#which makes me question the content of the article itself

[two-calicos-in-a-trenchcoat]

Im researching pitbull coat colors cuz the different ways different coat colors come about and present in cats and dogs is fascinating (clearly, considering how much I geek out about calico cats)

And apparently chewby had some rare puppies

(This website didnt specifically say that blue brindles are rare but other places im looking do)

Like I knew boosie had an interesting coat but I didnt realize precious (a blue fawn) was also not common

Also according to this boosie is technically a reverse blue brindle cuz blue is his primary color (he just looked blue as a puppy and developed brindling as he aged)

[kamiversee]

𓆩 Crown of Sin 𓆪

Segment I Chapter: Two

❀ ~ Synopsis > In which you’re a princess who's given a total of six months to converge & inaugurate a solid plan secure enough to rid you of your fated marriage arrangements to Naoya Zenin. 

❀ ~ Content > language, tension, subtle (?) flirting, the faintest of touches, far too much eye contact, etc.

❀ ~ Word Count > 4.9k

❀ ~ Pairings > jjk men & women x f!reader.

{ chapters m!list }

——Now that you are engaged, time has never been more of the essence. You have six months to wiggle your way out of this arrangement and only your half-assed, last-minute plan to act off of. 

Who would have thought? The princess of the Eastern Nation requesting a harem just before she’d accepted Naoya Zenin’s proposal... It’s hardly been twenty-four hours since and yet word has spread all over. It’s the title of every article of news in everyone’s hands the morning following, a fact that comes quite present to you as one of these newsletters is tossed down onto a table before you.

“Care to explain why I retrieved this from my letter carrier this morning?” As a lecture from the third person this morning makes its approach to you, the letter in question lands on the table you find yourself seated at with a loud smack.

You’ve got your hands neatly met at your lap whilst you take a dramatic moment to pause and think about how you should go about explaining things this time around. You’d already had to deal with both your mother and father since you woke up and shortly after that array of scolding, you were sent off to the next person able to give you a mouthful concerning your impulsive decision from the night prior… Masamichi Yaga.

You swear in another life he could’ve very well been a professor of some sort because his voice quite tires you after some time. 

Given that, as your fingers intertwine and tumble over one another, you puff out a sigh of frustration and roll your eyes around the room, “I’m unsure of what it is you want me to say. Have my parents not already explained to you what I’ve explained to them?”

Yaga’s got two hands splayed out against the lengthy mahogany wooden table positioned only a few inches in front of you, with his head all angled to the side, and eyes narrowed to the utmost scrutiny toward you. It takes you a few moments before you actually meet his piercing gaze and even as you do, you only find your eyes falling to study the rest of his face shortly after.

He’s quite older than you and his age shows through his facial features, despite the commonly envious clear skin he possesses. Just as you find your eyes meeting his neatly kept facial hair, he interrupts your staring (again) with a huff, “I think it foolish of me to ask your parents what exactly was going on in your mind when you requested a Harem from your soon-to-be husb—”

“And I think it foolish of myself ever to allow any sort of marriage between me and the Zenin man to take place.” You cut off all in one solid breath. “Word of my Harem request has spread faster than the proposal itself. Does no one in this godforsaken palace find that not the least bit bizarre??”

For a moment, he falls quiet. A hold of eye contact passes by between the two of you before Yaga starts sighing again, “Perhaps that is because no one understands why you would request such a thing in the first place.”

You let off a short scoff, “Oh my word, you all care more about my request than my fiance himself! If he accepts and allows it to be, why can the rest of you not follow suit in silence?”

“Because the request was risky enough to send us into war,” Yaga explains to you with a judgemental narrow of his eyes, “His Majesty is not known to have a temper of grace.”

You’re quick to first reply with a lift of your hand, a shiny rock sitting oh-so-prettily on your ring finger, “And yet the night ended with me engaged and my request granted.”

Yaga’s gaze doesn’t waver and he pays your hand no mind whatsoever. Instead, the man stands up straight and paces closer to your end of the table, grabbing a vacant chair to your left and turning it around to face him before he sits and rests his arms against the back. 

He leans closer to you and his voice drops to a softened whisper, “Did you truly not think to inform anyone of your plans beforehand?”

“I considered doing so, yes.” You say with a shrug.

Skeptical, Yaga’s lips twitch. “Yet you didn’t. Why?”

Your brows pinch together and you find it odd how quickly his tone seems to have changed, “Because I would have been advised against it, obviously.” Then your eyes wander and your arms meet to fold. “But I still don’t understand what all these lectures are for. Again, my fiance has allowed me the liberty to form a harem as I please so, honestly, just what is the issue here?”

“Permission to pry, Your Highness?” Yaga requests, earning your full attention once more. Even his expression seems to have softened and you almost feel as though he can see straight through you.

Leading you to lift your shoulders again with slight casualty, “Granted, I suppose.”

He tilts his head out of genuine concern as his question smoothly leaves his lips, “Why did you ask for a Harem?”

You can only chuckle at this point. He’s probably the tenth person to ask you such a question. “Can a lady not request for some men to satisfy her…?” You respond rather innocently with a dumbfounded bat of your lashes.

The corner of his lips raise and he sighs through his nose softly, “That’s cute but, something tells me it’s a bit more than simply that?”

You take that as a sign to drop your act of innocence, shifting up from your seat to stand. “When men move to create harems, do they too receive this many inquiries on why?”

“Well—”

“Pardon my… crudeness, General Yaga,” The sudden adjustment to your tone is noted mentally by the man as you step around your end of the table and closer to his chair. “I have sexual desires I wish to exploit before I am forced to only act upon such desires with,” You shudder, “My fiance.”

You don’t miss the way he stiffens up where he sits, stammering out a surprised, “O-Oh.”

“Surely, you understand what it’s like to find yourself…” He hardly has any time to register how close you’ve gotten to him before you’re slithering around his seat with careful steps and trailing a featherlight touch up along his bulky arm, stopping at his shoulder to give a gentle squeeze, and leaning down to his ear to whisper, “Frustrated.”

Yaga immediately clears his throat and you can feel the way his body tenses beneath your touch. “You and I should not be having this kind of conversation—”

“And yet we are,” You smile, voice remaining near his ear as you proceed, “General, I consider this harem of mine my last act of fun before I’m… a married woman.”

He nods, just barely, “I see.”

“Do you?” A second hand meets his other shoulder as you remain stood behind him. Then, you lift your lips away from his ear, “Have you any idea how dreadful it is to imagine that one day I am to lay with Naoya Zenin?” He sighs and you give both of his shoulders a squeeze, noting the firmness you feel beneath your palms, “Place your formalities to the side for just a moment, and,” Your touch meets his chin faster than he cares to react to as you tip his head up, “Look at me.”

His eyes, a rather underrated deep shade of brown, soon settle on your face above his own. This is a man who’s been at war more times than he cares to count and yet he finds himself almost entirely defenseless when in the face of you. As such, his voice is airy whilst exiting his throat, “Princess, this…”

You smile kindly and drag a finger up along his jawline. “Does he strike you as the kind of man who knows even the first thing about pleasing a lady?”

His jaw clenches, most likely to your question but arguably to your touch as well, “I cannot—”

“Oh but,” You lean down-, closer, “You can.”

Yaga swallows thickly, the sound hitting your ears as you take in just how nervous you’ve made him. “I won’t.”

He watches as your brows furrow upwards, “You’re denying your princess a mere response?”

“I cannot speak down on his majesty’s…” Yaga bats his eyes at you, “Possible ignorance.”

The proximity between the two of you at present is enough to drive any sane man to madness. Yaga has found himself close to you times before but never like this. Your hair is done up so there isn’t a strand obscuring his view of your every feature or the way you stare down at him so intimately that it’s almost suffocating. 

Then follows your voice with such softness that it makes his heart pound in ways he rarely knows it to. “I believe I’ve ordered you to drop the formalities for just a moment.”

Shutting his eyes, Yaga sighs heavily. “I am a—”

“Man before anything else. And a man’s answer is what I desire at present so, tell me, General, does Naoya strike you as—”

“No,” He breathes out as his eyes snap open once more.

You’d grown closer, mere inches away from connection. Perhaps the lack of distance is why he so hesitantly allows his eyes to travel downward along your face..

“See? Was that so difficult?” You say with a taunting scoff before finally removing your touch entirely and pulling away with a turn toward the room’s exit, “God, you men are so dramatic—”

“Though,” Yaga starts up. Your feet come to a stop but you don’t turn around, instead listening to the soft creak of wood against the flooring as he rises from his seat, followed by approaching steps. The man stops just behind you, hardly a step away. “You do not strike me as a woman who understands that all actions have appropriate consequences.”

“Or perhaps I am a woman who expects such… ‘consequences.’” Swiftly, you swivel around to face him once again. In doing so, he finds your body questionably close to his once again—with it, approaching your light fragrant into his nose. “I take it your silence is to speak for your confusion?”

“Yes…” He utters nearly dejectedly.

A grin spreads across your face before you smoothly lift a hand to the outskirts of his uniform lining, “Mh.” You hum to yourself in thought as you watch your hands dance along the navy blue fabric before you, “General, if I invited you into my harem, would you join?”

Taken aback, he scoffs, “That is wildly inappropriate—”

“No more inappropriate than the conversation you just held with me,” You cut off with a raise of your head, the simple meet of your gaze to his enough to have his usual hard exterior soften in face of you. 

With hardly a moment to ponder, Yaga answers you with a huff of irritation, “I do not know if I would join.”

You snort, “Right. But, you felt something moments ago, did you not?”

“I felt nothing.” He claims.

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Unless you plan to actually invite me into that harem of yours,” He makes a small, almost unnoticeable, move toward you—leading your hands to flatten out against his torso, “I refuse to elaborate on anything I may or may not have felt within the time you and I have been in this room.”

“And that, General,” You pause, pushing closer so that the gap between you and him practically closes as you whisper, “Is exactly why my scheme will work.”

Clear bewilderment washes over his face, “What? What ‘scheme’?”

Your body slid away from him so quickly that it was almost as though it were never against his in the first place. “Do you see how you allowed lust to cloud whatever initial judgment you held toward me?” You ask rhetorically, making a sharp spin on your toes toward a nearby cabinet.

“I do not—”

“Most people operate rather similarly on a day-to-day basis.” Your words exit you flawlessly without even so much as another glance toward him, “Lust clouds the mind just as well as love is known to but,” You shrug. “At a quicker rate.”

“Slow down, what—”

“I will be using lust to drive the members of my harem so wildly insane that they’ll be willing to go to lengths unknown simply for my sake.” Your rambling finally comes to an end with that statement.

Yaga is left bewildered as he remains in the very place you left him, watching you diligently forage through a recently opened cabinet for something.

“…Only love does that to a person,” The man eventually responds to you.

Chuckling, moreso to yourself, “I have six months.”

“You-,” He blinks, “You plan to… make people fall in lust with you? My lady, as direct as this may be, many are already feeling such.”

“Including you?” You chirp.

The sound of him sighing, probably for the millionth time since the sun has risen today, can be heard amid your rummage. “I am serious. You are well sought after, especially as word of your harem spreads further and further. Do you know how many people will be at the palace gates hoping to join?”

Suddenly turning elsewhere, you pace toward the room door and crack it open for a second, briefly interacting with your knight before retrieving something Yaga is unable to identify from where he stands until you shut the door and turn to him. 

“That is of no concern to me considering I already have people in mind,” You tell him cheerfully.

His brows twitch but do not meet, “You do?”

“Yes,” You approach him and extend out your hand. “Here.” Within your grasp holds what seems to be eight documents, their contents unknown to the General in front of you.

He is a bit hesitant to take the small stack from you but once he does, he steadily allows his gaze to lower onto what he now holds. The first document earns an instant scoff, followed by a small smile of unseriousness, “You jest.” He says.

Your brows raise, “I do not.”

“These are…” Yaga trails off for a long moment while he flips through the documents you’ve handed him—each one containing a profile of some sort.

After his beat of silence, you loom closer to peak into his hands, as if you aren’t already aware of the paper’s contents, and he gives his throat a soft clearing before reading through in summarization. 

Flipping through each profile, Yaga reads them aloud, “Gojo Satoru, prince of the Northern Nation. Lord Geto, the duke of the northeast. Lord Nanami, Duke of Middom. Your knight, Lady Tsukumo. Prince Hajime, of the south. And, two others who aren’t even noblemen.”

You point to the name at the top of the document he’s paused on, “He's an ex-mercenary.”

Yaga shakes his head, “I know who he is, or-, what he is for that matter. You cannot be serious, he’s a barbarian—”

“And he,” You flip to the next page for him, “Comes from a noble family.”

He practically frog-blinks at you in the slowest of fashions, “He’s… a farmer.”

“Rumored to be quite handsome at that,” You inform, earning a cocked eyebrow and a look of pure skepticism. “Whaaat? I am putting together a harem after all.”

Brushing that comment off entirely, Yaga turns to the last document given to him and studies it thoroughly. “When you requested one, I did not think you would make an attempt to gather all other available men of power.”

“So…” You trail off a bit, leaning forward and then giving him a slight nudge on his arm to gain his eyes on you again, “What do you think?”

Yaga shrugs. “Nothing. I am confused.”

You frown, “Put two and two together.”

It takes another beat of stillness to pass before he looks back down to the papers at hand and flips through them again. You watch as he shuffles through each one, letting out a hum or two at some of the information collected on certain pages. The fluttering of papers quickly becomes the only sound shared within the space you two occupy.

Eventually, Yaga takes a long pause at the eighth document, noticing that it isn’t a profile at all—it almost looks like a royal invitation. “...You are using the harem as a coverup.” He breathes out suddenly.

The smile you had moments ago returns to your features and you cannot help but nod, “Mhm…”

He finds himself nodding to himself as he pieces it all together, “Your true intent is to get these men on your side against… Oh my God.”

“Has it finally clicked for you?” 

Yaga nearly grasps at your arms in one swift motion, a motion unthought of beforehand as his surprise takes over. Then he begins to lay it all out, “That whole talk of lust and love. You-, you want to seduce these men into joining your harem, out of lust, and then have them fall for you over these next six months because when a man, especially one of power, is in love they’re willing to drive to—”

“Lengths unknown for that of which they love,” You chuckle nervously. 

He unintentionally gives you a slight shake, “The Harem is a coverup.” He repeats.

It’s then that you snort, “Oh no, the harem is very much real. I do plan to partake in debauchery with these men.”

His head tilts, “...For the sake of your nation?”

“Well, sure,” You murmur sheepishly.

For the first time since he’d dragged you into this room, he smiles, “And what if they do not join?”

You find his excitement endearing, in a way. “They will.”

“How can you be sure–”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Perhaps it was the sudden question but, he then realizes the way he is holding onto your arms and quickly removes his hands from you with a respectful step back, “I…”

“Exactly,” You quip, unconsciously brushing off the areas of your skin in which his touch had just been, “And you hesitate to answer after only an hour alone with me. Do you doubt my capabilities, General?”

His head shakes before his mouth moves, “Of course not.”

“Then tell me this is a good plan!” You exclaim.

“It is brilliant-, genius, even.” He raves, “But, there are so many things that could go wrong. What if the six months pass and none of them fall in love with you?”

“Do you believe that to be possible?” Another rhetorical question leaves you as your eyes begin to wonder in thought, “I think six months is more than enough time to give someone to fall for me, especially if I am laying with them nearly every night.”

“I see. Lust to love.” You begin to pace back over to that cabinet you left open from before and his eyes merely follow you. “And what if this does work? What’ll happen if all of your harem members fall for you, prepare to join us in a war against the east, and Prince Naoya admits defeat?”

Your chin angles upwards while you go to reach for something, “The wedding will be called off and I will be a free woman.”

“How? What will you do with your harem?” Yaga questions.

You snort, palm coming in contact with your next object of desire, “Well, I will marry one of them, obviously.”

“And what of the rest—”

“Or all,” You finish, pulling down your item and inspecting it, “Polygamy is not uncommon as you all think it is.”

Yaga is baffled by you once more, “Are you serious?”

“Quite.” You say with a sharp turn.

“What if—”

“You ask far too many questions,” Nearly groaning, you stride back over to the table.

He nears the table alongside you, “My apologies, I’m just concerned. Just, one more…? Uh, when do you plan to act on this scheme of yours?”

“Technically I’ve already acted upon them but—oh!” You roll out the lengthy item you’d retrieved from the cabinet onto the outstretch of the table, “I would like to begin my travels as soon as possible.”

Yaga chokes, “Travels?”

You look at him, “You didn’t think I would just send out a letter and hope they show up, did you?”

“Well…”

“I shall ask each person to join my harem face to face!” In comes your beaming smile, one of which Yaga does not believe he has the pleasure of seeing too often.

After another sigh, he nods, “That is wise. It is quite hard to deny you when you are…” Pausing, he takes in your full attention and a moment of shared gaze passes by before he finishes in a gentle undertone, “Face to face.”

“Exactly.” Your undertone matches his before you look down to what you’ve spread out against the table—a map. “Now that all of that is settled, care to plan out a safe route of travel for me?”

He pries his eyes away from you and looks to the map ahead of him, “Of course.”

“Thank you, General Yaga.” You give a warming show of gratitude by placing a hand on his shoulder, “What ever would I do without you?”

He huffs through his nose, “Deal with less lectures, I suppose.”

You chuckle at that. Then you remove your hand and run it over the spread of the large map below, “Oh, and uhm, I would prefer this travel route to be done by tonight?”

He coughs, “Pardon?”

“I should like to leave tomorrow.” You request as your hand leaves the map.

His head whips to you, “Tomorrow?!”

“Mhm!” By the time you are in his sights, you’ve quickly made your way back toward the room’s exiting door, “Thank you in advance!!”

“I—” He couldn’t even form another syllable on his tongue before you’d disappeared out of the room.

Some lecture that was. His objective was to talk you out of whatever silly plan you’d made up in that mind of yours—per your father’s request. And yet somewhere along the lines, Yaga thinks he’d found himself distracted…

Which was unusual, to say the least. Typically, he is very goal-driven and never strays far from his plan of action. However, he is also man enough to admit that this plan of yours has more potential than he could have ever expected. Hell, he’s almost jealous he didn’t come up with it himself.

· · ──────── ·𖥸· ──────── · ·

So, as he works to curate a safe passage of travel for you to explore the nations on a hunt for your men, you busy yourself with explaining the same plan to any others close to you who desire to understand what came of you the night prior.

Such as your overly-stressed royal advisor, Higuruma.

“It isn’t as wild as you think it is, ‘Hiro.” You sigh, laid down comfortably across your bed whilst he impatiently paces back and forth mere inches away.

“It is dangerous.” Higuruma explains to you as he rubs at his temples, “Do you know how long it takes to travel to the north nation?”

You look at him ruefully, “Well, I—”

“At least a week, and once you do get there, who knows how long it’ll take you to convince Prince Satoru, of all people, to join this-, this harem of yours!” He shouts, startling the nearby maids who diligently work to pack things in preparation for your traveling.

Although it took quite some time, your mother and father had already come to terms with your plans and left the final decision of whether or not you should act on them to Yaga. Seeing as that went perfectly for you, you now lay comfortably as things are gathered for you. 

Moving to sit up, your legs dangle off the edge of your large bed and you watch Higuruma as he drives himself crazy. “It willn’t take me long, I swear.” You tell him, your voice soft.

His feet come to an immediate halt before he turns to you, eyes pouring with worry, “But what if it does, my lady?”

“It won’t,” You attempt to flash him a reassuring smile but it has little effect.

Hence why he rolls his eyes elsewhere, “You do not understand the risks of your own acts and it drives me mad.”

“Why? If the General can understand it then—”

Your advisor flashes you a momentary glare, “The General does not care for you in the ways I…” He exhales sharply. “Have been taught to.”

A quiet befalls the two of you.

But, it only lasts for a short while before you hop off of your bed and near him. He naturally straightens his posture as you draw closer, looking everywhere else but at you. All as you stare so pointedly up at him, taking in his features—those naturally widened-tired eyes, peculiarly large nose, clean shaved face, and strands of hair that he allows to fall perfectly loose to the right of his forehead.

“I wish for you to accompany me,” You tell him, earning a slow return of his gaze.

Now looking down at you, you can almost feel his constant tiredness oozing off of his irises. Then, he sighs rather heavily, “In what world would I deny you of any of your wishes, my lady?”

Your arms wrap around him before he has time to react and he freezes at your sudden embrace. You rest your cheek against his chest and notice his heartbeat steadily picking up. “‘Hiro, I am so thankful to you, always.”

“What brings this on so suddenly?” He chuckles, lifting his arms so that he can wrap only one around you.

“Nothing in particular,” Your head shifts and you stare up at him.

He, again, looks elsewhere. “I see.” He says dryly. Then, he swallows, “You know.. It is one thing that I allow you to address me by my first name but this nickname you’ve picked up for me recently is a bit too casual, no?”

Your brows meet, “Are you not fond of it?”

He’s quick to shoot you a defensive look, “I am fond of anything you call me.”

“Oh?” You nearly smirk.

“A-Any nickname, that is,” He stammers. “I just think that you would hear of odd… rumors, if this new nickname were to be heard by,” His head motions toward the busy maids, “Certain company.”

Following his nod, “Oh, I see.” You say flatly. “My apologies then, Sir Higuruma.” The hug you two shared comes to a comfortable end as you pull away from him and turn back to your bed, “Forgive my recent affections, I am quite excited for the next few weeks if I’m being honest.”

He makes no note of any affection you display, especially considering you’ve always acted this way with him. “For your-, our travels, I presume?”

“Yes but, mainly because our first destination is the north. I haven’t seen Satoru in years.” You sigh with a comfortable plop down on your bed, “That, and I heard it snows up there all year long, can you believe that?”

Higuruma replies with a tender nod, “I can.”

The conversation comes to an end there, with you rolling about your bed to get a look over to your nearby balcony doors that are wide open. Your eyes hold this gleam of joy in them—despite all doubts, you’re sure your travels will commence safely. 

You may find yourself away from your kingdom for quite a while as you go on this escapade to collect men in the name of escaping the marriage months from now but, something tells you this will be fun above all else. And not to mention, the first person you’ll be seeing is Gojo Satoru.

It’s been a good two to three years since you and him have been in the same space and from what you remember, he was never bad company to keep. Hell, he’s a lot like you in more ways than one; firstborn, only child, heir to a throne you never quite really asked for, sought after, attractive…

It will be nice to familiarize yourself with him once more, even if you plan to seduce him. Speaking of which, it only leads you to wonder… does he even hold an interest in you—romantically speaking? Or hell, even in a sense of lust?

You don’t think you can remember if his eyes ever wondered upon you or if he’s ever even said anything flirtatious to you. Gojo, from what you remember, was always just… casual with you.

Will you be able to change that?

m!list | last chapter | next chapter |

tags 1/2;

@angellliqua @celestial-lunar  @withcheese @itoshi-r @silvarys @everything-red @fishosezo @haesify @sassybananaweaselpsychic @orange-juice-is-ass

@notjustagirlinthisworld @sushiimara @larkson0 @di-in-al @sxnkuna @hanuh @cayla0000 @helloxkittylo @idkmanshrugg @chocolatecheer

@michelintopic @cinaminroll @french3xit @valleydoli @broimherebcsimboredok @sleepisforpuzzies @cuti3patooti8 @sukunadckrider @f0r7una @ventila98

@vixionix @levislug @mauve-gojo @chosomi @semi-lover @bee3l0v3r @noooo-onee @r4sh3li @yenayaps @chososbestgirl

@smutyturtle @simp-plague @pnkblueberry @stargirl-mayaa @kunareads @tojisdollx @gojoslefttoenail @forbiddenblog @glittercherry777 @samm1e13

[cushfuddled]

This article is going to make me disintegrate into a pile of cockroaches

Kind of refreshing

I don’t know whether to laugh or scream

1. What universe does this writer live in where it’s the UNCOMMON outcome for the male platonic soulmate protagonists to REMAIN platonic friends, to the point of it being a breath of fresh air to see two close male characters NOT declare their romantic love for each other or kiss or fuck by the end of the show

2. How do I get there

3. I understand some folks would like to see different kinds of fan content, but that doesn’t mean mlm shippers need to make less mlm content, and also—I cannot believe I have to say this—the fanbase ≠ the canon show. A fanbase “dominated by” (as if we’re some brutish occupying force thrust upon a ravaged underclass rather than…you know…some marginalized folks having fun with fictional characters?) mlm shippers does not mean the show itself is dominated by canon mlm couples.

4. Did you know you can skew toxic masculinity, model kindness and emotional honesty between men, AND canonize a gay relationship AT THE SAME TIME? :)

5. Oh, they can’t be GAY because then that’d reinforce the belief that kindness and emotional honesty make you gay?

6. Question! :)) If the problem…is that boys are so terrified of being perceived as gay that they’d rather impale themselves upon the javelin of toxic masculinity…WHY is the solution always “show boys that love and vulnerability don’t make you one of those gross fags you’re so scared of” instead of. I don’t know. “BEING GAY ISN’T BAD. BEING GAY IS NORMAL. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE AFRAID OF BEING GAY.” If boys don’t think being gay makes you a horrific little freak of nature…maybe they’ll be less scared to perform actions which could cause someone—a gay friend; a homophobic classmate; a random bystander—to perceive them as gay. Because SOMEONE will always make Assumptions. People are nosy. Some people are even staunchly, happily bigoted, regardless of how many male platonic soulmates they see Not Kiss on TV. Crazy, I know! 🤪

7. This writer doesn’t mean any harm, but their article feels like another pebble in a landslide of faux-progressivism (AKA homophobia in a rainbow hat). The implication that a brotherly relationship would better SeRVe sOciEty, or be the more TRANSGRESSIVE (??????) choice (against the overwhelming tidal wave of canon gay protagonists in fantasy shows, presumably)…makes me feel…SO supported as a queer person :)))! Thanks for shielding me from that hail-of-bullets canon gay romantic love, Arcane. Keep fighting the good fight!! 🫡

[stjohnstarling]

Full text of article as follows:

Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI, according to a source with internal knowledge about the deals and internal documentation referring to the deals. 

The exact types of data from each platform going to each company are not spelled out in documentation we’ve reviewed, but internal communications reviewed by 404 Media make clear that deals between Automattic, the platforms’ parent company, and OpenAI and Midjourney are imminent.

The internal documentation details a messy and controversial process within Tumblr itself. One internal post made by Cyle Gage, a product manager at Tumblr, states that a query made to prepare data for OpenAI and Midjourney compiled a huge number of user posts that it wasn’t supposed to. It is not clear from Gage’s post whether this data has already been sent to OpenAI and Midjourney, or whether Gage was detailing a process for scrubbing the data before it was to be sent. 

Gage wrote: 

“the way the data was queried for the initial data dump to Midjourney/OpenAI means we compiled a list of all tumblr’s public post content between 2014 and 2023, but also unfortunately it included, and should not have included:

private posts on public blogs

posts on deleted or suspended blogs

unanswered asks (normally these are not public until they’re answered)

private answers (these only show up to the receiver and are not public)

posts that are marked ‘explicit’ / NSFW / ‘mature’ by our more modern standards (this may not be a big deal, I don’t know)

content from premium partner blogs (special brand blogs like Apple’s former music blog, for example, who spent money with us on an ad campaign) that may have creative that doesn’t belong to us, and we don’t have the rights to share with this-parties; this one is kinda unknown to me, what deals are in place historically and what they should prevent us from doing.”

Gage’s post makes clear that engineers are working on compiling a list of post IDs that should not have been included, and that password-protected posts, DMs, and media flagged as CSAM and other community guidelines violations were not included.

Automattic plans to launch a new setting on Wednesday that will allow users to opt-out of data sharing with third parties, including AI companies, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and internal documents. A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states that “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.” 

404 Media has asked Automattic how it accidentally compiled data that it shouldn’t share, and whether any of that content was shared with OpenAI. 404 Media asked Automattic about an imminent deal with Midjourney last week but did not hear back then, either. Instead of answering direct questions about these deals and the compiling of user data, Automattic sent a statement, which it posted publicly after this story was published, titled "Protecting User Choice." In it, Automattic promises that it's blocked AI crawlers from scraping its sites. The statement says, "We are also working directly with select AI companies as long as their plans align with what our community cares about: attribution, opt-outs, and control. Our partnerships will respect all opt-out settings. We also plan to take that a step further and regularly update any partners about people who newly opt out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training."

Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?”

Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believepartners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.” Automattic did not respond to a question from 404 Media about whether it could guarantee that people who opt out will have their data deleted retroactively.

News about a deal between Tumblr and Midjourney has been rumored and speculated about on Tumblr for the last week. Someone claiming to be a former Tumblr employee announced in a Tumblr blog post that the platform was working on a deal with Midjourney, and the rumor made it onto Blind, an app for verified employees of companies to anonymously discuss their jobs. 404 Media has seen the Blind posts, in which what seems like an Automattic employee says, “I'm not sure why some of you are getting worked up or worried about this. It's totally legal, and sharing it publicly is perfectly fine since it's right there in the terms & conditions. So, go ahead and spread the word as much as you can with your friends and tech journalists, it's totally fine.”

Separately, 404 Media viewed a public, now-deleted post by Gage, the product manager, where he said that he was deleting all of his images off of Tumblr, and would be putting them on his personal website. A still-live postsays, “i've deleted my photography from tumblr and will be moving it slowly but surely over to cylegage.com, which i'm building into a photography portfolio that i can control end-to-end.” At one point last week, his personal website had a specific note stating that he did not consent to AI scraping of his images. Gage’s original post has been deleted, and his website is now a blank page that just reads “Cyle.” Gage did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media. 

Several online platforms have made similar deals with AI companies recently, including Reddit, which entered into an AI content licensing deal with Google and said in its SEC filing last week that it’s “in the early stages of monetizing [its] user base” by training AI on users’ posts. Last year, Shutterstock signed a six year deal with OpenAI to provide training data.

OpenAI and Midjourney did not respond to requests for comment. 

Updated 4:05 p.m. EST with a statement from Automattic.

[definitelynotafurinasimp]

Them with a reader that tries to be Santa Claus

alternatively: Them with a reader that dresses up to hand out gifts

characters: Charlotte / Clorinde / Furina / Navia x gn!reader (separate)

warnings: none, just fluff

a/n: Soon is christmas eve, aka the day I celebrate christmas on, so Merry Christmas everyone! And Happy Holidays/a nice weekend to those of you that don't celebrate! I hope you all have a great time!

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Charlotte

The moment Charlotte first heard about the series of break-ins happening all over Fontaine, she set her mind on investigating them and writing a piece on them once she found the culprit. It wasn't every day that such an interesting case revealed itself after all, and letting it go to waste was the exact opposite of what a self-respecting journalist would do.

All of which was to say that meet-ups between you and Charlotte became rarer as her entire focus shifted towards her new project. So when you finally got the chance to meet, you wanted to make the most of it, getting each other up to speed on what you had been doing these past few days as quickly as possible before moving on to different topics.

“Now that I remember! I saw this really funny red and white coat and hat at that store recently, so I–” you were in the process of rambling while bending downwards and trying to fish the aforementioned hat out of your bag, when Charlotte suddenly interrupted you, her eyes wide open as she seemingly just remembered something.

“That reminds me of something! Have you heard of the recent break-ins all around the city? I’m currently investigating them, I’m sure it will make for a fantastic article, maybe even one of my best.” She asked, causing your head to tilt slightly as you stared at her in confusion, trying to recollect whether you’ve heard of them or not.

“Break-ins? Sorry Charlotte, this is the first I’ve heard of it. What made you remember it all of a sudden, though?” You returned the question, still bent down as you looked up at her.

“Apparently the perpetrator was seen wearing a red and white coat by eye-witnesses. It didn't seem like they wanted to remain hidden at all, especially since they left behind items each and every time, spanning from children’s toys to pieces of clothing… Oh! Maybe they are trying to threaten their victims!?”

The moment you heard Charlotte’s description, you froze, staring at her with increasingly wider eyes while slowly returning to your original position, putting the red hat back onto the bottom of your bag while shifting its contents around until it was covered by another item.

“Oh! Sorry for interrupting you, I just really wanted to tell you about it before I forgot, so I kinda ran my mouth. What were you saying about the hat and coat you saw while shopping?” Charlotte shifted her attention back to you, her usual big smile on her lips as she apologized, causing your face to nearly start blushing.

“O-oh yeah… I thought about how weird they looked. Like, who in their right mind would buy something that stupid looking? Right?” You nervously laughed it off before quickly changing the topic.

Maybe– just maybe –today wasn’t the day to tell Charlotte about your brilliant idea to surprise people with gifts.

Clorinde

It was fair to say that if someone had asked Clorinde how she imagined her evening to go, “having to convince the guardes to release you after they had to fish your half-conscious and yet still screaming body out of some families chimney after you got stuck in it upside-down” definitely wasn’t going to be her predicted response. And yet here you were anyway. Having to explain the whole situation to a pair of justifiably disturbed parents and their child was exhausting enough, but having to do the same to Fontaine’s police force was a completely different story.

“Miss Clorinde, you want to tell me that the subject attempted to climb down someone’s chimney to… deliver them a present? I know the two of you are close, but are you absolutely sure that your perception of them might not be skewed by your relationship? Having to confront the fact that a friend or partner might not be as kind or innocent as thought can be a difficult process.” The guard asked her once again, a compassionate look on his face, only for Clorinde to shake her head resolutely.

“I’m absolutely sure of it. They may do questionable things from time to time, but there’s no doubt in my mind their intentions were well-meaning.” She responded, causing the guard to let out a deep sigh before putting his signature on the piece of paper in front of him.

“If that’s the case, you can pick them up over there… just please make sure to tell them not to do anything like it again. When it happens once, it could be a misunderstanding… if it happens twice, there’s no excuse.”

-

When the two of you finally left the building, you were holding on to Clorinde tightly, tears rolling down your face as your whole body trembled.

“I’m never doing it again. I thought I was going to die there! Can you imagine how scary it is to be stuck in such a tight place? I couldn’t even move my arms!” You finally managed to form a few coherent sentences, taking deep breaths every once and again as you didn’t seem to calm down until Clorinde reluctantly put one of her arms around you.

…There was nothing wrong with showing weakness, but could the two of you please go home please?

“Why are chimneys so small in the first place?” You eventually asked, not specifically aimed at Clorinde, rather any chimney Archon that might be eavesdropping on your conversation, causing her to let out a small sigh she didn’t realize she had held in before starting to move.

“Let’s get you home first before we discuss architectural matters.”

Furina

If you had asked her on any other day, Furina would have shot down your idea in an instant. The mental image of the former Hydro Archon donning a red hat, coat and fake white beard before handing out small presents to the residents of Fontaine passing by on the street being horrible enough to make her visibly cringe. And yet, when you asked in what was a conversation littered with jests, she jokingly accepted, thinking nothing more of it and quickly forgetting your proposal… that was until she opened her door on one winter day, only to find you standing there, dressed in the same outfit you had described all this time ago, with a second one in your bag.

While you seemed to have the time of your life, talking with a child and their parent in as deep of a voice as you could muster before showing them a big smile, letting out the same laugh she had at one point found amusing before quickly growing sick of it and handing them a small toy, the same could not be said for Furina. 

Sure, she did her best to imitate your cheerful act, her career as an actress making her performance perfect enough that Furina was sure no one was able to tell it was just a charade, but saying she was having a blast would be far from the truth…

“And? Is it as bad as you thought it was going to be?” You asked her in what was barely more than a whisper, making sure nobody around you would be able to hear your voice.

“This is embarrassing. I cannot believe I actually agreed to this. Aren’t you scared someone will find out who you are?” Furina responded in kind, only for you to let out your deep laugh once again, nearly causing her to cringe then and there. 

“Anyone looking for Furina would look for someone clearly just acting. So throw your worries out the window and just embrace the ridiculousness and you won't have to worry about a thing”, you explained, before giving her an amused smile. “Try it.”

“Try what–” Furina asked you in a confused manner, only for it to click the moment the words left her mouth, “--No. I’m not doing the laugh.”

“I promise you’ll start to enjoy this whole thing if you just do it.”

“I–... I cannot believe I’m actually starting to consider it.” Furina cut herself off with a sigh, before once again opening her mouth and finally following your advice. Letting out as deep of a laugh as possible while approaching the next parent and child she saw, only to receive a smile from you in response.

“Ho Ho Ho! What’s your name? Let me take a look at my list to see if you were a good child this year.”

Navia

Handing out gifts was one thing both you and Navia appreciated. No matter how much money you had, seeing someone’s eyes light up when they received a present was enough to turn even a middling day into a good one. And if there was one demographic besides your loved ones that felt great to give gifts to, it were children, so when you pitched your idea of dressing up and delivering presents to Navia, she was quick to take you up on it.

Having the outfits designed and made, as well as putting enough money to the side to buy enough toys to hand out to a all children of Poisson and Fleuve Cendre as well as a few of Fontaine’s overground took quite a bit of time, but once it was finally done, you and a few of your colleagues were ready to head out.

As Navia sat in her office, nervously glancing at her clock every now and then while waiting for you to return, she couldn’t help but start to worry. Making a few rounds in the Fleuve Cendre shouldn’t take that long. Sure, the canalisation could be a bit disorienting from time to time, but you had been down there often enough to know its layout like the back of your hand. Maybe you just made a quick stop somewhere along your way? No, you wouldn't be two hours late if you did… or maybe you ran into trouble?

Just as Navia was about to start imagining horror scenarios however, a knock on her door interrupted her thoughts, and when you waltzed into her office with an apologetic smile, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Where’s your costume?” Navia’s attention shifted to your clothes once she finally calmed down, only to find the red coat and hat missing. With a slightly embarrassed smile you signaled to the bag in your hand, previously full of toys, now containing nothing but your outfit. 

“A few kids asked me to play tag… and I kind of– Heh, tripped and into the water.” You nervously explained as Navia observed the clothes in your bag. “The parents of the child didn’t let me leave before I washed up and they could clean my costume, saying it would be wrong after everything the Spina did to help them… so that’s why I was late.”

“When I took a walk around Poisson I saw a lot of smiling children today. I’m sure your idea brightened many days, so thank you. Welcome home.”

[morikosa]

that thing is such a horrible person, they just keep assaulting me because they misunderstood my sentence. (and when they realised, they blocked me. such low move. throwing tomatoes.) they only replied to the reblogs which portray them as this vulnerable victim figure and smart-ass, creative 2020 come-back. and when there are reblogs which potentially ruin that image (a valid argument or evidence about them being hostile towards others) they block the person but not without sending them a (questionable) message.

even the original post is not giving because nobody receives those types of message when they just do their stuff. also, they kept bringing up about this post is old and just let it go. like isn’t that your pinned post? you’re not even letting it go so who are you talking to right now? they want to be noticed and painted off as this « morally right » person so baaad.

bro, i’m gonna be so honest with you. that thing is just obsessed with the image it wants to present itself with, a victim and online jesus. it wants, CRAVES validation. it blames others for its own actions and when there is no one to blame, the thing creates problem so it can go back to its nature. i feel so bad for you brooo, you have to deal with that type.

well i mean, the things you write does not define who you are as a person, you’re not « porn addict » lol don’t let that bother. just keep doing your thing if you feel like it honestly. i’m not all up into your business, for me, if i don’t like it, i just scroll through; wish everyone knows that by doing such a simple act they can avoid this whole ruckus and one-sided beef?

like why are you bullying a person just because they are not up to your moral standard? that’s such bs. it’s not even that deep and personal and that thing just go on whole attack mode because of what???

this is too long bro i’m gonna end it here. have a nice one. i hope you never have to deal with those kind of people anymore

Thank you so much for writing; your words made me very happy. It always makes me glad to have someone who understands me ♥

And as for that person, yes. There are always people who support him in his comments because he deletes everyone who says that what he is doing is wrong, all the comments that don't satisfy him, and he insults and blocks them.

This girl's tactic is like this: She provokes dark content writers by insulting their articles, themselves, and their families. Then, the person they insulted gets angry and responds to them, and she takes those responses as screenshots and publishes them on her account like she did to me.

She insulted me so disgusted that he blocked me, so I opened a different account and vented my anger at him (but I didn't say anything as vile as what he said). And “OMG, they insulted me, they called me bisexual, I am the victim here, give me attention, look how bad the dark content writers are,”

And she makes the person they insulted and provoked look bad.

And then she gains attention

She shows herself as a victim just to get attention.

To understand that this girl is a bad person, it is enough to look at the comments she writes. It's normal to dislike an author, but harassing her is a whole different level.

In short, she's nothing but a harassing, attention-seeking freak who makes herself look like an angel. I feel nothing but pity for her fans who support her.

And by the way, it's still hilarious that he calls me a porn addict just because I write smut, LOL.

This is a screencast from my deleted account. As a message, he said I hope you die, you will be harassed (he must like it because you write such things). Etc. Then he blocked me.

Then that account was closed, etc… and so on.

I started everything from scratch by opening this new account and even in this account he found me lol, he blocked me with insults as usual.

This person is such a characterless person.

Thank you so much for taking the time to send me this message, dear. I'm glad you're here; I hope you have an excellent day ♥

I love y'all ♥

[angelofthepage]

Thoughts on the "Updated" Bendy Employee Handbook

Before we go any further, let's make it very clear what kind of post this is: we're not here to hate on the book, and none of anything I'm about to say is said with ill intent. I am here for analysis, constructive criticism, and discussion. This post is a little more critical than what I would usually share, so viewer discretion is advised.

Today we're talking about the newly updated Bendy Employee Handbook, which just recently released as of this month at the time of this post. And I have a lot of questions about this entry, and really, game guides as a whole in our modern gaming world. This book appeared to advertise itself as a rerelease of the original handbook with additional content for Bendy and the Dark Revival, but upon comparing the two, I've noticed there's actually a number of changes they've made, some good, some bad, and some that I'm not sure what to make of. So come and join me under the cut, and if you have some thoughts of your own, feel free to comment or reblog and add to the discussion. Without further ado, here we go!

Part 1: The Baffling Amount of Cut Content

Our story begins where most stories do, the table of contents. So right off the bat, when comparing this book to the original, you'll notice something off.

No, your eyes do not deceive you, an entire section of the original book was cut, on top of making other sections shorter. And the weirdest part? Some of these things were exclusive to that original book, they didn't appear anywhere else in the Bendy franchise. So already we're off to a weird start. Some of these missing pages aren't so bad though. In some cases, they're just format changes to make the book flow a little better/take up less room. Sometimes they succeed in that, sometimes they end up feeling more cramped, it's pretty subjective whether or not this improved the book. But it certainly does cut down on pages. Case in point, the beginning of each chapter of BATIM.

Don't worry, Joey's letter hasn't been cut, but it has been moved to earlier in the book, so it's no longer in Chapter 1. This was a very odd change. Other things that are missing are character monologues, but it's inconsistent. Alice Angel's speech about the screaming well of voices and Joey's monologue right before the final boss were kept, but Sammy's "sheep sheep sheep" speech and Bertrum's audiolog right before his boss fight were inexplicably cut.

Here are a few cuts I found pretty significant.

These pages are all missing from the update. In the case of this newspaper article, what does that mean in regards to whether or not this is "canon" or "retconned"? Joey Drew, did you or did you not have plans to expand into a Bendy themed toothpaste? The people need to know! X''D But seriously, while some of this is inconsequential, some of it matters. The mascot costume in particular, that's the only sketch we get (that I'm assuming came from Bertrum or Joey regarding that part of the parks, no one is specifically credited for making it). It doesn't show up anywhere else in the series (to my knowledge). It's strange that it's just, gone now. The Bendyland spread is such an unfortunate loss, that's some of the closest we've ever gotten to seeing the map of the park. Yes you can see it in BATIM, but being able to get up close and personal with it without having to control Henry was really nice. It makes me wonder if they're trying to erase the past details so they can do more with Bendyland in the future, something that's different from the original vision. I don't think that's it, but it could be, though they'd also have to go back on The Illusion of Living too, given it’s discussed there with some really fun details.

Speaking of which, that's the weirdest piece of cut content: the missing section that ends the old book (that was reiterated in The Illusion of Living). It's Joey Drew's tips for making a cartoon. It's formatted differently and has no images in TIOL, but the basic information is still the same. What's not the same though, is the loss of the tutorial pages for drawing the toons. These are another thing that don’t show up anywhere else in the series, making them a much more permanent loss. And even though this section is cut, it’s still referenced on the back cover of the new book, which is a bit odd.

These were really cute and showed so much personality for not just the toons, but for Joey as he described them. Cutting this was genuinely disappointing for me. Same with the paperwork in Joey's apartment. Those were some of the highest quality images we had of what was on his desk and bulletin board, and I liked being able to see them clearer. The biggest loss of the cut content isn’t just the pages themselves, but the personality they gave to this book, and the Bendy world as a whole. 

This was the very first Bendy book to be released, and therefore our first look into this world in this format. And while I don’t think it’s the greatest thing in the world in terms of being a game guide, I didn’t pick up the original for a game guide. I picked it up because I wanted to see if it provided more context for the world. And when it does that, it does a good job. The memos from characters we know, Joey’s financial records, the images from the desks of people like Joey and Bertrum, they give us insight into how things were going at the studio. Some of my favorite details from the original are Joey’s memo about how Susie was replaced by Allison, and the receipt for Joe’s Fine Dining. The fact that that memo was distributed to everyone but Susie enhanced what we already knew from BATIM, and it paints him as a much crueler character than we knew him to be. Not to mention the repeated use of “I have to say, I’m an instant fan”. Having Joey say those words makes the concept of him creating the cycle so much more interesting. Like did he script out every little action these characters take? Or is this something Susie picked up and recycled from him after potentially finding this memo in real life? Oh there are so many delicious possibilities. And the lunch date, oh my gosh. One, it started my quest to build the Joey Drew menu using all the things he eats in the books, because damn does he have good taste. And two, it was so cool to have a look into an interaction Susie told us about in that one tape. Like that was REALLY GOOD. Give me more like that! When you have other parts of the series back up things we’ve heard only one character say, it gives more credence to the idea that they actually happened that way, or gives us a clue that we need to check for character biases when they tell us their side of the story. And in a series where MOST characters are unreliable narrators, that is REALLY IMPORTANT for establishing timelines and figuring out what’s real versus what’s fabricated. That was my biggest hope for the update, for more flavortext and world building that expands on things we already know. 

But um…the dark revival part of the book doesn’t do that. 

Part 2: The Dark Revival’s Minimal Offerings

After an abrupt jump from Bendyland to BATDR, we get into the new stuff. The Bendy and the Dark Revival section of this book is alarmingly short and has very little substance. There is no new expansion of the worldbuilding or insight into these characters. I mean, the book describes Heidi as being a female lost one? So if you wanted a confirmation on her gender, there you go I guess? I guess that detail was never like, stated explicitly, but this is me stretching to find something new that it gives us. Actually, wait, it does give us one new thing, but I’m gonna be honest, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

The book refers to Allison having a “pet wolf” when we get her introduction in Chapter 1. It then later describes that Tom “likes being pet” when we get his introduction in Chapter 5. Which by the way, is the only image of Tom in this entire book, since his original render from the old version was cut. Now, I’ll be honest, I used to like that second detail, I thought it was cute that he doesn’t just tolerate Audrey, he actually LIKES being pet. Those are two different things, having some insights into Tom’s feelings and characterization would have been a breath of fresh air. But no, when I reread the book and saw that first detail, that made that really weird and uncomfortable actually. It would be one thing if in-universe, Tom called himself a pet, or Allison called him that with consent. Heck, if there was another character in-universe who wanted to purposely insult Allison and Tom by saying that, that would be fine too, then it’d be reiterating the narrative. But on its own? I take issue with taking Tom of all characters and calling him her pet. The Safehouse Boris never got treated that badly, hell, Buddy in the books never got dehumanized this badly when he became a Boris. But Tom, Tom gets to be the one that’s dehumanized? There is something that really rubs me the wrong way about that. Especially if he turns out to be Thomas Connor or has some connection to him. I can’t assume if he is or isn’t anymore given all the stuff BATDR pulled with Allison and Henry. But on the chance he IS Thomas Connor, do you have any idea how bad that looks, to have a character that, because of details written in Dreams Come to Life, many fans speculate to be a person of color, referring to him as Allison’s “pet”? And even if he ends up not being a person of color (I say as I groan about the inevitable discourse for the DCTL graphic novel that’s coming out), it’s still kind of awful to say that about anyone. Tom is a character that has repeatedly gotten the short end of the stick in this series. He’s relevant to BATDR for all of a couple of minutes, and he’s incredibly underutilized and lacking details or depth for most of the series. Thomas Connor, he gets a bit of depth as of The Lost Ones, that novel does great things for him. But Tom Wolf? Short end of the stick. And I’m sad to see that continue here. 

The one positive thing I have to say about this section is that it’s really nice to have so many of the audiolog character transcripts here. Most of the notes and logs from BATDR are here with all their words typed out. The ones that in-game had a chiller styled font are transcribed a bit strangely, as now they’re written like the messages written on the walls in-game. But it’s not the worst. If anything, all of this gives me a great resource as a theorist. Having a record of all of these and what chapters they appear in makes my goal of constructing a timeline and cross checking information much easier. 

Though from a graphic design standpoint, these pages frustrate me a little bit. They’re so cramped, and there’s several spots where the text isn’t centered properly within its text block. I get the sense on some parts, it’s because it’s placed so close to the spine of the book, so they don’t want any information getting cut off, but it still looks funky. And there are several spots where that explanation doesn’t really apply. There’s also some weird placement of fun facts. While I love that this book lets us in on some secrets, they’re not always placed in an area that makes sense? Like, there’s a note about how to get the Inkjets Concert, but the steps for how to get it are placed way after a point in the narrative where you’d be able to get it, and I’m kind of scratching my head as to why it was done that way. Is it to encourage a second playthrough? Or is it to not spoil the story? Why not split the information up? Or have a dedicated secrets page like they do with the achievements and theMeatly’s cutouts? 

Though speaking of not spoiling things, this book is really odd about what it chooses to focus on. So, Henry’s model is in this book, right next to a passage about a “mysterious man” you can meet in the Cyclebreakers area. They showed his model but didn’t name him as Henry? I don’t quite get that choice. Also, despite the cyclebreakers being very important to this story, they aren’t really mentioned before this very brief section. However, Porter? The character shown for all of a few seconds? He’s got at least three images throughout this book. The balance feels off with what this book chooses to put emphasis on. 

Also, this one really annoyed me: Allison. So for everyone who’s actually played BATIM, you would know that Allison Angel is never referred to as Allison within BATIM. We only know she’s called that because people dove into the game’s files and revealed her and Tom’s names upon the release of Chapter 4. And the book follows suit with this, it does not call her Allison in the original handbook whatsoever. HOWEVER, the BATDR section messes this up. When it introduces her, even though in-game she introduces herself as Alice, the book introduces her as Allison. But when we get to Chapter 5, the part where she’s actually named Allison by Audrey, it suddenly switches to calling her Nice Alice? It’s a weird choice and I don’t understand why this happened. 

It leaves me wondering just how much the new author of this section and their editors know about the Bendy series before going into this project. What context were they given to write this thing? It makes the book feel unpolished to have so many mistakes in its formatting and information. I don’t know what the quality control team for this release looked like, but a part of me wonders how many editors this went through before making it to the final release. I don’t work in publishing to know what that looks like, but I’d genuinely love to learn more on this subject, it’s fascinating. 

There’s also a very strong dissonance in the imagery. While I’m glad to see the renders from BATDR’s advertising so clearly and up close, the difference in their coloring looks strange when put next to the rest of Bendy’s usual color palette. It leaves me wondering what assets the book team was given for use in this release. There’s a lot I could say here about the importance of press kits and brand guidelines, especially in this day and age when so many fans are making just as high quality of content as the official releases of media. And that leads me to the most disappointing part of this book. 

Part 3: Stolen Content

If you’re active in the Bendy fandom and know its many creative members, then you may already know what I’m about to dive into. MLSpence3D is an artist that enjoys 3D modeling, rigging, animating, and rendering. He can often be found engaging in all sorts of corners in the indie mascot horror community, such as playing a notable role in the production of SuperHorrorBro’s upcoming title, Glitched Out, as well as providing the renders used on the Bendy Wiki of the in-game characters. Spence has had his work mistaken for official renders before, and unfortunately, it’s not just fans making that mistake. The render of the Piper used in the BATIM portion of the original handbook is Spence’s, and it unfortunately hasn’t been removed in this update, nor has he been credited or asked for permission to have it used here. I’ll admit, his stuff looks so official that I’ve mistaken it as such too, and it speaks to a much needed conversation on assets, metadata, and protection for artists of all mediums. 

Our fandom is not the only place where this happens. Back when FNAF: Help Wanted was in production, the cover art mistakenly used fan renders as a part of its photomanipulation. Developer Scott Cawthon was quick to apologize and make things right, removing the renders and replacing them with officially made FNAF models. Heck, we had something similar happen right here with Bendy back when the voice cast of BATDR started working with Streamily. The initial post that advertised their Streamily debut used renders from Spence and a few other artists that had to be tracked down, and they didn’t have the rights to use them, nor were they credited. It makes a lot of sense that this happens, when you don’t have sufficient resources and aren’t an active member of the fandom, if you’re a graphic designer trying to make a piece to advertise something, you’re going to need assets to make that. And if you’re not given sufficient assets by the people you’re designing for, you turn to other sources to get the job done. They may not know what on Google is official vs fan content. The fans are so skilled and passionate about what they do, and with the number of series that have fans steadily joining the official teams, it’s incredible what can result from being passionate. But it also makes for a much needed reminder to add metadata to your files so that they can be traced back as belonging to you. Watermark your stuff, clearly mark your work as fan content in the tags, captions, and descriptions, in an effort to protect yourself. Don’t use images you find online unless you have a very clear idea of where they came from, so you can direct people back to the source when they ask about it (or better yet, link the source in your description from the start). Give people another reason to pause and double check their work in the chain of command (they should be pausing to double check anyway, but let's be real, we don't live in a perfect world). In a world where credit and sources are more important than ever, remembering to give credit where it’s due from the start will save you all kinds of headaches in the future. Video game developers, especially those of you in the indie scene: please develop press kits to give to people your teams collaborate with. By giving them assets they can reliably use to advertise for you, you will save everyone a lot of hassle in the long run. And if this is still happening even with a press kit, it merits having some conversations to evaluate why and solve the problem. If there is no other takeaway anyone gets from this post, this is the big one I want to see some positive change on in the future.

Part 4: The Functionality as a Game Guide

This book works for your first time through BATDR, but not for any kind of sequential playthroughs. The way it directs you through the game uses the audiologs and notes as waypoints. Once you pick them up, they are removed from the environment, and so if you’re picking up the game after a long time away from it, you’re not gonna remember where those were, so it’s likely not going to be useful for navigating. It reminds me a lot of the way my parents talked about one of our old hometowns. We lived in Vermont for a little while, and there were two things about our area that we laughed about. One, never leave your car unlocked unless you want it filled with zucchini. Two, if you ask for directions, you’re not gonna have a clue unless you’re a local, because they word everything in a similar fashion to “you’re gonna drive past where the old barn used to be”. At least give me a landmark that still exists, or a map! The BATIM chapters aren’t much better, they sort of give you a layout map, but it’s not helpful. Especially in Chapter 3, the place where you arguably need a map the most, there is no kind of instruction for how to get through Alice’s fetch quests if you get lost. 

In my mind, a game guide is something you turn to when you need help getting through a game. Now, mind you, I am not the target audience for a game guide. I don’t own game guides. There are a few in my household that my siblings own, for stuff like Super Mario Sunshine, and I guess technically my Pokedex for Pokemon Black and White 2 DOES double as a game guide. But like, we now live in the age of the internet. If you want to know how to get through something, there are a million articles and Let’s Plays that detail how to complete the base story, find secrets, and even suggest strategies for tackling difficult challenges. Some of these are designed to be informative, and some are more reactionary and built for entertainment, there’s lots of flavors to choose from! 

And it makes me wonder, what does that mean for the medium of game guides as a whole? I think they still have their place. For one thing, different people benefit from different learning styles. Being able to read a guide may work better for someone than a video depending on their brain wiring. And for people who don’t have reliable or frankly any internet, or rely on a library for that, it’s nice to have a book so that you don’t have to wait to keep playing. I’ve never seen anyone get a game guide from a library, but I absolutely think it’s something a library could have. It’s also just really convenient to have all of that information available in one book, as opposed to having to search through multiple forums and sources and risk getting spoiled. And when they’re done well, sometimes they can have secrets not even the existing player base knew. Like I knew that there was this secret about a ghost train that appears if you set your system’s clock to 4:14, but I didn’t know if AM or PM mattered. Thanks to this book, now I know that it doesn’t matter, both work, which is really handy to know! But uh…most of the secrets that were revealed in this book were things I knew within the first month that BATDR came out. None of them were new to me as someone who’s plugged into the world of Bendy. There have been multiple videos detailing how to get these secrets, and how to play this game, by many different indie horror enthusiasts. It almost makes it feel like this book came out a bit too late, and it’s only released about a year or so after this game came out.

Which really begs the question, who was the target audience for this book? Was it for new fans who were struggling with these games? Was it for longtime fans who wanted a memento of the occasion and a record of all the stuff in these games? Was it for lore hunters hungry for new secrets and world building? Having read both versions of the employee handbook, I still can’t definitively say who the target audience is. That kind of frustrates me, that’s the first thing they taught us about back when I went to school for graphic design. It’s important to keep your audience in mind when designing something, that way it caters to their needs, appeals to them, and gets your message across effectively. 

Part 5: Final Thoughts

I still can’t say for sure what I was supposed to get out of this.The parts of it that I found charming and appealing were not continued or built upon in this update. There is no new world building or lore. It doesn’t do an effective job as a game guide given its reliance on non-permanent elements of gameplay. It doesn’t give us tools to cross reference what we know from previous entries, nor does it expand upon details that lacked clarity within BATDR or BATIM. It removed some of its more charming content, and it still has stolen artwork from its previous iteration. By the time I got done reading this book, I was left feeling disappointed and kind of exhausted. No joke, I grabbed a friend, and we went through it all to compare it page by page to see what changed. It was something you could make a drinking game out of, not that I would recommend that. 

I would struggle to recommend this book to any Bendy fan, unless you’re a completionist like me who wants to own every book as a physical copy. The original employee handbook was a far better read, and if you can find a copy secondhand or at your local library, you’re in for a small but tasty treat (quite literally if you decide to make the bacon soup recipe, which fun fact, originated in this book and was developed by the wife of Bookpast, one of the writers on this series!). The Dark Revival section feels tacked on and not as well thought out as the original book was. There is a very odd disconnect between the two. I’m genuinely confused as to why it was put in a rerelease of this book rather than making an entirely new book for Dark Revival. Dark Revival is a much longer and detailed game than Bendy and the Ink Machine. I would expect a book that describes how to play it and its world building to take up a lot more pages and go in depth on different details than this one did. So why was it done this way? Does this have to do with some sort of contract with Scholastic that we don’t know about? Was there a time constraint, or a page count that had to be met that they couldn’t meet with just BATDR? Did the people working on Bendy have too much on their plates to dedicate the time to a new book? What happened here? I wasn’t expecting to leave this book with more questions than answers, but here we are. 

Overall, I don’t think it was worth what I paid for it, but it’s going to live on my shelf with the rest of my books. This will be handy for when I need to reference the audiologs and don’t want to look up a YouTube video to remember what was said. It’ll also be nice if I’m traveling. See, whenever I visit my grandparents, their wifi is pretty limited, so if I want to draw anything while I’m up there, I have to print out references or download images on my phone before I go so I can do that. Having some of the new renders in this book will be useful if I decide I want to draw Bendy stuff or theorize while on the road. 

Now it's your turn. Tell me your thoughts on the Updated Edition of the Bendy Employee Handbook! Is this something you want to read? If you have read it, did you enjoy it? Were you left wanting more? If we ever get another book like this, what sort of things would you like to see? Let's talk about it. And remember, if you did enjoy it, that's not a bad thing, absolutely no judgement there. Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it's not going to be enjoyable for someone else. Every work of fiction has its audience. <3 Here's wishing you a wonderful rest of the day, and happy reading!

[spideronthesun]

Author Ask Tag

Thank you for tagging me, lovely @mrbexwrites! (x)

Tagging: @satohqbanana @concerningwolves @alintalzin @orphanheirs @cain-e-brookman & anyone else who wants to do it! It's really up to you. Please don't feel pressured to do it, if you are not feeling it much. <3

What is the main lesson of your story? Why did you choose it?

The family is what you make of it, and it's the people you choose to surround yourself with. I picked it because I think it should be one's free will who they choose to spend their time with. Even our closest friends can be our family members. In my case, my story was widely inspired by my own personal relationships. I was a very lonely child, and I didn't have any friends growing up. Now that I have a few, I think of my friends as my family. Sometimes you don't have to live together under the same roof to care for one another. And these people would always be welcome at my house. I would let them in, and make them a cup of tea and probably bake a pie, and talk to them until it was three a.m. in the morning.

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding?

If I were to be frank, I don't consider myself to be that great at world building. However, I love to read how other people do it, and learn more about their worlds and their cultures. Plus, a lot of my story is set in the present moments, so it includes technologies as well. I enjoy keeping the magic grounded, it is very earthly, and it draws a lot of inspiration from the beauty of nature itself.

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, or help the reader grow as a person?

When the story begins, Adamas is very adamant at helping to make Edvardas' dream come true, and is surprised when Nikolas says that he's interested in the prospects of selling their old childhood house. However, everything changes very soon, when the brothers learn of their fates, and what their mother had willed to them.

He begins researching their family tree and looking into the history. He uses it as an excuse to work on the article, only he doesn't realize where his search might take him to. Seeing his brothers change tremendously, and that magic does come across as a burden, he begins to question if it is all worth it. And that he would rather have his family back as he used to have.

I'm not sure if teaching forgiveness is the main lesson of the story. Although some of the characters make plenty of mistakes while trying to protect those they love. But the final message all comes down to love, and that love is worth fighting for.

How many chapters is your story going to have?

Currently, it has 40 chapters. I added a couple more in recent weeks.

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Original content, and I am planning on querying it.

When did you start writing?

I began thinking up all kinds of stories when I was as young as five, but I would not call it writing just yet. I'd just sit on the bed and play with dolls while coming up with all kinds of life stories for them and their names, or I would be lying on my stomach and reading books that my mom had purchased for me.

Probably, I started writing when I was eight, and my elementary teacher was the first person who took a note of me. I didn't even know what I was doing, I never considered it before in my life. She gave us an exercise where she had printed out the image, and let our imagination just run wild. She was wowed by something that I wrote. She even told me to stay after class and asked if I could write something again. The last time I happened to bump into each other, which was years ago, she told me that she still keeps my writing in the classroom.

However, I had a very complex relationship with writing for many years, and I didn't like the pressure that I was put under. I rebelled against it. I talked back a lot, I wouldn't turn in my assignments, and I have not put another word down again for a very long time.

Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr? What other writers do you follow?

Nothing wrong with looking up writing advice or books that could help you to improve your writing. Just find what works out for you. It can be difficult to pick apart what works for you while you are still developing and starting out as a writer, and you are going to read a lot of bad advice out there. Trust yourself more.

And also never feel ashamed of your voice. Your voice is you, and it is going to be someone's favorite piece of art. Someone else's Mona Lisa.

[amateurvoltaire]

In one of your last posts you mentioned you were studying the civil war in Vandée. Have you ever seen the rather new movie "Vaincre ou Mourir" on the topic? If yes, what do you think of it? I was very curious to give it a try, hoping it's not the usual demonisation of the revolutionary government. Not that I expect it to be portrayed positively in a movie focused on the Vendéean insurgents pov, of course...

Thanks a lot for your question! It’s the first one I've ever received, and I’m really excited to dive into it. (I might have gone a bit overboard, so grab a coffee or a drink before you tackle this beast… TLDR at the bottom…)

I watched "Vaincre ou Mourir" a couple of months ago. Before I dive into my thoughts, the man himself would like a word:

All jokes aside, have you ever been to one of those medieval theme parks where they offer a "realistic" medieval show with dinner? As a kid, every summer, my parents took me to a jousting show at an Italian theme park. We'd watch two knights fight each other for an hour while being “medieval” and munching on chicken legs without any cutlery.

That's pretty much how I felt watching this movie: it’s flashy and fun but doesn’t have much going on underneath. It makes more sense when you discover that the film was funded by Puy du Feu, a large historical theme park in Vendée.

The context

And this is the thing: despite the Canal+ distribution, most of the production is local. The Vendée itself is often defined as a memory space (1), which can lead to a community feeling a special connection to their past. This is often reflected in local traditions, commemorations, and even political leanings. I remember watching an interview from the bicentenary where some locals said they don’t celebrate the 14th of July as a matter of principle—200 years later!

It’s also worth noting that the Vendée has a history of conservative and right-leaning political preferences, and Canal+ is also a right-leaning media outlet.

The Experts

Is it a documentary? Is it a fictional film? It's hard to say in the first few minutes.

The movie attempts to project historical accuracy by introducing four experts right at the start. If a film opens with such a direct appeal to authority, I tend to scrutinise who these experts are. So, who are they?

Reynald Secher: a historian who has been a massive proponent of the Vandean genocide theory. He is very anti-Republican, and his research methodologies are rather sketchy…

Nicolas Delahaye: I don’t know much about him, but I see he publishes primarily regionally in a Vendean publishing house. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s particularly biased, but it does mean his audience is very limited to people with specific views.

Anne Rolland-Boulestreau: a historian at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest specialising in the Vendée counter-revolution. Her articles in the Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française seem unbiased and well-researched. I own one of her books but haven't read it yet, so I can't speak to her longer-form content.

Armand Bernand: if you google de la Rochejaquelein, you will find this guy everywhere. He owns a publishing house, loves the Château de la Durbelière (2), and wrote a series of books set there. He clearly has a historical crush on M. Henri. I think he cosplayed him during some re-enactments and wrote a book about Henri’s brother Auguste.

It’s worth mentioning they either hail from Vendée or work exclusively within the region. This is my bias speaking because I’ve pretty much read all his work, but if you make a movie about the Vendee and can’t get Jean-Clément Martin to say something on camera about it, you should probably not feature any experts…

The Story

After an awkward three minutes of experts telling us how important the revolution was and introducing Charette, we get to the actual movie, which opens with a pile of bodies, burnings, a hanged person, and an awkward first-person voiceover of Charette saying that they made the Vendee into an inferno. This will be a theme for the next hour or so.

If I were to describe this film in two words, "tragedy porn" would fit. What occurred in Vendée was horrific, and its rightly violent portrayal should help viewers understand and appreciate the human and historical impact. However, the film often prioritises shock value over explaining the underlying reasons.

Charette is, by all accounts, a very compelling subject. The guy was a libertine with bucket-loads of courage and style who had a woman as an aide de camp in 1793! Despite spending 1.5 hours with him, narrated from his perspective, I would be hard-pressed to tell you what he’s actually fighting for. Is it honour? Is it revenge? Is it stubbornness? Your guess is as good as mine!

There is absolutely no character growth whatsoever. The film presents as a sequence of battles and shocking scenes narrated by a somewhat detached Charette. Remember what I said about the medieval show? This shock-value approach might work for a short performance during dinner but falls flat when stretched across an entire film.

Despite the weak script, the actors are quite good. Nothing Oscar-worthy, but they can act. The guy that plays Charette does a very good job and is quite charismatic.

The Historical Accuracy

On the whole, I can’t see glaring historical errors. It is fairly historically accurate with some minor issues. This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but there are things I noticed and jotted down:

The main one is the bizarre theory that Charette agreed to the peace of 1795 because he was promised that Louis XVII would be handed to him. This has absolutely no credible historical basis whatsoever. It’s a myth that has been propagated for over 200 years.

I’m pretty sure Charette didn’t sign the treaty of La Jaunaye. In fact, as far as I remember, no one from the insurgent side signed it.

While not a historical inaccuracy per se, it's a missed opportunity that the film often portrays Charette as the sole leader of the Vendean army. Though he mentions being one chief among many, this aspect is quickly glossed over. His historical relationship with the Catholic and Royal Army and its leaders was complex and would have been interesting to explore further. It's a shame the film likely didn't have the budget to delve into this, as it could have also demonstrated that Vendée wasn't a monolith.

The depiction of the republican army as well-equipped is somewhat exaggerated. If they were as well-appointed as shown, Carnot and Prieur (Cote D’or) would be out of a job, and Saint-Just wouldn't have needed to requisition shoes for the army.

Lastly, the film underexplains the context of why the counter-revolution started. In my opinion, it manipulatively emphasises the king's execution more than warranted, suggesting it triggered the popular uprising when it really did not. The conflict in Vendée began as a peasant revolt, where the local population was far more concerned with religious issues than royal politics. Most Vendean peasants likely couldn't name the king—they probably knew he was a Louis since there had been a Louis on the throne for 200 years, but that's about it. Their concerns were local: when parish priests who had taken the civic oath replaced their traditional priests, and the Levée en masse was decreed, forcing them to fight random Germans 600 km away for a regime threatening their way of life, they rebelled.

Is the movie anti-Republican propaganda?

To wrap up, is the film anti-Republican? Frankly, I don’t believe it is overtly so. It adopts a somewhat clichéd stance: the revolution's ideals were noble, but things eventually went too far. While I have plenty of thoughts on this—which I'll keep to myself for now—I wouldn’t say this perspective is inherently anti-Republican.

Charette is depicted as initially supportive of the revolution, which is accurate for many aristocrats, especially the minor nobility. The portrayal of Republican soldiers is balanced, with General Jean-Pierre Travot sometimes appearing more honourable than Charette. As the main character, Charette is shown as lazy, indecisive, and sometimes brutal, so the film does not attempt to heroise him. The princes, especially Artois, are also depicted negatively. So, the film isn’t overtly royalist.

Is there a specific stance against the Government (aka the CSP)? I don’t recall them being mentioned, which, again, is accurate since most Vendeeans, including the nobility, were not deeply involved in Parisian politics.

That being said, Carrier and Turreau are portrayed very negatively, and rightfully so. Republican generals are also shown as less likely to spare the "brigands" when captured, which aligns with historical accounts. The movie leans heavily on shock value, featuring hard-to-watch scenes of executions, guillotines, and drownings. Unfortunately, even the staunchest republican historians would be hard-pressed to find the evidence to call those scenes revisionists.

Beyond that, the only thing that stood out to me about the Republicans is that they made Kleber look about 60 years old.

In conclusion, is this the most accurate film ever? Certainly not. Is it counter-revolutionary propaganda? I genuinely don’t think so, and if someone claims otherwise, they’re likely being disingenuous.

TLDR:

Watched the movie "Vaincre ou Mourir," which felt like a medieval theme park show—entertaining but lacking depth, probably due to its funding by an actual historical theme park. Despite its attempt to appear historically accurate with expert interviews, the film fails to deeply explore its characters or the complexities of the Vendée region's history. While it doesn't contain major historical inaccuracies, it oversimplifies the causes and events of the Vendée uprising, focusing more on visual shock than factual explanation. Not outright anti-Republican or counter-revolutionary, but doesn't offer new insights into anything. Overall, flashy but not as informative as it could be.

Notes

A memory space is defined as a location (physical or otherwise) where memories, histories, and narratives are preserved, shared, and understood within a society or culture. Things like museums, monuments, rituals, stories and in this case a region can be memory spaces

Château de la Durbelière was the home of La Rochejaquelein

PS: Thank you again for your question! I had a lot of fun answering it.

[mr-period]

Remembering something forgotten ————Where is Jimmy boy?

I feel I may find some thing that be hidden in S2.New to tumblr,and English is not my first language,hope what I want to express can be understand correctly,and plz forgive me if there's errors of some religion words.

The famous magic theory has mentioned many things wrong in S2, and some plots are deliberately set to be unobtrusive, suspicious slides off them like water slides off ducks. But the drawback of magic theory is that it sets the whole script to nothingness. The key to solving puzzles is to have practical meaning. It is a fallacious to make the whole story illusory just for put all the contents into the theory.

For abstract :S2 contains a hidden story line of the resurrection of Jesus under the love story.Like mentioned in the bonus video,S2 contains not only large amounts of Easter eggs for the second coming in S3,but really a character might be Jesus under the noses of the audience.So for me the S2 is like Neil Gaiman rushing into Amazon Prime’s senior office,throwing the script on the desk and roaring:“GIVE ME SEASON 3 OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!”

Before we begin,I need to clarify some roles or directions.

First of all,according to some puzzle we have in S1&S2,like the body change at the end of S1,or the hidden goats in 202,the clues of mystery in the show always have an obvious answer, even it feels make no sense before realize the link between.All the information from the focusing places in the picture can be used.But like the shortage of the magic theory,it is unacceptable to distort the story itself just to fix a theory.Actually I still not figure out all the puzzles in S2,so in the second part of this post about my personal theory of who is telling the story and who is watching, I will point out that it's an assumption but not an inference.

Secondly,there are multiple story lines in S2,three love stories above,the hidden line about Jim/Resurrection of Jesus,the main line frame to explain the logic of the whole script,and the story of Metatron.What's more,the crew also prepared a large amount of Easter eggs.Some of them,such as the tardis bgm in the musical instrument store,can be seen as a simply fan joy.

But there are also some Easter eggs not only Easter eggs,but also related to the plot or hidden story.For example,I have write a article about the Blitz minisode is the thing actually in the box(didn't trans it in tumblr yet),because the prop books in he box displayed in 206 is two of the "Lost Quartos" of Shakespeare plays mentioned in the Good Omens Book.It could be an Easter egg,but when you notice that the plot of the prototype of these two plays are mentioned about the bullet(arrow) catch and the show girl,which can link to the Blitz minisode specifically,that makes this Easter egg a Clue.

So after accepting these premises,let's start the detective game.

First of all,we need to question ourselves:There is a character who has his own personal poster and promotional video, who is in the story from the beginning to the end,but no one say goodbye to him?Even Nina and Maggie have a "say goodbye forever",even Beelzebub said thank you to Aziraphale,but this absolute S2 main character had never be mention again in the end.

Where is Jim?

After Gabriel recovered his memory,the friendship established between he and Crowley and Aziraphale vanished immediately.This unbalanced weird feeling was washed away by the coming broken-up and makes the audience have no time to think about that. Actually,it's quite unnatural because the relationship between Jim and Aziracrow have a complete grown arc.We can see Crowley finally give Jim hot chocolate,Aziraphale say to Jim that he said he will protect,and he well,and at the beginning Jim said happily he have two friends.But when Gabriel recovered his memory,Aziraphale look like want to drown Gabriel into holey water and distory him as soon as possible.The relationship they built during six episodes simply disappeared like the undropped second shoe upstairs.The story about Jim is far from over.

That's my explanation about why Jim and Gabriel are two different characters,and also,the rationality of the existence of the hidden story.Then let's come to the key question:

Who is Jim?

In S1,the special effect design used a red fabric to show the blood of Jesus in the crucifixion

and in S2,they obviously find a cheaper way(considering the price of tomato maybe more expensive) to express blood.

Look at these tomatoes here.The released bonus video makes this clue more obvious.Because they deleted the plot about the reason why these tomatoes scattered,but keep this pic in the tight minutes limit.The reason is so obvious :It's a CLUE!

Jesus was stabbed in the ribs and bled,his hands were painful by nailed,and he was forced to drink myrrh.Our Jim is much luckier,his arms are no longer hurts and have sweet hot chocolate.

It is amazing to find so much connected information after realize the story line of Jim,which in turn proves Jim's story is not my delusion.

First thing is the costumes. Apart from the daily look in the bookshop, let's have a look at some other looks of Jim:

Pay attention to the posture of Jim preaching in Pic 3 and the cross formed by the whole shape. Let's take a look at the image of Christ in a religious painting:

Pay attention to clothing and posture. And the familiar posture of holding the cross in the lower right corner. Although most of the scriptures believe that another person helped Jesus carry the cross on the way of crucifixion, but some other view,for example, in&lt;Gospel of John>,believed that Christ himself carried the cross. This familiar gesture corresponds to another neglected clue in 203, which is the purpose of the seemingly unsuccessful trip to Edinburgh: the mysterious statue of Gabriel.

In another word, we can say that it is not Gabriel's statue at all, but Jim's statue.

Far-fetched? In fact, S2 had already showed an image of Christ:

Look at this similar outfit, I think the correspondence to Jim's identity is clearly. By the way, cleansing of the temple occurs in the Holy Week, remember that cute feather duster?I like this joke. And Crowley do be kicked out of the house.

Actually, we have even more obvious hints,that is in the Jane Austen's ball. During the ball, everyone is dancing, but what was Jim doing?

He's giving away vol-au-vent. The hint to the Last Supper is so obvious here that it's my strongest evidence for Jim's story.

There are some other supporting details about Jim is Jesus:

The code of seven: the rhythm that Jim showed when he was playing with the lamp and his mouth: — — - - -

Two long and three short, which is the number 7 in Morse code. Remember how God loves 7? Jesus is the Son of God in religion,and in the &lt;Gospel of John> Jesus was considered as an incarnation of the divine Word (Logos),who not only speaks God's word,but is God's word. I found this clue because I felt that the plot of Jim playing with his body at the ball was too long as a pornographic joke, and finally found that he played his body in a rhythm, which is as same as how he play the lamp.（And now Neil had answered that IS scripted!) Every scene in S2 makes sense.

Another allusion shows Jim's connection to God is the book he dropped:

<My best games of chess>is a Easter egg of <A Matter of Life and Death>.But also,as I will mention below about God play chess game in the ineffable bureaucracy,and the chess in Aziraphale's book shop which never be used.All these implies that the development of the world is under ineffable manipulation of God. And here, Jim drops the book, complaining that things didn't stay at where he put them. This is an God's perspective complaint. At the same time, it once again emphasizes the main purpose of Good Omens book.

Also as one comment in my original article, someone mention that Jim rearrange book in his own way is just what God do.

And Crowley told Jim jump out the window, which is one of the temptations Jesus hered from demon.

What's more, let's consider about Jim's prophecy:

First:"I remember when the morning star sang together,and all the Angels of God shouted of joy." which we know God said this in Job's minisode.

The third one:"If it happens again I can make it seem like it's an institutional problem" said by Metatron,who is the voice of God.

And the second one:"There will come a tempest,and darkness,and great storms.And the dead will leave their graves and walk the earth once more.And there will be great lamentations."The first hale comes from <Hebrews 12:18>,describing the ominous sign sent by God.The last half is from <Matthew 27:53> describes what happened after Jesus died.And this is the only one that Gabriel himself didn't hear—is evidence that Jim is not Gabriel but Christ.

It can be seen that most of these prophecies are related to God and Jesus. Although these prophecies correspond to the plots in the main storyline, they are all hints of the resurrection of Christ when they are connected together.

There's another clue here, and it's highlighted in the latest trivia message.S2 gives a unit of miraculou power to bring a person back from the dead: Lazarii.The prototype of the word said in trivia isLazarus,: Lazarus of Bethany, who was resurrected by Jesus four days after his death.This miracle is the last one before Jesus's crucifixion, and it is also the most important miracle, because it means that Jesus finally defeated his final enemy: death.

And in S2, the day Jim arrived is Sunday, because Nina mentioned that it all started with the blackout last week.And the ball is on Thursday night. So Gabriel died on Sunday and was resurrected four days later, corresponding to the resurrection of Lazarus.And the "tiny" miracle for hiding Jim's required the power to resurrect Lazarus 25 times, and it's hard to explain why this was so costly, except for Jesus himself.(I still not figure out what the number of 25 means.Once finished, I may add it here.) And the last day in S2 when Jim disappeared was Good Friday.

Some clues about coming:Jim keep saying that he came to find Aziraphale, but it was Beelzebub that Gabriel was looking for. And some other lines about coming:

The first shot of present time,there is a same screen in S1,that one is for God, but this one:

"Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of ..."<Matthew 24:30>

The Son of Man descended from the sky/clouds, and there are also some views believe that God will be accompanied by angels and trumpets. We heard the sound of trumpets when Michael and the others came in the 202. Let's take a look at some posters and screenshots.

The feather representing Jim falls from the sky, and Jim's cup not only has a heart for Gabriel's story, but also a smoke from the top.

And this pic of Jim walking down from the upstairs.And Jim's voluntary devotion when he wearing the feather coat, which is what Jesus did.

Clues about music:There's some hints in the story of the ineffable bureaucracy.Look at these two elder men playing card game and chess in the background.

These pics shows that the story of ineffable bureaucracy was under the ineffable control of God.And in the second pic when they fall in love, we can hear the BGM of Every Day, which we can say it is God playing this song about the doomsday.And Beelzebub said:

It seems means the Every Day segment in the ending theme may contain clues.But I lack of knowledge of music so this puzzle is not for me.While when Aziraphale asked him where is this mysterious song came from,Jim answered:

And one of the funniest hints: When Gabriel was lost, Metatron said there's no need for alarm so just find him, but the person who hidden Gabriel would be erased, and the miracle of hiding Gabriel would immediately raise the alarm. It can be seen that it is Jim but not Gabriel who is important.

This is the fun of decryption. You will find out more and more clues when you find the answer. There are so many informations in S2 just like cookie crumbs heading to the candy house.

At this point, Jim's story line has almost been clarified. The miracle done by Aziraphale and Crowley together works so well that even the audience doesn't notice Jim anymore. At the end of the story, they achieved their original purpose, and Jim disappeared in silence. No one in both heaven, hell, earth and the audience in front of the TV noticed this.

Some other questions:who wants to hide Jim? Why? And who set up these clues, hoping someone to find out?

Before answer these questions, the following discussion of will contain lots of delusion, because of the lack of conclusive evidence. Just put it here as my personal theory of what is the frame of S2.

First of all, according to the discussion above, we know that under the sweet love story in S2, like S1,our story is actually shrouded in the shadow of a coming doomsday. So, who is telling the story in S2, and who is listening to the story?

There is a humanoid creature who has a habit of talking nonsense when he wants to hide his ture thoughts. For example, when he was bullied by other angel colleagues, he uttered a lot of nonsense about choosing sides, or when he wants to misleading his husband to doing what he unwilling to do,he portrayed the threat from Metatron as a wonderful chance with a lot of subjective narrative and gags.

That's my piont, if there is a cheature who wants to hide the existence of Jim, and in the narration of the story of S2, cleverly misleading the audience to focus on the love story, there is no one other but the greatest magician Mr. Fell who fooled Nefertiti. Just like the coin magic he showed in the Blitz minisode, the farthing has vanished! Aziraphale's conjuring is so skillful that it had been highlighted again later in the replacing of the photo (evidence).

The book of Job is displayed by Aziraphale, and the minisode in Edinburgh is directly the diary of angel, and after the ball, Nina asked Aziraphale when it all started, he answered:

He aready figured it out! It's a pity that stuff happened one after another, he and Crowley never had a chance to communicate later, and they started the next journey in different directions in the end.

The entire S2 is like Aziraphale's adorable detective clippings, narrative by time-line with pasting a few clues he thinks are relevant.

And the blitz minisode is the clue he left to the audience after completing his wonderful magic show. This clue was placed in the box carried by Jim, and after showing the items in the box, the lens shows Aziraphale had a quick look at them. These items are the key to avoiding something treble. I won't go into details about the specific plot, but just want to mention that when Neil wrote the key plot of season 3, he must be so proud about it that he wrote this line in the magic shop: “I've find my showstopper.” And Considering that this magic was chosen by Aziraphale, it is also possible that the corresponding plot in the third season may came from Terry, and Neil wrote this sentence with infinite nostalgia and admiration to his old friend. The Blitz minisode embodies the importance of trust and cooperation, and repeatedly emphasizes Aziraphale's magic skill. What's more,the Professor's Nightmare which setting in the middle of this three acts play,Neil retweeted the actor playing this magic,it is definitely important!

The picture here almost deliberately captures Aziraphale in the mirror. This camera language means that the actual narrator here is Aziraphale himself in the mirror. He is proudly showing how he used Several story lines cleverly hide all the clues in S2, and imply the progress of the whole three seasons is showed in the Blitz minisode.

By the way, this does not mean that the entire Blitz minisode is fake,my opinion is that all the minisodes in S2 are real, but be added some clues base on the original story. Therefore, the interpretation for minisode should be to dig out the unnatural places as clues,but keep the whole story as real.

So, who is the expected audience of this complex structure story of S2, and who is the minisode hidden in the box written for?

Who else can Aziraphale write this for, who can Aziraphale hand over all the secrets, who can Aziraphale entrust his back and life, and who does Aziraphale need to trick God for sending this information to save the world from doomsday?

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there is a very weird scene in the title sequence, which is the last theater. Although the magic theory directed everyone's attention to the book of life that the curtain might represent (this does make sense partly, which I'll mention later), but it's easy to be ignored that the theater of the blitz minisode has been shown before.

Where we can see the curtains is another theater, or we can say: a screening room.

And there is no screening room in the entire S2. A couple of scenes that don't contain in the show in the title sequence, one at the end is the holy mountain, which is an allusion to Jim's story line. The tunnel at the beginning is also closely related to what I will talk about later. And the rest is this screening room which never appeared.

Wait a minute, there's a screening room, isn't?

This is the only screening room in the Good Omens TV universe.This old Victoria Station cartoon theater was long since demolished in our word, but Neil has a romantic explanation for it: because Crowley mentioned he liked it, Aziraphale kept it around.And you can also see the popcorn Crowley ate in S1 in the title sequence:

The X-ray video also mentioned there's some Communion wafer in the popcorn box.

The bonus video also gives another supporting clue to this idea, that is, many of the characters on the side of this theater are from S1. This is an Easter egg, but may also imply that this scene should go back to the first season to find clues.

And we all know that Crowley came here to sit down and collect his thoughts as Neil mentioned in his Q&A,which was exactly happened after they broke up at the bandstand. That maybe the reason that everyone was killed by the ending of S2, but Neil just compared it as what happened in bandstand.

So here's my story time:

S2 was happened when Crowley hiding in the cartoon theater after leaving, looking back carefully about what's happening before all this chaos. I believe that like the audience can't believe Aziraphale will leave Crowley because of Heaven, just like Mr. Yang would never give up maintaining him car.Crowley will definitely feel that there is something wrong after the end of S2, then try to chewing the memory carefully, reading the funny detective hand book that his angel left him, and finally project this intertwined story of S2 with memory of two of them.

And the blitz minisode is the magic instruction booklet left by Aziraphale. It may seem obscure,but everything the assistant gentlemen needs to know had already written in it.Just like he left the clues to Crowley in the bar even after discorporating.Will Crowley come back? For audience it's sadlly that we can only know that until season three release.

Personally, I think the future story has already be told in the candlelight dinner in 1941.

In addition, there is another important clue in this theater, which is the Book of Life highlight in the magic theory.

I don't have a perfect explanation for this either, but I can at least piece together a vague picture from the clues available.

First of all, when the curtain was burned, there was an obvious sound of flipping book. The book of life and erasure seemed to correspond to these. But here's a clue, the image was burned. In fact, among the various ominous signs about the resurrection of Jesus/Jesus, black sky, storms, trumpets, etc. all appear, but there is one sign that is mentioned in S2, but never happened.

This prophecy also from the book of Job, and it describes Leviathan,the controlling meaning of it I had mentioned in the analysis of the story of ineffable bureaucracy. However, this prophecy is literally a description of flame. And this material object is a matchbox. It must be noted that there used to be matches in it.

Forget about the fireballs in 202, this is the only thing about fire in S2.

So where else have matches?

Exactly,there was only one audience in the theatre where the curtain was set on fire, so it is no surprise that Crowley burned them.

If we assume that Crowley is the one who burned the smoke ring on the Book of Life, where did he get the Book of Life?

The first mention of the Book of Life is in Michael's phone call. She said to the person opposite: "Book of Life?"

The reply is: " I'm on it." That may be the answer to stat hunting Gabriel, or it may be because the book of life is in the hands of the person beside the phone. Because the debate between heaven and hell in 206 had mentioned that the right of heaven to propose punishment, and then hell will execute it.

So who is the person on the other end of the phone? Shax threatens Aziraphale that Crowley risks destruction, but not erasure. And Beelzebub was the one who told Crowley that the extreme sanctions would be the Book of Life.

Another clue that has been forgotten is what appeared on the curtain of 205, and it is also a clue that I have not solved before. Only after I solved it, I have finish my own story.

On the curtain of 205 are the bull-headed demon and the white-haired demon. They even have character names in the cast list, but unfortunately the main storyline did not mention it at all. I haven't figured out what's the means of the bull-headed demon yet, but the plot of the white-haired demon is to hand Shax some letters to Crowley.

That's it, Shax handed Crowley letters twice in S2, and the second time was particularly abrupt on the night of ball. When she first sent him the letters, Shax mentioned that she took them to hell, but the finance department said they can't accept Shax's signature as replacement."Bills mostly." We can see Crowley throwing the bills into a trash bin.

It can be seen that being burned from the curtain is indeed an effective way of making people forget about it. I also completely ignored these letters until I noticed the white-haired demon. After throwing away the bill, what was left by Crowley?

After laying out the clues, here comes story time:

In my version of story, the book of life should be kept by hell, and heaven is responsible for authorizing rewriting. In order to keep their lover, Beelzebub sent the Book of Life to Crowley by letter. Crowley, on the other hand, carefully burns away what he thinks needs to be hidden in the theater.

He hided what's really inside the box in 201 . Looking closely at the pic of when the box outside the bookshop, it can be seen that the fly actually fly into the box. And in 206 Crowley emptied the storage of the box made it seem unimportant.

The Job's story in 202 and the statue in 203 are all related to Jim. After burning these, the clues about the prophecy are left behind. We can see Crowley firstly talking to Job, and it is Crowley who find the status. (Looking at a statue of the annoying boss in the extremely cold midnight,Crowley you are really a good at planning a date)

In 204, there are too many people on the curtain and the effect is not so well. Many people aware of the three zombies who inexplicably disappeared in the long river of time. These three zombies also died because of Crowley.

The white-haired demon in 205 has been mentioned above, but I haven't solved the bull-headed demon yet. They have only one thing in common, they all wear masks on earth. And masks are used to cover the facial features of inhuman demons, which they obviously don't need.And they only spoke to Crowley.

The clue for 206 is the halo, I think after watching the last 15 minutes, no one will keep entangled that the halo is actually a signal for starting the war. After the arrival of the heaven and hell, Crowley directly asserted that there would not have a war and fooled the matter.

Then what is his purpose of burning these pics?

01 02 03 even 04 are clues to the second coming. 05 is about the receiving the book of life. 06 is to suspend the war.

Now you can see why I think I'm telling a story with such an explosion of clues, because these clues are obviously not connected perfectly.Some kind of framework can be seen by them, but it seems like can be put together more neatly. I will edit it here if I solve more clues in the future.

So as telling a story, what Crowley did was hidding the information he had that might reveal the event of the coming of Jim, and also hide the fact that he had the Book of Life, and temporarily stabilized the situation.

According to my person theory, book of life is handled by hell, and the authority to modify it is in heaven.

And now,the book of life is in the hands of Crowley, and the right to modify it is in Aziraphale.

Does this means that the whole S2 we see, including the modified plot of Book of Life, is the result of the communication between Azirapahle and Crowley?What will happen in S3 if then can do this?

After all it's just a theory I built from limited evidence and added lots of my personal conjecture,so it's highly possible to be uncorrected.

Here is the end of this long article. Thank you for your time for reading.And can't wait for Season 3 :)

[zytes]

Question from someone just starting with creating and then posting art to Tumblr, do you think I should be watermarking my pieces?

I’ve always disliked watermarks as they naturally tend to dissuade people from interacting with art in a natural manner; it depends very heavily on the size and placement of the mark, obviously. BUT, often times an artist will overzealously obscure their work with identification and it has a somewhat repulsive effect on the average viewer - a wall has been erected between the viewer and the art, in a sense. Watermarks, to me, exist to prevent very specific situations from unfolding with your work - almost all of those reasons seem to be financially motivated, like preventing strangers from printing your art out at home or reposting without attribution. Situations that could affect your ability to profit off of your work.

Admittedly, much of my perception about this issue was inspired by an article included in the book “Context” by Cory Doctorow, wherein he writes about how he’s benefitted from “thinking like a dandelion”, which is an idea that was inspired by conversation the author had with Neil Gaiman — I’ll try and summarize the parts of the point that are more relevant to visual arts; since portions of the allegory refer more specifically to certain qualities of written media.

He begins with, “Mammals worry about what happens to each and every one of their offspring, but dandelions only care that every crack in every sidewalk has dandelions growing out of it. The former is a good strategy for situations in which reproduction is expensive, but the latter works best when reproduction is practically free — as on the Internet.”

So how do you “think like a dandelion” then?

“Your work needs to be easily copied, to anywhere whence it might find its way into the right hands. That means that the nimble text-file, HTML file, and PDF (the preferred triumvirate of formats) should be distributed without formality — no logins, no e-mail address collections, and with a license that allows your fans to reproduce the work on their own in order to share it with more potential fans. Remember, copying is a cost-center — insisting that all copies must be downloaded from your site and only your site is insisting that you — and only you — will bear the cost of making those copies. Sure, having a single, central repository for your works makes it easier to count copies and figure out where they’re going, but remember: dandelions don’t keep track of their seeds. Once you get past the vanity of knowing exactly how many copies have been made, and find the zen of knowing that the copying will take care of itself, you’ll attain dandelionesque contentment.”

The rest of the allegory more specifically applies to written work, but I’ll link it here for the sake of posterity. Essentially: every wall or pre-requisite that you establish before allowing a fresh set of eyes to fall upon your work actually may deter people from engaging with the work and sharing it with others. Signatures, subtle watermarks that are “baked” into the work, or maybe like.. a well-placed QR code that links people back to you — all of those would be my suggestion for someone who wants to leave a lasting, linking thread between a given work and it’s artist. If the right person sees your art and connects with it, there SHOULD be a way for them to follow that thread back to you and discover more; but if you over-prioritize demonstrating ownership over your work, you’re likely to drive those coveted genuine connections away.

On the other hand, if your primary goal is to sell prints or other products, brazenly watermarking your work will protect your bottom line from the kind of low-level art-scraping that drives all those shady redbubble shops and etsy stores that sell stolen works on cheap t-shirts and hankies. For me, art is a primarily social interest in which I prioritize the sharing of culture and ideas. I don’t want financial factors to take precedence and alter how/why I created something; it feels like I’d have to take much of myself out of my art in order to make it palatable for consumer spaces.

You should determine your priorities and then strive to make art that fulfills those priorities without compromise. I think you’ll find that self-satisfaction manifests readily at different points in the midst of that process.

[midnighttrain-project]

Hello everyone!

First off, I would like to thank all of you for your continued support! I usually publish short updates on my personal Twitter (or should I say X now?), but I thought it would also be fun to make long posts sharing my experiences and thoughts about the development of the game.

So, I decided to start a new series of articles talking about random things about the development of the game, like some kind of journal! I don’t use Tumblr lately, since I reach more people with Twitter, but Tumblr is perfect for long posts like this! 

I hope you will enjoy this content!

🌙🚂 Let’s start with a recap! 🚂🌙

I’m currently working on a remake of my second game, Midnight Train. The remake is titled Midnight Train: New Moon, and is being developed using RPG Maker MV.

Originally, I only intended to add new content to the original game, like new endings and an epilogue, but I ended up changing the engine and remaking everything from scratch. Thanks to all the feedback I received from the original release, I'm currently working hard to make the game more enjoyable for everyone!

Since it's a remake, it has a lot of new features that weren't present in the original: new graphics, alternate endings, improved gameplay, partial voice acting, many new cutscenes and events… and much more! But let’s talk about the new features in more detail in another post~

🌙🚂 Progress 🚂🌙

Since this is the first blog in this series, I think I should talk about one of the things most people are curious about! “How’s the progress of the remake”?

Before answering that question, I'll explain how I divide the work. Basically, I focus on each chapter in linear order. These would be the main steps:

◆First step: Working on the artwork ◆Second step: Mapping in Photoshop ◆Third step: Eventing all the maps in RPG Maker and testing ◆Final step: English translation

After I finish all these steps, I start working on the next chapter, using the same steps! 

Creating the maps is the most time consuming step because I also design and plan new mechanics, puzzles and new cutscenes, so it takes me a lot of time to finish them. Thankfully, once the maps are finished, I'm quite fast with the eventing, since everything is already planned!

Well…! Let’s answer the question now! “How’s the progress of the remake”?

I’m currently working on the maps of Chapter 2, which means Chapter 1 is fully completed, including the english translation! I’m almost finished with the maps of Chapter 2, so I hope I can start eventing soon ~ 

🌙🚂 Expected release 🚂🌙

This is one of the questions I usually receive, so I also wanted to talk about it: “When will the game be released?”

The answer is… I don’t know!

I’m working really hard, but it’s impossible to predict when I will finish all the work. For now, I can only offer updates about the development!

Which leads to another question: “Why is it taking so long to develop the remake? Shouldn’t it be faster than developing the original game?”

Honestly, that's what I also thought! But the reality is that the remake is taking twice the amount of effort that required the original. Or even more. Why does it require more effort? I think it will be easier to understand with this picture:

This is the comparison between two maps. Even though they look quite different, it’s actually meant to be the same map in-game. This map is basically a hallway that connects two maps, the purpose has not changed, but the map itself is different.

In the remake, I’m trying to create maps that are more interesting to explore, while trying to retain the charm and purpose of the original. This means I also added new events for the new environments, including new puzzles! There are a lot of new things to discover, and you can also learn new things about the characters.

However, the main inconvenience is that I can’t reuse anything from the old version. I must create everything from scratch, including:

◆Creating new dialogues when you interact with the new elements. ◆Adding new visual effects. ◆Creating new events that match the aesthetic of each map. ◆Adding new sound effects (voice acting and terrain sounds) ◆Adjusting old cutscenes to the new environment. ◆Creating new puzzles, depending on the map. ◆And more! The list is long!

So, in the end, working on this remake is like working on a new game. A more detailed, polished and professional new game.

🌙🚂 About the developer 🚂🌙

I usually don’t post much about myself, since I’m quite shy! But I also wanted to talk about myself a bit more~ 

As you may already know, I’m Lydia, the creator of Aria’s Story and Midnight Train! I’m often told by my friends that it’s weird to use your real name on the internet, but I like using my name haha

I also use the name LydiaBluebell on social media. Why Bluebell? Because it’s a flower that means humility, constancy, gratitude and everlasting love, which I think summarizes perfectly my journey with game development 💙 Thanks to everyone that supports me, you have my gratitude and everlasting love!

🌙🚂 Final thoughts 🚂🌙

Oh…! I think I already wrote too much in this post! If you’re still reading this, thank you! I hope it wasn’t too boring…! Next time, I’d like to talk about more specific things!

If you’re curious about anything in particular about my creative process, don’t hesitate to ask a question and I’ll try to cover it in the next post! 

See you all next time!

[oonalovesastarionssimpleplan]

"Absolutly and It's a shame that they didn't use this potential in the evil endings in patch 7 to show the tragedy of their bad outcomes - but rather to enjoy being evil." ---

No offence, I really enjoy your videos and posts but this take you posted confuses me. The game is for adults it's not supposed to be teaching you moral lessons. If some adult needs their media to have stark black and white moral lessons then they should be watching kids shows instead. The game is meant to be fun whether you play good or evil, otherwise it would be wasted money on making an evil route if the player can't enjoy it. I just did a "worst selves" run with all the characters and it was really fun. I want to try it again with the new patch and I feel like punishing evil runs with only negative outcomes would take away a lot. I don't play this game for moral lessons, I play it to blow off steam after work and I doubt I'm in the minority with that.

I enjoy your content and I usually agree with your takes but that is a strange one if I'm being honest. It feels like infantalizing the player base kinda

Hello nonnie. Of course, adult media doesn't need to provide lessons, as it's assumed that someone with a mature moral understanding doesn't need them and also because there are many different opinions in this world. But unfortunately I see many shocking and disturbing moral views on the internet. A few clear thought-provoking points would have been nice.

Adam smith (lead writer) even mentioned in an interview that they wanted people to feel the consequences if they acted evil.

"I think one of the things that happens on the evil playthrough is I always see this thing where they're like, "Oh, there's no tieflings anymore because I killed the tieflings." It's intentional. Your world is a little emptier because of that, and you are playing a route which is much more selfish and much more, again, afraid. You end up isolated."

so I was curious to see how the bad endings end up bad for you and was a bit disappointed.

I also did an evil run and would have liked to see what evil consequences I would get from my actions. For example, if I use the power of the tedpoles, it should be harder for you not become an Ilithid later. (those are your consequences)

And there are even consequences for good actions. Astarion has renounced power and the consequence is that he can no longer be in the sun. So what are AA's consequences for killing thousands of his kind?

I love the one ending of the Dark Urge who swore to Baahl and ends up killing itself.

I also strongly believe that the writers not put a lot of effort on addressing difficult topics and well written charakters only to be consumed without questioning. I think it's not a FIFA or Sims that you enjoy wit empty head. If that's all you want to do,ok, go ahead. many people do that but then feel offended by the moral discussions on the internet? or don't understand why it's called the good ending because they didn't question it.

so, no media shouldn't give you a school lesson. But it's almost impossible to write a story without giving a massage. And what would a good story without a conlusion.

Stories should be analyzed and not just only consumed.

Link to the Interview: https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-final-interview-game-of-the-year-2023-characters-endings

[xiangqiankua]

I finally really truly registered to take the TOCFL (I had signed up for a free pilot test last year but when I went to make the deposit to confirm my slot, everything for Band B & C were already full, alas). I stopped taking formal classes a year ago, also stopped private tutoring, and had been lazily coasting along reading manga, scrolling Taiwanese social media, and occasionally listening to a podcast. Then I decided to apply for grad school.

Scared that having to read anything scholarly and of length in Chinese on a regular basis would make my brain combust, I applied to a program that apparently has enough English classes to graduate. Upon further investigation, many of the interesting ones are in Chinese. Strangely, to take classes in Chinese the department only requires a proficiency certificate equivalent to A2 level. I attached a transcript from my last language center class (around C1), but if I get accepted I figure I ought to have a TOCFL certificate, and if I don't, I'll definitely need one to apply for programs taught entirely in Chinese later.

I registered for Band B because I think I still read too slowly for Band C, plus they only play the listening passages once and I find listening to text being read in a newscaster style (vs conversational tone) extremely challenging. (I asked a teacher once what to do about this and she said listen to more Chinese news, because even the Taiwanese news tends to have a more informal tone.) The exam is in about a month, so I need a plan of action. I had already started reviewing the word list for TOCFL 4, which is 5000 words but sometimes just the same character 4 times in a row, each with a different part of speech:

It's been kind of torturous because it's in alphabetical order, on the other hand it's good because it gives me pause as to whether I would really be able to make the correct choice between 規定、規矩、規律 and 規則 on a fill-in-the-blank question. So far all the words are familiar except some unexpected ones on feudalism and sending telegrams, but familiar and intimate are two different things so if I don't know the precise definition immediately I've been looking it up, along with examples sentences. My current goal is to finish going through the word list, try all the previous exams available on the TOCFL site to practice timing myself, and also find some more ideal listening content (for now I could go back to the audio files for 當代中文5 that I never got through properly). I also want to look up the most commonly used 成語 because they aren't included on the word list but surely they'll appear on the exam. Ideally I should also try to do more relevant reading (news articles, perhaps), but we'll see how far I actually get with that. I think I also need to do this studying at the beginning of the day, being a great procrastinator.

My dream scenario is that Band B turns out to be a breeze and makes me confident enough to take Band C! (Edit- I know the reading/listening test is electronic and apparently adjusts itself to your level. Maybe whatever level one selects at registration is simply the one it starts with?) Realistically though, I read one anecdote online from a guy complaining that he passed HSK 6 and then only squeaked in at TOCFL 3. Hence my apprehension and need for a study plan for test taking. Anyone else taken TOCFL lately?

[nagarenu5]

Some people say that people from valenfield did this kind of thing to her and that would make people think badly of valenfield. But the friends I know in valenfield are gentle and friendly people, and I don't want anyone to insult valenfield under the guise that we did this.

https://www.tumblr.com/mnemonics23/726272672951058432/recently-there-have-been-some-valenfeld-fans-who?source=share

Not again. I am sick and tired of this kind of confrontational behavior. I too have been attacked by Valeveira shippers for the past three years since RE3R was launched. I have received many slanderous messages in There are a lot of disparaging messages in Twitter replies and DMs, Instagram comments and DMs, and anonymous question boxes on Tumbler, some of which are abusive towards Valenfield. I did not express that I was under attack for three years. Even if I expressed it, it wouldn't make anyone happy, neither the person who saw it nor myself, so I kept it to myself. But when I see something like this, I can't keep quiet. Valeveira shippers and Valenfield shippers need to be cool with each other. As this artist also wrote, you should leave it alone. But I know that's not possible for me. If possible, I'd like you to leave me alone, but I love not only Valenfield, but the content of Resident Evil itself. I also like other characters, so I draw fan art of various characters. So I know it's impossible. (If you see an illustration you don't like, feel free to block me.)

However, she is still better. Carlos has only appeared in one game, so Jill is the only one. But since Chris has been in so many game, he's also been attacked by other partner shippers. Yes, you can guess which shippers I am talking about without naming them. And for some reason, I am also attacked by Weskertine shippers. Recently, I have received several messages from Leon and Jill shippers. Some were friendly and some were aggressive. I have been attacked by so many shippers related to Chris and Jill that I have become numb to it lol.

Sorry, I'll get back to the topic. If you have a passion for attacking others, channel that passion into something you like. Please post an article saying you like Valenfield. Please post an article saying you like Valeveira. Please realize that you will lose the quality of your favorite things if you slander others.

Slander is an action of the weak who have no room for themselves. I don't know how far my words will reach, but at least I don't want Valenfield shippers to take such actions.

Sorry if the text is strange. This is written using translation software.

[suzdotranslation]

[Interview TL] 4Gamer's Weekly VTuber Files #15 - Arurandeisu

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Name: Arurandeisu Company: Holostars (1st generation) Streaming platform: YouTube SNS: X (Twitter) Hashtags: Live #アランストリーム / Fanart #アランの画廊 / Clips #切り抜きナンディス Character/Model designer: lack Debut Date: September 8th, 2019 Birthday Date: November 11th Height: 184cm Introduction: He is a detective, phantom thief, teacher, samurai, sniper, and demon hunter. A mysterious Italian who has traveled wide and far through different worlds. He currently devotes his days to this world after being entrusted with the dream of becoming an idol. While he claims to be the man of brains, he often relies on his brawn in the end. He likes pizza, meat, and cola.

10 QUESTIONS FOR VTUBERS

Q01. Tell us your main (streaming) content! Game and planned project streams, I also do DJ stream sessions playing Holopro songs, and I pretty much dabble in various genres!

Q02. What was the cue that kickstarted your streaming activity? Because I'd like to experience lots of things, I only got one life after all!

Q03. Please recommend us your “newcomer’s friendly” videos or stream archive! First, the quadratic equation-solving stream with Hiodoshi Ao-kun! To be honest I actually own a teaching license in science course, so I was able to make something like this. Of course, there's Ao-kun effort to solve the problems, and it shows in her remarkable growth in this stream alone! Link to the stream

Secondly, Since I have a pretty sturdy physics and all, I tried doing an experiment on myself. Now that I recall, each of these "world-level" tastes is pretty strong on its own. Once I had mixed it all in, turned out there was one flavor that stood out… Which you can check on the stream itself! Link to the stream

The third is a quick and entertaining one! I'd like to do something like this again but with more people. Link to the stream

Q04. Tell us things that you like or something you’re good at! I'm good at playing Rubik's Cube! I can solve one in under 40 seconds. And I like to stream, do muscle training, and DJ-ing!

Q05. Tell us a hobby or content that has piqued your interest lately! I've been really into fighting games recently!! In my day off I'd like to practice in the training mode quite religiously too. I also like reading manga and I have a wide preference in terms of genre. Among the ones I started reading recentlyー Chi. (Orb), Sousou no Frieren and Yofukashi no Uta are among the ones I really like!

Q06. Is there any VTuber around that has caught your attention? Let us know! Hanasaki Miyabi. The pioneer of our group, quite an interesting guy.

Q07. What are other things you’re paying attention to other than VTubers? Eiko Kano-san. I really like watching streams that could make me laugh a lot.

Q08. Is there a recent thing that left a deep impression on you, and is there anything else you’d like to try out? Since I like to do a lot of muscle training, I'd like to be involved in work with a protein supplement brand!!!!

Q09. What sort of content you’d like to challenge yourself for now? I'd like to come up with stream ideas, like holding game tournaments and such. It would be nice if I could make a fun project that gets people excited and happy!

Q10. Tell us your message to the readers! Thank you for reading this article until the end!! If you're interested feel free to check out my channel! It would be nice if you could watch my stream and comment on it tooー!!