#when the story would actually take place is like 1999 or 2000

[nachosforfree]

so like now that killer cc and killer charlie are now killer cass and killer lottie, what's the lore? do they exist in the same universe? did ryan force cass into killing becky or did something different happen? how is lottie a robot? what changed when the aus shifted into oc stories and what stayed the same?

Okay so yes they exist in the same universe. Killer Charlie (Lottie) is twins with killer cc au Charlie (Chris), and the twins were friends with the Reyes kids (previously CC, Elizabeth, and Michael but now are Cassidy, Becky, and Ryan). Their dads (Elijah Morris and Marley Reyes) were both engineers, and Marley liked experimenting with different methods of robotics. He frequently made little toys for the kids, but he was also working on a more violent "security" bot (which is sort of like a mix of fnaf's Circus Baby and the Mimic?).

Since they were so used to his creations being kid friendly, Becky took the twins and Cassidy down to Marley's workshop in their basement, to see his new bot. It attacked them and took Lottie. Marley shut if off and retrieved Lottie's body. He wasn't sure what to do but then the bot turned back on and started speaking like Lottie. Marley was like "oh OK. I guess she's in the robot now. This Is Fine" (this is subject to change I don't have Everything figured out yet. Marleys' role will probably be more malicious/intentional when it comes to the robot's violence)

Basically he tells Elijah what happened and Elijah is like "What! The fuck!" But doesn't do anything yet

Ryan's the oldest Reyes kid and he is a dick. He bullies the younger kids a lot and this leads to both of the things that happen to Becky and Cass. One night when Marley's out, Ryan goes to hang out with his friends, and takes Cass while leaving Becky at home (since Cass is more boy-adjacent). Becky begs to go with him because she's afraid to be so close to their father's workshop after what happened to Lottie, but he ignores her

Unfortunately, that's the night Elijah decides to go get the robot so he can have his daughter back. Becky let's him in the house and tells him where the robot is. He asks her to show him exactly, which she is apprehensive to do since, again, she's afraid of it now, but she does. When they get to the basement, Elijah inspects the robot and sees how it works, turns it on etc. Becky asks him if he's mad at her for what happened. He says no, that it isn't her fault, that it's all Marley's. She doesn't deserve what's going to happen, but Marley did take Elijah's own little girl too.

Becky is like "hey wtf do you mean by that" and Elijah steps back as the robot jumps forwards and attacks Becky. Then he takes it and disappears

When I say disappears I mean he leaves town entirely, takes his and Lottie's things and just leaves. He dropped Chris off at his sister's house before the whole ordeal and told her to take care of her for him

At the same time, Ryan and his friends and Cass are out in a different neighborhood. They found a big dog fenced in a yard and are provoking it, seeing how riled up they can get it (well, Cass isn't. He wants to go home). Ryan tells Cass to go pet the dog, Cass doesn't want to because it looks angry. Ryan and his friends start making fun of Cass, calling him a scaredy cat and stuff. Eventually Cass hops the fence and approaches the dog. Of course, the dog is riled up and angry, so it jumps at Cass and bites him in the face, hard. Ryan immediately realizes how stupid this was and hops the fence too to get Cass away from the dog, and the dogs owner comes out. They get the dog separated from Cass and the owner calls for an ambulance, because the dog pretty much mauled Cass

Cass survives but is heavily scarred from the incident, and when Marley gets home he finds Becky's body. A pretty terrible night for everyone involved.

Very similarly to the killer cc au, a few months later Marley gets Cass to kill Ryan in revenge

The killer cc au's story/lore hasn't changed much except the method of the bite, but the killer swap au has quite a bit (Elijah's treatment of Lottie after her becoming a robot has stayed pretty similar though)

Like a decade after everything happened, Lottie manages to worm her way away from Elijah and finds her way back to the hometown. Cass is a serial killer ala Scream, who's current target is Chris (he has a weird thing about her. Its hard to explain but since shes the only kid who wasnt scathed in the incidents that had happened he kind of gained an obsession around her? Weirdo). They find each other and Lottie's like "Yeah I ran away but my dad is probably going to come looking for me" and Cass is like "I fucking hate my dad. Hey you wanna team up? If you help me kill your sister and my dad, I'll help you kill your dad" and she's like "sure"

Sorry if this is long-winded and incoherent I'm terrible at explaining things and not everything is fully fleshed out yet but I love these guys and they have taken up my brain space

[project-sekai-facts]

Only one date is ever mentioned in-game, that being 2021. Considering that the Virtual Singer Fan Festa seems to be a stand-in for Magical Mirai 2021, we can assume that the Scramble Fan FESTA! event takes place in September 2021 (the real-life MM2021 was delayed to November due to covid-19, but the pandemic doesn't exist in-universe and MM Tokyo usually takes place at the beginning of September). There are Leo/need Daily Life social media posts that show them attending Magical Mirai, and do state the year of the event, but these can be considered promotional material for the event itself rather than canon material, especially since the characters address in-game that only one year has passed since the start of the story (despite the fact they have celebrated new year's day 4 times now. Timeloop things).

Based on this date, we can actually place exactly when every main character was born. The cutoff date for Japanese schools is April 1st, making Ena the oldest main character, being a 3rd year with a birthday of April 30th, followed by Tsukasa on May 17th, so on so forth all the way down to Kohane, a 2nd year with a birthday of March 2nd.

Considering when Scramble Fan FESTA is set, Ena, who was a 2nd year at the time, would be 17 years old. That would place her date of birth as April 30th, 2004. Additionally, while Kohane, a first year at the time, should be 15 during the event, the game considers her to be 16 due to using a set age for every grade bracket. Regardless, the event setting places her date of birth as March 2nd, 2006.

Based on this, we can conclude that:

Ena, Tsukasa, Rui, and Shizuku were born in 2004

Mafuyu, Kanade, Airi, Minori, Saki, Toya, Nene, An, Ichika, Mizuki, Emu, Haruka, Honami, and Akito were born in 2005

Shiho and Kohane were born in 2006

This also means that Ena, Tsukasa and Rui are all older than the MEIKO software (released November 5th 2004), and everyone except Kohane is older than the KAITO software (released February 17th 2006). Every main character is older than Miku, the Kagamines, and Luka based on this information.

Using the information around set ages*, we can also work out rough estimates for when the side characters were born. For example, Arata, who was 19 during the first 3 years of the game, is 3 years older than the members of VBS who were all considered to be 16. Since the members of VBS were born in the April 2005 - April 2006 school year range, Arata was likely born in the 2002-2003 school year range.

* based on how characters like Youta and Miu, who are said to be the same age as Leo/need, were both confirmed to be 16 years old before the 3rd anniversary age-up. Also Haruka's age is confirmed as 16 at a point in time when she shouldn't be 16. Timeloop things.

Based on this, the oldest living side character, Kounosuke, who was 55 pre-3rd anniversary and 39 years older than Emu, was probably born between April 1966 and April 1st 1967. On the younger side of things, Hanano, who was 14 pre-3rd anni, was likely born between April of 2007 and 2008. I've put the rest of the estimated side character DOBs under the cut.

assumed age as of 3rd anniversary in brackets (literally just pre-age-up age + 1)

Rakunosuke Otori - April 2nd 1922 ~ April 1st 1923 (98 (at time of death. would be 100 if still alive))

Kounosuke Otori - April 2nd 1966 ~ April 1st 1967 (56)

Jean Riley - 1967~1968 (55)

Harumichi Aoyagi - 1968~1969 (54)

Shin'ei Shinonome - 1973~1974 (49)

Mr Yoisaki - 1975~1976 (47)

Ken Shiraishi - 1978~1979 (44)

Taiga Kotaki - 1978~1979 (44)

Mrs Asahina - 1980~1981 (42)

Yoshiki Shindou - 1982~1983 (40)

Yuuka Kazamatsuri - 1990~1991 (32)

Keisuke Otori - 1991~1992 (31)

Shousuke Otori - 1994~1995 (28)

Daigo Kijima - 1994~1995 (28)

Tatsuya Okazaki - 1999~2000 (23)

Yuuki Akiyama - 1999~2000 (23)

Ayaka Saito - 2001~2002 (21)

Hinata Otori - 2001~2002 (21)

Iori - 2002~2003 (20)

Mio - 2002~2003 (20)

Arata Tono - 2002~2003 (20)

Souma Miyata - 2002~2003 (20)

Asahi Genbu - 2003~2004 (19)

Kotaro Mita - 2004~2005 (18)

Sakurako Seiryuin - 2004~2005 (18)

Nanami "Nanamin" Hayakawa - 2004~2005 (18)

Futaba Natsuno - 2004~2005 (18)

Arisa Higure - 2004~2005 (18)

Ayumi Tabata - 2004~2005 (18)

Hibiki Miyake - 2004~2005 (18)

Shuuta Hayashi - 2004~2005 (18)

Ibuki Taniyama - 2004~2005 (18)

Yuina Uchiyama - 2005~2006 (17)

Shouta Hayashi - 2005~2006 (17)

Miu Takagi - 2005~2006 (17)

Youta Yoshizaki - 2005~2006 (17)

Riho Hasegawa - 2005~2006 (17)

Saku Kousaka - 2005~2006 (17)

Mai - 2006~2007 (16)

Hanano Yoshizaki - 2007~2008 (15)

Additional notes (mod is rambling atp):

Rakunosuke died when he was 98 years old. In the WxS main story, Emu says that he died a year ago. Assuming Emu was 15 at the time, they have an age gap of around 83 years. The year of birth listed here was based on that assumption.

We know that Kanade's mother died aged 30, but we do not know when she died. She is still alive in flashbacks set roughly 10 years prior to the events of game.

In the third fanbook, ages were given for Mrs Asahina, Shindou, Yuuki, Asahi, and Arisa as one year less than they are given in this post. The reason for me adding a year on is because of the confirmation in a livestream of Daigo's age being 27. Daigo is meant to be the same age as Shousuke, whose age was given as 27 prior to the 3rd anniversary. When his age was provided on stream, he was grouped with the 5 I mentioned earlier. Based on this we can assume that all their ages are taken from the same time frame, i.e, pre-3rd anni (and this also confirms that NPCs inexplicably don't age but we'll ignore that for continuity reasons).

We do not have confirmed ages for Nagi, Reki, Sakaki, Ohara, MMJ's landlady, Mafuyu's father, Hiiragi, or the members of ReLight yet

Rui suggests that Reki is the same age as him in A Story Where You Are The Star while talking about both him and Asahi in the same sentence. Asahi was since confirmed as 18/19, so it is likely that Reki is also around that age.

Nagi's age is left blank in the fanbook due to it not being revealed that she was dead at the time of publication. She is younger than Taiga, but we don't know by how much, but nonetheless she was likely born in the early 1980s. It is unlikely we will ever know her exact age.

Ohara is stated to be in his mid-30s, placing his birth year as somewhere in the 1980s, likely around 1986-1989. Sakaki is an old college friend of Ohara's, so he is likely a similar age.

No NPCs are given exact birthdays

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

"It’s more than sales – it inspired an entire generation of young girls to know they had a place in heavy music." Inside Fallen: the album that turned Evanescence into instant 21st century metal superstars

No rock band had an explosive a rise in the 2000s as Evanescence. This is the story of their classic debut album

Evanescence’s Amy Lee was at one of the many awards ceremonies she attended back in the first half of the 2000s when she was approached by a fan. This wasn’t unusual in itself, except this fan happened to be rapper and mogul P. Diddy.

“He said, ‘I love your album, I listen to it when I work out’,” Amy tells Hammer today. “And I was like ‘Really? That’s awesome!’ That was surprising to me. You know who I am? That’s weird.” Weird is right. Just a couple of years earlier, Amy had been a shy, aspiring singer and songwriter who had played no more than a handful of times with the band she’d co-founded as 13-year-old almost a decade earlier. And now here she was, getting star-spotted by hip hop A-listers at swanky awards ceremonies.

“What do they call that thing? Imposter syndrome!” she recalls today. “I definitely felt like I’d snuck in the back door and somehow got to go to the Grammys. Like, ‘I’m not supposed to be here and people do not know who we are and this is a prank.’ I think part of that is just it all happening so fast and being so young.”

The reason for the attention was down to the blockbusting success of Evanescence’s debut album, Fallen. Originally released in March 2003, and about to be reissued as a deluxe 20th anniversary edition, Fallen appeared at the tail-end of the nu metal boom. It offered a gothier, more dramatic take on that sound, which bridged nu metal and both the rising symphonic metal and emo scenes. It would go on to sell more than 10 million copies in the US alone, turning Amy Lee into an icon and role model for a generation of young, female fans.

Amy describes the young, pre-Evanescence version of herself as “a little bit shy”. Earlier this year, she told Hammer’s sister magazine, Classic Rock, that the death of her younger sister, Bonnie, when Amy was six, was a catalyst for “this soul, spirit- searching, expression mode”, which would eventually manifest itself in music. She wrote her first song aged 12, and others quickly followed. “I wrote plenty of songs that were crap,” she says with a laugh. “You just haven’t heard them.”

Things became more serious when she met future Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody in 1994 at a Christian Youth Camp in Little Rock, Arkansas, where her family had moved to a few years earlier. She was 13 and Ben a year older, though the two decided they could make music together. Amy describes their initial endeavours as “more like an electronic duo, like Massive Attack” than an actual band, though some of their early songs would end up on Fallen, including Imaginary, Whisper and My Immortal.

The nascent Evanescence didn’t play a gig for nearly six years, partly because of their youth, and partly because they wanted to concentrate on honing the songs they were writing. “The live part for me at that time just wasn’t my focus,” she shrugs. “I wanted to make stuff.”

Their first release was a self-titled debut EP that came out in 1998 via local label Bigwig, followed by another EP, Sound Asleep, the following year (both featured songs that appeared on Fallen). They’d played a few a low-key acoustic shows in their early days, but their first proper, plugged-in show was at a bar named Vinos in Little Rock on January 2, 1999, less than a month after Amy turned 17.

“It was difficult to be on stage at first,” she says. “I had to really work at being a good performer. I remember the first time we played a gig and four people knew the chorus to one of our dumb little songs,” she adds, self-effacingly trailing off.

It was an early version of My Immortal that caught the attention of Diana Meltzer, head of A&R at Wind-up Records, in 2001. Amy had just enrolled in college to study music theory composition when she got the message that Wind-up were interested in Evanescence - essentially herself and Ben.

“I still wanted to make music, but I was going to study so that maybe one day I could work on film scores as a backup plan,” she says. “We got signed three months in. I had one semester of school. I literally went from graduating high school to moving to LA and making our album in a year and a half.”

Producer Dave Fortman can remember the first time he heard Amy Lee sing Bring Me To Life in the studio. The guitarist in 1990s rockers Ugly Kid Joe pivoted to production after the 1997 break-up of that band, working with the likes of Superjoint Ritual and Crowbar before signing on to produce the debut album by an unknown band from Arkansas called Evanescence. After listening to their demo, he jumped at the chance to work with them. And then came the moment when Amy began singing in the studio.

“Amy was in the booth and this voice just came out,” Dave tells Hammer. “My engineer, who has worked with some of the biggest names in music bar none, turned to me with his jaw on the floor and said, 'Goddamn! This girl can sing.’ You just forgot where you were, you weren’t working anymore, you were just in awe of her. They were the most talented people in their age I’d ever been in contact with.”

The Evanescence that recorded Fallen was Amy and Ben, plus keyboard player/string arranger/co-songwriter David Hodges (who joined the band in 1999) and an array of session musicians, including future Guns N’ Roses/Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese. Dave Fortman estimates the album cost around $250,000 to make – a sizeable sum now, but relatively modest at a time when seven-figure budgets weren’t uncommon (Korn’s 2002 album Untouchables reportedly cost $4 million). Some of that budget went on the real-life orchestra that Amy insisted on using for many of the songs – a bold move for a new band, when an electronic recreation would have been cheaper.

“None of us were ever going to back down on that,” says Dave Fortman. “It had to be that way or it wasn’t going to work. We recorded the orchestra in Seattle where they have no union, so it was cheaper. If we’d have known it was going to smash in the way it did, hell yeah, we would have just recorded them in LA!”

Evanescence didn’t get everything their way. Bring Me To Life, which addressed Amy’s feelings of numbness while in an abusive relationship,  was augmented by the inclusion of rapper Paul McCoy in an attempt to appeal to the nu metal market - a decision that went  against the band’s wishes. “I was so scared in the beginning that we were going forward with something  that wasn’t a perfectly honest picture of who we were,” Amy told Metal Hammer earlier this year. “But it didn’t last long. After a few songs, the mainstream was able to hear more than the one song and it was like, ‘OK, they at least sort of get what we are.’”

Advance expectations for Fallen were modest when it was released on March 4, 2003. “If it had gone gold [500,000 copies], we’d have A all been delighted with that,” says Dave Fortman. As it turned out, the album smashed it, selling more than 140,000 copies in its first week of release alone and reaching No.7 in the US Billboard charts. Bring Me To Life was a huge factor in that success. Like My Immortal, the song made its first appearance on the big- budget, Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil movie, which hit cinemas a few months before Fallen came out. 

When it was released as a single in its own right, accompanied by an expensive-looking urban-gothic video that saw a nightdress- clad Amy somnambulantly climbing the side of a tower block, like a cross between a character from an Anne Rice novel and a comic book superhero, Wind-up reps had to beg radio stations to play it (“A chick with piano on a rock station?” was a common response). Those that did air it soon found their phone lines jammed with people who wanted to know what it was that they’d just heard. It entered the US Top 10 and did even better in the UK, where it reached No.1.

Bring Me To Life and subsequent singles Going Under and My Immortal put wind in Fallen’s sails. Those 140,000 sales shot upwards at a vertiginous rate: within a month, it had sold more than a million copies in the US alone. By the middle of 2004, it had reached seven million (in 2022, Fallen was awarded a diamond certificate for US sales of more than 10 million). The speed of the ascent left Amy Lee dazed. “There was just so much going on,” she says, exhaling. “I don’t know if I got to focus on it that hard at the time.” 

The label wanted to get Evanescence out on the road to capitalise on that initial success. A touring band was assembled around Amy and Ben – guitarist John LeCompt, drummer Rocky Gray and bassist Will Boyd were recruited to back them. Their rise as a live band was equally dizzying. The day Fallen was released, Evanescence headlined the 200-capacity Engine Room in Houston, Texas. Three months later, they made their first UK appearance playing the Main Stage at the inaugural Download festival, sandwiched between Stone Sour and Mudvayne. Two weeks after that, they returned to the UK to headline a sold-out show at London’s prestigious Astoria.

Inevitably, given the scale and velocity of Evanescence’s success, it didn’t take long for the backlash to kick in. Amy was the focus of much of the criticism, with the barbs ranging from the petty (one magazine questioned her goth credentials) to the outright misogynistic (she was painted as a diva with absolutely nothing to back it up other than the fact she was a woman). Evanescence themselves were perceived by some of their detractors as nothing more than a cynical marketing experiment; the phrase “Linkin Park with a girl singer” appeared a depressing number of times back then, which diminished the decade or so Amy and Ben had invested in their band and music.

“I felt a lot like people wanted to see me fail, especially in the beginning,” Amy says. “I think it’s partially that they want to see if you’re the real thing, and when you shoot up so fast and you have a lot of success really quickly, I think there’s a little bit of a human nature thing that wants to poke a hole in that. I felt on the defence, I felt misunderstood – I’ve got a badass, bitchy look on my face on the album cover, so obviously I must be some kind of bitch.”

Amy was just 21 when Fallen was released, and the criticism took a toll on her. “It was hard as a young person to feel misunderstood,” she reflects today. Things became even more complicated when Ben left acrimoniously in October 2003, just six months after the release of Fallen, with creative differences cited at the time as the reason for the split (in 2010, he admitted to trying to force the singer out of the band they had founded together).

“I felt frustrated,” says Amy. “I wanted to hide a bit in that initial aftermath. People always wanted to attach me to drama, like Ben leaving the band. All of that was trying to be made to make me look bad, like it’s my fault or, ‘Well now it’s going to suck because she didn’t actually do any of the work, obviously all the men behind her did all the writing and the creation.’ It just made me angry a lot.”

The criticism and fractured personal relationships may have been difficult to deal with, but the impact Evanescence had was undeniable. Fallen landed at a transitional time for metal. By 2003, nu metal was on a downward trajectory creatively and commercially, with scene heavyweights Korn and Limp Bizkit both releasing dud albums in the shape of Take A Look In The Mirror and Results May Vary respectively. The New Wave Of American Heavy Metal was bubbling up, but it didn’t possess the same kind of mainstream crossover potential.

Fallen was different. Nu metal may have been in its DNA, but so was goth and electronic music. It was heavy enough for metal fans but it was also dramatic and heartfelt enough to draw in the emo crowd and pop fans alike. The soaring piano ballad My Immortal, with its narrative of a grieving relative haunted by the spirit of the family member they’re mourning, and Going Under, another song detailing the feelings of hopelessness that come from suffering in an abusive relationship, were unquestionably dark, but Evanescence wrapped them up in ear-worm hooks and gothic allure, while Amy’s presence imbued them with a distinctly feminine spirit that was a world away from nu metal’s over-testosteroned aggro.

The broad-church appeal of Fallen was reflected in the range of musicians who garlanded it with praise. Over the years, it’s been cited as an inspiration by everyone from Lzzy Hale and The Pretty Reckless’s Taylor Momsen to pop star Kelly Clarkson. Björk praised Evanescence and so, more surprisingly, did Lemmy, a man not known for his love of goth-tinged ballads.

“They’re fucking excellent,” said the late Motörhead frontman when asked for his view of the band. Even more significant – and noticeable – was the devotion Evanescence, and Amy in particular, almost instantly inspired among fans, especially female ones. The look she sported in music videos, magazine photo shoots and TV interviews – goth-style corsets, black and red eye make-up - was taken up by countless rock club kids up and down the country.

But arguably the most lasting impact Fallen has had is musical. It marked a changing of the guard: not just the end of nu metal, but the beginning of the rise of symphonic metal. Bands such as Nightwish and Within Temptation released albums before Fallen, making sizable waves in mainland Europe, but Evanescence put a distinctly American spin on it, turbocharging symphonic metal’s rise on the back of Fallen’s success. Even now, Amy’s too modest to acknowledge the influence that Fallen had.

“People are always asking me that question: ‘What is it about that album that resonated with people so much?’” she says. “I don’t know. Some of it’s just out of your control. At that age and that time in my life, I don’t think I would have given myself that credit.”

Dave Fortman is far more forthright on the subject. “Did I notice it?!” he says. “How could you not?! That’s what happens when you become, not just a big band, but an icon. She truly changed things. All those symphonic bands that came in their wake? They’re all Amy’s children.”

Fallen helped turn Evanescence into one of the biggest bands of the 21st century. They beat superstar rapper 50 Cent to the award for Best New Artist at the 2004 Grammy Awards (Bring Me To Life also took the trophy for Best Hard Rock Performance). To date, the record has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide – only Adele, Eminem, Norah Jones, Lady Gaga and Linkin Park released albums that have sold more during that time.

Dave calls Fallen “a life- changing album”. He explains: “It’s more than sales – it inspired an entire generation of young girls to know they had a place in heavy music. To show they didn’t have to ever compromise.” It’s a sentiment Amy shares as she looks back at the shy 21-year-old of 2003.

“It was crazy, it was awesome,” she says. “But there was a lot for me that was going on personally, turmoil and relationships within our band. It was just this wild time where so many things that felt huge were happening at the same time. Did it change the musical landscape? I don’t know. But it inspired somebody for something good, it made them walk back from the edge, feel their self-worth in some way. I think it’s truly a gift and a blessing in my life.”

Originally printed in Metal Hammer #381

[gallawitchxx]

heeeheeehooohoooo, i was tagged to do this AU GAME by @creepkinginc @metalheadmickey & @energievie -- who all had brilliant ideas for stories! HOW FUN!

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rules (more or less):

use this au generator to assign you an au, this fan fiction trope generator to give you a trope/situation/sometimes another au, feel free to keep clicking until you get something that inspires you. then try to come up with the title, plot, vibe, and details of a fic including whatever the generators gave you. you don’t actually have to write it, just put the concept into the world! this is basically just a thought experiment.

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au generator gave me: 2000s AU

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fic trope generator gave me: have one of your characters get home way too late and the other character has been pacing and worrying all night.

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title: Y2K Mayday

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let's plot:

[[ as much as i would like for this to be a multi-chap, this is a one-shot, let's be real. i also basically wrote it lol so i'm throwing it under a cut! ]] the year is 1999. mickey & ian are roommates.

they both moved out of their family homes for same, same, but different reasons. mickey just finished a prison stint & wanted to stay as far the fuck away from terry as humanly possible. ian's getting back on his feet after his latest episode & is ready to try his hand at recovery when there aren't a million gallaghers checking in every couple of minutes. ian picked a two-bedroom apartment in a neighborhood that's still technically the southside, but it inching towards something nicer. he thinks that mandy's going to move in with him, but then she gets some job opportunity/sugar daddy a few states over, so at the last minute, she sends mickey to move into the room she was supposed to take. they keep their distance at first. just two guys, going about their days, figuring their shit out, sharing a roof. they don't need to be friends, they just need to not kill each other when one of them forgets to swap out the toilet paper roll. but then, little things start happening. an impromptu movie night over a shared batch of mickey's precious pizza rolls... ian picks up mickey's favorite beer on his grocery run, putting it front & center in the fridge so he won't miss it... they both start picking up around the place, trying to get the other one to notice how many unprompted chores they both have done... ian starts to wonder... he obviously thinks mickey's hot. he has eyes & a dick that takes an interest whenever mickey's bending over to snag something out of the oven. & yeah, he's heard things from mandy that would lead him to believe he's not barking up the wrong tree. but mickey's not out out & ian's not going to just bring it up in casual conversation unless he's also prepared to get his face bashed in. cut to: New Year's Eve. ian's at the gallagher house for a party. he doesn't know what mickey's plans are. he tried to ask him about it, but mickey kept dodging the question. maybe he's working? surely the club that he's a bouncer at is having some big event. but why wouldn't he just say that? ...maybe he had a date that he didn't want to tell ian about? fuck, that boils his blood. it makes his skin crawl, thinking about mickey kissing someone else on new year's eve. starting a new fucking millennium doing anything other than bouncing on ian's cock... it's almost 2am, a fine time to still be out on new year's, but suddenly ian can't imagine being anywhere else but with mickey. he's gotta get home! NOW! his legs shake the whole L ride. what if he gets home & mickey has someone over? what if he's not even there & ian just has to nurse his broken heart alone in an empty apartment? what if mickey is there. but he laughs in ian's face at the very mention of them being together as more than roommates & occasional movie buds? somehow, he manages to get to their apartment. he opens the door to find mickey biting his thumb nail & pacing around the living room. "mick?" "what the fuck, gallagher?! do you have any idea what time it is? where've you been?" "fiona threw a party. what's going on?" "shit..." he swipes a nervous hand down his face. chuckles a litte. "i'm a fucking idiot. you didn't come home. thought something happened to you..." "it's new year's eve." "yeah man, i know. guys at the club were talking about fucking Y2K... i dunno, got all in my head." "aw mickey, you were worried about me!" "was not." "you just admitted it! plus, you're burning a hole in the carpet." "whatever." as ian approaches, he notices the blush on mickey's cheeks. he wants to see that flush cover a whole lot more than just his pretty face. & something tells him that he might just get his wish... "sorry i missed midnight." THEY SMOOOOOCH! THE END!

[lej222]

Hey! One of the anons said that their high school entrance exams will take place in November or December? So i googled a bit and found that south korea's College entrance exam take place in that time. And their final year has started on March. So isn’t the year gonna end in next year February? I am also telling this cuz Jisu has transferred in baekjae in 1998 april and their third year started 1999 march. So it’s a one year period. Jisu has transferred when their second year firsr semester started and Cheol has transferred in 1998 October. They said earlier that cheol has transferred in the middle of second semester. So even if the story finishes with their middle school graduation isn’t it like in February 2000?

Thank you for reminding me about graduation because it's hard keeping in mind the differences in other countries! You're right, middle school graduation is in February, I forgot about that. So it would be more precise to say that I think the main story will end with their last day of school in December 1999. In that case, the graduation could be an epilogue or flashforward! Winter break actually starts in December around Christmas and depending on the school, it can last until late January/early February.

So in September the new school period starts,

in October they will have mid-terms,

and in December they will probably have the final exams. I guess the entrance exam should be around this time as well.

Right now it's late July, the beginning of summer break so I wonder if the story will cover all the months until December or something unexpected happens.

[nysocboy]

Gemstones Episode 3.1, Continued: Kelvin withholds sex, Judy cheats, Jesse fights, and Eli grifts

This is the G-rated version of the review, with no nudity or explicit discussions of sexual behavior

The Book Signing: Eli is at a bookstore, signing copies of his "definitive autobiography" -- his third. Did you mention having a gay son?  Suddenly May-May, who attacked his wife Aimee-Leigh back in 2000, hands him one of his earlier books: Y2K: When the World Goes Dark. 

In 1999. many claimsmakers worried that computers were only set up for the 1900s, so on January 1, 2000, they would all reset. Bank accounts would empty; airplanes would fall from the sky; the world would descend into chaos. Some evangelists, like Eli Gemstone, made money by connecting the Y2K bug with end-time prophecies.

Eli is not happy to see his May-May -- he has a restraining order against her. But she needs his help.  Wait -- you storm in and throw his old book at him to ask for help?  

Marital Squabbles: A commercial: after a montage of heterosexual couples arguing and then being deliriously happy, Amber introduces her System (stupid name): for $500, you get a jar and some beads.  Every time you disagree, you put a bead in the jar.  Or go to Wal-Mart and buy the set-up for $10. She is surrounded by a group of ladies in white who look rather like Mormon sister-wives.

Cut to Judy's husband BJ at the Gemstone Welcome Center, talking to a group of potential church members about how to get their tithes automatically deducted from their bank accounts. Judy, feeling guilty about withholding sex, brings him some gifts and tells him what a great husband he is, BJ thinks that things are a little off in their marriage, but Judy gaslights him: "Things are fine. Why are you being weird?"  Check out his hot-pink ruffled outfit, part of the ongoing joke that couple is gender-transgressive, with Judy as the masculine partner, and BJ the feminine.

The Dildo Barbecue: Jesse drops by as Keefe is melting down some weird phallic objects on the grill in the back yard. When he asks what they are burning, Kelvin, morosely lying on the diving board of the pool, responds "Devils' objects."

Why is he morose?  The last we saw of him was at Dusty Daniels' racetrack. But this scene is coming after two marital problem scenes, so we have to conclude that we just missed a "Things are fine.  Why are you being so weird?" conversation. 

There is a nude woman on the urn pedestal next to them.  Apparently Kelvin and Keefe are too closeted for back yard sculptures with nude men.

Keefe is wearing a BDSM fetish outfit: several chokers, a slave collar with padlock, a vinyl top with built-in pecs and abs, and vinyl pants (I think). This again suggests that something has gone wrong. He wanted "cuddling," but Kelvin refused, ordering him to burn some sex toys instead -- destroy some penises?   

Notice that while Kelvin and Jesse are discussing their anxiety over leading the church, Keefe grabs a toy to use for anal sex from the pile, tries to hide it, and brings it into the house.  

Aha!  Kelvin is specifically refusing to take the passive role in anal sex.  

We cut to the reason Judy has been withholding sex with BJ: she is having an affair with her guitarist, Stephen (Stephen Schneider, top photo and left).  

Trigger alert: they engage in a quasi-sexual act to disgusting to describe here.

Since the couples' stories are usually parallel, viewers may conclude that Kelvin, too, is having an affair.  Actually, he is not -- yet.  Then why is he withholding sex? 

Unless you are asexual and work something out, romantic partners must balance eros and phileo.  Eros, sexual desire, leads to that intimacy, intensity, and passion that keeps the couple focused on each other. Phileo, friendship, keeps the couple focused on the outside world, leading to discussions of art, music, or sports, placing them in a friendship group, a family, and a society.

Last season Kelvin tried to eliminating the phileo, being all about sex. Every word, every image evoked the homoerotic. His physique, butt, and bulge were constantly on display, presenting him as the Messiah of Muscle, leading his followers to a paradise of masculine beauty. Until it didn't work: you can't build a society, or a romantic relationship, on sex alone.

This season he seems to be eliminating the eros, withholding sex, or maybe permitting "fooling around" only -- no smut, no lust, no coconuts.  We see no pecs, no butt, no bulge this season -- not until Episode 3.8, when he realizes that this won't work, either.  The problem is, a romance without physical intimacy looks and feels very much like a platonic friendship, until eventually you wonder if you are really in love at all.

More Stephen after the break

Back to Judy: as she and her fling Stephen smooch, Jesse and Kelvin come in!  Caught in the act!  They are disgusted, especially Kelvin: "Y'all are a pair of dirtbags!"  

Jesse is more worried about how the scandal will affect the church. They fire Stephen; he skulks off. 

The Church of the Wilderness:  Eli visits May-May at the Church of the Wilderness, where her husband Peter used to hold Pentecostal-type snake-handling services.  She explains that she's living there now.  After Peter "went away," the bank took the house, and her sons turned "mean, bitter."  Now Peter is out, and they've joined him, doing something illegal, maybe stockpiling guns or drugs.  

Big reveal: May-May is Eli's younger sister!  (Actually, she appears in Episode 2.1, a flashback to 1968, but who remembers?).  He promises to help the boys.

Background note: The Church in the Wilderness is probably a reflection of the hymn "The Church in the Wildwood," written by William S. Pitts in 1857, and recorded by several country-western singers, including Dolly Parton.

There's a church in the valley by the wildwood

No lovelier spot in the dale

No place is so dear to my childhood

As the little brown church in the vale

The "Little Brown Church" in Nashua, Iowa, built in response to the song, is still a tourist attraction.  They no longer hold regular services, but you can get married there -- gay couples included.

Cocks and Penis Pumps:  As with Episode 2.1, we conclude with four interspliced scenes.

As Jesse prayers for victory over "those who would destroy us."  Judy comes home after the siblings discover her secret affair and finds BJ working out with a video game.  She takes off the visor and kisses him.

After his visit, Eli drives away from the Church in the Wilderness.  May-May watches, grimacing.

Jesse sends Matthew and Chad, members of his crew, to pretend to get into a fender-bender with Vance Simkins, then beat him up.  

And Kelvin's Smut Busters invade a sex shop with a new tactic, yelling "Shut it down!", knocking over merchandise, and assaulting customers, their violence effectively juxtaposed with Matthew and Chad's.

Again, the stock is almost entirely for gay men. 

While the others are occupied, Keefe sneaks over and steals a single-use packet of lube.  He needs something to use with his anal toy. Apparently he expects the drought to be temporary, or he would steal the entire jar.

The four conflicts of the season have come together. The end.

Stephen frontal, Kelvin butt, and a lot of sex toys on RG Beefcake and Bonding

[tragicclownwrites]

How old is everyone in "F" is for Family?

First things first, I hope you're excited for the second to last chapter(s) of "F" is for Family! 🥳🤩 Thanks for sticking around!

Given some of the timeline specifics that come up in this chapter, I felt it might be helpful to give you an explanation of how old everyone is supposed to be in my fic, so these time skips don't feel as random.

Math admittedly isn't my strong suit but I've double-checked my calculations repeatedly and am feeling somewhat confident in the numbers I came up with.

DISCLAIMER: Like most things that come up in my fic, these ages are just my headcanons. Don't take any of this as actual fact or canon! The one thing you should take away from this is that cartoon logic is weird AF which makes it hard to say anyone's ages are canon tbh.

Explanations/ramblings - and SPOILERS - below the cut!

♥️ Tragic 🤡

SpongeBob

I'm starting with our favorite little yellow friend here because I think he is where much of the age discussion first came up - starting with a certain driver's license that showed up in the episode, "Sleepy Time."

It says he was born in 1986, which would mean that we just celebrated in 37th birthday in July. However, there is one problem with this... the episode in question's debut air date is January 17, 2000.

If we go off the idea that he is canonically 37 as of July 14, 2023, this would mean that he was only 13 YEARS OLD in January 2000. In my country (the U.S.), if SpongeBob was 13, he wouldn't be old enough to:

Work at the Krusty Krab, especially not full-time.

Live on his own without a parent and/or guardian.

Attain a driver's permit, let alone a license. He'd have to wait another two years just to do the former.

I've considered the possibility that perhaps this episode doesn't actually take place during the actual air date. However, SpongeBob's driver's license also kinda debunks that theory. The expiration date is listed as December 14, 2003. Driver's licenses typically expire up to five years of issue date (depending on the state or country). This would, thus, confirm the episode takes place during 2000 or even earlier than that - making SpongeBob even younger than 13.

Seeing as SpongeBob is confirmed to be an adult during the series and is eligible to do the things listed above, this doesn't really add up.

Therefore, while I do think SpongeBob is an adult who is likely in his 30's, I don't think he's actually 37 years old (assuming he even ages).

It's also worth mentioning that they removed his birthday from later appearances of the license, leading me to believe they didn't really think that through initially. Interestingly, the expiration date has remained mostly consistent so... 🫧✨cartoon logic✨🫧

Now, to put my fanfic headcanon hat on for the duration of this post.... 🤠

Based on the timelines in my fic, I actually think his age is closer to 32-34 years old at the absolute most.

I believe I've mentioned somewhere in the story about how he and Squidward started working together about a decade prior to the events of the fic. This would mean that SpongeBob was in his early twenties when he began working at the Krusty Krab. which makes much more sense than him being 13 lmao

Squidward

So, I don't actually know how I came up with Squidward's age in this fic aside from general fandom headcanon, though I did see somewhere that his birthday is October 9, 1977 - making him 45 years old.

However, given what my analysis above revealed, I'm going to take this with a truckload of salt (especially since the actual year isn't confirmed in any official capacity). If this were true, he'd be ~21 years old in May 1999 (i..e, when "Help Wanted" premiered), which I don't think is accurate for him not to mention super awks. He was likely closer to that age when Jim was still working there.

I do think he's at least close to BlackJack's age and a bit older than SpongeBob, Todd, and Stanley. Therefore, my headcanon age for him is about 38-40 years old.

Harold & Margaret

In Harold and Margaret's origin story during this chapter, Harold and Sherm's ages are the only ones explicitly given. At the time of the story - which takes place roughly 53 years ago - Harold was confirmed to be 15 years old and a freshman in high school. Given that she was also a freshman at the time, Margaret is likely the same age.

If we do the math, Harold - and presumably Margaret - are about 68 years old at the time of FifF.

Sherm & Jolie

As previously mentioned, Sherm's age is also confirmed: he was 12 years old and just started junior high (6th grade in U.S.) when Harold and Margaret's story takes place.

In his and Jolie's own story - which happens about 46 years prior to the present - Sherm and Jolie are both freshmen in college, making them about 19 years old at the time.

Again, if we do the math, Sherm - and likely Jolie - are about 65 years old in the present day.

Blue & Sally

Unlike Harold and Sherm, Blue's age is not directly confirmed in Harold and Margaret's story. However, it is confirmed that he was a senior in high school, and he was old enough to drive. Based on this info and his younger brothers' ages, Blue was about 18 years old during this time.

In chapter 4, Blue also mentions that he'd been on the police force for 35 years. It's worth noting that the average amount of time people spend in the police academy is between 2-4 years. Assuming Blue enrolled right out of high school (as the story implies) and joined the force ~20 years old, he would've been around 55 years old when he officially retired. I like to think he was more ambitious/eager to climb the ladder when he was younger but grew more content staying in his police captain role since its already pretty senior and he had a family at that time.

Blue and Sally's origin story takes place about 41 years in the past from the fic's start.

In this story, Blue is described as being "one of the youngest lieutenants the force has ever seen." I can't recall how I got to this number if I'm honest, but I rounded his age to about 30 years old here as it is still young but not too young as to be unrealistic. I also felt it made more sense in the timeline for him and Sally to have had BlackJack a few years later (I.e., after she got released).

If we do the math from there, Blue would be around 71 years old during the time of the fic.

It's not mentioned anywhere, and she is deceased, but my headcanon for Sally is that she's about 1-2 years younger than Blue. Therefore, she'd likely be about 69-70 years old if she were still alive. In chapter 5, BlackJack reveals that “[Sally’s] been dead for ten years,” so she was ~59-60 when she actually passed.

Todd

From this picture, it's clear Todd shares some physical similarities with SpongeBob. Therefore, I felt that it would be likely for them to be close in age as well.

Starting from chapter 2, when we first meet Todd and the rest of the family, it's implied that Todd is at least "slightly older" than SpongeBob. He is also explicitly mentioned to be Stanley's older brother throughout the fic.

In chapter 5, we get the following exchange between Todd and SpongeBob:

Todd: “Besides, I am the oldest one here, so it only makes sense." SpongeBob: “Todd, we’re the same age –” Todd: “But I’ve got two months on you so that still makes me older."

Based on this, we can discern that Todd is also somewhere between 32-34 years old. Since he's two months older than SpongeBob, his birthday would take place sometime in May.

Stanley

While Stanley's canonical age is also not given, I got the impression that he was a bit younger than SpongeBob in his episode, "Stanley S. SquarePants." Stanley's curiosity about the world around him and his absentmindedness could be contributing factors to this, though that's not really indicative of age. In actuality, I felt it was SpongeBob taking him under his wing akin to a mentor or older sibling that really solidified this idea.

Therefore, in FifF, he's the baby of the group. 😇

Speaking of which, in chapter 13 (mini spoiler for next chapter when it goes live), it is mentioned that he was a baby while his older brother was a toddler - which would make Todd between the ages of 2-3 years old at the time.

With this range in mind, Stanley would be a few years younger than both Todd and SpongeBob, making him about 29-31 years old in the fic (assuming the other two are ~33).

BlackJack

BlackJack's age (in my headcanon) was more dependent on Blue's age between the time he met Sally and when they realistically would've had him together. I also felt he'd be closer in age to Squidward than he would be to his younger cousins.

Assuming his parents had him shortly after Sally got released from prison, BlackJack would be roughly 37-38 years old in the present day.

Grandma & Grandpa (Dotty & Simon)

Grandma and Grandpa SquarePants - or as I've named them, Dotty and Simon - met about 76 years ago.

While most prima ballerinas are slightly older than this (~25-30), Dotty was about 20 years old when she met Simon. He was likely a few years older than her, so I'd presume he was about 23-24 at the time.

With these numbers in mind, Grandma is about 96 years old during the events of FifF. While he is deceased and I didn't mention how long he'd been gone, Grandpa was likely between 97-99 years old when he passed.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Chill Factor (1993)

The Chill Factor is Evil Dead but on snowmobiles and 200 times lamer than that sounds. This film has no sense of humor about itself. That might be ok if it delivered the horror or the gore but it doesn’t. The most interesting thing about this movie is that it’s told in flashbacks. The events take place in the then-futuristic year 2000 (or maybe it’s 1999, they say it’s on the edge of the new millennium) and the person recounting the events is doing so thirty years later, which means it’s all set in the year 2030. Not that interesting? Neither is the rest of the movie.

Tom (Aaron Kjenaas), his fiancée Jeannie (Dawn Laurrie), younger sister Karen (Connie Snyder), her boyfriend Chris (David Fields), and their friends Ron (Jim Cagle) and Lissa (Eve Montgomery) are having a winter snowmobile vacation when Tom crashes into a tree. Severely injured, his friends bring him to the closest shelter, the abandoned Camp Saint Dominic. Inside, they discover a makeshift Ouija board-like device. After playing with it, they experience supernatural events.

The Chill Factor lasts 85 minutes and it feels like an eternity before anything substantial happens. First, we have to sit through performances from bar patrons so dreadful they sound like robots reading a script for the first time. Then, we have to wait for the ample footage of people on snowmobiles to end. Finally, the future victims - whom you’ll have trouble telling apart despite the ample clumsy exposition telling you over and over who’s who and why they matter to each other - make it to the cabin - I mean camp. Then, these idiots find the Ouija board thing: a big disc with a spinning arrow and eyeball in the middle. Hmm. Weird. You’d think an abandoned religious summer camp everyone stays you should avoid wouldn’t have that sort of thing just lying around. I guess the councilors didn’t bother to pack it up when they left in a hurry all those years ago. Nope, nothing shady going on here! Let’s play with it despite Jeannie’s reservations! When bad things happen, it’s not unfortunate; it’s just the inevitable coming true.

Produced and directed by Christopher Webster, The Chill Factor begins with a flashforward to Tom’s accident. Remember, the whole story is told in flashbacks. Anyone could tell you what’s wrong with that decision. For a long time, I thought the accident was a traumatic memory replaying in Jeannie's head; the reason why she’s so apprehensive about all the foolishness the boys want to do out in the cold. No. It’s just bad editing. Actually, it was most likely an attempt by editor Amy Summer to get the audience interested in what's happening. It's an eternity before anything engaging actually takes place.

If you have any puns about snow or snowmobiles you’ll have every opportunity to use them and there are a couple of rather unintentionally hilarious deaths. I’m not sure which is funnier, the one where the ceiling fan somehow manages to cut the person who clearly isn’t standing anywhere near it, the accidental hanging, or the killer icicle. The ending is good for some laughs as well. It involves an innocent bystander and they would have a hell of a story to tell the next day. Then, the picture just sort of ends on a “huh?” note that doesn’t make any sense. It’s supposed to be all spooky in a “but… the coach driver drowned fifteen years ago!” note but merely raises more questions.

There might actually be some value in The Chill Factor. I watched it on my own and detested it but with some friends and a couple of drinks? It could be a blast. I'm not sure if I'm curious enough to try, however. (June 2, 2022)

[punky-blowfish]

OK, I'll try dipping my toes in.

TLDR; given that the series take place on opposite coasts, that the Yeerks are trying to hide and the Gems are not at all paying attention to most human business, and the timing of the respective series-- I honestly think the answer to "how much would these stories impact each other?" is "almost not at all?"

So, first up, let's establish time/place. I'm assuming we are sticking the Yeerk invasion into SU-Earth, given the earth was invaded by Gems sometime in human prehistory and the Yeerks landed in what, the 1980s? The Animorphs series/the Yeerk War takes place in the 1990s, over three years between like 1995-1999. I'm going to assume (based on technological and cultural factors) that SU takes place in 2013-2014/15 or so, based on the series' original release. This will be important.

When the Yeerks landed on Earth, their strategy was already to be as stealthy as possible. This would go double if they were trying to avoid the notice of the Gems, although tbh I'm not sure if they'd be able to tell the Gems are/were present on Earth. Certainly they've left a lot of their junk scattered around (including the Moon Base), but the Crystal Gems have been cut off from Homeworld for millenia, and Homeworld is in another galaxy. I think the Yeerks would be able to tell that other aliens had been present, but were not here anymore. I don't think they'd know what Gems were unless Homeworld has cored out more planets nearby, and given that both species have FTL transport, they're actually unlikely to have intersected.

Now. Steven is 13 at the start of SU, which means he would be born around 2000, and Rose would have been pregnant around 1999/2000 (I assume her pregnancy was human-length). This means that the Yeerk War started and especially ended during peak "Rose is dating Greg" years. The Yeerk War were only public for like, a few months? a year?, right around when Rose would have been deciding to become pregnant. Basically, I think that all the Gems would have been too tied up in interpersonal drama, absolutely nobody in their circle reads the human news, and I 100% believe they might have missed the whole Yeerk War (and its fallout!) without even noticing.

Would living on an abandoned Homeworld colony have impacted the Animorphs plot? Unclear. I absolutely believe the Animorphs would have tried to acquire a corrupted Gem at some point. This wouldn't work-- Gems are hard-light holograms. They have no DNA. They might also go on a mission or two to try and recover alien technology; I don't think they'd find much useful. Gems come with weapons built-in and tend towards melee, and other technology seems to require magic or direct interfacing to use.

(I also don't think Yeerks could infest Gems-- actually, wait. Gems have exactly as many internal organs as they feel like shapeshifting; we know Amethyst enjoys having a fully-functioning digestive system (and Pearl doesn't), and Rose shapeshifted herself a sufficiently functional womb that she was able to carry a half-human baby to term. So actually, I think a Yeerk could infest a Gem who had bothered to shapeshift a brain (altho why she'd bother, given Gems don't need it to think), and could maintain control for as long as they could keep the Gem in that state. So, it would last three days and then all hell would break loose. Bad idea all around, IMO. If you're interested in exploring this AU, this interaction would have the most potential for drama, angst, or cracky chaos, depending on how you played it.)

How about SU? I honestly, genuinely don't think Steven would know about Yeerks. The kid was homeschooled by xenophobic aliens and a guy who ran away from home to live in a van. His education is notably spotty. Connie would know, and would think it's super cool how Gems can shapeshift like Animorphs. Given the time/scale of the series (almost all taking place in rural Beach City, over the course of about two years), I also think that it would slide under the noses of the US government too. Actually, the US at that point would have a decade of exposure to Yeerks, Animorphs, and Hork-Bajir, and related technologies; they would have tried sending some guys in suits to interview the Gems in like, 2004, and Garnet would have opened the door, said "No.", and closed it in their faces, and that would be the end of that. They might try to monitor the situation in Beach City after that, but I don't really think they'd have a lot of success.

(more thoughts in part two)

If not Gravity Falls, have you see Steven Universe? An au between them would be interesting since gems are also aliens.

I have technically seen Steven Universe, but don't feel able to answer this one! Any folks familiar with both willing to weigh in?

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

the linda fairbairn timeline!

went rooting through some of my old papers from the past year and found my timeline from when I went through and devised a backstory for Linda Fairbairn, so i thought I'd put it up here just so those interested could have a look into how i think Linda's story went before Newcastle (and what she might have done afterward.)

mild spoilers for Zurich, some assumptions extrapolated from the timeline, and lastly, some conjectures from lucy @sircarolyn.

1978: Born to then-First Officer and Mrs. Fairbairn in Glasgow, their only child.

1982: First Officer Fairbairn takes 4-year-old Linda to see the last few stages of the Lombard RAC Rally, which has its finish line in York. Linda will cite this as the inception of her passion for rallying. (I also happened to draw this moment.)

1986: Group B era of rallying ends; Linda is 8. She loses interest in rallying at this point, much to the relief of her mother. (However, she does gain an interest in aviation. Much to the dismay of her mother.)

1994-ish: Linda takes her first flight at 16 in a little Cessna her father borrowed from the local aviation club.

1996: Linda begins pilot training at 18.

1999: The earliest at which Linda could conceivably have obtained her (frozen) ATPL, at the age of 21—in Newcastle, which happens in 2011, Linda says she's been a pilot "12 years."

Also in 1999: Linda and her father attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where she witnesses Michèle Mouton attempt the hillclimb in an Audi quattro, which inspires her to take up rallying (depicted here.)

1999 - 2003: Gap period, in which Linda obtains hours through various small jobs in light aircraft to prepare for application to an airline. In this period, she also starts navigating in amateur rallies before moving to driving.

2000 or thereabouts: Douglas gets sacked from Air England.

2003 - 2004: Linda and Herc join Caledonian. Linda is about 25 years old at this point, and has accumulated about 500 hours in the air. They start working together around this time, and Herc takes a liking to her, even teaching her how to work the assignment system so they can fly together often.

2006: Linda reaches 1500 hours, and her fATPL unfreezes, which enables her to apply as a captain at this point (she doesn't; Herc, who was accepted as a junior captain, gets a captain upgrade at some point)

Between 2006 and 2011: Linda is promoted to Senior First Officer, and Herc gets another captain upgrade. Probably not accurate but who cares.

2011: The events of Newcastle. Linda is 33 years old. (Sidenote: I think Martin is 32 [he says in Helsinki.] EDIT: martin’s 34 🙈 i computed wrong and didn’t look ahead. thanks for the tip anon!)

2013: The events of Zürich. Caledonian is absorbed into Swiss Air, and Linda moves to Switzerland. She is 35 years old, and at this point a captain, a rank that she keeps in the transfer. (I have a WIP about how this happens.)

2014 - 2015: Linda starts flying long-haul (36/37 years old).

Early 2015: The events of the Therlinda fic. The Rome chapter has to take place in mid-March, because the weather needs to be right. This also means Bobsled would have broken up in 2014. Sorry.

Some plane-related notes (take with a grain of salt):

At Caledonian, Linda and Herc fly the A320 (exit limit 195/190, range ≈ 6100 km) or A319 (exit limit 160, range ≈ 6900 km).

Linda and Herc both hold A320 type ratings. I want to say Air England had an Airbus short-range fleet and a Boeing long-range fleet, so Herc probably held a Boeing type rating at some point. I haven't thought about whether Douglas and Herc actually flew the B747, but it's a nice thought. Hold the thought about Herc flying Boeing for like. four sentences

I envision Swiss Air to have a mostly, if not all Boeing fleet. Linda has to acquire a B737 type rating for the move to Switzerland, and then, since my favorite thing is expanding Swiss Air's long-range fleet, a B777 or B787 rating. Switching from Airbus to Boeing isn't easy. The two manufacturers have vastly different design philosophies; pilots find it challenging to jump. Herc having Boeing experience in the past certainly gets my brain worms wiggling.

Anyway.

[loserarc]

some very post-series steeb thoughts to feed the hc tag 🤔💭

1990.  steve swears he’ll never apply to college again. as much as he hates his job, it does let him be with robin every day, plus afford an okay-ish apartment. he isn’t wasting his time and money just to be told he’s not smart enough: not for school and not as his own boss. which was the original plan, of course. he’d get his business degree and take over for his dad, meaning he’d give up on this rebellious streak, make up with his family and eventually move back to hawkins. sometimes he thinks of calling home just to say he’s managing a very successful band in the city and never needed a degree to do that, though he knows he’d be embellishing a bit. eddie’s band is great, and steve is — technically — managing the business side of things, but they’re scraping by. so he doesn’t call. ( ... )

1994.  steve still hates his job. so does eddie. they’ve spent almost every morning what-ifing (what if we just quit? what if we disappeared? what if we started over someplace else?) but steve has messed up the ritual this time. he just noticed a new book on the nightstand, maybe five-hundred pages long, turned upside down to hold eddie’s place. half-finished. 

eddie’s smart. not only that: he loves stories, loves reading them, loves talking about them. and steve loves when he does. so much that he’s borrowed some of his novels, sometimes taking months or years to get through, but mostly because he likes to ask questions. he loves how eddie lights up. his excitement is contagious. maybe if his teachers were anything like him, someone who actually gives a shit, then maybe things would have been different. so what if? has he ever thought about teaching?  

has steve? he’s surprised that it isn’t a joke, but maybe he shouldn’t be. steve’s good with kids. he’s a good mentor, right? gives a shit? and eddie’s serious, so he doesn’t break the news to him that he just isn’t smart enough. anyway, what if he was? what if he actually likes the idea? and what if they had each other?  

but that’s the thing: they do.

1999.  he never really paid attention in mr. clarke’s class. science just wasn’t his thing. in fact, he knows he wouldn’t have remembered having him in middle school if not for the sweater vest and mustache (which are, as far as he can tell, exactly the same). that’s why he’s shocked when mr. clarke finds him in the teacher’s lounge. he has plenty of stories to refresh his memory. steve was one of those perpetually bored students, bound to make his disinterest everyone else’s problem. his favorite crowd-pleaser was puppeteering the plastic skeleton in the back of the room, only because doodling obscenities on the projector slides was a step too far even for him. 

but despite his sincere (if belated) apologies, mr. clarke is happy to reminisce. he’s smiling like an old friend when he asks about steve’s family. are they still down the road? what about his friends... tommy and carol? are the three of them still inseparable? and what has he been up to since graduation?  apparently, mr. clarke was one of those rare hawkins teachers that cared. apparently, kind enough to keep steve company on his first day, he still does. he tells him that if he needs anything, he’s only a few doors down. 

2000.  by the following september, eddie and steve are officially back in hawkins. and maybe it would sound like a bad joke if not for the fact that everything is fine. there’s no disaster. no one’s hunting anyone down or lurking in the shadows. that hawkins is long gone. 

as hard as steve worked to even get an interview — sleepless nights, fighting blurry eyes and headaches — one question still makes him laugh. would he be willing to coach basketball? lucky him, his poor scholastic priorities would pay off in the end. not that it really matters to him. he knows it wasn’t easy; that he did it because he actually wanted to. and for what seems like the first time in his life, he really likes what he does. now steve teaches the third grade. even though that means mr. clarke isn’t a few doors down anymore, steve still takes him up on that offer. when it comes to class clowns, his advice is invaluable.

but this isn’t all new to him. it is different being mr. h. or coach, for sure, but eddie had a point when the what-ifs took a turn in this direction. steve wants his kids to succeed, whatever that means and however that looks to them. he wants to be the mentor that he never had. 

[yukisohmasmokesweed]

the cultural relativism of retributive justice, or: the argument against incarcerating akito

to go off aswati’s post, i think the idea of sending akito to prison for domestic abuse is an american solution to a japanese problem. akito being incarcerated not only does not work with the political narrative takaya is trying to push about rehabilitative justice, it also falls apart when you look at japan’s attitude towards domestic violence and incarceration as a whole. i believe the argument that akito should be incarcerated is projecting an american ideal of justice (a neoliberal, pro-prison industrial complex one at that) onto a story that does not concern itself with american, or even western, culture whatsoever.

in america incarceration is extremely common, but the same is not true of japan. according to prisonstudies.org, 639 out of 100,000 americans were incarcerated in 2018 (source) compared to 38 out of 100,000 japanese (source). the japanese justice system is not like the american justice system whatsoever, and mass incarceration is not part of contemporary japanese culture (compare 184 japanese establishment/institutions to 4,455 american with a population difference of around 2 million).

it should be noted that japan did not have a federal anti-domestic violence law until april 2001 (act 31), compared to america’s 1994 (violence against women act). this is significant as fruits basket takes place between 1999-2001, so domestic spousal violence was not federally criminalized until after fb takes place. note that this applies to spouses only, so it’s possible akito couldn’t even be held to these laws as akito is unmarried. 

these laws may exist, but according to the diplomat,

Mainstream attitudes toward household violence traditionally treated it as an invisible issue that simply did not exist. Kanoko Kamata, an associate researcher at the Japan-U.S. program of Harvard University, says the problem went blatantly disregarded.

Kamata said law enforcement was reluctant to interfere in household affairs as it was typically believed that marital problems were not worth bothering about.

But Kamata said the real issue is that under the current law domestic violence is not treated as a crime but rather a civil code. (source)

in the united states, the mainstream attitude towards sending abusers to prison is a positive one, but as we can see that is not the case in japan. domestic abuse is viewed as not just a family affair but a cultural norm, and law enforcement is hesitant to interfere, even being discouraged to do so. in contrast to american culture, the sphere of japanese family culturally exists separately from the law. this would go doubly so for the sohmas, a large, wealthy, and influential family who undoubtedly has connections to the police.

with regards to child abuse, japan has had a child welfare act in place since 1947 that was supplemented by the child abuse protection act of 2000 (source). however, laws don’t supersede culture and children’s rights are an issue in japan. according to reuters,

Despite rights enshrined in child welfare law, children in Japan have no independent advocate or representation, unlike other developed countries such as Britain and the United States, leaving their well-being in the hands of welfare workers. (source)

let’s take a look at the culture’s attitude towards bullying to ascertain views on children experiencing abuse in general. according to hirotaka abe of the npo youth guardian, 

We obtain objective evidence...that bullying is clearly happening...but sometimes, even if we show them clear evidence, they take no action or even try to conceal it. Some local administrations, all the people there, including city council members, conspire with each other. (source)

according to kayoko kurihara of the npo step,

After somebody reported [the child abuse], the police go there. But in many cases, they just give a warning and leave soon. (source)

like with domestic violence, there is evidence of a very hands-off approach from authorities and law enforcement when it comes to child abuse as well, whether that abuse comes from peers or parents.

when it comes to solutions, let’s look at step again. step is an npo that supports victims of abuse, but they also meet with the abusers themselves and address the root of their problem (often abuse in their own childhood) and help them reform and potentially mend their relationship with their child. kurihara also states, with regards to reformation, “...those who don’t learn will never change,” a strong argument against retributive justice.

according to satoshi brojan, a child abuse victim and advocate,

When child abuse happen[s], we just blame the abuser. But in the big picture, we have so many people who are mentally exhausted and [don’t] have support from anyone. In my eyes, children are paying the price for that in this country. We do need to work on the actual cause of the problem. We gotta recognize that this is a serious social issue for Japan. (source)

both kurihara and brojan’s points are reflective of the commentary takaya is making about justice in fruits basket: abusers are often victims themselves, there are larger social issues at play when it comes to abuse, and that reformation is achievable if the person is willing to change. incarceration is not used the same way in japan as it is america, and law enforcement is largely disconnected from the sphere of family life. takaya’s commentary on familial abuse and justice is a uniquely japanese one informed by factors unique to her culture, some of which directly contradict western ideals of tit-for-tat justice. therefore, the argument that akito should be put on trial and convicted of a crime is not only unrealistic within the japanese world of fruits basket, it is a result of western projection onto a starkly different culture.

[shihalyfie]

The relationships between the Adventure group and the 02 group

As much as it would sound romantic to group the older Adventure six and the younger 02 juniors into one huge “group of twelve” all of the time, it’s undeniable that there’s a boundary between them, especially since there’s a different internal dynamic within each group as well -- of course, for important events or incidents like Diablomon Strikes Back, they’re capable of getting together as a whole, and they hand off information and call on each other freely for support over the course of 02, but once we start getting into “social life relationships”, things get a bit more complicated. Overall, we all know that the juniors adore and respect their seniors, and the seniors are happy to mentor and support their juniors, but the way each of the older Adventure six approaches the younger kids has an interesting variance from person to person!

Overall

The other sections of this post deal with how each of the “02 quartet” (Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken, or in other words the four Tokyo Chosen Children introduced in 02) interacts with individual seniors, but in general it should be established that each of the Adventure and 02 groups is always comfortable calling in the other for backup or assistance if necessary. This is especially accentuated in 02 episode 46 (when Daisuke ropes Taichi and the others into helping them do a full-on stakeout of the Dark Seed kids all over Tokyo, which is a lot of work), and Diablomon Strikes Back (when the initial mission was very obviously intended to have the older kids at the forefront and the younger ones as backup, before things went south).

It’s also indicated multiple times over the course of 02 that “sharing information” is a huge priority for everyone, especially with the D-Terminals in play that allow people to keep people in the loop about what’s going on, so that backup can be called in at any time -- see how quickly information passes from the juniors to the seniors during the crisis in 02 episode 7, or how Takeru and Hikari constantly keep each other posted on the situation and their whereabouts in the first half of Hurricane Touchdown. (This is especially when you keep in mind the real-life context that, in 2000, it wasn’t common yet for the average elementary school student to have a cell phone, so 02 deliberately inserted the D-Terminals into the lore so that this kind of communication could be possible, further tying into the overall franchise theme of the impact of technology on society.) There is no issue in 02 that’s caused by lack of communication (at least, unless it involves someone being emotionally unable to communicate), because of how quickly, easily, and constantly everyone is kept in the loop.

Each group is a valuable resource for backup in any situation, and both groups have a clear and obvious sentiment of “wanting to help as much as they can” and “not wanting to be useless”; the Adventure seniors constantly express frustration over the course of the first half of 02 that they can’t do more, and do their best to provide as much support as they can within the restraints of the situation. Once evolutionary restrictions are lifted in the final quarter of the series and everyone goes on winter break, the older Adventure seniors start making a significantly larger number of appearances and directly getting involved without even needing to be asked; since everyone clearly wants to help each other out, there's no reason to refrain from seeking all of the help one can get. By the time of Kizuna, Daisuke (and, if the storyboards are to be believed, Ken too) is still on Koushirou’s call list even if he’s not present for that single incident, and Yamato loops them in to help scout on Menoa in New York since they’re in the right place in the right time.

This is especially in the case of Koushirou, the team’s resident analyst, who can only do his analyses if he has all of the information he can possibly get; since the 02 kids can do certain things that he or the others can’t, he often asks them to do favors for him or provide him with info (such as borrowing Miyako’s D-3 in 02 episode 4, or having Daisuke test out opening a gate at the Yagami residence in 02 episode 17, or picking Ken’s brain in 02 episode 33) so that he has more to work with. It is generally advantageous for Koushirou to get as much as he can on the table and make use of, and since he has an important role in 02 as a personnel manager and team organizer, it’s in his best interest to use the 02 group as guinea pigs make extensive use of their own abilities, as much as he can.

With Daisuke

Daisuke is a very deferential person in general, so him treating his elders with utmost respect and deferring to them is kind of like saying water is wet, but there are some relationships in particular that stand out!

Daisuke being Taichi’s soccer junior and “inheritor” of both his Crest of Courage and his goggles is of course one of the most iconic and well-known parts of 02, but it’s interesting to see how Taichi treats Daisuke in return. While it’s unclear if Taichi knew him as anything but yet another of his soccer juniors prior to the events of 02, there’s a lot to be said about how Taichi hands over his goggles without hesitation -- as much as we as the audience associate this with “leadership”, the 02 group doesn’t actually have a leader from an in-story perspective, and, in-universe, Taichi gave him his own goggles on account of the fact that Daisuke was a “new Chosen Child”...and also the fact Daisuke had just broken his own and he presumably felt bad for him. (How much Taichi was consciously aware that Daisuke was doing it specifically to imitate him will be left to your imagination, because Daisuke never actually vocalizes this to his face.)

That’s a pretty big deal of a thing to do, given that even if you don’t necessarily believe there’s a huge sentimental backstory behind those goggles, Taichi took off an item he’d been wearing for at least seven years and just handed them over! So in other words, Taichi really did believe in Daisuke’s potential enough to entrust him with something this important.

We also see Taichi come to watch Daisuke’s game against the Tamachi team in 02 episode 8, and it should be pointed out that Taichi, being from Odaiba Middle School, had no practical reason to be at this game -- as far as the kids knew at the time, Ken had no connection to any of the Digital World incidents, and it was just a game that they all attended to give Daisuke their moral support, and so Taichi was mainly just here to watch how his junior would do in such an important match and give him advice. (Although, as Daisuke points out later in the episode, he’s pretty strict, too.)

Eight years later in Kizuna, in a scene where it’s established that Taichi is drifting enough from of the others to the point Yamato has to update him on them (Sora and Takeru), Taichi still seems to be roughly aware of what’s going on with Daisuke, despite neither of them playing soccer anymore -- and, of course, Daisuke seems to have always had utmost faith in him. (Also, Daisuke seems to have returned the goggles; we’ll leave to the imagination what might have led to that.)

Some interesting history about Daisuke’s relationship with the soccer club members: as per 02 episode 2, he was already at least roughly acquainted with Sora prior to her switching her sport to tennis, and, if the Adventure novels are to be believed, he was apparently already a member at the time of Adventure in 1999 (likely as an “unofficial member”, given that he would have been too young to formally enroll in it until Taichi had already graduated). If this is true, this would make him likely to be roughly acquainted with Koushirou as well. He was, at the very least, also around to overhear Taichi discussing the Digimon (although we don’t actually have all that much evidence that anyone was working that hard to keep it a secret).

According to Spring 2003, Daisuke is said to have picked up his goggles in imitation of “the person wearing goggles” whom he witnessed from afar during the Odaiba fog incident three years prior, not necessarily Taichi as his soccer club senior -- meaning that he may not have immediately recognized that they were the same person (although that certainly begs the question of how many people in Odaiba wear goggles; given that Daisuke seemed to just have a pair lying around at home, perhaps this is a normal fashion statement?). Taichi is portrayed as being much better at soccer than Daisuke is (Taichi was already a soccer captain in his fifth year while Daisuke didn’t even become a regular until his sixth), and so learning that they’re the same person at some point presumably solidified Daisuke’s personal image of Taichi as an absolutely incredible senior to look up to.

Daisuke infamously starts off on a bad note with Yamato in 02 episode 4 -- he insults an older sibling, something Yamato takes very personally, and it’s a bad mix of Daisuke’s abrasive demeanor and Yamato’s emotional passion -- but by the time of 02 episode 11, it all seems to be water under the bridge as Yamato treats Daisuke very endearingly after watching the process of him earning the Digimental of Friendship. (While it’s not stated in words, one might imagine that Yamato also became a lot more forgiving of Daisuke not being very respectful of Jun after personally witnessing how much of a handful she could be in 02 episode 7.) And, as Daisuke’s technically the inheritor of his Crest of Friendship, it’s interesting to point out that Daisuke arguably shares as many of Yamato’s personality traits as Taichi; he’s an intensely emotional person (far more so than Taichi is), and has somewhat of an awkward way of expressing himself.

Yamato is also the Adventure group member who maintains contact with the 02 quartet over the course of Kizuna, and with Daisuke as the main representative calling back, he naturally goes straight into “happy puppy mode” the moment one of his seniors calls to ask him a favor. The novel refers to the 02 group as “reliable juniors they can count on” (which we can imagine reflects Yamato’s mindset at this point), and he also makes sure to check on whether the 02 group hasn’t also been subject to the ring of light issue, out of curiosity but also worry.

While it’s less immediately apparent, Daisuke also forms a recurring relationship with Mimi. Interestingly, most of their interactions have to do with Mimi’s location in the US, with Mimi teasing him in an email in Hurricane Touchdown and inviting him to come over, Daisuke helping Mimi and Michael out in 02 episode 40, and Mimi getting a lot of mileage and fun out of teasing him in The Door to Summer (this trip is implied to at least partially have been planned with meeting Mimi in mind; perhaps Daisuke was following up on that email one year prior). All of this happening with no translator; one might say that Daisuke seems to be good at befriending Americans in New York, which is interesting when you consider that his English is implied to be reasonably good, and the fact he eventually opens his ramen shop in New York...

Both he and Mimi are pretty like-minded overall, being very pure-hearted people who love supporting others and are never condescending or consciously rude to others, so it’s easy to see why they’d get along.

With Miyako

Rather famously, Koushirou was Miyako’s computer club senior prior to the events of 02, and she still looks up to him and adores him (she even goes out of her way to bring souvenir yatsuhashi from Kyoto for him in 02 episode 34). Koushirou’s handling of her is rather professional -- he calls her “Miyako-kun” -- but this is, in general, more of a symptom of the fact that Koushirou isn’t exactly the kind of person who shows open affection for anyone, and he’s still dealing with the fact that he used to compulsively push people away, so being able to talk to anyone neutrally like this is already kind of a big step.

This is especially because he’s got a pretty huge investment in the kids in general -- he’s one of the most visible of the seniors in 02, and while part of it is also because of his specialty in computers and his inquisitive personality driving him to take a very direct role in things, he also rails at the kids in worry in 02 episode 7 and continues to support the kids with actual support, providing them things they might find helpful or useful. So, in effect, it’s just that Koushirou has his own ways of showing support for his juniors, especially since his character arc has heavily to do with developing a skill in coordinating others.

Miyako continues working in the computer club under Koushirou even after entering middle school, and, eight years later in Kizuna, it seems that Koushirou is actively maintaining contact with Miyako (in the opening, he’s the one directly shown initiating contact via email), since she’s personally helping him with Chosen Child community management. There’s no computer club anymore and the group isn’t necessarily working as a cohesive group all of the time either, so this is something they’re actively involved in together...and Miyako is clearly comfortable enough to dump work that she doesn’t want to do on him. (He doesn’t seem to mind that much.)

Miyako first meets Mimi in 02 episode 6 and immediately latches onto her without hesitation, to the point of fantasizing about their relationship and labeling her “Mimi-oneesama” (big sister Mimi) thereafter. (Note that she only does this when it’s a very casual or playful situation, since 02 episode 14 later establishes that she’ll go back to the usual “Mimi-san” when things get more serious or her mood is worse.) Mimi answers to Miyako’s affection easily, given their similar temperaments, and they get along swimmingly.

We get a little more insight as to Miyako’s feelings on Mimi in 02 episode 14, where Miyako spends the duration of it negatively comparing her own behavior and personality to Mimi's kinder and more mature way of handling things, implying that she sees Mimi as an example to follow that she sees herself as not sufficiently reaching. Notably, in 02 episode 25, when Mimi takes charge and uses Miyako’s D-Terminal to request Ken’s help, Miyako doesn’t protest at all; it of course wasn’t helped by the fact Miyako herself was tussling with mixed feelings on Ken, but it’s worth pointing out that, after all of the vehement verbal arguing about the issue, Miyako respects Mimi’s decision enough to not protest.

Miyako also bonds a bit with Sora, both during her initial process of receiving her first Digimental in 02 episode 2, and during them working together in 02 episode 42. Miyako doesn’t seem to put her on as much of a pedestal as Mimi, but still very much defers to and respects her stance, and Sora is happy to indulge around and bond with her (note how casually she carries herself around Miyako).

While we don’t see them interact much in the series proper, Miyako reveals in 02 episode 29 that she does sound engineering work for Yamato’s band (in conjunction with Koushirou), which she continues doing after entering middle school in Spring 2003 -- although it seems she’s having a hard time getting him (and everyone else) to embrace techno.

With Iori

Among the Adventure seniors, Iori’s most notable relationship is with Jou, which is pretty interesting on its face given that this is the largest possible age gap among any two from this group (Iori is 9, Jou 15). Yet the two are put together in major situations no less than three times -- 02 episodes 5, 16, and 41 -- and with the first two depicting Jou as having a major role in mentoring Iori, in regards to the importance of personal choice and responsibility in being a Chosen Child (02 episode 5), and the conflict between moral principles and practicality (02 episode 16). A lot of the gist of Jou’s and Iori’s character arcs and dispositions are quite similar -- Jou himself struggled with trying to adhere to arbitrary standards without regard to practicality back in Adventure, and it’s because of this that he can figure out Iori’s mentality and reach out to him in a way he understands. For Iori, being a polite and respectful person in general, it’s only natural to expect that he would take very well to Jou being an admirable and honest model citizen.

Iori also receives his initial Digimental consultation from Koushirou in 02 episode 3, and, like with how Daisuke and Miyako also have some degree of personality traits relevant to the characters they inherit their Crests from, Iori also has some characteristics that evoke Koushirou as well, most prominently his tendency towards politeness and deference (albeit for different reasons). While they don’t end up following similar paths for the rest of the series due to Koushirou’s “curiosity” being more about intellectual knowledge and Iori’s “curiosity” being more about human behavior and psychology, Koushirou does correctly identify Iori as having the potential for that kind of inquisitiveness in said episode long before the relevant character arc clearly sets in, allowing Iori to claim the Digimental of Knowledge.

With Ken

Due to the late position of when he’d joined the team and the even later position in which everyone came to like him, Ken isn’t shown necessarily bonding too deeply with many of the seniors, although it’s clear that they all came around for him in the end. That said, some of his limited interactions or interactions by proxy with the seniors end up fairly notable:

Ken has a long and extended chat with Koushirou in 02 episode 33, which is interesting because it’s a point in time when not even everyone in the 02 group itself was particularly receptive to him yet (at the time Hikari and Takeru were still maintaining silence on their stance on him, and Iori still ironing out a lot of complicated feelings about his presence). Yet Koushirou has no qualms whatsoever approaching him and picking his brain about what he knows, since Ken, as a hitherto unknown factor with a lot of background information that Koushirou could make extensive use of, has a lot to offer him. That said, he’s not just using Ken as a resource for intellectual purposes; Koushirou offers him emotional goodwill in his own way, hearing about how Oikawa had targeted Ken and even lamenting that it would have been better if the older kids had reached out to him first.

During 02 episode 25, Mimi makes an active bid to reach out to Ken when Golemon is about to destroy the dam, in the midst of everyone having an argument over whether to allow him to help (and not only that, she’s vehement about doing so). Recall that Mimi is forgiving to a fault, allowing herself to get beaten up by Digitamamon in 02 episode 14 and refusing to give up on him despite knowing he was actively brainwashed -- so it stands to reason that she’s actually one of the most receptive to Ken, even moreso than the more emotionally overwhelmed Miyako, and offering him a chance to join in (she’s never really been depicted as the type to hold grudges).

During Iori’s consultation of him in 02 episode 35, Yamato makes a remark regarding Ken pointing out that he and Takeru have technically gone through the same experience in witnessing the death of a partner, which means he’s actually willing to cast Ken in a sympathetic light at this point! Once Ken has integrated more smoothly with the others, Yamato and Ken work together in 02 episode 42, and they get along swimmingly with zero discomfort at all (not only that, Yamato’s dropped the honorific, going from 02 episode 35′s “Ichijouji-kun” to the more casual “Ichijouji”). Not bad!

[junicai]

Relationship with SuperM

➣ BAEKHYUN ☾ baekaria

before being thrown into a supergroup together, aria and baekhyun hadn’t really spoken 

they’d seen each other around the building, and aria was an avid supporter of exo so of course she knew who he was but she wasn’t expecting him to know who she was 

so when aria walked into the practice room and was greeted by baekhyun waving her over and calling her name

sue her if she was a little stunned 

their relationship was a little stilted at the beginning

between the age gap, and baekhyun not having a girl member in a group before, it took a few weeks for the two of them to figure out their dynamic and where they fit around each other 

eventually though

they settled into a pretty comfortable situation

baekhyun tries to put her at ease as much as possible 

there is 8 years in the difference, but you’d swear that its less than half 

although he’s playful and generous with the teasing like he is to other members 

he’s careful to avoid certain topics when it comes to aria, just out of respect for her and not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable

this came to fruition after kai unknowingly made a small comment on how aria “must have been hungry”, considering how fast she was eating

baekhyun knew he didn’t mean anything by it, but he watched aria slowly put down her chopsticks and reach for the bottle of water beside her instead

he didn’t see her eat for the rest of the evening

did kai get in trouble? no but he did get hit lightly over the head

when aria does something cool - like a spin or a trick - baekhyun is the first to say “that’s my child. i raised her, look how well i taught her” 

ten: “heY-”

tldr: although they’re not the closest, aria’s slowly grown more comfortable around him, and he’s looking out for her all the time 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

200829 Knowing Brothers: when baekhyun brought up the members of superm all showering together to get closer quickly, heechul quickly pounced on aria - the girl slowly moving to put her head in her hands. 

“and where was aria during all of this? don’t tell me you brought her to?”

baekhyun: “well of course we did-” 

aria: “NO I STAYED OUTSIDE HE’S A LIAR DON’T LISTEN TO HIM!”

*cue baekhyun laughing his ass off*

➣ TAEMIN ☾ arimin

aria thought she was going to die

there was absolutely no plausible reason that she should be in a group with The Taemin

he was highkey the reason why she had even accepted her position in sm at the very beginning of her training

this man convinced a fifteen year old to give up the sport she’d been doing her entire life 

his impact  (*¯ ³¯*)♡

please stand by while aria tosses herself off a bridge

she was So Formal at the beginning

he honestly was the member she took the longest time to warm up to - because she had idolized him for so long

will still refer to him as taemin-ssi occasionally, but now its less a formality and more of a tease

this boy was shook when he found out how young aria was - mark and lucas he can deal with because at least they’re 1999, but aria....

“2000??? 2000?” 

he said :O

despite their rocky start, they’re quite comfortable around each other, especially after spending a few nights rooming together over the tour

does aria still look for his validation in a lot of her work? yes, but she’s more open about asking for it now then she would have been 

taemin definitely doesn’t have a favourite kid and it’s definitely not aria no why would you think that

aria really out here collecting parents like pokémon 

gotta catch em all~

he looks out for her a lot during their schedules, mainly because he knows what its like to be the youngest in a group and how it can feel a little like you don’t really have a place there

so he always makes sure to include her where possible 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

sitting in a circle in a waiting room while mark toy-ed around with the guitar in his lap, aria sat curled in the corner, humming lightly to herself as taemin sang softly along with mark playing “view”.

quietly, she began to sing soft backing harmonies along with taemin, her eyes still attached to her phone in her hands.

when she felt the device being tugged out of her hands and her being pulled upright by another hand on her arm, she looked up to see taemin smiling brightly, still singing 

cue the impromptu concert of a lifetime: with god tier vocals

➣ KAI ☾ kairia

so, they met

and kai just kinda went: mine.

and that was that really 

its like a puppy refusing to give up its favourite chew toy 

“nooo but its my turn to room with aria :(”

never really did the whole awkward, getting to know each other phase? 

not that aria had any real say in it

but jongin point blank refused to engage in small talk with her

so they ended up spending their nights on the superm tour talking about stuff ranging from why the sky is blue to why aria stopped ice skating

she started crying and he did not handle it well, bless him

although he’s super chill and fun to be around

he’s also the only non-nct member that seriously scolds her 

when he found her in a practice room lying on the ground (she was Resting, thank you very much) at three in the morning, he dragged her out without a word and brought her back to her dorms in silence 

aria knew he was mad at her, but she thought it was because he had to borderline carry her four blocks down to the nct dorms 

“no you idiot, im angry because you thought that instead of coming to one of us for help with the bits you’re struggling with, you figured hey. let’s pass out instead.” 

he’s so affectionate with her

you know how lucas and kai have Intense Brothers Energy

well aria has that, little sister vibe that makes kai want to wrap her in a blanket and carry her everywhere

she’d hate that, if he tried that she’d scream (he did try that, this is coming from past experience)

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

kai chucking aria like a cannon ball into the pool during the filming of mtopia when she refused his hugs.

“oppa, oppa no im sorry ill give you all the hugs you want, oppa, JONGIN-OPPA NO NO NO NO -”

*sploosh*

➣ TAEYONG ☾ ariyong

taeyong took one look at aria the first time she showed up for group practice and immediately adopted her (not literally but he would if he could)

eomma meets highly protective brother meets life coach type beat?

so so soft for her its sickening 

says he doesn’t have favourites and will then spend an hour cooking for aria because she’s been in the studio the whole day and he knows she hasn’t eaten yet

when aria was given a duet to do for the sm stages, she had to pick another member to do it with and her first choice was taeyong 

she always has said that taeyong is one of the pillars keeping her upright and sane - without him she wasn’t sure if she would have been able to complete her training 

because of all the schedules they share together, if aria isn’t rooming with mark then she’s definitely rooming with taeyong

whenever she does his makeup (more often than you’d think) she point blank refuses to cover his scar, even when he asks her to do so

“please? i don’t like it.” “*gasp* how dare you.”

sleepy aria! snuggling into taeyong’s shoulder when a schedule ran late!

he gets uncomfy when the stylists put her in too revealing clothes, and has spoken to them on numerous occasions about dressing her in age-appropriate attire, no matter how “sexy” the concept might be

he keeps little bags of sugar-dusted strawberry sweets in his bag incase she forgets to eat and feels faint after the last time (they used to be blueberry flavoured but he heard donghyuck throwing out any and all “blueberry-contaminated” food one evening)

taeyong doesn’t tolerate hate towards aria, especially in person, so he always makes sure to sit down the line from her so that he can see when people skip her intentionally 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

taeyong had just been awarded the single bedroom on the last night of the mtopia series, and was staring off into the corner looking rather uncomfortable. aria, who was meant to be rooming with baekhyun, looked over and saw his mouth curled downwards slightly. 

“baekhyun-oppa, is it ok if i room with taeyongie-oppa tonight? i ran out of my tablets, and he has some in his bag..”

baekhyun looked down at her with a small smile and agreed, while the edited captions on the video appeared with the words, “a cute maknae asking to room with a younger member..”

➣ TEN ☾ tenaria

Whipped™

so so gone for her its upsetting actually

yangyang and aria share the position of his baby

except aria willingly accepts the title while yangyang would rather fling himself from a rooftop

ten’s instagram is half his cats, half miyazu aria

he posts her dancing practice on his story a lot, with a variety of captions ranging from “thats my baby  ♡( ◡‿◡ )” to “yah that’s not right…(눈_눈)”

such an enabler for her bad ideas

aria wants to go shopping at 4am? ten agrees, now they’re sitting by han river eating ice cream

pls he’s gonna get her in so much trouble one day

when they walk together, ten likes to take her hand and put it in his pocket

its under the pretense of not wanting her to get lost

he just wants to hold her hand

yes he has lost her in a shopping mall, and NO it wasn’t his fault

ten always complains that they never have schedules together and he misses his baby

“we have superm-” “I NEVER SEE YOUUUU (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ”

if they’re in the same room ten is either watching her out of the corner of his eye, or is actually wrapped around her like a boa constrictor

hugs n kithes all around

only he is allowed make fun of her mistakes in dancing

anyone else gets deaded. he will fight for her honor how dare you insult his baby

sm give these ttwo a dancing duo video pls

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

the first and only time aria and ten had a duet was during their last concert on superm’s first world tour. during the second half of ten’s solo performance, aria emerged from the left side of the stage, coming to join him in the centre stage. no one had ever seen aria as serious as she was then, both herself and ten becoming completely different people in the moment. midway through, aria spun with her back to ten and leaped backwards into the air - eyes closed - completely trusting ten to be where she needed him to be to catch her.

➣ LUCAS ☾ arihei

besties

please they’re so cute together - tol child next to tini child she barely comes up to his chest :(

bear hugs

he just swamps her in his arms, and when he doesn’t feel like being bent over he picks her up

complains that she’s too heavy but then immediately after will throw her around like a softball

someone tell this man to be careful with her she’s not a barbie doll

singular braincell energy

don’t get it wrong, they’re both super smart

so it’s just - being smort together, but then nearly dying because neither of them remembered that you couldn’t eat raw cookie dough when there are eggs in it

she adores how he’s so confident in the things that he does - like convincing the entire nct fandom that he was fluent in english? king behaviour

so aria looks up to him (literally) but also because she wants to have that confidence some day

lucas says they’re not close and then aria pouts and he takes it all back

nczennies made a 14 minute compilation titled “lucas melting like a popsicle in australia for aria”

and literally what the title tells you, this man goes :(( when he sees her

lucas was actually the person to convince her to go ahead with the [redacted] proposal - and reminded her that it was too good an opportunity to pass up just because she felt like she was outgrowing the boys

he’s so proud of her

and she’s so proud of him

they’re so proud of each other and it makes nczennies want to cry because they never are seen together

sm stop separating the platonic soulmates first markhyuck and now arihei smh

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

during a photoshoot, aria was standing off to the side of the boys, dressed in white suit to contrast the boys’ black ones. the photographer was calling out to her to get her to move closer, but she couldn’t hear him from so far away, and so lucas (who was on the end) just walked over to her, gripped her by the biceps and lifted her vertically and to the left a little bit. 

“luc-LUCAS?”

“you had to move :)”

➣ MARK ☾ mari

½ of the best friend crew

honestly at the beginning, mark and aria weren’t very close, having only really seen each other in passing or with johnny

but after being dropped into training together the two quickly became fast friends, and now they’re borderline inseparable

you thought you knew pain? watch aria’s reaction to mark’s graduation from dream :)

mark’s the reason why aria felt confident enough to pitch some of her lyric ideas to the team, after staying up until 4am to help her make some edits so she was as confident as possible

kinda just, rests his head on her shoulder? and wraps his arms around her waist when he’s tired

mari being confused in foreigner: ???

aria said once in a vlive that she finds mark really comforting to be around - when she feels stressed or worried about something she’ll go to mark’s room and just sit on his bed for a while

aria is so close with his parents - “ahh, how’s my favourite child” “i’m doing great mom.” “no not you, how’s aria?” “wh-hu-MOM?”

you’d swear sometimes mark is younger than her, considering the pout he puts on and how much he whines when they’re not on the same team together for promotions

mark big protecc boi but also little small cuddly boi

they’re so soft for each other ( ╥ω╥ )

in one of the fancams for mark’s solo stage during superm, someone zoomed into aria singing along with him in the wings and dancing to herself with the Proudest Smile™

he’s! so! proud! of! her! constantly! she could be walking and he’d be like “omg get it”

when aria refuses to get up and make herself food (this happens way too often, she just gets into the groove of her work and doesn’t want to move) mark gets her to by threatening to do it himself

consistently caught by czennies just standing behind her and holding her hand in crowded areas - airports, waiting rooms, etc.

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

mark and aria were standing off to one side as the mc explained the rules of the game they were about to be playing. mark looked totally confused, and elbowed aria in her side before looking down and mouthing “what?” to her. aria opened her mouth, before closing it and looking down at the ground, muttering to herself, “결합… 結合….. le chéile…. le… le.. oh oh - combined! we have to put them together, markie.”

and thus, a new confusion meme was born

[adultswim2021]

Ephemera Week (2002)

Mission Hill (originally aired on WB, 1999-2000)

Mission Hill was a perfectly good animated series from former Simpsons show-runners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. It was a sitcom about cool young people in a cool young people city. Andy French is an aspiring cartoonist, intended to be a Matt Groening type who would (over the course of many many seasons) eventually find success and get his own super-successful animated series called THE SIMPSONS: SEASONS 1-8.

The premise of the show was that Andy’s parents retire and sell the childhood home, displacing his nerdy high-school aged younger brother Kevin. Kevin moves in with Andy and learns how to be a cool city style guy, you know, the kind that’s always “walkin here!” and sucking off Bob Balaban in the men’s room and whatnot.

The show is at least better than the bad seasons of the Simpsons, and has a cool alt-comics style that suits the show really well. Not to damn it with faint praise, it’s a good show. There are a handful of GREAT episodes and plenty of strong jokes. There's news of a revival in the works focusing on Gus and Wally, the older gay couple in the show. It's supposed to take place in the same era the show originally aired in, which is just great.

Like Baby Blues and Home Movies before it, I did catch this show randomly on it's network of origin. I saw one or two of the final episodes to air on WB. I liked it! I was glad to see it get revived for a run on Adult Swim. I've wanted more episodes ever since.

I don't think the show is available for streaming anywhere, which is too bad. It came out on DVD with special features. That DVD set was reissued on DVD-R without special features, so... buyer? be wary. There's also a number of music replacements that ruin some of the scenes. At one point I had a bootleg set where somebody took the DVD video and replaced the audio with the as-broadcast version of of the show. Good luck finding it.

Here's an episode guide showing their debuts on Adult Swim. Bold episodes were originally unaired, making their debut on the channel. Also note: episodes had an innocuous title and a spicier in-house title in parentheses. It’s real Police Squad! shit.

12AM Monday Morning:

May 20: Pilot (or The Douchebag Aspect) May 27: Andy Joins the PTA (or Great Sexpectations) June 3: Kevin's Problem (or Porno for Pyro) June 10: Andy vs. The Real World (or The Big-Ass Viacom Lawsuit) June 17: Andy and Kevin Make a Friend (or One Bang for Two Brothers) June 24: Andy Gets a Promotion (or How to Get Head in Business Without Really Trying) July 1: Kevin vs. the SAT (or Nocturnal Admissions) July 8: Unemployment Part 1 (or Brother's Big Boner) July 15: Unemployment Part 2 (or Theory of the Leisure Ass) July 22: Kevin Finds Love (or Hot for Weirdie) July 29: Stories of Hope and Forgiveness (or Day of the Jackass)

11PM Sunday Night:

August 4: Happy Birthday, Kevin (or Happy Birthday, Douchebag) August 11: Plan 9 from Mission Hill (or I Married a Gay Man from Outer Space)

ALSO NOTE: There are about five episodes that were in early-stages of production and if you poke around you can find scripts for these episodes ( here as of this writing). A full animatic and table read for “Crap Gets In Your Eyes” exists if you search for it. 

MAIL BAG

London Arbuckle ASKS! or, states! sorry I’m writing this lead-in without having read the whole message yet.

Another confusing Baffler Meal thing: the deleted cold open that's on the DVD. It gets called back to in the actual episode ("Between two steamed buns", "Nine dollars!? For what?") and provides crucial context, BUT it also gets contradicted in the actual episode (SG sells out for "one serious speaker" instead of owing a restaurant money). Also I remember all the ads for this episode used a clip from the cold open! It always kinda bothered me that they cut it but boys (matt & dave) will be boys!

I do think the cold open is nice and I always make a point to watch it with the episode. In my mind they are as essential as watching that boring Terry Gilliam short before Meaning of Life. The next step is pointlessly editing them together using Nero. Yeah, that’s the ticket

Here’s ANONYMOUS, baby!

It's summertime and we are talking about Adult Swim and I gotta ask when's the last time you've been to a pool. Have you ever in your adult life enjoyed the benefits of an adult swim. Tell us just how much you like splash around. Yes, that would be quite illuminating I'm sure (rolleyes).

Man, when was the last time I went into a pool? It’s been literally years. I think the last time I swam I did a bad job. I am definitely am getting “bad job” vibes off my hazy memories. Man, my memories used to be precious. Damn!

do you think theyll ever work with george lowe again in any major capacity or do you think he's just bad news.

I was about to say “isn’t he on American Dad” based on him name-checking American Dad as one of his many credits but I just looked it up and he was only in one episode. Damn. Somebody give George work he seems nice.

beakman's world, anyone? The wild and wacky world of Paul Zaloom? Hmm? Anyone?

lol you wish...

Baby Blues really was my everything back in the early 2000s, it may not have head the punk rock cred you clearly seem to crave it was a soothing balm for myself as a new father in a scary world (9/11 and all that, terrible stuff).

you raise a good point, that you’re a huge dork “with child” and I’m cool and laughed at 9/11 because it was funny to me, actually

Just read your Baby Blues "take down" and I gotta say: In the immortal words of Mike Francesca, "You're a fool. ho-kay? A total fool."

Uh huh. Yeah okay. Mike Francesca hordes pot bellied pigs in his apartment and lives in filth. He stinks, and so do youd

Baby Blue is like every animation nerd's wet dream. What if they made the rugrats with only the parents part. And here it is. Be careful what you wish for, chunky.

Yeah and it’s too bad because judging from the previous mail bags my audience is primarily made up of BABIES.

[pluraldeepdive]

The Website That Started Natural Multiplicity

Disclaimer: This is a post covering a deep dive of archived events that took place in the past. DO NOT harass or send hate towards anyone mentioned.

Introduction

So, who came up with natural multiplicity? When I’ve asked this question, most people reply by saying “Nobody! It’s always existed!” But that’s not exactly what I was asking them. Sure, the experience has always existed, I agree with them there. But what I’m asking about is the name! Someone was experiencing or observing something and then they put a name to it. They decided to name it natural multiplicity—so who did that? Who came up with that? 

Through my deep dive, I ended up finding the answer for myself.

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, multiplicity and multiple personality were terms that were often used interchangeably prior to the 21st century. They were used exclusively in reference to DID (more often called MPD at the time). Their origins are clinical, and they also held a lot of importance to the pre-Internet and early Internet dissociative community. (See my post on that here.) During this time, multiplicity and multiple personality meant a trauma-based dissociative disorder. The term natural multiplicity did not exist at that time—at least not in any relation to DID.

Prior to the term natural multiplicity, discussions about multiplicity being natural were usually discussions about how it’s natural to dissociate after trauma. Whenever someone mentioned that multiplicity was not a disorder to them, it was usually because the terms disorder or even MPD/DID had negative connotations to them, because they personally didn’t want to identify with medical terminology for other reasons, because they were not personally distressed by their alters, or because they had reached a stage in recovery where they were no longer struggling—not because they saw the experience as inherently non-dissociative or non-traumagenic.

But someone came along and kickstarted a changed in that narrative. This person was experiencing something that they felt wasn’t trauma-based or dissociative...and believed that it was the same multiplicity that everyone else was referring to as trauma-based and dissociative. This person decided to take that concept and redefine it to be inherently not trauma-based, not dissociation, and not pathological.

So, who was that person? Who decided to name something that was very obviously not DID the equivalent to natural DID? Well, your answer is: Astraea’s Web. 

Evidence & Archives

Evidence of this wasn’t really hard to come by because, well...they’ve talked it! While they don’t go around bragging about it, it’s certainly come up a fair amount of times. Other people have talked about it, as well.

“The concepts of natural multiplicity and healthy multiplicity are very new. We only introduced them about ten years ago on our website, and while several other websites exist now and plenty of online multiples know about these ideas (whether they agree with them or not), this is still a very small subset of the online multiplicity community, which is a very small subset of multiples in general. Most people do not know about these ideas because they haven’t been publicised enough; that is what Pavilion is for, but it’s gotten off to a very slow start.” - From Bluejay Young (a member of Astraea Household) on Livejournal Multiplicity. (2005)

“Astraea’s page was the first multiplicity page that was NOT about DID.” - From Amorpha System on Livejournal Multiplicity. (2005)

“(1995) Astraea’s Web, the first Internet website to describe non-disordered and self-recognized multiplicity, goes online in September.” - From Multiple Personality Controversy on Psychology Wikia (2006)

“I’m also putting Astraea’s Web back in. It was the first website to propose the idea of healthy multiplicity.” - From Bluejay Young (a member of Astraea Household) on the DID/MPD Controversy Wikipedia discussion. (2007)

“It’s important to allow the concept to be inclusive of everyone who fits, regardless of past abuse history or origins, much as is currently being done for ‘multiplicity.’” - From Anthony Temple (a member of Astraea Household) on “A brief history of midcontinuum”. (2007)

And, yes, this all checks out. During my deep dive, I could find no website that existed before Astraea’s Web that talked about multiplicity/DID as something natural; natural meaning not trauma-based, not dissociative, and not pathological in their own words. Here are my posts on how they introduced natural multiplicity to the Internet:

Their first theory. (1998 or earlier)

How natural multiplicity went from a theory to a fact. (2000)

When they began separating multiplicity from DID. (1999)

Boycotting DID. (2000-2003)

But it’s also important to hear it straight from the source. The archived essay “What a long, strange trip it’s been...” was published sometime in 2002 or possibly earlier. In this, members of Astraea Household reflected on their journey to joining the dissociative community, realizing that they were actually not dissociative, and introducing their idea of natural multiplicity to the Internet.

Part 1 (Discovering DID & their multiplicity)

Part 2 (Coming out & wanting DID normalized)

Part 3 (Experiences in the dissociative community, doubt, introducing natural multiplicity, & backlash)

Part 4 (The empowered multiple community)

My Thoughts

Obviously, natural multiplicity has evolved and changed so much over time. Present day non-dissociative plurality is so different from its origin! It’s like a dinosaur versus a duck. One comes from the other, and there are similarities, but they shouldn’t be looked at like the same exact thing. Even though the term natural multiplicity has died out, and it’s ableist as Hell, I still find its origins so fascinating and I hope that you guys can agree.

Like I’ve stated several times before, I don’t fault people much for their past actions. The times and circumstances were very, very different. DID research back then was bare bones, filled with inaccuracies, and being bombarded with controversy and skepticism. Also, Astraea’s Web has always presented itself as an anti-psych website so it’s not that much of a surprise that they were against diagnoses.

While I personally do not agree with how Astraea Household went about certain things, I could also empathize with the situation that led up to them coining natural multiplicity. Astraea Household’s journey read to me like a story of misdiagnosing a self-diagnosis...a mis-self-diagnosis?

Sometimes people self-diagnose because it feels like a certain disorder is the only explanation they have for their experiences. It can be frightening if that one explanation turns out to not be the answer—ESPECIALLY if you got heavily involved in communities related to that disorder.

If I self-diagnosed DID but then later realized that I didn’t relate to its causation or symptoms that much, then I’d probably just think I was experiencing something else. I wouldn’t be so inclined to think that it was the professionals who were completely wrong...but what if DID was the closest explanation I had for my experiences? What if most of my friends were in the dissociative community? What if me being multiple was a big part of my closest relationships? What if I had been telling people I was multiple for years and years? What if I had a hugely successful website on me being multiple? What if I had a big influence on the dissociative community? What if my entire career revolved around me being multiple? Damn, maybe I would have come up with natural multiplicity as well in that case. (Not saying this is why Astraea Household did it.)

Anyways, please go and make your own opinions on this stuff. That’s why I share it.