#I'm done discussing that

[onelinemanytimes]

Taking a Closer Look at Fresh’s Actions

Fresh does a lot of weird stuff, even weirder if you don’t know why he’d make the choices he does. The perception of Fresh amongst fans is all over the place, so knowing Fresh’s character is nigh impossible unless you’ve spent a lot of time and effort trying to get ahold of it.

Luckily for you, I have in fact spent a lot of time and effort trying to understand Fresh and learn everything I possibly can about him, and I’m here to try and tackle explaining what the heck Fresh has been up to- because why he would act how he did in these combat scenarios is a delight to analyze.

So let’s get this ball rolling! For clarity, I’m discussing Underverse 0.7 Part One here, analyzing his actions in the animation and how well it suits his character, and this post is part one of multiple. The next part is posted!

Starting with the least surprising action taken by Fresh; 

1: Running away.

This one isn’t too hard to understand no matter how you slice it. Most interpretations of Fresh would have him run away here- but for those who may not know it, it will be explained nonetheless! Especially because he runs away multiple times in the various conflicts, showing that this isn’t just something he was doing because of Error, this is a regular response to any kind of confrontations like these.

Fresh running comes from a variety of places that tie into each other. The most important reason to run is the fact that he wants to live above all else- NOTHING is more important to him than his own life, and any choice that has a real chance of putting his life in danger he will avoid as much as possible. 

So obviously, a fight with Error is a situation he would just leave, especially given he now has everything he wants out of this place. Error is very strong, and Fresh was able to score a good attack because Error was distracted and he had help. Fresh does NOT want to get into a direct fight with Error if he doesn’t have to. So he gets outta there baby!

Fresh has another big reason to run away, however, and this reason ties into why he would choose to run away from Ink as well! That reason is his persona- being a super radical 90s broskie is also important to Fresh, and preserving the perception that he’s a harmless weirdo is a part of that. If people saw him fight, they would know he’s actually pretty powerful and worth being scared of, which is terrible for him!

He needs people not to be afraid of him. He needs people to trust him, or at least he needs them to underestimate him- and he succeeds, wonderfully.

Fresh IS regularly underestimated- you can see this actively in the way that Ink just brushes him off when he initially confronts him with a complaint about the gift. Ink doesn’t see Fresh as very important at that moment, and not a big deal- which at THAT point, is a detriment to Fresh, so Fresh starts to push the idea of the opposite. Getting in Ink’s way (and surprising ink as he does so) and telling Ink he’d show him “who’s really da weakest,” referencing the fact that people see Fresh as weak.

And that they’re wrong to think so.

But that’s getting off topic from his habitual running away! So I will offer a very important piece of insight that’s easy to miss if you don’t stop and consider it yourself, given it’s not stated explicitly.

Fresh DIDN’T run from Ink. He did run from Error in the start, but he did not actually run from Ink. He at best pretended to run from Ink, because he knew he had a reputation- and he knew it would work with his plan. 

How do we know he wasn’t running away? Because if he was running away, he would be gone. Fresh has more than enough ability to get away whenever he wants, if he actually wanted to escape he could have ran off into who knows where in the multiverse and hid via teleportation before Ink had a chance to blink. If he actually wanted to steal the vials, he wouldn’t have shown them to Ink, he just would have left with them.

“Running away” was part of a much larger manipulation of Ink on Fresh’s part.

2: The larger manipulation

You may be less aware of this depending on how big a fan of Fresh you are, but this guy is a liar and a manipulator of the highest order. He enters any situation he can with a fully thought out plan, and acts how he needs to in order to execute that plan. His motives are his own survival, of course, as far as the results he gets, but the method is fun.

He does enjoy having fun. His idea of fun is being successful, especially at other people’s expense, and he enjoys winning so much he’s likely made his persona a game in of itself, that he wins when he convinces people it’s real.

But today he isn’t focused on THAT game. The goal of the game today is to possess Ink, but there’s a catch here. Ink doesn’t have a soul, not traditionally, and Fresh needs to use the energy out of a host’s soul to survive and successfully possess them. Thus the goal of the game is revealed; He needs to make Ink drink as many vials as possible.

You may notice that he missed one! You noticed wrong- He couldn’t let Ink drink the last vial for reasons that I’ll explain in a moment, because I want to go through the first part of the interaction first.

The first thing Fresh has to do is upset Ink, which is VERY easy to do with a few things. Firstly;

Fresh stole Ink’s… inks. The sash- he straight up stole that. It may have fallen off of ink in the battle with Error, but he snatched it and was keeping it hidden on his person for use in his plan directly. Fresh knows that the vials are how Ink functions- he calls it out directly when showing Ink he has them. Look at how shocked Ink is to see him with them- Ink was wholly focused on finding the vials, only to see that Fresh had found them first and was keeping them from him intentionally. 

This is the start of making Ink upset with him, albeit not the first thing Fresh did directly to upset Ink. Fresh also used the “gift” he’d gotten from Ink, the unlimited vial, on Ink. He FORCED Ink to drink it.

This is almost funny! When you see it initially it’s so sudden that you might laugh as a first instinct, because it seems so out of left field. But it’s not. And then you realize Fresh genuinely made him drink it, and you realize when he shows the rest of the vials he knew what he was doing. He was making Ink be effected by something, and it’s important to note that while Fresh knows how the vials WORK, he doesn’t know what each one individually DOES. Especially not the unlimited vial, something that’s never been seen before.

Well, he needs to make Ink upset. And he also needs to find out what this vial even does, and he knows if he shoves the whole thing in Ink’s mouth Ink’ll have a reaction large enough that he can probably guess what it does and react appropriately. Thus this scene, and then the one after where when witnessing the state Ink was in, he makes fun of him.

He calls Ink out on trying to give him a gift clearly not meant for him, and especially trying to get him to drink something that would probably cause him distress if it worked. Making fun of Ink for it, and then revealing the rest of the vials, setting up perfectly for the next part of his plan. He’s underlined how important the vials are for ink, and shown that he has them. Now he needs Ink to feel desperate enough to drink them right now.

Obviously, he can’t just force Ink to drink all the vials like he did the unlimited vial. Ink would never let him pull it off, and he’s not about to try and pin down Ink, protector of the multiverse single handedly to even start attempting that. He needs to convince Ink to drink them himself- which is the next immediate thing he does. 

He tells Ink he’s gonna show him who’s weak, and then “runs,” initiating a chase. He knows Ink will follow him, because Ink is impulsive and upset with him right now, and needs the vials back. That means he can convince Ink to drink them himself.

Fresh starts out the chase poking at Ink’s fears and current concern, remarking “I bet ya’d hate to have nothin’ left.” Turning around to see that Ink is chasing him with a blaster, he can be sure that step one is complete without a doubt, as Ink has indeed decided to chase him, but he has to keep up the illusion of this being a “real” chase. The idea that Ink actually has to catch him and fight- so he pretends to be surprised at Ink being upset and chasing him!

But his smile and shades switching to say “OKAY” betrays the truth for us, only happening as Fresh turns away from Ink. He knows he’s in the clear and just has to keep up appearances long enough for Ink to drink the rest. 

His next comments also betray a secondary goal; Making sure Ink uses as little magic as possible. The plan is to possess ink: He needs Ink to have the maximum amount of power possible when he gets there, so he IMMEDIATELY reprimands Ink for firing off an attack at him. Warning Ink that if he keeps attacking he’ll run out of magic before he gets the vial back, and reminding Ink of the danger of that- Fresh has his vials, if he runs out of magic he’s hosed.

This is also why it’s important that Fresh is being CHASED by Ink, not FIGHTING Ink. He probably could fight Ink, but it’d be inefficient and dangerous. He needs Ink to be taking him seriously enough to drink the vials when getting them back, hence the threat of taking them and disappearing that pushes Ink to make sure he has the power he needs to grab them.

Then, he carefully starts giving Ink back some of the vials. Making it seem to Ink that this game of cat and mouse is going to be one he’ll draw out as long as possible- making it seem more important to Ink that he catches Fresh as soon as possible, otherwise he may actually lose some of the vials.

An interesting thing to note in this screenshot, by the way; Jakei’s attention to detail is astounding. The vials on the sash are in the same order as they are on the tracker- albeit while upside down now it’s reversed. But the order goes Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal, Blue, Pink, etc… And Jakei made sure to have the spots for Green and Yellow empty! Obviously, he’s throwing them out here…

But the slot for Blue is ALSO empty. We saw Fresh holding it earlier- but he didn’t put it back in the sash. He kept it on his person, likely because it’s the vial that’s most full. It’s also worth noting that he tossed out Green and Yellow- he doesn’t know what each colour does, but he DOES know those two are by far the emptiest vials at this point. Tossing them to Ink won’t make him too powerful, it’ll just make him hopeful enough in his success to continue the chase while Fresh continues to make fun of him for it.

He also is aware of Ink having magic at his disposal from the infinite vial from before, because surely if it worked like the other vials it’d work to power him as well. He uses it to his advantage here, calling Ink a liar again (something he saw firsthand upset Ink) and calling into question whether the infinite vial is even worth anything. Pushing the idea that Ink desperately wants the sash back by intentionally making fun of it.

It’s a subtle thing. But by making fun of Ink’s want to get the vials back, he’s introducing that idea to Ink again- that Ink needs the vials, that he absolutely has to catch Fresh ASAP to get them back.

Ink grabs the Sash and rips all the vials away from Fresh after. All but one…

He drinks all the vials he has immediately, as we see on the tracker. But Fresh stops running, which to Ink would be strange. Maybe he thinks he’s lost? But with the amount of confidence Fresh has, that’s clearly not true. Ink’s also definitely aware that Fresh has the Blue vial. But after playing keep away for so long, Fresh does something that absolutely baffles Ink.

He tosses Ink the vial.

This doesn’t make any sense to Ink and it shows. When Ink catches the vial he doesn’t drink it immediately. He looks at Fresh, trying to actually listen to what the other is saying now, trying to understand why in the world Fresh would hand it back to him after keeping it from him very intentionally before now.

And then in an instant Fresh is in front of him. Very close. And after having lorded it over Ink this whole time, calling Ink impulsive and foolish and lording himself as being smarter and better at this than Ink is, he reveals his hand.

He’s wanted to possess Ink this whole time. He just needed to use Ink’s impulsivity against him, and he succeeded with flying colours. Ink is also immediately aware of the fact he messed up, reacting in frustration at having been duped like that, which is quickly shut down. Because again, this spotlight is on Fresh, this is HIS success and Ink’s failure, and Fresh is having the time of his life with it. He is having so, so much fun being better than Ink.

Now I mentioned before and you can see it here, so as the last thought to end off this part of the character analysis; Why didn’t Fresh want Ink to drink the blue vial? If you look at only the goal to possess Ink, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Wouldn’t having Ink drink all of them give him more time?

It would! However there’s another bigger plan at play here that makes it worthwhile for Ink to have extra paint when he’s through with him; the fact that Fresh wants to survive.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in Underverse the multiverse is doing pretty rough. The doodlesphere is in shambles, multiple AUs have been directly disrupted, the main timeline itself is under attack right at that instant and it’s getting worse, and Fresh can’t predict everything. He can tell it’s getting worse and worse though- which means he needs something from Ink.

He needs Ink to stop being an antagonist. He needs Ink to save the multiverse because he knows Ink actually can. That means he needs Ink to be emotional when he’s done with him- because while possessing Ink, he’s going to be consuming all the material that Ink had drunk up to that point. So there needs to be a little extra left over for Ink’s sake.

This is why he gives Ink the blue vial in a way that doesn’t prompt Ink to drink it. He’s the hero fighting an antagonist here, but he’s doing it by essentially out-villaining Ink. Forcing Ink’s hand and trying to make him realize he can’t keep playing games with X Gaster, he needs to fix this, and quick. 

Besides, he doesn’t need THAT much time to deal with Error. That’s just icing on top for him.

That’s all I think I can say in this part of my analysis without making this post REALLY stretch too long- so I’ll be making a part two!! Further discussing things like Fresh’s mindset while in this fight, more about his actions while fighting Error, and whatever else I can fit into that post. Look forward to it!!

[styrofauxm]

I have a theory.

I think that the reaction so many alloromantic people have to arospec people's posts pointing out common kinds of amatonormativity is more defensive than earnest.

Whenever we speak about something harmful in society's concept of romance, we are inevitably met with "x doesn't have to be romantic."

The more cynical part of me reads that as "there's still a way to make you palatable to me, just conform to the same standards differently." But that's probably not fair.

Instead, it's probably that alloros don't want to let go of those toxic ideas. Most of them are deeply ingrained into society. Letting go of those ideas means admitting that something treated as truth for your entire life is a lie.

So instead, they try to rewrite those ideas to "include" us. (They don't include us. Instead they shove us into a box and ignore aplatonic and loveless people, but that's besides the point). Because that's more comfortable than admitting something you are strongly attached to is fake.

I'm not writing this to defend alloros who say those things, by the way. I'm writing this for alloros to read and hopefully realize WHY they feel like they need to say those things, rather than actually address what we've said.

If you adore soulmate stories, it's understandable to get upset when they are criticized. But the harsh reality is that the concept of soulmates is built on dangerous ideas that harm everyone, not just arospec people. And that harm does happen in platonic relationships too.

If "love is the purpose/meaning/etc." is a saying that helped you, I get wanting it to help other as well. But it doesn't, and won't. You can keep it for yourself without applying it to others.

The list goes on. At the end of the day, all I, and I assume other arospec people, want is for you to critically engage with our statements instead of perpetuating aphobia.

[miralines]

Hi hello, what the heck is narratomancy pls and thx

 ohohoho I will gladly tell you

In short, narratomancy is the semi-canonical magic/logic/physical law the Mechs universe operates under. That law is basically “whatever is best for the story is what happens.” This is why Jonny is dead for about a minute in How the Aurora Was Won, dead long enough for Brian to have to babysit his corpse for Gender Rebels, and also barely flinches during Sleeping Beauty– all those stories require different things for narrative convenience. It is kind of silly from a Doyleist point of view, and very hand-wavey, but also extremely fun to play with as soon as you get over the initial ridiculousness.

The strongest canonical basis for this is this post from Jonny on the official mechs tumblr, which says that their regeneration “tends to follow a rough logic of whatever works best for the story” (which is quickly refuted by Nastya), and to my knowledge the most comprehensive source on the theory from the fan side is this meta from @gunpowderdtim. There’s also a piece of HNOC fiction on Kofi Young’s blog that brings up the concept of narrative Echoes, which ties into all this as well. I believe the term “narratomancy” was coined by @lucky-sevens (who is no longer active, but whose meta is well worth reading) to mean “story magic.”

Ultimately, like most elements of canon, it is a very loose pattern occasionally alluded to, which the fandom then took and ran with, and something that probably varies based on which member of the band you ask. It’s also an extremely useful term and tool to use when analyzing the sheer chaos that is mechs canon.

[the-final-sif]

If we're posting our controversial c!Dream takes today, then here's mine:

I wholeheartedly believe that Doomsday/blowing up L'Manberg was entirely justified. Without a shadow of a doubt.

In order, the Butcher Army (which consisted of the entirety of L'Manberg's government and like half it's total citizens):

Put c!Philza under "house arrest" for disagreeing with the Butcher Army politically and to prevent him from stopping their public execution of his long time friend.

Attempted to publicly execute c!Technoblade, without trial, despite the fact that at the time he was not a threat. They not only took his horse hostage because they were unable to 4v1 him, but also lied and told him he would be given a trial despite having the full intention of publicly murdering him in a show of power

(By the way, as much as we joke about c!Techno/c!Dream being war criminals, this one was one of the few actual war crimes on the SMP. It'd be considered Summary Execution or Killing a Surrendered Combatant. Killing a POW without trial is a war crime. Philza's house arrest could also be considered a war crime on account of the lack of a trial or crime committed on his part).

Planned a festival with the exclusive purpose of luring c!Dream in on peaceful terms and executing him. Because he was a threat to their nation's power, and didn't let them murder c!Technoblade without trial.

(Second note: This is also a war crime! You aren't allowed to lie about a situation being peaceful in order to kill your political opposition. Shockingly.)

It was completely justified for the Doomsday Trio to give 24 hours for people to leave and then remove L'Manberg from the map. Nobody was killed (canonically) during this. It was a totally fair response to the Butcher's Army persistent goal of murdering people to secure political power. If L'Manberg's government didn't want it blown up, maybe they shouldn't have gone around attempting extrajudicial killings against people. Or like, they should've done a better job of it at least because they not only attempted a bunch of war crimes but they failed all of them. Shoud've gotten good.

[wackus-bonkus-maximus]

odnlb masterpost

this is mainly for my own reference, like a final project portfolio for myself. but it's here for you guys if you wanna see it too!

fic: one does not love breathing

how i wrote the fic

how wackus writes things

director's cut 1

director's cut 2

director's cut 3

director's cut 4

director's cut 5

director's cut 6

finale explained

lila vs gabriel - psychopath vs sociopath

miraculous enneagram post no one asked for

mbti types

d&d alignment

odnlb extra: strictly professional (feligami oneshot ✨️tumblr exclusive ✨️)

[thedarkmongoose]

will: that looks like the ugly lamp in your bedroom

hannibal: will, please. that is a one of a kind 18th century baroque period piece imported from italy. do not refer to a priceless antique as ugly

jack: …did you both forget you’re processing a scene right now?

will/hannibal: no

[pastafossa]

Some sad health stuff about a pet so scroll on if not your thing.

So my poor old kitty Cato. I don't post as many current pics of him cause he's not looking great. He's lost a ton of weight in the past year or so, upset stomach, fairly skin and bones now. Vet put him on prescription food and an elimination diet 5 weeks ago. And while he's stopped losing weight, and stopped vomiting so much, he's still not gaining his weight back, either. I'm technically feeding him more than the bag recommends, too. He's getting fed four times a day, almost an entire cup of food total which is HUGE when - even at a healthy weight of 9 pounds - you were a small animal.

I'm worried there's something wrong at a deeper level. He should be gaining weight back, and he's not. He's always, always hungry. He's sore if touched around his back half unless you pet him very gently. And you can feel all his little spine notches when you pet him.

I have had this cat for 13, almost 14 years. I realize that might not seem like a lot depending on age. But at mine that's a very large chunk of my life. And the idea of having to weigh what his quality of life is of this cat I've raised from a kitten, who has curled up with me by my pillow every night until fairly recently, who always follows me and sings to me and bonks his head on my face... this feels way too soon.

[randomgodfatherthoughts]

I'm thinking about the fact that one of the proposed concepts for The Godfather 3 was that Michael would die in Tom's arms at the end, realising that he'd been there for him all along and that he was a true Brother in every sense of the word.

[jellazticious]

People really don't read polls anymore huh? All of them is a popularity contest to them smh

[southfarthing]

had such a cute day 🥺 met up with some friends at a café and then found morgoth's ring in a charity shop, sat on a park bench by myself and read athrabeth finrod ah andreth and lost my mind 🫡

[rosymiel]

i have finally finished the paper i’ve spent 10 hours on today

[booasaur]

Snowpiercer - 3x08

[kinnbig]

Not the same anon as the Tawan question, but BIG WAS THE MOLE IN THE BOOKS??? Noooo!!! I love his so much as the super loyal puppy in love :'((((

yeah - from what I understand, Vegas tells Big that the minor family is going to go against the main family, but that if Big gives him information then he'll spare Kinn's life.

also this is a tangent but Big's feelings for Kinn are much more explicit in the novels and Kinn and Big even actually kiss at one point, when Kinn and Porsche have kind of broken up over the Tawan thing (but apparently Tankhun intervenes and makes Big leave before it goes any further lmao).

but yeah Big is the mole, and Chan kills him in the end.

[valiantarcher]

lady-merian: What’s In the Forests of the Night?

So, I think the series is technically called The Goblin Wars, but it’s a trilogy inspired by William Blake’s The Tyger, Christiana Rossetti’s Goblin Market (I think this one is right), and the Irish Sidhe. It’s been a while, so I’m going to call on @lover-of-the-starkindler to correct any mistakes, but the general gist is this (with the long, spoilerly part under the cut):

Our protagonist is a high school girl named Tegan Wylltson, who has a pretty normal life: she goes to school with her best friend Abby, lives with her parents and younger brother Aiden, and spends her free time volunteering with the vet at a local zoo. And then her parents decide to answer her grandmother’s request to give a teenage distant relation a new chance in America. Finn Mac Cumhaill may be handsome but he’s also strange and full of trouble from the moment he shows up on their doorstep. And before the week is out, a strange creature has appeared in the Wylltson’s basement, Finn has fled, and Tegan’s mother has caught a sudden sickness and died.

Intriguing start, right???

Obviously, Tegan is reeling from her mother’s death, as are her father and brother - but Aiden is the one who keeps talking about seeing sick, decaying cats around. This eventually results in social services getting involved, and basically some mandated therapy sessions for Aiden in lieu of him being removed from their home (there’s also some question about the father’s fitness, I guess? At some point, he seems to be losing his memory and grip on reality, but I can’t remember the exact sequence). The therapist is very calm and doesn’t seem to see any harm in Aiden’s stories. In addition, there’s Abby, who seems to be straying a line between too much creativity (talking about seeing goblins and other strange sights) and rebelling against her Italian Catholic upbringing (some odd theological comments, including wondering why God couldn’t be a woman), with a dash of boy-craziness (crushing on a gorgeous guy that she keeps seeing around).

Tegan is just trying to keep things together and is succeeding pretty well - up until she meets Abby’s crush: he’s not just gorgeous, he’s very very wrong somehow. And then Finn shows up again, and there are some fights and fleeing for their lives and so on and so forth because - you guessed it - the crush is a Sidhe, Aiden is really seeing goblins, and Tegan’s mother didn’t die from a normal, if rogue, human disease.

At any rate, Tegan, Finn, and Aiden end up in the current stage of an ongoing battle between the Sidhe/Goblins and the branch of Irish Travelers Finn and Tegan’s family belong to. Finn was raised to fight the Sidhe/Goblins (I think he was sent to America partially because they were too hot on his trail and he wasn’t that good at fighting yet???), and Tegan’s mother had delayed her fate by moving to America, getting married, and settling down. There’s a lot of fighting, travels into the fae world, and general high stakes - pretty good stuff.

ALSO, we get Tegan and Finn being interested in each other, Tegan’s dad going, “Well, I don’t necessarily have an issue with you, Finn, but I’m not letting Tegan’s plans of vet med school get sidetracked at this stage because of you”, and Finn going, “I respect that and while, yes, I will be around a lot, I will continue to get to know Tegan and try very hard to keep it just friendly.” And Tegan and Finn mostly make that work??? I dunno, it’s just a VERY rare tact to take, and I really appreciated it. :)

But now, having hit the high points, we hit the low points, AKA the third book. I honestly don’t even remember how everything gets resolved, but I’m pretty sure the plot doesn’t deliver. The climax is a big battle happening in our world that Finn, Tegan, and Aiden have to escape from to defeat the Sidhe in the fae world, and Teagan’s dad is being the distraction (AKA sacrifice) for this escape. But he’s not alone, because, what’s this coming out of left field and smashing everything?? It’s the female therapist who is also supposed to be God??? And things suddenly go from ‘Abby’s theological comments are just a reflection of her different take on things’ to ‘Abby was 100% right, never mind the fact it doesn’t make any plot sense much less theological sense about WHY the therapist and everything else!!!’. :/

SO.

Yeah.

There are some things I can handle and ignore and work around, but not that.

At any rate, I think most people make it out alive, but not everyone. I thought Teagan’s dad died, but that doesn’t really make sense because the therapist was there to back him up (again ????? why doesn’t everything just suddenly get fixed if God is right there??? Not to mention, why a human body???), so I think he survives. Abby survives, I think, as do the primary three - and they rescue Teagan’s aunt, who’s been trapped in the fae world for years, and her goblin quasi-love interest, I think???

So, in conclusion: there was SO MUCH good potential and, even with some flaws/disagreements (didn’t care for the evolutionary bend on Teagan’s work with primates at the zoo), so much going for it in the first two books and then there was an irreparable direction taken for me. Very sad and frustrating. :(

[anarchy-and-piglins]

I have weird taste in favorite characters but here’s why I’m right actually

[linagram]

[ 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜' 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚜 ]

here they are!! finally!!

okay, so at first i thought that i should add something like "part 1", since this post will include only the guilty trio's side characters, but i thought about it and.. i don't really think i should make profiles for other side characters too? most side characters are just the family members (like asahi's adoptive father or eiko's mother) or they're those prisoners' friends (riku's friends/bandmates, reina's friends, etc) and i don't want to make profiles for all those friend groups.

but we'll see! maybe i'll just drop some family/friends lore when i feel like it.

Side character 001: Saito Arata

Name: Saito Arata (斎藤新) (his last name means "purification, worship" and his first name means "fresh, new")

Age: 17 y/o

Gender: Male

Birth date: March 23rd (Aries)

Height: 176 cm

Blood type: AB

Occupation: High school student (first year)

Personality: Arata is an interesting and unpredictable person. It's hard to tell what's going on inside his head, but he always looks like he's up to no good. He does whatever he wants and whenever he wants and he doesn't care what others say. He's very chill and relaxed most of the time and there's only a few things that can make him angry. He's very talkative and outgoing, but he still has no friends.. Or maybe he has one, if you can call that boy his friend. It's hard to impress someone like Arata, so if you manage to do that, don't be surprised if he suddenly becomes obsessed with you and starts basically worshipping you. But also.. don't be surprised when he just as suddenly decides that he doesn't find you interesting anymore and leaves you. His interests change all the time, he can't control it. And also, even if you are like a god to him, it doesn't mean that he will forget about everything else. He's not as loyal as he likes to make people believe. Also, what's the point of being so obsessed with someone if he actually has more power than anyone else here?

Trivia:

Arata's grades aren't that good and one of the reasons why he started to like Akio is the younger boy agreeing to let him copy his homework.

Arata doesn't look exactly like Riku, but they share some other traits, like age, zodiac sign, blood type, being taller than Akio and having dark hair. Also, Riku not looking like an exact copy of Arata and Akio still liking him because of how much he reminds him of his follower can be explained as Akio missing Arata too much.

Arata is a year older than most of his classmates, but there's not any particular reason for that.

Arata really likes animals that are considered to be weird, dangerous or scary by most people and he was obsessed with insects and dinosaurs when he was a child (he still is). He also has a huge shark plushie in his room, but it's not cute at all and it's actually kinda creepy. When Akio found out about that interest of his, he tried to find as much information as possible, so that he could impress Arata with his knowledge later.

Arata actually didn't care about Akio that much when he first met him, he only had to spend time with him for reasons I can't talk about yet, but as he kept learning more about him and what kind of person he is, he started to admire him and be truly supportive of him.

Arata knew Akio's victim well not only because of them all being classmates, but also because Akio's victim really wanted to be friends with Akio and that annoyed Arata even back when he wasn't interested in Akio (or at least he thought so). When he fully turned into Akio's follower, he did everything to make his victim's life worse: from stealing his medications to "accidentally" pushing him down the stairs. Akio actually didn't need to try and "manipulate" Arata to kill the poor boy for him, Arata would do it anyway sooner or later.

If you remember, the silhouettes' eyes in Akio's MV were green (meaning envy and jealousy) and only one of them had pink eyes (meaning love and genuine support). Yes, those other figures are Akio's classmates and the pink-eyed figure is supposed to be Arata.. but only in this particular MV (symbolism, am I right), because in real life, as you have probably already noticed, Arata has heterochromia and one of his eyes is pink, meanwhile his other eye is green. And yes, I've made his eyes like that on purpose.

Remember how Akio mentioned in his interrogation that he's okay with anything his mother cooks, but something was crossed out? He actually wanted to write "anything Arata cooks", but quickly changed it to his mother, because he found it too embarrassing and he didn't want the guards to ask about Arata. The funniest thing about this is that Arata actually can't cook at all and he just bought random food and then he was like "Yeah, I've made it for you, do you like it? <3". It worked though and Arata had to hold his laugh every single time because Akio genuinely believed him.

Side character 005: Mikazuki Ruka

Name: Mikazuki Ruka (朏 瑠日) (his last name means "crescent moon" and his first name means "lapis lazuli" and "sun")

Age: 21 y/o

Gender: Male

Birth date: May 19th (Taurus)

Height: 164 cm

Blood type: A

Occupation: Unemployed

Personality: Ruka wishes people would just.. ignore him or pretend he's not here. He doesn't like talking to people and finds it exhausting. Even simply being around people is too much for him. No, actually, everything is too much for him. Getting up in the morning or even simply eating or breathing is too much work for him. It would be nice if he had someone who could just.. do all of that for him. He'd be okay with doing anything in return for that.. well, if it's not too exhausting. Ah, and if this doesn't sound too weird yet, Ruka has this interesting habit of saying that he's actually dead if anyone asks him to do something he's too lazy to do or simply asks him a question about his past or how he's feeling right now. He often says something like "'Cause I'm dead" in the end of his sentences. He never explains why he does that and it seems much more serious than just him trying to come up with an excuse not to talk about something or not to do something. Maybe it's because he genuinely feels like he's actually a corpse and that's why he's always so tired?.. Ah, but don't think that he's always so cold and emotionless. He's actually very expressive, but only around one specific person.

Trivia:

Ruka's voice is very androgynous and most of the time people have to ask him about his gender. It doesn't help that he has a unisex name as well. And when someone asks him or thinks he's a girl, he simply shrugs and goes "I'm dead anyway, so it doesn't matter". He often wears skirts and dresses too.

Speaking of that habit of his, at first Kei thought that Ruka suffers from "Cotard's syndrome", a condition in which the person thinks that they're actually dead or don't have any blood or organs, but he has soon found out that Ruka knows perfectly well that he's alive, he just likes to think that he's dead, a walking corpse or even a zombie.

Ruka stopped growing when he was 14 years old and he still looks very young and people often mistake him for a teenager. When Kei first met him in a night club, he actually got worried and wondered how this kid was allowed in here. Ruka kinda likes the fact that he looks so young, since "it proves that he really has died and stopped aging".

Ruka is much more talkative around Kei in general. And just so you understand, he wasn't a "poor innocent guy who Kei has kidnapped and tortured in his basement", he was free to go anywhere he wanted to (without leaving the house, of course) and do anything that he wanted. He even made fun of Kei and made jokes like "Ah, do you like me for my childlike appearance or something? You're even more of a creep than I've thought" (Kei punched him right after that and made him take his words back because even he got uncomfortable after hearing that) and "Just beat me up and take as many photos as you want already, I wanna go to sleep as soon as we're done". He even teased him and said things like "What, is this everything you've got?" while Kei tortured him. Kei absolutely did horrible things to him, but Ruka still had more freedom than it was shown in Kei's MV and even though he's still a victim of kidnapping, he actually kind of enjoyed the process because he thought he was finally about to die for real.

The outfit that he's shown wearing has sun and moon motifs which is a reference to his name meaning. I wanted his name to be related to both sun and moon to show that he's Kei's "sun and moon", that meaning that he's Kei's everything.

According to Ruka, he doesn't have any parents or siblings and he also hates when people ask him about them. He still had a friend group (he didn't care about them at all) and he actually was basically forced to come with them to that night club from Kei's MV. They have still spent a lot of time explaining that he really is an adult This is how Kei and Ruka met and Kei went "Oh.. He's just like me fr.."

It's hard to explain what kind of relationship Kei and Ruka had, since it's hard to call them friends and they weren't really a couple. Their relationship had platonic, romantic and sexual elements, but they still had no idea who they are to each other and they mostly just treated each other like an artist and a muse at first before they started to become closer.

Side character 008: Kanasawa Takame

Name: Kanasawa Takame (金沢喬女) (her last name means "gold" and "swamp, stream" and her first name means "high, noble" and "woman")

Age: 31 y/o

Gender: Female

Birth date: November 16th (Scorpio)

Height: 170 cm

Blood type: O

Occupation: Maid cafe manager

Personality: Takame is a polite and gentle woman who is always very kind to everyone, especially her employees. She has a very good reputation and everyone knows her as a caring and understanding person who never lets her employees overwork themselves and if she sees someone making them uncomfortable, she will make sure to take care of that and protect them. She's quite passionate about anime, manga and games and that's.. uh.. one of the reasons why she decided to open a maid cafe. What about the other reasons? Haha, you don't have to know that. Maybe this woman really does have a dark side, but only one of her workers knows about it. And that worker still loves her no matter what.

Trivia:

Takame secretly has a thing for cute girls in maid outfits and that's a second reason why she opened a maid cafe.

Takame really does have a secret second job and her being a cafe manager is just something she does to hide her secrets and make herself look like a normal person who doesn't do anything illegal.

Unlike other two side characters who actually liked their prisoners, she didn't have any feelings for Yurika and just manipulated her because she knew that Yurika is the only worker who would agree to help with something like Takame's second job and she knew that Yurika really needs someone to rely on, so she promised she will take care of everything that Yurika has problems with. She thought that Yurika is cute, but that's all.

Takame really does like anime, manga and games and that's not something she made up. She believes that no matter how old you are, you should still do what you like, even if other people judge you for it.

She knew everything about Yurika's past and her problems and she knew about Yurika's relationship with her victims. She used that information to make Yurika trust her, but no matter how manipulative she was, she actually did protect Yurika from her stalkers and people who harassed her. Of course, that made Yurika like her even more, but when Takame did that, she genuinely wanted to protect Yurika because she didn't want her to go through anything like that.