#we're shown that they get along to SOME degree

[touchmycoat]

now my brain has fully locked onto the Boston+Sand half-brothers train this is why I can't be given a full week between episodes TT

[tossawary]

Something I found surprising when revisiting the prequel trilogy is how much the clones aren't full characters in the movies. They're props. They're devices. The films give them the same weight and attention as they give the Separatist droids, really. The only two clone troopers I can easily name off the top of my head who get "named" in any way are Oddball and Cody, who are both just barely in "Revenge of the Sith", and interchangeable in their roles with any other background clone.

It's interesting when held up against "The Clone Wars" and other extension material, which had the time and inclination to say more directly, "Hey, these are people and what's happening to them is wrong." Like, obviously what's happening in Ep2&3 is wrong, the audience can draw that conclusion on their own, growing people as cannon fodder is a clear part of the greater tragedy if you take about five seconds to think about the situation here. Even without the element of the entire war being constructed and controlled by the main villain, the clones are a tragedy.

But, oh man, the movies themselves don't really care to focus on that. It's SUCH a background element. I had a "oh, yeah, Order 66 being programmed into a control chip was a later addition to / clarification of canon" moment while watching, because as far as Ep3 actually shows us (as was the initial intention by some, I know), Cody apparently knew the entire time that he might be called to fire on Obi-Wan Kenobi and was just waiting on the call. The "homogenous evil army" trope is... very much present and even more identical than usual here.

By the films alone, you can easily assume that the clone troopers have no love for any of the Jedi (whom we're meant to believe are relatively decent people) for a variety of reasons. Their upbringing and training on Kamino was presumably cold and brutal. They're (possibly enslaved) soldiers in an even more brutal war. This army is offered no development or individuality that makes the appalling Jedi Temple massacre out of character for any of them.

But when the various Clone Wars shows first turned the clones into individual characters and even protagonists, many of whom are shown to be good people and become friendly with the Jedi through years of teamwork in life-or-death situations, Order 66 became weird. "Wait, why would the majority of clones (all the clones we see in the movies, at least) just go along with this? What went wrong here?"

I get why TCW and SW canon settled on the control chips option and I find it interesting enough. The tragedy of it all makes me want to lie facedown on the floor. Darth Sidious is really winning at sheer evilness here.

On the other hand, there are some really fun and interesting "Order 66 was taught, not programmed" AUs to revisit here. Especially when some of the other (Legends canon now) contingency orders include what to do if the Supreme Chancellor is incapacitated or declared unfit, or even getting rid of the Supreme Chancellor and assuming control by lethal force if necessary. Presumably these orders existed as a back-up in case Palpatine wasn't elected to the seat in time for the war or didn't manage to get rid of term limits and was replaced as Chancellor at any point.

That really sounds like Palpatine's evil army of ruthless Jedi-Killers (unchipped) could have easily backfired on him if they'd ever decided all of these non-clones were unfit and organized to take power for themselves. I love any scenario where Palpatine's arrogant and overly complicated plans get him in trouble. The "homogenous evil army" often gets treated as a mindless mob, but while the clones may have some degree of emotional suppression, they're clearly very capable and not unintelligent, and they're not given many (if any) reasons to be loyal to the Republic. And it is FUNNY to imagine any Dark Lord's created army deciding that he fucking sucks at war (there's obviously a leak, why the FUCK are they losing so much ground to fucking droids) and they're overthrowing him for better benefits, so that they can create and run a more efficient Evil Empire themselves.

You could make this angsty as hell or a comedy, or both. I'm imagining the clones at the eleventh hour murdering Chancellor Palpatine with such brutal efficiency that it feels like its own kind of prejudice. And he gets revealed as a Sith Lord in the process (this was taken into account as a potential problem when planning the assassination), so there's an initial moment of: "I can't believe it! He was the Sith Lord in the Senate all along! How did you know?"

Cody: "Didn't."

Obi-Wan: "...Pardon?"

Cody: "This is a coup, sir."

Like, if we're going by what's shown in the movies alone, there's a clear Emperor Cody AU to be had here. Which can be played as a temporary (years long) measure to reinstall a Republic with proper checks and balances, while a bemused Jedi Order and Senate are held hostage, or the First Galactic Empire is established as per canon just with the clones running it and reaping the benefits. I'm currently enjoying thinking about the latter scenario as a dark comedy, in which Future Emperor Cody (or the clone of your choice) has to negotiate in his spare time with the various demands of his fellow clones. (Who are, let us remember due to the horror that is the accelerated aging, a bunch of teenagers at the oldest here.)

Rex: "I want Tatooine."

Cody: "The whole planet?"

Rex: "Yeah."

Cody: "It's a shithole."

Rex: "Yeah, but it'll make Skywalker so kriffing mad, so I'm calling dibs."

Cody: "Noted."

And if you want to write shipfic, there's always the AU of various Evil Army Clones meeting their love interest and then going, "Not evil anymore! Sorry, guys." Which could be angsty or another dark-ish comedy.

Cody @ the clone commander group chat: "WE'RE NOT GIVING UP ON THE 3-YEAR IMPERIAL COUP PLAN JUST BECAUSE YOU HORNY ASSHOLES WANT TO FUCK JEDI!!! STOP TALKING ABOUT THE POWER OF LOVE!!! STOP IT!!!"

[riding-the-sunset-bird]

Hello again~!

Last time, we talked about Cove's appearance and what choices influence it, but for this post, we're discussing Cove's warm/moderate/cold traits and what choices add to them. I'll be listing every single instance in Step 1 that affects whether Cove is warm or cold, along with how the game uses that information to figure out what Cove you get in Step 2.

As a bonus, I'll also be showing a few instances from Step 2 as examples/reference of the different types of Cove you can get.

First things first, Cove's appearance has nothing to do with his personality... technically. With or without the Cove Creator, a Cove can have any appearance while also being as warm/moderate/cold as you end up making him.

Now, I say technically because there are options in the game that will influence both his appearance and if he gets more warm/cold, but that's more along the lines of those choices happening to line up (I'll note them when we get there, of course) rather than a personality trait being intrinsically linked to his appearance.

Secondly, warm (affable), moderate (candid), and cold (quiet) are how Cove reacts to things. According to assorted posts from GB Patch themselves:

Warm Cove is more friendly and thoughtful, Cold Cove is more closed off and blunt, or Cove can be somewhere in-between the two. Warm Cove is more likely to make jokes or hold conversations, whereas Cold Cove is more straight to the point and quieter. They'll treat the MC in a similar way to everyone else unless they're particularly close or romantically involved, in which case Warm Cove is more willing to tease the MC/give them a friendly hard time while Cold Cove will more clearly side with/support the MC.

What Cove does to initiate things in his relationship with the MC isn't based on being warm or cold, but what the status of their relationship is and how long they've been in it. Warm Cove will just be more teasing/bold about it, unlike Cold Cove who will be more straightforward/longing. In addition, a Cold Cove will be clingier with the MC and prefers time with them without others (though there will naturally be exceptions).

Moderate Cove is as close to Step 1 Cove as he can be, not gaining any new traits in particular.

Whether Cove is warmer or colder won't largely impact his relationships with important people: only how he expresses his relationship to them.

The tutorial of the game also has its own descriptions of how a warm/moderate/cold Cove works:

A moderate Cove remains straightforward and candid with how he tends to interact with people. A Cove on the 'warm' side can be more polite and personable, might have longer conversations or add in some lighthearted teasing. He's affable. A Cove on the 'cold' side tends to say things more briefly, especially with those he isn't close with, be needier and more serious. He's quiet. It's possible to have him fall somewhere in between, rather than only being at one extreme end or the other. No matter what, Cove is an introvert who is sentimental and tends to get flustered when it comes to romance.

Thirdly, Cove has five states on his spectrum between warm and cold: Warm, Warm-Moderate, Moderate, Cold-Moderate, and Cold. He'll never say something on the warm side of things if he's cold and vice versa. For the most part, the game only cares if Cove is cold (any degree of cold), moderate (not cold nor warm), or warm (any degree of warm), with some variation if Cove is a little less cold (Cold-Moderate) or a little less warm (Warm-Moderate). These are shown on the Cove Creator but can also be done by the player under certain conditions.

The general "rules" of how to get a cold or warm Cove without using the Cove Creator vary. You can't act in only one way and hope to end up with the right Cove.

Again, according to GB Patch, to get a warm Cove you have call him out/scold him, tease or crack jokes with him, and include other people or talk about them when possible. Encourage Cove to do new things or things he might be hesitant about, to be more outgoing, and to be nicer overall. However, if your MC is on the shy side or won't stand up for themself, Cove could also become warm simply because he's being prompted to be more protective/outgoing because you won't defend yourself.

It's the opposite with a cold Cove, where you should be protective of him, affirm his mindset/agree with things he says, speak up for him so he doesn't have to, and try to keep other people out of your personal bubble with him as much as possible. At the same time, abandoning Cove or leaving him by himself can also make him cold in certain circumstances, and a quiet MC could lead to him also being quiet if he gets the feeling that he doesn't have to be loud himself.

Sorry for the ramble, just wanted to get out all possible information since it's far more complicated than changing what Cove looks like. Now, onto the actual internal mechanics that everyone was probably looking for.

How it works in the game's code is a point system. For simplicity's sake, we'll call them Cold/Warm Points and say that we're doing all of this in Step 1.

When you choose an option in the game related to these points, it will add a single (very rarely more) warm/cold point depending on which it was. If you're playing blind, going through more moments in order to pick more options increases your chances of getting a warm or cold Cove, whereas a moderate Cove is more likely if you're only zipping through the game while playing as few moments as possible.

The game will look at the final points you have at the end of a step to decide whether your Cove is warm, cold, or somewhere in the middle. If you have the same amount of both warm and cold points, the game will essentially flip a coin to choose between them rather than outright giving you a moderate Cove.

Having 12 or more points in either Cold or Warm locks you out of Moderate Cove. You'll end up with either a Warm-Moderate or Cold-Moderate Cove from having 12-19 Warm/Cold Points (again, whichever you have more of, or whatever the game decides on the coin flip if the points are even), then are guaranteed a fully Cold/Warm Cove once you have 20 or more points.

If you've ever been confused why you have a fully cold or fully warm Cove when you felt like you'd been doing an equal amount of either, that's why. You likely had 20+ points in either of them and the game threw away your points in the other trait. The game only focuses on which you have more of.

In terms of Moderate Cove, one way to consider it is that the moderate trait is not something to achieve. As stated before, moderate is the closest to Step 1 Cove, so it's the equivalent of doing nothing/keeping Cove as he is. You need less than 12 points in Cold as well as Warm in order to get a Cove exactly in the middle.

It's a balancing act. You still have wiggle room where you're free to choose options you know won't match up to the Cove you want so long as you're watching your points. If you want a fully cold Cove, you can choose as many warm options as you want so long as you make sure that you have more cold points in the end.

All the props to anyone who has the dedication to read all of these, by the way, because these are all the chances you have to make Cove warm/cold.

Step 1 - Prologue

The MC first meets Cove and is asked how they know his name (if you agreed to help Cliff):

"I met your dad." [warm +1]

"I'm all-knowing!" [cold +1]

"Lucky guess." [warm +1]

The MC first meets Cove if you chose to run away from Cliff:

"Who are you? I've never seen you." [warm +1]

"What's your name anyway?" [no change]

You waited for him to say something. [warm +1]

Cove asks if poppy hill is owned by the MC:

"Yep." [no change]

"You can't own a hill." [cold +1]

You shook your head. [warm +1]

Cove vents to the MC and says that he wants his real life and mom back:

"I'm sorry..." [warm +1]

"Your dad seems kinda nice." [warm +1]

"You'll like it here, you just have to get used to it." [cold +1]

"Stop crying." [cold +1]

Cove tells the MC not to call out to the parents because he doesn't want to go back to his house in Sunset Bird:

"You can handle it." [warm +1]

"You have to go." [warm +1]

"Don't worry so much." [warm +1]

"Sorry, I have to." [cold +1]

"It will be okay!" [cold +1]

Cove apologizes and says that he still doesn't want to go:

You called out yourself. [warm +1]

You waited silently with him. [warm +1]

You tried to convince him. [cold +1]

Cove points out one of MC's pictures and says he likes it:

"Me too." [cold +1]

"I drew that!" [warm +1]

"Thank you." [warm +1]

"I don't." [no change]

Cove brings down the MC's box of shells without their permission:

"Great." [warm +1]

"Okay, but be careful." [cold +1]

"You should've asked." [warm +1]

Cove takes one of the shells and says that he thinks it's the best:

"That's my favorite too!" [cold +1]

"I like a different one best. I can show it to you." [warm +1]

"You can take it." -> You insisted. [warm +1]

"You can take it." -> You let it go. [no change]

Cove tries to escape the house after hearing about Shiloh:

"Do you want to break your other arm?" [cold +1]

"Shiloh is the least scary person alive." [warm +1]

"Cheer up. Shiloh's gonna like you." [warm +1]

"Please don't get hurt!" [cold +1]

"I'll come with you." [no change]

"Good idea! Let's go." [no change]

Cove talks about how he doesn't want to see Shiloh because he doesn't know him:

You teased him. [warm +1]

You comforted him. [cold +1]

You encouraged him. [warm +1]

Cove being fearful at Lizzie's comment about the mean grandparents hating kids:

"Only some of them don't like kids." [warm +1]

"Stop saying stuff like that. You're gonna upset him." [cold +1]

"Yeah, they're really bad." [no change]

Shopping

Cove offers to buy the MC a keychain:

"Really? Really?" [warm +1]

"Are you sure...?" [warm +1]

"Hooray!" [cold +1]

"You don't have to." [cold +1]

"I don't want you to get it for me." [no change]

The casual comment MC makes to Cove while Cove is examining his new sand pail:

"Why is your dad always giving people money?" / "Your dad gives out money a lot, huh?" / "Does your dad always give out money like that...?" [warm +1]

"Thanks for the keychain!" / "I really like this keychain." / "Thanks for getting me it." [cold +1]

"Forget it." / "Never mind." / "Nothing..." [cold +1]

Cove's balloon pops and he starts to cry:

You made a joke. [cold +1 on Indifferent, warm +1 on Fond or Crush]

You offered to find Alexander. [warm +2]

"You offered to give Cove your balloon." [cold +2]

"You didn't say anything. He would be alright." [warm +1]

Grown Up

Lizzie asks the MC what they think of her idea of playing pretend:

"Cove said it. That doesn't sound fun." [cold +1]

"I bet we could come up with something else." [warm +1]

"I don't know..." [cold +1]

"I want to." [warm +1]

Lizzie continues to try and convince the MC if they're unsure about participating:

"I'll try it, but that sounds boring." [warm +1]

"Okay, okay, I'll stay." [cold +1]

"Sorry, I have other stuff to do." [warm +1]

You kept hesitating. [no change]

(the game will also add and extra cold +1 if you choose not to participate in playing pretend while on Fond or Crush with Cove)

Cove and Lizzie argue about mansions versus being on the beach:

You'd prefer a mansion. [no change]

Being on the beach was cooler. [no change]

You wanted to agree with Lizzie. [warm +1]

Cove was right. [cold +1]

You were tired of deciding between either of them. [warm +1]

Long Day

MC seeing Cove crying on the street:

Defended Cove. [cold +1]

Took a moment to make a joke. [no change on Indifferent but warm +1 on Fond or Crush]

Accused Lizzie of causing trouble. [warm +1]

Carefully asked about what happened. [warm +1]

Cove and Shiloh talk about their situation with their parents:

You joked about Shiloh's mom getting together with Cove's dad. [no change]

"Even if they're all different, our parents are good in their own ways." [no change]

You didn't say anything. [warm +1]

Sandcastle

MC makes a mansion sandcastle and Shiloh comments on the "house":

"It's not a big house. It's a mansion." [warm +1]

"I guess mansions are just really big houses..." [cold +1]

"Thanks!" [warm +1]

You just looked at him. [no change]

The MC is confused by Cove's story:

"...Okay." [cold +1]

"Why did you want to tell the story if nothing happened?" [warm +1]

"You really gotta get better at telling stories." [no change]

"That was a pretty bad story." [warm +1]

"Thanks for telling me." [cold +1]

Cove asks the MC why Shiloh got upset with him:

"You were being rude to him." [warm +1]

"He's just being a baby." [cold +1]

"You shouldn't make fun of him."

"I don't know. It's just Shiloh." [cold +1]

"He gets embarrassed." [warm +1]

You shrugged at Cove with no answer to give. [no change]

Fireflies

The MC gets the chance to ask Cove if he's joining them for fireflies:

"Cove, are you going to catch fireflies with us?" [warm +1]

"You could come outside with us, if you want to..." [warm +1]

You weren't sure what to say now. [no change]

The MC notices that Cove is lagging behind the group:

"Are you not gonna come?" [cold +1]

You tugged him along. [cold +1 on Indifferent but warm +1 on Fond or Crush]

You walked with him. [cold +1]

You waved at him to hurry. [warm +1]

You ran off. [no change]

A firefly lands on Cove's head:

Shiloh couldn't help but giggle. [no change]

You and Shiloh couldn't help but giggle. [warm +1]

You quietly looked on. [no change]

You shooed the bug away. [cold +1]

The MC catches a firefly and watches Cove fail at one:

You encouraged him to try again. [warm +1]

You told him about the firefly you had. [cold +1]

You made a joke about what happened. [no change]

You did your own things. [no change]

Cove accidentally scares the MC's firefly away:

You scolded him. [warm +1]

You forgave him. [cold +1]

You teared up. [warm +1]

The MC watches Cove fail another firefly (if they chose to sit out further firefly hunting):

You cheered him on. [warm +1]

You scared him. [cold +1]

You waited to see what happened. [no change]

Library

The MC is given the choice of whether to go with Cove or Lizzie:

"Cove's idea is more fun." [cold +1]

"I'll stick with Lizzie." [warm +1]

"I'd rather go exploring." [no change]

"The quiz sounds better." [no change]

Go over to Cove. [cold +1]

Stay next to Lizzie. [warm +1]

(the game will also add an extra cold +1 if you choose to go with Cove and an extra warm +1 if you choose to go with Lizzie)

Ghost

The MC notices a sleepy Cove the morning after choosing not to go outside:

"Cove?" [cold +1]

You made an awkward noise to try getting his attention. [warm +1]

You poked him. [warm +1]

You shook him. [warm +1]

Cove admits that he went outside the night before when the MC didn't:

"Really?! That was brave." [warm +1]

"You did? That sounds like it was a risky idea." [cold +1]

"What did you find?" [no change]

The MC chooses to go outside after hearing the scary noise:

"Did you hear a weird noise?" [warm +1]

"You should be in bed." [warm +1]

"Because what?" [cold +1]

"I'm glad you're here." [no change]

Cove asks if the noise scared the MC:

"Yeah..." [warm +1]

"No." [cold +1]

"A little." [no change]

The MC speculates on what the sound could be from:

"It could be anything." [no change]

"It had to be a ghost!" [cold +1]

"There's gotta be a regular reason for it." [warm +1]

The MC and Cove hear the noise again:

"You stayed frozen to the spot." [no change]

"You took a deep breath to calm yourself." [warm +1]

"You ran to hide behind Cove." [no change]

"You comforted him." [cold +1]

"You offered him your hand." [no change]

"We don't need to be scared." [warm +1]

You focused ahead. [warm +1]

Cove offers his hand to the MC if she gave specific responses:

"You accepted his hand." [cold +1]

"You didn't take his hand." [no change]

"You gripped his arm instead." [warm +1]

Cove complains at the park about his dad's garlic flakes in a jar:

"Flakes might be easier to use." [warm +1]

"It's still real garlic, just already chopped up." [warm +1]

"That can't taste as good." [cold +1]

"We won't need it anyway." [cold +1]

Cove tells a story at the beach about fake teeth he found that his mom took:

"Too bad. Think of the prank opportunities!" [warm +1]

"The right thing to do." [warm +1]

"Gross." [cold +1]

"Way stranger than the stuff I've seen." [warm +1]

"Still not as strange as things I've found." [cold +1]

The MC speculates on the type of story she and Cove would be in while they're at the park:

"It's a horror story." -> "You stopped." [cold +1]

"It's a horror story." -> "You kept the tale going." [warm +1]

"It's an action story." [warm +1] {note that this will put on Step 2 Cove's left pink beaded bracelet}

"It's a fantasy story." [warm +1] {note that this will put on Step 2 Cove's left pink beaded bracelet}

"It's a documentary." [cold +1]

Cove complains about his dad never being happy with him:

"You sympathized." [cold +1]

"You encouraged Cove to see it more positively." [warm +1]

"You stayed out of it." [cold +1]

"You didn't know how to react to that." [warm +1]

Barbecue

Cove tells the MC about his fish and talks about needing an extra thermometer (if the MC stayed with the parents instead of chasing the kids):

"I'll find one." [warm +1]

"I know all about that. I'll find one." [cold +1]

"I'll ask my moms. Can I help you test it?" [warm +1]

"I'll ask my moms." [warm +1]

"It'll be fine. You don't have to do that much checking." [cold +1]

"I don't think so." [no change]

The MC, Lizzie, and Cove get sprayed with water by a kid at the park:

"Don't spray people!" [warm +1]

You laughed. [warm +1]

"Watch out! He has a cast!" [cold +1]

You pushed her away. [cold +1]

The MC decides to hang back and watch as the kids chase after the water sprayer:

"Go, go!" [warm +1]

You clapped. [no change]

You watched quietly. [no change]

Lizzie and Cove argue over whose choices of ingredients are better/wrong:

"There isn't a wrong choice." [warm +1]

"We all made good choices." [warm +1]

"Same to you, Lizzie." [cold +1]

You sighed. [no change]

Noelani (Mommy) asks Pamela (Mom), Cove, and the MC if they want to get drinks:

You nodded. [cold +1]

"Okay, I'll get all the stuff we need." [cold +1]

"No. I want to help pick the spot!" [warm +1]

"I don't wanna get drinks..." [warm +1]

You considered your options. [warm +1]

Runaway

Cove being surprised that the MC wants to go with him and asks if they don't think it's a bad idea:

"Nope. It's like we're going on an adventure." [cold +1]

"It's not a big deal, right? We're gonna have fun." [warm +1]

"I don't know. But if you're doing it anyway, I should too." [cold +1]

"It might be a bad idea, but..." [warm +1]

Cove gets upset and storms away after the MC tells him that they'll tell their moms what he's doing:

"Come back!" [warm +1]

"You're so stupid!" [warm +1]

"I'm sorry!" [cold +1]

"Please don't go!" [cold +1]

You were frozen from shock. [no change]

The MC goes to look for Cove after being told that he's run away:

"There you are!" [cold +1]

"Are you crazy?!" [warm +1]

"I'm so happy you're here!" [cold +1]

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" [warm +1]

"I knew you'd be here." [cold +1]

You were just as stunned, and it left you silent. [warm +1]

The MC talks to Cove after finding him:

"What are you gonna do now?" [warm +1]

"Are you okay?" [cold +1]

"We should head back now." [warm +1]

The MC tries to convince Cove to go back after finding him and he refuses to go:

"Why not?!" [cold +1]

"How come?" [warm +1]

"Why? Why can't we just go?" [no change]

"You're stupid!" [warm +1]

"I don't understand why you can't go back." [cold +1]

Cove explains to the MC that he's trying to go to his mother's house:

"How are you gonna get to your mom's place?" [warm +1]

"That's such a bad idea!" [warm +1]

This was all just too much, and you started to cry. -> "No. I want to go home." [warm +1]

This was all just too much, and you started to cry. -> "No. I don't feel good." [cold +1]

This was all just too much, and you started to cry. -> "No. I don't want you to go." [cold +1]

This was all just too much, and you started to cry. -> "No. You shouldn't do stuff like this." [warm +1]

This was all just too much, and you started to cry. -> You simply shook your head "no". [warm +1]

"Do you know the directions to your old house?" [cold +1]

"You're being selfish." -> "I was only trying to help." [cold +1]

"You're being selfish." -> "I came 'cause you're my friend and I like you. Don't you like and care about me, too?" [no change]

"You're being selfish." -> "You're horrible." [no change]

"You're being selfish." -> "It isn't just me. You're making everyone upset for yourself." [warm +1]

"You're being selfish." -> You couldn't even reply to him after that. [no change]

Cove denies the MC's claim that his mother won't forget him:

"Everything will be okay if we just go home." [warm +1]

"We can't stay here forever, and we can't go out there. We've gotta go back." [cold +1]

"Then we'll stay out here. I'm not gonna go back." [no change]

Cove non-seriously says that he wants to run away again so he doesn't have to see the people who were worried about him:

"Hey, maybe I should try that." [no change]

"That isn't gonna help." [no change]

"They'll forgive you." [warm +1]

"Please never run away again." [cold +1]

Cove apologizes for fighting with the MC over his running away:

"And you won't do it again?" [warm +1]

"I'm sorry, too." [no change]

You took in his apology wordlessly. [cold +1]

Sleepover

Lizzie brags about "winning" the race with the MC:

"You didn't win, 'cause you were racing by yourself." [cold +1]

"Because you cheated." [warm +1]

"Okay, you won." [no change]

You didn't bother trying to talk to her about that. [warm +1]

Cove debates on where to sit at the table:

"Sit next to me." [warm +1]

"You can sit anywhere you want to." [warm +1]

You stayed quiet. [no change]

Cove is torn about eating the food the MC's moms are serving:

You let your moms handle this. [warm +1]

"I think you would like the pineapple chicken. It's yummy." [warm +1]

"Give me your plate." [cold +1]

"You should try something new." [warm +1]

Cove sighs in his sleeping bag, distressed:

"What's wrong?" [cold +1]

"What was that?" [warm +1]

"Could you be less loud?" [no change]

"Could you be quieter, please?" [no change]

"Stop that." [no change]

MC talks about the storybook that Cove picked up:

"I love the main character 'cause the squire's really brave and funny." [warm +1] {note that this will give Step 2 Cove the white and bright pink jacket}

"It has cool pictures. Some of them even take up the whole page." [cold +1] {note that this will give Step 2 Cove the gray and black jacket}

"Mommy reads it to me. She uses different voices for every character." [warm +1] {note that this will give Step 2 Cove the white and bright pink jacket}

"There's a dragon in it and crazy things happen." [cold +1] {note that this will give Step 2 Cove the gray and black jacket}

Step 1 - Ending

(warm +1 if the MC chooses to go home instead of staying with Cove)

The MC watches Cove skip a rock across the water:

"You can't skip rocks in the ocean." [warm +1]

"What are you doing?" [no change]

You looked for your own rock. [cold +1]

Cove sulks about the cast on his arm:

"When do you get it off?" [cold +1]

"How'd you get it?" [warm +1]

Cove says that he still wants to go home:

"Do you hate it here?" [no change] {note that this will give Step 2 Cove the middle-parted hair}

"This can be your home." [warm +1] {note that this will give Step 2 Cove the fluffy hair}

"It'll be alright." [cold +1]

Cove asks the MC if they're not going to leave:

"Of course." [warm +1]

"I don't know." [no change]

Cove says that he can't see himself feeling better:

You held his hand. [cold +1 and warm +1]

"I can." [warm +1]

"I'll make sure you do." [cold +1]

​

And that's everything in Step 1!

Now, as promised, I'll also give some examples from Step 2 to showcase the different reactions of different Coves depending on the situation (most are obviously on Fond/Crush).

​

Step 2 - Intro (Cove's first appearance where he presents the fruit bouquet)

Moderate Cove

Cove: "This thing was definitely dad's idea. I would've gone for something else. But, if you can't eat it all, I wouldn't mind taking a couple skewers." He smiled, looking amusedly at the gift then back to you. You called that one.

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "I hope you and your family like this. It's a pretty good gift. I think so, anyway." He smiled earnestly. Cove: "Dad spent a lot of time picking out the best size and design. There were so many options to choose from."

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Well. That's everything..." Though he said that, he made no move to go. You could tell he was reluctant to.

​

Wave (after Cove accidentally splashes the MC)

Cold Cove/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Did that hit you? Sorry." You could tell he really did feel bad that you had gotten caught in the crossfire.

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Sorry!" The apology did not come across as especially repentant, as he was practically laughing when he said it.

Moderate Cove

Cove: "Huh? Oh. Sorry." The apology did not come across as especially repentant, as he was smiling the entire time he said it.

​

Family (if the MC chooses to speak to Cove about their adoption story and Cove hugs/touches the MC's shoulder, giving them his sympathy)

MC: You don't have to do this.

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Yes I do."

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "I want to."

Moderate Cove

Cove: "Nobody is making me."

​

Dinner (when Cove walks into his living room and sees the MC talking with his parents)

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "You made it! Thanks for coming." Cove's voice was unnaturally loud, as if he thought you wouldn't be able to hear him from where you were, only a few feet away.

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Hey. Thanks for being here." There was nothing unusual about the words in his greeting. But you could tell something was wrong from the way he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

Moderate Cove

Cove: "...Hi. Thanks. For, uh, coming here." Cove's greeting was unusually stiff. You also noticed that he had yet to say anything to his parents.

​

Road Trip (during the walk through the Redwood National Park)

Elizabeth: "I can't believe our families are actually on vacation together." She threw her arms out, speaking with a genuine sense of bewilderment. Elizabeth: "I would've joked about something like this happening, but now I'm not sure I wanna give them any more ideas."

Warm Cove

Cove smiled at her, even if it was a little awkwardly, and continued walking along.

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove ignored her completely and continued walking along.

Warm-Moderate Cove/Moderate Cove

Cove spared her a look but said nothing, and instead continued walking along.

​

Mall (when the MC asks for a sip of Cove's smoothie; Fond only)

Cove smiled softly, and finally, he offered the cup to you. You held the cup in both hands and took a sip. MC: "Thanks."

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "You're welcome. It was kind of a sacrifice, you know. This is really good." Taking his drink back, Cove's smile seemed to grow bigger. His teasing tone made you grin. MC: "It is."

Moderate Cove

Cove: "This is really good, but I could give some up for you." Cove's smile seemed to grow as he took his drink back. He wasted no time and started drinking it again.

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "I can't say no to you." He took his cup back still with a tiny smile and got back to drinking it again.

​

Birthday (as the gummy bear toss is starting and people are pairing up)

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

He just stared at you expectantly and you knew what he was getting at.

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Could we be partners?"

Moderate Cove

Cove: "We're gonna be partners, right?"

​

Summerwork (when Derek is struggling to reach a book that's too high for him to reach)

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove: "Do you need help with that?"

Moderate Cove/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "There are step stools. I saw one a few rows over."

Cold Cove

(Cove does nothing at all)

​

Escapade (if the MC refuses Cove's offer to dry off inside his house, not wanting to trouble him)

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove: "I want to stay with you."

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove/Moderate Cove

Cove: "I really don't wanna just leave you out here."

​

Step 2 - Ending (when the MC has the option to hug Cove good-bye)

Warm/Warm-Moderate Cove

Cove hugged you back tightly and his chest rumbled as he laughed.

Cold/Cold-Moderate Cove

Cove took a second to return the hug, surprised. He leaned into you and held on. Then he hovered nearby with a small smile on his face when it ended.

Moderate Cove

Cove hugged you back and broke the hug after a few seconds. He nodded at you and grinned.

​

Ideally, that should be enough to give a rough idea of how each Cove reacts to things if anyone needs it!

I hope this helps everyone understand the code a bit more, or just generally helps out people who maybe want to get a certain Cove without "cheating" via the Cove Creator. This was quite the endeavor to gather all this code because of what I said earlier about it being longer and more complicated than just changing Cove's appearance.

May all your future Coves be exactly as warm, moderate, or cold as you want~

[lu-is-not-ok]

This fucking guy.

Anyway have some of my incoherent ramblings about this man under the read more because I have a lot to say about him.

Alright, let me split this into three sections because otherwise this ramble will be even more of a mess than it already is.

I'm gonna discuss Yi Sang in the mirror, or Sang Yi, under a couple of different lights.

One, how he relates to the concept of being the opposite reflection to Yi Sang. Two, how he ties back to Yi Sang's wife from "The Wings". And three, some of my thoughts about how he might fit into the wider scope of the plot and world of Limbus Company.

Strap in lads.

Sang Yi as a "left-handed" reflection

Something that becomes increasingly clear as we're shown interactions between Yi Sang and Sang Yi, and what is directly spelled out by the latter at the end of Canto IV's dungeon, is that Sang Yi is effectively the antithesis of much that makes Yi Sang, well... Yi Sang.

Yi Sang, at the core of everything, is a very sentimental and kind man. He cares a lot about the people around him, even if he doesn't always show it outwardly, and struggles to move on from whatever losses he experiences. Though he may claim otherwise, he's also constantly thinking about everything he's going through, which is what eventually leads him to the Mirror as a form of escapism from his curel reality.

Sang Yi on the other hand... is none of that.

Most of the 'comforting' words or advice Sang Yi offers to Yi Sang can be boiled down to "Stop caring or thinking about every little thing.", a sentiment that's directly in opposition of who Yi Sang is as a person.

Sang Yi finds the idea of feeling joy or despair over the past pointless. He thinks Yi Sang shouldn't feel guilty about his technology being used to exploit others because he already knew what he was getting himself into. He doesn't understand why Yi Sang would have trouble moving on if he were to lose Sang Yi.

Whereas Yi Sang is caring and emotionally-driven, Sang Yi is... I don't want to say uncaring, since he does seem to care about Yi Sang to some degree, but at the very least he is rather distant and logically-driven.

I think the moment that exemplifies that the most is when Yi Sang tells him Gubo doesn't care about him beyond using him as an accessory to prop himself up in the limelight, to which Sang Yi responds that it doesn't matter, that Yi Sang should use this as an opportunity to be in that limelight as well.

And, actually, speaking about that. Sang Yi doesn't really seem to think things through nearly as much as Yi Sang does. Or, at the very least, he doesn't care to look deeper than the surface level.

Sang Yi sees Gubo's attempts at connecting with Yi Sang as genuinely caring about him, whereas Yi Sang is able to see through them and realize Gubo is being entirely selfish here. Sang Yi sees the new League of Nine as something worth joining, while Yi Sang notices that it is nothing but a mockery of the old League. When Sang Yi learns of the new League's plan to destroy mirror worlds, his only reaction is that of mild curiosity without even a sign of concern.

All that being said, the biggest example of this might just be the fact that Sang Yi did not even realize just how badly Yi Sang was feeling until Yi Sang straight up told him there was nothing left for him in this world outside of Sang Yi.

Though we can't know for sure what exactly Sang Yi was feeling at the time, as all that we know about him is colored by Yi Sang's own bias towards him, I think it's fair to say that was the moment where it finally hit Sang Yi just how badly he fucked up by keeping Yi Sang stuck there all to himself.

Which, now that I think about it, transitions nicely to the other angle I want to look at.

Sang Yi as Yeongsim / Yi Sang's wife

First of all, just to lay it out there in the open, as fucking hilarious out of context as it sounds to say Yi Sang was his own wife all along, it's... actually not all that far off.

Beyond the fact that the Mirror is directly named after his wife in "The Wings", there's some other obvious signs that point to it. If you were to take the letters Yi Sang was writing to Sang Yi out of context, you could absolutely mistake them for something one would write to a lover too far away to be easily reachable. Plus, the way Yi Sang's first reaction to seeing Sang Yi is to call him "beautiful" in his mind?

Yeah, there's something to that.

And, of course, there's something to be said about the similarities between Sang Yi's role in Yi Sang's life, and the role Yi Sang's wife played in "The Wings".

That being the way both of them end up isolating Yi Sang, how both of them actively withhold information from him, and how Yi Sang sees them as perfect and without a fault even as they're hurting him.

I don't feel like talking about "The Wings" in depth right now as it's almost 5 am and I want to actually finish writing this fucking post at some point, but if you want to know what I'm comparing Sang Yi to, it's a short read that's easy to find a free pdf online for.

The fact that Sang Yi was trying to keep Yi Sang inside is probably the most spelled out one out of everything I'm talking about in this post. Not only does Sang Yi directly tell Yi Sang to stay with him (mind you he doesn't even ask), but Ishmael, as an outside observer, notes how Sang Yi was trying to keep Yi Sang in the room by making him afraid of the outside.

Actually, looking at when he finally offers Yi Sang the choice to leave, it's in a... very interesting way, shall we say?

Not only does Sang Yi try to make the option of staying sound as appealing as possible by bringing up that Yi Sang will be able to continue doing what he loves (or at least what Sang Yi believes Yi Sang loves), like continue working on the Mirror and keep talking to him.

On the other hand, Sang Yi is reluctant to even bring up the option that Yi Sang can leave, and when Yi Sang shows interest (note that Yi Sang's immediate reaction isn't a "I don't want to leave", it's a "I don't think I can leave"), he continues to make the option sound as unappealing as possible, while still making it clear that it is possible.

How Yi Sang doesn't need to be able to fly to leave, but he will struggle endlessly if he does. How Yi Sang can eventually find somewhere to call his home, but he will have to walk until his feet hurt and will have to settle for wherever or whatever he ends up resting at.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like the kind of encouragement or advice someone who had a person's best interest in mind would make.

Now, let's make some other facts clear while we're at it.

Sang Yi knew that Yi Sang had wings as well, after all, he calls that fact 'obvious' when he finally mentions it. However, he never directly told him he does, even as Yi Sang lamented to him about how (in his eyes) he himself had no wings. He only brings it up when Yi Sang is truly at his lowest.

Sang Yi knew what the effects of supplements Yi Sang was taking were, as he can tell exactly what will happen if Yi Sang stops taking them, or takes several at once. However, he never directly told him this until he gives Yi Sang a choice, even though he was clearly aware they were not beneficial.

Sang Yi knew that Yi Sang's room was always open, as he was confident that Yi Sang would be able to just leave on his own once the effects of the supplements cleared away. However, he never tells Yi Sang that, even when Yi Sang is making it clear he doesn't think he even can leave. It's actually one of the thing Yi Sang ends up finding out by himself.

Despite all of this... Yi Sang never stops to consider that Sang Yi might not have his best interests in mind. Sang Yi is his everything. He's perfect, flawless, the ideal self. He's the only thing Yi Sang has left.

Call me cynical, but it paints the ending of the Canto in a somewhat bittersweet light to me. After all, Sang Yi never has to apologize or even admit to anything, and Yi Sang still views him as positively as he always has.

I guess at the very least it's accurate to the book. After all, Yi Sang in "The Wings" ends up holding on to that perfect image of his wife to the very end.

Sang Yi as an entity

Okay I have no clever transition here like I did last time, but this is probably the thing about Sang Yi that's been bugging me the most.

Have you guys noticed just how much Sang Yi seems to know about Yi Sangs from different worlds? Those sweeping general statements about "All versions of Yi Sang" or "All Yi Sangs" that he makes with full confidence.

When Yi Sang assumes that Sang Yi can "be anywhere he wants" thanks to his wings, just how correct is he?

With the way Sang Yi talks about other Yi Sangs, it gives the impression that he's met a lot of them in the past. In fact, if that's true, it would recolor the meaning of Sang Yi's comment about his meeting with his particular Yi Sang "peculiar".

What's so peculiar about our Yi Sang specifically, if Sang Yi has met so many of them? Is it the method, the fact that it's through the mirror? Is it that Sang Yi finally found a Yi Sang that also had wings? Is it because our Yi Sang is the first one to contact him rather than the other way around?

And while we're on that topic, isn't the way Sang Yi talks about Yi Sangs kind of odd? It's always "All Yi Sangs" or "All versions of Yi Sang", as if he's not part of those Yi Sangs himself. It's like he's putting himself in the role of an outside observer, seperate from the concept of being a 'Yi Sang'.

Just what is Sang Yi, really? He implies he's the version of our Yi Sang that's inside the mirror, the one that "needs to be opposite, yet is quite alike" to the one outside, to explain why our Yi Sang would have wings if he saw them on Sang Yi, but like... He never directly says that's the case.

In fact, when Yi Sang asks Sang Yi about what the outside is like, Sang Yi weirdly dodges the question, saying it's all "the same tiring stuff". Another example of him withholding information aside, this all makes him seem rather fucking suspicious to me.

Just. What is he really?

God I hope we get to see him again, cause I really want to know what the fuck his actual deal is.

[centaurianthropology]

My thoughts on C3E77

So apparently this one was controversial?

I'm going to say right now, I really loved everyone's decisions. They all fit the characters, but more they fit the players. I know that there are claims that Tal ignored all the warnings, but I actually think Matt may have misjudged the situation going in.

Ashley made it clear on 4SD that she did not want the shard. I think she's not really feeling the Dark Fearne storyline (and that's fair), and Matt seems to have missed that she genuinely didn't want to go down that route. Maybe he thought she was playing coy? Maybe they've been playing together so long he thought he knew a story she'd enjoy and missed her signals that she wasn't into it. I've done that before with some of my long-term players.

However that went down, Tal and she had a conversation after 4SD about what they wanted to do, and it was clear going into the episode that they at least had it planned out who was taking that shard, and it was going to be Ashton from the off. The fact that Matt was not expecting that somewhat surprises me. As Taliesin said: he put a big red backstory-shaped button in front of Ashton, and Ashton is terrified of losing people. If Fearne didn't want the shard, Ashton was going to dive on that grenade head-first. And part of Ashton wanted it. They are told they can't do something, and they will go about proving that old tree and everyone else wrong in the most self-destructive way possible. They are intensely punk in that way.

Matt may have designed the shard for Fearne, but this is not the first time that an item meant for one player ends up with another. Deathwalker's Ward was made for Percy, but through the events in the Sunken Tomb, it ended up with Vax and led to a hell of a story. And now something meant for Fearne goes to Ashton, and I have a feeling we're now in for another hell of a story. Because Ashton is now, essentially, a lava genasi, with three impossible things crammed into their broken body. Will they survive the campaign? I have no idea, but it has become clear that they don't expect to.

And honestly? This may well be what the Hells need, not in terms of power, but in terms of really realizing how self-destructive they all are. Marisha may say that no one loves a martyr, but Laudna was very much ready to play that role earlier this episode. Imogen is very self-destructive. So is Orym. So is FCG. The only two who have shown any degree of self-preservation are Fearne and Chet. The rest are bombs waiting for the most poetic moment to go off.

And today one of them did for a moment. They finally saw the end result that their self-destructive tendencies get them: Ashton blown into a thousand pieces, scattered across the top of the ziggurat. Deanna's ring saved him. Fearne's Aura of Life and FCG's Aura of Vitality saved him. Ashton could only roll and take damage.

Matt may have not designed it this way, but this was absolutely Ashton's 'where do you get your strength from' moment of the campaign, but in a very different way than Grog or Yasha experienced them. Because Ashton might just need this realization slapped into them by all their friends: this was dumb and they would have died because they didn't trust their friends. Because their strength and their salvation truly came from the people that love them.

Ashton has been, up until this point, a bit gung-ho to die for his friends. Honestly, they all are, and it's about time he and all the others learned how to live for their friends.

Anyway, hell of an episode, and a brutal but thrilling last hour. I was grinning right along with Sam. The mad fucker pulled it off by the skin of his teeth and by the grace of two friends dumping every bit of healing they had into him.

[pro-depresanti]

Overanalyzing "Poison"

Composition:

How I see it, the song has a circular composition in its visuals. We go from the present, to the past, to the beginning of Valentino and Angel's relationship, to another past moment, and back to the present. (Those moments are also somewhat color codes – we start with reds for the present, dark purples for the scene at the 'bar' and the one where Angel is on the bed at the end of the first verse(which I see as events in the near past), and pinks for the hypothetical time right after signing the contract)

We start at the present, then we move to a scene for a different film set in a bar. I think this would have taken place not too long ago. Angel's forced expression drop as soon as the camera isn't centered on his face and looks at Valentino. He's already at the point where he isn't enjoying himself and what he's doing.

And again with the color coding – the scene is dark and purple. Purple can symbolize royalty and excess, but also it's the rarest naturally occurring color, which gives the association of artificial, fake things. Everything happening here is a play-pretend.

Then we go to the first verse, which I think takes place very soon after Angel signed the contract. Everything is bright and colorful and pleasing to the eye. The chains are there, but Angel still feels in control, grabbing onto them and swinging them around himself as if he doesn't think they are that big of a deal.

He's the one walking towards Valentino, even though Val is the one pulling him along. And that chain of control is slack, gradually getting tighter and tighter, up until Angel gets too bold and gets pulled to the ground. But he's still not visibly distressed. We've seen his camera smile, and this isn't it.

If anything, right before he fell he looked confused, as if he hasn't expected that from Valentino. The abuse is still very new at that point, Valentino purposefully hurting him/dragging him down (physically and metaphorically) isn't yet a common occurrence.

Then we get to the scenes flashed between Angel getting high in a club, enjoying himself with (assumingly) fame and money. Obviously they aren't being filmed with such a shitty lighting. This is just for them, and once again, Angel looks like he's enjoying himself. And especially in this one instance shown below – he doesn't have any ground underneath, he's putting all his trust into Valentino to hold him. There is also the metaphorical power imbalance of Angel being practically naked while Valentino still has his pants on. Valentino having his wings open could be read as him taking more space and showing his power and influence, and also as him shielding himself and Angel away from the world, showing that their relationship is, not private per say, but somewhat sincere (or at the very least, that Valentino wants to keep Angel for himself to some degree)

We fast forward again to their recent dynamic. Time has passed since the last scenes and now Angel sees Valentino in his true colors. No more bright pinks and mood lighting, we're back to the purple and dark pallette. Whereas while he was dancing with Valentino in an open space, here he is surrounded on all sides – the headboard behind him, the hearts draping from the sides and Valentino looming over him. He's trapped in the frame, yet he's placed at the center of it, visible from head to toe with nowhere to go and nothing to hide behind. Valentino's shadow is almost entirely covering Angel (besides his knees and one foot), visually showing how Valentino's influence is heavy laying on Angel.

After all that we flash back to the present moment.

Visuals:

Starting from the beginning – Angel is under the spotlight, fully into view, while Valentino is hidden in the relative darkness behind the camera (I'm running out of image space lol).

I already mentioned the color coding between scenes. Something I didn't point out is this – yes the visuals for the porn shots are too much in my opinion. They could have been slightly less explicit and still get the same or even bigger effect by allowing the audience to fill in the blanks.

Still, it's the reality of the situation. The point for them were to be gross and ugly and unsettling and that's exactly what they were. But if I were to storyboard this whole song, the specific part at "so far beyond difficult to resist another gulp" would have been done by shadows on the wall or be almost entirely clouded with smoke.

Anyway, when we see Angel's dissociation, we see light blues, cyan to be specific, the opposite of the red in the reality.

Back to the color symbolism (sorry I can't put them all side to side to illustrate it better, I don't have enough image space), red is a color associated with love, lust and all that stuff, but is also a violent and harsh color. Then we have the cyan blue – color associated with calm, peace, water, sky (freedom).

The cyan backdrop is just two screens – unstable, can be moved and easily topple over. (Also, they are plain, further contrasting the busyness and clutter in the studio) Angel's flashes of the reality start as backdrops somewhere behind him where he can't see them, before they become quick glimpses, and then happen for longer and longer.

The chorography itself is mimicking what is actually happening to him, but this time he's in control – getting slapped turns into him touching his cheek, getting thrown back turns into a step, being forced to the ground is just part of his dance.

And then Valentino pulls him out of his head and the reality and imagination mingle together. Angel isn't save even in his own head.

Lyrics:

A common thing I've seen going around is how dumped down the lyrics are and how the cheery pop music is distasteful due to the theme.

Starting with the lyrics themselves – the first thing I'll point out is the line "I'm not above a love to cash it", the word 'love' should have been 'fuck' which would be more grammatically and logically correct. But Angel is downplaying the situation to himself, softening the lyrics. Ironically enough, this is one of the few songs in the entire show without any curse words, further giving it the vibe of a song meant to be mainstream. You can also take that metaphorically as him censoring himself, like he isn't allowed to speak freely, even though no one can hear him.

I've seen people straight up say "Angel isn't a victim because he signed the contract knowing what it entails", and being backed up with the line "what's the worst part of this Hell, I can only blame myself". News flash – abusers don't walk around with a warning written on their forehead. Yes, Angel signed, but the abuse isn't his fault. He trusted Valentino. Ignoring how I headcanon it as such – his contract is signed with a heart, plus we have the visuals at the first verse I already laid my case on. Throwing this into the world because I'm tired of seeing people say Angel deserves it because he agreed to it. Consent can be withdrawn at any point for any/no reason, Angel never agreed to being abused.

Moving on, first part of the song is a parody of popular catchy music. The repetitive rhymes are a satire. We know from all the other Hazbin songs that there's usually a lot of thought put into the lyrics. Rhyming 'poison' with 'poison' constantly is purposeful – low effort writing that barely catches the mark. Also, in "Cause I know you're poison// you're feeding me poison//addicted to this feeling I can't help but swallow up// your poison... my story is gonna end up with me dead from your poison" 'poison' is an epiphora – repetition of the same word/phrase for emphasis.

Furthermore, in the second part of the song, there isn't even a rhyme anywhere, just the epiporas. Angel isn't even trying, his voice breaks, his accent slips. He can't keep up with the facade he's been keeping for the duration of the song and the film he was shooting.

Back to the pop-esque nature of the song. This is the only song in the show so far that's not 'sang aloud'. Every other song is treated as if the characters around the singer(s) can hear it all. Except this one. It's all happening in Angel's head while he's disassociated. Hence the upbeat vibe – it's all in Angel's head, it symbolizes how he's trying to distance himself from what's happening by imagining a different version of reality – something bright and cheerful. It's not downplaying the abuse, it's contrasting it.

That song is who Angel is – over the top and rough around the edges. It's so playful that it's satirical, up until it isn't. As far as the songs in the show go, this one is my favorite in illustrating who a character is. You can pretty well paint a picture of who Angel is just based on this song and no prior knowledge. Do I think it's perfect? Of course not! I already mentioned what I would have visually presented differently, but overall I think this song and Angel as a character gets too much hate.

[bayofwolves]

Rereading Against the Tide

After two months... we're so back.

Apologies once again for the impromptu hiatus! I'm excited to get back to these rereads. It's been a while, so I'll explain the purpose of these posts again: This is not a full analysis, but rather a compilation of details I find interesting or missed when I was a younger reader. I'm rereading the whole series to gather information for A Revised History of Erdas, so there may be some commentary from time to time on how I plan to change or expand on certain plot points.

Let's find out what horrors are in store for our heroes this time!

Finally, Abeke gets her own cover! My girl!! They change how Uraza looks on every cover, but I like how she looks here. I especially love the purple wisps coming from her; how cool would it be if that happened every time your spirit animal appeared out of passive state?

Erdas has the Fahrenheit scale, apparently. Well, that's gotta go. The top of Muttering Rock is about 200 degrees, or 93 degrees Celsius -- leagues hotter than anything ever recorded on Earth.

Abeke seems to have scar tissue pain, possibly due to nerve damage, from the stab wound Tahlia dealt her in Fire and Ice. She mentions that even though it has mostly healed, she still experiences pain there, particularly in colder weather. If only this hadn't been forgotten by the next book -- it would have been super interesting, in my opinion, to see one of our protagonists deal with lasting effects from an injury they received.

Meilin referring to Shane as Abeke's "Conqueror boyfriend" has been occupying space in my head since 2015. We should have had more of this energy. (I need to have one of the Conquerors or Redcloaks call Abeke Shane's Greencloak girlfriend in return. Drina most definitely would.)

Kalani and her people share similarities with the Māori of Earth. They have the same tattoos and concept of tapu.

Tangaroa is the name of the Māori atua (god) of the sea. I love finding little references to the Earth culture a region of Erdas was inspired by. They did the same with Tiddalik, Tahlia's water-holding frog, who shares a name with the real-life Australian legend he is based on.

I wish Abeke had gotten the chance to see Leopard, the baby orangutan, again. They were so sweet. Also, the authors should have kept this habit she has of rescuing baby animals going for longer. Picture this: She encounters something a little more deadly this time. Dotes on it for a bit and nurses it back to health or helps it find its way back to its family. It remembers how Abeke helped it, and in her hour of need comes to her rescue.

At least there's a cleansing ceremony (this presumably refers to noa) to rid someone of tapu. Now why didn't the authors have Kalani do this for Rollan in The Evertree instead of having her go against her beliefs for his sake? Man... I should have been in the writers' room.

"This quest is leaving a lot of burned bridges in our wake. I fear we, and perhaps all Greencloaks by extension, will no longer be so welcome afterwards in places like this." YES! Finally, someone considers the consequences of their actions. It's back to "the ends justify the means" in the next paragraph, but at least there was this fleeting moment of realization.

Nightshade Island was wiped from the world maps after the First Devourer War, along with Stetriol. I wonder if there were other places associated with the Conquerors and/or Kovo and Gerathon that were deemed "tainted" and erased from the history books. This also prompts a nitpick from me -- I wish the maps shown at the beginning of each book were more tailored to the book/arc. They added the Evertree and the Petral Mountain range in the second arc, which is great, but I want a whole lot more of that detail. In the first arc, the map could have had Stetriol missing from it. We could have had its first appearance on Immortal Guardians's map, once the Greencloaks could deny their existence no longer. Other important locations deserved to be on there too, maybe being added book by book. Glengavin. The Lake of the Elephant. Samis (perhaps disappearing without further comment after Fire and Ice). Cabaro's oasis. Muttering Rock. Zourtzi. The Place of Desolation. The list goes on. They all deserved to be put on the maps! I rest my case!

Meilin casually saying "I can still control Jhi" sent a shiver down my spine. It's so out of place. Like, how can she have spent so much time with the Greencloaks and still be so fundamentally wrong about the spirit animal bond?

So Timote was the heir to the Hundred Isles before the Conquerors captured him. And knowing how male-dominated monarchies work, the other brother, Piri, would likely have taken the throne before Kalani even if he is younger than her. The Conquerors knew what they were doing by killing the previous rulers and taking their two male children hostage. They wanted to leave the Hundred Islanders leaderless. To totally incapacitate them. I bet they were in for a shock when Kalani proved her capability as queen.

Feliandor is wearing a red cloak in Rollan's vision. Most certainly a throwaway detail, but it didn't stop me from sitting up and pointing at the page when I read it.

Rollan sees something vaguely familiar in Feliandor's face, and we have to wait an entire book before learning that he must have been reminded of Shane, his descendant. Seriously, the foreshadowing for multiple big events in the first arc is really well done. I love discovering all the little hints pointing towards Shane being the true Devourer, or Meilin being the mole. This is one thing the many authors successfully worked together on.

While the vision on Nightshade Island is one of my favourite parts of the book, something bugs me about it. Why did only Rollan have this vision? Despite Tarik and Meilin being right beside him as it happened, neither of them saw what he did. It would have been a lot better if they all had the same vision at once. If the echoes of what happened on that island centuries earlier still linger, shouldn't they appear to anyone who visits? Why would it only be one person out of three?

Peleke, the Komodo dragon, poses a brief threat to Abeke, Conor and Kalani on Sunlight Island. Except... his species should go by a different name in this world. Komodo dragons were named as such because they originate from Komodo Island on planet Earth. This is such an easy fix. Just name any one of the Hundred Isles and have the species come from there.

Abeke instinctively knows how to ride Uraza, despite it being her first time doing so. Was she Tembo in another life? Kidding. She is his direct descendant in ARHoE, though.

God, the scene with Tarik saying goodbye to the Four and begging them to come back to him haunts me. Tarik will never see Abeke or Meilin again, and he will die not knowing if they are alive or dead. He will die believing that he failed them.

I'm really glad to see some development of Tarik here. For all his appearances and importance to our protagonists, he is quite a flat character. But here, we get a good look into his headspace. He loves the Four deeply, like a father should love his children. He doesn't want them to go where he can't protect them. He wonders if the Greencloaks are doing the right thing by sending such young people into battles they might not return from, still thinking about what Barlow said all the way back in Wild Born. I need to see more of this Tarik.

I've talked about this before, but I love all the moments that suggest the Four Fallen will one day return to their old forms. I don't believe this would happen in their human partners' lifetimes, but in any case, it would be cool to see it come to pass.

Despite both Mulop and Briggan being visionary Great Beasts, neither of them foresaw Kovo using Feliandor to start a war. How convenient for him.

Abeke is able to spot Shane in the mass of Conquerors by his blond hair, which makes me wonder: What if blond people were considered a rarity in Erdas? What if golden hair was a trait exclusive to Stetriol, and most of the world had never seen it before? That would be kind of fun. (Yes, I know there's Conor, but he's more of a redhead in ARHoE.)

"Not far below her, Uraza was grappling with a huge doglike creature that Abeke thought might be a dingo." I know it's mentioned a few paragraphs later that Tarik used books to teach her about animals that were foreign to her (which is really cute), but dingoes are native to Stetriol, which the Greencloaks effectively erased from existence. There are probably no encyclopedias still in circulation that include Stetriolan flora or fauna. My headcanon is that Shane told Abeke about the animals that are native to his homeland, and that's how she knows about dingoes.

"She drew her bow back and aimed, trying to ignore her thudding heart. The man stood on an outcropping, shouting orders at the fighters scrambling up behind him. Her sharp arrow tip was pointed directly down at Zerif's heart." The way this scene directly parallels Abeke's attempt to shoot infected Zerif in The Burning Tide... wow. Ignoring canon and thinking of ARHoE where she does kill him in the end, this was written in the stars. It is her destiny.

"Stabbing, scratching pain seared through her, but she gained control of one hand --" So resisting Gerathon's mind control can cause physical pain. Interesting.

I know Rollan was kind of forced to leave Meilin, but couldn't he have swooped in on Great Essix and carried Abeke out of there AT LEAST? Not even Meilin can fight a giant gyrfalcon.

Gerathon is not any good at controlling people, damn. Maybe she's rusty after so many years.

This was a great read, as they all are. It was a nice refresher after Fire and Ice, with all the callbacks to what our heroes had faced in the previous books. Seriously, Fire and Ice was a mess in terms of continuity. But Tui understood the assignment. My favourite parts of this one were the beautiful butch lesbian that is Kalani, Abeke becoming mom to another baby animal and riding Great Uraza Tembo-style, the Feliandor vision and Mulop, ever a delight to read. I really enjoyed the people and culture of Oceanus; so excited for Kalani to reappear in the coming books. And, of course, the reveal of Meilin being the mole all along was utterly perfect. The amount of thought and planning that went into this decision, the layers of foreshadowing building up to this horrible truth... it deserves all the praise.

We're at the lowest point we've ever been, and it's about to get even lower.

This is part of an ongoing series.

Wild Born | Hunted | Blood Ties | Fire and Ice | Against the Tide | Rise and Fall | The Evertree

Immortal Guardians | Broken Ground | The Return | The Burning Tide

Heart of the Land | The Wildcat's Claw | Stormspeaker | The Dragon's Eye

Tales of the Great Beasts | The Book of Shane | Tales of the Fallen Beasts

[regulusstarz]

Luciane!! I love her! best girl behavior

Interested (if you're willing) in hearing more about the family dynamic pre and post-marigold? any type of bond with shiloh?

(Sorry im on anon i get nervous 😔)

Don't worry, i can understand being nervous!! I deeply appreciate the ask anyways <3

I don't quite know about pre-Marigold because I'd basically just be talking about her childhood. BUT i can tell you: Luciane doesn't have contact nor does she care for her biological mother. She wants nothing to do with her and her mother is on the same side. That's why Luciane has always clinged to her father so much. She craved love that would usually be given by 2 people from a single person, but Lynn was able to manage it, which made her adore him even further.

Ill describe the different steps of post-Marigold. (Kinda sounds like we're talking about an apocalypse, haha)

Early beginning: Luciane was already a little weirded out when Marigold and her father started talking more than Lynn did with any other teacher. She was still pretty okay with it, it's good that her father was finally making some friends!

When they DID started dating, it was around the time where Luciane had begun closing herself off from majority of the people in her life and hanging around her friends more.

Somewhat middle: Luciane absolutely HATED Marigold. It's basically a pretty drastic change very quickly, and she does overreact as a teenager. She thought that Marigold will start taking Lynn's time all to herself, worst of all maybe even trying to be a mother to Luciane. Marigold Ofcourse did try to be nice and get along with Luce, but im pretty sure it's obvious how good that goes.

A year later, The two get married. Luciane's hate mellows out a bit. She's had time to get used to Marigold and she could tell Lynn really loved his wife. But that didn't really stop her from ranting to her father about his own wife (please help him he is under DISTRESS). But yay to the other teachers, because Luciane actually listens to Marigold! Somewhat atleast. So if Lynn is not available, they'll call up Marigold instead. Even though the success of that heavily depends on Luciane's mood that day.

When she's around 17, close to finishing school, she accepts Marigold. She's still a bit akward around her, but does wish to see her as her mother in some way. They still have a LOT to go through, but atleast Lynn doesn't have to pray anymore anytime Luciane comes into his office.

I mostly went into Luciane's feelings, haha. But for some insight on the parents: im sure both of them were upset to some degree over Luciane not accepting her mother. And Lynn was definitely under stress during that time.

I hope that explained some things!!

So, when Shiloh still went to SSB, Luciane was still around 5-6 years old. So they didn't really have a reason to interact with one another.

BUT, they do interact when Shiloh is an adult! Im gonna do 2 versions of him.

- shy : this is the version that gets along the most with Luciane, because they both greatly benefit from eachother. Shy can post about Luciane (mostly just reffered to as "little sister", and barely ever is a picture shown. Even then the face is blurred out), giving him more people that like and follow him. In return, Shiloh can take her out to go shopping and generally buy her stuff, Which obviously Luciane enjoys greatly. Lynn takes Luciane to see him during summer break and occasionally during the holidays, if they're not too busy.

- "normal Shiloh" (acts the same way he did in high school): Luciane feels pretty akward around him. She can't really tell wether or not he should have value to her, and she can tell that majority of what he says is not what he thinks. She mostly just does her best to avoid him.

Luciane can handle the asshole versions of shiloh better than the normal ones, haha.

Though the relationship does change when Luciane isn't a teenager anymore. She gets more busy with her life, so she doesn't have a lot of time for Shy, but they do stay in contact. Multiple years of benefiting each other can make you close, no?

With "normal" shiloh, it most likely stays the same. She's not as akward around him, but still has better things to do than talk with him.

_

It was a pretty long talk, but i sincerely enjoy speaking about Her! As i said, I've been working on her lore for MONTHS, so i have quite a bit to say. I really enjoyed it tho, thank you for the ask <3

[ciaossu-imagines]

For the holiday season what sort of gifts do you think Tsuna and friends would be happy to receive?

This is a really great request and anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows I'm an absolute sucker for holiday headcanons...I included headcanons for Tsuna below but I gotta say...almost every character in the manga/anime can kind of be called friends or allies of Tsuna, except for the Varia and even then, Squalo, because of his relationship with Yamamoto, could be considered as friendly to Tsuna. I definitely think Tsuna, towards the end of the manga, considers him a friendly ally at the very least. Like, even Byakuran and Mukuro could be considered Tsuna's 'friends' as I do think Byakuran thinks of them as such and Tsuna has shown he has friendly feelings towards the Kokuyo Gang, so could you please clarify which friends in particular you want because otherwise, I'd be writing for A LOT of characters...like easily 30+.

Okay, I'm going into writing these headcanons for Tsuna putting aside the fact that, canonically, he wouldn't really celebrate Christmas. We're going to play these headcanons like he would celebrate Christmas, okay guys?

Going with that, I do think that as he grows from being a little kid into a tween and then a teenager, the actual presents involved in Christmas start to mean less and less to Tsuna and the holiday means as much to him as it does because of the time he gets to spend doing fun stuff and eating good food with his family and friends, along with the fact that anyone thinks to get him a gift at all. By the time he's an adult, he won't even be able to really think of anything to ask for as a gift, but he'll still get slightly teary and happy whenever anyone thinks to get him a Christmas gift, even if it's only socks.

Now, going into the actual gifts...I think as a tween and teen, coming from his mother, Tsuna would ask for and really appreciate practical things like cash or gift cards to his favourite places, new clothes, and since I really do headcanon Nana as being someone who is very crafty, I think he kind of looks forward to the new mittens and scarf she knits him every year, even if he pretends he doesn't (he is still a teenage boy, after all).

Anyone else? Seriously, just the fact that anyone other than his mom is thinking enough about him to get him a Christmas gift still astounds Tsuna to some degree. I do think handmade gifts really touch Tsuna in a special place and he really treasures them because of the effort and time the person put into making that present just for him, but he's going to find something wonderful about just about any present.

Bonus headcanon - by the time Tsuna is his adult self, it will become a running joke between him and Lambo that Tsuna's Lightning Guardian never remembers to Christmas shop and regifts or makes the stupidest, most useless gifts...Tsuna still has every single one tucked away somewhere though, right back from the time Lambo was five and gave him a popsicle stick with his hair wrapped around it as a gift (Tsuna had meant to throw it out but had tossed it under his bed with the other Christmas 'junk' and it got boxed up with the other stuff when Nana cleaned and became a joke the next Christmas and at that point, Tsuna couldn't quite bring himself to throw it out, though he didn't really understand why.)

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Atonement Recap

This was the first time I've actually read this arc in its entirety. I've read bits and watched the anime, but this is the first time I've actually sat down to read this in its entirety. The same will be true of everything going forward.

This is my absolute favorite arc in Higurashi. This is billed as merely the Answer Arc to Abducted by Demons, but it is so much more than that.

I mentioned how I felt Eye Opening and Atonement work hand-in-hand to prepare us for the finale, and since I'm finished with this arc, I can go into more detail now.

Abducted by Demons introduced us to Higurashi and paved the way for Cotton Drifting to TRULY show us what Higurashi is. Abducted by Demons showed us the supernatural horror thriller aspect and once we were in, Cotton Drifting told us that we were actually trying to discover the truth behind the horrors.

Then we have Eye Opening and it introduces us to the concept the Answer arcs. It softballs us by presenting Answer arcs as alternate perspectives of events that clue us into what was really going on.

Then once we're in, Atonement comes in to show us what the Answer Arcs TRULY are. These aren't merely explaining what was actually happening; they're also telling us what could have been done differently to avoid a tragedy.

And with each arc, we're seeing the protagonists get a little closer to fully averting things. Eye Opening spiraled head-long into a tragedy and Shion only realized what she could have done differently after it was far too late. Atonement instead fought with itself constantly to keep things from being as bad as they could have, but it still couldn't stop tragedy from happening. And in the next arc, we'll see things progress even closer to averting tragedy.

Along with being the Answer arc to Abducted by Demons, Atonement is also half of the Answer to Curse Killing. We have a probable explanation to many of the more supernatural events that happened in that arc, such as what happened to Teppei's body and the reason behind Keiichi apparently being at the festival. Now Massacre will be able to focus on the "What could have been done?" aspect.

And noticeably, while other supernatural concepts have been presented and disproven, Atonement confirmed there is some supernatural aspect to the story. At the very least, Oyashiro is real, these arcs are actually events that have been repeating for 100 years, and Rika is aware of all of it.

I've mentioned it a few times that this arc is simultaneously a Question and Answer arc. Rena's perspective shows us the events leading to a tragedy and the half-truths and misunderstandings that drive her. And at the same time, we're shown Keiichi's perspective filling in the gaps and clearing things up.

And one devious thing it does at the start that I admittedly fell for is it uses your expectations from previous arcs to trick you into thinking the opposite of things at first. Keiichi has been the perspective character for three question arcs and perspective switched to Shion for the first answer arc. So when we have Rena as the perspective, we might think she's going to give us a clear perspective of Abducted by Demons, only to find out that's not going to happen at all.

Atonement manages to bring up Beyond Midnight's value to a degree. Since Atonement is not a retelling of a previous event, Beyond Midnight gives us an idea about what is ultimately supposed to happen. So we have that same sensation as in Eye Opening where we're left waiting to see how the tragedy happens. And that just leaves us wide open for when Keiichi remembers Abducted by Demons and there's suddenly a chance to avoid what will happen.

Ending-wise, this is the trap ending. Despite everything, we still get a bad ending where everyone dies. And it feels like we were cheated. Everyone worked hard to stop a tragedy; their bonds were strengthened; love redeemed; etc and then we're told BTW they all died in a gas eruption the next day.

You should be angry about this. The Disaster was a background event; a tragic and fitting end to a tragic tale. But now it's a tool that something is using to rob us of the happy ending everyone fought for.

We didn't get the grand miracle of a happy ending this time, but we did get a few small miracles. Keiichi remembered what he's done and will always trust his friends, Rena truly understands that her friends are there to help her, Ooishi realized how much of a fool he's been trying to pursue the Sonozakis, and Akasaka finally came back to the village. Next time, they'll do better and we'll be closer to a happy ending.

We've reached the end of the second act. All the smaller conflicts have been resolved and our protagonists can now face the true antagonist behind everything as we head into the final act.

One artistic quirk I've noticed through this arc is the use of light and dark. Scenes with Keiichi tend to be brightly lit and take place during the day. Meanwhile scenes with Rena tend to be more dimly lit and take place at night. There also appeared to be a very minimal shadow filter over Rena-centric scenes.

The full moon appears a lot during the latter parts of the arc (And apparently was out for a full week) and most instances we see it are tied to scenes related to Rena's fears, Keiichi's sense of powerlessness, and the moment Rena calls out Keiichi for his crimes.

But when Keiichi and Rena fight each other, it peaks out of the clouds and brightens the sky, as if that's the moment when Rena could truly be saved. It dimmed only during the moment when Rena was about to kill Keiichi only to become even brighter when she realized what she was doing.

All that being said, this was my favorite panel.

I don't have any particularly deep reason for it. Rena was hiding in the dark of a broken van when she decided to turn on a lamp, and this is what she imagined in that moment when she was processing all the bloody handprints she saw.

I guess we could say it represents her own fears at the moment. She is stumbling in the dark, grasping for whatever she can find and afraid that there are enemies all around her waiting for her to make herself visible to them.

But anyway, I chose it cause it looks cool and creepy.

And now for the summation of the story and the greater mystery. As mentioned earlier, this arc reveals there are supernatural aspects to the story, but Oyashiro appears to be a benign figure at worst. We haven't gotten much information about the mysteries or the cause of the Disaster this arc. Instead, the protagonists became equipped to figure this out in the future.

That said, I did bring up a few things in Chapter 7 that likely tie Irie, Takano, and Tomitake to the "Tokyo" organization first mentioned in Time Killing. But we don't have any additional information to use and we can't say what role "Tokyo" has in all this.

We also were given extra details arguing that the Disaster was some sort of coverup. However the actual reason behind it is muddied by Takano's occult writing.

So let’s sum everything up.

Bold text is new info.

Character Info:

Keiichi Maebara: He moved to Hinamizawa three weeks ago. He was a generally average student but excelled when he started cram school. However he became frustrated and his father decided to move to Hinamizawa after some things happened. the stress caused Keiichi to assault little girls with a toy gun, causing one girl to suffer serious eye injury.

Rena Ryugu: Birth name “Reina”. She had moved out of Hinamizawa when she was younger. At some point she assaulted three boys with a bat and smashed every window in her school. In her psych evaluations, she frequently talked about Oyashiro-sama as if she is possessed by it. She moved back to Hinamizawa a year ago. Her mother had an affair and left Rena and her father leading to her behavior and decision to rename herself.

Mion Sonozaki: Leader of the group’s after-school club. She has several misdemeanors due to her actions during the village’s protest against the dam project. She’s the heir to the Sonozaki family and lives with her grandmother. She has a demon tattoo on her body. She was born as Shion Sonozaki but was forced to become Mion when she was given the demon tattoo.

Satoko Hojo: Related to the second and fourth set of victims. She and Rika live together. She had a bad relation with her step-father to the point she falsely accused him of abuse. She relied heavily on her brother when they were living with their aunt and uncle. She believes herself cursed because she had damaged the statue of Oyashiro-sama a few years ago.

Rika Furude: Related to the third set of victims. Rika is the head of the Furude family which is one of the main houses of Hinamizawa. She’s in charge of the priesthood. Rika is believed to be the reincarnation of Oyashiro. She has the power to see the future and foresaw the murders as well as her own imminent death in 1983. She's able to communicate with Oyashiro and has been aware of the repeating cycle of events. She has existed for about 100 years.

Shion Sonozaki: Mion’s twin sister. Shion lives in Okinomiya with their parents. She’s the manager for the Hinamizawa Fighters baseball team. She loved Satoshi and has been trying to uncover the truth of the series of murders after he vanished. She was born as Mion Sonozaki but was forced to become Shion when her sister got the demon tattoo.

Curaudo Ooishi: A detective with the local prefecture who wants to figure out the cause of all the deaths. He suspects a group within the village is behind the deaths. The villagers call him Oyashiro-sama’s messenger because he’s interacted with every victim prior to their deaths. He has dealt with the Sonozakis in the past and has a scar because of it. He was friends with the dam project manager.

Jirou Tomitake: A photographer who visits Hinamizawa several times through the year. He died by scratching out his throat. Jirou Tomitake is not his real name.

Miyo Takano: A nurse at the local clinic. She’s interested instudying the doctrines of Hinamizawa. She went missing after the Cotton Drifting Festival. She was strangled and her corpse was cremated. Her autopsy suggests she died the night before the festival however. The night of the festival, Takano was driving off the main road with Tomitake’s bike in the backseat. She wrote several occult stories based on Hinamizawa's legend. And while they're not true, she did correctly predict the disaster in one of them.

Kyosuke Irie: The main doctor of the Irie clinic. He is also the coach to the Hinamizawa Fighters.

Satoshi Hojo: Satoko’s older brother. He used to be part of the after-school club. He disappeared a year ago. Prior to his disappearance, he started carrying a bat and practiced his swinging. He also became distant from the club. Satoshi may have been the one who killed his aunt. It was believed that he had been saving money to buy Satoko a doll, but then he withdrew the money and vanished on her birthday. However the doll Satoko wanted had been purchased that day.

Mamoru Akasaka: A police officer from Tokyo. He came to Hinamizawa in 1978 to investigate a kidnapping case. Rika warned him to return to Tokyo and later told him about the imminent series of murders and asked Akasaka to save her. Akasaka did not heed her warnings and as a result, his wife died in an accident. He never returned to Hinamizawa, but later wrote a book about the mysteries about it. He returned to Hinamizawa 22 years.

Village details:

Hinamizawa was originally known as Onigafuchi. The residents were believed to be descended from demons and the nearby villages offered tribute out of fear.

Oyashiro-sama is believed to be a god who gave the demons human form so they could live amonst humans

After the war, Mion’s grandfather, Souhei Sonozaki, used black market funds to bring great prosperity to the village.

There are three main houses in Hinamizawa: The Sonozakis, the Kimiyoshis, and the Furudes.

The villagers have a strong sense of unity and will work together to cover up any crimes a villager has done. However, this has allowed someone to slip into the village and commit murders unimpeded.

Murder Mystery details:

Since 1979, someone has died each year during the Cotton Drifting Festival.

The first death was the director of the Dam Project. He was murdered and dismembered by several people. The person who took the right arm is still at large.

The second death was Satoko’s parents. They fell off a cliff. The wife’s body was never found.

The third death was Rika’s parents. Her father died of an illness and her mother drowned herself in the swamp. Her body was never found.

The fourth death was Satoko’s aunt. She was beaten to death. Satoko’s brother Satoshi also went missing around that time. While a drug addict had been convicted for the murder, it may be possible that Satoshi was the actual killer.

The fifth death was Jirou Tomitake. He clawed out his throat after apparently being attacked by several people. Tomitake’s death is suspected of being drug induced.

Miyo Takano was also murdered. She was strangled and then burned.

Every death has a pattern of one discovered death and one missing person. People in the village refer to the disappearances as the person being “demoned away”.

The villagers refer to the series of deaths as Oyashiro-sama’s curse due to the connections to the dam project. However, each new victim is less and less connected to the project. Tomitake had no connection at all, and Ooishi suspects the murderers are just targeting outsiders at this point.

Oyashiro-sama’s Curse and other mysteries

Rika Furude was found disemboweled outside Furude Shrine. The reason and perpetrator are unknown.

Poisonous gas erupted from Onigafuchi swamp enveloping the village and killing its residents. The disaster is neither natural nor divine in origin. The local environment is completely unharmed, implying the poison gas eruption is not true at all.

Rika predicted the series of murders and her own death. However, she did not foresee the destruction of the village.

Many relatives to the villagers went mad after the disaster and several died under mysterious circumstances.

One speculation is the villagers were infected by alien brain parasites and the disaster was a coverup by the government trying to eradicate them. While there is likely some coverup, the alien parasite theory was a story made by Takano.

The village was closed off for 20 years after the disaster.

Onigafuchi swamp was sealed with concrete early in the containment, supposedly to seal the poison gas.

The World as a whole:

Oyashiro is real, but their involvement in all this is unknown.

The world has been trapped in a loop for roughly 100 years.

Rika appears to be the only one aware of the loop.

Additional Speculations:

A group called "Tokyo" was behind the kidnapping incident in 1978. It has no affiliation with the Sonozakis or any major figures in the village.

One of the kidnappers in the incident is working as a gardener.

There are some loose affiliations that might tie Tokyo to Irie, Takano, and Tomitake but the true nature of that affiliation is unknown.

back

[apollos-boyfriend]

since your playing p5 whats your thoughts on the team members so far? :D

okay so! as a heads up i have already Experienced p5r so these r not initial thoughts necessarily. but i still want to rant about my favoritest kids <3 this got long so i'm putting it below the cut whoops ladkjf

ryuji! i fucking love ryuji man. i think a lot of people write him off as just the goofy sidekick character but he is SO much more to me. a lot of ryuji's trauma gets so overlooked due to the fact of him largely being comic relief, but like. that kid has gone through SO much!!!! between his father and kamoshida and his peers like. he is SO strong. i love his characterization of "people are treating me like a punk, i may as well act like it" bc it's not even him necessarily playing a role he isn't. he is a punk! he's disruptive and counter-cultural and has issues with authority. and that's punk, but also like, those are the parts of punk that society sees and demonizes. ryuji is punk not just because of that, but because he cares about others before all else and stands up for what's right no matter what, even if it means being punished for it, because he has a super strong sense of justice and is super protective over those he loves!! i feel like a lot of ryuji's character gets kind of. skipped over by a large majority of players. because his actions and presentation is very specific to fighting against japanese culture, meaning it gets lost in translation unless you're aware of japanese culture and norms. i love this boy so much <3

i have. a lot of thoughts on ann. largely her meta-treatment by the writers as opposed to her in-game self. you can find some ramblings if u scroll down my p5lb tag, bc i have. a Lot of thoughts on that aspect of her. on a lighter note, though, i fucking love ann. i think she also kind of falls into the mischaracterization of being ditzy at times. not as badly as ryuji, but ann is a very open character. she's extremely compassionate and wants to help everyone she possibly can, even at her own detriment at times, but as we're shown this sometimes leads her to being used by others. which i think leads to people making her just. overly trusting to a blind degree. or stupid. but ann is super smart! she immediately clocked that the painting was yusuke's, not madarame's, and is shown time and time again to be able to understand others' true feelings, even if they're trying to keep them hidden. i really like how she's blunt and honest, even if it comes off as harsh or insensitive. she speaks her mind! she's not going to hesitate and risk not being heard to understood! i really love that for her

i haven't gotten him yet BUT i am on madarame so. i will sneak in yusuke. because i love him. he is truly one of the characters ever. obviously he is one of The most autistic-coded characters in the game (alongside futaba). which is detrimental to an extent. bc people often just fully mischaracterize him due to his eccentricity. for me i just really love how unapologetic he is with it. that kid has never heard of masking in his life (/pos). he's one of the characters i feel for the most because like. god. he had his whole fucking world twisted. haru and makoto had similar experiences of people they'd known all their lives becoming corrupt, but like. haru's dad wasn't always like that. and neither was makoto's sister. they HAD good intentions. madarame never did. he's the closest to mirroring akechi in that sense, except akechi knew all along. yusuke didn't have that privilege. that sense of revenge. i think his story is so delicate and difficult because how do you even go about knowing your entire life was a lie? and not even in a way you can step away from. art was still his world. it's not just something he did for madarame. the knowledge of carrying that burden. of those memories that shaped you being corrupted in such a way.

morgana is there. i guess. wish he wasn't.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Waist like Willow

Here's the second one of these figs in this series, following up on yesterdays Die or Go.

This impressive testament to A-Xu's waist skills is of course from episode 7:

Not sure what I did to the sound in this, but you can definitely see the inspiration for this fig.

The set arrived with the base, A-Xu's straw hat (complete with handy chin-straps to keep it on during acrobatic events), and the bonus puzzle piece.

You can see that unlike the Lao Wen figure from yesterday, A-Xu has an indent for a base peg in his foot. To be fair, A-Xu is doing some pretty significant waist work in this scene! This is a good shot too of how complete the modeling is from a 360 degree angle all the way around. I really like how both this and the Lao Wen figure are fully-finished.

This is such a fun fig I took a lot of extra pics from all angles. We'll go with the top first...

Then the normal front on view. Very different than the usual! The peg holds him very securely, which I wasn't quite sure it would, just given the ultra-dynamic pose. But no, he's plenty stable.

I hadn't realized until after I had taken all these pics that I didn't have his foot quite pushed down all the way on the peg, so I went and firmly pressed him down just now.

Beautiful modeling on this. The fig maker did an incredible job on both these figs - I can't wait to get the rest of the figs in this line!

From the back. A-Xu's hat fits really well on his head too - I just pushed down the straps and strapped it right on. It's nice and secure.

Alright, now that we're done with the normal 4-sides and top and bottom shots, on we go with some different angles to get the full effect from this fig.

You can see how well the hat strap fits here.

A-Xu has his very serious face on here. He's not necessarily enjoying kicking ass, he's just doing what he has to do. That's ok, we're enjoying it enough for him!

I love this angle. The business end, so to speak!

Here's the extra puzzle piece bonus purchase for this set, in a larger version so you can see the artwork better:

He's looking very ethereal there. Here's the full set of puzzle pieces so far:

Wait, you say, why is there three puzzle pieces when you've only shown us two figs in this series?

Sharp eye, clever figthusiasts - that's because (very sadly) the fig maker canceled the top left fig set you see in the puzzle piece. It was supposed to be this delightful rendition of this behind the scenes moment:

The fig maker couldn't get the modeling to work out right, even after many tries. I certainly respect the maker canceling it rather than issue a sub-par product, but this is such a wonderful BTS moment that it's sad not to see it come to life!

The fig maker was kind enough to send along the puzzle piece (if you had ordered it with the fig) when the refund was issued for the fig, so that we could have a full set. I really appreciated that - I was already bummed out about the fig, so at least having the full puzzle set will be nice.

The box was less beat up than Lao Wen's box from yesterday's post, and has the same combo artwork from that one as well. I have absolutely seen some enterprising JZP posts with this (and other) poses on Weibo. I have a different pose plan in mind myself for this fig that I'll have to put together sometime for everyone's enjoyment.

Material: PVC for the fig, resin for the base

Fig Count: 207

Scene Count: 18 (this doesn't count as a scene either!)

Rating: Flexible like a willow branch and light as catkins

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[cryingforcrocodiles]

sometimes i'm curious at how lichantony get along with each other cause we all know antony was close with neres and licha with alvarez more, did they accidentally click with each other i don't even know, can yanited give us a bestfriend challenge or something for them so we can know about their relationship more

yes!! i wanna know how they talk to each other, if they hang out a lot, what's their degree of their friendship, and how close do they see their friendship, what they do when they hang out... is that weird kwdjsjsĺl. in general football friendships are so interesting to me bc some of the closest guys on a team can still be like "yeah, just coworkers us." and we'll never know bc we're only shown a specific side— gay football passion n such as like etc etc. but yessss pls i want a bff challenge with casemiro & rapha, sancho & marcus, bruno & dalot, garnacho & pellistri— malacia too!!! WE NEED MORE FUNNY MAN UTD CONTENT ADMINS. BE FUNNY PLEASE...

[etherbonded]

THE SWAN PRINCESS

@fukushn said: “ vengeance is what i believe in. ” Foolkechi at JusticeSumi

" Good. We're on the same page then aren't we? "

Sumire doesn't care to put up the falsities she normally does for people, not in front of someone who desires the very same thing as her, killing the bastard Shido Masayoshi. Sure it's for their own separate reasons but they still want to kill him nonetheless no? Someone who sees an enemy of hers as an enemy of theirs is someone she can get along just fine with without her innocent act.

" I must say though... you're certain you want to do this? I can't have someone being a loose end should they decide to chicken out on me after this point, so don't take this as me thinking you're weak because I know you're far from that, but more so asking if you want to keep going. There is no turning back if you say you're certain. Don't think I won't kill you if you try to cross me. " As much as she has... come to like him, it doesn't mean she'll hesitate to pull the cord and pop a bullet into him should he try anything funny or back out.

She's shown him trust to some degree afterall, and she doesn't take kindly to those who betray her trust.

[thetribulationsofteamdolor]

(Ask about) The Tribulations of Team Dolor | About

⟡ Rules

Just don't be a freak and we'll be a-okay (i.e. no intrusive or overtly strange asks, no powerplaying, etc, etc)

No NSFW/Fetish asks

Will only really interact with other Pokemon Blogs :) Humans unfortnately not

⟡ Content

This blog is PG15 due to containing/discussing the following content: Unsettling themes, Violence (and some gore), Death, Discussions of trauma and etc. Stuff will be tagged accordingly, when shown 👍

TToTD and the little universe it's set in is suppose to be basically a bit more darker and grimey than the actual PMD-verse, and lore will follow!

However, we're not just all misery and agony and aauguhhh misery and peril, I will be poking a lot of fun at Ekon and Moire and their ventures along the way!

No NSFW/Exclipit content to any degree on this blog! At most there will be a few ''suggestive'' (used very loosely) jokes

⟡ Lore

TToTD takes place in the PMD universe, although obviously with some addition and changes.

Wigglytuff's Guild, or the Dungeoneering Guild, has taken a new divison underneath its wing. The Mercernary Guild, less focussed on rescues and more with a focus on Outlaw wrangling and Bounty Hunting. Specifically; to take down the baddest of the bad, and the most dangerous of the dangerous. In the past decade, more outlaw organizations have been steadily growing, and becoming more dangerous and messy in the process. To the point where civilans are getting greatly affected and caught up in these turmoiled affiars. Lives are getting put at risk. The Merc's guildmaster, a mysterious figure simply called '"Epsilon" had brought the division to Wigglytuft himself. After some restless nights, and ceaseless negotions, the divison was created underneath Espilon's lead.

Those who join underneath the Mercernary Guild are given code-names for some sense of privacy from their personal life, as well as to not expel any direct information to whom they deem 'enemies'.

Ekon and Moire are currently partnered, in a team called Team Dolor. Find out what's going on with them and what their issues are here!

⟡ Notes

hii im a real person behind these silly characters, and please know that i got like. a life and stuff therefore! I'll be taking my time with things and this blog :) Wouldn't prefered to be rushed on anything

I am not very famailar with the pokeblog scene so like. y'know this is my first time trying stuff like this hope i don't make a massive fool of myself and everyone enjoys the ride

oh! also note: Moire and Ekon are suppose to be intentionally awful individuals. Their decisions and morals are purposefully finicky, and they can sometimes be depicted as exclipitly in the wrong despite what they think of themselves. The story's suppose to eventually see their development- but before they get better, they need to get worse!

[desultory-novice]

Long, serious post incoming!

One of the things that makes Magolor so appealing as a character is the way in which he "defrosts" over the course of the game.

He presents as a good, harmless, and quirky stranger that is easy to like. But of course, this is a mask. What we find out about the "true" Magolor on first glance, is that he's actually a greedy, manipulative villain who doesn't give a damn about people who helped him!

An awful story! If only it ended there... (You see what I did?)

But Magolor's manipulative traits are as much of a mask as his fun-loving good guy buddy side! He's neither completely altruistically giving of himself nor a complete arsehole. He's selfish and self-interested in his goals, yes, but he's able to recognize kindness.

It's just that his flaws mean he has trouble being honest with others (quite likely because he feels much less powerful, successful, and confident than he'd like to be) so he reacts defensively first. In his case, his method is to fake a smile (remember that the design team purposefully hid his mouth so we could only see half of his expression at any given time) and sprinkle in lies and false enthusiasm to protect his fragile ego by seeming "nice."

Magolor's melodramatic defensiveness is an exaggeration of some very real and very potent human flaws. Flaws we had never seen before in Kirby. King Dedede and Meta Knight, in their antagonist days, were more like Saturday morning cartoon villains. With big, silly flaws that you could either laugh along with or laugh at.

Magolor is more funny "...uh oh.." than funny "haha!" Especially because his flaws get him into so much trouble. (One of the beautiful things about the fact that he has a permanent smile once the Crown gets ahold of him is it emphasizes that what you see on the surface isn't always Magolor true feelings. He wouldn't REALLY be smiling in such a situation. So we're asked to consider what other things he said with his smiling eyes that he was secretly frowning about....)

Just like how his flaws are exaggerated, his punishment for his lying dishonesty is also exaggerated to the Nth degree. And yet, it's cathartic to see this play out. In certain theatre traditions, the makeup the actors wear is actually rather ugly from up close. Because it's not meant to be seen up-close. From a distance though, this dramatic makeup allows you to make out the evocative expressions of the actors you wouldn't see otherwise.

From the safe distance of fiction, we can watch Magolor get his ugly and immediate "comeuppance" for what happens when you're a hu~ge jerk to people just trying to help you. Such that, while none of us would (hopefully) ever go through what he went through, the message we receive from across the screen is more subtle.

"If you'd only stopped and turned around before you did that bad thing..." "You should have just asked for help instead of hurting them..." "They would have been your friends, you know..."

And thankfully, his story doesn't just end with, "and then the bad man exploded and everyone was happy again!" (Well, the end movie almost gives you that impression! XD ) But again, there's subtlety there. Magolor isn't just the bad example to show you what not to do.

Because his suffering is portrayed as so cruel and unusual, he is made shockingly empathetic. Such that we are not just shown the steps to take if we don't want to end up like him, we're shown that the people who've done us wrong might have just been horribly clumsy at human interaction like him.

They might also be feeling immense amounts of regret and are unable to say it. Or don't feel like they deserve an apology or would ever have theirs accepted. Their own personal "crown" (their thoughts) muffling their ability to say "I'm sorry" or "I need help."

Eventually, through a powerful combination of getting help from others AND helping himself, Magolor able to rise above and remake himself, winding up on a far happier path. And the best part is? Even then, he's STILL not "perfect!"

Manager Magolor likes his surprises and his slightly off-putting jokes. Because...it's not possible to rid oneself of all their flaws. To be flawed is to be human. Pursuing perfect isn't a feasible goal. (Perfection on a human level is not even definable...) We can't even pursue "perfect" happiness. But we can pursue contentment – with who we are now compared to who we were in the past.

As a character, he is the lesson, the solution, and the ideal all in one.

That is one of the many reasons I love him so much.

...

...

...Also, he is just SOOOO cute?! His little egg-like body! The way he talks in those little chirpy noises? How animated he is?! His flair for the dramatic?! Even his color scheme! Those are all great too!

Honest question for Magolor Fans, why do you like him so much? I wanna hear your opinions.