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harmoni-me · 4 years ago

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hi! wanted to tell you that i absolutely love your writing skills, it’s so different from the others that i've read and it makes me feel so warm inside. keep up the good work! i'm really looking forward to seeing more

if you don’t mind, i'd like to request for a poly nagito x sweetheart reader x kokichi where they’re still in the crushing/pining stage and being confused about their sexuality. thank you, have a good day/night!💙

Phew! I finally did it! My fingers kinda hurt from typing all this haha! But I loved the request a lot! I played around with the concept you gave me as well, so it’s a story that branches out into multiple styles of writing. I do have to warn you though, goodness is this one long! But I hope you enjoy it all in the same! <3

I’m so sleepy lol

quick trigger warning beware! : There is a scene in this where a character goes through mental hysteria that contains some panic attack like symptoms. If you are sensitive to that writing, please, skip the the fluffy scene that if used for comfort right after :) (Or just don’t read it at all, don’t worry! Harmoni understands!)

Nagito Komaeda x Sweetheart Reader x Kokichi Ouma! Pt. 1

Also can we just talk about this gif? It makes me so happy...This artist is so good too like WHOA! Check them out!

“No…“

“1, 2, 3, 4-“

“NO-“

“5, 6, 7, 8!” Nagito finished, moving the silver, dog-shaped play piece across the board in rhythmic taps.

“NOOOO! BOARDWALK, NAGITO?! FUCKING BOARDWALK?!” Kokichi shrieked in a fit of rage, slamming his Panta drink onto the table, while standing up and causing an absolute fit.

Nagito was chuckling at the enraged boy, who was now standing on the kitchen counters, stomping in pure fury. Kokichi was a huge brat. A clingy, competitive, always-begging-for-something, whole-hearted brat. Though, Nagito would have to admit that he could never stay mad at Kokichi, in fact, he would have to say that he barely gets mad at him. Ever. He reminded the white-haired boy of a playful puppy, bounding and bucking happily when getting what it wants. It made Nagito’s heart melt, evaporate, then simply melt again, even when he was a cursing mess stomping on the granite countertops, getting scratches all over it.

“Woah! Nagi, that’s amazing! You got Boardwalk really early in the game, that’s so cool!” You smiled, while also laughing at Kokichi’s ferocious cursing as ambiance. Your smile drove Nagito’s attention away from the angered boy, and his heart went through overdrive once he saw your sweet smile, radiating so much contagious joy. It’s almost as if he was on a roller coaster that contained a different track each and every time he rode it. One minute, his heart would be doing loops, and the next, it excitedly go up again.

. . .

Now, this is where the problem begins. Well, the one of three problems that plague the three individuals all playing a simple game of Monopoly on a Sunday night. This is Nagito’s problem: Whenever he has an effect on Kokichi, making him oh-so-lovable in his eyes, his heart swells and fills his chest to the brim. Oh, was this feeling that was so incredibly foreign to him feel so wonderful when it dawned upon him for the first time.

Nagito could always draw the memory back within his vision in surreal detail. Kokichi and Nagito were loitering in the hallways of Hope’s peak, with the shorter purple-haired boy dragging the pale, frizzy haired boy by the hand to apparently “Conjure up the biggest most awesome-est prank Hope’s Peak has every witnesses since built into existence”. Honestly, how could Nagito say no to something that holds so much potential hope and despair, all contained in one big gift-wrapped surprise of a prank on the whole school?

After planning for a few hours, Kokichi seemed to have a fuse broken in his brain due to thinking about a truly fool-proof plan. The somewhat drowsy prankster reached into his schoolbag and pulled out two twin bottles of grape Panta, sliding one over to an unsuspecting Nagito. The purple plastic bottle bonked into Nagito’s forearm, knocking the bottle down from the force.

“Nehehe, I guess you really are the Ultimate Lucky student, huh? It just so happens I packed an extra today, Shamrock! Make it up to me sometime soon, okaaaaay?” Kokichi giggled, teasing the lanky, somewhat socially-awkward Nagito who was sitting across from him on a desk within a totally abandoned classroom. Nagito thanked the other, though, Kokichi really couldn’t respond due to being in the middle of chugging his favorite carbonated drink.

Nagito turn to his own bottle. He wasn’t the biggest fan of old-fashioned artificial grape flavored things, but it wasn’t the worst. Plus, it would be quite rude to refuse a drink from a friend, right? So the white haired boy simply picked up the bottle, and twisted the cap off, as per usual etiquette of opening a soda bottle.

Splash

It didn’t take too long until Nagito knew what was going on. The drink had exploded everywhere. The bottle of soda was basically empty by the end of the grape-geyser showcase, and poor Nagito was left drenched in purple, sticky, sugary liquid. The drink already was starting to dry into a thin, sweet crust on his skin, making the boy on a whole other level of uncomfortable. Though, it was kind of expected that Kokichi would be absolutely laughing his butt off in the moment, sounding like some sort of hysteric hyena mixed with a duckling quacking at some breadcrumbs. It was a laughable sight, no doubt, Nagito literally looked like the embodiment of a sad, wet dog.

But then Kokichi settled down after a bit, controlling his breathing from the pathetic sight. After doing so, he got up out of his seat, and knelt down to scrummage through his bag, revealing a regular branded water bottle. He then made his way over to Nagito, and without hesitation, sat himself on his soda-soaked lap.

“Aww, really going for that kicked puppy look, are you now? Well, since I’ve had all my laughing fun from this, I guess it’s only natural that I help you out, hm? Or would you rather just stay just like this? Oh, now, I wouldn’t mind it if we did…though it seems your eyes beg to differ…well in that case, let’s clean you up, shall we?” Kokichi hummed, teasing the ever living daylights out of the wet and miserable boy.

Kokichi then did something that made Nagito’s heart pound harder than it ever had before. The teasing boy reached behind his neck, untying his beloved checkered bandana. He then carefully opened the water bottle, and poured the contents onto the fabric. Once ensuring it was thoroughly soaked, Kokichi started to wash off as much of the stickiness he could. to Ruffling Nagito’s hair, from gently washing his pale cheeks, which were now sprinkled with specks of rose, and finally gliding the cloth along Nagito’s clothes and hands.

A few things in Nagito’s mind had clicked into place after Kokichi had handled him with the care equal to that of a lover. Well, ironically, Nagito had caught feelings for his tiny little prankster brat of a friend. Was it a huge surprise? Not really, based on the track that Nagito was on.

Another piece of the puzzle had snapped: Kokichi was a a guy. That was something really to think about. Never had Nagito found men attractive, but…

Finally, the last, and most worrying puzzle piece out of them all: Kokichi wasn’t the only one he has fell for. His heart has become torn in that moment, with every day becoming more of a wrestling match to the death rather than a silly tug-of-war between feelings. The other side of his heart was unsure, and fell for another person that had lifted him up through his lowest lows, supporting him like a much needed pair of crutches when having a sprained ankle.

And that person, was you.

. . .

“Ok ok ok ok ok! Listen here you little damn shamrock you!” Kokichi huffed, now sitting back on the ground, leg crossed, “You and I both know that I have Park Place, right? Right! Now, my dear little clover, I want to make a deal with you, if you will?” Kokichi smirked with evil intent clear within his irises.

“Ooo! Deals! Nagi, I think you should listen to Kichi, making profitable partnerships is pretty much his specialty.” You giggled, basically becoming Kokichi’s personal little advocate. He let out a quick “Yeah, what she said!”, causing Nagito to laugh and nod, gesturing for an explanation of the deal.

“Well, personally, my little clover, I feel like we should team up, you know? We could completely dominate over sweet our little gumdrop over there, making them drop to their knees in submission to us. You know, I have a feeling you and I both would enjoy it...” Kokichi shuffled a little closer to the platinum blonde, voice dropping, “We could rule them over together, as equals, or even make them surrender if they ever have the chance-“

“Sure! Though, you should probably get out of jail first.” Nagito chuckled, making the other boy grumble.

“OH YOU-“

“Heeeeey! I wanna join in too! It sounds like you guys are having fun and stuff, while I’m all alone…” You puffed out your cheeks, sadness dripping in your voice.

Both of the boys shot up to look at your somewhat downcast features, and oh, how it wreaked their hearts in one fell swoop.

Kokichi automatically shot up from his position, puffing out his chest in preparation for a new speech.

“O-ok! New deal! We ALL join evil forces TOGETHER, and absolutely destroy the game with all of our property, while reaping in the greedy rewards of the capitalist regime!” Kokichi loudly proclaimed, chuckling at the end of his new deal.

You gasped, “Deal! Deal! Taking over a money-based board game with my two favorite people ever will always be a yes for me!” You laughed, smiling at the thought of the three of you taking over Hollywood streets with a pose of limos, while using bags stuffed with pure cash as weapons made it ten times funnier.

Kokichi smiled, resting his hands behind his head, “Yeah! Let’s end it here and just say that we kicked so much millionaire ass that we now have control over the whole economy!”

. . .

This is the second problem, Kokichi is so undeniably confused. About what? About himself. He was sure as all hell about how he felt about you, he always went soft and squishy for you, and not to mention he would be extra clingy when it had to do with you. Headpats? Common, and always appreciated. Cuddles? Been there, done that with you.

But, then there was Nagito. Kokichi would never say this out loud, but he thought that Nagito was so…pretty. And god, Kokichi was a huge sucker for pretty people. Though, once he realized that his feelings didn’t go to just one person, that’s when he started to panic.

He had to take in multiple things at once, trying to accept it all at once, but it was just so incredibly difficult. He has spent the whole entirety of his life to perfect the art of lying, and one thing that he learned constantly manipulated his own mind and thought process, tearing it into metaphorical shreds.

In order to pull out a lie that everyone can believe, you have to lie to yourself, and proclaim your own illusion of your truth.

Did Kokichi want to believe he was immensely attracted to Nagito, who just happened to be a guy? No, he really didn’t. It wasn’t normal.

Did Kokichi want to believe that he had fallen so fucking in love with two of his closest friends? Hell no. In society, you had to pick and choose, it’s one or the god damn other.

Right?

One night, all of these feeling and thoughts rushed into the boy’s conscious all at once, building immense pressure within his head and chest. Was this a nightmare, or-

Suddenly, his throat started to close up on him, making him gasp out in agony, wheezing on the covers of his bed, tears brimming at the corners of his eyes.

Instinct kicked in within the speed of light. Kokichi shakily reached over to his phone, grasping onto it, and quickly set up a group call. Almost immediately, the two people he was panicking over had picked up.

“Hello? Kokichi? Is there anything you need?” A raspy voice rang out. It seems as if Nagito was awoken by the sudden calling.

“Yeah, Kichi? Is there anything wrong?” You softly spoke through the phone. It calmed Kokichi a little just hearing the two of you guy so worried over him.

“I-I know It’s out of the blue-“ Kokichi gasped for air “B-but can you guys please come over?”

And oh boy, did you and Nagito get there in record time.

After just a mere ten minutes, you and Nagito were outside of Kokichi’s bedroom door, and the both of you could hear the desperate hiccups and gasps of your poor friend.

The both of you had no doubts, nor questions. You just wanted the struggling boy to feel safe.

“We’re coming in.” You said, affirming your actions with light knocking on the bedroom door.

When the both of you came face to face with a Kokichi with puffy red eyes, clutching his heaving chest, and thick tears rolling down his face, it felt like the both of you just got shot in the heart, the weight of it sinking down into the stomach, emitting a feeling that could only be described as pure pity. But the two of you automatically got to work.

Sooner rather than later, You and Nagito were cuddling Kokichi from either side, supporting him, as well as being his shield for protecting his small, delicate frame from his own cruel thoughts. You had started to run your fingers through Kokichi’s hair, causing his breaths to become fuller, and not nearly as hitched. Nagito also wanted to contribute in his own way, so he decided to mindlessly draw messy shapes and squiggles into Kokichi’s side, hoping that what he was doing would be of any help.

After only a mere five minutes, Kokichi had passed out from exhaustion, but the two of you kept on doing what you were doing, wanting for the boy in-between you two to have sweet dreams about all of what he desires all night long.

Kokichi has never let go of that memory, and never will for the rest of his life, and it’s a constant reminder on how much he had lied to himself. He actually wanted the truth out of something for once in his life, and that was how long it would be in order for the loves of his life to live without restraint of societal chains. Whenever it was, he would always be ready. Always, with arms as open as the horizon.

. . .

“Why in the world are we watching Big Hero 6 again? Didn’t we watch this, like, a month ago?” Kokichi trudged from the microwave, to the plush couch, bowl of buttered popcorn in hand.

“(Y/N) wanted to watch it, is there a problem?” Nagito tilted his head, holding the remote, about to press play. You were bouncing in anticipation, because this movie was just never a disappointment.

“Hm, well, I GUESS there’s nothing wrong with it….just don’t be surprised when you hear me snoring.” Kokichi huddled up beside you, placing the bowl of popcorn on you lap.

“I deem you the popcorn peacemaker! Your job is to make sure no one’s being a pig.” Kokichi snickered, while you giggled at your new role in life.

“Nagi? You like popcorn, right? Here!” You placed the bowl on his lap, causing him to smile.

“Hey, HEY! NO! That means I have to reach my WHOLE ARM over to to Lucky boy, JUST SO I CAN GET SOME POPCO-“

“Sh sh sh! The movie is starting!” You giggled, shushing the purple haired boy, while you heard a little chuckle from the white haired boy who was next to you.

. . .

The last problem was you. Your heart bubbled up in joy whenever you where around these boys, making your face erupt like a volcano whenever something slightly suggestive is aimed at you when it has to do with either one of them. You liked both of them, a lot, and you gave everything in order for the three of you to flourish in bountiful friendship. Yeah, that’s the problem, it was friendship.

Oh, how desperately you wished that everything could be easy! If life were like an infinite rolling of crashing waves, things would be flawless, predictable even. Unfortunately, life really likes to give you the short end of the stick, and this was honestly one of the shortest sticks someone like you would have never asked for. The loving of two men, both equally, and having an intense desire to treat them as lovers. What would they do as lovers? Where would they go as lovers? The questions and possibilities are endless…

The only time where you felt as if the friendship could’ve resembled anything somewhat romantic, was a summer evening trip to the beach.

The water was the perfect temperature, the ocean was as clear as glass, and the sand didn’t burn the soles of your feet. The boy’s were in their swimming trunks, having their own little fun. Nagito was afraid of getting to deep into the ocean, so you always stayed in the shallow end, trying to capture as many tiny fishes as you could with your bare hands.

Kokichi insisted that him and Nagito bury you in sand, leaving your head poking out of a sandy little cocoon. When the sun started to set, you got some supplies that you brought, and lit the fire that the group planned to create. Everyone gathered around it, cooking hot dogs on sticks, and crafting tasty s’mores that we fed each other.

One could say that that night might be the most casual and platonic friend trip ever, but something was off.

Everyone looked at each other differently that night. When looking into their eyes, it was oddly intimate. It was like all of the stars in the night sky reflected off their eyes conveyed so much...love.

That night, you felt so adored, so cherished and cultivated to the brim of your existence. You felt something, and maybe the other boy’s did too, but that feeling has changed your life.

Thanks to these stupid boys; These stupid boys that you’ve given so much to, you don’t think you could ever love any other.

One you’ve helped get out of a terrible degradation cycle, another you’ve helped to not lie to himself, and not as much to others.

And thanks to your down to earth humility, your heart has been stolen, and it was going to stay taken by those lovely, unique boys who have helped you out of so many ditches, and so many of life’s cracks and dents. God, how could you not fall?

Their lives were precious to you, but you had no idea how they would feel about an actual relationship, so you’ve always been terrified. Petrified and paralyzed to the bone to ever think of what may happen if you were the cause of the fracture of the friendship. You didn’t want to ruin something that has taken so long to build, yet can be torn all down due to a selfish desire.

But, maybe, just maybe, if they went to you first, confessed everything that was bottled up inside, dittoed on how you felt…

Then you might just be the luckiest person to live on this earth, there’s no doubt about that.

#danganronpa #danganronpa fanfiction #danganronpa x reader #danganronpa x y/n #nagito #nagito komaeda #nagito x reader #nagito x y/n #nagito komaeda x reader #kokichi #kokichi oma #kokichi x reader #kokichi x y/n #Kokichi Oma x reader #poly romance #nagito x kokichi #nagito x kokichi x y/n

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep14

Do you ever wanna just watch two little girls who are actually 100+ year old witches beat the absolute SHIT out of each other for 20 minutes straight? :)

Anyway, thoughts under the cut. Plus Umineko spoilers.

Part of this might just be because I’ve been high on painkillers for a few weeks now [long story short, I’ve got a lot of dental work that needs done], but this is perhaps the most entertaining episode of anime I’ve seen all year, lol. Not even in a jokey ironic ‘so bad it’s good’ way.

I feel like this is going to be the most polarizing episode of this whole show, because for better or worse it really crosses the line between Higurashi and Umineko, so whether or not you’re a fan of that whole trajectory the story’s been taking will really change how you feel about this.

Though to be honest I think on one level people are ignoring how Higurashi has always had a lot of these things in it. For one thing, the concept of the fragment space and ‘game boards’ has been a thing since Minagoroshi, and we’ve always had stuff like Hanyuu being a literal god who can manifest in the real world, and the existence of the mythical sword was hinted at in Matsuribayashi and then expanded upon in Kotohogushi. This episode also directly referenced the over the top rooftop fight scene from Tsumihoroboshi, which was just the start of Higurashi having lots of fun and silly fight scenes, like the fights between the club members and the military in Matsuribayashi, or the whole fighting game spin-off arc thing. Even in the VN there was an intentional shift from horror and mystery to high-octane fight scenes fueled by the power of friendship and miracles.

Obviously on the other hand there’s definite Umineko stuff going on here, but in general this feels like a pretty natural progression for this series to take.

Anyway, this was absolutely worth the wait, and it goes a long way toward making up for how bad the pacing in Sotsu has been thus far, lol. I still think they could have cut this down by at least two or three episodes, but still. As a climax to this whole conflict between Rika and Satoko, it was really cool.

Sort of like how Nekodamashi had it’s rollercoaster death montage, I really loved how this whole episode transitioned between fragments in increasingly seamless and surreal ways. The use of transition cuts between scenes was honestly really cool, and made it way more dynamic and engaging than it otherwise would have been to basically have an entire episode spent on one fight scene.

I think a lot of people are hung up on the exact logistics of how the fragment-hopping worked in this episode, but I don’t really think you should read into it too much. It basically operated on dream logic and heightened emotions. In the first few fragments Satoko might have waited a bit before attacking Rika, but it very quickly became one continuous sequence of events for all intents and purposes, with how their back and forth dialogue and their exact movements transitioned from one fragment to the next.

Basically it ended up becoming a fight between voyager witches who have become totally divorced from reality and just hop from one fragment to the next whenever they please.

I was wondering how they’d follow up on the gun scene, since it created this stalemate where they both know what’s going on and thus have no reason to surrender, but I really like how they decided to take this. I know a lot of people have been wanting more of a drawn out battle of wits between them, but the whole concept of them just getting into an endless fight with each other now that everything’s out in the open is extremely entertaining to watch.

It does make me even more convinced that it was a bad idea to have Nekodamashi happen in Gou, though. The immediate resolution to the cliffhanger was more anti-climactic than most people would have wanted after so much time spent leading back up to it, and the whole tone and pacing of Nekodamashi would have flowed very seamlessly into this. It also would have fixed the issue of the last two episodes being almost entirely recaps if this was instead the first time that we saw the Nekodamashi loops.

Anyway, there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not we might get a third season or some other kind of continuation to this, and I think this episode makes me way more convinced that it’s actually just going to end here, whether people like it or not. I think I’ve already said that there’s literally nothing the story needs to do anymore except have Rika and Satoko hash things out with each other, and that’s exactly what they’re focusing on now. Maybe they could spend time recapping Satokowashi, but that’d be extremely pointless. And at this point it’s pretty clear that one way or another the other club members just aren’t going to be very important to this story. There’s a bit of a loose end with their teenage selves showing up in the OP with new outfits, but that might be as simple as an epilogue scene set back in the Matsuribayashi fragment or something, and them looking ominous might be a red herring.

Also, in a more meta sense, there’s certain stuff the staff are doing and saying that make this seem like the finale of the whole series, like how in a couple months they’re going to release a congratulatory book compiling all the official artwork and interviews for Gou/Sotsu, or how they recently released a compilation CD of all of Ayane’s Higurashi-related songs, or how [I think] the artist for the Gou manga said on Twitter that the new chapter that just came out will be the last one to come out while the anime’s airing. We’re also getting two new Higurashi manga arcs starting soon, along with the reveal that the Gou manga will diverge from the anime and go into a new answer arc called Higurashi Jun.

So in general it just comes across like everything’s being wrapped up with Sotsu. I can see why people would be disappointed if we don’t get more, but with how the story’s been going, there’s just not really much material left to work with. Also, we know from TV listings that there at least won’t be a direct continuation in the next season, so if we get anything more it wouldn’t happen until January at earliest, and at this point I’d rather things just wrap up here instead of having to wait even longer to get the actual ending, lol.

I guess we won’t know how things will end until next week, but we really seem to be barrelling headfirst into this being Bern and Lambda’s origin story. Which has been pretty obvious for ages now, but this episode in particular really cements it. This whole fight is really similar to the one they have in Episode 8, and you can see throughout the episode how they’re embracing their looper/witch personas and becoming divorced from reality. You can even see the foundation for how Bern and Lambda have a twisted love for each other based on the fact that they’re basically the only people who can actually understand each other, and they’re so detached from reality that the violence between them is more like a sign of affection.

I feel like this is also going to end up tying into the miracle that Hanyuu is waiting for. At the moment we’re in a situation where it seems like they’re stuck in an infinite stalemate because they’re in a fight where neither of them wants to lose, but neither of them wants to win if it means permanently killing the other. So it seems like there might not really be any way out of this, but if they’re able to truly forgive each other and embrace their identities as witches, then they can basically step away from this entire conflict and just enjoy being with each other. It seems impossible for this to end with either of them ‘winning’ and things going back to how they used to be, so it could certainly be called a miracle if they both decide that they’re OK with that, and they take a third option where they can both be happy in a way that neither of them would have predicted at first.

This could also lead to a situation where Rika is able to ascend to a higher level by letting go of her human side once and for all, which could give her the ability to appear in the part of the fragment space where Eua and Hanyuu are, so she can save Hanyuu from getting killed by Eua’s spear.

And on that note, the whole bit with Hanyuu at the end actually reminds me a lot of the idea of logic errors in Umineko. I think people kinda over-use that term when it comes to stuff in this series where it doesn’t really fit, but that scene was actually extremely similar to the whole set-up where Battler got stuck in a locked room that he couldn’t come up with an answer to get out of, and he had to wait for the ‘miracle’ of Beatrice awakening so that Kanon could arrive and save him. Hanyuu is in a position where she’s already committed to flying straight at Eua, but the spear is right in front of her face and about to kill her once time starts again, and she has to wait for a ‘miracle’ to happen to change her fate. Which is also a lot like how in Matsuribayashi she almost got shot by Takano, but a miracle happened and Rika was able to divert the bullet. So it’d make a lot of sense in general if in the next episode we see Rika show up there and save Hanyuu.

And considering how Featherine acts in Umineko, I could honestly see Eua sticking to her word and rewarding Hanyuu if a miracle like that actually happens and saves her. So even if it’s anti-climactic, this might end with Eua accepting her loss and backing off, and maybe not even doing anything to punish Satoko for losing in her fight against Rika. Which is part of why I think the whole lingering threat of the ‘world without Rika’ might not even lead to anything and might just be a vague threat towards Satoko that never materializes.

Other than that, I think the last episode will probably also involve us going back to Matsuribayashi and seeing what sort of ending Rika and Satoko’s ‘human selves’ get once their ‘witch selves’ leave them behind once and for all. Which will probably just be along the lines of Rika going to the Saiguden to check up on Satoko, and them heading over to the cafe where the other club members [and probably Satoshi as well] are waiting for them, and it’ll just end on the note of them presumably working things out between each other peacefully.

Along those same lines, I think that the whole story of Gou/Sotsu will also get somewhat recontextualized as being a sort of deranged power fantasy that Satoko came up with in her head while visiting the Saiguden. I don’t think that’d be intended to devalue anything that happened here, but it’d be like how Umineko presents enough narrative framework for a non-magical interpretation of everything, while at the same time still acknowledging the value of the magical interpretation.

While I remember, I’m curious to see how the manga version turns out, since it’s clearly diverging a fair bit from the anime. It might just be an alternate take on the story concept, but at this point I think it might be presented as an ‘earlier loop’ of Gou/Sotsu, with how it’s been implied that Eua and Satoko have met before without Satoko remembering it. So maybe this whole series of events has repeated over and over again, presumably with Satoko ‘losing’ each time so things get reset, and Gou/Sotsu is the final iteration of that loop where they’re finally able to achieve a miracle.

I feel like the manga version is probably gonna end up being closer to what people wanted out of Sotsu, since it seems to be going in the direction of Rika knowing everything without Satoko knowing that, so they can have more of a drawn out conflict between each other as Rika tries to figure out how to win. Which is one way to take the story, but I still like how the anime ended up doing it, even if it could have been paced a lot better. I also think that the manga isn’t exactly a straight improvement over the anime anyway. There’s stuff it does well, but there’s stuff it doesn’t do well, like how the whole Nekodamashi arc feels extremely weird in the context of Rika not remembering her deaths [or at least not being given a clear reason for why she can suddenly remember them], her not deciding to go for five more loops before killing herself, and Satoko apparently not having any idea about Rika remembering her deaths, which seems to defeat the point of Nekodamashi’s rapid-fire death loops.

Either way I’m curious to see how Jun goes. I assume that we’ll still get some version of Satokowashi out of it, but I think that unlike with Sotsu they’ll spend much less time on answering the damashi arcs, and I also think at this point that the answers to them won’t be exactly the same as they were in the anime either.

Also, we recently found out that two entirely new Higurashi manga arcs will start in November, called Oniokoshi and Hoshiwatashi, which seem to be collectively referred to as Higurashi Rei, using the kanji from ‘the Reiwa era’, since it seems like the idea of these new arcs is that they take place in the Reiwa era. Oniokoshi seems to be about Keiichi’s son and a new mysterious character, while Hoshiwatashi seems to be about two entirely new characters, so I’m really curious to see how their stories pan out. I’m particularly excited about Oniokoshi since it’s being drawn by Natsumi Kei, who’s basically the primary artist for the Umineko manga, so that kinda makes me biased towards it, lol. And even though there’s basically nothing to go off of except for one preview image, it looks like it might go in a bit of a gay direction, which would be really neat. But we’ll see how it goes.

So yeah, I guess at this point with where things are going I’m gonna be really disappointed if we don’t get something like an Umineko remake after this, lol. It wouldn’t be very satisfying if it just ends on the note of ‘go and read the Umineko VN’ or something.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu

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laurelleghuleh · 4 years ago

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OCAF | Ch. 16 "Right-hand man"

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: read the masterlist first, additional notes at the end of the chapter

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Two troublesome adults trying to figure out how to properly communicate and work together. A lot of talking. Long chapter. Suggestion for a drink game: take a shot every time Levi tells Daphne to go back to sleep lol

𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬: “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” by Tame Impala, “Beautiful Crime” by Tamer, “I Love You, But I Need Another Year” by Liza Anne.

LEVI’S POV

“Where? If I’m allowed to ask, Captain.”

“The Underground.”

Daphne's eyes aimed at my lips obsessively. Her dark pupils frantically ran from one side of my mouth to the other, as if wondering where that word had come from. Have I really just said the Underground?

Her voice dropped to a whisper when she told me when she told me “Levi, please, don't joke with me…”

“Do I look like someone who wants to joke?” I remarked, but she still looked quite disoriented. Apparently, I needed to explain myself a bit better.

“Erwin gave me more days off to fully recover. As we speak, hundreds of citizens are descending into the Underground due to the breach. The situation must be kept under control. And we'll go on patrol…” I paused for a few seconds, trying to read her expression, “ And see what's going on with your sisters.”

Her head slightly tilted back as a tiny gasp left her mouth.

“What?? But-but wouldn't it be better if I went to help Eren and-?” she babbled.

“Are you by any chance a titan-shifter? Do you secretly possess the hardening technique, perhaps?” I thundered.

She just pouted in response and lowered her gaze.

“Yeah, exactly. Therefore, you are absolutely useless right now. Only Eren can close the breach.”

“But-”

“Are you Eren Yeager? The professional fifteen-years-old pain in the ass?”

“No, fuck, I get it! But-” Daphne tried to object.

“Say another but and I'll let you rot down here, understood?”

After all, I guess I’m always the same: a coldhearted, messy captain who really has no half-measures.

My threat seemed to have had quite the right opposite effect I had hoped for just looking at the way her lips immediately curled into a shy smile. Two tiny dimples shaped at the sides of the mouth and her nose slightly wrinkled.

I couldn’t stand that face much longer and when I opened my mouth to speak again, my voice got unexpectedly softer. “However, it’s up to you. If you want to go and knit a net for the breach or just cheer for the kid, go. You’re still in time. Otherwise-”

“No.” Daphne firmly said, looking at me now straight in the eyes. “I want to stay with you. I mean, come with you. To the Underground .”

Then, she averted her gaze. “So, are we really going back?”. Her voice sounded so innocent, so helpless, like a little girl who could finally have her damn ice cream after dinner.

I nodded in response, without getting lost in further explanations.

Her mouth puckered and then opened in a twitchy “Thanks, Levi”. My chest suddenly tightened and all I could do was sigh and nod again, wordlessly.

A coldhearted, messy captain.

“There’s a cot in that cell, now sleep,” I ordered her, tilting my head in the direction of that tiny old room, right next to the priest’s. She immediately took a quick look at the cell, then eyed me again. She didn’t seem pleased, nor irritated, but her expression had definitely changed in a matter of seconds.

“Isn’t it funny, Levi? It’s been a while, but… Things haven’t changed at all. You still don’t trust me, do you?”

Yeah, it really felt like we were only going backward. No matter how hard I was trying not to perceive her as that night’s thief anymore, it still felt like nothing had really changed.

“It seems like you already know the answer to that question… ” I told her.

“Yeah, for the record it’s called rhetorical question …” she pointed out, walking towards the cell only to come out of it a second later, armed with a chair and an unmovable decision.

Daphne positioned herself right in front of the priest’s cell, next to the chair from which I was supposed to keep an eye on both of them. Once seated, she crossed her arms and legs and started bumping her foot on that old pavement in anticipation. I knew what she was up to.

What a brat.

“You’re going to fall asleep anyways,” I said as I took my position next to her, “Stop it already and go-”

“I’m not tired,” Daphne argued. A stubborn brat, as always, I thought.

“So, what’s the plan, Captain?”

“Drop the Captain .” I hissed.

“Alrighty, Levi … Listen, if I have to be your right-hand man or whatever you wanna call it, I need some more information, don’t you think? Otherwise, I really don’t know how to help you.”

“I’m going to explain everything you need to know tomorrow.” I cut off the conversation. I could sense her eyes rolling without even looking at her. The sigh she made in response got on my nerves beyond belief.

“Always so impatient I see…” I remarked, “Don’t worry, we have plenty of time to discuss the plan,” Then I added, low and deadly, “ And everything else that needs to be discussed between us. ”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” her voice trembled.

“Did you really think you could get away with that a million reasons why crap without a proper explanation?”

At that point, I guessed she had figured what I was referring to. I wasn’t still over her little tantrum in my office a few days before. I needed to know more.

After a quick moment of pure fear, she came back with another of her unrequested snarky comments: “Being so persistent doesn’t suit your age and title, Captain. Give up on that already. That was all I had to tell you.”

“We’ll see about that,” I promptly replied, “You should know by now that I always have my ways to get what I want.”

I could distinctly hear her gulp at the sound of my little tease.

“Anyways, I’ve told you we’ll go back to the Underground. Therefore, we’ll go back. Full stop.”

“It’s just that I don’t understand why!” Her voice suddenly rose, “Why are you helping me at this point? Just why! Don’t you hate me? You don’t even trust me, then how can you bring me back there-”

I didn’t give her the chance to finish that sentence properly when I turned in her direction, halting her just with my dangerous proximity.

“You’re right, I don’t trust you.” I hissed, “In fact, the only thing you need to know and get into that head of yours, for now, is this. So pay attention,” Her eyes widened, “You have already betrayed my trust. Twice . I dare you to try it a third time and see what happens, Daphne .”

That sounded like a threat. Indeed it was. But also, an outright lie. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her. I just didn’t trust her bad decisions. I still had faith in her.

At the sound of my words, her expression got unexpectedly darker, her nostrils wide, her mouth just a thin line.

“Then, why the fuck are you trying to help me?” she spoke through her teeth, staring back at me, furiously.

“Because I want to. Is that so hard for that shitty brain of yours to understand?”

No half measures .

She stared at me, wordlessly, for a moment. Maybe she was digesting my words, or maybe just thinking about what to say next. Then, her shoulders relaxed and her head rocked from side to side, snickering. A slow, smug grin found her lips.

“Always so aggressive, so defensive , Levi…” she teasingly spoke, “I preferred when you were nice to me.” and then crossed her legs and looked away.

Me too , I thought, but all I could say was “If you behave,”

“Suuure, Captain. I’m at your orders,” a hint of sarcasm painted her tone. “But let me ask you this, since it seems like around the Survey Corps everything has its but , its price… What’s yours? What’s the catch here?”

“I’ve already told you that I just want to help you. It’s as simple as that.” I stated, my voice firm. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her submissively nod in response. But still, why was that so hard for her to get?

I might have gone way too far with my mind, but at that point, a thought occurred to me. A candid, yet legitimate one. It actually was that hard for Daphne to get that someone wanted to simply help her without asking her for anything back. Her body, her time, or even just a little favor. Most likely, that thought was what had truly remained hidden behind that smart mouth of hers.

“This has nothing to do with what happened between us,” I clarified, “Do whatever you want with that memory. I just want to be of help. No but , no price, nothing like that… I do have a request , though.”

She snorted. “Yeah, yeah, I know, you don’t have to tell me. No running away, no funny business, no-”

“ That goes without saying ,” my voice dropped down into another slight severe threat. “My only request is… Don’t have any expectations about it. About your sisters, about what you’ll see down there. You still don’t know what’s going on, so whatever that is… Don’t let it affect you.”

Her face was still facing the wall before us, but I could vividly picture her expression at that moment. Soon after, a small nod signaled to me she had understood my words. Or at least, I hoped so. Then, there was just silence.

Hours dragged on quite easily in that stillness, and with time Daphne’s eyelids started to slowly fall down. If it wasn’t for her pride, she would have fallen asleep even earlier. And eventually, she did. Her head fell forward and her neck soon followed, arching unnaturally in the same direction.

Without even looking at her, I used my hand to guide her head on my shoulder, so that she could sleep in a less weird position. I did it without thinking about it too much. Naturally. As soon as her body found mine, Daphne unconsciously adjusted herself on my shoulder, brushing her head against my jacket, looping her arm around mine.

“Hey brat, I’m not a pillow, you know,” I was about to say, but something just told me to shut the fuck up for once.

Her hand grasped the fabric around my forearm, pushing herself a little closer to me. The rest of her body followed as she molded against me. Her proximity was as risky as it sounds. I should have woken her, I should have done something… But I decided to indulge myself that little moment. The priest was sound asleep and the night was my accomplice. Nobody had to know.

I just kept looking forward, unmoving, in silence.

That was until something humid drew my attention back on her after a while of me completely spacing out. She was literally drooling on my shoulder. Tch .

I tilted my head forward and started to blot that bit of saliva from the corner of her mouth while she seemed to be still lost in her dreams. If that were anyone else, I would have just been grossed out. Apparently that time I wasn’t, not even in the slightest, not even close. The scene just made me internally laugh. She just looked so… How do I put this… Ad-NEVER MIND.

That light touch on her lips seemed to disturb her sleep and a low grumble escaped her.

“You were drooling…” I whispered, my hand still ghosting beside her mouth.

At the sound of my voice, Daphne brandished the most childish smile I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life. She giggled, still half asleep, and then completely caught me off guard when her head moved upwards, enough for our cheeks to brush one against the other. The contact made my knees weak, my mind spin, my pride almost crumble.

“You won. ‘Night.” She clumsily worded, just an inch away from my ear, enough to warm up my sensitive skin with her hot breath, enough to make my skin crawl.

She lifted herself up from the chair, wobbling with her feet from side to side, our bodies still connected as she leant against me for support. On her way up, her lips unintentionally brushed the outline of my cheekbone, sending shivers down my spine. I chewed my cheek as hard as I could and just watched her walk away and then lie down on the cot.

Sleep has never come easily for me, let alone that night.

When the morning finally came, first I arranged our departure, then woke both the priest and Daphne, and together we left the district in a short time. Inside the carriage that was bringing us back to Trost, the air was thick with disquiet and frustration. As for me, I already knew what kind of fuckeries I was about to face once at the military barracks. In addition to that, I couldn’t sleep a wink because of Daphne, and her impatient fidgeting didn’t seem to lessen during the trip. Seated next to me, she kept looking outside the carriage, drumming her feet on the floor, and sighing from time to time.

On the other hand, I couldn’t help but wonder if another interrogation would have made that damn priest open that filthy mouth of his. During the whole time, he looked like a mad man, his eyes opened wide, his forehead tense, his hands shaking on top of his knees.

I still don’t know who looked less insane among us three.

Anyways, I know I’m not one to talk about manners, but when we arrived at Trost, the military’s welcome was way worse than I expected. Unpleasant, to use a euphemism. Irritating, to be a bit more realistic.

Shortly after our arrival, we were received by the head of that district, a commander whose name was and still is among the least of my concerns. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to refer to him as “Shitty Commander”.

So, once in front of Shitty Commander’s desk, inside his obnoxiously big office, two of his guards approached our little trio and tried to take the priest away. I instantly reacted.

“That wasn’t part of our deal.”

“First off, I made a deal with Commander Smith, not with you , Captain Levi. Second, our barrack, our rules.” Shitty Commander said as the men exited the room dragging the priest away. “Don’t get all worked up, Captain, we’re going to take good care of him.”

Yeah, sure. The idea alone of leaving the priest in those assholes’ hands made my blood boil, but we didn’t have any other alternative. Pastor Nick didn’t want to talk, therefore the jail was his only option.

“Whatever. Can we leave now?” I asked, not even trying to hide how annoyed I was.

“Not so fast. C’mon, you’ve just arrived, Captain,” Shitty Commander mischievously told me, “You can’t leave just now. This kind of situation requires some bureaucracy, you know that, right? Also, I’d like to confer with you…”

“I already see a bunch of lazybones here that could make themselves of some use,” my bad temper spoke on my behalf, “You have enough hands to sign those papers.”

“Mind your words, Captain,” I heard the voice of a police officer coming from the left, but I couldn’t care less.

“Don’t make this even harder than it already is, okay? First, that soldier behind you must leave,” Shitty Commander demanded, way too arrogantly for my liking. “This conversation is strictly confidential.”

“She’s my second-in-command,” I sternly declared, “Whatever you have to tell me, she stays.”

“She must leave.”

“What part of she stays was unclear? The she or the stays ?” I snapped.

“How dare you-” that soldier on my left tried to speak again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I had seen a hand move forward, right in my direction, but nothing ever came. My reflexes weren’t fast enough to catch that, but apparently, someone’s were. Daphne, who had been silently witnessing the whole conversation from behind my back, had already made her move before I could even realize it.

Her arm instinctively stretched forward and stopped that soldier from coming any closer to me. Her hold was now strongly tightened around that officer's wrist, his hand an inch away from my arm, his feet fidgeting, poorly trying to advance.

“You bitch, let go-” he tried to protest and that was enough for me to stop that situation from getting any worse. We had already lost too much time for my liking.

I slightly rotated my head in Daphne’s direction, giving her a quick understanding look. Her eyes were now fixed on the officer, silently fighting his words back, burning a hole in his face just with her fiery gaze. Then, lowering her hand and moving it away from that filthy officer, I took her out of that room with me, dragging her by the wrist.

“Oi, careful, my wrist, ouch-” she complained as we rushed out the door. Once in the hallway, I immediately let go of her.

“Listen, let’s just give them what they want. I think I can handle a bunch of stupid questions about Erwin and our last failed mission,” I started to say as she fixed her jacket, “In the meantime, go and see if you can find where they have brought that damn priest. Try downstairs. If they ask you something, tell them you’re following my direct orders. I’ll come and find you as soon as I’m done here…”

She only nodded and then silently turned her heels.

“Be careful…” I told her before going back inside Shitty Commander’s office.

“You too.” I heard her say from a distance.

In the afternoon, hours and hours later, I was freed by those assholes and I finally had time to join Daphne. When I found her in the barrack’s jail - as I expected - , the scene I witnessed was priceless. She was standing still in front of the priest’s cell, arms crossed, jaw locked, forehead furrowed, completely absorbed in a staring contest with a police officer right before her. Priceless. It almost made me laugh.

As soon as she sensed my presence, Daphne left her opponent and simply joined me outside. Walking down the hallways, we updated each other about the past few hours. We almost looked like two perfect allies.

I was previously authorized by the Shitty Commander to use their offices and documentation for my - well, our - personal research. I knew they had the information we needed for our little mission in the Underground. But before we could reach the room we were heading to, Daphne halted right in the middle of that corridor.

“What is it now?” I asked her, visibly annoyed, and I turned around to face her. She stayed silent, completely still as she stared at someone on the other side of the courtyard.

“Nothing…” She spoke after a while, “I thought I saw someone I know… But that’s not possible. That’s not possible, right?”

My head tilted. “Someone you know? Here?” I asked, walking close to her.

“Nevermind, I probably got confused-” She murmured as she tried to step forward.

“Tell me where to look,” I ordered, positioning myself right in front of her body and preventing her from moving any further.

She looked rather reluctant at first but eventually neared and closed the gap between us. Then, Daphne grabbed me by the collar and pretended to fix the ascot around my neck as her fingers gently ran between the fabric and my skin.

In that tiny space between us, she started to slowly guide my gaze with her words, whispering, “The opposite side of the courtyard. The group of officers. The man on the right. Tall. Broad shoulders. Grizzled hair and a deep scar on his jaw.”

In all fairness, that little set-up was rather distracting, but I tried to stay focused and analyze the scene behind her shoulder. “I don’t think I know him,” I murmured, “Never seen him before. But I know the man on his left. A douchebag.”

“I don’t know, Levi, he just looks so familiar… A scar like that is hard to forget,” she said, quite concerned, “But that’s impossible, right?”

“Maybe just an officer who used to patrol the Underground?” I suggested.

“I know their faces like the palm of my hand… But I don’t know, maybe… ” she shook her head, “Yeah, I’m probably mistaken, let’s-let’s just forget about it for now,”

“Wait-” I tried to stop her, but she quickly pulled me by the collar and murmured a centimeter away from my mouth, “I said forget it, Levi.”

I peered down at her, my eyes automatically fell on her lips, and she noticed it. We were so damn close, but, as always, that wasn’t the right place, nor the right time.

Daphne cleared her throat and patted my chest, signaling me she was done with the ascot. I nodded in response and guided her with my hand on the small of her back as we turned around the corner.

I took a quick mental note of that. She could have been mistaken, sure, but she could have also been right and simply not able to connect the dots on the spot. Officers, especially the ones from Trost, were always involved in some twisted shit - only the heavens know what.

Once finally inside an abandoned, moldy office, we started to leaf through maps and documents and set up our agenda for the next few days. Daphne looked at all that stuff as if she had just found a sacred treasure. Her Holy Grail. As we were both scanning the Underground’s map, another thought hit me. If she only had had that type of documentation earlier, she could have done so much more to help her family.

“So, this is the spot where you jumped to last time…” I started to say, giving her a quick angry look.

“Yeah, my bad…” She murmured, anxiously rubbing her nape.

“Anyways,” I moved my index over the map, traveling through the path we had followed last time again. “Here is the brothel. And over there…” I traced my finger on the right, just a few streets away from the mansion, “This is where we’re going to stay for the next few days.”

A big, invisible, question mark appeared all over Daphne’s face.

“I’ve already sent a letter to an old friend of mine. If he’s still alive, everything will be settled by our arrival. It’s just a hovel, really, but more than enough for our needs. It’s the place where I used to live with Farlan and Isabel… I guessed wherever you used to stay wasn’t safe for us given that we’re trying to go undercover, not to catch any attention, stuff like that.”

“Makes sense…” Daphne mumbled, then clicked her tongue and looked up at me, “You really thought this through, didn’t you?”

“Just had a lot of free time recently.” I replied, averting my gaze.

“Yeah, sure… Listen, again, I really appreciate this I-just-want-to-help-you thing, but let’s get one thing straight. I know I’m not in the position to talk, but just know that I want to have a word in this. I won’t let you boss me around or take decisions by yourself, Levi. We are in this together, ok? Cooperation? Teamwork? Do these words sound familiar to you?”

“Don’t push your luck, girl.”

She slightly rolled her eyes and right when her gaze found the map again, something unknown glittered in her eyes.

“Hey, quick question, when did you leave the Underground exactly?”

“Mmh… I wouldn’t say a decade, but definitely a while ago. Five, six years ago. I think I lost track of time… Why?” I asked her out of curiosity.

“No, it’s just that…” She seemed to ponder her answer for a few seconds, then pointed at the map and said, “Look. Look how close we used to live… Are you sure you have never seen me before?”

“I think I would remember a girl like you.” My quick response took her by surprise and a little reddish fog suddenly painted her cheeks.

“Emh, I-I mean… I was literally t-there,” she stuttered, “Are you sure you’ve never come to the brothel? Or even close? I promise I won’t judge-”

“No.” I don’t really like where this conversation is going…

“Not even for a bet? Not even a friend-” she asked again, but I immediately interrupted her.

“I’m not very fond of brothels.” I stated with control.

“Yeah… You don’t seem like that type actually. At least, you got morals… ” Daphne said almost whispering. There I couldn’t help but confess.

“No, because I was born in a brothel.”

Here we go , I thought.

“What…” she hissed between her teeth.

“My…” I took a deep breath, “My mum used to work in a brothel. We… I….” I was about to add something else, not even sure about what to say exactly. Luckily for me, at that point, someone burst into the room.

“Captain Levi, here you are. Premier Zachary has just arrived. He’s asking for you. I need you to come with me, sir.” The soldier said, with a tone I didn’t quite like. And yet I had just been saved from the only conversation I had been avoiding having with Daphne since the very beginning.

I sighed and rapidly glanced at her as I walked towards the door. Her face was still facing down on the map, still processing my words, stiff and silent. Just a moment before closing the door, I told her:

“Gather the maps and… Just wait. Please.”

Please .

DAPHNE’S POV

I don’t know how much time had passed, I was just there, thinking, completely spacing out as my gaze and my thoughts wandered through the alleys drawn on the map. At some point, I collected the documents and exited the room, almost unconsciously. Then, I leaned my back against the door and just waited. I waited there.

After a while, a pair of dark boots appeared next to mine and a soothing voice called out for me. Levi . He didn’t say much more and simply beckoned me to follow him. We walked upstairs and right in front of a door, the Captain drew a pair of keys out of his pocket and suspiciously opened it.

Behind it, a small, shabby room appeared. The atmosphere was screaming “austerity” with its dark-wooden floor and those bare walls. There was barely enough space for the furniture: only two cots, a meter or so away from one another, and a night table right underneath an old, wrecked window. Nothing more, nothing less.

It really looks like a cell… Wait . What the fuck is happening? Is this my cell? Is he for real now??

I rapidly glanced at him. I was this close to snapping, but before I could say something Levi turned and moved his eyes around the room with a disgusted look.

“They told me this or the prison downstairs with that damn priest,” He said, interrupting my rambling thoughts. “ Tch . I guess beggars can’t be choosers… ”

“Oh…” So, that’s not my cell, I thought as we stepped in. It’s our cell.

Levi plopped himself down on one of the two beds, sighed deeply, and threw me a blanket that was folded next to him. I caught it on the fly as he spoke again:

“Those pricks made us lose way enough time today. Let’s just sleep and wake up early tomorrow. Please, don’t be a pain in the ass and just obey this time, alright? Will you do this for me?”

I instinctively pouted at his command and murmured as I suited myself on my bed: “ You are a pain in the ass.”

“Excuse me, what??”

“Sleep tight, Captain.” I cut off the conversation, ironically.

He didn’t argue, completely worn out by that long, exhausting day. I guessed appeasing all sides, compromising, trying to be as tactful as possible, all the while dealing with those assholes, wasn’t the ideal type of day for Levi. But still, as soon as I rested my head on that old pillow, I knew that was going to be just another long, restless night.

It didn’t pass long until a haunting thought suddenly occurred to me. We were there, alone, in that almost pitch black. Us two, alone. And I couldn’t seem to sleep a wink.

“Because I was born in a brothel”, “I was born in a brothel”, “I was born”, “In a brothel”

I was so tired and shocked I couldn’t even bring myself to ask him anything directly. I was just there thinking and thinking, twisting and turning in that tiny blanket.

And right when I thought I was sound asleep, a couple of hours later probably, I started to hear strange noises coming from Levi’s bed. After a while, all those tiny moans and laments rose dramatically into a final, long, agonizing scream and my body instinctively moved in his direction, reaching his bed in a matter of seconds. The cry was so gruff he sounded literally in pain.

I couldn’t see much but as soon as I positioned myself beside him, I sensed his body quite close to mine. Closer than expected. He was sitting on the bed, panting, and as soon as he felt me, he immediately grabbed me. His hug was tight and desperate, his fingers were piercing my shirt as they sank, skewered the fabric, his forehead pressed against my shoulder, his breath labored.

I called out his name, low and gingerly, but it took a while before he finally came back to his senses.

“Levi, are you okay?”

He was still panting uncontrollably when he held me even closer at the sound of my voice. His skin felt burning hot. I could even feel the sweat dampening his clothes.

“Levi, can you hear me?” I asked him, “Hey, what’s going on?”

A couple of other deep breaths, then his grip eventually loosened. His head slightly moved away from my shoulder, but his breath felt still so close when I heard him say, his voice hoarse from shouting: “Go back to sleep.”

“Hey. No. C’mon Levi. What happened?”

His thick swallow vibrated in the small space between us.

“Just a nightmare, go back to your bed.” he grunted.

There was a moment of silence. I wasn’t sure which was the right way to approach him at that moment. So, I only got closer, my tone as gentle as possible, as if I didn’t want to disturb him: “Okay… Do you want me to go get you a glass of water? Something to-”

“No.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Levi,”

Silence.

“It will make you feel better… Was it that scary?”

“It was just a nightmare. I said go to sleep.” he harshly added as he squeezed my hand on top of the mattress, trapping it inside his. From the grasp, I could tell he was still shivering.

But again, the silence between us boomed in the room and all I could do was ponder what to do, or whether to even say anything else. Should I leave him alone or stay? The answer came quick, unexpectedly natural. If there was anything clear for me at that point was that, whether he liked it or not, I would have stayed by his side. None of his threats or insults would have made me step back.

“And what happened in this nightmare?”

Silence.

“Someone died.”

“Someone you care for?” I whispered.

“Yes.” The saddest yes I had ever heard.

“You saw them dying or-”

“She was already dead.”

“ She … ”

“I thought that was my mum,” he confessed, his voice gruff, “I was in her room, like the day I found her dead.” he paused. “I thought it was just a memory.” another pause. “But this time there was someone else in her place.”

One of my hands was still trapped in his tight hold when I brought the other one over his, gently rubbing his skin as I figured what to say next. He didn’t protest, didn’t flinch.

“You know, dreams are just… Confused elaboration of our subconscious. Messages, mixed memories, or simply images,” I started to say and his thumb on my wrist started to move in sync with my little massage. At that point I didn’t know anymore who was comforting whom.

“Maybe your subconscious is just trying to tell you something about that person you dreamt of. How you feel about… Her.” his thumb halted, and so did my hand.

What if that person was…

I tried to change the subject at the sudden realization.

“Anyways, Miss Martha once told me that if you dream of someone's death, you give them five additional years of life. This person must be very lucky…”

Silence, again.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. It was just a dream, Levi, okay?”

He just hummed.

“How are you feeling now?” I asked him, trying to find his face in that pitch black. Just a vague, dark outline of a head, a couple of centimeters away from me.

“Better. Now, go back to sleep, please .”

“If you need anything, I’m right there. You just have to ask, alright?”. There was so much I wanted to add and I could feel my thoughts rushing up against my tongue, but my mouth instinctively closed. I needed not to repeat my past errors, I needed to draw a line and never cross it again.

“Thanks… ” his voice trembled.

That word was enough to encourage me to go back and sleep. But there another question suddenly rose in my mind.

“Hey Levi, one last thing…”

“Yeah?”

“Are we… Are we good?” My voice small.

“Otherwise why would I be helping you, dumbass?” He was definitely back to his senses.

“Right, right…” I quickly replied, almost laughing.

Until that specific moment my brain didn’t seem to fully grasp that reality. Going back to the Underground wasn’t an easy task for Levi, for anyone who had been lucky enough to get out of it. Still, he had decided to help me, to ask Erwin who knows what kind of favor and to get himself involved in all that shit again. Just for me. And yet, I kept making everything even harder for him.

I felt guilty. I felt so many things and I needed to say something.

“Speaking of which, Levi… I am sincerely grateful for what you’re doing for me. I really am…” A sharp sigh interrupted me. I was once again dancing on that thin line I had drawn in my mind. I was dangerously on its limit.

The pitch dark of the room, the proximity, the intimacy of that tiny room seemed to make me unexpectedly braver, more candid, ultimately vulnerable.

“I don’t want to argue anymore. I promise I won’t complain or make things harder for you. I won’t run away, I promise. I won’t mess things up this time, I promise. I-”

At that point, I had completely lost control over my words. My foot started to swing on the other side of that imaginary line, never landing on the ground, and yet I could already feel the void beneath it, the vertigo knotting my stomach.

“I just want to be by your side, Levi. Please, don’t push me away…”

The vertigo.

“I… I just want us to get along. That’s all. Can we do that?”

“If that’s what you want…” Levi finally replied.

“So, we good?”

I probably sounded way too naive, way too impulsive. The same old emotional girl that from time to time got on his nerves.

All of a sudden, Levi’s hand reached out and found my hair. As he playfully, yet gently stroked my head, he murmured: “Yeah, we good, don’t worry,”

His fingers slowly moved down and pushed a loose strand of my hair away behind my ear, as his lips silently lended close by. “Please, do as I told you and go back to sleep. I’m not thinking straight right now…”

When the light fog of his words settled on my earlobe, my mouth instinctively opened, shivering in anticipation as his name shaped through her teeth. His lips lingered over my neck for a while, his breath heating my skin as his hand ran down my arm.

I swallowed thickly, my eyes unfocused somewhere in the dark… Then, I heard him chuckle. When I realized what was going on, I snapped at him: “Do you think that’s funny?”

“What? You are allowed to mess with me whenever you want and I’m not, huh?”

“That’s- I don’t-” I tried to object.

“You’ve been messing with me from the very first day we met. Tell me, do you really want to deny it?”

“Well, you didn’t seem to despise it either.” I teased him back.

“Never said that, dear .” Levi whispered, lightly patting on my shoulder as if he was dismissing me. So, I simply obeyed and made my way back to the bed.

After a while of just lying in silence and staring at that dark ceiling, I called his name in the dark.

“Levi?”

“Yeah?”

“What was your mum’s name?”

He took his time before actually answering me, then sweetly whispered a name. His voice had never sounded as tender as that.

“Kuchel…”

“ Kuchel … That’s a lovely name.”

I kept that name in my mouth for a while, trying to guess her features. I imagined her as charming and magnetic as Levi. I thought I could see her in my mind: her dark hair and piercing eyes, high and sharp cheekbones, a mesmerizing aura.

“...And what was she like?” I dared to ask again. He didn’t seem to complain about that additional question, but again, he made me wait for his reply.

“Selfless. Indeed selfless. Way too selfless.” Levi said, his words sounded bitter this time.

“...And caring. A kind soul,” His tone softened.

“...And beautiful.”

“I bet she was…” I was only able to say. And Levi didn’t add anything else.

“I’m a woman of my word, so… Goodnight, Levi.”

“Night, Daphne.”

Now, we are good. Kinda.

𝐀/𝐍:

Hi readers! Finally, I’m back (but not better lol)! Honestly, I still haven’t had enough time to correct the previous chapters, but I wanted to make something clear. From now on, I’m going to use they/them pronouns for Hange (and I’ll change them in the previous chapters as well). If you want to know more about it, I can suggest a couple of official sources or threads on twitter and tumblr where this topic is better clarified. I know Isayama prefered to not specified their gender, that an editor said that “it’s up to the reader/watcher”, I know that the anime mostly chose female pronouns but also made some “ambiguous” choices in terms of honorifics, I know that enby ppl strictly using they/them is just a stereotype (they can also use and accept he/they/she), I know this is just a fanfiction, I know they are fictional characters, I know, I know. However. I think they/them pronouns simply better represent the character. I hope it's all clear, if not lmk. Hope you’re all good and safe, until next time, Laurelle.

#levi fanfiction #levi x oc #aot fanfiction #levi x reader #captain levi #ocaf #read on ao3 #read on wattpad #fanfic

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chere-indolente · 4 years ago

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𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒈

Thank you to @twentiethcenturysims for tagging me, it’s my first tag game :)) ! Rules: answer the questions and tag 9 people you want to get to know better

𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐬 : I think it’s called periwinkle blue in english (the color doesn’t have a name in french), it’s been so since I was little but now I’m more into certain color pairings than any specific color 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 : On simblr I’m part way through @pixelnrd’s legacy and I got a lot more decade legacies bookmarked to read. In terms of books I’ve started Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf a few days ago, I always love her writting style, it’s like the narration is fluttering about and twirling you around, but that also means it takes me ages to read her books, I need full concentration (+ I’m a slow reader anyway). I wish I knew more authors with this kind of style (maybe Proust ? I have only read Swann’s Way so I’m not sure..)

𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 : I listened to some Akiko Yano albums on loop yesterday especially Tadaima so it’s probably Rose Garden, I’m taking a music break before I feel like listening to it again (and to think that I put on Akiko Yano to stop myself from listening to The Slits and The Raincoats on loop lol) 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝒎𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 : It’s The Mummy Returns but I didn’t watch it completely I got bored and let it play in the background ... I was on a mummy movies roll (I watched the 1932, 1959 and 1999 ones a week ago) mostly motivated by Rachel Maksy’s obsession with the 1999 movie, but this makes me want to give up on the 2000s ones, anyway I’m now obsessed with Zita Johann’s face. I think the last movie I actually watched start to finish was Life Is A Quiet Long River (an 80s satirical french comedy, it’s kind of cult or in my family at least) which I rewatched with my parent, it was on tv 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 : It was either PEN15 (the 7 first episodes of the season 2) or Picnic At Hanging Rock (I had just finish reading the book and rewatching the movie) 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐲 ? mh I like savoury and sweet but it seems sugary things tends to give me headaches, so savoury is for the best 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 : I want to pet the cat but don’t want to disturbe her :’( she’s sleeping, she’s so cute ❤️ 𝐭𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 ? I’m more of an herbal tea/rooibos kind of gal : I have far too many for someone who drink so little of them ! I should make infusions more often but I mostly make some when I have people over or to treat myself, otherwise I forget about it 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 : In my life nothing but in term of cc : I’m working on a couple of things at the same time, I have chore jackets soon to be finished but before I will probably release an accessory shirt to give a little more poof to some 1890s, 40s and 80s styles (it’s very simple actually I just haven’t seen anybody doing it). Also I have 3 simlish fonts hanging around to post at some point and I need to refill my queue with some of my thousands of hoarded cc.

As always I’ve written to much, sorry 🙃 Ahhh I don’t know who to tag it is so intimidating, I don’t know anyone... Just anyone that feel like it, I guess 😳

#tag game #ask #interacting

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its-a-branwen-thing · 5 years ago

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r/RWBY AMA Highlights

For those who weren’t aware, r/RWBY did an AMA with the voice actors of the Ace Ops early this morning :) I wanted to share some of their answers here for ya’ll in case people didn’t feel like trekking through the thread. Here are some of the Q&As that I found fun/the most interesting! These are just my personal highlights, by the way! :)

First, some introductions (I put the character next to the name but...just in case I mess up):

And now, for some of the Q/As!

Q: FancyDancyMaho: For Mick - so who is the Goodest Boy and why is it Marrow? If you had to take a guess, is Marrow a mix of insecure and overcompensating because he's the Rookie?

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Absolutely. The thing is, he's a Rookie to the team, but not a rookie in general experience. The AceOps don't just hire anyone.It's like being a senior in high school: you're the upperclass. Then going to college and starting back down at the bottom of the food chain.Plus he's young, AND a little "different" from the rest. He's got a lot to prove. But unfortunately, "needing to prove something" can sometimes get in your way.

Q: JazzRen47 asked: Hi! This is a general question for all of you. I know voice acting is different from stage work, but was there anything in particular that helped you get into character for your recordings? I'm currently a University theatre student so I'm beyond curious about getting insight wherever I can haha! It was an absolute joy to get to hear your performances this Volume (and an aside for Dawn: you are a wonderful singer, ma'am). Thank you so much for taking the time to come do this.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Some VA's sit while they work. Focusing all that energy and nuance directly into their voice. I've never been able to that. I gotta stand up and move around (which is sometimes a problem, but I've been able to reign it in and keep it more manageable).

But I'm still flailing my arms around and pointing at imaginary people lol

Q: silent-film asked: Clover’s tone in his scenes with Qrow is noticeably different from his tone when speaking to the Ace Ops or the kids. Can you say anything about that or what your thoughts were on their interactions as a whole?

ChristopherWehkampVA (Clover): I approached Clover as a guarded leader type character, who rarely allowed others into his mind on a personal level. So you see that reflected in how he treats most people, keeping a professional but kind distance.

Q: CapitalStory4 asked: Anairis, what is the best part about being the female Flash?

anairisq (Harriet): At this point? The memes.

Q: Mpatrick23 asked: Hey y'all! I wanna thank you five for taking the time to do this AMA! Now down to the questions:

To all: What was it like in your own perspectives to be a part of the ride with the RWBY cast and who were your favorite VAs to just hang with when not recording? And do you guys have spare time hobbies? Also, just throwing a compliment out there: Dawn, you did beautifully in War!! That was bloody amazing. I loved Harriet up until the "It's not excessive if it's necessary" line as well. I hope you guys make convention appearances soon and possibly see the rest of you in V8!

One of the many loyal fans, -Mitch

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Hey Mitch! Thank you so much!!! :'D

We generally don't get to see each other a lot when we're not recording, as actors have the most unpredictable schedules. However, I did get to see Anairis before we were able to announce our roles, and we totally geeked out and got excited about each others' performances since we hadn't heard them yet.

I think I'd say my hobby is cooking and baking! I love trying to make new dishes I've never made and see what works. My last favorite food I made was lavender tea bread with a honey lavender glaze. My kitchen smelled fantastic.

Q: MrZissman asked: Hi Dawn! Question - who wins in an arm wrestling contest: Nora or Elm?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): I think Elm would win at first, but then Nora would probably keep challenging her for rematches until she won. And then Elm would do the same back to Nora until it became an infinite loop of flexing.

Q: BiFross asked: Anairis, the beginning of the season's Harriet is much different than the end's Harriet. How did you make that distinction between friendly threats to actual threats?

anairisq (Harriet): Oh, definitely. Harriet was really serious and angry by the end, so there was no room to play games. You don't see her confidence manifest as playfulness as much as it manifests in frustration by the end, and that's the distinction I made in my head.

Q: Firegirl15639 asked: For Chris, A lot of people's favorite scene you were in was the one in the truck with Qrow. What can you tell us about getting into character for that scene?

ChristopherWehkampVA (Clover): Thanks, I loved that scene. It’s a good glimpse of how professional and capable Clover is while also still having a warm hearted side. I remember wanting to show that warm hearted side with my reads and have it contrast to how all-business he would be later in the scene

Q: threefoldthrowaway asked: Chris, I absolutely loved you as Clover and I’m gutted to see you leave. Clover had most of his screen time shared with Qrow so I just want to ask: How do you think Clover and Qrow’s relationship changed over the course of the volume?

ChristopherWehkampVA (Clover): Thanks, it was so cool to play with their dynamic. By the end of the volume Clovers pain at feeling he had to arrest Qrow was so genuine. He was dealing with the very real pain of having to choose sworn duty over what was becoming an important relationship to him

Q: BrokenLevel asked: Why do you suppose each of your characters are so steadfastly loyal to Ironwood? No need to be canon, personal conjecture is also fine.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): For Marrow, he's a faunus, and there's clearly social tensions that come with that. Having been brought into THE most elite group of huntsmen in the Atlesian military, I can't help but think Marrow (despite being a bit cocky) is hugely appreciative and humbled. He knows how difficult and rare it is for those of his kind to be placed in a such an important role.

That said, of all the AceOps... I think he'd be the first to question his "steadfastly loyal" position on Ironwood.

toddwo (Vine): I think it's the military thing. It's chain of command. He's in charge. The RWBY kids can use their hearts more as a guide because they're not military-first like I think the Ace ops are.

Q: ArmoftheSpoonFiend asked: What would you guys rather fight, 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): 1 horse-sized duck. Gonna need a giant oven, though.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Marrow prefers a single target :]

anairisq (Harriet): 1 horse-sized duck. Easier to run away. :') I know if it was Harriet, she'd take on all 100 the duck-sized horses just to show off.

Q: OutcastMunkee asked: Quite a few (mainly because a few from my friend who is at work so can't make it!) questions here for everyone...From me, I gotta ask what you think about the Ace Ops vs RWBY fight and why do you think RWBY came out victorious?

As for questions from my friend, he wants to know:

Did any of you know of/watch RWBY before you were cast?

How did you end up auditioning for the roles?

Was working on RWBY any different to other voice acting jobs you've done in the past?

Thanks for doing this AMA folks! <3

toddwo (Vine): Firstly, RWBY team cheats in battle, so that's why they beat us ;)

I actually produced two seasons of the broadcast show RWBY rewind about RWBY, so I had seen nearly all of it by the time these auditions came around, and programmed entire episodes of that show around episodes, characters, and events of RWBY.

I usually submit every time there's a call for voice actors. I've been voicing various things in videos for a decade, animated characters, puppets, Reggae Shark. So I just love leaving the headspace of being at a desk at work and going to imagination land and recording voices.

I think I answered this in a different post, but I'd say the difference is being close to the show - I work at Rooster Teeth - and knowing the directors personally. It makes it way easy to ask questions, get feedback, and just be loose, as compared to skypeing in to some jerk director in L.A. lol.

ricepiratemick (Marrow): I've seen the debates about the fight results on twitter and reddit and I think it's fairly simple (and that many folks got it): AceOps were not on the same page and down a leader + RWBY were fighting for their lives and the lives of the people they were trying to save. It's as simple as that. Sure "team work" and "friends" and all that, but for those who were disapproving of that being the sole reason... I think it was clear that there were many legit reasons why RWBY came out on top.

Before getting cast, I knew of RWBY, especially some of the folks on the team, but wasn't an avid follower of the series before. Since being cast...gotta say, I love it. And will continue to watch no matter what happens to Marrow.

Audition was sent by the magic of electronic mail.

One main difference (compared to other acting jobs) is the time they take to nail down a line. In many VO jobs, yer on the clock and they roll through the script at a clip. With RWBY, it wasn't like there was a 100 takes of each line, but they knew what they wanted while still wanting the actor to explore. Just super positive, organic, and overall great experience recording with them every time.

anairisq (Harriet):

1) Yup! From the beginning. :)

2) I had received the audition online while living in FL! Submitted it pretty much the same day and tried not to think about it. I was so, so excited when I heard I booked.

3) It was for me! It was my first time doing prelay work in the booth. I was a little nervous about how it'd be like, but each session was really fun.

Q: patrizl001 asked: Todd, did you ever notice your character never used their weapon throughout the volume? Why do you think that is?

toddwo (Vine): This is totally a guess, but I feel like it's Vine's "nuclear option." He's all zen normally, so I tend to think he wants to solve things organically, and not just go nuts and use some metal blades to do the job of stretchy-ness and tactics. I could be wrong tho! Maybe it's just a fashion accessory!

Q: Eldi13 asked: For everyone: Where do you hope to see your characters go in Volume 8?

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Obviously, I have no official say in what happens to Marrow and his place in the story. But I can't help feeling he's gonna get a lot of heat from Ironwood and company after Harriet rats him out for not fighting, especially in light of Clover's death.

Personally, I'd love to see him help/side/join the RWBY gang, even if he's not a mainstay. But no matter what, he's definitely been built up to be the most conflicted of the Ops and I'm curious/excited to see where they leads.

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Like Mick said, I have no say in the story, but I'd also love to see Elm's growth after Clover's death and the possible events to come (like what's gonna happen to her team after losing its leader, y'know?). She really does seem like a team mom at times, and I'd love to see her give Team RWBY another chance.

Q: Eldi13 asked: For Dawn, (if you make it by later!) what was the recording process like for the song in episode 12? Did Jeff and Casey arrange the whole thing, or did all the vocalists have input as well?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Hey there! I believe Jeff and Casey did indeed arrange the whole thing. (Obviously, someone from production please correct me if I'm wrong)! :'D

I was approached by Jeff during the process to be a guest singer, which absolutely blew my mind!!! He and Casey are such crazy talented musicians and it was an honor to be able to perform with them.

Then Christopher Sabat (voice of Arthur Watts) kindly let me use his recording studio to track my vocals, Briana Villarreal engineered me, my cousin Kaitlyn Fae coached and directed me, and I sent my vocals off to Jeff!

Jeff had asked me to sing whichever lines I liked best and he'd pick which ones to use from those. You can imagine how happy I was to hear myself singing when Elm appeared on the screen. :')

Q: SentientHam asked: Thoughts and opinions on each of your character's sembalances and weapons?

ricepiratemick (Marrow): It's fetching. Despite not seeing it's full potential, I think it's got a lot of staying power.

Q: AylaPazza asked: For all VAs, do you have any particular headcanons for your characters? Like hobbies or ways to relax, things like that! Also you all did a fantastic job this volume! I hope we see more of all of you in volume 8!

ricepiratemick (Marrow): Marrow uses his semblance to hack speed-runs of difficult games.

toddwo (Vine): I try to channel Paul Bettany's Vision character and make a lot of resonating noise in my head and relax at the same time. My voice is really high naturally so I spend a few minutes just humming low to myself to get someplace different.

Q: galaxyseal asked: To any of them: have you guys gotten to meet any of your fellow cast members in person?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Yes! From the Ace-Ops, I already knew Chris Wehkamp, and I met Anairis not too long after recording! I also met Lindsay and Michael Jones years ago when I started working on Fairy Tail, and Elizabeth Maxwell when we were working on Dragon Ball Super.

Actually, now that I think about it, I've met way more of the RWBY cast than I thought... The voice acting world is smaller than you think! :D

anairisq (Harriet): I met Dawn! She's just as much of a sweetie as Elm is <3

ricepiratemick (Marrow): I haven't!!!! >:[

Buuu~t I've gotten to meet/hang/know some of the team members :D

All solid, passionate, hard-working peeps

Q: brendans1989 asked: For anyone to answer - what is the most powerful advice you would give to anyone aspiring to become a voice actor?

DawnMBennettVA (Elm): Know that rejection is just part of the job. You're not going to book everything you audition for. Learn to let things go. Also, your friends' progress is not a measure of your own.

Even when you're at your lowest and you think you might be the worst, don't give up. Talk to a private coach, take classes, do everything you can to improve yourself. Keep pushing, keep trying, keep moving forward.

------

I hope this is fun for everyone to read through! I tried to balance out answers on character questions and misc. ones, as I bet some folks are interested in hearing about their journey as VAs! If anyone wants to check out the full AMA, it’s here.

r/RWBY seems like a cool crew of people, this seemed like a lot of fun, and the mods did a good job curating! Hope I gave credit where it’s due for question askers--this was all their hard work!

Happy Saturday everyone~

#rwby #reddit #rwby ama #vine zeki #marrow amin #clover ebi #harriet bree #elm ederne #voice acting #long...sorry

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bean-n-shroob · 5 years ago

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The Origami King Review/Opinion

(I sorta hate that it has the word The in it cause when I did impressions or this review, it sounds strangely official)

I’m gonna review but if people don’t want spoilers here’s some Pros and Cons that I felt

Pros:

+ Music is fantastic! I love how the battle theme changes with every area/sub-area you go to.

+ Writing is good, it gets you invested in enough to sorta care. Humor is top notch as expected!

+ Olivia is a sweetheart! I love her so much and how she’s so marveled by everything.

+ Boss Battles are fun to figure and deal with.

+ Finding Toads is actually kinda fun, I enjoy figuring out where they’re hidden

+ Badge system is intriguing if not a bit clunkly put together (sorry, this is suppose to be Pros)

Cons:

- Regular Battles get old quick if puzzles aren’t really your thing and its a bit too easy to just not depend on the coins, thus making them pointless.

- Story sorta flops, it starts strong but then just sorta fizzles and all we got left is... fun experiences (I know this sounds like a Con, but while the experiences are fun, it is disappointing the story sorta flops hard)

- Character Design is very meh. The most well written character can’t save it from its extremely generic design

- But also Olly is not... that well written... so...

- Partners and Vellumentals are kinda under utilized to a disappointing degree (baby steps, baby steps ugh)

Anywho, that’s all my feelings (that I can remember and feel I can say without spoilers)

6.5/10 (I’ll explain the scoring under the cut)

Spoilers Under Cut

Hello and welcome to the Spoiler Bits of this Review/Opinion

Buckle in, this is a long one

Now y’all may be a bit curious as to why, with so much big things (music/writing/bosses/Olivia) being good and so little being bad, why a 6.5/10?

Well, I felt a 7 was too generous and would make people think “Oh, its good!” but a 6 is like “Eh... its mediocre” and a 6.5 is more like a “Its Good, But” and I feel that But is important! I know how this may sound, but TOK could’ve been WAY better and Chapter 2 was an example of how good this game could’ve been!

You know how people always bring up Huey, or the “Morton Leston” joke, or the “I would do things that would raise this game’s rating” line as examples as why Color Splash is actually really good and we’re all in denial?

I feel Chapter 2 will be that for TOK and its all because of Bobby! I like Bobby, I like Bobby a lot! I wish he stuck around! I loved how he and Olivia interacted together and how they formed a bond!

But

I sorta hated how overall useless he was to the action and adventuring. He’s the most useless partner that somehow leaves a deep impression on the player!

He leaves such a deep impression that I don’t think anyone noticed how badly written Professor Toad was! He was such a let down as a follow up to Bobby! And worst of all, he was like way more useful than Bobby! He can dig holes, he can wipe out a whole role of enemies, he has a function outside of battle and story.

Seeing how useful Professor Toad was, sorta put into perspective Bobby and his eventual sacrifice to save Olivia (I told ya this was spoilers). He just dies, in a shockingly emotional moment, giving a speech about how Bomb-Ombs live relatively short lives and are always trying to make the most of it.

Wow... I really wish Chapter 6 didn’t have a segment where you were half hazardly shooting bomb-ombs out of a cannon, cause otherwise, this could’ve been way more impactful!

But it also made it seem like "we can't make Bobby too useful, he's gonna die. So just keep him extremely simple and useless in every other aspect of the adventure, besides story."

I don’t get how TOK started out so strong! The intro and Chapter 1 introduced us to the basic loop how what we’d have to do and how stuff will play out and Chapter 2 took that and showed us how far we could go with this loop and how involved the world will be with this loop!

Only for Chapter 3 to just give up on everything and give us 1 expansive dessert to explore, a very one note partner who doesn’t leave a lasting impression, a boring quest of solving an ancient riddle and a very annoying boss dungeon segment that went on longer than it should’ve! And above all else, a very half-assed excuse for why he won’t be joining your journey! Especially since Chapter 4 doesn’t have a partner!

Chapter 4 feels like an overly-long intermission of Mario n Olivia’s adventure to Chapter 5. Legit the purple streamer of 4 could’ve been the green streamer of 5 and it would only flow just a little bit less smoothly. Chapter 4 has this weird send off to the Vellumentals, with the boss dungeon being a mixture of the last 4 Vellumental chambers you’ve explored. Which feels out of place especially since there’s like 2 more chapters of stuff happening afterwards! And like a thunder elemental like boss fight in 5 but I guess they just couldn’t be bothered to create a Thunder Vellumental fight to tack onto the story and just gave it to this Origami Sumo Bro! Okay!

And then the Bowser Castle segment is right when they decide to get creative with enemy encounters, but only 2 enemy encounters (you can fight these two multiple time if you’re neither a chicken nor annoyed with the battle ring system) but then just stop right after cause Scissor makes cut out soldiers was the only excuse why that happened.

Again... I like TOK, I do. If I didn't, I'd rate it a 4 or 5 outta 10. I'll talk about the good, I will, but lemme just rant about 1 thing first! Its actually 2 rants but its gonna be about 1 topic I'm rather passionate about.

Character Design

I hate how generic the Legion of Stationery are! Once again, Chapter 2 wins by giving Rubber Band a very unique design, but everyone else is so generic looking! Remember how I said the personalities couldn't save them from their generic design? The Legion have such fun personalities, its so tacky and fun! But I cannot get over how it contrasts with the fact I'm staring at an object hoping in place or wiggling or jiggling as they talk! It kinda sucks, honestly!

I wish these guys had more creativity behind them, and truth be told it wouldn't have bothered me had Rubber Band not been an outlier! Why them and not everyone else! Its baffling!

But above all else, the worst offender, is the Origami Craftsman! The dude who folded Olly! Is a TOAD! That's it! A toad in an apron! WHY

And I get it, there's story reason behind it! Olly wants all Toads gone cause they all look alike and thus everyone reminds him of the Craftsman who wrote (a very touching message) on him!

And that SUCKS!

(uh oh, i forgot about Olly and his terrible terrible motive to be evil)

Speaking of Olly! Remember when I said he wasn't well written? Well besides being an evil prick who enjoys messing with the heroes (i dont mind that, evil just to be evil is fine), it sorta randomly just comes up that he hates Toads near the end! It just comes up!

And I THINK it was suppose to be hinted at by the fact all the Toads gets attacked and folded by Paper Macho and Folded Soldiers. But my problem with this is:

1. Would they have been daring as making Folded Toads as enemies? Thus the lack of Folded Toad enemies should've hinted at this

2. The enemies were origami version of Mario enemies! So enemies still being enemies but folded would've just strengthen the fact we'd be fighting bowser minions again, making the previous Toad hint moot.

3. Toads have always been in peril in previous PM games so the fact they're in peril again wouldn't have been a point of interest!

I GUESS the fact Folded Peach specifically asks whether Toads should be silenced could've hinted at this, but people just took it as "hah lol Toads annoying" and not "oh, this villain has a thing against toads~". Its just, who else would the villain have pointed out? There's only Toads here! Maybe if there was a bigger variety of npcs and we saw other npcs either becomes folded soldiers or be spared from the folded attack, we could've wondered "hey, why are only the toads getting stuck in places?"

But we don't!

Anyways, huff! Lemme count all the good, spoilery things in the game (that's not in Chapter 2) to end on a good note

I love how Olivia is so sweet, no one could bring themselves to be mean to her (except Olly), even Kamek has a hard time being mean cause she's so bubbly and caring (except for that weird bit in the forest where Kamek had to be all rivalry about it but I digress)

Bowser backtalking Olly was very funny, I loved it a lot!

The fact Olivia asks Olly to come to his senses before Mario smashed his face with the Olivia hammer (i need to specify this cause otherwise it'll look like Mario interrupted this scene with a hammer smash but no, Olivia fully knew her hammer weight was gonna fall on Olly's face and just gave some last words of pleas before not even letting him respond) I loved that.

I liked how sweet Olivia was to Luigi despite how much he kept screwing up (i forgot to rant about that but tl;dr, he's a bit of a buffoon and its a bit annoying) i thought it was very touching how Olivia kept rooting for him regardless.

The Tape talking like a Gangster was actually really funny, I liked that a lot.

Bowser's pep talk to Olivia was very funny, it was basically "dont be sad, look at me, my muscles are massive and I can punch through walls!"

As jarring as they were, I actually liked a lot of the singing and dancing that occurred through the game.

Olly having his own color scheme for his Vellumental forms was super cool!

The ending was really touching. Olivia wished for all of Olly's creations to be undone, and because you find out in Chapter 4 that she's also a creation of Olly, she is undone too. And they don't spell that out! You just find out she's not around and connect the dots. I think that was very well done.

And these are some of several reasons I liked TOK and why I couldn't rate it lower than 6. It has a lot of things that just doesn't live up to Chapter 2 and its disappointing to realize halfway through that the game peaked in Chapter 2. Its so weird, they showed us how good it can be and then never lives up to the expectationd set by Chapter 2. I wish it did

Thats why I rate it a 6.5/10

#The Origami King Spoilers #The Origami King #review #opinion #mod speaks

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eldritchsurveys · 5 years ago

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1004.

Do you have a common first name? >> I really do not.

Do you like your middle name or your first name more? >> I like both of them? I wouldn’t have gone through the process of having my name legally changed otherwise, lol.

What year would/did you turn 21? >> I turned 21 in 2008.

What was popular when you were a kid? >> Er... I’m not terribly sure. I was always out of the loop because of how I was raised.

Do you wear more rings or necklaces? >> I usually wear two of both, but I own more necklaces than rings overall.

Have you ever been engaged? >> Yes.

Can you see your veins through your skin? >> Only one vein, in the crook of my right elbow. Phlebotomists love me.

Do you have a certian song you sing aloud often? >> I don’t think so.

Do you concern yourself with what's in? >> No.

Do you worry about having good grammar online? >> No.

Do you know anyone with a lazy eye? >> No.

Did your parents let you have pets when you were a kid? >> I had a dog. Well, I guess it was technically my father’s dog, because he took care of her, but she was my friend, damn it.

Would you rather live in an apartment or a duplex? >> Duplex, I guess, but really I’d rather not live around other people at all, at this point. Unless they’re a very specific type of person.

Have you ever seen Boondock Saints? >> Yes. I always think about rewatching it but I never quite get around to it.

Do you like spicy chips? >> I do.

Do you have any 'different' keychains on your keys/purse? >> I have an X-Files keychain and... fuck, I’ve flat out forgotten what other keychains I have. Oh, there’s a NOLA one. That’s all I can remember.

Do you collect pins? >> I don’t actively collect them, but I’ve built up a fair amount of them over time.

What band was on the last band t-shirt you wore? >> Blaqk Audio.

Do you wear more pink or yellow? >> Neither.

What's the last movie you watched at a friend's house? >> ---

Have you ever been out of the state you were born in? >> Yeah. I haven’t lived there since I was a teenager.

Do you have any tattoos on your arms? >> On one arm.

Have you ever owned or known someone who owned a black cat? >> I live with a black cat currently.

When was the last time you felt jealous? >> I don’t remember.

What's the last thing you bought besides food/drink? >> CBD.

What album is the last song you listened to from? >> We All Bleed by Crossfade.

Do you know what the word lumiere means? >> Light?

Do you own a tea pot? >> Just a regular kettle.

Who scheduled your last doctor visit? >> My last medical visit was a dentist visit, and Sparrow scheduled it.

What's the last video game you played? >> Final Fantasy XIV.

Do you have anything on your wrists right now? >> No.

Do you have any holiday theme'd socks? >> Yeah, like half of my socks are either Halloween or Christmas-themed. They’re just so fun.

What kind of accent do you have? >> I don’t know. Probably a generic American anchorman type accent.

What's the last funny movie you watched? >> Vampires vs the Bronx.

Can you remember your parents' birthdays? >> I remember my father’s. I don’t know my mother’s.

Is there anyone who you just absolutely cannot STAND being around? >> Well, sure.

What is the design on your shirt? >> I’m not wearing a shirt, just an undershirt.

Do you know anyone who just flat-out fails at life? >> I wouldn’t say that about anyone.

Are you a Ghoulscout? >> I don’t know what that is, but colour me interested.

Do you know someone who's just always wrong about everything? >> No.

Do you make fun of people often? >> No.

Do you read your friend's surveys? >> There are some people in the little survey-taking community on this website that I read the answers of. And if I take a survey from someone, I usually read the answers they put before I delete them to put my own in.

If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would you pick? >> Who is paying for this tattoo and how much are they putting down? That determines my answer.

How do you feel about band tattoos? >> They’re cool? How else am I supposed to feel about them?

Do you know anyone with a glass eye? >> No.

How much are you willing to pay for a pair of sunglasses? >> I don’t know. I’d like to actually have a good pair of sunglasses for once, but I don’t know how much those things tend to cost.

Did you have a GI Joe when you were a kid? >> No.

What is the origin of your last name? >> I’m not sure.

Do you ever use the n-word? >> I used to, because it was a slang term in the social circles I ran in when I lived in the City. I hate that it’s become so ubiquitous with us, because there’s really nothing redeemable about the word (it’s not like “queer”, which is a damn good word and should absolutely be repurposed). But... It is what it is.

What piercing do you like most on the opposite sex? >> ---

What brand of hair dye do you prefer to use? >> ---

What county do you live in? >> Kent.

Did/do you ride the bus to and from school? >> I rode the bus to most schools I went to, but the last school I attended did not have a bus system (students either drove, were driven, or walked), so I walked.

Do you prefer beef, chicken or steak? >> Meh. Also, shouldn’t “steak” be “pork” or another kind of meat, lol...

What is your salad dressing of choice? >> Vinaigrette or Italian in a pinch.

Do you know anyone who's a really funny type of weird? >> ???

Do you make faces at certain people? >> I make faces at Sparrow sometimes, but that’s it.

Is there something you won't let one of your friends live down? >> No.

Are you any good at applying make up? >> I’m passable.

Do you know anyone who's hair looks like a wig? >> No.

Do you misuse commas? >> I assume not, unless I’ve somehow remained ignorant of a whole grammar rule my entire life.

Have you ever bitten your dentist? >> No.

Are you someone who likes to make simple things difficult? >> Er, I don’t think so...

Who makes you laugh the most? >> Can Calah, I guess, by virtue of him being around 24/7 and having more opportunities to make me laugh as a result.

#survey #surveys #random survey #not for reblogging *glare*

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muggycuphead · 5 years ago

Photo

FPAVB updates #1 - World 2 remix levels fanconcepts

(Uploading it here too bc why not? Had to resize it because apparently my internet’s on shark week and Tumblr won’t let me upload it on its normal size grrr-)

So yeah Just finished remasterization of Chapter XIII in VB's spanish version yesterday (and I tell you, it's literally crappypasta material since it's W1 remix but slightly fucked up), and went straight into thinking for W2 hyphotetical remix levels Of course they're simple concepts made for VB itself and not meant to be a 'substitute' of the W2 remix Brad might be working on or something like that (just saying this bc I feel kinda awkward about doing something the developer himself hasn't released yet and well, you know-), but whatsoever I'll explain how these would work in an 'in-game' scenario Lets-a-go World 2 'main plot' Since VB Chapter XIV is mostly focused on CPG's play instead of FPM himself, things of course won't work the same for each, but we'll get to it in a moment, keep reading This 'remix' version of mine basically goes with the same logic of the original W2 (A.R. strikes and steals your stuff for asshole points, so you gotta go find where he's at to get your things back), but in Cutie's case, it's Kabootle the one who gets it from the Rabbit (ohotheykidnappedthecatto) and she needs to get to his hideout (yesiheadcanonhimhavingahideoutsomewherefarawaythegolffieldandstuffwhatugonnadoaboutit) to rescue her cat back. However, if this actually was an in-game thing with FPM being playable, A.R. would surely steal the Pen from him instead or any other item that's important for the game to progress and stuff. Anyway, that's how the plot would work in a short (andcarefullyspoilerfree) explanation Now, let's get in the next part: Main Levels Okay, I'll clarify one thing in case you guys didn't notice the little sidenote at the upperside of the image shown here The levels I show here are just the 'starter' levels, meaning there are a few more I got below my sleeve, but I just showed them here for the sake of exposure and also because those other levels are more extense and 'variable-context' -ish, kinda influenced by the W3 original levels and what not. Anyway, I'll try not to extend myself too much on each one's explanation, alongside their entrances and which level's place they're taking (as you may have noticed some even are derivatives of their original counterparts but with different mechanics, anyhow they're propense to suffer changes as they're still on beta states, but that's besides the point) Quick sidenote, I don't really know the original W2 levels' names, so those you see there are just made-up Golf Field 2.0 (Same place, different level location) This is basically as an 'another-extend' version of the original Golf Field itself (for a lack of a better definition) and all that. Honestly I don't really like the idea of using the same mechanic of the 'hole-in-one' minigame that's on FPA2 at its own first level since it might clash a little with Cutie's mindset at CXIV (she's on her way to find FPM and therefore isn't really 'in the mood' for that) and is basically 'filler' stuff, but I'll try to 'soften the atmosphere' a little and implement it in a way that can be appealing to the story's plot (like it isn't that hard)...not to mention I need a hole so Rb gets to do his dicky move towards CPG's kitto (sorry Kaboo bb but y'know this guy won't lose any chances at doing the rob robbery rob rob) Taking the place of: Golf Field in original W2 Entrance: Door Cave 2.0 This is actually a two-in-one, which are: I.- Exploring the surroundings Works with the same format as Golf Field 2.0 (sameplacedifferentspot); no need to explain myself too much here Taking the place of: Cave level in original W2 Entrance: Hole (duh) II.-'Earthdrill' The name is a word play due to the fact it's a big amount of earth-rock structure that got the shape of an 'iron drill' and stuff. Also, this level's kinda got a 3D-like design, I'll say why, just keep reading The mechanic here is simple, you'll be sliding around this whole 'mountain' thing all the way to it's feet while the stage keeps spinning round and round the lower you go (this is why I said it has a 3D feeling since the camera remains on our spot while the scenario keeps moving along with us) But here's the fun part: P A P E R P O R TA L S , S O N ! They're scattered on different places in our way (sometimes on the land, sometimes in the walls, right above us), and we must avoid them -either jumping or flinching- or else they'll teleport us all the way back to the start Pretty simple...Right? Yeah, but actually no There are also some enemies surrounding the places -flying spiders- that'll be aiming ‘web bombs’ towards Cutie in order to stop us, and the way wecan take care of them is hitting the bombs to redirect them towards the fliers so they get covered in webs instead. But don't drop the guard down, they’ll attack with no warning and we'll better watch out when they do Taking the place of: Short Blue loops level in original W2 Entrance: Portal Door Switch-a-roo SO this one is designed differently, althought it keeps the mechanics that one first level where you go riding over ink (don't mistake my words with SFPA there) and all that, but here's the fun part (or torture one, you define it as you like): Find the right door yes, this a tricky one And worst part is, each time you mess it up, some doors (not all, just some) will slightly 'switch' places Anyhow, just to not make it too hard, I'd put a small amount of doors around the place so I don't make Cutie herself lose her mind trying to spot the correct door (and avoid unnecessary time loss) Taking the place of: First inked platforms level (Light Blue) in original W2 Entrance: Door "No-Jump" Zone Remember the 'Earthdrill' level from before? Well, this goes with the same structure (has portals and stuff), but guess what You can't jump Yeah, no Mario boings for you this time, child Okay serious talk now, in this level you have to get all the way downwards to the other side of the stage. You can fall, roll or slide through the inked platforms, but you can't jump or else,once you step on their surface, a secret paper portal will break open and will take you back to the start (YEAH I KNOW THAT'S A DICKY MOVE BUT THIS IS HOW IT WORKS-) Taking the place of: Second inked platforms level (Green) in original W2 Entrance: Door Subterranean [Metro approach] Basic platform level, design idea is yet to be worked on (but it's not a hard idea on it's own, and doesn't need too much of a explanation) It takes place, as you may guess, in an underground enviroment next to a metro stop (idkhowtoreallycallitlmao) Taking the place of: Purple rocks, green hills and trees level in original W2 Entrance: Door Jump! ...but you have to go downwards instead* The Wall-jumping level from before, but you go the opposite direction, and if you don't jump in time you'll be thrown upwards by a 'sped-up' spring to a portal that (AgAInNNN)will bring you back to where you were at first Yeah I kinda flip-flopped on this one, but it's still a BETA so pffft- Taking the place of: Jump! level in original W2 Entrance: Door Metro Basic context level, although this one includes a little 'mini boss/tension' part for interesting points haha- but -This one shares its place-take with another level that's basically W3 Squiggleville level..but it ain't Squiggleville ahahh- Partially* taking the place of: Cactus West/Sky Kingdom/Super Secret Evil Lair of Spiders level in original W2 Entrance: Door As said before there are a few more, but I'll keep them secret for now Extra levels Yep, there are also secret levels in this place And do they bring something to the VB plot? Yes my dude There's a task you must complete, and it is finding all pieces of an important item you must repair (it's a spare key to A.R.'s hideout); the doors are also labelled with a symbol on their upperside to make them easier to find And well...that's mostly it for now Jesus christ my head hurts, that was a lot of writing However, I'll put this to bed for now so I can get to ACTUALLY start digitalizing JSABBR's 2 new pages because HECK I HAVEN'T UPDATED IT SINCE LIKE- JULY?? AUGUST?? I DON'T REMEMBER ANYMORE LOL BUT I MUST GET BACK ON TRACK ASAP I HATE LEAVING SHIT ON HIATUS FOR TOO LONG- Anyway, see you guys in future updates on...whatever I upload next k bye- The Fancy Pants Adventures franchise (C) belongs to Brad Borne TH!FPA:VB|W2 Remix fanconcepts (mostly)|Artwork (C) belongs to me 2020 (C) all rights reserved

#fancy pants adventures #fpa #fancy pants #the fancy pants adventure #fpavb #fancypantsadventuresau #venomous bittersweet #alternate universe #fanfic #fpaworld2remixconcept #aight imma head out now

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nighttimepixels · 6 years ago

Note

Heyhey Night! I have a buncha questions after seeing all your animations and they're just so cool so! I hope this is ok!! Can u animate normally too, or only pixel? Not that that's bad, just wondering! What's ur preferred kinda animation? Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs? What's the hardest part of the animation process?? What's ur favorite?? Any part u don't like? What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into? Do u have a fave animation u've done? Thank u btw for all ur art!!

Oh stars, okay, yeah- I’m happy to answer all these!! I’ll break them up so it’s easier to read X) And awww geez thank you so much for your support, sweet anon! It really makes my day when people say they like anything I’ve made, and stars knows it’s all the more true with the sweet sweet time sink that is animation (´•̥̥̥\\ヮ\\•̥̥̥` )

I’ll also put this under a cut since it gets a bit long :)

Can u animate normally too, or only pixel?

This one cracks me up a little, don’t worry about it XD I totally can! In fact I enjoy it a lot - and... gods, animation software is a nightmare and a half, to be honest. That’s the biggest hurdle.

I do just straight up love pixel art and the aesthetic I can achieve with it, but I do at times miss ‘normal’ (non pixel?) animation, heh. Especially sound-syncing! I do all my pixel art in Asesprite which imo is the best pixel art program, not to mention made by an actual pixel artist - buuuut it doesn’t have a sound file option. Which makes sense! Er, frankly, most pixel artists wouldn’t... use it to animate like I do? More for games, or for looping gifs? So I can’t complain much, it makes a lot of sense that it’s a low dev priority.

Now, when it comes to other animation programs... I’ve tried a lot. Unfortunately, the ones that are preferable for the feel I like are either way out of budget (stares at TVPaint in the distance) or... well, have too high a learning curve for my single-person workflow, really. (OpenToonz, sigh...) And a lot of the free programs are good for getting a start in animation, but once you get to a certain point you really feel the limitations (whether it’s workflow, sound import, exports, trying to make something more finished than a rough...).

Then... there’s animation programs I just don’t like, and a lot of those are angled towards bone-style animations (nothing wrong with those, they just don’t fit my style? and are too much time investment for a single artist to output more quickly...), or are, well, freakin’ Adobe Animate.

I... gods, I do not like Animate (formerly Flash). And I made a whole 2 minute+ animation in it a couple years ago! (It’s very rough and bad and doesn’t make sense, pfff, not gonna link it XD) It’s... clunky, and vector oriented, and freaking lines don’t go where I want them too, and it tries to predict too much?? It’s hard to put to words, gah. For me, my animation style would be much more... raster oriented. Flow, hand drawn inbetweens, yaddayadda. Animate’s great for... plenty of things, but not for that kind of animation. There are far better animators than I who make it work with freakin’ aplomb though! So really, it’s just my taste, haha.

.... Er, that got long! I’ll cut off more rambling about animation software and tl;dr boil it down to “I love animating period, but turnaround is something I have to keep in mind as a freelancer, as well as budget, and my current focus is pixel animations for a number of reasons.” X)

What's ur preferred kinda animation?

I’m not exactly sure what this one means! Between pixel and non-pixel? Er, they both have their pros and cons, so I couldn’t say! But if I have to break down my current animations into categories, I’d say I have cutscenes, loop environments, and the broad game-like animations...

The first would be something like this animation feat. teasing Edge, the second would be something like this one with skesgo’s Starlan and Cinnamon, and the third is... everything else! From headsprite loops to ‘small’ characters running and so on.

Honestly, they’re all a lot of fun for different reasons! Cutscenes are generally the most challenging, but they give me the chance to push my limits and try and pull off something cool, whether I’m having to conserve frames (to keep the cost of a commission down) or whether I’m going more all out (which is a pricey commission, or a fun personal project, lol).

Loop environments are their own challenge - it may not look like it, but I put a lot of thought into how to make them look as natural as possible! From timing of talking characters, to where to place a blink, to exactly how many frames it’ll take to ‘soften’ a motion (so people aren’t just snapping between major poses) and so on - it takes... a lot of time to animate even simple scenes well, so I do a lot of mental math on how I can keep things affordable when someone approaches me for a commission. And frankly, I totally undercharge;; but I do my best!

Game-like animations are just fun. They range, they’re silly, to intense (I’ve animated fight animations before for game concepts), to indulgent, and beyond! Headsprites are always a delight, especially if I get to push the expression X) and I love tiny things (I mean... I am a pixel artist...) so getting to make lil tiny babs even just walking can be fun - and also, a lot more time consuming than you might thing, esp if you wanna make it smooth, like this lil Frisk I did last month or so:

Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs?

oTL

B... both??

Okay, lipsyncing basically is very time consuming. AND, I freakin’ love it. I love puzzles, and when it boils down to it, that’s what super fun & expressive lip syncing is (some Ghibli animations are the heckin’ best for this)...

and, I’m a pixel artist, without sound-syncing capabilities in her main art program oTL Yeah, I can export frames and line them up and check but... gods, it’s so time consuming. I’ve tried it out of desperation - but for even five seconds of sound (sayyyyy a lil Vine...) that’s hours upon hours of transferring back and forth just to check.

So even though I love lipsyncs, they’re too time-consuming (and ergo, if I’m being commissioned, often too expensive) to do often! Someday I’d like to get back to doing them more often, but for now, practically I stick to/’prefer’, in the loosest terms, to do lipflaps. For the layman, this is that ‘two frame’ (maybe three) open-closed style of animating mouths- however, I’m working on ways to keep that style, but make it more expressive! It depends on the project - and in commissions, I’ll pretty much always prioritize giving the client a little more body animation than mouth animation, unless it’d really fit what they’ve requested.

What's the hardest part of the animation process??

.... damn, this is a tough one! Sometimes I’d say it’s the initial concept work - but it depends on what I have to work with. Sometimes that parts a breeze - and honestly freeing, bc I can take the time to try and push what I’ll do with it!

Roughing is one of my favorite parts, tbh. It can be tricky, sure, but getting to go from keyframes to in-betweens & smears to adding the flairs of secondary motion (think hair swishing, or coats flaring, etc) is so exciting and satisfying.

From there it’s all refining, and tweaking...

Hm. Honestly, the hardest is probably the initial cleanup and lining. It’s cool to see it come together, but it feels so much slower, and it can drag - and then you find bits that actually don’t translate well from the rough stage, so you have to go back and rework, and oof it can just drag in this phase, heh. Plus, I’m always tempted to add more frames, but it’s not always realistic - I’m a perfectionist, to say the least, so I’m constantly having to leash myself back so I don’t turn a project into a half-a-year undertaking, pff.

What's ur favorite??

Probably gave myself away talking about the roughing stage X) It’s just loose and fun and free! But seeing it all come together is also damn satisfying too, so that’s not to say I don’t like the refining portions either...

Outside of that, I also really like the beginning of the color stage! .... Before having to translate shadows/highlights to each and every frame *shudders*. That gets tedious, but it’s so critical! Anyways, though, I heckin’ love colors. I always have a rough palette in mind at the start of the process, but I go ham and play with it as a little break and a true test when I get to actual slap together a full frame with full color, highlights/shadows included! It’s exciting, like a preview of the finished product, basically :D

Any part u don't like?

Heh, by the time I get to shadows/highlights, I tend to be getting impatient, I suppose. It’s not that I don’t like it - I definitely highly value it, and if it was the only thing I was working on in an animation that’d be different, but as a one-woman team I’m just raring to be done at that point; it’s very nearly the last thing I do, after all, so it’s a struggle to focus. X)

I suppose one that always gets me is more complicated backgrounds. It’s a work in progress, as I’m getting better and finding the fun in them for sure! But I’m still not where I want to be in translating ‘background concept’ to ‘finished background’ - it feels more stiff than my animations, I guess. So it’s a frustrating part... but hey, it’s part of it! And learning to embrace the challenge is a big help.

... I just always have to make sure I have a big cup of coffee and a good jam playlist going when I sit down to do ‘em, in the meantime.(=▿= ||||)

What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into?

Definitely the coloring. This goes for both backgrounds and the animated characters themselves. It’s... never as simple as it looks? It’s time consuming, and while some parts of frames can be copy-pasted, I also put subtle work into the animations that mean that some pixels are off so it ends up being marginally faster to just recolor, but then there’s shadows, and working in pixels means that if I miss one then there’s a flickering pixel mid-animation, and sometimes there’s an unconnected line and then you bucket fill the whole damn thing, and gods know I’ve got colored lines so I have to be exacting with keeping the same ratios highlighted vs darker in shifting frames...

*deep breath*

... Yeah, basically the coloring is super time consuming. And balancing bg coloring with animated elements in the image itself is a whole extra challenge on top of that. For 99% of my animations, I can damn near guarantee I’ve spent at least twice as much time coloring it as I have animating it.

Do u have a fave animation u've done?

*looks at my goblin hoard of animations in horror like I’ve been asked to choose a favorite child*

... Stars above, I can’t choose! I love them all, and at this point a good portion of them are commissions- it wouldn’t feel right to choose!

*...carefully covers the hoard’s metaphorical ears*

... also, that said, I can admit a soft spot for any of them that involve humor. I tend to get to do extremely expressive faces and action there, even if I have to ration the frames, so it turns out really fun X)

And though rough and I’ve definitely done stuff I’m more proud of, I still crack up at this one I did a while back of the nonsense ‘ass’ joke between Red & Stretch... their faces were too much fun XD I’ve gotten waybetter since then though, Big Oof, I see so many things I can fix; might go back and redo it someday.

Honestly, though, I just freakin’ love animating! They all have their ups and downs andI always put a lot of love into them and find a way to have fun with it and try to push any emotion/theme (when applicable). I like to think it shows, but idk, that’s something I have to leave up to you guys X)

#night answers #about animating #phew there were a lot-!#thanks so much for your interest #hope these answers made sense! :D #Anonymous

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minceofmind-blog · 6 years ago

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Piece of mind

‘This Tumblr is cool but empty’. Thanks to Tumblr for calling me cool even when I have not put up anything yet. My cousin suggested that Tumblr was a good site to blog and I had read a blog on Tumblr a few years back but I noticed it only today that it is 'Tumbler'. I realized it when I read ‘This Tumblr is cool but empty’. Somewhat made me realize how it is similar to the title of this piece ‘Piece of mind’. We are all little tumblers sometimes overflowing, sometimes empty, sometimes half full sometimes half empty and as the going gets confusing more kinds of tumblers keep happening. Little pieces of the whole, like water, poured into different tumblers. I sometimes don’t mind sharing a few of what I have in my Tumblr with the others. I too want to experience pieces of other's minds and share mine with others. Maybe what I want or lack is what the other gives freely and in exchange, we feel the happiness of sharing and receiving, now I sound like Joeys wedding speech :D So I want to put in a piece of my mind into a juicer and pour the juice to my tumbler. As I keep living and experiencing, I will keep sharing and giving with an equal joy of being received and having ;D Joey is the best guy on the show, simple and humble. No clutters no confusions, no fusses. The image that I get when I read my blog title is of pieces of brain and blood on the walls of Iris’s room in Taxi driver. You can understand the meaning of ‘I heard you paint houses’ when you have watched Scorsese or most of the gore gangster movies. I watched Irishman on Netflix, man Al Pacino delivering those dialogs at his age, what strength and power. Where do these guys get all the energy to keep working, I mean Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci, De Niro and Scorsese himself all in their later 70s and still have the focus and power to do big movies. I was checking Polanski’s age, 86 and he is still directing. Woody Allen, Jodorowsky I might be missing out on many from around the world. But what are they eating or doing to gain so much focus on their work? It is like you are so passionate about the work that you keep on the move and don’t stop. Like our very own Amitabh Bachchan, 77 years old and still rolling. I wish everyone could find their respective fields or terrains to keep rolling and keep on rolling not stop. Some enjoy where ever they are rolling. Some sulk because they have to roll for others. What I have experienced is that keeping the mind busy with an activity helps you to ward off negative thoughts and self-degrading ideas. Maybe that’s why grandparents were all on their toes when we visited them because they just wanted to do things for us and other visitors. They wanted to do things for us, cook and serve and tell stories and put the kids to bed. I remember my grandpa would pluck bananas and jackfruits and various types of berries when he knows that I would be visiting for vacations. Even at the age of 80, he would have the energy to do things for his grandchildren.

Love drives us to do things. Love stimulates cells to move, they pick ourselves and get us into doing stuff because it gives us a sense of being. An existential crisis will cry if we keep loving and sharing and giving and receiving. Love runs this world. It is like the children are their parents and grandparent’s piece of artwork. They paint themselves through their next generations, by default through genetics but also by sharing experiences and passing down information. Then their children speak for their parents. But nowadays there is a lot of criticism when it comes to parents advising children and putting pressure to cast themselves into a model that somebody created. Like if Monalisa is a role model, all the parents want their kids to be a Monalisa but each of them is a different painting. So, what’s happening is that starry nights and the scream and the pearl earring girl, shadows in Hopper’s painting are forced to be a large fore headed woman with middle partition hair and a confusing facial expression, it becomes a fucking mess, like many lives these days. Maybe the children won’t take in your best qualities and would rather have something else in themselves that they want to bring out. It’s more like the best works the artist feels they have done by putting their heart and soul in it go unrecognised and the ones they did just for the sake become world-famous. Even with filmmakers, when they are asked which one was their favourite movie to work on, and it would mostly be something that has not worked well with the audience. Maybe they enjoyed the process and it was self-reflective and they got to learn a lot, but it must have not appealed to the masses. So I guess they just have to keep on the move. I watched a video on YouTube channel Green Renaissance about an old man who is a banana farmer and has one key advice ‘Keep on the move!’

So simple and crisp advice. May be old Joey would have the same thing to tell. I am 908 words in the previous sentence and want to have at least a thousand words on my first blog. As I took a break to read what I have written above it looks more like a kid with a pebble in hand throwing it on boxes and there is no end to those boxes. The kid keeps throwing and new boxes keep appearing and the game is still on. (This kid grew up to be Raman Raghav2.0 LOL!!) The kid has learnt to keep on the move and throws the pebbles randomly creating more neuronal pathways. I just googled if there was a word called neuronauts, it seems there is. I don’t know what they do but as the name portrays, it must be something to do with exploring the brain and creating new pathways. Checking on which bridges and high ways need repair and which cities need to be connected well. Cities that were once prosperous and well known for subjects who were loving and sharing but now the city is lost in time as its paths were rerouted to loops for routine efficiency and meeting expectations. There were times when the cells would try to visit the city of interest when not required in loops but then inertia also played to delay transportation and slowly the city of love and sharing faded. It needs to be cleaned of all its rust and get well connected to other cities to function as before. It takes time. When the loop highways are not busy, the roadway worker cells can be deployed to repair the broken parts of the bridges then make the city well connected and prosperous. Maybe we play neuronauts to ourselves.

So self-realised we are, we realise when we study about our bodies. And on the other end, we feel we are lost because the paths keep changing like the stairs in Hogwarts. Both are related and work together. I laze, so the cells feel the happy and sharing city don’t need connection anymore. I work and they are well connected. I seem to have lost track but I enjoyed the flow. I hope I keep up the habit of writing and sharing and keeping on the move.

Bye!

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double-danganronpa-lost-faith · 6 years ago

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DDR:LF Progress Log

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first progress log.

It’s a post where I put all the things I’ve done for the fanganronpa so far that I haven’t posted anywhere; most of them are WIPs or Betas. It also works for me as a way to keep track of how far I’ve come.

Today’s post contains the following:

Character Bios (previously only available in the DR amino) and FAQ

4 WIPs of important CGs (well... more like 2)

3 Different types of Animation Tests

WIP/Beta of the GUI Design

Next objectives

If you’re interested in checking this post, keep reading it down below!

By the way, feel free to join the fangan’s discord server by going to this link https://discordapp.com/invite/aSd6PN4 ^^ with that being said, let’s begin the post~!

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Character Bios and FAQ

To start this blog AND this post on a right note, I’m finally posting on tumblr the character bios, which means you can now access to the information from each member of the cast of DDR:LF, which was previously only available in amino. You can find them in this post.

As for the other part, I wrote a FAQ with the main sort of questions there could be about the fangan. Feel free to give it a read here if you want to know about some basic stuff about the project, and if you still have doubts, please do send an ask! I’ll gladly answer it ^^

WIPs of CGs

You didn’t think that the only drawing I was working on were sprites, right?

In today’s post, here are some CGs WIPs that I didn’t get around to finish yet (since their priority is below the character sprites, but it’s a nice change instead of doing sprites 24/7).

First, the pre-trial CGs!

There are some expressions/positions that I might be willing to change, although that’ll come in later when I gotta sit down to finish these. But yeah, later. (Also, just to be clear, I drew these waaay back, so the designs might not match the current ones).

In a trial, depending the type of chapter, the 1st CG and 3rd one will switch places. The one that appears last will be the one that contains the protagonist whose POV we are witnessing.

Second, one of every prologue’s main CGs. “The killing game has begun!”

Looks of doubt and deceith are flying across the room! Who will make it through the end of the day? And who’ll be left behind~?

It might seem pretty basic without them being colored, but hopefully it’ll look better in the future!

Animation Tests

Man, this was a lot of fun to work on, and it was all worth it! I hope you all enjoy these as much as I did while trying to materialize these concepts!

#1 - Prologue Title Card

Every chapter of this story has a title card, just like the original danganronpa games. In the case of DDR:LF, this is more or less what each card will look like.

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It’s kinda basic; elements being added to the screen here and there, as well as some silhouettes appearing.

What are these silhouettes, you might ask? It’s none other than the cast of the fangan, but it’s not just anybody who’s randomly picked. The silhouettes belong to the victims and the murderers of the current chapter, so for example, chapter 1 will have the silhouette of the 1st victim and the 1st murderer, but it’ll be modified enough for the silhouette to not be easily recognizable; nobody wants to get spoiled the deaths right at the start of the chapter, right?

Of course, the prologue is an exception... maybe.

A bit of the BGM was done by me, while some other elements of it were taken off from royalty free sound effects/melodies websites.

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#2 - Pixel Execution

As you all know, there’s always a pixel animation that starts off an execution. I have that too, of course! and in order to avoid spoilers + show you what I was able to do, I put myself in the place of the culprit. (I swear I didn’t kill off anyone yet... only after the fangan has started I’ll be considered guilty).

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The background music was also composed entirely by me, although in the future it might change- but I don’t really know for certain, so get used to this for now :)

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#3 - Execution style test

I’ve recently downloaded the program Live2D, and what for? For executions, no less! After trying it for a while, I’ve concluded that it’d simplify my job a lot more than if I used sony vegas for animating the executions (not to mention it looks smoother with this new one).

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For this test, I’ve used Seiji as my puppet. It might be simple, but it was to test out the limits of the program. It turned out really good imo! So I’ve decided to use Live2D to animate the executions (or at least, do most parts of them with it). I learnt some stuff while experimenting around with the program, so next time I’ll finish these sort of things even faster probably.

Also I put it on loop because a 2 second video is rather sad.

GUI Design

Now, I'll admit that I'm not the best at GUI design, but I tried my best to come up with my own design for the fanganronpa's interface, which I made based on a water-ish looking theme. The (not final) result of that is the picture below.

In case that you’re wondering, no, this isn’t any sort of canon conversation. It’s just the phrase I could come up with.

And yes, the background is from V3; I don't have any backgrounds at all for the project yet lol.

The sun and the fish on the top right corner will change depending on the time of day; but that's something that I'll keep to myself until the moment I start posting the story.

I have conflicted feelings with this GUI though, I don't know if I like it or not. It looks somewhat good but still off at the same time? Although it might just be me. If anyone has any feedback or suggestion for the GUI's design, the inbox is always open to receive such help!

So what's next?

Currently, I have loads of assignments at college, so it's kinda hard to make a balance between the project, social life and college work. However, the project is something that won’t stop.

The fangan has only one member, which is me of course; that means it’s going at a slow pace. I'm willing to make a recruitment for help, but that’ll be later once I have the basics to let someone else help me. If you’re willing to volunteer for this project, keep heads eyes up for the day I call out for help.

In the past, I tried to learn how to program with unity, but it’s hard to follow it up when the free tutorials are scattered here and there. When I have free time and everything art-related has been set up, I might try to pick it up again. I say might because I’m gonna start a tiny course for unreal engine at college. Maybe with the basics that they teach there, I’ll be able to do a better/quicker job than if I did it with unity (which I have 0 experience with). But the future is uncertain, so I’ll be the judge of that once I’m done with that course!

With that being said... as of now, the next objectives for the project (not ordered by priority) are the following:

Finishing Default Sprites.

I only have 7 default sprites done out of the 16 students, and I’m already working on the 8th. Half-way there?

Concept Art for each Room/Place.

While I have written down all the places in each dome, there are some that I need to draw the concept of the place, since the idea in my mind keeps changing them, I should settle them down.

Finishing Writing the Prologue and the Basics of Chapter 1.

I mean I already have like a half of these two things or more, but since I keep changing it, they never get any actual progress. Maybe I should learn to let it be as it is lol.

Creating 3D Assets.

Of course, I’ll make the 3D models for the rooms and props... well, I might do them; that is if I can’t find anyone that can make them. Pros of this is that I can do things exactly how I want them; cons are that it takes time and I’m not an expert in 3D modeling.

Trial GUI.

Class trials in danganronpa have a different GUI than the one used outside of them. We have a beta for the general GUI up there, now we need one for the class trial’s as well!

Concept Art for... a Trial Thing.

It’s no surprise that there are special things in fanganronpas, such as making changes to certain game mechanics, or creating completely new ones. The one I’m refering to in this case is a change to an already existing mechanic in the DR games. Can you guess which one it is~?

Splash Art.

During the first year of birthdays, I drew some sketches for the characters; those are the base for their future splash art.

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And last (and currently least important)

Recruiting Volunteers for the Project.

Obviously, I can’t do everything in this project by myself. In the future, once I have made a base for every ground of the project, I’ll recruit people that can work from there. Artists (GUI,CG and Sprite), Compositors, and 3D modelers are the ones that I’ll be looking for in this recruitment. In an even-later recruitment, I’ll make a casting call for voice actors as well. Please be patient though!

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I suppose that’s it for this very long post. It took more days than expected to put everything together, but at last I can release it now!

Now, June and July are pretty busy months at college, so unfortunatelly the progress will slow down a lot more than usual for the next few weeks. Thanks for sticking around this project despite the long road it has ahead! ^^

See you all in the next post! And if you read this entire thing, thank you for your interest in the fangan! <3

#progress log #double danganronpa lost faith #byu talks #wips #tests

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep16

I know I’ve said this before, but I hope everyone who complained about the first half of Gou not being gory enough is happy now, lmao.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut [plus some spoilers for Umineko, probably]

I probably should have expected this episode to be even more brutal than the last one after how suspiciously happy the preview images were, but I don’t think anyone could have guessed just how this was gonna go.

There’s a lot to say about the plot of this episode and what it says about the overall mystery, but one way or another most people’s reactions to this inevitably tie back to the question of how appropriate the horror content and it’s framing was, so I may as well give my two cents on that first.

Basically I thought it was fine, lol. It served a very clear purpose. It’s entirely valid for people to genuinely dislike it or want to skip it, but the very fact that it caused such a strong reaction in people is kinda also the entire reason why the scene existed. And why all of the other notably violent parts of the whole franchise existed in the first place. So at some point it kinda just feels like the whole argument is about the merits and ethics of gory horror in general, especially when it happens to children, which is it’s own whole broader topic.

Either way, I think it’s interesting how this whole episode’s approach to horror contrasts with the last episode, and how they both set out to do similar but different things. Ep15 was about brief flashes of intense, shocking violence to create a sense of suffocating confusion and isolation, and to hammer in the fact that Rika is truly stuck in an eternal loop of death, while this episode was more about one act of violence being dragged out over a horrifically long time that makes it feel more like outright torture than just murder.

It’s also kinda interesting that it was themed around the ritualistic murder of the Watanagashi festival, since this is the first time in Gou we’ve actually seen it like this.

Anyway, even though this episode feels like it basically laid out the entire story, I still feel a bit skeptical about a lot of it, lol. It feels almost too good to be true, with how thoroughly everything seemed to get laid out, and we already know that we have like eight whole episodes left to the show. So I doubt things are that simple.

It at least comes across now like this whole loop is Satoko torturing Rika as punishment for leaving the village, after probably getting time looping powers by someone who at least claims to be Oyashiro-sama, but even if we take all that at face value, I don’t think it answers everything about the story. If anything, Satoko’s side of the story makes it sound more like she’s being used as the tool of a greater mastermind, and we also already saw in this episode how she was going L5 in her own way, so she doesn’t exactly seem like she’s entirely in charge of the situation.

If she’s at least telling the truth about everything, and she really did start this loop after watching Rika leave the village as a teenager, I guess what probably happened is that Lambda decided to give Satoko her blessing by posing as Oyashiro-sama, as a way to ultimately get Rika/Bern trapped in the loop again. I still think it might be kinda unsatisfying if that’s basically all the culprit’s motive boils down to, but I do like the idea of this tying in Lambda as well.

I do think that Satoko probably really has been looping this whole time, and been the one to set up at least most of the new tragedies, but a lot of it still feels kinda iffy to me. For one thing, in this episode she seemed to have no problem with killing Rika herself, which seems to disprove the idea that Satoko might have been making different people go L5 in order to avoid being discovered by Rika. Even if she only changed her methods after Rika started being able to remember her deaths, this episode still happens well after that point, so if Satoko’s aware of all that, she doesn’t seem to mind having Rika remember being killed by her. So it makes me wonder why exactly she’d bother going out of her way to make random people go L5 if she could just do it herself this whole time. There’s always the option of ‘Lambda/Oyashiro-sama told her to do it that way’, but that’d just be kinda lame, lol.

It also makes me think again about Satoko’s suspicion toward Keiichi in Watadamashi, and how even after Rika died she ended up going to the Sonozaki estate and dying for some reason or another. If Satoko was responsible for Rika’s death in that arc, and her whole goal is just to punish her, I don’t really get why she’d bother trying to pin the blame on Keiichi afterward, and what reason she’d have to go to the Sonozaki estate afterward. I also still doubt that Satoko could have even killed Rika in that arc, since she was playing dodgeball with some of the other kids [and maybe Keiichi as well between episodes], who could have all said so if she had just randomly left to go kill Rika in the middle of their game.

It just feels like her whole goal should have already been fulfilled by that point in Watadamashi if she’s the one that killed Rika, and she shouldn’t have had any reason to bother with anything else afterward. Even if she tried to blame Keiichi for it just to direct the immediate blame off of herself, I really don’t see why she would have bothered going to the Sonozaki estate. Unless it was literally just some random unfortunate coincidence like what happens to Satoko in Watanagashi/Meakashi, I guess.

I also have to wonder what reason she’d have in Tataridamashi to lead Keiichi to her house to get attacked/murdered if her whole goal is just to punish Rika. A lot of her actions in that arc in general are just kinda weird, if you assume that she is indeed the main culprit.

Onidamashi is also kinda interesting, since there��s no real reason to assume that she had much of any involvement in like 99% of what actually happened in that arc. In theory she could have been pushing Rena to go L5 behind the scenes, but with how closely that whole arc seemed to mirror Tsumihoroboshi, I don’t think she even really needed to go out of her way to make things end up the way they did. Which makes the idea of her involvement in that arc seem kinda irrelevant at the end of the day.

It seems pretty likely at this point that she killed Rika at the end of the arc, but that also just happened at literally the last minute, and we can only guess how exactly what whole scene must have played out. The murder method is at least different to the one in this episode. I’ve seen some speculation that maybe Satoko tried to talk things out with Rika and things just went really badly, and that ended up being the start of Satoko getting more and more violent with her methods, which might make sense.

I just can’t help but feel like there’s more to the mysteries going on than just what we got shown in this episode, especially since we don’t know what exactly the deal is with Satoko getting divine messages from Oyashiro-sama. It just feels like there’s a higher mastermind manipulating things.

There’s also still the whole question of why the statue seems to be in a different state to how it was in the VN, and why the sword got stolen from it. It’d be easy enough to explain how Satoko could know about the statue and how to access it, but nothing she said here indicated anything to do with that. Her motives seem to be entirely about punishing Rika for leaving the village, so I’m not sure about the idea of her going back in time to avoid breaking the hand on the statue to avoid getting cursed by Oyashiro-sama.

It also sticks out to me even more after this episode that the sword hasn’t actually been used for anything, in spite of clearly being stolen by someone. If the culprit wanted to use it for ritualistic murdering purposes, this would have been the perfect opportunity for that, but Satoko just used the ceremonial hoe thing from the festival.

I also doubt that Satoko would even know anything about the sword and it’s purpose. It could just be another case of ‘the real mastermind is telling her what to do’, but there’s nothing concrete to really point at that.

Even though I could see Lambda being behind this, I’m also still really suspicious of Hanyuu. She’s basically the only person we’ve seen who actually talks about knowing what the sword is, and it’s entirely possible that she was the one to reach out to Satoko instead, considering that Satoko said that she was contacted by Oyashiro-sama, who we already know is more or less Hanyuu. I can at least imagine how this might be some elaborate move on Hanyuu’s part to try and bring Rika back into the village to stay with her longer. But who knows.

Anyway, the whole debate introduced in this episode of whether or not Rika should leave the village, and how it was a ‘sin’ for her to want to leave, reminds me a lot of basically everything from Umineko, with Battler constantly struggling with the question of whether or not to give into the idea of witches existing, and the mystery of what his sin was that he’s being punished for. But in a lot of ways this feels even more cruel than Umineko’s whole gameboard. Beatrice genuinely wanted to give Battler every opportunity to solve the mystery, and she set up the gameboard accordingly, but it feels like Gou’s whole ‘gameboard’ is just designed to beat Rika into submission in the most forceful way possible. The culprit doesn’t seem particularly interested in letting Rika ‘win’, they just seem to want to torture her for her sins.

The last episode was it’s own whole example of Gou feeling much more sadistic toward Rika than Umineko ever was toward Battler, but this episode’s loop seemed to take things another step further with having Rika get screwed over as soon as humanly possible. It’s not 100% clear, but it comes across to me like Rika literally woke up in that loop for the first time at the start of this episode when Satoko had already drugged and disemboweled her, which would really just go to show how Rika’s not being given any time at all to try and win. Matsuribayashi was described as a chess board where she got to start with all of her pawns advanced to the final row at the start of the game, but Gou is quickly feeling like a chess board where her king has been knocked out before she gets to make her first move.

I guess if the culprit’s motive really is just to torture Rika for her sins, it makes sense that they’re not even trying to make this into a ‘fair game’ of any kind, but it still feels noteworthy.

This episode also ends with Takano showing up to talk to Rika about stuff, so I guess that whole part of the plot is about to get delved into once and for all in the next episode, lol.

For better or worse this episode seems to confirm that Rika has remembered Takano’s whole role in things from the very start of Gou, but I still think that it’d be genuinely bad writing to have that be the case, and to then have her just . . . not act on any of that knowledge on-screen until now. With how much they’ve focused recently on Rika being completely confused about her situation and why people keep going L5 and killing her, it’s hard to imagine why she wouldn’t at least assume that Takano’s still behind it, and do SOMETHING to try and deal with her. But instead it just comes across like Rika’s spent this whole time being like ‘wow, I wonder why people keep going L5 unnaturally . . . . . where has this ever happened before . . . . . . . . guess I’ll just die lol’. At the end of the day I know it’d just be due to them not wanting to immediately spoil new fans about Takano, but if they were going to get to this sort of point anyway, it just seems like them hindering the storytelling for no good reason.

But that also just gets into the whole fact that trying to set this up like it’s a remake that’s accessible for new fans is ultimately kinda pointless since that’s turning out to not really be the case, so they could have just avoided issues like ‘Rika isn’t allowed to actually act upon any of her knowledge about the entire mystery and solution of the story because it’d be a spoiler for new fans’ by just committing to treating this as a sequel from the start.

Which is why I’ve been hoping that we’d find out that Rika actually hasn’t been aware of Takano’s whole deal this whole time, since it’d explain why she hasn’t acted upon it, but at this point I may as well accept defeat on that one, lol.

If the next episode does end up spelling out basically everything to do with Takano’s involvement in the plot, which seems to be what they’re setting up, I feel like it’ll be a real make or break point in terms of what Gou is even trying to be, and whether it’s writing decisions up to this point have been worth it, or if it’s been trying to have it’s cake and eat it too.

Anyway, since it’d be boring at this point to have Takano be the villain again, she’s probably going to be innocent this time around. Though I dunno if that’d be due to her having a genuine change of heart as a result of Matsuribayashi, like how Shion’s character development carried over after Meakashi, or if she’s just been getting stopped from completing her goal in each of Gou’s loops.

Mostly I just worry that she’ll wind up info-dumping lots of stuff on the audience that alienates new fans super hard by making it obvious that she used to be the villain, and she had her own entire character arc and stuff, but she’d already been dealt with and now things have changed and she’s on Rika’s side now. But I can’t really imagine how else it’d go.

One way or another it seems pretty likely that the next episode will be the end of the current loop, unless Nekodamashi is going to cover the entirety of this second cour. If we have another arc left after this, that’ll probably be it’s own loop. Which makes me wonder if anything that happens between Rika and Takano here would carry over into the next loop, or if she’ll just use the info she gets from Takano in this loop to do stuff in the next one.

I’m not even entirely sure what they could do with another whole seven episode arc after this one, since it kinda feels like we’re quickly barreling towards the endgame, lol. I’m still hoping that Gou gets into Rena and Shion’s backstories instead of just leaving them in the VN, but at this point I think the rest of the show is probably going to be centered more around Rika, Satoko, and Takano.

Also, since we have another whole eight episodes left to go, I’m pretty sure that the whole deal with Rika basically getting Stockholm Syndrome toward Hinamizawa isn’t the final message we’re going to leave on. It feels more like she’s giving into what the culprit wants, and Takano will probably end up motivating her to fight back against her fate.

I think it’s probably not going to be quite as black and white as ‘it’s entirely good that Rika wants to abandon Hinamizawa as soon as possible’, but I also don’t think it’s trying to push the idea that she deserves all this punishment just for wanting that. It feels more like Ange’s whole character arc in Umineko, and how she has to find a healthy balance between acknowledging the good parts of her family and also acknowledging their crimes. Rika has a lot of completely valid reasons for wanting to ditch the village as fast as possible, but Satoko probably still felt genuinely abandoned by her because of it, without Rika realizing how it’d affect her.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi gou #I actually liked this episode a lot but the shift in tone between the first three arcs and this one is kinda hilarious at this point

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