#updated her trivia page

[night-at-the-musian]

NatM Search End-of-Year Update

The Search site has new HTML, completely hand-coded by yours truly. Should be a lot easier to navigate on mobile! Also has a selection list for different fonts, in case you want to read it in Tahoma or Times New Roman!

We've come a long way in the six months since the Search site began on June 1, 2023. Passing through three different layout overhauls, expanding to around forty pages, and amassing nearly 40,000 visits. It’s been a hell of a journey!

Let’s recap what we’ve found in these past six months:

The original script for NatM (2006), and archived the original script for NatM:BotS (2009).

The lost Nick’s Tales novel, “Night of the Giants”.

The first fanfic ever posted for this fandom, in January 2007.

Tons of promotional material, ranging from Facebook posts to ads that remain on old DVDs.

Concept art for NatM:KRA by over fifteen artists.

Costume work and prop design by Marlene Stewart and Charmaine Husum, respectively.

Proof of old Flash games and mobile apps that have been lost to time.

Information about the upcoming musical.

Information about the theme park ride, down to its blueprints and manufacturers.

And that’s just in the six months the site has existed! Before then, it was just a page on my blog that listed books and trivia. Oh, how things change!

Thank you to everyone that’s contributed, but in particular to @pineapple-coffee for her nearly countless contributions, and @rivstyx for xir help finding books and transcribing the NatM original script.

Happy holidays, and here’s to more finds in 2024!

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing 25-31 August 2024

Here’s the roundup for August 25th - August 31st, 2024!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make this next week!

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction/Ideas/Snippets:

@janaverse

Tainted Sleep https://janaverse.tumblr.com/post/760346843437760512/tainted-sleep-it-was-inevitable-heero-supposed

Sims Universe, Heero Yuy, drabble, NSFW

it was inevitable, heero supposed, that he would have a sexual dream that night.

Arts/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@dailydefunctmangamagazine

https://dailydefunctmangamagazine.tumblr.com/post/759523062280536064/comic-bombom-%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%9C%E3%83%B3%E3%83%9C%E3%83%B3-k%C5%8Ddansha-%E8%AC%9B%E8%AB%87%E7%A4%BE-aug

Old Manga Magazine cover, official art

@illuminesce

https://www.tumblr.com/illuminesce/759769536173129728/based-on-a-very-funny-conversation-with-my

GW Pilots ad D&D characters, fanart

@sailorfutaba

https://sailorfutaba.tumblr.com/post/760329878634741760/it-is-dangerous-to-declare-your-ask-box-open-for

WuFei Chang, fanart

Photosets/Gifsets/Screenshots/Manga Pages:

@sailorfutaba

https://sailorfutaba.tumblr.com/post/759405798859407360/what-i-really-love-about-her-is-that-her-feelings

Noin, gifset

https://sailorfutaba.tumblr.com/post/759750070296002560/nuuuuh-theyre-so-cute-it-literally-a-mirror

Zechs Merquise, gifset

https://sailorfutaba.tumblr.com/post/759623248580378626/he-was-so-bishie-literally-his-mask-splode

More Zechs and some trivia.

@seaofolives

https://seaofolives.tumblr.com/post/759431863485022208/what-do-you-mean-trowas-real-name-is-triton-and

Trowa(Triton) Barton(Bloom), gifset

https://seaofolives.tumblr.com/post/759794194287099904/all-im-saying-is-that-if-duo-decided-to-become-a

Duo Maxwell, Hilde Schbeiker, gifset

Fandom Discourse:

@natvoltaic

https://natvoltaic.tumblr.com/post/759912764308389888/wing-is-fucking-great-actually-not-even-in-the

Wing rocks.

@seaofolives

https://www.tumblr.com/seaofolives/760239640287576064/torokatober2024-pastebincom

Prompt List!

@talliyasfics

https://talliyasfics.tumblr.com/post/760079882408558592/fic-author-never-have-i-ever-ask-game-gundam-wing

I’ma do it y’all... just wait for it. Marvel Crossover idea with WinterHawk in Heavyarms and Deathscythe.

Quotes:

@incorrectgundamwingquotes

https://www.tumblr.com/incorrectgundamwingquotes/760185073195679744/sally-whats-up-wufei-wufei-after-getting-back

Sally & WuFei

Calendar Events:

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompts for Friday, September 6th: https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/post/760328389280317440/cocktail-friday-post-responses-on-friday

In need of prompts!

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/730188053636841472/updated-events-calendar

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

GW Holiday Gift Exchange 2024

Sign-ups OPEN: https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/760398363123384320/hey-gundam-wingers-the-gundam-wing-holiday-gift

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Asa Mitaka from Chainsaw Man the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

Asa-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a manga panel of Asa in the top right corner, she has been edited to be wearing a blue cap with the words "Please be patient I have autism" printed on the front. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"Goes to the aquarium with a guy and infodumps about sea anemonies."

"I kin her unironically. Unbelievable social awkward. Goes to an aquarium date where she spends the entire time explaining facts about the Animals fully in an attempt to impress her date. She must be avenged from the ADHD vs Autism bracket. Is isolated from her peers. Chronically lonely but won't open up to anyone(not sure if that's an Autism thing or just a personal problem probably a combination of both) Have you read the Manga?"

"has a VERY hard time with social interaction"

"She is absolutely baffled by everything + doesn't get most things at first"

"there's an extended scene where she flirts with a boy by lecturing him about sea anemone life cycles, breeding patterns, and other extended trivia. the whole time she is thinking to herself "he must be falling in love with me right about now. this is an irresistible date." "

"Literally infodumps to the boy shes on a date with for like 3 straight pages and then goes "i'm so alluring. he definetely wants me now" "

"from the scene that was all over tumblr where she infodumps about starfish on an aquarium date and considers this her Ultimate Seduction Technique. a guy on reddit literally got diagnosed because he could relate to her. it's awesome"

"Tried to impress a guy on a date by monologuing starfish facts about him, was genuinely astonished that that didn't drive him wild with desire. Also she's sharing her body with a horsewoman of the apocalypse but that's unrelated."

"If her long-winded rant about sea creatures as an attempt to seduce someone wasn't enough, then a lot of her trauma is based around being ostracized for being weird and quiet. She doesn't understand people but wants companionship anyways, even if shes also afraid of it."

"She feels disconnected to her peers. She literally infodumps while on a date for thirty minutes about starfish. She doesn't see this as a social faux pas, but rather something any sane person would do. (Basically, doesn't realize this is abnormal.) She misses social cues frequently. She feels below average empathy, I'd say. Asa also said she wanted to die after embarrassing herself in public. That doesn't mean she's autistic or anything, but I'm autistic and I do it a lot. Also, I'm autistic and I relate to her, so she kind of has a peer reviewed diagnosis by me lol."

"Socially awkward and prone to info dumping."

"shes cringe fail and has no idea what shes doing ever i love her so much (shes just like me fr"

"I’m sure you’ve seen her failgirl cringe aquarium infordump that she’s sure will charm any boy (note: fails to charm the world’s loosest teenage boy.) She sucks at a lot of social stuff but also doesn’t get why and just thinks she’s wrong or cursed or smth. Likes animals over people. Doesn’t have a single friend until another loner who happens to be more extroverted basically adopts her as her friend."

"1) thought lecturing her date about sea creatures for like 30 minutes each would impress him and make him like her and was confused when he wasn’t into it (I would be into it tho it’s ok bby he just has adhd). 2) had the date planned out to the MINUTE and told the poor guy to shut up when he wanted to do something different. Literally a formula for how to have fun and she thought it was foolproof. 3) encyclopedic knowledge of sea creatures either points to a special interest and/or she just decided to research all that shit the night before for the date (she did say she went to the library in preparation), either way. tism I love her I’m rotating her in my brain" End ID.]

[jezmmart]

Unwarped version of the photo from the very end of the Summer Special for funsies.

No more jokes or avoiding questions about exactly how long it's going to be, the Summer Special is truly over now!  Thank you all again for reading. I hope it was enjoyable for those invested in the characters and those who just tune in each week for a quick chuckle alike.

It's been a fun challenge to write my first longform story for the comic, as it's far from something I'm confident in.  All together it clocked in at 85 pages (though shave a few off in spots where I just used negative space for dramatic effect rather than filling the longer pages with panels all the way down).  With the average page taking me 3-5 hours to make, that's about 14 days of work.  If I just didn't sleep I could've cranked this out in less than a month, dang!  Well, next time.

I've had the jist for this story in my head for a fair few years so it's been nice to finally realise it.  I'll get into the nitty-gritty when the trivia posts get this far I'm sure, but while it's still fresh in my mind, here's some off-the-cuff bits regarding the broad story for fun:

(Spoilers for anyone who hasn't read it yet!)

* I originally envisioned this as a thing I'd secretly work on behind the scenes and drop in its entirety for download, framed like a traditional "summer special" magazine. But unfortunately I just don't have that kind of time, and knowing that it would be years of work to do it alongside my other output, paired with the fear that not every reader would necessarily ever get around to reading a longform thing when they're used to just tuning in for a 30 second fix once a week and moving on, it became a no-brainer to just make it a "special" in spirit only and make it part of the main comic.  And I know myself, the only way this was ever getting done is if I just posted that first one and then locked myself in to having to finish it, one week at a time.

* The fact that I did it in 2022-2023, and the pacing of the story for the first half, was entirely dictated by the fact that Chamomile's update day was due to land on Christmas Day in 2022.  If I wanted to make that inappropriate Christmas Day comic joke, it was now or never, and because it needed to be a standalone ridiculous one comic scene in juxtoposition to the rest of the story-driven special, staging it as a dream sequence between the two days had to be the time for it.

* To that end... when I began working on it, I didn't have the whole thing planned out.  Day 1 of the trip was more or less sorted but I still had a ton of comics that were just scenes with no jokes yet, and Day 2 was a big question mark that somehow had to lead to Vi's dramatic reveal to Bri and realisation/meet-up with Sam at the end of it.  Day 2 was only fleshed out and finalised by around December last year, when everyone was going to bed on Day 1!  The idea to more thoroughly conclude Brianna's story in an extra epilogue, segregated off from the rest of the special so Sam and Vi's scene would still feel like a "climax", and also allowing the summer special to continue through this year's summer rather than ending right beforehand, only came to me early this year, and finalising the particulars of it came right down to the wire, with all the comics involved fleshed out and ready to go basically when I began drawing the first (or maybe even second, lol).

* On the note of Brianna, her story here is a lighter version of a story idea I had for her back before Cammie even existed and I was considering making a comic about her - a story in which someone returns to their hometown or a special place to find solace but instead finds out that everything has changed and has to learn a hard lesson about how nostalgia can't save you from adult life overwhelming you etc.  In my head it was to be a relatively sombre mood, but tbh I don't know where to begin writing something like that and have it be engaging throughout.  All I know is how to do jokes!!  So I mourn the loss of that imagined version but I'm happy I made something of it at last.  It's impossible to make stuff to your initial vague vision, it was always bound to change!

* While weekly updates meant I never had the time to flesh out their pre-relationship friendship as much as I'd always imagined I would... Sam and Vi have been destined to happen since Sam was introduced to the comic.  Been playing the long game in trying to make them inconspicious but shippers gonna ship and plenty of people saw it coming, but that's fine, haha!

* The elongated search for a 20p coin to get into the public toilets and then it turning out that contactless card payment could have been used the entire time was a real thing that happened to me and my partner during our 2016 holiday in New Forest.  It was really really funny and I've been sitting on the story in order to use it in Chamomile at some point for years and years.

That'll do for now!  Please look forward to the return to regular ol' classic Chamomile antics from Sunday!

[talesofsorrowandofruin]

The Great OC Alphabet Caper: (Updated) Glass Edition

(Credit to @sleepyowlwrites for this idea)

For characters introduced in the other books, see these posts: The Unfortunate Moth • Houses Full of Deceit • Mine Eyes Dazzle • There Stands a Spectre • The Tempest and the Night

Updated information about the characters in Silver Glass, in alphabetical order:

Davit

Name: Davit Altounian (Դավիթ Ալթունեան) (real name), David Eames (Anglicised name + his adoptive parents' surname)

Age/Pronouns: 19, he/him

Brief physical description: Average height, black hair, dark brown eyes.

Brief list of defining traits: Has the most traumatic of traumatic backstories. Has done nothing wrong ever. Married to Alec.

Excerpt:

"I'm searching all the male servants' rooms," Yo-han said. He studied Eames' face. "Are you quite well?" Eames drew in a shaky breath. "McCullagh brought in some rabbits to make stew. Seeing him skin them… It reminded me of… I can't stand blood. It makes me feel sick." He certainly looked sick. He crossed the room and practically collapsed into the armchair. "Look anywhere you want," he said. His voice was muffled because he buried his head in his hands. He was trembling. Yo-han looked at him thoughtfully. He looked especially at his arms and hands. Eames was slightly-built, yes. But unlike Lennox he showed no signs of under-eating, so this was probably his natural physique. He was two or three inches taller than Yo-han. Could he have hit Mrs. Lennox with an oar hard enough to break her skull with a single blow? Eames had certainly hated her. It would be hard to find anyone in the household who didn't hate her. But Yo-han found it hard to picture him being strong enough for such a violent murder.

Trivia:

His adopted surname is a reference to John Eames from The Small House at Allington. (There are a lot of Anthony Trollope references in Silver Glass. More on that later…)

His real surname is borrowed from the Altounyan family (who inspired the Swallows and Amazons series). I chose this partly because Glass is set beside a river, and mainly because Wikipedia says Altounian/Altounyan is a common Armenian surname, and I wanted to avoid using a name generator (which might have produced a really unusual surname)

The denouement, where Phil and Co. vote on Davit’s innocence, is inspired by the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of Abbey Grange

He doesn't appear in Houses Full of Deceit, but he's mentioned. He probably will appear in Uneasy Money

Dzovig

Name: Dzovig Altounian (Ծովիկ Ալթունեան)

Age/Pronouns: 20, she/her

Brief physical description: Average height, black hair, brown eyes. Has a scar that twists up part of her lip.

Brief list of defining traits: A very important character, but she only appears in the flashback.

Excerpt:

Davit meets Dzovig in a park one morning. They stare at each other. He doesn't recognise her. She has a scar at her mouth, twisting up her lip to reveal some of her teeth. She had no such scar in the orphanage. He can see she doesn't recognise him — at first. Then she makes a noise like a wounded animal. "What's wrong?" he asks in Armenian, slow and stilted from disuse. He hasn't spoken Armenian since 1911. Dzovig stares at him. "Don't you know how much you look like Mother?"

Trivia:

Originally she was supposed to appear in the main story and would have been present during the denouement. This didn’t happen because I couldn’t figure out a way to introduce her ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe in the second draft?

Another thing I couldn’t work into the story except for a throwaway line: she mutilates Çelik Bey’s body as revenge for the mutilation of Armenian women. This is inspired by a horrific photograph on Wikipedia’s page about the Adana massacre

She works for an organisation which is loosely inspired by Operation Nemesis

It's never explained how or when she got her scar

A detail that didn't make it into the first draft: she and Davit both grew up speaking Western Armenian, but she moved to Yerevan and switched to Eastern Armenian in the years they were apart. The reason this got cut: I need to do more research on the differences between the dialects

Çelik Bey

Name: Çelik Bey (Turkey didn't have surnames at the time, so this is just his personal name and title)

Age/Pronouns: 26, he/him

Brief physical description: Tall, black hair, brown eyes

Brief list of defining traits: Gwladys’s boyfriend. A politician’s son.

Excerpt:

Çelik Bey stared at Lennox, then at Yo-han. Yo-han had no idea what his own expression was — mainly because he had no idea what to make of the unfolding drama — but Çelik Bey didn't like it. He forced a laugh. "This guy's crazy. He should be locked up in a padded cell. You aren't here because you believe that story he told you?" Yo-han looked at him levelly. "What story?" He let Çelik Bey squirm for a moment before he added, "We share an interest in photography." There was no doubt about it: Çelik Bey looked relieved. "Then you're not here as a detective?" "Is there some reason I should be?" Yo-han asked. The silence that followed was the most awkward one yet.

Trivia:

He was originally supposed to play a bigger role; in the outline he was conspiring with Gwladys to murder Alec. This got cut, but might make it into the second draft

Louis

Name: (The Honourable) Louis Gresham

Age/Pronouns: 21, he/him

Appears in: Silver Glass (flashback and epilogue only), Houses Full of Deceit

Brief physical description: Average height, brown hair, brown eyes

Brief list of defining traits: Unwitting instigator of doom™. Davit’s friend. Briefly had a crush on Alec and a relationship with Leo. Provides helpful information when Yo-han is investigating the Hastings murders.

Excerpt:

The Honourable Louis Gresham was many things. According to his parents he was a hopeless spendthrift, according to his brother he was next door to an imbecile, and according to his boss he was the worst worker the foreign office had ever employed. He was, however, loyal to his friends. And when his old friend David Eames wrote to him to say he and Alexander Lennox were going to Armenia, Louis obligingly pulled a few strings to get their passports approved in record time. Why exactly two otherwise sane people wanted to travel to the middle of nowhere was beyond Louis' comprehension, but he was damned if he didn't help out.

Trivia:

Remember those Anthony Trollope references I mentioned? Most of them are around Louis. His first name is borrowed from Sir Louis Scatcherd and his surname from Frank Gresham (Doctor Thorne), his parents live in Framley Manor (Framley Parsonage), and his and Davit’s teacher is Reverend Grantley (Barchester Towers; I forgot the Trollope character’s surname is spelt Grantly and now I can’t be bothered to correct it)

He also provides a crossover with the works of P. G. Wodehouse: he's a member of the Drones Club, knows Bertie Wooster, and is probably a distant cousin of Lord Emsworth

He pronounces his name Lewis instead of Louie

Might reappear in Uneasy Money

Alec

Name: Alexander Lennox (Lord Kilskeery; technically his full title is The Right Honourable The Viscount Kilskeery, but no one has the patience to say that)

Age: 23, he/him

Brief physical description: Average height, brown hair, blue eyes

Brief list of defining traits: Is having a very bad time. Married to Davit (and Gwladys, unfortunately).

Excerpt:

Two cribs were placed side-by-side against the wall. A low armchair stood beside them. Alexander Lennox sat in it, reading aloud to two small babies. In the minute before he noticed Yo-han's presence, Yo-han observed the three of them closely. The babies, probably twins, were very young. He thought of his half-siblings as babies and decided these ones were less than a year old. They wore identical blue baby-grows. Both had brown hair. One was asleep. The other peered owlishly up at their father. Lennox was still abnormally thin, but he looked as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. He did not look like a man whose wife had just been violently murdered. Yo-han looked at him and tried to imagine him swinging an oar at his wife's head. "'Then the magician brewed a powerful potion out of nine sorts of herbs which he had gathered himself all alone by moonlight, and he gave the youth nine spoonfuls of it daily for three days, which made him able to understand the language of birds. "'At parting the magician said…'" Lennox stopped. He looked up at Yo-han. There was no fear or hostility in his eyes. He smiled, the first smile Yo-han had seen from him that didn't have a bitter edge.

Trivia:

He was the first character I created for Silver Glass, and the rest of the story grew up around him

So what was up with his illness? Well, according to the outline Gwladys was poisoning him. I changed my mind half-way through the book, so now it’s ambiguous ¯\(ツ)/¯

He and Gwladys have twin sons. Their names are Walter and Theodore, though this is never mentioned in the book

As of Houses Full of Deceit, he and Davit and the twins are in Armenia

Will reappear in Uneasy Money. Helena the First and Lucy are his cousins

Gwladys

Name: Gwladys Lennox (née Whare) (Lady Kilskeery, not that anyone ever calls her this)

Age/Pronouns: 26, she/her

Brief physical description: Average height, dyed blonde hair, brown eyes

Brief list of defining traits: The Worst. The surprise isn’t that she’s murdered, it’s that it took so long for someone to kill her.

Excerpt:

With one of her fake giggles Mrs. Lennox said, "We both know what I mean. How much will he ask to keep those photos hidden?" Phil did some very quick deductions of her own. Fact: Mr. Seo had seen something incriminating last night. Fact: Mrs. Lennox believed he had taken pictures. Fact: she believed he was going to blackmail her. The situation was so absurd that she couldn't help laughing. Mrs. Lennox misinterpreted her reaction. "He's already given them to Lennox?" She ground her teeth and said a few words that were better-suited to a barroom than a drawing room. "Let me be perfectly honest, dear: my husband is a disgusting… Well. I'm too delicate to say the word. But he is still a viscount, and I'm not going to let him divorce me. If he tries to ruin me I can ruin him. But if he has photos? That's a different story." Phil made a note to ask Mr. Seo if there was any truth in the vague accusation. Lord Kilskeery had struck her as nothing but a very ill man. After five minutes with his wife she thought she knew the cause of his illness. "You're completely wrong," she said. "Mr. Seo has no photographs of you and he isn't a blackmailer. Your husband hired him…" because he thinks you're poisoning him "…to solve a mystery."

Trivia:

Originally she was meant to be a relatively innocent bystander who was killed because she witnessed the murder. Then I began to write, and she turned out to be Rachael 2.0.

Adding the general Case-files taglist: @akindofmagictoo, @sam-glade, @sarahlizziewrites, @oh-no-another-idea, @cljordan-imperium,

@mrbexwrites, @lightgriffinsect (Let me know if you want to be added/removed!)

[rosy-avenger]

Yo. Tell us more of your Knives Out visual language takes.

Or don't. I'm not your dad.

(Unless your dad asks you really specific questions about cinematography, in which case, uh yo, we're out of milk)

Anon I wish I could make gifs because just talking about it doesn't have the same impact. Alas.

I particularly appreciated the shots that communicated Marta's economic status as compared to the Thrombeys. My initial post was about Meg's iPhone, but that wasn't the only example. Others:

-Marta drives a semi-crappy Hyundai, in contrast to the cars the Thrombeys drive (especially Ransom's vintage BMW)

-the shot of Marta's phone with its cracked screen, and later her beat-up sneakers

Then aside from the effective communication about Marta not being wealthy, there were some other good cinematography moments:

-the halo of knives being visible behind all of the family members during their interviews, but it's always off-center with nobody standing directly in front of it, until near the end when first Benoit, then Marta, sit so their heads are right in the center (the hole in the center of the... knife... donut?)

-during Richard's interview, he says something about Marta really being part of the family, and the audio of that line is played over a clip of Richard sitting in the living room and gesturing Marta forward like he's welcoming her into the family conversation; but later when we see the full context of that scene, he's actually calling her forward so he can use her as a prop in his political discussion. The movie is a mystery story with a lot of confusion about the circumstances of Harlan's death; this type of callback shot is a really effective way of showing that the Thrombeys can and do misrepresent their experiences to make themselves look better. It's a reminder to the audience not to take anything at face value.

-really fast blink-and-you'll-miss-it thing: the OS on Harlan's laptop is Windows XP or something similarly way out of date. Very typical for an older person who got used to one OS and never wants to update to a newer one.

-an obvious one: when Marta is giving Harlan the medications, the camera pans sideways and the sheathed knife on its stand moves into frame in the foreground, passing over Harlan's throat.

-when Marta and Benoit are talking on the patio and the outdoor light shines from over Benoit's shoulder (visual metaphor for the illumination of the truth?)

-I saw a thing about how Ransom's clothes are expensive but worn, like he doesn't take care of them; but while watching the movie I interpreted it as that he's cosplaying being poor like some wealthy people do.

-with a couple of brief exceptions, every time we see the portrait of Harlan, it's in the background over Marta's shoulder or Marta is the one looking at it. I interpreted this as showing that while the family focuses on what they can get (or rather, what they stand to lose) out of Harlan's death, Marta is the only one who loved him as a friend and genuinely misses him.

BONUS! Not a cinematography thing, but an imdb-trivia type thing that inexplicably is not on the imdb trivia page: in the sequence of reading Harlan's will, all the reading of the will is done by Frank Oz's character. However, he keeps having to be prompted by a woman attorney who never speaks herself, and none of the other characters interact with her. To put it another way, Frank Oz plays a character who lacks agency and needs to be directed by a character who no one else acknowledges. One might call him a puppet.

[umbrataleau]

Hey! It's been a while!

I'm not sure how many people care about this blog, but UMBRATALE has been back in motion for a while now. Check out the SoundCloud page for all the new songs so far!

https://soundcloud.com/umbratale

It's pretty close to being caught up to where it was pre-rework. Most of the existing songs have been replaced entirely, with some others getting remakes. I hope everyone is excited for what the AU has in store!

I can't promise that I'll use this blog too much, but if there's any interest then I'll try to provide occasional updates on the AU's progress, and maybe even fun trivia about the story and characters. :)

As a special thanks for checking this blog out, here's Alphys' original concept art!

(This has a slightly outdated design for Undyne! She has her eyepatch in the final design, don't worry)

Also, here's the uncropped battle mockup used in the Spider Dance thumbnail!

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

Out of curiosity, are you gonna add on Mosy's pregnancy and giving birth to her Toyhouse page?

Yeye! I often forget to update the trivia section or get too busy. Then when I have free time it’s like “oh yeah I needa do that!”

[calicohyde]

@original-character-championship Eddie propaganda!

Fun Facts

[image description: a stats/trivia page drawn with markers in a bullet journal. along the left are d20s, in the middle is a list of proficiencies, and on the right is a character trope, a tarot card, and a three track playlist. /end ID]

I designed classes for witch types in the style of a D&D homebrew! Eddie's class is Clairvoyant and her sub-class (like Artificer for a Wizard) is Seer.

Clairvoyance is the ability to perceive things that are beyond the five senses. These abilities are almost always involuntary! Eddie has very little control over when she does or doesn't have a premonition or who it's about. Clairvoyants are the physically weakest witch type in the 'verse, with no attack type moves and low HP, but they have high intelligence, wisdom, insight, and perception.

Clairvoyants include Seers, Scryers, Mediums, and Oracles. Seers like Eddie have premonitions in their dreams. They dream an event as if it were happening to them. This event can be from the past, present, or future. Seers develop a "specialty" to their visions, influenced by a combination of nature and nurture. Eddie's specialty - like her tarot card - is Death.

Historically in-universe, Clairvoyants are unfairly maligned by both seculars (non-witches) and other classes of witch. They are believed to be functionally powerless, to taint or poison magic, and to attract malicious spirits. They are thought to be weak and inherently unstable. The word "sixer," as in a user of the sixth sense, is used as a slur against them.

Eddie's alignment is Neutral Good. She has 9 strength, 15 intelligence, 15 wisdom, 10 dexterity, 14 constitution, and 11 charisma. I got her stats from this personality quiz!

Her list of proficiencies on this page is out of date because I wrote this before I decided on the time period Curse The Messenger would take place in - which ended up being pre-world wide web. The updated Eddie is still fluent in English and a beginner at Spanish, and is an expert at trailing and amateur forensics. She also does the accounting for her and her sibling's private detective agency, Watchtower Investigations! Here's a snippet about that:

[image description in alt text]

Eddie fits the Hardboiled Detective trope, which TVTropes.com defines as "a tough [cynic] with a gun and a lot of street smarts, who solves mysteries with dogged persistence rather than astounding insight." Eddie doesn't have a gun, but she does have the taste for scotch and leggy women that Hardboiled Detectives also come equipped with. Here's a line particularly evocative of this trope and the genre it comes from:

[image description in alt text]

Three songs that give Eddie are:

Sincerity Is Scary by The 1975

Daredevil by Fiona Apple

S.O.B. by Nathaniel Rateliff and The Nightsweats

Eddie's favorite color is red. She's a Scorpio with a Halloween birthday. She's a butch-ish lesbian, but sometimes she "cross" dresses in her femme girlfriend's clothes (as a sex thing). She likes bodice ripper romance novels, but she's embarrassed about it. She's a little sister and she can't cook. She's also autistic, if you couldn't tell from that accounting quote, and she has chronic migraines!

She struggles with pretty severe alcohol addiction. During the first book, she hits her rock bottom. Then she decides to start getting sober and going to support meetings, where she meets her sponsor and her first friend outside of her family. It's difficult and she has relapses, but unlike a lot of other alcoholic characters she's allowed to stay in recovery! Her sponsor and friend also maintains sobriety and makes amends with his estranged family, helping Eddie to see the bright side of her Death specialty when she has a vision of his happy last moments far in the future.

VOTE FOR EDDIE HERE!

@girlfriendsofthegalaxy @haectemporasunt @jezifster @blackhannetandco @fearofahumanplanet @godsleftarmpit @littlehastyhoneydew @rainbowabomination @antihell @isherwoodj @marrowwife @ashen-crest @wildswrites @ceph-the-ghost-writer @garthcelyn @muddshadow @cohldhands @unrealistic-android @glam-pir @outpost51

[noonesgaylikegatson]

July 12, 2023

Trans people have long maintained that transphobia does not just affect us. That’s been proven true in the worst way, with reports of two cis people being murdered for allegedly misdirected anti-trans hostility.

In a Sunday blog post, PGH Lesbian Correspondents collected the stories of Michelle Dionne Peacock and Collin Smith. Peacock was a 59-year-old Black cis woman who was reportedly murdered by 67-year-old Tommy Wayne Earl in Richmond, Indiana in June. Officers were dispatched to the Merle Henderson Apartment complex in Richmond on June 30, according to local outlet FOX 59. Peacock’s body was found with a laceration to the throat, and she was pronounced dead on the scene.

Officers found Earl armed with a straight razor and with blood on his hands and clothing. Earl resisted arrest, and according to FOX 59, went so far as to tell one of the officers that he would kill him too.

During interviews with investigators, Earl allegedly referred to Peacock as “a male acting like a woman” several times, per FOX 59, and that he would “do it again.” Earl claimed he had been having a “dispute” with Peacock for months and made reference to the possibility of having had a psychotic break, telling investigators he had recently adjusted how he administered drugs prescribed to him by the V.A. He also reportedly told investigators that he needed to be kept away from Black inmates, saying that he “does not get along with them.”

Earl is being held at the Wayne County Jail and has been charged with a level 1 felony of murder, a level 6 felony of intimidation, and a class A misdemeanor of resisting law enforcement, according to FOX 59.

On her Facebook page, Peacock wrote that some of her many hobbies include shopping, mahjong, cooking, and trivia games. In between Facebook game updates, Peacock had even updated her profile picture to a photo of herself wearing a shirt that said “Legalize Being Black” on March 2. Her daughter, Rochelle Peacock, made a GoFundMe last week to raise money for her funeral. In the description, Rochelle shared that Peacock had lived in Richmond for three years and had been battling “a long life of cancer.” She also stated that Earl had been “bully[ing] her,” and although Peacock made numerous complaints, “nothing was done.”

It’s worth noting that cis Black women are often targeted by transphobia, especially as it intertwines with white supremacy. As Derrick Clifton wrote for Them in 2021, there’s a long history of Black women athletes’ bodies being policed in sports, with people “mak[ing] cruel remarks about their perceived femininity and creat[ing] racist depictions of their physicality.”

In a separate incident, 32-year-old Colin Smith was stabbed to death in Portland, Oregon on July 2. He had been out with coworkers at the High Dive Bar when 24-year-old Rahnique Jackson started harassing one of his coworkers, who is trans. When Smith tried to intervene, Jackson allegedly stabbed him to death, according to local outlet KOIN. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals last Friday and was arrested on charges of second degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon, according to a press release from the Portland Police Bureau.

Smith was remembered as someone who “loved those around him unconditionally,” as his former partner, Paulina Solis, told KOIN. “He always looked out for the people that got overlooked, and a protector which is, you know, how he went — protecting those he cared about,” Solis said. Eater Portland additionally described Smith as having “an unrelenting dedication to service, both in his work and in his relationships.” He also loved animals, cooking, and the outdoors. A GoFundMe for Smith’s family called him a “truly special person.”

Although these incidents may seem disparate, they’re a harsh reminder that transphobia is deadly, and trans people are far from the only people affected by it.

[utilitycaster]

Hey! I was in the miraheze wiki and had a question, and I'm not sure how to send it in there so I thought I'd ask you if that's ok. I noticed some characters in the LGBTQ category that left me a bit confused (the gentleman for example) but I think only a couple of character pages mention it (like essek's where his sexuality is mentioned and sourced as well). I was wondering if it'd be okay for people to edit these things in for easy referencing, maybe in the character trivia sections, or if the wiki just preferred to hold off on this at the moment. I hope that made sense. Lots of thanks and love to the whole miraheze team for giving us such a better alternative to the old one!

Hi anon!

You can send questions on Tumblr, and you're definitely welcome to send them to me but please also feel free, if they are non-urgent, to send them to @encyclopediacr if you're on Tumblr. You may also go to the wiki and either check out the Discord server, or make a post on an appropriate talk page (if it's about one page in particular) or the Suggestions page. And, of course, you're always welcome to edit the wiki! In general, even if you make an edit that has an error, the other editors will politely make a correction (and it is part of our policies that undoing edits that are not hate speech or vandalism requires a reason to be given).

The way LGBTQ+ characters are referenced currently is as follows - this is a long post but I wanted to cover some of the reasons you may see different characters discussed in different ways:

There is an LGBTQ+ characters page that (should) cover all characters we know to be LBGTQ+, and provide references specifically related to their sexuality/gender identity. You can find The Gentleman on here. I have actually provided a better reference since only the episode and not the time stamp was provided, so thanks for pointing that one out!

Most characters also will have some indication of their sexuality on their page; however, it might not be stated outright in the sense of "The Gentleman is bisexual". Instead, in his biography section, you can see the reference to him talking about how he has tried to make himself get over Marion through, among other things, "women and men". To give another example, Esmer is not stated to be a wlw in those terms on her page, but her biography does include that she has hooked up repeatedly with Dancer, another woman, she's on the LGBTQ+ characters page, and her own page has the "LGBTQ+ characters" tag. This isn't always the case - especially when characters are confirmed to be LGBTQ+ out of game (Essek is one example; Yussa is another) or are explicitly introduced as, for example, nonbinary, then we might more specifically use the terms used in the tweet/Talks question/4-sided dive discussion, but when it comes up in casual conversation or because we see them with a partner of the same gender, we often will simply put that in their bio/history section.

Trivia would not be the appropriate place to put this information. This reminds me that I need to work on a trivia policy, but in general the use of trivia is for metatextual things (eg, mentioning an interesting fact about a character's stats, or providing insight into the etymology of their name) and not something that is part of the actual canonical narrative. Usually right now it's in the biography, but it can also sometimes be found under "Description".

So anyway: if there are characters whose canon sexuality isn't mentioned or cited properly - and I am sure that there are - please feel free to edit that! And, for what it's worth, many biographies could use work (we are moving, in many cases, away from the episode-by-episode summary style and towards a more narrative flow, but that's a lot of work and so characters we haven't seen recently often haven't been updated), so please feel free to update those, which might make it easier to find their sexuality. Please do not, however, put it in trivia on their page; and if you're wondering why someone is in that category I recommend checking the LGBTQ+ character page since that should have a list of characters and the reason why they are included on that page.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

[auspicious-voice]

Fuwa Maria and Fuwa Mario Facts Guff (UTAU edition) #001

Hi! I'm making a series of posts that are basically expansions of Maria and Mario's trivia sections on their profile pages. This time, we're focusing on the UTAU part of trivia, so all of this will be under the cut!

Fuwa Maria

In 2014, her ALPHA voicebank was made using rendered samples of her old, corrupted voicebank.

In her early development stages, Maria had a scrapped hairstyle apart from her old twintails, but I have lost the concept art for it.

Maria was originally made with a Cryptonloid-esque design, but I eventually opted for a more original design to stand out later on. Same goes for Mario.

Maria was originally based on my own personality, but she ended up having an entirely different personality iteration after iteration.

She had two old VCV voicebanks in 2015-2016 but one of them got lost to the void unfortunately.

Fuwa Mario

Before there was Fuwa Mario, there was Fuwa Marie, who was supposed to be Maria's younger sister. She was eventually scrapped in favour of Mario, but I keep having thoughts about bringing her back in some capacity.

His first name Mario was supposed to go along with Maria's name but this has only resulted in jokes about him being named after Mario the plumber. I actually find it hilarious.

Mario was supposed to be discontinued a couple of months after his original release in 2015, but I decided against it.

Mario had a screamo voicebank in 2018, but I lost it at some point. It eventually got a revision as BLIGHT, his screamo append in his OPULENCE+ voicebank.

In his early development days, Mario's nickname was Candy Floss, named after his old character item.

Maria and Mario

Both Maria and Mario weren't actually inspired by Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len! They were actually inspired by Raine Reizo and Raine Rena, UTAUs that I look up to a lot and are the reason why I made my own UTAUs in the first place.

Maria and Mario were supposed to be private UTAUs when I first made them. I wasn't really sure about releasing their voicebanks to the public at first, but I also wanted to see what kind of covers people would make with them.

Maria and Mario were originally based on an old OC I made in 2013, but I have lost concepts of said old OC. I also intended to make them into an UTAU at some point.

Fun fact! I never intended to make Maria and Mario's latest updates (AUSPICE+ and OPULENCE+) in the first place, but their previous updates sounded so terrible in retrospect no matter how many QoL updates I would give them. I started over and gave them new voicebanks from scratch in late 2021.

Maria's old character item was a COPIC marker, while Mario's old character item was candy floss. Then I changed it to Mountain Dew and Doritos chips (for the MLG memes) up until their recent iteration. Maria now has boba tea, and Mario now has cilantro soap.

Both Maria and Mario were originally part of an UTAU group I made in 2014 called the ASTRAloids, and it was a group I made along with my school friends, and we made our own UTAU characters together. Sadly, none of the UTAUs made by my friends got voicebanks of their own, and the ASTRAloids went defunct a year after that. It can be said that Maria and Mario are the surviving members of that group.

I have always celebrated Maria and Mario's anniversaries every year except for their 3rd anniversary because I forgot to even make something for them. To me the 3rd anniversary is a bit of a meme because it also marks the day I pulled Jeanne Alter in F/GO (LOL)

Fuwa Maria and Fuwa Mario are their stage names. I'll explain more on their real names in an OC-related post at some point.

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #22

#112 - Certain

Pretty simple comic based on a thought that popped into my head after I had the same experience Cammie describes.  Can’t remember if the punchline of Layla’s response just came to me or if I had to squeeze it out of the premise! 

#113 - Weird

The second edition of “I came up with a punny joke and just decided to use it completely unorganically as comic fodder instead of just posting it on my personal twitter when I thought of it”.

Also god I wanna slap my past self around the head for thinking I somehow didn’t need to use reference for profile views what is going on with Cammie’s face/neck/hairline here argh!

#114 - Music

The first album the customer holds up here is a doodly little version of the Team Sonic Racing soundtrack, which I guess I was listening to a lot at the time!  The other two albums he holds up were, I think, just random original doodles.  The third might’ve been someone on TV at the time or something, not sure!  I should really start writing these trivia posts as I make the comics rather than several years after, maybe!

#115 - Girl

A long while back I decided to make Chamomile’s canonical birthday the same day as the day I first drew her, which happened to be June 30th.  Since this was the first year the comic update fell on that day, I decided to make it a comic!

Here she turns 28, and sure enough, two years earlier, Brianna said she was 26. However... since then, I’ve kinda quietly switched over to a floaty timeline.  Webcomic time moves slowly, and thus the characters felt like they would age too quickly for the amount of life events I have time to cover in the comic.  So for the time being, Cammie remains 28 canonically, Layla and Brianna remain definitely within the same year as her on account of being school friends, and Vienna and Samantha remain... whatever they are (they’re older than the other three, but not by much).

Brianna’s worn this outfit a few times over the years since this comic, but if I recall you never actually get a really good look at it due to the poses/framing I needed in all those comics.  It says “NO CAUSE FOR A...” and has a Llama underneath.

The final note of trivia on this one... as previously mentioned, on platforms where I provide a title for the comic, it’s always just a single word from as early in the dialogue as possible, regardless of whether that word is a decent title for the comic’s subject or not (so as to not spoil or raise any expectations for the subject of the gag).  I also never repeat the same word twice... except in this case, where for literally years, this comic was named “Birthday”, same as #109, not even ten comics ago!  At time of writing (September 2022) I think it was only within this year that I noticed and corrected this (utterly pedantic that I only I care about) mistake.

#116 - Laundry

Not much to say about this one, if I recall this was just one of those divine gifts my brain figured out on automatic for me.  To this day it remains one of my favourite silly Cammie visual gag comics and I can’t see myself ever removing it from the new reader/sample comic selection on the comic’s home page.  Naturally you can spot a bunch of familiar colours (and a couple patterns) from existing outfits in Cammie’s laundry basket such as her signature outfit, the rose pattern skirt and her designed coffee t-shirt.

I also think I was VERY well-behaved to not clutter up the experience with fanservice even though the scenario was ripe for it.  I’m sure that’ll get me a few heckles and boos from the audience but I say if you can’t enjoy Cammie at her [funny comic] you don’t deserve her at her [sexy pinup]!!

#117 - Hair

This was a fun old one to do, I’ve definitely had a few snapped hairbands over the years and my lucious locks are nowhere near Cammie’s level!  I remember drawing the vice was really tricky because there was little in the way of references at the precise angle I needed for maximum comedic effect and sense-making (as much as it ever could).

As usual for when I need to draw a bunch of CDs from the shop, I put my iTunes library on shuffle, set album artwork to display and just drew little 5 second doodles of what came up because coming up with like 40 original ideas, even at this low fidelity, is a nightmare for something that isn’t really going to be paid attention to.  I can Childish Gambino’s "Awaken, My Love!", Lazlo Bane’s All the Time in the World, and Ryan Roth’s The Beginner’s Guide Soundtrack here, but several others look specific enough to definitely be something.  Seems I randomised the colours though and doodled the designs on after, mind.

Drawing a comic sequence of someone tying hair is really tricky to break down into key poses!  It was also a fun challenge to find a way to imply significantly more failed attempts than I had time to show in the comic (with the panel above being my solution).

[More Chamomile Comic Trivia] (Above link may not work correctly on tumblr app)  

[wangbotam]

if ur accepting asks rn can u explain a bit of ur cookie run trivia game? i was totally lost on a lot of questions

to be honest im not sure how to explain most of them because almost every single question can actually be easily checked through some googling, so i dont think i can go into detail on most of them, but i can provide some commentary

heres a link again if anyone wants to do the quizz, because im going to give away the answers. its just for fun so you can decide whether you think its worth spending like 20 minutes of your life playing it. anyway heres what i can say about some of the questions:

Until which update was this cookie included in the credits of CROB?

i hate this question because it proves how stupid i was. it was originally 'what is this cookies OFFICIAL name, not counting social media?' because i was under the belief that banana peel was only ever called 'ch17' and the official name 'banana cookie' only came from devsisters namedropping her on social media.

turns out im wrong and im a dumbass, she WAS already called banana cookie, but only in korean, and i didnt realise because i didnt look hard enough on her wiki page in the cookie run wiki. i am the fucking idiot of the century.

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Not counting Kakao Cookie Run, which of these games never released outside of South Korea?

looking back, i think this question may be one of the easiest. if i had the hindsight that this question is stupid as hell, id have made it centered around 'cookie run the darkest night' instead, because that was a game i only found out existed while researching to make the quizz and it gave me one of the funniest cookie run screenshots ive ever seen.

hes just standing there. menacingly.

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What Cookie was meant to be part of CR:OB's starting roster, but released years later instead?

i cant provide insight on the question itself but i can provide some trivia! according to context, since CROB (then named Cookie Run 2, which is fucking hilarious) started production around 2015, its heavily implied by dinosour was meant to be a CROB original! this is heavily supported by the fact he had a completely different design than what he ended up with, just like popcorn. as an added bonus, theres two cookies who were the inverse: meant for kakao but released for CROB instead. im not gonna say who they are, because i might make an extended version of the quizz someday, but you can find out who they are by googling.

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Which of these Cookies were leaked early into Kingdom's lifespan, but never released?

i first showed the quizz to a kakao-centric group im a part of and there were some concerns on how the question was worded, because ALL the answers in this question are cookies who were shown in early promotional material but never released (at least not yet), but orange cookie - as far as i know, from the answers i inserted - was the only one to have been at least close to completion but never released. this is the same limbo that carol and matcha found themselves for years, but unfortunately orange hasnt escaped it yet.

notably, there was a leak VERY early into kingdoms lifespan - i believe this may have been around the time of kumihos release - that showed real life photos of each cookies gacha screen, or at least mockups, and there were two very notable cookies there, orange and devil. devil ended up releasing (and i think they may be the only rare cookie added post-game launch?) but orange never did. i honestly dont know why, my first guess is that she may not fit the games aesthetic of high medieval fantasy but thats clearly not true because shining glitter exists.

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Which of these following Devsisters games have had more than one actual appearence in a Cookie Run game?

this one may also be one of the most unfair, if only because 99% of devsisters non-cookie run catalogue of games is so obscure that theres barely any footage for most of them, and i think some of them may even be lost media. get THAT! mish is probably one of the most well known, and even then ive only seen two whole videos of its gameplay in the years since ive known this game exists. i actually didnt even know 'pandadogs pizza' was a game that existed until i started researching for this quizz! the answer is still available on the internet though as obscure as it is so im confident that its still relatively fair, compared to...

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Finally: Which of these costumes leaked YEARS before their actual release?

this is my favorite question. im like, 99% sure its almost completely impossible to find any proof of this, and i almost considered not including it for this very reason, but its one of my favorite facts about cookie run because it makes me feel like im part of a Cool Kids Club for knowing about it. some of you may hate me for it, but i fucking love it. anyway, for context:

back in late 2020, shortly before we had any info on the first TBD update, i was in a server that had a super secret leaks channel, and the first leak ever posted when i joined that server was this TBD leak. it was very low quality photos (just like oranges leak), but like, even more low quality. i can vividly remember:

1 - croissant cookies ability sprite, which most of us thought was actually a pilot costume

2 - some of timekeepers sprites, probably their talksprites, alongside rogueforts costume, which made us assume timekeeper was actually a super epic/legendary costume concept for roguefort (this was before we knew legendary costumes were exclusively for legendary cookies in CROB)

3 - everyone assuming the island of memories was getting an update for some fucking reason

4 - and finally, cherrys TBD costume alongside one of zombies costumes (though i dont remember which). i remember thinking it was super weird that cherrys costume was nowhere to be found when the update finally released, and turns out devsis just put it in the backburner for the time being. why? nobody knows! this is also why i put zombie in as one of the answers.

anyway yeah this question is completely unfair and im aware of it. ive since had a falling out with the owner of the server that had these leaks so unfortunately i cant show proof of their existence, but trust me, theyre real. cookie run leaks were a lot less prevalent (at least compared to how common they are nowadays) back then, especially because cookie run was still super niche in 2020, so i assume these leaks didnt spread very far.

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finally, a question i wanted to add but didnt was about 'which cookie got nerfed mere hours/minutes after their release?'. its related to a weird memory i have of opening up the tumblr app before school started to see people in the cookie run tag talking about how op lemon was and how he got nerfed shortly after he released because he was just that op. to give credence to my memory, yeah, he was super busted back then - he kind of scored like nobody had ever seen up til that point in CROB, at least until lime stole the title of most OP release from him (this was before we knew how bad cookie runs score inflations would get).

but i couldnt find any proof that this was real? like, im sure it was, i even told one of my classmates about it because it was so absurd to me, but when i started research for the quizz i couldnt find people talking about it. admittedly its AWFUL to look up anything cookie run related nowadays, even if you filter your search, because its all gonna be about modern CROB and CRK and you cant escape from it. but this made me question whether my memory is right or not! i know for a fact the cherry question is 100% real, but lemon.... that was in 2018 and my memory sucks, so i didnt include it. can anyone confirm whether my memory is real or fake? greatly appreciated.

anyway that turned out longer than i anticipated, but it was fun. i love sharing weird obscure tidbits about cookie run, especially because it seems nowadays the fandom isnt very interested in it. maybe someday ill make an Obscure Cookie Run Facts 2 or whatever, but i think for now this quizz is pretty hard enough as is.

[aufaits]

>logging in...

vivien jiāng. 31. she/her. junior archivist. dependent blog of @foundationhq.

:// loading relevant documents

001. dossier; 002. connections; 003. tasks; 004. archive; 005. pinterest; 006. playlist.

> file select: dossier.txt

> please hold...

cw — mentions of parental death.

last updated: 03.14.2024.

BASICS.

𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 — jiāng huifen; vivien jiāng.

𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 — vi. (please feel free to give her other ones though!)

𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌 — stephanie hsu.

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒 — dark hair, normally pinned up out of the way; clothing that oscillates between extremely precise and tidy OR the outfit of someone living far away from society who does not expect to be perceived (i.e. sports bra under a hoodie with leggings); well kept nails, even when at her most disheveled; ramrod straight posture, that barely slips; a distaste for mess in her personal space, if not her own appearance.

𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐒 / 𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 — standard lobe piercings. a tattoo of dubious quality (and slightly faded) on her ribcage, reading "til on a day—" in a cursive hand.

𝐀𝐆𝐄 / 𝐃.𝐎.𝐁. — thirty-one. 01/15/1993. 

𝐙𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐂 — capricorn sun, scorpio moon, gemini rising. year of the monkey (water).

𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍 — atlanta, ga.

𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘

jiāng xìnyí (paternal grandmother)

dr. cassian jiāng (father) †

dr. mira wei (mother)

dr. tristan jiāng (brother)

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 / 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒 — cis woman, she/her.

𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 — strong kinsey 5.

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐒 — single. painfully so.

𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐒 — quixotic, clever, organized, passionate.

𝐍𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐒 — judgemental, stubborn, proud, sheltered.

𝐇𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐒 — tries to cross reference every person she meets with files that she has read. only sometime succeeds; fidgets with items when talking, has ruined many paper cups in this way; chews on headphone cords (switched to ipods literally only because of this); is one of those guys who has a hyper customized linux setup; memorized various style handbooks for how to format scipnet + scp record pages because she hated double checking them and WILL note if you make a mistake.

𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒 — crossword puzzles + solitaire count, right? honestly, has a garbage work-life balance, so most of her hobbies ARE her work. has not figured a way out of that trap. is still very fond of arthurian romances. wants to be the kind of person who can keep plants but michigan + alaska have made that a less than realistic prospect. plays piano well, does not always find it relaxing.

𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐒 (𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄) — none. desperately wants a cat. has never had a good opportunity to get one.

THE FOUNDATION.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐅𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄 — junior archivist.

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍(𝐒) — assistant analyst for raisa (site-87).

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 — junior archivist at site-7, archives room 2303.

𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒 / 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒  — cybersecurity, archival management, R, can still use shorthand, excellent speedreader, the general knowledge you get from someone who did an MLIS/InfoSci degree, also really good with cats?? a sharp editor, decent at the piano, weirdly good at darts (but good luck getting that out of her), intimate knowledge of scipnet, the functioning of infohazards. probably a champion of spot the difference game (at the very least, a champion of pub trivia, on the rare occasions that she goes).

EXTRAS.

𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘 — 

Jiāng Huifen, also going by Vivien Jiāng, was born in Atlanta, GA, the second child of a Foundation researcher and an academic at Emory University. Shortly after her second birthday, Jiāng’s mother left her father, citing personal differences as the primary thrust behind that. As a result, Jiāng and her older brother Tristan (n.b. Dr. Tristan Jiāng is also a Foundation employee, currently working as a researcher at Site-██) were primarily raised by their paternal grandmother, while their father (later an Administrator at the Decommissioning Department) busied himself with work.

Reports from Jiāng’s schooling at the time describe her as “a teacher’s delight” while others note that “while Vivien is quite adept at her schoolwork, she could take more time to work with her peers, rather than against them.” MySpace posts at this time in her life describe her as “a fucking narc” or as “the kind of person that literally no one would put on their top 8.” In school, Jiāng excelled, eventually attending Brown University to study English, with a specific focus in chivalric romances, with her undergraduate thesis focusing on the figure of the loathly lady, specifically in relation to vows and promises. During the summer, she undertook several publishing oriented internships, though none of them extended job offers after her tenure with them.

Seeming to not find success or interest in the world of editing, Jiāng turned her attention to becoming a librarian, enrolling in the University of Michigan’s Master of Information Science program, originally intending to specialize in library science and archive management. However, due to reasons that she has not elaborated on, in the second and final year of her degree, she turned her focus onto cybersecurity and digital file management systems. After the completion of her degree, Jiāng was recruited into the Foundation, serving as an Assistant Analyst for RAISA’s Document Recovery Division, working from a basement cubicle on Site-87, and providing recovery support for most of the Midwestern USA. 

It is at this point that Jiāng’s record veers into the realm of semi-interesting– following a rabbit trail of incongruous files and discrepancies in deleted files, she alerts higher ups that her father, in his administrative position, had been broaching sales of decommissioned SCPs with outside parties of interest. These SCPs primarily were focused on semi-sentient computing, which is how Jiāng noted them in the first place, at least according to her own accounts. With this decrying of her own father (which lead to his termination), Jiāng  found that her career shifted tenor– she was moved to Site-7, to assist with the Archival Department located there, and told to work on maintaining and digitizing the RAISA archives as a Junior Archivist.

In that capacity, she predominantly focused on infohazards and catching discrepancies across various digital records, while also developing her own side projects of securing the digital records based on various weaknesses that she had noticed over her overall tenure at the Foundation. 

In the midst of this, she brought further attention to herself, in identifying [KING’S GAMBIT] attempt to [REDACTED]. While this did not provide her the prior career advancement that she had previously found, it has emboldened her to repeatedly email regarding ways in which the protocol records of the Foundation might be improved, amongst other concerns.

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 — please dm me for character specific ones! 

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 / 𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐒 — what happens when being "by the book fails"; the sheltered bubble of academia; a textbook latchkey kid; chip! on! the! shoulder; tries to act older/more experienced than she is.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 — alphonse elric (fullmetal alchemist) | stephanie brown (dc comics) | sokrates nikon artemios (counter/weight) | casey blevins (morning glories) | marcille (dungeon meshi) | cheadle yorkshire (hunter x hunter) | elliot schaefer (in other lands).

𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒 —

CREDITS.

> theo van hoytema, five angora rabbits. 

> ursula k. le guin, the lathe of heaven.

> miles j johnston, sunbeam.

> header: holly warburton, walking to bobby's house.

> icon: SUKI_0V0_.

[shadowsong26fic]

No update for Papa and Javert... this week because RL has been. A Lot, haha. I’ll do a proper Coming Attractions on Monday as always, but a few quick things:

- The podfic I did for SWBB is now complete! As is the text, which was a lot of fun to read! - Galactica Big Bang and Mini Bang officially opens up this weekend! :D Still going back and forth on whether I’m going to sign up as a writer in addition to running it, but I’ve more or less settled on what I’m going to do if I do write for it, so there’s that. - I have a couple more Les Mis fics in the pipeline (possibly it should have its own tag at this point, rather than living under ‘shadowsong writes other fandoms,’ lol...) One of which is a companion to Papa and Javert..., covering some things that Ari won’t be able to learn for various reasons. The other is a Groundhog Day AU; I’ve got a few repetitions worked out and am tossing a couple title ideas back and forth in my head, so once I have some text down on that it’ll probably get posted. Provenance (working title for the other one) will probably be posted as a one-shot after P&J finishes. - I’m giving myself an extra week for the June OTP meme fills because...again, RL has been a Lot. - I’m also doing pod_together again, and working on plotting out what I’m doing for it, which is going to be A Lot of fun, I think! Challenging, but the good kind of challenging.

Behind the cut, because Why Not, there’s a couple bits of Trivia for P&J. Most of these will come up later (either in the main fic or in Provenance) so. Sneak peak!

(also, I’ll be around if anyone wants to hang out for an Open Question Night. again, because Why Not)

1. So, the titular painting was completed in late August of 1834. Cosette’s eldest son was born October 1 of the same year. This is probably at least 30% of the reason why Valjean actually agreed to the whole thing.

2. When Phil was working as a translator in college, his languages were English and French.

3. One of Cosette’s Souvenir/Memory paintings is a double-portrait of her and one of her granddaughters in their respective wedding dresses, because sixty years later Giant Sleeves were back in fashion and she thought that was hilarious. It is titled Souvenir de soixante ans (Memory of sixty years)

4. The five kids are, in order: Jean (born October 1, 1834) Thierry and Hélène (twins; born spring of 1837) Juliette (always called Soleil; born in 1840) René (Phil’s ancestor, born in 1844)

5. The two months Cosette spent in Calais are extremely relevant to Ari’s research.

6. While Ari doesn’t uncover any more paintings, there are a few other heirlooms that turn up: the candlesticks (because Of Course); a pocketwatch; a piece of hair jewelry...

7. Javert also has a Wikipedia page.