mizuki

Aiba: “At the time, Renju was recently divorced, buried in work at Lemniscate, and mentally unstable.” Date: … Aiba: “It was a display of excellent judgment. It was a good thing that he managed to swallow his pride.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Date: “Is this your first time at a place like this?” Mizuki: “Yeah. I mean, at Sunfish Pocket they served alcohol, but…I’ve never been to a bar like this.” Date: “I would hope not, you’re in elementary school.” Mizuki: “Well, Daddy invited me along sometimes, but I was too shy to go…” Date: “Good call.” Mizuki: “I was planning on going one day. When I was old enough to drink. I wanted to go to a bar with Daddy…” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Date: “Was Renju a regular here?” Mama: “I haven’t seen him for a while. I thought I was going to shrivel up and die of boredom without you boys around.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Mizuki: “I remember telling you before… That Bloom Park is an important park of my memories. Before it shut down, I came here a lot with Daddy and Mom. They fought a lot, but sometimes they got along. Whenever we were here, it was one of those ‘sometimes’ days. I remember it clearly. I was just a little girl, but it was so rare to see them laughing together… That’s why I remember it so well. I remember…riding the merry-go-round like this… Mom was standing right next to me… She was holding me so I wouldn’t fall.” Date: “Where was Renju when you were on the horse?” Mizuki: “He was on the other side of the fence, with an old camera. Every time we passed in front of him, Mom and I would wave our hands. Heh, we sound like a happy family, huh?” Date: “He must have gotten good pictures.” Mizuki: “No, actually. We tried developing them at the park, but they came out all blurry and out of focus. But Mom wasn’t mad or upset or anything. She just started laughing. That might have been the first and last time the three of us laughed out loud together…” - Tuesday (seisAI), Bloom Park

Level Six: Finding-Character-Through-What-Is-Out-of-Character

Date: “I wonder what Renju was doing last night… I did call him a few times. He didn’t answer.” Boss: “He didn’t?” Date: “No…” Boss: “The local police tried his phone too, but they got the same result. No one was able to get a hold of him until this morning. We explained the situation to him, had him verify Shoko’s corpse… And naturally, started asking him questions.” - Saturday (saikAI), Boss’s Office

This is currently Saito occupying Renju’s body, hence the strangely evasive behaviour. The real Renju, as in his consciousness, is already dead, but Date and Boss don’t know that, so believe they are discussing the Renju as they know him.

Date: “Renju is Mizuki’s legal guardian. Did you get permission from him?” Boss: “I couldn’t get in touch with him.” Date: “What? I thought he was being questioned by a local unit.” Boss: “His questioning ended around noon. He hasn’t been heard from since.” Date: “Why would he…?” Boss: “I don’t know.”- Saturday (saikAI), Psync Room with Mizuki

Date: “You look like you want to say something.” Mizuki: “I don’t wanna say anything. I don’t wanna talk to you. I don’t wanna talk to anyone who thinks my daddy is a killer.” Date: “Look, I don’t want to believe it either. I’ve known him for more than five years now. He’s like family to me.” Date: I’d never want to put cuffs on him. I would never want Mizuki to see that… Anyway, Renju just isn’t the kind of guy who would commit a crime like this… - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Date: “When was the last time you saw your dad?” Mizuki: “I think about a week ago. When I went to hang out at Lemniscate.” Date: “Did you notice anything different about him?” Mizuki: “Nothing really… He was the same as usual.” Date: “And he didn’t come to see you in the hospital, did he?” Mizuki: “No…” Date: “Not even for his own daughter…” Aiba: “That is very unusual.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Mizuki: “Yeah… My dad’s never said anything like that to me, ever. That he was counting on me. I had to go.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

This dialogue occurs on both sides of the flowchart; on the right side, the exchange happens on Sunday at the Date Residence, with Hitomi present.

Mama: “Stupid Ren… What was he thinking, leaving his little girl like this.”- Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Iris: “I didn’t know that…” Mizuki: “Daddy’s not the type to give compliments…” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Mama: “You don’t remember? Your drunk ass spilled your beer on Ren’s watch. Ren was furious, yelling about how ‘this watch is more important than my life!’ Or whatever… He blew up on you. That was the only time I’ve ever seen Ren that mad. That’s why I remember it so well.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Mizuki: “Okay. I’ll tell you about ‘Alice.’ It was about a month ago… I saw my daddy crying in the President’s office at Lemniscate… I was peeking through a crack in the door, so he didn’t see me. Daddy got up, then got into his car and drove away. I had never seen him like that before…” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Ikume Shrine

Level Seven A: Renju’s Experience of Death (Mind)

Aiba: “Multiple puncture wounds to the front of the torso. Cause of death: blood loss from these wounds. Body temperature and rigor mortis indicate the time of death was approximately six hours ago. That would place the crime occurring around 5:00pm.” - Friday (sigAI), Bloom Park

The true circumstances of Renju’s death occupying Shoko Nadami’s body, having swapped with Saito Sejima.

Date: Saito explained what he did on Friday. At 4:00am, Saito began his plan against Shoko. He called Renju to this abandoned factory and switched bodies with him. After taking Renju’s body, Saito killed Shoko, then brought the body to Bloom Park. But as he explained it to me, I somehow felt that I already knew. - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Level Seven B: Renju’s Death Observed (Body)

Date: “My best friend was murdered, Boss. I don’t have it in me to sleep right now.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Boss’s Office

Date: Renju’s corpse was hung up by three wires. The wires were tied to three kegs. - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “The corpse was strung up near this counter.”

Aiba: “The autopsy report indicates that the contents of the victim’s intestines were excreted upon death. But no traces of that have been found in the area nor on the corpse itself. This evidence makes it highly likely that Renju was killed somewhere else.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

The "nor on the corpse itself" here is weird, either something blended in by translation, or else the implication seems to be that Saito undressed and redressed Renju before transporting and setting up his corpse; it’s simply impossible for that shit (literally) not to end up on his clothes.

Speaking of contents of intestines, we learn later that Saito has been disposing of loose eyeballs after body-swaps by swallowing them, meaning Renju’s body was nicked, effectively force-fed his estranged ex-wife’s eyeball, then killed, which is pretty fucking fucked.

Aiba: “The body was hanged from the ceiling, similar to how a fish would be. A thick hook was embedded in the upper jaw, and the wires connecting to the hook were strung up on one of the ceiling beams. There was also a hook on the other end of each wire. The three beer kegs were attached to these hooks.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Conspicuous use of the conjugation "hanged" there, Aiba.

Also being strung up with rope and penetrated, evident albeit warped parallel to St Sebastian imagery.

Takes some considerable digging into subtext, but it seems implied by conversations with Date and Mama that Renju was dependent on alcohol to some degree, so the irony of his dead body being weighed down (or weighed up, as the case may be) by beer kegs is fucking fucked too, made more terrible by the knowledge that Date makes sure to emphasise repeatedly that Renju was drugged almost catatonic by Saito to make it possible/easier to strangle him to death.

Date: There are deep impressions left on his neck. Date: “Strangulation?” Aiba: “Correct.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Aiba: “The autopsy report discovered the presence of benzodiazepine. It is a common sedative. The dosage found in the victim’s bloodstream was extremely high. It can be assumed that Renju’s cognitive functions were heavily impaired before his death.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: He was barely conscious before he was killed. - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “A heavy concentration of sedatives were discovered in Renju’s body. Renju was practically in a coma before he died. He wouldn’t have struggled.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Interrogation Room with Iris

Radio: “In other news… At 6:10pm today, on the outer circle of the capital city highway in Minato District, Tokyo… A traffic collision occurred, involving five cars and at least one truck. As a result of the pile-up, one man was sent to the hospital unconscious, in critical condition. Six other individuals were treated for minor injuries. MPD has arrested the driver of the truck suspected to be the cause of the accident for negligence. The investigation is ongoing.” ­- Saturday (keitAI), Driving

The lone man in hospital in critical condition is Saito, in Renju’s body; this pile up was bad, involving “at least one” heavy vehicle and five cars, and the state of Renju’s body is really, really bad.

Date: “Anything else to report?” Boss: “About Renju…” Date: “Renju?” Boss: “Yesterday, I told you he vanished after he was questioned. Well, we found him.” Date: “Where?” Boss: “Central Hospital. He was brought there from a traffic accident. He’s unconscious and it’s not looking good.” Date: “Could it be…?” Aiba: “Capital Highway?” Boss: “Oh, you heard about it?” Aiba: “We heard the report on the radio last night.” Date: “I can’t believe it was about Renju…” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Boss’s Office

Ironically, they still haven’t found him, since guy’s about to disappear again and they still don’t have an inkling that it ain’t Renju in there, lol another victory for Renju the Vanisher.

Date: “Anything else you can tell me about Renju?” Mermaid: “Anything else? Well, he did seem really sick. He was pale and sweating a lot…” Date: “Must have been because of the accident.” Aiba: “Perhaps.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “You’re… Saito Sejima…” Saito: “Oh, so you figured it out.” Date: “Renju’s body on the ground… Without his left eye…” Saito: … Date: “You were inside Renju, weren’t you? Until just now? You used the machine to exchange minds, then got rid of his body.” Saito: “Close, but you’re a little off. I didn’t ‘get rid’ of the body. He died of natural causes.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Date: Renju… I don’t believe it… - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Saito: “I decided to pick her up in Renju’s car. I thought that if she saw me in person, she would trust me. However…”

Date: “You got in a car accident around 6:10pm and lost consciousness.”

Saito: “So unlucky… My plans were ruined.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Saito: “After the accident, my body was taken to Central Hospital. I regained consciousness just past 12:00am Sunday. The surgery was a success, but Renju’s organs were in a horrible state. But I had somewhere to be.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Saito: “I was planning to put her to sleep in the car, but I didn’t have my drugs on me. The sleeping pills were inside Renju’s crushed car. I was pushing my luck. My plan and my body were both in shambles. I’m sure the painkillers were affecting me as well. My mind was scrambled, and I couldn’t think straight.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

The absolute ringer Renju’s body is put through in Reso route can really be read two ways; either the literal scrambling of his insides and slowly putrefying like a shambling corpse and externally dressed in his own filth is a further indignity layered atop the cruelty of having his body stolen and used to systemically destroy the lives of those in proximity to him while the tiny percentage of his consciousness still lingering in his brain smothered by Saito is made to watch helplessly (being forced to spectate as a serial killer methodically carries out a scheme to deceive and gruesomely murder who committed the crime of being a convenient target – sounds very familiar); the alternative marginally less shitty reading is that, in death, though his mind is gone, Renju’s physical body enacts his revenge by scuppering Saito’s intricately laid plans and eventually allowing him to be caught (not saying Renju literally caused his car to crash somehow, it’s more like a small poetic justice; Saito shoves Renju out of his own body and steals his autonomy away from him, so Renju’s formerly pristine body starts turning to mush and falling apart at the seams, yeeting Saito out of there too – Saito says himself, he had no hand or say in Renju’s body’s death, it died on its own); it may have taken the rest of his life away but gotdamn did Renju get his promised revenge, talk about seeing the right opportunity and taking it. The irony of Saito being impaired by painkillers given to Renju's body, when Saito used sedatives to force Renju's body into compliance on the left side of the flowchart is also sweet.

Saito: “I couldn’t chase after her. I needed to sleep… I managed to make it back here and collapsed on the ground. Next thing I knew, it was the next day. I woke up around noon on Monday. Renju’s body was about to expire.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Saito: “Not to sound like a broken record, but Renju’s body was almost done. It was completely useless at this point. So I put Rohan to sleep and began the Psync. As a result… This happened.” Date: “Renju…” Saito: “It’s just like I told you. He died of natural causes.” - Wednesday (sousAI), Abandoned Chemical Plant

Level Eight: Renju As Ghost/Encryption/Abstraction (Nobody Can Decide Where or Who Renju Is and Looks Constantly To The Next Person Hoping They Might Know Him Better Until Everyone Is Contradicting Each Other and Themselves and Nobody Knows Anything Anymore)

Boss: “No one was able to get a hold of him until this morning. We explained the situation to him, had him verify Shoko’s corpse… And naturally, started asking him questions.” - Saturday (saikAI), Boss’s Office

Renju has an uncanny ability to keep slipping through literally everyone’s fingers constantly, the player will pick up on pretty quickly.

Mizuki: “So let me get this straight… You think that Daddy drove his car on the tracks through the tunnel… Stopped at the closed-down station, and carried Mom’s body to the park?”

Carrying his wife through an inverted doorway, almost like a wedding.

Date: “I can’t prove it was Renju. There’s a chance someone else was driving the car.” Mizuki: “Yeah… Yeah!” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Mizuki: “Daddy didn’t do it!” Aiba: “I am not so certain.” Date: “Either way, I have to talk to Renju. And you can help me find him.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Date: “Hey, Mizuki. Tell me again. That person you saw at the merry-go-round.” Mizuki: “No, it wasn’t Daddy! I know it wasn’t!” Date: “You’re sure?” Mizuki: “Well, I… I dunno…” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Date: “When was the last time you spoke with your dad?” Mizuki: “I don’t remember, it was a while ago… What about you?” Date: “What about me?” Mizuki: “You try calling him.” Date: “I did. I called earlier, and I tried a few times last night.” Mizuki: “And he didn’t pick up?” Date: “No…” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Mizuki: “The killer did it, not Daddy…” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Boss: “He didn’t give us any new information. He didn’t have much to say at all, really.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Boss: “Shoko’s time of death was estimated to be about 5:00pm yesterday. Renju claims that he was at home alone at the time. But that means no one can back up his story.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Date: “Any idea where Renju is?” Boss: “No, I told you, he vanished.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Date: “Where the hell did Renju go…?” Mizuki: “Uh, sun poke?” Date: “What?” Mizuki: “Um, sun poke or something…” Date: “Oh, Sunfish Pocket! Renju was telling me about that place… It’s a maid cafe that he runs.” - Saturday (meikAI), Driving with Mizuki

Mizuki: “I’m Renju’s daughter. Maybe I’ll notice something you don’t. Something only his daughter would know.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Driving with Mizuki

Policeman: “And this is…?” Date: “Have you looked through the case file yet?” Mizuki: … Policeman: “Oh… Oh, I am so sorry… She’s the victim’s…” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: Mizuki is looking at the spot where we found Renju. Date: “Hey. Are you doing okay?” Mizuki: “Oh, sorry. Just staring.” Date: “If you’re having a hard time, you can tell me…” Mizuki: “I’m fine. It’s not like the body is lying here.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “Do you remember what you saw last night?” Mizuki: “How could I forget? I’ll never be able to get that image out of my head. Not until the day I die.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “Any places you can think of that I don’t know about?” Mizuki: “Well, there is one place… Have you heard of ‘Golden Yokocho’? In the entertainment district? Daddy used to go to a place called ‘Marble’ a lot. Maybe they know something about him…” - Sunday (syokubAI), Sunfish Pocket

Mizuki: “Hey, Date. What did you and Daddy use to talk about when you were here?” Date: “Hm… I don’t remember a lot of it. I was usually drinking pretty hard.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

So: “The president of Lemniscate? We aren’t friends, but I did meet him a few times through work.” Date: “What work were you doing to meet up with the head of an entertainment company?” So: “It was just some party hosted by some company or other. It’s not unusual. Events with those uptight, stuffed shirts can be rather dull. So they have some young women from an entertainment office attend. Anyway, we only saw each other few times. I don’t even remember what we spoke about.”- Sunday (syokubAI), Kumakura Office

Date: “He must have gotten good pictures.” Mizuki: “No, actually. We tried developing them at the park, but they came out all blurry and out of focus.” - Tuesday (seisAI), Bloom Park

Date: “Have you come here before with friends?” Mizuki: “Other than last Friday? Nope, I haven’t. This place has been off limits for almost a decade. Even if it wasn’t, I don’t think I would want to come back here.” Date: “Why is that?” Mizuki: “How can I explain it…? I guess I just wanted to keep that memory beautiful. I didn’t want to ruin it or replace it with another. But in the end…it was replaced by the worst memory possible.” - Tuesday (seisAI), Bloom Park

Date: “There’s no one here…” Aiba: “Indeed, the bed is empty.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Central Hospital

Date: “Where are we?” Nurse: “Mr. Okiura’s room. I’m certain of it…” Date: “Where is he?” Nurse: “He’s not here. As you can see.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Central Hospital

Nurse: “He snuck out at night.” Date: “‘Snuck out’?” Nurse: “Mr. Okiura arrived with internal injuries. The surgery was successful, but he was in no condition to move. He would have opened up his wounds, and then he would be in real trouble…” Date: “Real trouble, huh?” Nurse: “Yes. I can’t believe it… Where could he have gone?” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Central Hospital

Receptionist: “Hellooo, this is Lemniscate Entertainment Offices! Lemme hear your message! Thank youuu!” Date: What kind of employee training do they have there…? Anyway, I gave them my name and told them about Renju. Date: “Do you have any idea where he might be?” Receptionist: “Sorry, no clue! I’m trying to get in touch with him too. So far, nothing! I’m getting worried… He must be a mess right now.” Date: … Aiba: … Receptionist: “Oh, wait… Maybe he’s at the maid cafe…” Date: “Maid cafe? Do you mean…Sunfish Pocket?” Receptionist: “Yeah! That’s the one! Like, out of nowhere, Renju was like, ‘I’m gonna rent out Sunfish Pocket.’ I guess he was gonna throw like a secret party or something? But with the accident and all… Still, he might be there.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Central Hospital

Date: “Is Renju here?” Mermaid: “No, he never showed up.” Date: “When was the last time he came here?” Mermaid: “Hm, lemme think… He’s just the owner, not the manager, so… He comes sometimes, but not all that often.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “Where is Renju?” Mizuki: “I don’t know where he is…” Date: “Can you think of anywhere he might go?” Mizuki: “No, not really… I don’t know where Daddy goes…” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Date Residence

Date: “Where could Renju be?” Aiba: “I also wonder where he could have gone.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Driving with Aiba

Aiba: “Mizuki went to Bloom Park three nights ago. She was prompted by a NILE message from Renju. ‘Mizuki, Daddy got caught up in something serious. Please come to Bloom Park’s merry-go-round right away.’ There are three possibilities. One: Renju killed Shoko, or was an accessory to the murder. Two: Renju was threatened or blackmailed into luring Mizuki to the scene. Three: the culprit used Renju’s phone to send the NILE message. In any case, the motive is still unknown. We need to talk to Renju.”

Date: “Renju…where did you go?” - Monday (syuurAI), Driving with Aiba

Mama: “You need more info on Ren? I’m sorry to waste your time, but I don’t have anything for you.” - Monday (syuurAI), Marble

Date: There’s no point hiding it. I told her about Renju’s disappearance. Hitomi: “Right from the hospital…? I’m sorry… I have no idea.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sagan Residence

Date: “Where’s Renju?” Iris: “What about him?” Date: I don’t need to hide it. I told her about Renju’s disappearance. Iris: “A traffic accident? I’m worried…” Date: “Any idea where he could have gone?” Iris: “I’m sorry, no.” - Monday (syuurAI), Lemniscate

Aiba: “Date, I know you are already aware of this, but there are security cameras all over this compound. I checked all of them. #89 fled in a car that was waiting for him.” Date: “So he had an accomplice.” Aiba: “Yes.” Date: “Did you see who was driving?” Aiba: “I did.” Date: “Who was it?” Aiba: “You and I know him well.” Date: “Renju?!” Date: I told Boss and Pewter about what Aiba revealed to me. Boss: “Renju?!” Pewter: “Wh-Why…?” Date: … Aiba: “Date, Moma is calling.” Date: “Moma? From the Kumakuras?” Aiba: “I’ll connect him.” Moma: “Hey, Date. I just got the word. Renju’s been seen.” - Monday (syuurAI), Boss’s Office

Iris: “What happened to Mr. Okiura? I heard he escaped the hospital.” Moma: “So did I. But I don’t know anything more than that.” Iris: “Please tell me?” - Monday (syuurAI), Kumakura Office

Iris: “But why would Mr. Okiura do that?” Date: “I don’t know. He could be a hostage or an accomplice.” Moma: “Hm…” Date: “Either way, I need to find him.” - Monday (syuurAI), Kumakura Office

Ota: “You’re still looking for him? Well, like I told you before, I don’t know.” - Monday (syuurAI), Matsushita Diner

Date: “I’ve heard that Renju was sighted here.” Mermaid: “When do you mean?” Date: “When? I got the info a few minutes ago, but I don’t know when he was seen…” Mermaid: “Oh.” Date: “Ringing any bells?” Mermaid: “Well, he hasn’t come by today. But yesterday…” Date: “Yesterday?! But I was here yesterday.” Mermaid: “It was after that. After you and Ota left.” Date: “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” Mermaid: “You didn’t ask… And I didn’t have any way to contact you.” Date: “Damn it.” Aiba: “We just missed him.” Date: “What was he doing here?” Mermaid: “He was looking for Iris. He was asking everyone where she was.” Iris: “Looking for me?” Mermaid: “Yeah.” Date: “Did he give a reason?” Mermaid: “No, not in particular.” Date: “Iris, can you think of why he would be looking for you” Iris: “No, not at all.” Date: “Mizuki?” Mizuki: “I don’t know either.” Date: “Anything else you can tell me about Renju?” Mermaid: “Anything else? Well, he did seem really sick. He was pale and sweating a lot…” Date: “Must have been because of the accident.” Aiba: “Perhaps.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Mizuki: “The police asked me a bunch of questions… But I don’t know where he is.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Date: “About the Okiura Fishery warehouse…” Mizuki: “Why are you asking me about that?” Date: “I was just curious.” Mizuki: “That company was made by my grandpa. But Daddy has nothing to do with it. I don’t know anything about the warehouse.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Iris: “Mr. Okiura isn’t here. I mean, of course he isn’t. It’s not like we came here right away.” Date: “He’s already taken off.” Iris: “Too bad.” Aiba: “It looks like there are no further clues here. It appears we’ve wasted our time.” - Monday (syuurAI), Sunfish Pocket

Iris: “When you found my corpse in the parallel world, you found it in an Okiura warehouse. Whoever killed me in that world was probably affiliated with Naix. That makes me think the Okiuras and Naix are connected. Maybe Naix ordered Mr. Okiura to help #89 escape. And #89 is an assassin… If he wanted to get rid of me, Mr. Okiura must have…” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Kumakura Office

Iris: “There’s nothing here…” Date: “Guess not.” Date: Why did Renju come here Friday night? Was it to place Shoko’s body here…? Or did he have another reason? Renju is my friend. I want to believe him, but I don’t [know] how long I can keep defending him. Where is he? What is he doing? I’ve thought it over a thousand times. My head is heavy with it. - Tuesday (dakkAI), Bloom Park

Date: “What happened to Renju?” Iris: “I dunno. I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Ikume Shrine

Date: “What did you do after you ran away?” Iris: “Well, I didn’t go home. I thought he might come back. I just walked around and went into a bunch of stores. Restaurants, coffee shops, net cafes… I was afraid that he would try to call me, so I turned off my phone too.” - Tuesday (dakkAI), Ikume Shrine

Aiba: “Date, the person in Iris’s letter. The one she trusts most. Who do you think that is? Date: “Renju?” Aiba: “I think so too. Remember what Iris said?” Iris: “I look up to him. He’s done so much for me. I know I can rely on him more than anyone else.” Aiba: “According to the mermaid at Sunfish Pocket…” Mermaid: “He was looking for Iris.” Aiba: “I think Renju called Iris.” Date: “And Iris went looking for him.” Aiba: “Exactly.” Date: “Then what can I do? We’ve been looking for Renju. Everyone at HQ is looking for him too. Not to mention, he’s on the run with #89. And even with all of that, we haven’t found him. We don’t even have any leads.” Aiba: “If we only had some clues to work with…” Date: “Then we wouldn’t be in this mess…” Aiba: “Are you giving up?! Iris might be with #89 at this very moment! We need to find her immediately!” Date: … Aiba: “Now think, Date! Where would Renju go?!” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Driving with Aiba

Date: “Where is Renju Okiura?! You know where he is, don’t you? You were at an Okiura Fishery warehouse for a reason! There’s definitely a connection between you two. And that’s not all. #89 called your secretary! The same #89 that Renju escaped with! Now tell me! Where is Renju?!” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Sejima Residence

Date: “I think Iris is with Renju.” Mizuki: “With Daddy?” Date: “Yeah. Her note mentioned her ‘most trusted’ person. That’s probably Renju.” Mizuki: “Yeah… I remember that mermaid girl saying something like that.” Mermaid: “He was looking for Iris.” Mizuki: “Does that mean that Daddy is the one who called for Iris?” Date: “It could be. So I need to know where he is.” Mizuki: “But… I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.” - Tuesday (kenzAI), Ikume Shrine

Loud incorrect buzzer sound.

Mizuki: “I actually met with one of the higher-ups at Daddy’s company last night. Before I went to Matsushita Diner.” Date: “Why?” Mizuki: “Because you asked about the cold storage. I was curious. I asked around some, and… I found out that Daddy was managing the warehouse before I was born. After my grandpa died, Daddy took over. In exchange for managing the warehouse, he gave ownership of the company to someone else. I guess he didn’t want to let this place go. Or maybe he couldn’t let it go. That’s more accurate, I think… But I understand why. Inside that warehouse was…” Date: “Alice.” Mizuki: “On paper, Daddy has nothing to do with Okiura Fishery. Daddy was still managing the warehouse… And he was the only one allowed in there too. That was part of the agreement when he gave up the company. And the whole thing had to be a secret. He really stressed that point…” Date: “Hey, Mizuki. How long was he managing the warehouse?” Mizuki: … Date: … Mizuki: “For 18 years. That’s what the man told me.” Date: “18 years?! From that long ago?!” Mizuki: “Yes…” Date: … Mizuki: … - Tuesday (kenzAI), Ikume Shrine

Aiba: “Renju Okiura…” Date: Talk to him. Aiba: “Renju, what are you doing in a place like this?” Date: “He won’t answer.” Aiba: “Not in a place like this, at least.” - PSYNCIN’ IN THE MOUNTaiN

Renju: “What do you think they’d do if they found out? They would take her and kill her too. And then…they’d come for us. They’d make it look like we disappeared. All of us would be…gone.” - (18 years ago) Mountains

Hitomi: “I don’t know who it was. They were using a voice modulator.” Date: “What did they say?” Hitomi: “‘I have your daughter. Don’t call the police or she dies.’ That’s why I didn’t ell you earlier…” Date: “Renju!” Aiba: “We don’t know that for certain. It could be #89.” Date: “Either way!” - Tuesday (kokkAI), Psync Room with Hitomi

Mama: “I can’t say much. The public thinks our Ren killed Shoko. And then #89 busted outta jail and killed Ren. And then he goes and commits suicide by blowing up his own head. That’s what all the news reports have been saying. I know there’s more to it than that, but…” - Three months later (kassAI), Marble

Man really died on Friday night stuck in Shoko’s body on the carousel horse, his body appears to have continued living but in reality everything on record and in the public consciousness is a lie; even Mama who knows better doesn’t actually know the truth, only that the reality being sold is false. Well, suppose it’s fitting that this is revealed with the Sebastian painting looming in the background; a sacrificial lamb in every way in every ending; Saito kills him and hijacks his body and identity, and then the authorities responsible for finding justice for his murder instead use him and his death to conceal the truth of their own colossal string of fuck ups. Old news: everyone in Reso sucks except Iris because it is pretty much her ending chapter, the end, take away the dancing and it’s an absolute sleeper tragedy (though has now left some outstanding conflicts that could be developed in a sequel…if I had one…)

Level Nine: Somnium Scraps, Symbols, YMMV (everything is up to interpretation, but this is ultra up to interpretation)

Mayumi: “That boy… He’s been hanging out at this…office building lately.” Date: “What kind of office?” Mayumi: “Hm, uh, what was it…? It’s a place where…irresponsible young men hang out. Nonconformists and the like.” - Saturday (saikAI), Matsushita Diner

We meet Renju’s building several times over before setting eyes on the man himself even in a flashback, so one starts to build a sense of his character instead through the prism of Lemniscate.

Aiba: “A black SUV.” - Saturday (meikAI), Bloom Park with Mizuki

SUV=sport utility vehicle, big, four-wheel drive, think Range Rover, stereotypical elite-person-in-big-so-incognito-it’s-not-incognito-black-car. Renju is the registered owner.

Date: “Hey, about Renju… Do you have anything to tell me? Anything at all that might help?” Mizuki: “Well, it’s not about Daddy, but… I heard from Daddy that Mom had a secret.” Date: “Shoko had a secret?” Mizuki: “Did you know that Mom was the representative of an investment company?” Date: “Yeah, I did.” Mizuki: “That whole company was a big scam.” Date: “A scam?” Mizuki: “Well, I dunno the details… They start up a company to get people to invest in it, then shut it down on purpose and keep the money. She got really rich like that…” - Sunday (syokubAI), Driving with Mizuki

Much like her marriage *COUGH* who can say farce nuclear family built on a foundation of compulsory heterosexuality?

Mizuki: “Is this it?” Date: “Yeah.” Mizuki: “You know about this place?” Date: “Yeah. This is where I met Renju for the first time.” Mizuki: “Interesting… Didn’t think this was your kind of spot.” Date: “This place is special. You can find all sorts of shady characters here. It’s the best place for gathering information about a case. So that’s why.” Aiba: “That is only a partial truth.” Date: “Shut up.” Mizuki: “Huh…?” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Aiba: “I know what you are.”

Date: A picture on the wall. It’s a little…odd. - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

Aiba: “This is a painting of Saint Sebastian. Saint Sebastian was a faithful Christian who lived under Roman emperor Diocletian. On January 20th, 288 A.D., he was martyred. This painting depicts his execution.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

This dialogue occurs on Sunday on both sides of the flowchart; on the right side, the exchange occurs with Mizuki present.

Mama: “People who come in here tend to have very specific interests. I help accommodate.” Mizuki: “Oh. Okay…” Date: “Mama’s like, uh, an informant.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Marble

After throwing the knife into the “bird” TV, the room changes and the next puzzle calls for shooting a pistol at the “cat” TV, but the gun is empty and the only other new object is an oil barrel like that found at Sunfish Pocket, with the bullet needed seemingly inside. – PSYNCIN’ IN THE VaiN, “Smack TV” route

Where Renju was stuffed into the oil barrel to transport his body to Sunfish Pocket to be displayed, and Saito neglected to notice Renju’s wristwatch, a gift from Pewter he apparently never took off, had come off his wrist and was left behind in the barrel for Date to discover, allowing him to piece together how Saito, in Iris’s smaller body, could have possibly manufactured the crime scene. Now in Somnium, when Aiba peers into the cracked open barrel, the void inside—where Renju’s corpse and his stray wristwatch, Date’s "silver bullet" was—is obscured by a pixelated censor bar, concealing Renju, masking the crime, hiding Saito’s mistake. Aiba feels a shock and the television feed is scrambled, returning to the barrel tipped over, spilling a jet black puddle onto the floor.

Date: “Any fingerprints?” Aiba: “Nothing. No fingerprints have been found at the scene at all. This entire warehouse is clean.” - Monday (youdAI), Cold Storage Warehouse

Mayumi: “Isn’t Renju Okiura the president of that awful company where the witch works? He’s just as responsible. Using her to steal time and money from vulnerable kids… And I’m sure he was…debaucherous and degenerate. That man…is the root of all evil. That’s why I killed him.” - Tuesday (zugAI), Interrogation Room with Mayumi

Date: “What’s with that spear?” Ota: “It’s not a ‘spear.’ It belongs to Poseidon, god of the sea? You know, a trident?” Date: “Why do you have that?” Mermaid: “We treat our customers like lords of the sea. We give them these tridents. It’s like a little ranking system we do!” Ota: “The color changes depending on your rank. There’s bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and at the very top, orichalcum!” Date: “So it basically measures how much money you’ve spent on these girls.” Mermaid: “Well that doesn’t sound very nice. It’s more like…a way to exploit their vanity. To separate our customers from their money as much as possible.” Date: “That sounds even worse.” - Sunday (gyoukAI), Sunfish Pocket

Pewter: “The subject of the Psync remembers certain persons or objects that appear in Somnium. But they might not have a clear form. Our dreams are sometimes vague or unclear, after all. Even the subject of the dream themselves. I told you earlier that the Psyncer experiences the dream from the perspective of an observer. That is why the person creating the dream can appear within it. But perhaps they do not have an objective view of themselves. Like a mirror or picture. Perhaps he’s never watched himself on television. Rare for a politician. But not unheard of. He lacks that objective picture of himself. He remains stoic and unattached despite his position of power. I find that quite powerful. To be able to put your ego aside and see yourself as God sees you…is an ability many charismatic people share.” - Sunday (kyuusAI), Psync Room with So

Okay this one is a bare reach, but the way the game’s conception of dreams intersects interestingly with how it builds the character of Renju; his presence is somewhat dream-like by the standard that Pewter describes, vague and amorphous, but in some specific ways the opposite; we do have an ‘objective’ image of Renju, the one that Aiba has saved in her memory that she is able to ‘replay’ to Date, since he had forgotten; perhaps the difference is between the inhuman omniscient, objective memory of Wadjet, versus the inevitable fallibility of humans and their inability to perceive others objectively; or perhaps it is the difference between a dream and a haunting.

Date: There’s an abstract painting hung up. Date: “What is that supposed to be?” Aiba: “I do not know.” Date: There’s an abstract, incomprehensible painting hung up. - Saturday (saikAI), Lemniscate

Date: There’s an abstract painting displayed on the wall. Mizuki: “This painting is called ‘Hawaiian Dishes and Dark Demons.’” Date: “Which part is supposed to be a dish and which part is a supposed to be a demon…?” - Sunday (syokubAI), Lemniscate

Sums up the conundrum of Renju’s character as it is reconstructed piecemeal through snippets of dialogue and environmental cues, told secondhand by those who have fragmentary, oftentimes incompatible or outright contradictory memories, culminating in, rather than a single cohesive whole, a cryptic, unstable amalgamate of unreliable memories, half-conversations, contextless (often misattributed) behaviour, and cryptic symbology, which one can either conclude is a poignant impression of an endlessly ambiguous, multi-faceted man who lived a complex, tragically short life, frayed at every edge by layers of trauma, or an unreliable, incomprehensible, almost abstract ghostly after image of someone who was once present but has now been distorted into near-erasure by the fact that, unintentionally, no one can agree on who he actually was and how they remember him; like the painting itself, called by a slighty different name by everyone that knows it in a poorly managed game of telephone, the chaotic, fragmented, oxymoronic narrative we are slowly fed may, depending on the beholder, be rendered expansive and enlightening in its endless twists, or thought-teminating and meaningless in its lack of a cohesive message.

Date: An abstract painting is on display. Ota: “That one is called, ‘Lying, Wishing, Marking Demons’.” - Sunday (syokubAI), Lemniscate (again)

Taxi Driver: “Oh, have you taken note of the painting? It is titled, ‘Lions Fishing, Carpe Diem.’” - Tuesday (zugAI), Lemniscate

Receptionist: “Oh, I asked someone about that earlier. It’s like, ‘Lionfish in Shag Carpet’ or something?” - Tuesday (seisAI), Lemniscate

Date: There’s an abstract painting hung up. Receptionist: “Like it? It’s called ‘Fisherman Shagging a Common Dandy.’” - Monday (syuurAI), Lemniscate

Receptionist recommends ‘to see yourself how god sees you’ by luxraydyne lmao excuse me

Date: There’s an abstract painting hung up. Looking carefully, I see some letters at the bottom. “Fisherman with Cormorant and Dandelion”… Date: … Date: “Which part is the dandelion and which part is the cormorant?!” - Three months later (kassAI), Lemniscate

[rosemaidenvixen]

Tales of Arcadia fic recs-Rise of the Titans fix it edition

This project's been a long time coming and I'm super happy to finish at last. Here we have a compilation of written responses to the complete dumpster fire that was supposed to be the franchise finale for Tales of Arcadia. Now this is not a comprehensive list by any means, just a collection of my personal favorites and what I consider the best fix-it takes of Rise of the Titans, broken down into several categories.

Bits and Pieces-Not full fix its, but some short little one shots and alternate takes that make the worst parts of of RotT easier to swallow.

Let’s Try That Again-Jim uses the Krohnisfere only to go back to earlier parts of RotT, not the entire franchise.

Instinct of Self-Preservation-Undoes Strickler's pointless death and Jim doesn't go back in time.

Remembering and Honoring a Hero-In a world where the Krohnisfere doesn't exist, the city of Arcadia gathers to remember the fallen hero, Toby Domalski.

Hope Overture-Canon compliant Stricklake, in the new timeline Barbara and Strickler are hit with memories they shouldn't rightly have.

Technically canon compliant-These fics don’t contradict any of the events of RotT, rather pick up where RotT left off with the new timeline of Toby being the Trollhunter. In general I'm not a fan of this particular type of fic. RotT was such a mess all around I don't like the idea of building on it, but the stories below are exceptions for a reason. Not only do these fics work as continuations, each of them is enjoyable on their own merits.

Challenging Destiny @pinkytoothlesso11-Picks up where canon left off, but with the twist of Jim and Toby sharing the amulet as co Trollhunters. From there it grows to include wizards, changelings, and Akiridions working together to bring back magic and create a better future for all. Not only is this story fantastic as it navigates the benefits and pitfalls of knowledge of the future, but the buildup to an eventual post-Masquerade world is set up so well. And this might be a continuation of canon but don't let that fool you, this story never misses an opportunity to throw well deserved shade at the source material.

Trollhunters: Becoming yeeterparker-A fun, fast paced romp that has the characters using their knowledge of the future to speedrun though obstacles while flipping the baddies off on the way. And not only are they able to turn some foes into friends, but troll Jim is back and he's here to stay. All the character interactions are so warm and caring, showing their strong bonds with each other in a way RotT wishes it did.

Atlas through the aftermath @atlasthroughtheaftermath-Jim went back in time, but from the very first morning in the past everything starts going wrong. The amulet was never supposed to choose Toby. Now Jim is forced to walk the line between truth and lies in order to use his knowledge of the future to ensure a better outcome. But as things drift further and further from the timeline he knows he finds himself adrift in uncharted waters. If you like fics that go into all the nitty gritty details with heartbreakingly realistic fight scenes and depictions of armor/sword fighting, this is the fic for you.

RotT fix its-Just like it says on the tin folks, fics that are complete rewrites of Rise of the Titans. But with better characterization, plot points that aren't hamfisted, no time travel retcon; and most importantly, no Steve mpreg.

Rise of the Titans-Secundo Ire @nickelwick-Part two in a series already containing a fabulous Wizards rewrite. Follows the same events of Rise of the Titans, only with the characters actually acting in character. But with the twist of someone else wielding Excalibur, and Jim going through a magical problem of his own. Not only do these changes make for a very interesting read but every character, even the minor ones, is well fleshed out and true to their established characters. All coming together to create an incredible franchise finale.

Fall of the Titans @purplerose244 This one's more a character study than anything else, but holy hell what a character study! This story goes through and analyzes each character's perspective and journey as they struggle against the titans, with plenty of Akiridion worldbuilding and a very interesting twist on the Arcane order's lore, and who gets Excalibur. Salty about how Jim-centric RotT was and the lack of compelling character arcs? Give this a read.

Tales of Arcadia: The Final Becoming @nikibogwater-Rather than focusing on Jim, the main arcs center on Douxie and Nari's relationship, but without sidelining any of the other characters. A rewrite that's short and sweet that never fails to deliver an epic finale with a satisfying conclusion.

The Eternal Day:Tales of Arcadia @rikalovesrice-An epic rewrite that really delivers on the promise to unite the worlds of trolls, aliens, and wizards. Along with some fascinating original lore and some killer redesigns of the Titans themselves (art on author's tumblr). Takes the bare bones of RotT and builds an incredible story on them. Brilliantly weaving the worlds of trolls, Akiridions, and wizards together all leading up to a final battle of epic magical proportions and a brave new world on the other side.

Entire series rewrites-Kind of a cheat category, which is why it's the largest, in that technically none of these fics are RotT rewrites. They're au takes on canon, and many of them were well in progress before RotT was released. Some haven't been updated in a while and some are on full blown hiatus, but they're all worth a read and all have been confirmed by the authors that they will be concluding differently than RotT does.

Becoming the Mask @magic-and-moonlit-wings-Possibly one of the most well known fics in the TOA fandom, and for darn good reason. Starts at the very beginning of Trollhunters with the premise, what if Jim was a changeling all along? Not a half-changeling or a sleeper agent, but a full blown self aware member of the Janus Order. An excellent highly detailed read, juggles a large cast of complex characters, and subtly addresses plot holes as they come along with care and attention.

What the Night Brings @blund3r-bust3r-When Jim has a chance encounter with a creature of the night he barely escapes with his life. Now less than human himself, he's introduced to a vast world below his feet full of danger and wonder, and sets churning gears that have been spinning for centuries. A wonderfully dark, fantastical au that stays true to a lot of existing TOA lore while still being very much its own story.

Sunshine through the Clouds aka shameless self promotion @rockymaidenvixen-Through events neither fated nor accidental, at five years old Jim Lake starts transforming into a troll with each sunset, and back into a human at sunrise. An ability both a gift and a curse that he carries with him through his childhood into adolescence. Changing nothing and everything once he's chosen as the Trollhunter (more about this au under the tag "sunshine au" on my blog).

Tulips of Time @avirxy-Starts with the events of Wizards, but with two major twists. Toby falls through the time rift with the rest of the gang, and Claire's the one with a shard of evil in her heart. Really this story does the trio's characters justice in a way Wizards wishes it did. The trio struggles to make their way in Camelot and find their way back to the future, but medieval Camelot is a harsh time for trolls and humans alike, with the line between good and evil getting blurrier by the day. And their greatest threat may just come from within.

A Brief Reliving of Troll Lore @i-am-gun-robot-This one's just getting started, and hasn't been updated in a long time, but is definitely worth a read. Did you enjoy Wizards but hate what it did for the overall TOA continuity? Then this is the fic for you. A very different take on Camelot of the past, with worldbuilding that can be dark, but is so very rich and nuanced.

Blue Moon Rising @tunafishprincess-On indefinate hiatus, but definitely worth a read. A half changeling Jim au with a dark twist. What if Jim was stolen from Barbara and found by the Janus order, and raised by the top changeling himself under the new name Atlas. Atlas though his fate was certain, but then on his first real mission a certain amulet calls a hauntingly familiar name.

Self Determination @appendingfic-A completed series rewrite that diverges from canon very early on. It starts with the premise, what if the Trollhunter was always human? Spinning out and crossing over with multiple other properties colliding on an epic scale. To say any more would spoil some of the truly earth shattering twists and turns this story has going for it. For those put off by all the crossovers this is a Tales of Arcadia story more than anything else, and you can still follow along and get fully immersed without knowing anything about the other properties tied into it.

You can check out my original TOA fanfic rec list here, and @feather-dancer has made several much more comprehensive fic rec lists all compiled here.

[kendrixtermina]

WTF happened? A compilation of the Evidence so Far and an attempt at a Nuanced Take.

So, the allegations regarding Rammstein.

I’m going to have to talk about them, both because the band has been a part of my life for so long it’s a family running gag, and for my own damn peace of mind.

I first saw it in an internet news article a few days ago.

My first response was to try as best as I could to suspend judgement.

The last thing I want to do is have any irrational loyalty when its ‘my turn’ to listen to reality over any personal attachment I would have.

However, two things can be true at the same time:

a) A lot of abuse goes on in showbiz & victims are often not believed

b) Crazy stories get made up about people whom the media or politcal movements have listed as “enemy” – and that’s been the case for them a long time.

The media responses have been very black & white, with on the one hand the classic cancellation treatment of ending all contracts and basically un-personing them, and on the other hand you got reports of some unsavory fans running the classic ‘they’re just lying for attention’ script.

(Let’s get this one out of the way real fast: That has never once happened ever. No one just “makes shit up for attention”. At the same time, there’s no fandom that doesn’t have a loony fringe.

I’m also not going to insult your intellect with any variant of ‘why didn’t they come forward earlier’ or ‘if it really happened she would have done x’)

The band itself has put out a statement to ‘not harass or prejudge any of the plaintiffs’ and that they ‘have a right to state their view of things’

I would agree with that, at least.

This is not the trump/tate/kavenaugh esque cannet ‘I don’t know that woman’ or instant ‘DARVO defamation’ that you usually see & sounds more like the people I thought I knew, but on the other hand, what was repeated over all the tabloid articles looked like an open shut case. Supposedly there was roofies involved (which proves intent all in itself) and multiple accusers.

One person might make things up, but multiple people usually means it’s real, as it would be unrealistic for them to have coordinated.

So I decided that I was going to go digging through all the articles & posts etc. I could find to form my own opinion of WTF happened, if nothing else for closure. The articles said a lot of the same things, but they were vague. At least, I wanted the gory details.

I’m just going to record my findings so far mostly for my own peace of mind & emotional processing, and for anyone who might be wondering what to think.

I’m just going to go through various different data points in ascending order of severity & perceived credibility.

Keep in mind, this is not a finished opinion, I am really processing out loud, still letting things settle, and waiting for further revelations that could easily change everything.

I want as much as I can to remain open to any new evidence thatmight still pour in.

0. The Music

First let’s get the (albeit mostly irrelevant) elephant out of the way:

Yes, the songs/lyrics depict copious violence that is often sexual in nature, but it’s very much in an ‘fascination with the disturbing’ kind of way that grounds inself in a clear understanding that what’s depicted is, in fact, disturbing. It’s often told from the PoV of the perpetrator but if you analyze the lyrics with basic reading comprehension you’ll see that it’s self-aware about being carnography (that is the overlap between horror, gore and porn) – the perp’s twisted rationalizations will be lampshaded and hints at the victim’s pain strewn in.

It’s like ‘Lolita’ – it’s told from the crazy person’s PoV in their romantic fetishistic detail, but the author wants you to piece together what ‘actually’ happened and strews in hints.

That was supposedly the joy of it, that there was depht to find, interpret & analyze get this ‘delayed-action scare’ from.

It’s self-aware, which actual glorification isn’t – that sounds more like ‘bitch actually wanted it’ or ‘she was asking for it’ rather than ‘no one hears her cry’ or having the perp turn around a picture of Jesus so it doesn’t see his wicked deeds.

So it seems… incongruent, to me, that the person who wrote this doesn’t get that roofie-ing someone is bad.

As an artist myself I of course want to believe that a person’s true soul is reflected and immortalized in their art, but there’s nothing more dangerous than thinking oneself immune to deception, wouldn’t be the first hypocrite.

So I really did have a huge moment of thinking,… “Was it all a lie?” Did this art that I loved and was probably the biggest influence on my writing style just never really exist?

I’d certainly feel disapointed, humbled and betrayed, as if all the jeers of those who gave me the side eye for liking dark content had been confirmed.

Well, the truth doesn’t care what I think, it’s not about me, but the potential victims. So I am going to put all these feelings in a box.

But it’s worth noting that, despite the bombastic stage persona and having starred in hardcore sadomaso porn, Till was always described by everyone who knew him as a shy, polite and intelligent person in his personal life.

Wouldn’t be the first asshole whom everyone thought was “so nice”, but you can’t use the music as an argument for that.

1. The Parties.

That there were parties for potential groupies, I believe at once. It’s corroberated by many reports going years back and the part that everyone agrees on. You’d be stupid not to believe it. It does fit his impulsive, disinhibited character.

However, and I know some here are gonna have different values about this: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that so long as everyone involved was a consenting adult.

A lot of the so-called “dozens” of reports including kayla the youtuber were basically just people realizing it’s a sex thing & getting uncomfortable or offended about the very fact that it was a sex thing & that there were women willingly throwing themselves at Till.

I don#t doubt that they freaked out, got a fright and felt unsafe, but when you filter about the influence of their racing thoughts, uncomfy brain & ‘bad vibes’, most of these situations are pretty much nothingburgers. Full rooms with numerous witnesses were people were just drinking & having fun. Obviously you can’t bring phones to orgies, tat would jeopardize ppl’s privacy.

I’m not saying they were lying about feeling unsafe, but I think we can all think of examples for how feeling safe and being safe are two pairs of shoes.

There were many people who actually were at those parties posting on reddit or getting interviewed on youtube describing great consensual sex and/or just fun atmosphere so IDK how much of their perception of ‘weird atmosphere’ is just projection of their own discomfort.

I’m not saying this because I don’t want to see the truth, this has always been my opinion. I never got people investing great significance in age gaps once everyone is past the ‘adult’ threshold or generally flattening the whole spectrum of human interaction into simple flat power dynamics with an unassailablemaster & mind-controlled slave.

I’ve gone to sex parties; Heck, when I was 20 I got shitfaced & screwed a much older dude and I found both those experiences not only positive but healing.

It bothers me how the entire interiority choice & angency of willing participants is just erased and its just blanket declared that they can’t know what they want. So far, everyone I’ve heard of as being involved was an adult even if they were young, we’re not talking about children and it’s demeaning to act as if they were.

I’m not defending a rich old dude; I’ve little hope of ever being one. I’m defending myself, as someone who has been a young woman, and wound like to have the right to determine what my experiences mean & not have others tell me. I think if someone wants to take advantage of a chance to screw someone they view as extremly desirable and get a piece of some powerful guy using the limited resource of their attractiveness, they should get to. It’s practically animal instinct.

I don’t think inviting someone somewhere to possibly hit on them in harassment; It only becomes harassment if you don’t go away if they say no, or use threat/coersion.

He ‘picked’ the ones he’d actually be interested in but that would only have the sort of character the news are depicting it as if there was then coersion, not just an offer.

In the bulk of the reports he would hit on ppl but immediately accept it & back away if they said no, and the people who reported feeling uncomfortable all left with no problem without being pushed or forced to anything; Everyone was free to leave the ‘suckbox’ at any time.

That, of course,  is the next big question. Did any of that take place. Just because some had a great experience doesn’t mean others can’t have had awful ones.

2. The Shelby & Kayla Stories

So, here I am mostly dissapointed at the media.

There were multiple people on reddit, tumblr, youtube or newspaper (some showing their real life face, or having video of the event) who were on the same party in Vilnius. It’s not just one person claiming something but testimonies acting up

The vodka was opened before the eyes of all the guests and all of them drank from the same bottles

According to her friends, Shelby is on a SSRI medication that can interfere with alcohol & apparently the combination explains all the symptoms she had

She started drinking early & acted quite inebriated (probably due to the meds interference), at one point she bumped into the stage & ran into things – this probably explains the bruise

While there was some smashing of glasses, it was more of a ritual that was often done at  parties, like Till would start smashing his Vodka glass fter finishing it & everyone else would join in.

Shelby left early & wasn’t even there for the last of the party

Even she clearly stated that a) no one touched her b) Till respected it & moved on when she refused his advances c) she saw nothing being done to anyone else while she was there

Most likely conclusion: There was never any roofies, her meds are to blame.

I would presume she woke up the next day, only remembering fragments at first, and panicked. I can’t even blame her. It’s super common for ppl to mistakenly think they might have been spiked after having too much to drink.  

She isn’t ‘lying’, she merely jumped to conclusions, though she could have checked with her friends first before putting it on the internet, I can’t blame her for panicking under the circumstances.

Honestly it’s logical to assume it was the last guy who hit on her.

The is important insofar as it puts a different light on everything that follows when others saw her post & were asked about if anyone had similar experiences.

Ovsly ppl took this seriously & began re-evaluating experiences in the light of that possibility in a low-key mass panic.

This is especially relevant for the casus Kayla – Facebook posts show she had a “good time” at the concert despite noping out of the sex thing (before Till even arrived) but after that I suppose she began to worry if any of the other girls she saw might have been drugged.

3. The Italian Man Story

You know, the super gross one with the big bowl of ‘mysterious cocktails’ and the band members fighting over some girl.

It’s fiction on par with the ‘hilary clinton trafficking ring’.

It’s deliberately engineered to be schocking & trigger your emotions but when you think about it, it doesn’t add up logically. Even if everything else were done & they’re all guilty this probably still didn’t happen because, for starters, if multiple ambulances had been called, the fucking certainly wouldn’t have continued as the paramedics showed up. There would at least have been something about drunken people passing out at a concert.

Also the ‘bowl with mysterious cocktails personally prepared by Till’ looks like a plot hint in a book.

You can’t get accurate dosages by putting into into a bowl and a whole room was drugged at once they couldn’t have walked home.

Plus the ‘italian man’ is too busy presenting himself as a hero rather than describe himself being realistically shocked.

I’m surprised Spiegel printed this, though I suppose any claims are in the public interest.

4. The Anonymous Reports from the Reportage

Now comes the serious part however, because these I believe are 100% true, were compiled by serious journalists,  and probably happened exactly as described – they’re anonymous, so the women have nothing to gain. Plus, the reports sound like authentic memories in exciting or traumatic situations: The order may be jumbled but there are exact details down to what people were thinking or exact words that were said.

There is just no honest reason to assume otherwise.

That said, the snippets of them that were taken out into other articles/tablids were WAY out of context – with an important exception (which I will discuss as its own bullet point), most of the people questioned considered what took place a good experience at the time, told their friends of a ‘good time’, though some had their doubts or regrets later on when the discussions began or friends had different opinions on it.

The person that supposedly had vaginal bleeding actually had some condition that made vaginal intercourse harder but then they ended up doing it anyway apparently at her suggestion – Till is said to have asked several times if it’s ok.

In general there is talk/communication going on in these

While two people did speak of memory gaps or fragmented memories, it seems from the circumstances and the detailled way  things were described that it was just booze.

And it was not, as you might get from the out-of-context quote, some unconscious person being molested on a floor somewhere but rather there was back & forth talking like he was always asking “Is that ok”, “may I do this?” “Should we stop?” etc.

That’s not something you do if you don’t care about the other person, their consent or their enjoyment.

Even so, if the two ended up concluding later that they were probably too drunk & partially weren’t sure what was happening, the sex probably shouldn’t have happened.

He fucked up, no question.

Chances are he was intoxicated, too, but while I have said before that all this supposed ‘power imbalance’ alk doesn’t negate free will, I do think it creates a greater responsibility on his part to ensure their well-being and greater accountability.

Still this rather looks like he misjudged how drunk they were rather than deliberately taking advantage of an unconscious person, the latter is a misrepresentation by the media.

5. THAT one report

Then there is the unambiguous ‘nightmare story’ where there can be no doubt that the girl found it traumatic.

Apparently she clenched up (ostensibly vaginismus) and the whole sex was painful, which she was embarassed to say however, so she just waited for it to be over out of a mix of being stunned and not wanting to lose her one special chance with him.

I think we can all agree that this kind of thing should never happen.

She explicitly says she choose not to say anything, however. – which is NOT to say that its “her own fault” or that she “should have spoken up” but rather, though the damage is the same, there is a different between accident, negligence, manslaughter & murder, degrees of culpability.

In a legal sense it probably wouldn’t count as rape (that requires ‘visible refusal’) but it certainly wasn’t enthusiastic consent either. But this is kind of exactly why education is so important because besides fight & flight there ARE those fawn & freeze responses & if you’re not attentive enough you could  trigger your partner into ‘just putting up with it’ without meaning to /realizing. People don’t notice their gf’s saying nothing about painful sex all the time there were tons of articles about it not too long ago.

Whatever you want to label it she had a shitty, possibly damaging experience that could have been prevented, and that would have been his responsibility to avoid.

So no, he did not ‘do nothing wrong’ The onus was on him, especially as someone active in the BDSM scene he should know the important of safewords, commination & aftercare.

He fucked up, the whole enterprise should have been sanity checked because even if some vibed with it & had a good time, you just shouldn’t ever be triggering people’s fight-or-flight responses in a bedroom situation.  There shouldn’t even be a risk of that because if there is there might be people like this girl or the two too-drunk ones.

Ultimately, though, this is still night and day compared to the story going through the media right now with the roofies.

There’s a big difference from someone who thinks others wellbeing doesn’t matter than one who think it does but fucked up.

But ultimately this goes further than Till as a person. This isnt even really about him. 

It’s more like – no one wants this. I don’t think he wanted this. But how do we as a society deal with it?

Because I think it’s very important that those girls should be able to talk about their experiences. Feedback should be given and socuety should be percolated by an understanding that this is not ok.

At the same time, at present we only seem to have the options of exhonoration or ostracism – which creates an incentive to DARVO and victim-blame to avoid the total destruction of ostracism in a population that is usually low on scruples.

With cases like trump or tate, the issue is clear: Those don’t think they’re doing anything wrong eyond lipservice & will just keep doing it again & again; Complete ostracism, unpersoning & refusal to ever platform them again really is the only answer, there is no reflection, talking sense or expecting behavior changes from those.

But what about situations where you have someone who nominally believes in consent but fails to apply it & walks away thinking the situation was mutually enjoyable? IT’s kind of like the Melanie Martizez case. More ambiguous, really, because she was reported even by consenting partners to be rather pushy whereas here we have someone who ostensibly has a habit of asking ‘is this ok’ ‘may I do that’, ‘are you ok’ etc but did it a few times too few.

Someone who fucked up but didn’t want to. What do we do with these? Whenever anyone brings up the possibility of ‘misreading signals’ or something it’s told off as an excuse but it’s a genuine worry people have.

The closest conceot we have for that is maybe what you do if someone had a stronger reaction to or felt triggered by some BSDM thing & that needs to be talked out & corrected but in that case theres a more direct feedback loop…

One thing is clear: We can’t have situations where ppl feel triggered or unsafe or have bad experiences like this.

Apparently consequences have already been drawn and the parties things in cancelled forever anyways & everyone involved got a wakeup call. (as per Christoph’s recent post which more or less reflects similar conclusions to my analysis here – and I am still holding out on forming conclusions, really, but what I heard there at least sounds like the intelligent, differentiated people I thought I knew, though I’m not ready to remove that ‘thought’ yet )

I mean, the band themselves is lying in the bed they made but I’m feeling sorry for, well, the victims of course, but also loyal fans who may forgive what actually happened but everyone around them thinks the tabloid version took place. (which if it were true would have been burn-in-hell territory)

Sigh. The world is complicated and exhausting and human beings hurt each other so much all the time for stupid reasons and we can never ever have nice things.

[questioning-aspec-culture-is]

Is there any compilation for identification and symbolism of the AroAce community, or this community not that specific as demisexual for example. And also any other links to specific help for the community. Because non partnering is still taboo? Do you have any good comebacks when someone tries to question the possibility of happy fulfilling life as non partnering aroace. Want to hear the thought about this. Most people will deem you with any mental disease if you identify as aroace. Thanks ✨

hello! mod amaranth here

Is there any compilation for identification and symbolism of the AroAce community

there's this list here that i found a while back that's quite comprehensive!

And also any other links to specific help for the community.

aurea for arospecs, aven for acespecs, fandom wiki was one i used (but is falling out of fashion and i can see why), and all assorted aspec tags here on tumblr! there's certain blogs that are also good resources :)

Do you have any good comebacks when someone tries to question the possibility of happy fulfilling life as non partnering aroace.

as a non-partnering aroace, i've seen a couple good analogies about how while some things make some people happy, the opposite could be true for others. i'd say either a) explain that it's your business what you do and that only you know what's best for you or b) explain that while some things work for some people, it doesn't work for everyone. just because some people like ice cream, doesn't mean everyone in the world likes ice cream. what about the lactose intolerant people (who actually care about their intolerance and don't just bite the bullet and go anyway)? what about people who don't like sugar? they're still valid. obviously there's better analogies out there but this is one i just thought of off the top of my head.

and yeah, it's frustrating that some people will immediately assume there's something wrong with aspecs or that they (and i hate this) "just haven't met the right person yet".

hope this helps! <2

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

Honestly the dads are right about this one. It's a great album. Dark side explores the, well, dark side of human emotion. Which is kind of cliche, kind of trite, but the blunt lyricism is carried by the delivery and instrumentals. The feeling of weariness and floatiness is a constant. Starting right out Breathe and Time Express a tiredness with the repetition of daily life. The Sisyphean nature of existence. Us And Them and Money are a little more blunt but still you gotta hand it to Pink Floyd for managing to have a charting single in 7/4 time. And then there's The Great Gig In The Sky. A filler piece made of leftover chords that, with the addition of Clare Torry's vocals, became an orgiastic cacophony conflating the moment of death with sexual release.

James Brown - Star Time

I'm a little sick of compilations. This is a pretty good one though. Especially disc one where you can really hear the evolution from soul to funk in real time. Beyond that James Brown is one of the least comprehensible artists. Like I don't know what he's talking about 90% of the time. It doesn't matter of course, but it is funny how often songs devolve into random guttural utterances punctuated by fits of mysogyny. The average James Brown song seems to go like this: [screaming] [screeching] [incomprehensible] "women exist to suck me nasty!" [more screaming] "I'm gonna count to ten!" [World's loudest noise] "One!" [grunts] "Two!" [aaaaAAAAAHHHHH!!!!] "Three!" Spoiler alert: he never makes it to ten. Anyway I've been listening to this for nearly five hours and my brain is mashed potatoes now.

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

Hendrix's third album is a huge sprawling psychedelic adventure. While there is still a hint of the heavier side of his work, Crosstown Traffic in particular, Electric Ladyland leans into a mellow spacier sound. The new emphasis on soundscapes means that not only do the other musicians get to shine a bit more but that Hendrix also stretches his creative muscles a bit, especially on the lengthy Voodoo Chile and 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be). Honestly any of Hendrix's albums could easily be a favorite. Electric Ladyland is for people who love soul, psychedelic, and space.

David Bowie - Station To Station

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say this is Bowie's best album. The strong funk and soul influence meets the start of his krautrock influenced Berlin era. Every song is great, although the album opens so strong that it winds up front loaded no matter how good the second half is. I'm in love with everything from the glittery funk of Golden Years to the cryptic art rock jam that is Station To Station to the rock n roll jam that is TVC15. I'm honestly a little disappointed that this album is gonna be rated lower than Heroes, but I get it, people do love them some Heroes.

Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight

Ok let me explain something. When making a list of greatest albums I would think that the LP format would be a focal point in determining what belongs. Sure Johnny B. Goode is an influential and important song, but it's an important single. This compilation of 28 Chuck Berry singles contains some of the best and most influential singles in the history of modern music. But this album that collects them is not what is influential. If I were making a top 500 songs of all time list then things would be different. Chuck Berry would feature heavily, the album oriented rock of the 70s would be nearly absent, yes even the artists I really like. As far as I'm concerned the only compilation that has really deserved to be on this list was Nuggets because that album is important as an album and not just a collection of important songs. This is the best album to listen to if you want Chuck Berry, but I think more consideration of the actual LP format should have been given before they shoved all these compilations on the list.

[kusogamesss]

Multibowl!

Unequivocally the best video game ever made, though that has to be cheating, right? After all, you wouldn’t say your Raspberry Pi loaded with ROMs is itself a video game. An official compilation already stretches the definition of a video game, much to the chagrin of any dweeb trying to weasel their way out of providing an actual list of their favourite games. Yet this unofficial potpourri does what a mere compilation cannot, what your ROM library fails at. Multibowl! puts these games on equal footing with one another, contextualises them, renders their objectives concrete, and synthesises them into a new, greater whole. It is the wet dream of the games historian, the archivist, the obscura-seeker, the high-score-chaser, the competitive gamer, the informed, the ignorant, and the creative.

Bennett Foddy and AP Thomson have unenviably plumbed the depths of numerous ROM sets to scrounge up treasures both noteworthy and forgotten, presenting them all as equals as games and micro-competitive arenas. Obvious mainstays of games history, Mario Bros., Gauntlet, Metal Slug, and NBA Jam operate as immediately recognisable artefacts with goals and control schema that are already familiar to many. However, they are just as likely to come up as titles which are not generally considered competitive and oppositional: Lemmings; Maze; Bonanza Bros. Though lacking internal mechanisms for confrontational gameplay, clever use of save states and memory analysis allow Multibowl! to check for some change in some variable to grant one player a point.

One of the greatest joys in Multibowl! is its deep cuts, its pulling up of games you have never heard of, the sort of title your eye skips over in your search for that SegaSonic Bros. ROM, titles bordering on the uncanny in their near-familiarity, games that make you quickly jot down their title out of befuddlement or glee. Games you would never reasonably play. In a vacuum of playing them on their own, those works might not hold your attention long enough to grasp their purpose or gameplay. Within the rapid pace of Multibowl!, within a framework of having no choice, they demand attention, dissection, and comprehension. The coercion for the players to stick with these titles for a mere thirty seconds acts as a microexposure to the realities of most of games history, namely the lack of anything else to do. When these games necessarily compete for your attention in backlogs and ROM sets with hundreds, if not thousands, of games, there is no reason for most players to approach an understanding of them. Why expose myself to the dregs of history when Pac-Man is right there?

A games historian, archivist, or obscura-seeker has some secondary goal for their play here, that of context and exposure. Someone like myself is not necessarily playing these for their worth as fun experiences, but to come away with a fuller understanding of games as a whole, games as a cultural expression, games as a reflection of a zeitgeist, games as escapism, games as political tools, games as violence, games as transgression, games as collaborative, games as competitive, games as more than just games. Games as a means, not an end.

Multibowl!’s real purpose is not as a game, at least not to me, but as some smörgåsbord of curatorial excellence, diversity, and inversion. It demonstrates how games have always been inventive and worthy of attention in some capacity, while still remaining semi-boundless in and of itself, conveying the unceasing work of history. Histories are forever rewritten for new contexts. The once irrelevant becomes critically important with changing tides. The once foundational becomes a historiographical assumption. With vast shifts in the goals of games histories, there will always be more to uncover, more to connect.

[lifeinapic]

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[fromdevcom]

Do you already know about the importance of having a backup software? If yes, then you’re very lucky. If not yet, then it’s the right time now for you to know about it. Well, having a backup software is really important because it’s the only way for you to establish a strong safeguard on your files, information, data and other vital stuff that are stored on your computer system.  The danger of hacking, other forms of stealing, as well as system breakdown is always present in your day-to-day life. Now, it’s time for you to know the wonders of a particular backup software, called EaseUs. 5 Simple Things To Learn Data Recovery EaseUS aims to provide data recovery. Data recovery is simple to understand. From the name itself, it will recover files that are lost or ruined within the system of a particular computer (PC or Laptop). The software being mentioned, actually, is one of the best software tools in terms of effective data recovery. It’s been tested and proven on the market, as thousands of satisfied users are already using this software. How To Do Data Recovery? Follow these easy to follow instructions on YouTube Backup EaseUS is also functioning as a Todo Backup Software. When the computer and server are facing disaster, this particular software will provide a comprehensive Todo Backup. This capacity is significant knowing that the impact of virus and malwares is inevitable sometimes. Every time a computer user opens a certain web site, there is always danger of viruses or malwares coming through the web site being opened. In this way, the system is well protected. How To Backup? Follow these easy to follow instructions on YouTube Partitioning The software is a partition master. If you want to do cloning hard drive, good news this particular software is a partition master. One of its focus is to provide a partition within a particular computer system. By way of partitioning, you will be able to compile your files, information and data in just one system. But the compilation is always done in a categorical way, which means the filing system is done with specific names and categories. How To Partition? Watch This Simple YouTube Tutorial. Clone The software tool is able to clone windows 7 hard drive. This is an amazing feature of the cited software. It’s easy to clone windows 7 hard drive, which means the programs, systems, stored data and information, and other soft materials within the windows 7 OS will be transferred to a particular location or target easily. There is no any difficulty, whatsoever. The software is really functional in this manner. How To Clone Hard Drive? Watch This Simple YouTube Tutorial. Free Trial Available No spending yet, just try it through the risk-free trial program. There is no need to spend money for the acquisition of the EaseUS software tool. The potential users may have to try the offered risk-free trial program. This is quite beneficial, since for 30 days, anybody is given the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of this software without any cent being cashed out. The 5 things you learned from this article about the EaseUS backup software tool are really significant. They can help you understand that this particular software is one of the best on the market these days.