#this one is also from ch23!

[brutal-nemesis]

i want to get the post for ch23 ready but it keeps giving me the stupid fuck new post editor when i try to make a post and i want to kill someone i can only use the legacy editor on rbs apparently 🙃🙃🙃

[yuripoll]

KNOCKOUTS: My Girlfriend's Not Here Today (2021 - ?)

My Girlfriend's Not Here Today is an ongoing drama by Kiyoko Iwami about an unsatisfied girlfriend having an affair.

Pent up and tired of her apathetic girlfriend, Asahina Yuni turns to an anonymous online account to let it all out. It’s just another day of doomscrolling after class when Asahina gets swept away in conversation with the beautiful, outgoing Taki. When Taki turns out to be following Asahina’s private account, it’s cute…right? Taki would never blackmail Asahina…right? With every new lie, the web of secrets and erotic desire grows ever-tighter! - AniList

ENG published by Seven Seas; JP available on Book Walker.

CWs under the cut. General severity rating: significant.

sexual content

violence <- very occasional and very mild. some blood shown.

infidelity <- oh buddy

homophobia <- anxieties about being closeted, mostly. ch2, third parties refer to girls liking girls as gross. one character lost friends in the past for liking girls.

dubious consent <- someone uses blackmail and money for sex. additionally, there are scenes involving a character being groped and the like without clear consent, or even to light protest.

sexual harassment <- ch2, older men try to pick up the protagonist

child abuse <- from both parents, emotional abuse; heavy academic pressure and dismissal of achievements

toxicity <- inc. manipulative & obsessive behaviour, jealousy, death threats, blackmail, and socmed stalking

misogyny <- angry teenagers lashing out at other women & girls, calling them annoying bitches & slut shaming a woman for being pregnant, etc. the bulk of it is contained to the characters' minds. also misogyny from parents lamenting that they had a daughter, and placing heavier pressure on her than her brothers.

suicidal ideation <- briefly expressed offhand now and again, not dwelled on.

pet death <- past death of a cat is discussed in ch23

pseudo incest? <- one of the leads has a mommy kink

[gnashingwailing]

@fireflywritesgt ok i read your tag on ch21 and i took that as a personal challenge (and then while I was writing this you dropped ch22 and THEN 23 and murdered me. but i'm back now. so)

HELLO Ok fuck yeah hold on everybody take my hand. We’re theorizing about this chapter 🙏 spoilers thru ch23 below

Re: the tag: dare I hope the next story will be set in a similar time/place… i MUST ADMIT despite the significant broader cultural stigma of such a thing. I have often contemplated. Harry and Joe helping with providing socialized miniature healthcare 😭 (maybe to wherever Lorraine lives[?] or knows of?) and when I heard mention of a Tiny Town Hospital… one must wonder how this compares to a Giant Hospital, or to the barber surgeon dens that Joe has presumably had some frostbitten toes cut off at.

OTHER THINGS I’M SPECULATING ABOUT: “certainly, bandits were a problem a borrower occasionally had to face” 🤔 damn that's rough. I do love the sense that there are few overarching cultural norms, whether it's around marriage or language or so on. Everybody is kinda doing their own thing (including robbing each other oof).

I am also VEEEERRY curious about the implications of WHATEVER the tinies that are working in Tiny Town are doing. What kind of mechanized thing could be profitable from a lot of little guys pressing buttons? Or is it maybe not something physical they’re producing? Is it instead a research project? Some attempt at “civilizing” the tiny society for giant colonialism reasons? There’s got to be some kind of output here that is valuable to some kind of giant, but I’m still mystified at what it will be. “Joe wanted to ask him about the four armed giants who stood outside of Tiny Town” YEAH MAN ME TOO‼️ <- secretly delighted this is still coming up because I want to know what it means QUITE BADLY

Joe lamenting that there don't seem to be any libraries, or restaurants, or speakeasies, or any mark of ... art or entertainment? In Tiny Town? I REALLY HOPE Joe and Harry get over themselves and kiss soon so they can TALK ABOUT HOW FUCKING WEIRD THIS PLACE IS???? It made me INSAAANE THAT JOE JUST BRUSHED OFF TALKING ABOUT IT AT ALL 😭 JOE TO HAVE THOSE THINGS. PEOPLE HAVE TO WORK AT THEM. ARE ALL THE PEOPLE IN TINY TOWN JUST WORKING ON PUSHING BUTTONS??? JOE PLS

“Expecting handouts from the bloody giants…” sooo fascinating to hear him voice this, since this whole project is a handout in the absolute best case scenario (given that scraps are worthless to giants), although likely closer to a prison, as Professor Hill called it. Still patiently waiting for his smart and cool wife to explain things to me <3

I hope Joe will deign to really talk about what happened to him… GURL go process it with ur beautiful best friend!! Let him hold you and comfort you and tell you you’re literally so smart and correct and everything you’re saying about ditching the buttons part entirely is literally so beautiful and true!!! Go rock his world with your insights king!!!

Also lmfao Joe is definitely not Irish bcuz his Irish Goodbyes need some SERIOUS work. King of just literally running off when he’s not feeling a conversation anymore.

Me 🤝Joe <- autistically just leaving

He does this so often and it makes me cackle every time. Wait hold on those great meme posts make me want to make a JUST WALK OUT! One.

Absolutely loving the tension of it all… the reveal that Joe was doing watchmaking when he was TWELVE, meaning (if I'm keeping track of time correctly) he got snatched right after he was ABANDONED BY HIS ONLY FAMILY IN THE WORLD, was so artfully done. I had to stop in my tracks and think at the “he’d known O’Grady longer in his life than he hadn’t” and do math and be like “oh fuck.” Maybe this was teased prior and I didn’t pick up on it, but it hit HARD. For some reason I hadn’t assumed he was a kid — but why wouldn’t he be? If little kids are already doing things like crawling into discarded beer bottles. Fuck, Warren, heartbreaking stuff. Bravo. Of course Joe would be as dedicated to going and seeing him as he was Harry in the hospital. He cares so deeply about everyone, but especially his friends. It’s too bad O’Grady is no longer in a place to reciprocate the love Joe gives !!! But of course Joe still would not be ready to throw away the boot knife O’Grady made for him… “a decision that would forever change Joe’s life” btw I can hear ur evil hehe from here. :)

Also btw THIS little detail is one of those things that makes rereading your story so delightful: “They invade our end of the city, take our jobs, show up at our bar… did we invite them? No.” O’Grady was practically ranting. “And when we politely tell them to leave, what do they do?” O’Grady pointed to his bandaged head. “Watch out for them once you get here. They’re not good Irishmen like you and me, Joe.” juxtaposed with the actual breaking news we heard from the radio ? "“AN IRISHMAN AND AN ITALIAN ARE IN THE HOSPITAL AFTER A MASS BRAWL OUTSIDE A BAR ENDED IN A CRACKED SKULL AND A STABBING. NEITHER OF ‘EM HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED YET.”" a fucking STABBING = "politely tell them to leave"? What kinds of things has Joe's friend gotten used to excusing?

And of course I love the moments of solidarity within the tragedy of the newly realized (or at least newly stoked) xenophobia between borrowers. Joe being reminded of how his parents spoke, and how his brother shooed him off, in the gestures of a stranger… you really do a great job of evoking the ways we are all connected to each other. His family is gone, but he still sees them everywhere he looks. [pacing my enclosure and being sooo normal about how Joe has purposefully isolated for a decade and yet cannot help but see the beauty and humanity of his fellow man whether tiny or giant bcuz despite thinking he’s wired wrong, he’s actually wired like all of us who have felt that way for our unusual proclivities. He’s wired for connection with his fellow man. And he’s so wired for it u can feel how much it hurts his heart. Haha I’m sooooo .] The older guy was trying to warn him off crossing a white line into the “Irish ward”, too, right? The gesture was a kindness. And speaking of, does that mean the little tunnel somebody dug is to the Irish district? Or was I turned around and it was the Italian one? Either way — who would be trying to get in here, and why? Maybe it’s just a desperate person, but O’Grady talking about how bad it’d be if they saw Joe, and the need for an ID, makes me think it’s not someplace you can sneak into and integrate with. Just makes me curious as to whether it’ll come up again!!

THIS is also something I'm wondering about -- could the 'output' of Tiny Town maybe be researching, like... ethnonationalism? In the wake of WWI? Those drawn lines separating different 'wards'... do we think Tinies came up with this shit on their own? I doubt it, if someone like Dawson who is immediately assigning people nationalities that we know from Calloway's nobody "normal" in borrower society knows/cares about. HMMMmmmmMMMMM. I'm still reaaaaally curious how much Hill knows about this place and what hand, if any, he had in it. ONCE AGAIN, boys get kissing so you can also get TALKING. I think Harry would have much to say about how pointless it is to hate individuals from other nationalities after everything he saw during the war. Or so I assume, given he had no bad reaction to Joe being Italian.

AND WELL THIS IS LESS THEORYCRAFTING AND MORE “ME WANTING TO WRITE MORE FANFIC ABOUT THEM” BUT I WAS SOOO DELIGHTED THE CHAPTER DIDN’T END WITH HIM LEAVING TINY TOWN AND WE INSTEAD GOT DRESS REHEARSAL 2 OF HARRY AND JOE GETTING SO FUCKING DOWN BAD FOR EACH OTHER AT THE WINDOW & IN THE BEDROOM. YIPPEEEEE <- this was written before ch22 lol pictures taken moments before disaster

“Joe fidgeted for a moment as he fought with himself over whether or not to say what he really wanted to say.” … did you say what you really wanted to, there, pal? 🤨

I'm sooooo glad Joe's books are making more and more appearances... much like Harry I'm endlessly delighted by his culture. I wanna know what shaped his romantic fantasies!!

""Yeah, the ending on this one isn't great. They're cowards. Could've at least said they loved each other." Joe said.

He closed the book and snuggled into the crook of Harry's neck." <- Lmao @ these two guys so allergic to talking about their feelings shit-talking the romance book protagonists while they're literally cuddling in bed and not acknowledging it

Did he own these books when he was a kid? I imagine so, but on the other hand? HEY HOLY SHIT I REALIZED AFTER CH23 SOMETHING I SUSPECTED BUT COULDN'T CONFIRM: if homophobia isn't something borrowers have. Is one of these romance novels Joe owns going to be between two men? Harry is going to get his fuckin world rocked. Him and Georgie stole books from the library before, but I doubt they found any gay romance stuff (still impossible for baby-gay-Gnash to find that almost 100 years later in their rural libraries, lol.) Would this be Harry's first exposure to something like that? Wahhh... hurry up and open up to each other again you need to talk culture ASAP...

I'm also very curious if borrowers would have more taboo novels of their own, particularly giant/tiny stuff. And would Joe have come across any of it? I imagine it'd be extremely difficult to sell things like that without a beating, but maybe in bigger night markets -- and Joe said he's been in lots of very big cities... if his third novel is some really salacious g/t writing that would do numbers here on tumblr dot com I'm going to lose my god damn mind.

[youkaigakkou-tl]

Chapter 97 Extended Translation Notes

first off here's the spread without the text at the top. the stuff at the bottom, well..... see if i feel like it

this is mostly just unorganized thoughts nothing like my analysis posts

(future op after writing the whole post: this got kinda long lol)

ok now that im hidden in the readmore i can act insane. RAHHHHH AMAAKI ON THE COLOR PAGE RAHHHH WAHOOOOOO WOOHOOOOO BIG WIN FOR AME NATION ok got that out of my system im normal now

Rain or shine

In case you forgot, ame = rain, haru = sunny. I lose my mind every time this is relevant, like the ending of renren arc.

Whose mom is this

the other 3 are pretty obvious, but the 2nd one isn't immediately recognizable.

(also, 2 checks for "the couple's parents are meeting" for fujiogo and momo and gida)

just for fun, i process-of-eliminationed this

(cover page of chapter 57 my old friend)

everyone greyed out's parents statuses are confirmed, (other than akibe and koizumi, but given the physical features...)

though, i say i did this "just for fun", because i already kinda knew who's mom it was

(from this tweet)

it's mujina's mom. she's beside tamao's mom, the appearance matches, it makes sense.

Haha Sano what the fuck does this mean

the japanese says he "分からん" (wakaran), meaning "i dunno", and the chinese translation outright says "i don't have parents" which SEEMS to be what the jp is implying anyway

sano get back here you're not dunnoing your way out of this one

Also renren realised they don't share a surname. ebisu explain that you're not :>ing your way out of this one either

Shrines, huh

the plate over the torii just says "abe shrine" back in chapter 9, but given my google street view sleuthing and like, story details, even if its not the big fancy one in kyoto it is still an abe no seimei shrine. so on some level, haruaki, you're the god! what a coincidence, the "gods" are exactly as shocked as you are!

Tale of the bamboo cutter

This page was a damn nightmare to translate. (Mame's mistakes, not the actual story in grey. it's a well known classic that's been translated, no need to reinvent the wheel)

I tried to get the "hamuhane" part exactly like the jp, but mame's mistake on the 3 "sun" big child in the first 2 panels is a little different

He interprets "なる人" (naruhito) as "成人" (also naruhito); "hito" means person, the first "naru" means grow (like a plant) or contain (i think), the second one means "adult person".

I suppose I could have also went for "grown" person vs "grown person", but in any case, haruaki's explanation for what a "sun" is on the bottom 2 panels is almost exact, and i thought the "soon" comparison was a good way to get across that's how "sun" is pronounced

(also here's my "hamuhane" tl note)

anyway. nightmare page. looking forward to how the official tl does it when it comes out in (checks watch) like 2 years?

Ame and Ebisu interaction real

dunno if it gets across, but I think he has a height complex...

pretty weird thing to say, huh, Ebisu? to someone you just met? how do you know that anyway?

the only times Ame appeared has been ch8 when the gang went to Haru's house, ch23 when he pretended to be Haru (the rest of the class should be none the wiser) ch39 in the hospital (none of the class was there to see)

and then Ebisu gets introduced in ch 53, after that he hears firsthand that Haru has a twin in ch58, and then Ame is there in renren arc and outright says he's scared of youkai in ch76

Notice how Ebisu wasn't present for any of Ame's appearances prior. he wasn't involved in renren arc, and the person i think is his spy was turned to stone on the ground floor while the reveal on the roof happened.

of course, this could just be a combination of him projecting on Ame, and seeing him visibly scared of youkai a few pages prior. but "hate" is a fairly specific and strong word to use, and i also think he's too smart to not know Ame hates youkai, just a matter of where he got the info from.

The person I think is his spy

after doing some thinking (furigana reads: seeing this post), I think there's someone who's fairly likely to be the spy.

observe, the chart for "people who we've seen the parents of" and "people ranmaru might have seen in ch62"

we've narrowed it down to one man. (ok well there's a few in common here, but satsuki doesnt get screentime ever and ogata twins are too obvious for how much emphasis the ranmaru scene was given)

the kudan, Kurahashi.

but wait, you say, we know he's a youkai. he's got horns. we've seen him use his abilities.

but consider everything else. how often he interacts with Ebisu. how often he sticks his neck out for Ebisu

(i also have a lot of Thoughts abt the part timing incident, specifically his prediction

in his first appearance, he mentioned he couldn't see Haru's future well (because of his exorcism power, which, mind you, still don't know how that works exactly)

wouldn't be a stretch to think that his prediction wouldn't/can't take a god's interference into account. the thug was going to say "the customer is god" either way, but there's also the possibility that the moment kurahashi stepped in, his prediction of "toubyou get punched" couldn't play out exactly so the totally different thing of Ebisu stepping in happened. anyway)

it's not like any individual event incriminates him, rather how frequently it happens. in fact, kurahashi has been involved almost every time Ebisu appears. (put it another way, Ebisu's only major appearances where Kurahashi wasn't involved in some way was this chapter, and the youkai train)

adding on to that, we don't have any info on what his personal life is like, odd considering the amount of screentime he gets. (all of this is relevant to this chapter bc this would have been the perfect opportunity to show his parents, IF HE HAS ANY) the only things we know about his personal life is he's in the basketball club??? and that he was "raised to help people in trouble" whatever "raised" or "help" or "trouble" means

and now, the final nail in the coffin: this alternate cover that came with the 2021 december gfantasy issue

(oh yeah its also my blog header)

none of the official images of it included the flap with ranmaru, and previously i was willing to believe it's just a coincidence for 4 characters related to gods and kurahashi to be on the back cover together, but now that i've seen the whole thing, i feel like ranmaru being there seals the deal that it's intentional

count em, 5 whole characters, basically every major character that is/was a god, and one kurahashi yuuta, who we know nothing about despite his frequent appearances? kinda sus

and now, to return to the first question, isn't he a youkai? horns and youkai powers and all?

and to that i say: he could be another creature. we've just seen an example of this, suzaku, divine fire bird, becoming a tengu, which is also a bird

looking up kudan, it has been theorized that it's based off another mythical creature: the Bai Ze (or Hakutaku), a divine cow-like beast from china, who shares many characteristics with the kudan, only difference being it's associated with good luck instead of misfortune

ok this is kind of a nonsense theory but can you imagine. at the very least, theres a lot of very sus things about kurahashi specifically regarding ebisu. on the off chance he is a bai ze, it would make this image very funny

beniko the zashiki warashi, an auspicious youkai; sano the god of pestilence, but as a person brings haruaki good luck; and then kurahashi, whats his deal man?

thats all i have to say! lemme paste this into google docs for a word count-

oh. oh no. what the fuck how did this happen wasnt this a tl note

anyway hope u enjoyed this tl-note-turned-ebisu-kurahashi-analysis post! there's still way more i could analyse of ebisu and i'll probably do that someday. i could pick apart every word he says and still not know what his deal is

[thehoneyedhufflepuff]

hello & thank you for the tag @palimpsessed & @artsyunderstudy 💜

I guess work on BTL is going well; I've got about 60k of unpublished content at this point. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things since my hiatus, trying to remember how words work lol, & I'm afraid it's not going to be good, but I suppose that's just me getting in my own head. Hopefully. The flip side of this is that I'm absolutely dying to post, so. The duality of man, I guess.

Anyway. Here's a little snip from ch23. Simon's pov at first.

Welcome back to Baz's inner turmoil; it's going to be a doozy this go around. It's one hell of a son of a bitch to write.

I also have some art pieces for the fic, one from 23 & one from 24. maybe someday i’ll draw them consistently lolll

some tags @pipsqueakparker @rainbow-0bsidian @otherworldsivelivedin @scone-lover @krisrix

[itlivesproject]

i feel like harper's writing is not talked about as much as it should be and i just wanna say that ilw has given me a newfound love for them that ilb hadnt quite managed to do!

also i dont mean this to come across as demanding and greedy but a horny bitch gotta ask: had you ever considered doing a harper pov for ch23 for some sexy times👀 or had that never been in the plans? im aware, and thankful, of how much work it was to do all the devon routes (and ig all those sex scenes were much more, as weird as it sounds, anticipated than the ilb routes bc ilb already had sex but the cast were minors in ilitw. though i wonder if theres a 'diamond' option for devon to just hang out w their friends if they have no li or do they just go to bed?) i cant help but feel like ilb kinda got the short end of the stick somehow, compared to the ilitw cast who were more present in ilw even though its not their story anymore, but ig theyre more connected to the ilw storyline than the ilb cast bc they are from westchester while ilb not.

i still love the story a lot, its quickly become one of my fav 'playchoices' (heh) stories, i just kinda want to start a conversation more than criticise, if that makes sense.

thank you <3 i personally really love harper and i LOVED writing them so much. the ilb scenes were some of my favorite to work on.

to answer your question, let me first say that i am one of the few probably who actually prefer ilb to ilitw. so i went into ilw wanting ilb rights 😂 secondly, i will say that the crux of the answer comes down to technicalities behind writing variants.

interestingly, we actually were considering the idea of Elliot being part of the ilw crew when we first started and having a nerve score! the idea was that a) he's a guaranteed survivor so we wouldn't have to write variants around it and b) he had gone to connor when harper vanished and they were working together more actively in looking for harper. we ended up scrapping the idea however, because he didn't feel necessary. him in that role really felt like extra baggage, and there wasn't really room for a character arc for him. so we changed it to how it ended up being. we also were considering having one ilb crew member being part of the ilw crew as well, since at least two of them are guaranteed to not die and not leave, but that idea quickly got tossed because it was simply too many variants.

when it comes to ilitw, every single character has the possibility of being dead, so one of the earliest things we did was come up with a "contribution" for each character. we didn't want it to be like in ilb, when you just have this awkward one-off conversation with each one and they're all in the same room but not talking to each other for some reason?? so we decided to separate them out from each other more and make their contributions independent of each other. we also had to figure out what happens if they are dead and unable to provide their contribution.

Ava - obviously her contribution was coven leader. If she's dead, Sunny is the leader.

Stacy - she attends the dinner party with rowan and connor and allows you to bring your LI along with you.

Lucas - he helps work on the cure, and his survival is necessary to being able to fully cure the horrors at the end of the game.

Andy - he helps revived devon/noah in the physical therapy scene

Dan - he provides therapy to rowan which comes with some nerve gain

Once we had all these contributions, we had a really hard time thinking about what ILB crews "contributions" would be. And because they weren't from Westchester, it didn't make as much sense for them to be involved. Secondly, because someone's always guaranteed to be alive, the scenes of all of them together are actually a lot easier and possible to write, where ILITW's scenes like that are insanely difficult. so instead of having their "contributions," ilb crew's involvement was mostly considered by us as a group thing, and it was focused around harper's disappearance arc. We had discussed ways to make them more involved, but it didn't really fit and we felt like it distracted from the main story we were trying to tell. It was a tough balance to figure out how to make previous books matter and bring back old characters while giving the new characters the screen time and focus that they needed. I hope this makes sense!

I know a few people were disappointed that Harper didn't do much in chapters 21-23 but you have to understand that Harper could never be instrumental in their success, because they can be dead, and we didn't want to lock mc succeeding behind harper being alive or not. secondly, that ending scene had an insane amount of variants, from rowan secretly being a traitor, to devon/noah who was human and who was the ghost, to LIs dying and/or leaving, and throwing harper into the mix would have been extremely complicated for a character whose involvement wouldn't be able to fundamentally change anything, for the reasons i explained above.

Now, moving onto the horny scenes, we actually were planning on having ilb sex scenes when we first started, but when we realized how many sex scenes we were going to write (it ended up being a grand total of 21 lol) we were like. never mind 😂 the spot it was going to go was actually after harper was saved from the breach and you play as them. originally their leg wasn't broken and they weren't in the hospital, so that's where it was going to go. but as the scenes changed and we got burnt out from writing sex scenes, we decided not to include it, our rationale being a) they're in the hospital and b) they got two sex scenes in ilb whereas ilitw lis haven't ever gotten one. it definitely would not have worked for the epilogue, because I think it would have really thrown off the pacing to just take turns playing as each mc getting it on with their LI lol. but everyone is free to hc what harper and their LI did after that bbq heehee

[archer3-13]

Fire Emblem Engage: The Four Hounds, Execution and Intent

got past ch23 of engage, gameplay wise its a fun enough chapter using map environmental damage gimmicks in a way that generally works. as you can tell from the title though, thats not why im making this post. I'm making this post because spoiler warning:

this is where the four hounds and the plotlines tied to that whole group basically culminate. id be surprised anyways if anything more comes of them, but at this point i feel confident enough at their part in the story to comment on it.

under the cut

the tl:dr of it all is that the four hounds are a villain quartet idea i love in concept, but find lacking in execution in regards to their place in the story.

but what do i mean by that? well, we'll start by going over the concept of what engage wants the four hounds to be. at the bare minimum the four hounds are our evil quartet/mini group for the game, a timed honored tradition not just in fe but across media of all sorts. in terms of general archetypes we have

zephia: evil sexy female group leader and bosses right hand mauvier: the honorable obviously going to heel turn or die tragically guy griss: the crazy one in it ostensibly for the lols possibly for another reason marni: small bratty child who was duped into it with candy

and if they were just the bare minimum I probably wouldnt have much more to say on the matter, but the game does give them some extra narrative teeth and its something that kinda flew past my head for the majority of the game because it didnt feel that important. we will get to that.

but essentially, ya know how in ch10/11, the snippet of the scene marketing decided to use to tease the four hounds pre release? when zephia notes how the four hounds are 'like a family'? shes not just saying that she literally means that, its their 'unique selling point' so to speak as an evil group. aside from their evil archtypes you can also map them like this

zephia: mommy mauvier: daddy griss: son marni: daughter

and to give the game credit where its due, when that realization did finally hit i'll admit, i appreciated the four hounds and what was going on with them a lot more. the irrational attachment mauvier and marni display to zephia despite how awful of a person she is makes sense, why mauvier is being so weirdly passive about all the things the hounds are doing especially to veyle despite clearly taking issue with it makes sense, why marni wants to go back to the hounds and mauvier fuckin encourages her to go makes sense.

a lot of what im mentioning there is pretty clearly suppose to be irrational behavior taken for emotional reasons of course. the game presents it as such, but it was always the context of why the characters were acting irrationally that got lost. the deathbed clarification between griss and zephia does clear up a lot of that confusion, atleast for me, and brings some interesting weight to previous storybeats. the four hounds are a family, but a clearly dysfunctional one serving a dark god.

and it tracks with what in retrospect are the wider themes of engage, family and what defines the individual in relation to them. veyles struggle for recognition from her father sombron to the point of believing in his lies until forcibly confronted with the truth, veyles evil alter ego being the complete opposite of veyle in every way except in the desire to be sombrons daughter, ivy and hortensia having had a loving father in hyacinth until his obsession with the fell dragon saw him willing to abandon his own daughters for power, alcrysts and diamants father being described as a paradoxical fierce warrior and gentle family man, alears relation to lumera and how they decide to be family by choice instead of family by circumstance etc.

which is why i will ultimantly say that watching griss and zephias death scene chocked me ever so slightly [in that good emotional release way] with griss providing a gentle reprieve in their dying moments, with a genuinely kinda beautiful final shot of their corpses lying next to each other with griss holding on to zephias hand in the end.

how, fucking, ever.

you'll notice how when describing their death cutscene i pretty much exclusively focus on griss leaving zephia out of the descriptor entirely despite the cutscene being just as much about her as griss. and thats because well i can definitely understand and appreciate the concept intellectually

execution is another matter

were introduced to the four hounds fairly early on in engage, over ten chapters before their whole plotline culminates. and right off the bat i'll note that the screen time for these chucklefucks is kinda wasted in a lot of instances. when they do appear in story they usually could just be replaced with bit villains, and i mean that from both a gameplay and story perspective but for this post story is the more important aspect.

so! the distribution and utilization of their screen time is already wonky and uneven. that'd hurt things even if it was executed really well. but, as i said it isn't and i can point to two primary factors in that matter that i feel needed some serious tweaking to get this to work

the interaction of the hounds as a family unit

and zephia herself

so, starting with the easier problem [in my opinion], the hounds and the time they spend interacting. if the idea were suppose to be grasping is that the hounds are like a family unit, if a very fucked up one, then its important that when the hounds are on screen interacting with each other that their interactions always carry a very distinctive family dynamic to them. and this is the first hurdle engage trips over with the hounds because frankly they dont.

dont what? dont interact all that often as a group, dont interact like a family. as stated their screen time is already wonky, but even when the group is all together on screen is very heavily weighted either to zephia talking mad shit, or to evil veyle/veyle interactions. that leads us into the second part of this problem, and its that even when the four hounds are all together interacting they never really feel like a family, even an off brand one. they feel like evil coworkers in an organization brought together as colleagues to do missions as they try and impress their superior for individual merit.

and thats a problem, cause if we are suppose to feel sad for their 'family' when it starts fraying at the edges, when the ideological and moral weight and contradictions of their actions and individual perspectives start clashing and tear the family asunder, suppose to feel bad when mommy and daddy start fighting because mommys an evil bitch who stabbed their daughter, then they need to feel like a family right from the get go and in every interaction and appearance they make.

which brings us to what i would consider the bigger problem. zephia herself. why is she a problem? because shes the biggest impediment outside of screen time and dialogue distribution inn getting this group to work and feel like an actual family. and screen time and dialogue distribution? giving the four hounds room to interact and feel like a family? thats a writing issue sure but a fairly easily fixable one you just have to give and write them more lines of interacting like a family.

zephia however simply does not work character wise as a mother figure for the four hounds family unit. even if you tried to get them to interact more like a family unit youd run into the problem that shes written exclusively as sombrons evil sexy secretary. and yes secretaries can be mothers but thats not the point.

in order to get this idea of the four hounds as a family unit across, and not the facade of one but an actual pseudo sort of family unit that were suppose to feel for as a family unit, then you need to have characters capable of displaying affection and compassion for each other. and zephia just cant do that the way shes written, itd be like trying to write petrine [or aversa really, who zephia shares way more writing dna with] in a domestic family situation. they're both characters that are too outwardly cruel and cold to realistically manage that without feeling either disingenious, as zephia felt the entire time i was playing whenever she mentioned the four hounds as a family unit which is part of why it didnt stick with me at first, or just feeling out of character.

and unfortunately the only way you could practically fix that, is by rewriting zephias character to one that would fit what the story wants to convey. at which point she becomes a different character, just one sharing zephias face.

best solution i can think of is to shift zephia from a aversa type as it were to more of an eremyia type if that makes sense. cause eremyias big thing in the fe12 assassin sub plot is how she outwardly presents the facade of a kindly matron of a church orphanage well underneath shes a cruel and cold taskmaster of an assassin cult for gharnefs objectives. if zephia had at least been somewhat similar, presenting a wholesome motherly facade before letting the teeth out to achieve sombrons objectives, then i feel things would have hit a lot better in regards to the four hounds and their plotlines.

it would make more sense why the group stays together despite the horrific shit they do, it would hit harder when the cracks form, it would be more shocking when marni gets stabbed by zephia, more impactful when mauvier declares his intent to kill zephia, and more heartbreaking when zephia belatedly realizes she wasted her opportunity for a real family of sorts by taking the four hounds for granted and similarly more heartbreaking when griss lets the facade drop for a moment to comfort zephia before passing away himself.

but... they didnt. or atleast it doesnt come across that way in the english translation. and thats why i consider it a really good concept, with poor execution.

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 38

Chapter 38: “Forest of Vows”

Letting y’all know right now, if these become rather short, you can blame TotK. I purposefully had a good week of chapters written out in advance this whole time because I knew I’d become too attached to the game (& I’m loving it so far of course, though I don’t feel like I’ve gotten very far atm). So it’s been a few days for me personally to write more, but here we are and oh boy, what a way to start by saying farewell to this absolute queen. Don’t worry, honey, I’ll fangirl about you more once September hits.

That’s because all the books the house had were transported over from the human side of the world, sweetie. I was gonna question whether or not demons even use books, but then I remember Ayshe’s father taught her how to read, so yeah, they do. Anyways, I know demons are generally larger than any human but I wonder if these huge trees make them feel small at all? Or it’s probably all so normal to them they don’t even think twice about it.

This little fantasy of Emma’s is too cute. I love that she thought of the other kids like Phil who were left behind at the house, but it hurts not seeing Norman there. Is it safe to assume Ray made all that food? Funny how Emma sorta predicted him becoming our team chef later on.

My boy, for once in your life, can you please pat her head nicely? Especially when she’s injured! Pfftt I don’t mind it really, but I liked how the anime switched it up and just had him scare her with the jar instead. Her yell was equally as good. & I know for sure I was reading an unofficial translation the first time I picked up this series because I distinctly remember Ray going “Heyoooo” instead. I dunno why it stuck with me but to this day I greet people with that a lot.

Him watching out for her once again and more importantly, HIS APOLOGY!!! Anime made his voice SO SOFT it brings me close to tears. And she just smiles and accept it all! 

He is so darn grateful, look at this smile!! I know the second season messed up a whole lot, but I gotta thank them for nailing this whole scene. All voice actresses did a splendid job with these two.

HIS PROMISE!!! One of my favorite moments of whole series and no doubt one of his best, probably the pivotal moment of his character development actually.

“Ray once believed his life was cursed and that he deserved to die after spending years thinking his family were nothing but a huge burden. So for him to come around after his attempted suicide and vow to live and protect the siblings he was so close to abandoning is the perfect example of character development. Needless to say he does stay true to this promise by being completely loyal to Emma and supportive of their family throughout the entire rest of the series and I’m so proud.” - a lazy chidoroki

Ray spent most of his life sorta isolated from the others because he knew the house’s secret and didn’t want to drag anyone else down with him, so for him to come around and tell Emma that it’s better to work together with everyone to reach their goal.. it just hits so hard.

My random pen question from ch23 about whether the WM pen actually had ink or not has been answered (though Snickers pointed this out too in the tags that day so thank you for not letting my mind wonder endlessly about it).

Could you imagine just walking around with your best buddy, having the time of your lives admiring this grand forest, when suddenly they fall through the ground with no explanation. Talk about scary.

It hasn’t even been five minutes and Ray’s already proving how serious he’s keeping his promise. I love this boy and all that rage on his face. Also, Chris being totally lost about what’s happening and just having Emma drag him everywhere.

Favorite panel/moment:

Yet another head pat with Chris and his adorable trotting.

[berenwrites]

Whole New Us Ch6 - Stranger Things - Steddie

Whole New Us: Trauma Bonded and Beyond

Also on AO3 | Or here CH1 | CH2 | CH3 | CH4 | CH5 | CH7 | CH8 | CH8 | CH9 | CH10 | CH11 | CH12 | CH13 | CH14 | CH15 | CH16 | CH17 | CH18 | CH19 | CH20 | CH21 | CH22 | CH23 | CH24 | CH25 (Mature) | CH25 (Fade to black) COMPLETE

Summary: Steve has been ignoring his own problems, he’s been busy. They’ve all been busy, preoccupied with fixing everything that was broken. Vecna has been defeated, but the Upside Down is still there, and the gates are not completely closed even though Hawkins has almost returned to normal. It’s been a couple of months and the aftereffects of Steve’s encounter with the demobats is about to come back to bite him. However, it also brings some unexpected hope.

Pairing: steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

Rating: Teen (with mature content in later chapters)

Chapter 6.    Battle Form

Eddie was ensconced on the couch with a blanket over his legs, since apparently Steve’s mothering instincts were in full force, and he had insisted. He was sitting next to Eddie because he couldn’t get more than about four feet away without Eddie losing focus. However, he’d taken to ordering the kids around and refusing to answer any questions until everyone was settled, they all had drinks, and food was ordered.

He could have cried when Robin came over to sit the other side of him in a show of solidarity, he wouldn’t have blamed her for not making.

The boys and El were crowded onto the other couch with Nancy perching on the end, and Hopper had an armchair. It was almost civilised, but there were teenage boys involved, so not quite.

“Okay,” Steve said once everyone was settled, “questions?”

That resulted in a shouting match as all the boys tried to talk over each other in their excitement.

“One at a time,” Hopper growled from his chair, which had the required reaction.

“Steve, how did you move so fast?” Mike asked when the other two appointed him spokesman.

“Best guess, demobat blood,” he replied. “I swallowed some when we fought them off the first time. It’s been changing me ever since, but with everything going on I didn’t notice until…”

“This week,” Lucas finished for him, having joined the dots.

He nodded.

“I freaked out and went to El,” Steve admitted.

“He’s not dangerous,” El said, giving him a sweet smile.

She didn’t look one hundred percent sure when her eyes flicked to Eddie, but then she hadn’t been in Eddie’s mind. Steve made a mental note to deal with that sooner rather than later.

“Thanks,” he said, giving her a smile back.

“And Eddie got this too?” Mike asked.

“Yeah,” Eddie replied, “just don’t ask for a demo or I will fall on my ass and then Steve will worry.”

Steve rolled his eyes but let him get away with that one. He couldn’t help that his instincts had been turned up to ten when it came to Eddie.

Dustin was frowning, clearly puzzling something out.

“It’s not just the speed is it?” the kid said eventually.

“Nope,” Eddie said somewhat unhelpfully.

Steve gave Eddie a look, but all he got back was an unrepentant smile. Eddie was clearly not forgiving him for the blanket for a while. With a sigh, Steve picked up the thick, hardback coffee table book about mountains from where he had dumped it because he hated the thing and casually tore it in half crossways. The spine ripped apart right across the middle in a very satisfying way.

“Wow,” Dustin said.

“What else?” Mike all but demanded.

Looking back at Eddie, Steve asked the obvious question with his eyes.

“Might as well show them your battle form, Stevie,” Eddie said as way of an answer.

“Battle form?” Lucas asked.

“What does that mean?” Dustin asked at the same time.

“Do not freak out,” Steve said, slowly standing up.

He was not sure why he stood, maybe to subconsciously give himself an escape route, but he took a deep breath, so he didn’t chicken out. Glancing at El, who gave him one of her small smiles, he took another breath and let the otherness inside out.

“Son of a bitch,” Dustin said, staring at him with his mouth open. Steve was dying inside, until Dustin went on: “that is so cool.”

Rather than sending Dustin running in the other direction, the kid actually came towards him, and all Steve could do was stare in shock. He belatedly realised that probably looked really weird with red eyes. Lucas and Mike seemed a little more surprised, but Dustin grabbed his hand so he could look at the claws more closely. Steve just let him.

Then the questions began, and boy did the kids have a lot of questions. Eddie giggled, honest to God giggled as Steve flailed at the onslaught. Steve got really good at saying, “I don’t know” and he was pretty sure the boys were cooking up some kind of testing regime among themselves. What was scarier, however, was the way Nancy was looking at him with her analysing face, even though she didn’t ask any questions herself. Thankfully the food arrived and gave everyone something else to think about.

~*~

Eddie fell asleep after everyone had eaten, so Nancy took the boys home, while Hopper, El and Robin stayed. Once Steve was sure Eddie was sleeping comfortably, as Hopper and El talked quietly, Steve shared a look with Robin and headed into the kitchen. When the door closed behind them, he didn’t turn. There was so much he wanted to say, but he had no idea how to do it.

“Hey, Dingus,” Robin said, walking up behind him and placing her hand on his back, “you okay?”

A short bark of a laugh escaped him at that.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he replied, finally looking at her.

“Think it’s okay if we ask each other,” she told him with a tiny smile. “So, are you going to answer or just avoid the question?”

He did his best to smile back, but it felt kind of twisted.

“No, I’m not okay,” he admitted. “I’ve never been this scared in my life. Not with demogorgons, not with mind-flayers, not even with Vecna. With them I thought I might die, but with this. I’m the guy with the bat or the axe, Robs, I’m ordinary.”

Robin’s hand was gentle on his back as she began to rub slow circles and she leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he rambled on. “I needed to figure out what was going on, and then I needed … wanted … I was afraid there might be something of that bastard in me. I thought I might be a monster. I couldn’t take that risk, so I went to El.”

“And you let her rummage around inside your head to make sure,” Robin finished for him when he ran out of words.

He nodded.

“And when she told you what is utterly obvious to all of us who know you, then you let yourself worry about Eddie rather than you,” she added.

“We left him there, Robs,” he said as the guilt hit him again. “He was all alone. I’ve been dreaming about him for months.”

“You couldn’t have known it was real,” Robin told him, moving to make him look at her. “We all have nightmares, some of them memories, some of them trippy-shit our wrecked subconscious minds make up because we all have more trauma than anyone our ages should[SD1] . You would never have left him there if you thought there was any chance and the moment you suspected he might be alive, even though you’re dealing with a fuck tonne of shit yourself, you went back. No one could ask for more.”

He didn’t know what to say. No matter what, he couldn’t shift the guilt.

“I’ve never been afraid of myself before,” he admitted quietly. “I’m so strong, Robin, so fast. What if I hurt one of the kids without meaning to? Or my craving for red meat takes over?”

“Are you afraid of Eddie?” Robin asked, rather than answering his question.

“No,” he replied with a frown, “of course not. Eddie would never hurt anyone.”

“Neither would you, Dingus,” she told him, tapping him on the forehead. “We’re all capable of terrible things. I could get in a car tomorrow and mow down pedestrians all along main street. Nancy could get one of her guns and take pot shots at everyone she doesn’t like. Hell, El could rip apart anyone she felt like with her mind. But we won’t, and neither will you.”

“How do you know?” he asked, tone hard edged and desperate.

“Because you’re one of the kindest most giving people I know,” Robin said while looking directly into his eyes. “You can be a total bitch when you want to be, but that’s one of my favourite things about you. Steve, you open your house regularly to a bunch of teenagers you used to babysit. You cook for them for god’s sake. You let Hopper and El stay here while the cabin was being repaired. You faced off against Billy Hargrove for Lucas, you took a beating by the Russians to save me. You ferry anyone who asks all over town, and if anyone so much as has a hangnail, you drop everything to rescue them. The only thing this new part of you means is you might actually win a fight without coming back with concussion or bits of you missing.”

Robin was waving her arms for emphasis by the time she finished.

“Now give me a hug,” she demanded.

So, he did. Robin hugged back ridiculously hard, which was just what he needed. When she finally drew back, he was feeling a bit more settled.

“Okay, so now, show me,” Robin said. “I only got to see from the back in there.”

“You’re sure?” he asked because he couldn’t imagine frightening her.

Robin simply raised an eyebrow back. Knowing better than to argue with Robin when she was in that kind of mood, Steve did as he was asked. He braced for disgust or horror, but all he saw was curiosity.

“The eyes are really pretty,” Robin said with a smile. “Bet you’d pull a load of girls with those if, y’know, it wouldn’t get you in ridiculous amounts of trouble with the government types. How the hell do these claws work?”

He let her examine his fingers, allowing the claws to retract slowly, rather than as fast as he had learned to do it.

“Dustin’s right, that is cool,” she assured him. “Does it hurt?”

“No,” he replied, “just feels really weird, but not a weird as the teeth. That’s almost like they’re trying to pop out.”

Of course Robin wanted to see the teeth, so he showed her. What he really didn’t expect was her to lean in close after he retracted the fangs again and reach out.

“Wow,” she said, pushing his lip up and out the way so she could see properly, “those are adorable.”

Definitely not the word he would have chosen.

“Watch out they’re…” he started to say, but it was too late.

“Ow,” Robin said, snatching back her finger and sticking it in her mouth. “Let me guess, you were going to say really sharp.”

Steve would have replied, but he made the mistake of licking his lips. The flavour of blood burst onto his tongue as the sense of Robin hit him like a two-by-four to the face. There was worry and love and curiosity and so much more. All he could do was gasp through it as it was there and gone.

“Steve, hey, Steve,” Robin said, immediately reaching out to steady him. “You good?”

Doing his best to breathe deeply, he patted her hand in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. It took a few seconds to get his brain back in gear.

“You bled on me,” he said, in way of explanation.

“Oh shit,” she said around the finger in her mouth, “I’m so sorry. Did it set you off your eat-now instincts? Need a bit more? I mean it’s still bleeding.”

He huffed out a laugh as she babbled at him.

“I’m fine,” he promised, “it was just … um … intense, I guess. I got a hit of you.”

“You saw into my head?” she asked, eyes widening.

“Not exactly,” he did his best to explain. “It was more like a sense of everything you’re feeling, and wow do you feel a lot.”

“Yeah,” Robin agreed, “but then you already knew that about me.”

Steve nodded, it was kind of obvious.

“I’ve never got a hit off blood before,” he admitted. “Human blood must be different.”

“Species synchronicity,” Robin said as if that made any sense.

“If you say so,” Steve let her have that one even if he only had a vague idea of what she was getting at.

They talked for a while longer before Steve found himself looking back at the door to the other room.

“You okay, Dingus?” Robin asked, since he had stopped mid-sentence.

“Yeah,” he said, frowning, before a little spark of fear shot up his spine. “Eddie,” he said, because he realised very quickly it wasn’t his fear. “Sorry,” he said, but he was already on the move.

Eddie was still curled up on the couch where Steve had left him and he looked as if he was sleeping calmly, but Steve knew different. He crossed the room quickly, although not ridiculously fast and knelt down.

“Eddie,” he said quietly and gently, reaching out and resting his fingers lightly on Eddie’s neck.

Red eyes flicked open at the first touch, fading quickly to brown as Eddie blinked back to consciousness.

“Hey,” Steve said, “you were having a nightmare.”

“Hmm,” Eddie agreed, still half asleep. “Back there.”

“Yeah, had a few of those over the years,” he replied. “Come on, I know just what helps.”

Gently pulling Eddie up a bit in his blanket cocoon, Steve insinuated himself onto the couch, pulling Eddie against him so they were both comfortable.

“You just want me as a cuddle toy,” Eddie complained sleepily.

“You keep telling yourself that, Munson,” Steve replied, but Eddie was already relaxing against him and falling back into slumber.

Robin came over and sat down on the carpet.

“How did you know?” she asked quietly.

“He’s in my head,” Steve told her honestly, “like faint background noise unless we’re touching, but when he’s afraid or hurting it’s clearer. I felt the beginning of a nightmare, y’know how they start with that dread.”

Robin nodded. They all knew nightmares. Patting him on the knee, she made herself comfortable and Steve glanced up at El and Hopper who were watching them. El gave him another one of her smiles, after all she was one of the few people who could remotely relate. He smiled back and let himself relax with Eddie cradled against him.

End of Chapter 6

Chapter 7

[yuripoll]

KNOCKOUTS: Gunjou (2007 - 12)

Gunjou (aka, Gunjo, or Ultramarine) is a 3 volume seinen series by Nakamura Ching about a woman conspiring with the lesbian in love with her to murder her abusive husband.

"I want you to kill him..." Her husband abuses her on a daily basis. Unable to stand it any longer, she asks her lesbian friend to kill her husband for her. And unable to say no to the woman she loves, the lesbian kills him... Only 22 years old when the series began, Ching Nakamura offers up a work carved from flesh, blood, and bone. - MAL

ENG available on the author's site & JP available on Book Walker.

CWs under the cut. General severity rating: major.

In particular, if you are sensitive to any kind of abuse or are just generally in a bad place, I suggest taking caution with this one. Very bleak outlook & a very uncomfortable read. I enjoyed it a lot, but I did feel like I had a hole in my chest for the rest of the day after the first time lol. Very dense with potentially triggering content.

sex & nudity <- explicit but not erotic

violence & gore <- blood & stabbing from the murder. not super gory, but there's a lot of visible injury ie deep cuts & heavy bruising. i was listing individual instances here but it got too much; other violent imagery includes (but is not limited to) blunt force trauma, slapping/punching, choking, being hit with a glass bottle.

rape <- references to rape here and there, but most significantly there's a scene where the lesbian deuteragonist is pressured into having sex with a man in ch6. the same character also had transactional sex with a man to get an opportunity to kill him. while this is the worst example, afaik the vast majority of sexual encounters shown or referenced have some kind of transactional, dubiously consensual edge to them.

homophobia (& lesbophobia specifically) <- protag refers to deuterag a "stupid lesbian" on like. the second page of the first chapter. and it doesn't really improve from there. deuterag was also rejetcted by her parents for her sexuality.

victim blaming <- deuterag calls protag stupid for marrying an abuser.

toxic relationships & manipulation <- main duo. they aren't even in the realm of healthy. see the above two points. things get violent between them at points but not to the same degree as with protags past abusers.

physical abuse (inflicted by a father and by a husband) <- major aspect of the protag's past. semi-frequent scenes showing this abuse. deuterag attacks protag in ch4 and immediately hates herself for it.

csa mention(?) <- i remember it being brought up once towards the end on my first read but i missed it on my second, so either i made it up or its literally just one little mention.

vomiting <- ch4, not shown on screen but there are sound effects. same in ch5. you DO see it in ch23 though, not super detailed.

suicide <- attempted suicides shown in ch2 (by jumping from a pier), ch6 (by asphyxiation), ch9 (getting onto train tracks). suicidal ideation regularly brought up by the main characters as a way of escaping their situation. both characters regularly express wanting to die. one character death is dishonestly framed as a suicide.

child death <- ch2, side character accidentally left her baby to drown in the bathtub. you see it happen in ch5.5

miscarriage <- protag mentions that she has had multiple miscarriages, one being caused by being kicked in the stomach. ch25 has a character (unknowingly) really rub salt in the wound.

animal injury <- ch1, a cat gets hit by a car (its taken to a vet and lives). we see the animal + blood but nothing detailed.

grooming(?) <- deuterag's older lesbian friend hit on her while she's still in high school, and they later entered a relationship. this never actually plays into the relationship that we see, but it happens.

mentions of teen prostitution <- ch3, suggested a couple of times that the protag (at 17) sell herself to escape poverty.

heteronormativity <- multiple lesbian characters consider trying to just adapt to men or try and settle down to avoid societal rejection.

character death <- side character, accidental drowning

[abybweisse]

Hello, I would like an analysis by Lord Arthur Randall of kuroshitsuji,

And your working relationship with Abberline and the one-eyed please 🙏🙏

I do not muse Lord Randall. Does anyone in this fandom muse him? 🤔

Oh, but then we discussed what you meant, and you really just wanted an assessment about him. And the working relationship between Abberline and our earl? His working relationship with them?

But I will try to assess his POV, in regards to various things and people, like Abberline and our earl, too!

Lord Randall...

We sure don't see much of him, and we likely won't see much of him again later. In fact, it's been hinted throughout the series that Abberline will eventually replace him, with the assumption that Lord Randall would retire from his post at the Yard. In fact, it's more like our earl asks if that is true, then he's turning it into a suggestion.

Randall says he only brought Abberline along for this occasion because he saw the watchdog at the scene of the crime (hanging the nabobs upside down), but I think there's more to it than that, since he could have told Abberline to not get any further involved with the watchdog. Abberline must have been tapped for moving up within the ranks, even if it's only because he's now been exposed to this secret agency. Randall didn't have to bring him along, regardless of what Abberline heard and saw, but he decides to.

So, the next time we see anyone from the Yard, Abberline might be in charge. We did see Randall hold Mr. Pitt at gun point and demand to know where our earl and Sebastian went, but we don't actually know how that confrontation ends. And we know that Abberline is also working this case... possibly taking a page out of the watchdog's book in how he approaches it... because not long ago he was telling the earl he would do his best to keep the earl from having to get his own hands dirty again. If Randall isn't somehow removed from this case, it's likely to be his last, anyway.

All this said, I think Randall is loyal to the crown... but doesn't really appreciate the way Queen Victoria conducts private business, especially the way she drags the Yard into it. Let's see, it is ch23 where we get foreshadowing that Agni's probably going to die (at least I see it that way), but it's also where we find out that the Yard pays the watchdog some small amount for services rendered in the investigation and capture of criminals. Even if the investigation never leads to an arrest. Agni tries to turn himself in for hanging the nabobs upside down, but our earl and Sebastian stop him. Since Madam Red dies and Grelle is a reaper, there's no arrest in the Jack the Ripper case, either. In both situations, the Yard has to be satisfied that the crimes have stopped. Perhaps Randall believes our earl just has all the perpetrators killed.

He seems to despise the watchdog's existence.

Not only does every generation of watchdog use underhanded tactics, but our earl likes to rub it in that he's getting the Yard's work done for them... and receiving a small sum for it each time. Randall does, however, seem to recognize the necessary evil of having a post like that.

We also learn from ch23 that he has little appreciation for the arts and that he's not fond of morbid, "gloomy" topics, like suicide and martyrdom. Whereas Abberline clearly spends his free time in the art museums; he doesn't say so explicitly, but if his reaction to our earl's art collection is any indication, he's a true lover of the arts. And knowledgeable.

I'd still love for Abberline to eventually use his knowledge of the arts to crack open a case. Maybe solve a case about fraudulently signed reproductions or complete forgeries being sold off. Imagine if something like that finally got Druitt put away for a while?? 😆

Anyway, Randall seems unsure about Abberline, but he knows he's got to get Abberline used to the truth about the Yard's relationship with the queen's watchdog. Because despite whatever he says, he does seem to be preparing for the day he will no longer be with the Yard.

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (05/11/23)

I forgot to say on last week's post but having caught up with yozakura now I have finally achieved my goal of reading everything on WSJ* which is very fun. with that out the way I can finally start catching up on some other stuff I've been behind on too and then finally start new stuff but still gonna be a while for that

blue - finale/completed

Anime

Frieren Ep9

very pogged up ep, I already knew it was gonna have sakuga cause I saw mappa posting the keyframes for some scenes on twitter but actually seeing it in action is a whole different thing

Undead Unluck Ep5

good ep as usual, despite being basically all exposition it was still fun finally hearing how everyone in the union sounds and is characterized, and also getting to see some early foreshadowing that makes a lot more sense nowadays 👀 also the shaft style with all the fast cuts and their signature angles is really fitting for episodes like this so that helps too which I do gotta say, despite being a sakuga slut (and the previous episode being crazy) my favourite thing about the anime so far has been that shaft style, since I didn't know beforehand about the involvment of their staff, it gives it a really different feel from the manga but it's still very good in it's own, shafty, way

Imas Million Live Ep5

good episode like usual, I thought this ep would be all preparation and the event itself would be the next one but it was half and half, which is good, not really wasting too much time. we also got to see tsumugi and kaori so that was fun too. next episode looks like there's gonna be some drama with poor shizuka so good luck to her

Manga

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins Ch478 (Finale)

that's all I should say about it. it really doesn't deserve anything else, but I won't be like that. I already knew the author's previous work takopii was needlessly edgy too but since I hadn't read it I didn't let that sway me and started this anyway. I can tell you that I'll never read anything by taizan, be it in WSJ or not. ofc it's not actually a 1, it's more like a 3, but I hated it so much I couldn't give it anything higher than that. from start to finish it was bad. none of the characters were likeable, the plot was confusing and hard to follow with it constantly switching between the "dream" and reality, every family member's plotline wasn't interesting and just an excuse to have more edgy things happen and at the end of the day it ends with "well despite everything that happened nothing changed and we're all still the same" so it was just a complete waste of time. it's sad we live in a world where something like this can get almost 50 chaps but series that are brimming with potential get cut short, and even in that short time are better than this could ever be. "oh if you hated it so much why didn't you drop it then?" simply put, I didn't ever think it'd last too long, and by the point where it had been going for a while I was like "well might as well see where this trainwreck ends up at" like I did for agk anyway. good riddance and see you never again taizan

Kindergarten Wars Ch52

when they said earlier in the chapter the brothers had died I believed it cause I expected it to happened at the end of the last chap they showed up in so seeing this at the end was a pleasant surprise

Show-ha Shoten Ch23

great chap, not only was their performance great, they also spent a buncha time in the last few chaps talking about how the group that goes first is doomed and can recieve and high score just for it to turn around like this. I figured they wouldn't just get dropped right away since they've actually gotten screentime before unlike a buncha the pairs that showed up just for this arc but still nice to it actually happen

Blue Box Ch124

good ol classic sports festival but with a bit of drama throw in to shake things up I figured this was gonna happen eventually but not in the very same chap they set up the seeds for it, poor taiki and chinatsu tho I'm fairly sure taiki will say yes but not who but we'll see next ch

Martial Master Asumi Ch20

mma's been struggling with ratings recently but this chap was GREAT, I hope it's enough to bump it up a bit, it's very cool to see this side of nito and him going off like this

[dirtyoldmanhole]

ch21 pops off briefly in some cool ways!

first you get this sick ass Temple Of Doom vibe. Castle Gyges, where all the shit goes down.

god i wish i could tell you some fic spoilers, this is the exact screenshot for one cool scene.

anyway, then check out this sick cinematography as the ominous foreshadowing starts up~~~

looming dark ominousness both with the building structures and the sky notably going darker, separating the screen in a diagonal sense for the further unease; bunch of purple and green which are traditionally "villain colors".

corrin off to the side of that second shot to further her isolation from the royal group.

anyway right after that second shot anthony is the obvious traitor as he leads corrin to the back enterence all alone. there's a really deliciously nasty dead dove fic that lives rent free in my mind re: anthony about this part lol

thankfully, corrin has at least one brain cell and knows there's a high chance she's walking into a trap, and she's left a message with everyone in case if she didn't return.

anthony goes yandere.

points for effort of that slasher smile, anthony, though I know somebody who wears it better.... :P

SPEAKING OF....

Gunter arrives in the second wave of 'oh it WAS a trap after all' reinforcements, behind Takumi and Leo aka the Thank God You Have Common Sense Royals(tm)

(+Xander who was the 'pls consider it's a trap' guy)

THAT IS RICH COMING FROM YOU, WANKER

(this whole scene is simultaneously really funny and REALLY PAINFUL when you know. uh. his deal.)

anankos decides he's totally capital-D-done with anthony and straight up turns him into a faceless in front of you for his failure. the transformation sounds nightmarish, ngl.

afterwards corrin gets one of those chats with the whole gang of them saying 'yeah you have a major weakness of trusting people but that's also what got you to herd all of us psychos together so, you win for once?

speaking of -

.... you know what, that's saccharine, but that's actually cute, sheesh. he of all people's seen her from start to finish, so i feel like that actually does mean something as a very subtle nod to all of her work during the middle third of rev, all the way back when nobody believed her and azura.

anyhoo, chapter 22 was up next.

ch22 really could be welded together with 23, as it's basically "azura faces her possessed mother part 1" versus 23 being the "actually finally kills her for good". basically a whole lot of nothing happens here, but i did find it interesting how everyone/corrin/azura really was leaning on the 'she's not your mother anymore' angle as an easier way to accept the fact she's brutally fighting/killing her only surviving family member.

hold onto that thought ~~~~

anyway ch23 is when it actually starts popping off again re: gunter >:) almost there to the fun bits.

[localplaguenurse]

Hello it's me again here to yell at you some more about gold as ginkgo because WHAT IS YOUR WRITING???? OMG I'm at ch23 already and so much has happened fcvhbjknklml amazing storytelling!!

Now this is gonna get a biiiit personal mayhaps sorry if that makes you uncomfy maybe?? But I just want to express how much I *adore* the way you portray the protag's anxiety and particularly the internal conflict of coming out of a toxic relationship.

this paragraph, this one in particular got me literally crying. I kid you not I started weeping and then went to talk to my besties because it's so real it hit me so hard. I'm sorry many people can relate of course but I in particular I'm just coming out (~5 months or so) of a 12+ year old toxic relationship and I've been struggling SO HARD, really so hard. And that made me feel validated, that made me feel like yes it's a thing it's normal. (I too had straight up panic attacks that left me with hands shaking and crying)

It looks eerily a lot like something I'd told my best friend weeks ago

anyway idk I just want to say your writing is amazing, the pacing, the characterization. I love that wifey doesn't just "get over" things or "get better" int he way it's usually portrayed, it's organic and slow and she falls back into negative thoughts and stutters and gets anxious but they ARE getting better in the little things, in the confidence, in the healing, in the feeling comfortable.

And it's not just that, the social anxiety, the nonbinary struggle, the feel that you're annoying others and have to be hyper independent never asking for help. I may not fully relate to all of them but you do make them important on the story and I feel like you portray them all so well.

And Gods, Morax/Zhongli is so nice lmao <3 need me a partner like that //hit that is SUPER self-indulgent love it. He's all kind and patient and loving and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ;w; I love him your honor <3<3<3

Aaaaanyway loved their outing to the city, love Li Lei's character, loved wifey slowly growing out of their shell, love Morax fucking crashing injured in the middle of the night during a storm and Xiao and the panic and everything, the whole dealing with the Abbes CHILL MAN LITERALL CHILLS OMG. Love the golden smoke yes it is your signature ehe <3

(as a side note, I remember a lot of chapters ago this scene with Morax commenting about a storm incoming and then dissapearing and I was like.... is this some weird ass mandela effect or am I crazy bc I specifically remember this lore of dragons getting horny during the rain but NAAAHHH NO WAY the fic isn't going on that direction Crys pls chill your horny brain BUT THEN HAHAHAHA GUESS WHO WAS LOWKEY RIGHT??? I DID READ EYE OF THE STORM TOO TO BE FAIR. Also on the same line of my horny brain so sorry for this but wigey being so asdfcvhbnjmk about praise and compliment has me going PRAISE KINK PRAISE KINK MORAX PLS!!!!//HIT)

ok that's enough this got way too long I apologize I got emotional n cried again I LOVE YOUR FIC!!!!!

I am going to get emotional, I'm getting the like heavy feeling in my eyes of "oh tears! may be soon!"

I'm also gonna get a little personal because it also ties in with the fic and just, y'know, if we're sharing then I'm gonna share too.

I've said numerous times that wifey's experiences with anxiety stem from my own. I was also writing this fic during a few very difficult parts of my life so I really leaned HARD into those aspects of their character. Something I also mentioned a few times is that I used to write stuff on wattpad, I got burnt out, and then I didn't post fic for five years (which now that I think of it, technically not true because I did post some things on amino back in high school, but y'know). I never really stopped writing, though. Gave me room to experiment and because I'm A) a lifelong fan of the dark and macabre (even though I'm actually a bit of a chicken baby), and B) very depressed/anxious, naturally I leaned more into darker writing. I liked to make it a point of writing happy endings but I would put my charcters through the fucking wringer.

I was also a huge people pleaser in high school that didn't know how to make friends aside from the ones I already had. You can imagine how fucking devastated I was when one day, fuckin completely out of the blue, I was booted from my friend group. I only had like five friends and I kept two of them after that shit. One of those friends was a girl I had known since first grade. For the next two years right up until covid hit I was like "well fuck, Charlotte, guess you've only got two friends now. It's only a matter of time before they get sick of you too." It took me maybe a year for me to realize it wasn't my fault that the people I trusted turned out to be shitty, and it wasn't until like a year or two ago that I was able to actually open up and talk about that shit because I've been terrified to actually be vulnerable with people since then.

That's only like some of my damage, I've also got the eldest daughter and "ah fuck I think I'm undiagnosed neurodivergent" trauma. Two for one combo! Love it here!

So, yeah, I got pretty good at writing and specifically writing about people dealing with toxic relationships. Part of it is venting, part of it is wanting to raise awareness for these things, and part of it is just, idk, I like writing this stuff. I'll write whatever if it's interesting enough.

Anyways, thank you so much!!! There's more I could go on about but that's spoilers, so I just wanna say I'm really really happy you like what I've done! Put my heart and soul into this baby. Also yes this is horrifically self indulgent lmao, this fic was like entirely catered to me and my beta reader and apparently everyone else is into it.

I hope your day or night is well, whatever time it is where you are!

[itlivesproject]

my mc on his way to have some hot crazy nasty mindblowing power-sex with linky in ch23 after they confessed their love to each other, their friends survived the power nightmares, connor came back to normal, his crazy evil father was sacrificed for the greater good, the blood moon ritual was stopped, devon was unredfielded, harper was freed from loha's weirdass mental power connections and they both still have access to the power. happily ever after!🤗

..but if wes doesnt merge hes still immortal and will watch linky age and d*e so maybe he should just turn human and lincoln remains the one with the power. i dont mind a dominant man!

looks like you got a very good ending, anon ;) it's up to you the ending you want to receive, but now that the game's over, everything post-canon is free real estate! my point being maybe your hcs can do something about mc's immortal state... idk, who knows 🤷‍♀️

(also as an aside, one of my favorite things that has happened in the ilw fandom is everyone adopting the name linky for lincoln)

[sweetish-original-story]

CH23 (tw comical use of strong language)

"-SO STRIKE A POSE!" Bobbin screamed at the top of her lungs, thankfully quieter by the primitive sound editing. "YES, ALWAYS! STRIKE A POSE JUST LIKE THAT AND YOU WILL SEE! NOTHING CAN CUT YOU DOWN! POWER AND GRACE COMES FROM YOUR HEART, SO BE COLURFUL AND FREE! HAIR...CLOTHES...THEY ARE JUST AN ACCESSORY! YOU ARE THE ART! THE TRUE HAIR PEICE-" she spun around in a circle on her blue ballet shoes, showing off her 2D sparkling cerulean tutu, before gracefully leaping in slow motion from the stage to the very end of the catwalk, spinning once again, spotlight shimmering against her bald and glittery head, before landing backwards with one leg in the air and making a heart with her fingres. "IS LOOOOOOOOOVE!"

And everyone started Vogueing.

"I don't get it." Dulce said flatly, putting down his wine glass. Sammy turned to him so fast her own hair could have sliced him in half. "WHAT." Sammy took a deep breath. "Don't. You. Get???? :)"

"I mean..." he continued, "What was the point of trying to find the scissor thingy-"

"OBSIDIAN FIRST SHEAR." Sammy corrected with all the venom she could muster.

"OBSIDEEN FOWRST SHEEW-" He mocked. "-If all they were going to do with it was give it give it back to them? They could have literally made any outfit, any material, they could have taken all that power and use it to make their lives perfect! Heck, half their freinds are dead, they should have gotten revenge! Tore the whole thing into fibers and made sure no one could ever use it again."

Samuella was exhausted at this point. "Uggghh nooo this is like the whole Ruffy and Megaprep fight from 12 seasons agoooo! They already proved to everyone that even though phonk can be used for evil, it SHOULD be used for good! Yin and yang! The people wont support the music industry if their music is souless and its the same thing here! They are beautiful BECAUSE they are willing to change their brand not in spite of it. Also-"

"Now hold on, what about the enslaved elves in the silk plantations? What do they just walk away like nothing happened? We just pretend that was okay?"

"I told you it was IMPLIED that they were going to go back in the FUTURE..." Sammy retorted "But you were busy making those meaty seed buns and trying to trick me into burning a hole through my gut." She held her stomach as if she would have another choking fit from breathing in her own firey burps again.

"Whats the point in spending thousands on spices if you arent going to eat em? Its good for you, makes you strong." He seemed very proud of being able to give his cousins advice to someone he cared for.

"Whats the point of ordering 12 pairs of HiHi Birdy print oven mitts if your hands are indestructible?" Sammy let a small smirk grow across her face as his smug grin sligshotted right back into eberrassment and false rage.

"THOSE ARE DIFFERENT." He growled hypocritically. "You HiHi Birdiy's name out of your SLIMY FILTHY mouth." He was standing now. "At least I'm not into SLAVERY. Bitch."

Sammy was taken aback by his full confidence in even being able to SAY that, let alone joke about it, especially considering what he went through.

"How very DARE you SIR. YOU are the one who wants to MAIM a literal child 'Mr. CALM and COLLECTED.'"

"A trillion year old EVIL child who eats the suffering of slaves which YOU like. Bitch." He repeated louder, so she can hear it

Now SHE was standing, with her hands on her knees in order to insult his height."You want to sleep with the monkey aliens of Waterplanet 3 from the Dairy cream galaxy so that makes you a child murderer and AND a zoophile." She made sure to look him straight in the eye for that last word.

"They're CUTE!" He whined "They are like little pink pig monkeys with tiny eyes and no hair-"

Sammy was losing control of her volume now. "THEY CAME FROME CHIMPS THATS DISCUSTING YOU KISS CHIMPS!"

So was Dulce. "NO. SILENC" He still couldn't get that word quite right. He can't even get THIS language down, and hed nearly lost most of his last one. "SHUT UP. RACIST BITSCH." Once more for good measure.

"Say bitch one more time." Oh she HEARD it alright. Dulce let out a maniacal smile at the invitation.

"Slut."

The next moment he was surrounded by a tornado of red, slowly being crushed to death with every heavy fabric and pillow in the mansion. He couldnt even scream for help. His bird-son was already fast asleep, and if the weight didnt get him, the heat would bake him like a marshmallow. As a final insult, when the tornado was over Samuella took a big heavy sit at the top of the pile. Her tactics were strong, but he was stronger.

It all went flying, including Samuella. She flipped around twice before her instincts let her land on the commonroom table, after which she grabbed a large scented terrycloth towel out of the air and whipped it against the air to make a loud and intimidating thunderclap as a warning.

"So it's like THAT huh? Chosen like a true OVERSEER." Dulce mocked. This time there was a drop of menace in his words. He picked up a pair of green pillows and stuffed them onto his hands. "I dont really need a weapon, but..." He cracked his neck before turning to her and preparing to use her own wreckless momentum against her. "-I don't wanna break you TOO quick tonight."

The proceeded to ruin the her entire side of the mansion. If fists and fabric weren't flying, then insults were, mixed in with the occasional "COME ON KEEP UP HOE!" or unusual "Oh I KNOW you can hit a little harder than THAT".

And somewhere in the southern quarters, a maid is getting a dreadful, sinking feeling in her gut.