#Fang Baskerville

[fivekrystalpetals]

[this is mostly a repost of this chain of reblogs bc I had a few more things to add after rt.93+, wanted to have all of it in one place easy to read instead of adding one more rb to that chain, nobody talks about Lottie in general :( etc. etc.]

1] Lottie's real character

—is not the whole 'bloodlusty-sadistic-femme-fatale' persona she puts up but something close to this—

—the moment she sees a strange ragged child, a newcomer to her house on top of that, her first instinct is to go: "oh no, you are so dirty... come over here I will clean you all up."

then she goes on to console Lily for everything that happened in her life and explains why none of it was her fault—

Everyone here's gone through similar trials... but at the same time, it warps 'something' in people around you.

I am so curious about Lottie's past (on one hand, I am sad I won't ever have an answer; on the other I am happy bc I can make up whatever backstory I want for her!) because she says this as a matter-of-fact, like she (and everyone there) has experienced her share of trauma and abuse so can easily relate to Lily (also, please look at Lily's cute little adoring this-lady-is-so-cool face and her round, neatly combed mop of hair lol)

Lottie is a caring, motherly, nurturing person from her heart. This isn't even big-sisterly; she just straight up adopts a child that appeared at her doorsteps. At first, I thought her sweet character got warped after her traumatic experiences from the Tragedy of Sablier, but actually no. She still is the same, she simply suppresses it for the sake of her persona.

Because, here in Retrace 34, her first instinct on seeing Vincent beat up Echo was to confront him about it:

and she gets angry too when Vincent very coolly replies that he was taking out his pent up frustration on Echo.

However, then, she slowly relents, probably making up her mind not to interfere any more in his personal business because it was doubtless more important to keep Vincent on their side than making an enemy out of him.

annnd yet, she still voluntarily offers to accompany Zwei on her assigned mission to Sablier. because she is worried about her running off somewhere by herself. Practically a mom, I am telling you

.

and yeah, something else to add on here: the reason I say her Sadistic Sexy Girl persona is fake,, because she doesn't seem to enjoy the attention men 'give' her at all. two times iirc: when Vincent and Break grope at her without her proper consent, she appears highly uncomfortable. (or, it could only be dubcon at the best ig (also see: Lacie who was requested for her 'permission' in Glen's 'experiment' by the Glen himself. It is mentioned time and again that Baskervilles' can't go against the Glen's wishes,, implying her 'permission' was merely a formality))

See this, her first instinct is to irritably slap away Vincent's hand when he so much as touches her hair (Retrace 34):

But Vincent ignores her and continues to grope at her body.... with her finally giving in. Or rather, she was shown to be very shocked and annoyed all of those three panels before she abruptly switches to her 'sadist' persona.

With Break, I don't know how she would have reacted if he pressed on but since he pulled away, she went from being annoyed and uncomfortable to ending up more confused about what was going on (Retrace 41)

on the whole, I feel like on returning from the Abyss after a hundred years and finding that the Baskervilles had been replaced in the society and condemned to being barbarians and mass murderers, the survivors had to obviously collect more information about what really had happened. They had to find their master Glen as well. Hence, she assumed this persona to achieve her objectives—using her face and body to lure in possible informants. Also, when she needs to interrogate 'weaker' men, she simply uses it to scare them and get what she wants (sorry Oz, don't mean to dunk on you but you are the example here lmao). Like how Break clowns around so that people don't take him seriously. but.... that's not what she is, nowhere near what she is, and that's why she is so uncomfortable when men voluntarily make advances at her.

2] Lottie's smart observations

—because, many a time, it's because of her observations I started to think in an entirely new track.

in fact, the first time I started to pay closer attention to Jack's words is because of this panel (Retrace 27)—

Till then, I simply took it for granted that Jack Vessalius was a celebrated war hero, that Glen Baskerville was the one that caused the massacre which Jack put a stop to by killing his friend etc. etc.

But when Lottie pointed this out, I started to wonder if there was indeed something more to the whole Tragedy than that meets the eye. Well, honestly, calling a war hero a hero is in itself not all right but now when I realize what Jack was actually up to, it doesn't surprise me that he had no proper answer to Lottie's accusation here. He simply scares her off saying the Baskervilles won't be any match to B-Rabbit, to which, at the time I was reading this chapter, I went— okaaay? and what's that to do anything with anything?

He doesn't answer anything with regards to Glen because, apparently, he was trying to protect his dear friend's honor (bullshit); he says this to Glen's loyal followers as if they are gonna desert Glen or something. They stayed and still searched for him even after he gave the orders to kill everyone in Sablier so Jack, what's your point?

Next is here (Retrace 46)—

the first time I read this statement, do you know my mind directly went: oh, does this mean Vincent is the Head Hunter? Because if the Baskervilles don't know who the Head Hunter is but she is helping them out (in other words, in league with them), won't this narrow it down to Vincent? plus, he did kill Phillipe's dad (within the excuse of not wanting him to be dragged into the Abyss) with the chain which had connections to the Head Hunter case they were investigating.

But then, Vincent went on to say the Head Hunter attacked Gil too (which he couldn't have possibly done), and that he would be the one to slay her, and.... I entirely dropped that line of thought. Afterward, we went through the whole seesaw of whether or not Elliot is the Head Hunter to finally getting revealed Vincent was the true Head Hunter after all and I was like: ah, my first hunch was right after all... (ノへ￣、)

In the same chapter, here too:

Vincent (who is one of the smartest characters in the story) commends her on picking up things super fast. So does Break when she directly questions him about his words from the other day (Retrace 52):

Next, this one might be a bit of a weak argument but I think, of all people, it was only Charlotte who never fell for Jack's charms. In her past memories, it is shown that she didn't trust him at all. He enraged her, in fact. Yes, this whole scene is played off for gags but.... tl;dr, is that she questions him every time he enters their mansion without any particular permission or intention (Retrace 27)

and see here too:

She is shocked when she comes to know that Glen had let in Jack, an outsider, on to their secrets. Well, we have Jack here denying that he was at all interested in Glen's affairs but we later on realize that was not the case. That Jack was very much interested in Glen's affairs. So, Lottie's instincts ring true every time,,

(I was wondering why Lottie didn't know Jack at all since that guy has been loitering around the Baskerville Mansion since forever but that too was explained. she became a Baskerville after Lacie was cast into the Abyss, Oswald became Glen and Jack fell into his depression.)

but here, here (Retrace 87) can we talk about how smart Lottie is in this scene? (I love you, Break! but this post is about Lottie so I am gonna leave you out; I have made a separate post for you and your badass ways so there, there,)

Had it not been for Shirley, Break might have lost here, died even,, because what she says is right. He is fighting but he has not at all healed from his previous injuries (which, thanks to Vincent, got aggravated, seriously what's the sewer rat's problem?!),, so he is fighting for and with his life. Using his chain only adds to burden that his body can't take. lol, and so what a simple logic she uses-- just stay away from him by a certain distance, out of Mad Hatter's range and don't throw your chains against it either. He would self-destruct by himself ;-; Break looks so annoyed here, he must have realized that her logic would work.

3] Lottie is NOT a blind, stupid Glen fangirl/follower

As I mentioned in the 2 section, she is the only one that questions the intentions of Glen-sama's 'one and only friend' Jack who loiters about the Baskerville grounds for a lot of no reason;

similarly, she is the one who first hesitates at Oswald/Glen's actions after his taking over Leo's body and on a regret-fuelled warpath of probably more disastrous outcomes from changing the past than the Tragedy of Sablier.

Look at her, she is horrified at the way Glen killed that man, even skewering a sword through his mouth in his last moments (Retrace 81):

Yes, it is true that Pandora can not be easily cleansed of their brainwashing by Jack and misunderstanding of the Tragedy of Sablier but.... this was too ruthless and too cruel a murder of an innocent person. I think this is the first time she starts to question if Glen was really doing the right thing. (Even, I wonder if she gets flashbacks to the Tragedy of Sablier like Vincent bc she looks visibly shaken here)

Also, back in Retrace 79, she is right by Glen's side and even comically annoyed at Gil and Oz's escape and at Rufus for hiding while Raven attacked the place, so it didn't seem like she was questioning Glen at the time. Maybe, her first instance of hesitation was at Glen's immediate decision to get Gil killed, Gil who is one of them and was once Glen's valet. I don't know but she did seem to me to be a lot shaken there as well.

And not only now, back then, too. A 100 years ago. Yes, in front of Glen, it was Fang who openly questioned Glen's decision to kill all humans in and around Sablier but Lottie too was equally shocked to hear it (Retrace 27)

(Well, back then, it is true Oswald had no choice but to go ahead with killing all humans to save them from breaking away from the 100-years cycle or getting turned into chains (although I am writing a post on how a lot of the tragedy could have been avoided had he not been so passive; when I finish, I will link it here) but not in the present.)

Back to Lottie--

In the previous chapter (Retrace 26), she tells Oz that Glen's orders are absolute and the Baskervilles are 'built' to obey them. Her mannerisms show us (and Oz) that she has no remorse in killing all those people and is, in fact, super gleeful about the massacre and the role she played in it ("Aah, it feels like only yesterday", she says, as if she is nostalgic and thirsty for more bloodshed.)

However, this.... is all a huge lie.

Maybe, she thinks it will be easier to get an answer out of a hostage if she behaves cruel and threatening. Maybe, she is trying to hide her own regrets and guilt by putting up the mask of a psychopathic killer. Maybe, she feels there is no point in trying to justify their actions from a 100-years ago (something the Baskervilles themselves don't understand properly) to the citizens in the present, because, no matter what, they won't understand their stance and look upon them as barbarians and murderers, so it'd be as well to accept it.

Whatever be the case, the truth is: (Retrace 98)

What is this...? What exactly have we gotten ourselves into....?!

Lottie scolds Fang for even harboring a thought like one of their family has turned traitor, ultimately breaks down and cries in his arms. Plus, the Baskervilles themselves were scared of Jack and his chain-killing-chain (they didn't know it was Jack at the time) but they knew that someone, a human contractor or maybe one among themselves, had turned on them. Fang was so relieved to see Lottie alive. He feared she too might have fallen at the hands of the traitor, who had killed off many of the almost immortal Baskervilles assigned to be the messengers to and from Glen. I suppose had those messengers managed to reach Lottie and co., they would have known the real reason behind Glen's orders to kill the humans (if you see Retrace 74-pg. 29 (not adding that panel too) Glen does explain his decision to a red-hooded Baskerville, who I presume was killed by Jack on their way to the others)

Having said all this, I can't not add this panel bc this too is canon *face palm*

4] Lottie's views on living and death

This is a bit difficult to explain but there's a lot of stuff about this in spite of her few appearances (gotta read between the lines), so let's start with this panel:

while reading this for the first time, I thought she is talking about the Tragedy of Sablier. I am not so sure now. Because, although they killed lots of people, it was not for their own gain at all. It was to save those people from a fate worse than death. But, in this chapter (Retrace 25), Lottie doesn't yet know why Glen had asked them to commit the massacre so.... she must have bought the common (Jack-fed) tale that Glen wanted the Intention of the Abyss for his own gain. In a way, she is still trying to convince herself that their crimes on that fateful day were justified.

It's impossible to keep on living without hurting anybody, okay?

What I mean is this should be her own idea of life—that living is cut-throat and unfair. If we simply do nothing, then others will trample all over us and use us to achieve their own goals. Even if we try to live a life without hurting others, the same need not always be reciprocated. (which is exactly what went down between Jack and Glen jkjkgsjk but Lottie doesn't know lol)

I feel like the whole conversation hints more at her past than her days with the Baskervilles, because, even prior to that, the topic she was discussing with Oz... had nothing to do with the Baskervilles or the Tragedy. She was merely curious why Oz surrendered so fast when Ada was with him and why he wasn't fighting back right now. Thinking about it, Oz underwent a tremendous character development from a This-is-Fine, If-I-do-Nothing-I-will-be-Fine attitude to actively fighting back for his friends and family. Retrace 82, when he finally wrestles the control out of Jack's hands in spite of his constant taunting that nothing could belong to someone like Oz. In a way, he did take Lottie's advice and act upon it.

Lottie has the right hunch about most things. Remember this scene (Retrace 75):

I wonder what her life before joining the Baskervilles was like because she sure has tons of worldly experience and can easily see through people. Just like that, she offers words and advice that people (here, Oz) needed to hear.

.

I believe this is also the reason why her reaction to Break was quite... different compared to little Lily's outburst whenever she spotted him that they gotta kill him and get revenge for Fang.

For one, yes, she knows Fang passed with a smile on his face and was freed from his burden. She was relieved for him. But I also think she doesn't want revenge on Break because of this very principle of life. Fang died protecting Lily. It was a fair fight, a fight for life where if one even slightly falters, they are gonna get killed. It was not like Break had an advantage there; it was not like Fang was gonna go easy on Break had he given in or something,, (compared to Glen's killing of those Pandora men, where he had an overwhelming powerful chain, ig those men were mostly unarmed too idk)

And of all people, it was Lottie who finally ended that cycle of vengeance that started with Reim and Lily. Remember how it went?

Lily kills two of Reim's companions -> Reim seeks revenge and shoots Lily in the head -> Lily didn't die instead she attacks Reim -> Break arrives at the spot (coz of Vincent), jumps to conclusion that Reim is dead and seeks revenge -> in the fight that ensues Fang dies and Break gets grievously injured -> Lily wants revenge for Fang (in the meantime, Vincent reopens Break's half-healed wound from then) -> in the fight between Break and the Baskervilles, he gets even more exhausted bc of his chain (the reason he went all out was for Sharon getting slightly hit in the head btw) -> finally, Break dies but Lily isn't satisfied, she wants to cut up his body -> Reim offers her to shoot him instead bc he was the one that started it in the first place

Had Lily killed Reim here, this cycle could have gone on forever (maybe, Sharon might seek revenge next lol)

side note: from this, I realize that Break acts a lot more out of emotion than Lottie; Fang was equally important to Lottie like Reim or Sharon were to Break. Yet, she decided to put an end to the cycle of vengeance and accept Reim's offered hand of friendship. Supposing if Reim and Fang were the ones that died back then and Break lived in the end, would he have agreed to ally with the Baskervilles? I doubt...? (Another thought with no real proof is that she'd already been thinking of working with the protagonists ever since Break asked of her (remember, she was the one curious about his words) but that's a topic for another post ghjshgjs I promise it won't be shippy lol)

Back to the topic, I am genuinely surprised that she didn't hold the slightest grudge against Break. I understand allying with the protagonists for they are pursuing the same goal but she really didn't have to stop and say such a sweet prayer for his soul, a man who killed her friend after all:

May your soul return to this Earth.... once it has completed its hundred years cycle.

She is promising him to see Oz and the others through to the end in his place! Something he was regretting at the very brink of death, that he didn't have it in him anymore to continue on the path with them,, so whether he can or not hear her, this sure was a reassurance he needed to hear. (As I said before, she just..... knows what to say, she can easily see through people but I don't think it is appreciated enough ;_;)

And here comes in her views of death and the Hundred Years cycle (reincarnation) of the soul, something she takes very seriously (she should, considering they are the servants of the Abyss) and I believe she is of the view that demise needs to be respected, no matter friend or enemy. Now, do you see why she was so horrified at Glen stabbing a sword through the man's throat while he lay there dying? A close example I can give is that of Chuuya from BSD rebuking Dazai for shooting bullets at a corpse. They might have killed lots but they still know to respect the dead/dying.

This went so long--and I will go on and on about Lottie lol (I even reached the 30 image limit ig idk) so I will end here with Charlotte reconciling with her master and assuring him that she will support Leo in his place. This is the first time she has visible tears in her eyes:

[choujinx]

PANDORA HEARTS (2006-2015) by mochizuki jun

[lilium-dragomir]

[mushroompollution]

in addition to a Keeping Up With the Nightrays reality show prequel I also really need a slice of life Modern Family spin off about the Baskervilles

[existingtm]

BREAKING NEWS: Re-reading Pandora Hearts a mistake for my well-being!!!! More at 5!!!

[kitxkatrp]

Muse BIO: Fang Baskerville

BIO can be found here. Fang Baskerville is the most calm and collected member of the Baskervilles. He is very protective of the other Baskervilles and in canon this led to his own unfortunate death protecting Lily.

[briebysabs]

PH ~Complaints~

This is the first of several pieces I will be making about this series. Reading Pandora hearts was an experience to say the least and I wanted to organize my thoughts into separate categories, because it’s too much to post out normally. Also I’m insane and I think it’ll be fun for me at least. These posts will contain spoilers but maybe it’ll spark people’s love for the series. Maybe it’ll get people to buy the manga volumes. Maybe the stars will align and it manifests an anime reboot (delusional).

With that out of the way, we will start with my complaints and nitpicks of the series. Which isn't a lot but there will be explaining to do here. As a disclaimer, these are things that I found worth mentioning and may not be any issues you had reading. I am going off my initial reading of ph too so if I miss anything, don’t come at me lol.

-> The most notable complaint I need to talk about first is early ph. But I bring it up because this is the main thing that can turn people away from the series. “The early chapters are slow” is a complaint I heard before starting ph. Upon looking back, it wasn’t necessarily slow for me and I enjoyed those parts. But when reading, it was chaotic and felt like nothing was moving. It felt like we were rushing to nowhere. I took several breaks because it was so overwhelming. And I wasn’t reading them physically but off of sites, I know a lot of you remember Bezarius, Liam, Shalon lol. The wonky translations in the early chapters aren’t mochijun’s fault of course, but it didn’t help matters for me.

So much information was jam-packed with an already intricate story. And granted, later on in the 50s-60s chaps, the world makes more sense. But when you haven’t gotten to that point, it’s a lot to take in. You can compare early parts of ph and vnc to see exactly what I mean. VnC’s introductory chapters are much more polished. And some stories work better that way but in ph’s case for me, the direction wasn’t clear. I mean you know the objective, finding Alice’s memories but after that it was just a bunch of “huh???” It wasn't until we met Elliot and Leo, eventually Rufus that everything became more coherent. And you can argue, “yeah you’re supposed to be confused” which is valid but it was a bit messy for me, and I know it's inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

But not only was it confusing and can be perceived as slow (though again not for me), these chapters are long. Certainly not a complaint, I loved having long chapters. But if you’re confused af, you feel as though the plot isn’t moving, and you have these long chapters to add. I see why people may drop the series because “it’s too convoluted and the author doesn’t know what they’re trying to say.” I don’t agree with that but I understand if they weren’t able to go past chapter 35 or something. But we all must remember this was mochijun's first real series. So I understand as well why its beginnings aren't that grounded and can forgive that.

->The second complaint is that there wasn't enough characterization of the Baskervilles squad (as in Lottie and her gang I'm excluding Zwei here) as individuals. What do I mean by this? You can say “well they weren’t that important” which I kinda disagree with because they were the antagonists we were worrying about for half of the story as they searched for their leader Glen.

We got depth given to them as a group, we see that there is a genuine, familial bond. I wanted to know their past or backstories and the most we got from was Lily. You can say we got Lottie too but I don't know I was left wanting more. We know Doug and Fang got Lily’s tattoo in solidarity which is my favorite moment from the squad. But who are they y’know? Fang had such a cool design, how did he join the Baskervilles? Doug is a nothing character. I haven’t read the light novels so these questions could be answered there but having read the manga, we should’ve gotten more.

-> Going from that, the whole Glen thing. Again, might be explained more in the light novels but from manga content, I wish we got more explanations and lore. Who was the first Glen? Who is Levi? He���s someone who we deserved more insight into and what made him so detached.

-> I wish we had more chain on chain fights. I read somewhere that mochijun had struggles mapping out action scenes so they were kept to a minimum. But I think due to that, we don't get to see the true extent of these chains' powers. And yes, Break's condition prevented him from using his chain much. But Break and Vincent's dynamic was great, a final showdown between them with their chains would've been so cool. Mad Hatter vs. Demios we were robbed...

-> Isla Yura in general. Not gonna lie, I forgot he existed. I can respect the role he played, especially knowing now mochijun based Dr. Moreau off him. He was a worthy threat and his obsession with Jack makes sense. But his personality just wasn’t it and rubbed me the wrong way. Stereotypical queer antagonist from the 2000s, we did not need this.

->This might be a biased one but Cheshire should've been a prominent character. We see he’s important to Alice but we got a whole mini-arc with him in the beginning, him appearing in the Break backstory and then he's gone until the final 8 chapters. I also wish he behaved like the cat he’s inspired by. Sassy, mischievous with a dash of dark humor. (though now I say that, Oz does have some of that). There was just so much potential that we simply didn’t explore with him.

-> Speaking of such, Sharon and Ada were so underused. I was expected more from Sharon’s arc and her Eques chain is so cool but that didn’t happen. Every moment with Ada was fantastic but she’s mostly put to the side which sucks. Her relationship with Oz was lacking for me, he comes back from the Abyss and we do not see him think of Ada until 15 chapters later? Her overall reactions to Oz dying essentially after the finale, learning her father’s death, none of this is there. These two had potential, Sharon even being part of the main five, that wasn’t delved into.

-> Vincent and Ada. Okay, lemme break it down. I kinda love them, they didn’t get together which was sad but was the best choice to make. But I do question why this relationship exists. To be honest, until the last 14 chapters I thought she dropped them completely. I was wondering what was the point of making them a whole thing and having read to the end, I still kind of think that. We got two or three main interactions with them and then we just never got back to Vince/Ada until the finale. It was as though the plot simply couldn’t make time for them, it was tightly knit at this point and everything was heading for utter insanity. But then, we get the emotional climax of Vincent’s character. We get Ada telling Vincent “I forgive you”. It hits hard because Vince is a top 5 character for me. But in terms of their relationship, it didn’t feel earned. I don’t think it was developed enough to get such a heavy moment like this.

Their last encounter from what I remember was in the headhunter arc, Ada telling Vince she’ll always be by his side. And while we see he cares about her safety then, I don’t think that means what they have is strong enough to break the self-hatred Vincent has built up for years. Why did it have to be Ada? I know Gil wasn’t getting through to him but if he told Gil what’d he had done. That he indirectly caused the tragedy of Sablier, and Gil really said fuck it, held him down and screamed “I forgive you! The outcome might’ve been the same. Vincent respected Elliot. Vincent looked up to Jack. Vincent grew to care about Ada. But to me, the only person he loved in this world was Gil. And in his last moments, that is all he had. So this whole Vince/Ada thing, while I enjoy them and definitely needed more, at the end I doubt how necessary it was for either of their characters.

->At last, the ending. I love the ending, let’s get that out of the way. Two things I need to say though. One, it did conclude faster than it should’ve. It’s not to a degree where it significantly brings it down but we could have used 5, 6 more chapters. Chapter 104 should’ve been cut in half, 104 ends with “see you later Gilbert” and 105 is total epilogue. That way, the events of 104 get to sink in with the reader. Second, and I know you saw this coming, Reim marrying Sharon. This is the one thing I see most fans have an issue with for the ending and I completely agree, this did not make any sense. It felt like the biggest last minute decision. I think mochijun and the magazine had reached the end of their rope because no one got together in the end. Oz and Alice didn’t become canon really, Gil is too gay, Elliot’s dead so we couldn’t even get elleo implied canon.

(Though you can make a whole other thread arguing how their entire relationship already was from how intimate they were) We all knew Rufus wasn’t gonna marry Sheryl, Vince and Ada went their separate ways. So it was just “alright, um….someone’s gotta get with someone.” And from what I know, there’s no artwork or moment in the series that hints in the slightest that this would happen. We never get a teasing moment from Break about them, Reim and Sharon are friends but the main connection between them is Break. I don't buy the whole "Break's death affecting Sharon deeply and she found comfort in Reim who shared her pain" because you don't have to marry someone who understands your grief. They can just be there for you as a friend. And there was no signs of romantic attraction AT ALL.

Which makes me doubt mochijun planned or even wanted to do this. Her hands might’ve been tied by higher-ups and she had no choice but to include this to deliver the finale she had in mind. This is pure speculation so I could be wrong but with that, this essay I guess, wraps up. There’s other stuff I may not have mentioned, like the jury thing is so absurd but I want to reserve that for my mochiverse theory. When it's all said and done, Pandora hearts is still an amazing series, mochijun has definitely improved as an author. My vnc-ph comparison post which may be after this one will elaborate on that in more detail. Thank you for listening to my rant. What are some complaints or nitpicks you had with ph?

[mylittledarkag3]

How many have you read out of the hundred?

Me: 64/100

Reblog & share your results

1. "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

2. "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

3. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

4. "1984" by George Orwell

5. "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

6. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez

7. "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

8. "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

9. "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

10. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

11. "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville

12. "The Odyssey" by Homer

13. "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë

14. "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy

15. "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

16. "The Iliad" by Homer

17. "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

18. "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo

19. "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes

20. "Middlemarch" by George Eliot

21. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

22. "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

23. "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

24. "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen

25. "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" by Victor Hugo

26. "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells

27. "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck

28. "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer

29. "The Portrait of a Lady" by Henry James

30. "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling

31. "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse

32. "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri

33. "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

34. "The Trial" by Franz Kafka

35. "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen

36. "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas

37. "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

38. "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift

39. "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

40. "Emma" by Jane Austen

41. "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe

42. "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy

43. "The Republic" by Plato

44. "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad

45. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle

46. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

47. "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

48. "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

49. "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

50. "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens

51. "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell

52. "The Plague" by Albert Camus

53. "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

54. "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov

55. "The Red and the Black" by Stendhal

56. "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

57. "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand

58. "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

59. "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

60. "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

61. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle

62. "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins

63. "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe

64. "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson

65. "Ulysses" by James Joyce

66. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe

67. "Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray

68. "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett

69. "Walden Two" by B.F. Skinner

70. "Watership Down" by Richard Adams

71. "White Fang" by Jack London

72. "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys

73. "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne

74. "Wise Blood" by Flannery O'Connor

75. "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" by Margaret Fuller

76. "Women in Love" by D.H. Lawrence

77. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig

78. "The Aeneid" by Virgil

79. "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton

80. "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

81. "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

82. "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" by Benjamin Franklin

83. "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin

84. "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler

85. "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

86. "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk

87. "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov

88. "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

89. "The Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

90. "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau

91. "The Clue in the Crumbling Wall" by Carolyn Keene

92. "The Code of the Woosters" by P.G. Wodehouse

93. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

94. "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas

95. "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller

96. "The Crying of Lot 49" by Thomas Pynchon

97. "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

98. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy

99. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon

100. "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells

[filzmonster]

If you’re doing the ask game: Gilbert Nightray?

any excuse to talk about Gilbert Nightray tbh

First impression: I saw him being angsty in the rain during the intro for 0.2 seconds and I just knew he was going to be my fave.

Impression now: Honestly, it's been over ten years and I still can't really put into words how much this fictional character means to me.

To me, he has one of the most interesting, most well crafted character journeys I've ever seen. The way his entire loyalty complex is depicted, established and developed is something that still touches me very deeply. How he struggles with but ultimately pushes through his issues is just ,,,,,,,,, hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ,,,,,,,,, dare I say inspiring? Also, he got a lot of cool moments throughout the series and I'm very thankful for that <3

Favourite moment: This was a tough one because there are so manyyyyyyyy. But I'm gonna go with the one that impressed me the most from a 'the way this story is written' pov and that's the one where he shows up and saves Break from Fang and Lilly. I don't even know. Just thinking about this scene and the way it was set up - with Gilbert running towards Oz, Vincent manipulating him into thinking Break can take care of himself, his flashbacks to when Break told him to get his priorities straight, with him realizing that Break is blind, with him still chosing to run towards Oz and Vincent's sinister 'good riddance Hatter' smile, and then Gilbert laughing in all of their faces by saying 'screw my priorities, I can chose both' - still gives me chills. I so very clearly remember sitting in my bed at like 3am, reading it for the first time and just losing my mind over Gilbert showing up and kicking him in the back when no one, least of all Break, expected him to do that.

Idea for a story: One day I will write down the 'The Tragedy of Sablier never happend and Gilbert and Vincent and Alice grow up as Baskervilles with Oswald and Jack as their gay parents' story set to Bastille songs I have been dreaming about for 5 years. Y'all just wait.

Unpopular opinion: There should have been a last meaningful conversation between Break and Gilbert before Break dies.

I know a lot of people absolutely love that Break got to spend his last impactful scenes with Oz and Vincent, guiding these two through their last character development steps, but ,,,,,,, but.

It just makes me so mad that up until the very climax of Gilbert's character development (him burning off his left arm and then showing up to stand in front of Glen and declare his loyalty to Oz no matter what) there were so many conversations between these two from the very beginning, the parallels between both of them serving Masters, Break being aware that he is the cautionary tale for Gilbert and trying to guide him, Gilbert showing up and saving him, Break even going all I don't have to worry about him anymore while being chained to a wall, so sure that Gilbert is going to help Oz because even though he saw him shoot Oz he also saw through the compulsion and realized that Gilbert picked his side, Oz' side, and that he would ultimately pull through.

And yet. AND YET. Their last real interaction is Gilbert being furious at Break and blaming him for Oscar's death and then just kind of ignoring him and not even really acknowledging him/his impending death when they part ways in the ruins of Sablier and Break stays behind to die alone in the arms of Reim and Sharon.

Instead the focus is on Vincent and Oz, as if the last 20something volumes of their friendship and connection suddenly didn't matter anymore. I'm still disappointed about this 10 years later apparently, because just like Gilbert I simply cannot let things go.

Favourite relationship: Breakbert Oz. Whatever the hell he has going on with Oz in every shape, form and colour throughout the entire manga. I live and breathe for that shit. The angst, the loyalty, the doubt, the jealousness, the dismissiveness, the fucked-up-ness at times. The way they both trigger their respective issues at the start but then become each other's guiding light to becoming better versions of themselves and then ending up with this beautiful, trusting friendship where they both understand the other better and see them for who the other really is and still chose each other, despite everything. Fuck.

Favourite headcanon: Uff. I fear I am so out of touch with the source material these days that I don't really remember what was actually hinted at in the manga and what was just my interpretation of certain things?

I distantly remember him angsting about doing dirty work for the Nightrays at some point, so I have this headcanon that he worked as some sort of assassin/spy for them for a while? No idea if that's a true headcanon or just my imagination running wild with a throwaway line, but I like the idea of him being actually way more ruthless than he seems and very willing to go to drastical measures for the people he cares about without hesitation.

[ecargmura]

Pandora Hearts Volume 6 Review

Reading through this chapter got me happy because both my favorite character and my second favorite character make their debut! Yes, my faves are Leo and Elliot! I think this is where the story starts picking up, not because of my bias, but because Oz finally gets the character development albeit slow.

Chapter 23 is basically where the last chapter of the fifth volume left off. To summarize, it’s basically Break’s death flags waving at him. Also, it’s nice to see Reim and Break’s friendship and what Sharon means to Break. Oz was a little sh*t to Break, being surprised that he got friends. Haha, continue being one, Oz. So, yes, Sharon is now saved.

Chapters 24, 25 and 26 all revolve around the Lutwidge Academy. I love how Chapter 23 was all Break and his death flags and suddenly, Chapter 24 is just Oscar going “LET’S GO VISIT ADA! HERE, WEAR THESE DISGUISES AND TAKE THIS UNDERGROUND PASSAGE WITHOUT THINKING TOO MUCH ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES!” And then they suffer the consequences hilariously as Oscar also wears a school uniform but does a terrible job of not being conspicuous.

These three chapters are also important for Oz’s character development in a sense. He already had a a bit of a self-sacrificing, “I don’t care about myself” sort of personality and it got worse once Jack took over his body, developing an even greater inferiority complex and even an identity crisis. That was why he avoided Ada, despite wanting to see her again, because he believes that she doesn’t remember him all too well and that he still looks the same while she got older. Fortunately, Alice was one of the factors that allowed him to realize his worth. He once told Alice that she’s fine the way she is, and Alice repeats that to him.

I think the biggest factor that allowed Oz to stop thinking that he’s worthless is his encounter with Elliot and Leo. Before, he wanted to meet them because they were playing a four-handed piece that sounded just like the music box melody. Then, Oz and Elliot meet with terrible first impressions as Elliot did the unthinkable: spoil Holy Knight, Oz’s favorite book series with the reveal that his favorite character Edgar dies. Elliot hates people like Edgar who are self-sacrificing and care little about the people around them as he believes people like him are selfish. That’s Elliot’s impression of Oz before he finally got through to him and helped Oz realize that he has worth and that people love him for who he is and not because he’s Jack.

Elliot and Leo have so much chemistry. They’re always seen together, yet they bounce off of each other so well. Elliot is hot-blooded and isn’t afraid of speaking his mind while Leo is like his handler of sorts, but also scolds Elliot whenever he gets too out of hand. I love their little bickering relationship. While they squabble with each other a lot, Elliot and Leo do care a lot about each other. While Leo is the one who puts Elliot in his place, Elliot is also protective of Leo as he’s seen protecting him from fatal attacks twice. Though, Leo’s status as a competent servant is questionable. Basically, these two are beta Vanitas and Noe.

This is also where the Baskervilles are finally introduced. The members of Baskerville are interesting. Lottie is a baddie. Doug and Fang are interesting too. However, I can see why Lottie is on the cover for this volume. She stood out the most with her eccentric behavior, to her chain and to her being one of the factors of the glaring flaw in Oz’s personality. 

I also remember that this is where the anime starts to diverge from the manga. I remember some scenes in the manga were changed in the anime, though my memory is very vague. I think once I get to around Volumes 7-8, I’ll rewatch the anime. Other than that, I think I did a good job not gushing too much over Leo for this review. I’m not sure when I’ll get to Volume 7 since I’m going to move to a new house with my family, meaning I’m going to have to stop buying manga for a while. Let me know your thoughts about this volume!

[fivekrystalpetals]

I haven't really written anything about Noise but Retrace 97 compelled me to write something about her because, by god, of all characters, Noise died the loneliest death ;-;

Break died surrounded by his friends and family. Oscar died after seeing off his kids. Even Fang got a chance to apologize to his family as he was dying. (Elliot's is another matter--but at the least, he got a conclusive death. He wanted to be the one to crack the mystery of his family's serial killing which he did and he died next to his best friend and his big brother. His death continued to be grieved by people who cared about him up until the end.)

But Noise? Yes, Oz was there while her body was breaking apart but..... he was not there for Noise--he was there for Echo. And, Ada came all the way into the Past Sablier to be there for Vincent.

But... Noise.....??

to be honest, isn't that how it's always been? Right from the beginning, nobody was ever there for Noise... this poor girl who became an anomaly because she couldn't control her chain properly, who became a Baskerville but could neither fully become one nor return to being a human either, who couldn't even sleep because her chain might take control of her body and go on a rampage, who was locked up in an underground cellar, this girl who forgot her own name because her mind was so Noisy...

In spite of all her suffering, she still used to have a kind heart before she lost all sense of self. She still looked out for Vincent in whatever way she could:

You can actually feel the loneliness radiating off her in this panel; she doesn't feel included anywhere--she is still in the dark while Vincent has been pulled out into the light by his new friends.

Yes, it is toxic of her wanting to keep Vincent to herself and trying to kill him as soon as he finds new friends in a if-I-can't-have-you-then-no-one-can way.... but both her heart as well as her mind were already completely broken at this point. All she remembers is that slight feeling of protectiveness that got twisted to being possessive over him; she wanted to continue taking care of him in her own way even if she forgot what their original relationship was like.

I actually wanted to talk about this panel too (Retrace 91):

(Let me just set aside the context that Noise is actively trying to kill Ada and Ada is trying to buy time by talking because I want to talk about their words.)

Noise says Ada shouldn't pretend like she knows everything about Vincent and Noise, which is true in a way.... Because, you see, and as much as I love Ada, I still have to admit Ada is selective in what she is trying to figure out. She wants to know more about Vincent, not Noise. She doesn't know (and probably never will) that Noise was once a good onee-san to Vincent and his only true friend when he was surrounded by manipulative adults. So, I don't think Ada is the best person to give an opinion about Noise and Vincent's history when she hardly knows anything about them?

Again, I agree with what she says. Not knowing everything is not a crime, you can always learn things later on; yes, it's true but this line:

You're being criminal by being judgemental without even trying to understand!!

--honestly, applies to Ada too? Because Ada is also being judgemental about Noise without understanding her at all. Ada (and Oz and others too, for that matter) believe that Echo is the 'kind' personality while Noise is the mindless killer personality that takes over Echo.

When, in fact, it's the other way round. It's because of the power of the Abyss (and so, indirectly her chain) that Noise started losing her mind in the first place. Her mind was filled with so much noise that she feared and had dreams of turning into a monster (idk if her mental deterioration was already present before her contract) but I do know Doldum/Duldee (Echos) was only making the matter worse. Yes, all the Echos tried to protect her heart by preserving some of her memories bit by bit but.... wasn't it also because of the chain from the Abyss that she has been suffering all along?

See, again, Ada doesn't grasp the full essence of Noise's words. Of course, she has no way of knowing unless Noise tells her but...

Noise doesn't mean here that Vincent and Noise are different because they are Baskervilles. No, she means they are different because they are the only ones who are not 'proper' Baskervilles, who are cast out from being both human and Baskerville, who are not included anywhere.

Noise was an anomaly because of her weakness to the Abyss and her inability to control her own chain. Vincent was an anomaly because he was a child of ill-omen (something that doesn't exist in Ada's timeline). And those are his words Noise repeats that since both of them were aberrations, it won't be wrong if they stayed together because then, for each other, they can be 'normal'.

Ada is really missing a huge chunk of context here. I agree wholeheartedly that Ada will accept him even if he is a Baskerville and a Child of Misfortune because she is a kind soul, she is gonna accept and forgive Vincent no matter what.

But I am not talking about Ada and Vincent here, but about Noise. The point here is that Ada doesn't understand where Noise is coming from. For Noise, Vincent was the only way she could feel 'normal', among humans or Baskervilles. She heavily related to him, she latched onto him as the only one who could understand her, she did everything, became everything Vincent asked of her; at her heart, Noise, like every character in this story, just does not want to be lonely anymore.

This panel actually made me feel so bad for Noise. Time and again, Ada stands up for Vincent, Oz stands up for Echo, but who stands up for Noise?

(btw, please don't take this in a wrong way. I love Oz and Ada, and I am genuinely amazed and touched at that they can still distinguish Echo from Noise, sympathize with Echo for being an unwilling accomplice and bear no grudge against her in spite of Noise having a major hand in Uncle Oscar's death.

I am just trying to look at the story from Noise's perspective and doing that makes me realize that most of the major characters have no idea what Noise really was like. heck, even Noise didn't know at the time of Retrace 91; she remembers the truth only at the time of her death (Retrace 97).

Because Noise, too, once was a sweet, caring soul just like the present and last Echo (Eko-chan, I will refer to her as that to differentiate her from other Echos). Bit-by-bit, Noise lost all she knew about herself the longer she used her chain and created more Echos. As I said, both Oz and Ada are judging her from what they see before their eyes, not knowing how shattered and sick her mind is at the moment. I can't blame them ofc because that's what I too might have to do when the person before me is actively trying to kill me,, but knowing the context and her backstory, her presence in the story exudes so much loneliness.)

See, you can feel the despair and tiredness already seeping into her. She starts to lash out and reject people around her, even those who care about her to some extent; she doesn't even know what she wants anymore.

She wants to meet Vincent to, she believes, kill him because he is not hers anymore. But what I think is she subconsciously still possesses the protectiveness of a big sister and knows Vincent is in trouble, that's why she wants to go after him to make sure he is okay.

She says the same here (Retrace 97):

...I've had enough. I'm already so tired...

You know, what's even sadder? Eko is not a different person. Taking away the context of a chain and the fantasy surrounding it, she is simply a personality created by the weak-minded Noise to take on her unbearable suffering (like Split Personality (DID) patients do). So when Eko says:

--and asks her to remember herself, Noise is, in fact, in a way, talking to herself. It's the last sane part of her mind that's realized that her body can't hold out longer, and talks to the shattered, tired and lonely part of her, tries to recoup some of her memories so she doesn't end up doing something she'd regret, like killing her only friend and so that she gets a proper closure in death.

To say, Noise has no one but her imaginary self to console and hold her during her final moments. She died as lonely as she lived. I am happy Echo dies in Oz's arms, but....Noise? ;_;

Annnnd, even in the Happy Ending that the author gave us--the Everyone lives/No one dies one from Retrace 104-- where is the original personality of Noise? 😭

(how I wanted to see a normal interaction between Zwei, Gil and Oz; her teasing Oz, "Echo is shy to come out and meet you, so you just have to deal with me today 😈")

Further, about Vincent and Noise--

Something Noise says about Ada (Retrace 91):

Vincent got close to you only to take advantage of you.... You were so carefree…so stupid!

Actually, her words apply to herself as well. Vincent was only using Noise as a tool to his cause because he thought she was a stupid girl who would listen to his every word.

But my question is: does he even remember Noise as that onee-san who used to look out for him? Did he know it and choose to forget? Or, did he really forget? He was even the one who gave her the nickname after she forgot her own. Is it possible he forgot who Noise was to him whereas he remembers even the traumatic events of Sablier (something Gil misplaced his memories of)? Or, did he purposely suppress his good memories so he can recall his days as a Baskerville as being full of pain so that it makes his planned death easier for him?

I don't know but there is an equal chance of him genuinely forgetting who Noise was to him and him knowing everything yet acting like he didn't. If the latter, it's totally messed up on his part. Because Noise forgetting herself doesn't mean Vincent can distort their original relationship? How could he cross the boundary and do what he pleases to a broken, amnesiac girl who used to be his big-sister-like figure once?

This is the reason I am kind of skeptical about Ada saying she would forgive Vincent for everything. Offering him forgiveness for his past mistakes that he committed as a misguided, manipulated child is perfectly alright; but his deeds as an adult? Sorry but Ada doesn't even know half the picture of what Vincent really is like.

Either way, her last thoughts for Ada and Vincent were so sweet and makes me wish she was around, at least, in the Alternate Ending as the cool big sister for the kids.

Another heart-breaking line:

I never wanted to hurt him. Not even if there was no place for me at his side

Why does everything have to be a love triangle? Why can't everyone be a huge fun found family so that nobody feels left out and lonely? I wonder what Noise would be like when she is not in captivity or despair-fuelled-killing-spree. I feel like she would be feisty and sharp-witted, a complete opposite of the shy Echo, and would be going around trolling and teasing the kids lol

Ending this with the panel here, because in spite of their rocky relationship, chatting with Vincent were the few times Noise genuinely smiled ;-;

[tribbetherium]

The Middle Temperocene: 150 million years + 1000 years post-establishment

Breed All About It: Species and Subspecies of the Calliducyonidae

The canid-like zingos, one of the most successful carnivore groups originating since the Therocene, brought about the rise of the daggarats in the Glaciocene: a clade of saber-toothed hunters distinguished by a single, long fang formed from the fusion of the upper incisors. One lineage, the lycanines, would evolve shorter, more robust fangs better suited for smaller prey, but eventually some would, with the help of greater social intelligence and pack-hunting behaviors, become big-game hunters once again. This trend of social intellect would spread among the lycanines, climaxing in South Ecatoria's baskervilles: and now, five million years later, at the dawn of the Middle Temperocene, something remarkable would happen. A new intelligence would surface, one with the creative ability to think abstract ideas, create and innovate, self-reflect and relay knowledge to others in the form of stories. But this intelligence was not limited to a single species: it was spread out over the subfamily Calliducyonidae, the "clever dogs".

Two genera are extant: the southhounds (Australocalliducyon spp.) and the northhounds (Borealocalliducyon spp.). Each descended from two species, the southern baskerville and the northern baskerville, that diverged over six million years ago, and taken separate evolutionary routes: yet both lineages carrying the sophont spark.

The genus Australocalliducyon contains the southhounds: a group of large, stocky-bodied social carnivores that live on the cooler, temperate southern region of the continent. They still heavily resemble their ancestor, the southern baskerville, but a marked increase in cranial capacity is evident, with the enlarged braincase giving them a distinctive profile with a defined nasal "stop" and wide-spaced, low-set ears.

Six different populations are notable in the southhounds: geographically isolated, they developed distinct appearances and behaviors in the meantime. But more interestingly, due to their intelligence, their differences have also been societal and cultural, with each population having a distinct identity and lifestyle, and a distinct set of stories told among them that have helped to shape their customs and practices.

The plainmanes (Australocalliducyon fabula fabula) are the most widespread of the subspecies, and are physically distinguished by their thicker manes, striped tails and broader white neck ruff, as well as having smaller and more scattered spot markings. They are nomadic, and live in the open grasslands, following herds of ungulopes, podotheres and boarochs that they hunt for food. The plainmanes, surprisingly, live in a region where lightning strikes are common, often ones that start brushfires. As such, this group has a cultural reverence for the phenomenon of lightning, with some considering the fires it leaves a blessing, as small burning branches taken from a blaze and brought near their dens can keep them warm on cold nights. They, however, have not figured out its other uses, and certainly have no capacity to create it themselves, only able to sustain it for as long as possible before having to find another one. As they are so widespread, their cultures too are incredibly diverse: with different packs and different geographic groups having a wide range of local dialects and oral lore.

The highbrows (A. fabula supercilus) are a subspecies located across the more mountainous regions of the continent, on higher-elevated plateaus. They are on average the smallest of the subspecies, and are distiguished by their prominent light-colored brow spots, as well as their thinner manes, blotchier patterning and distinctive white-tipped tails. These too hunt the abundance of the ungulopes that live upon the hills: rounding them up through coordinated efforts to keep them from straying too far away from their territories--and essentially keeping them trapped and easy to find. At the same time, however, they fight off most other predators that attempt to prey on the ungulopes, in order to protect their food source. Over the millennia this has led to said ungulopes gradually losing their fear of their one sole predator that in essence ensures their survival: and the highbrows are well aware of this--culling off the flightier or more aggressive ones and only leaving the more manageable ones to breed. Different herds are "owned" by different packs, which occasionally leads to skirmishes as territorial dispute often involves attempts to lead off a few animals from a rival pack's herd to add to their own.

The baywulves (A. fabula costalis) are a more coastal-dwelling population, with tufted ears, a more uniformly-grey tail, and larger and more even spot marking on their bodies. Like the other aforementioned subspecies, they also hunt large game such as the boarochs. However, as they live so close to the sea, a large part of their diet has also come to include the pinniped-like marine bayvers that gather in large numbers on the shore, some weighing up to a ton or more and their abundant blubber being a rich source of calories during tough times. The baywulves thus have taken on hunting prey bigger than themselves both on land and sea, and practiced the use of artificial weapons formed of bones or branches carefully gnawed into a point on either end, which can be used as makeshift spears that can be thrust into a large prey's vital part to kill it instantly. While all Calliduyonidae are tool-users, albeit limited ones, the baywulves are masters of crafted weaponry. This ability and power to bring down large prey, quite surprisingly, has inspired a sense of humility in baywulf culture, acknowleging that they, by their skills and newfound weapon, have become the most dangerous animal around-- and warn of the importance of using such power wisely.

The darkears (A. fabula arcticus) are the largest of the southhound subspecies, marked by their dark-tipped tails and ears, striped markings, and a distinctive dark stripe running between their eyes. Their coats are also much thicker, as they are adapted to the cold-- the most southern-dwelling of the southhounds, the darkears are constantly putting up with harsh winters and at times almost year-round snow. Arctic bumbaas, such as snowsows, are a primary food source of theirs, as well as the coastal regions rich in marine life in the littoral zone that they also patrol in search of food. As their survival is dependent on the seasons, relying on the ability to tell the passage of time was a crucial aspect of their lives, and such they learned the patterns of the suns, the moons and the stars as well as plotted out a sequence of seasons to organize their foraging and take advantage of the seasonal availability of food. They too are the most physically affectionate of the subspecies, borne of the need to huddle for warmth in their dens.

These four populations would be mostly geographically isolated, with some overlap of range between the baywulves and the darkears on the southwest coasts of the continent. However, a scattered population of another subgroup, the outlanders (A. fabula chimerides), range well across the continent in the outskirts of the other's local ranges, and are a genetic amalgamation of the other four, incorporating genetic contributions in various percentages and displaying a mix of their phenotypic traits. Most noteworthy, however, is that their isolation is not borne of genetics, or geography-- but borne of behavior. For the outlanders are born from outsiders cast into exile by their packs, outsiders that did not conform to the social standards of their cultures, were considered too selfish or aggressive for the good of the group, or merely individuals with unsavory tendencies such as mating within their own packs, a cultural taboo that limits the problems of inbreeding. Over the centuries, these delinquents from different subspecies interbred with one another and formed a subspecies of their own: a subspecies that is more aggressive, intolerant of other groups and opportunistic than others, with a philosophy of a hierarchy of dominance: born of unrelated individuals forced to live together, the biological family bonds of natural packs were broken in the first few outlanders who had to sort out hierarchies by strength, and to this day carry on ideologies of alphas, betas and omegas: the strong ruling over the weak. Yet, despite this seemingly ominous mindset, it differs significantly from a similar race of the past: the individuals do bond with each other, and the strong rule over the weak, not to crush or torment them but to push them to be strong as well. Intolerant, aggressive and opportinistic they may be against other groups, the bonds between the outlanders packs are tight and loyal, and their militaristic camaraderie, hostile to the 'them' but devoted to the 'us', makes them a dangerous foe to rival packs, be it other outlanders or ones of the four main subspecies.

A sixth group, the white-eyes (A. alboculus divergens), is a group more easternly-ranging to the other groups, and is markedly different enough from the other five as to be considered a separate species within the same genus, sporting darker fur with light markings, a less defined mane, a shorter tail, larger ears and a more squared-off snout. Most notable, however, are their white sclerae, which arose from a pigment mutation that became the norm of the population, likely as it helped aid in visual communication with other individuals. Unlike other southhounds, which used vocalizations to convey intentions, the white-eyes pale sclerae let them more easily communicate by directing their gaze, allowing them to silently coordinate while going after fast, flighty quarry.

Their unusual appearance, however, has led to a severe case of uncanny valley for their darker-eyed kin, who find their unusual eyes and their movements, as well as the overall general quietness of the white-eyes and their brevity of vocalization, quite unnerving. As such, the other groups that do overlap territory with them rarely associate with them, finding them somewhat-wrong, and the group in turn mostly keep to themselves, avoiding contact with the others knowing they are disliked.

All of these groups, however are united by the common trait of a strong familial bond toward other members of the pack. They almost always will not hurt those they consider packmates unless they have a very serious reason to, and most conflicts are settled by non-aggressive means such as dominance posturing or through compromise. All of their groups also share a fondness for telling stories, be it with the intent to inform, to entertain, or to remember, save for the white-eyes, who have a much more scant oral tradition due to their preference of silence.

The southhounds, however, are not the only sophont species within their family, as another genus, Borealocalliducyon, exists farther north, into the more tropical regions of the continent: the northhounds.

Northhounds have diverged markedly from the bulky, apex-predator status of the southhounds, due to the diet of their ancestor, the northern baskerville. They, unlike the hypercarnivore southern baskerville, included significant amounts of fruit, fungi and other plant matter in their diet, and have now become full-fledged omnivores: they are slender, grassland-dwelling runners with disproportionately long legs for seeing above tall grass, and are certainly not built for handling prey larger than themselves.

Being a scattered, fragmented population, no fewer than eight different subspecies exist within this genus, arranged into three species: one of which is a fertile hybrid of the other two that had formed its own distinct gene pool. The red northhounds, with their brighter coats, bushier ears, light spots and longer tails, form the species B. canticum, the brown northhounds, with subdued colors, longer legs, narrow snouts, shorter tails and dark spots form the species B. longipes, and the third, the mixens, form a third population, B. mixenii, that displays an intermediate morphology between the other two species, though depending on local distribution, may trend more toward one or the other.

The red northhounds, the more western-ranging species, are subdivided into three subspecies, the talbots, the vulpins and the boldmarks, and are the far more frugivorous of the species, one that has selected for an increase in color vision, and thus more colorful displays among their coats. They are a far more gregarious species, with multiple packs living together to form large extended families, and have one single settlement to which all individuals return together after each forages individually. This settlement often consists of a collection of individual dens, with each family sleeping in one, and a central area where all members of the extended pack meet, socialize and interact. Like the southhounds, the northhounds have a rich storytelling culture, relaying memories of the past, lessons of the future and the moment of the present. However, rather than simple relaying of information, it is a much more ritualistic process in the red northhounds, consisting of melodic vocalizations started by one and joined in by others, eventually leading to the whole pack engaging in a chorus calling together in symphony, acting as a form of social bonding. This behavior is distinctive in the group, hence their name Borealocalliducyon canticum, the "singing northern clever dogs".

The talbots (B. canticum canticum) are the most common and widespread of the red northhounds. Physically distinguished by their darker red color, scant speckling, bushier tails and smaller, yellow eye-spots, the talbots are creative, opportunistic, and adaptable. They are quite playful even as adults, and are often highly affectionate to their extended families, even willingly adopting any orphaned pups in case of a parent's death within the pack. This is an effect of most members in a pack being related: rather than leaving the pack once mature and seeking mates, they stay together: often, males do leave to search for mates, but females stay with the parents, and any males they bond and mate with are accepted as members of the female's pack. Older individuals, ones too old to hunt and forage, remain close to the dens, helping provide the pups with valuable knowledge and wisdom while the rest of the pack searches for food. They often entertain their pups with "songs" presenting them with puzzles they have to solve, encouraging and stimulating them to think and problem-solve.

The boldmarks (B. canticum pardus), are another subspecies of the red northhounds, easily identified by their large yellow spots, fused eyespots forming a pale "mask", pronounced neck ruffs, shorter manes, and dark ear markings. Like the talbots, the boldmarks are a settled group, with their own small "towns" of close-by dens. However, they are more advanced in one notable behavior: they have figured out how plants grow from seeds after some fruiting plants began growing from their latrines. As such, they began intentionally planting cloverfern bushes and dwarf stonefruit shrubs close to their dens to have an easily accessible food source nearby. These traditions are passed down from generations, though their means of cultivation is limited to simply consuming fruit, dropping their leavings nearby, and waiting to see if anything springs up. As such, it is not a very efficient food supply, and only supplements their hunting and foraging. Still, they do take pride in their little home gardens, and many of their cultural "songs" revolve around the tending of their plants and the harvesting of their fruits.

The vulpins (B. canticum rubrum) is the third red northhound subspecies, marked by a redder mane, bushier tail, and lighter colored legs. Of the three, they are the most creative with their use of food, as their broader diet has led to a wider appreciation for the different tastes of different food. Like all zingos, the red northhounds retain their rodent ancestors' cheek pouches that they store chewed up food in to bring home to their pups. But the vulpins have utilized this ability in a strange way: consuming different types of food, such as small prey, insects, scavenged meat, fruit, herbs, seeds and even bark, they then chew them up and store them in their cheeks to bring home and feed to the rest of the pack. Different individuals bring home different mixes of chewed up food based on their preferences, which, depending on whether it is liked or disliked by the others, may be imitated and replicated based on taste: an early form of culinary appreciation by a species still unfamiliar with fire and cooking. This is reflected in their "songs", where they often list ingredients of their recipe while others join in and add their own lists.

The brown northhounds, the more eastern-ranging species, meanwhile, are subdivided into four subspecies: the brownhounds, the riveners, the drysanders and the woodwolves. Like their red cousins, they are gregarious and live in extended packs, and dwell in fixed settlements. However, they are the more carnivorous-leaning of the northhounds, and display a preference toward smaller prey such as the basal hare-like hamtelopes, ratbats, pterodents and bumbaas, though still eat a significant portion of plants and fruit as well. Their oral tradition is much less musical than the red southhounds' "songs", and instead tend to be long-winded narrations of series of events, that tend to be too long to be told in one sitting, leading to them telling serial stories told in chapters night after night. They can be based on their experiences, on lessons of their ancestors, on fanciful exaggerations of true events that over time become more increasingly distorted or departed from truth: and, most notably, stories intended to inspire fear in their youngsters to scare them out of misbehaving, often involving local predators that, in their stories, are exaggerated to monstrous proportions.

The brownhounds (B. longipes vulgaris) are the most common of the brown northhounds, and are tropical grassland-dwellers: where tall grass is abundant. They are physically distinguished by their pale color, lighter legs, small irregular spots and somewhat reddish manes and eyespots, and are the most culturally diverse of the brown northhounds due to their wide range. They are very busy hunters and foragers, splitting up into small teams scouting about for food, while one dedicated group stays home to watch over the young, sick and old. Because of this, the packs tend to have a harder time keeping track of each other, which is why they tend to leave behind trees with scratch and scent marks to act as message boards in a sense. While they might meet each other rarely, as the teams take turns at different jobs, they can always check these mark posts to keep tabs on their peers' activities.

The riveners (B. longipes fluvius) are another group more frequented to riversides and wetlands, with their smaller eyespots, broader white ruffs and striped pattern being a visual hallmark of the population. While the long, stilt-like legs of the brown northhounds originally adapted as to help them hunt in tall grass, the riveners have found it equally useful to wade in shallow water to find their food. As such, much of their diet are freshwater prey, such as shrish, skwoids and pescopods, which they catch with their agility and ingenuity. They thus have a cultural reverence for water, seeing it as the bringer of life and the shaper of the world, with them considering rivers themselves almost like deities in their folklore and oral traditions. However, floods and storms, common disasters in their range, are constant reminders that water creates and sustains, but also can be destructive-- a dichotomy that is the foundation of many of their culture's perspective of the good and bad sides of everything in nature.

The drysanders (B. longipes heremus), a population marked by yellower coats, thinner manes, more exposed faces, more extensive spotting and light-colored markings beneath their eyes, form the third subspecies of the brown northhounds. Like the riveners, the drysanders revere water in their culture: but not because of its abundance, but for its scarcity, for they live primarily in arid savannah and semidesert areas, forming settlements near sources of water and subsisting mostly on desert succulents, small desert fauna, and primarily insects, one of the most abundant food sources in their homes. Life in these habitats is rough, and thus their society is tightly-knit as they depend on cooperation and unity to survive. Their folklore, thus, is less poetic and more practical, consisting of cautionary tales and fables to warn their children about the dangers of the world. Most prominently, however, are fearful tales of predatory ratbats, the desert falcyons, which do pose significant threats to young pups out in the open. They are especially feared due to convergent evolution having given the falcyons very canine-like heads: to the drysanders point of view, they are flying monsters with the heads of people, that swoop from the sky to devour children.

The woodwolves (B. longipes melanus), a group distinguished by their dark coats, blotchy patterns and dark-tipped tails, are a tropical forest-dwelling group whose colors help them blend in with the shadows on the forest floor. They primarily forage for fallen fruit, as well as hunting a variety of small prey that may include insects, squoads, ratbats, squizzels, rattiles and small lemunkies that they can catch. The woodwolves, due to their secluded habitat, have few if any enemies, and generally live rather carefree lives, and thus are the most verbally artistic of the brown northhounds, as the abundance of food and their safe haven give them plenty of free time to tell stories and gather socially simply for pleasure's sake. At times, they may even intentionally consume fallen fruit that has begun to ferment as a recreational activity, resulting in the ensuing stories becoming increasingly distorted from fact due to their resulting distorted perceptions of reality. They tell stories of themselves performing exaggerated, impossible feats in delusional moments of grandeur, or come up with absurd scenarios intended to amuse and confuse. They are the least aggressive of the northhound subspecies, instead being quite friendly and gregarious folk. As such, they are more likely to hybridize with other subspecies than any of the other groups, as their cheerful natures and dark-colored fur, considered an attractive physical trait among many brown northhound cultures, make them appealing mates even to individuals of other subspecies and social groups.

The third species of northhound, the mixens (B. mixenii diversus), are a genetic hybrid of the red and brown northhounds, and display an intermediate in physical traits, their body spots and eye spots being a mix of both light and dark and displaying a middle ground of the two species distinguishing traits such as leg length and snout shape. They, as a group, are wide ranging, genetically and culturally diverse, and in some groups, even nomadic, traveling far and wide in search of food and resources. Generally amicable with other northhound populations, their travels and occasional intermingling with them make them a vector for stories, dialects and behaviors to be transmitted from culture to culture.

Both genera of the Calliducyonidae, thanks to their social empathy, live relatively comfortable lives with the care and affection of their kin, unlike other, less-complex animals subjected to nature red in tooth and claw. While still faced with struggles in the quest for survival, the northhounds and southhounds, despite never having met in recent history, are united in their defense of the young and weak, and the value of the wisdom of the old: as such, both genera typically bear smaller litters of just one to three pups, as opposed to other zingos that can have as many as eight at a time: but in turn, these fewer offspring individually have a far greater chance of surviving to reach adulthood. The oldest of them can live up to their twenties in the southhounds and their thirties in the northhounds-- far longer than their ancestors who would have been lucky to reach a decade.

Another intelligence rises for the third time on HP-02017: one with far more favorable advancements than the previous two. Neither one inherently self-destructive and unreasonably violent, nor one at the mercy of such a brutal species, the Calliducyonidae show great promise to be a successful and long-lasting civilization.

---------

[cromwelll]

Happiness is a Full Bookshelf 😊📚

My goal is to collect every Penguin Classic that has a black spine and cover, white title, and orange author name because they’re sooo aesthetically pleasing to me. My fun challenge of collecting/amassing them is by finding them exclusively through secondhand purchases (resale shops, ebay, garage sales, used bookstores, etc.) Then I only have to shell out $0-$7 each instead of $10-$30 each!

Penguin Classics

A Doll's House and Other Plays by Henrick Ibsen

A Nietzsche Reader by Fredrich Nietzsche

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Dolye

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

Angel of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin**

BUtterfield 8 by John O'Hara

Caleb Williams by William Godwin

Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories by Jack London*

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer*

Charlotte Temple and Lucy Temple by Susanna Rowson

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

Confessions by Saint Augustine

Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line by Charles W. Chestnut

Consolation of Philosophy by Ancius Boethius

Crucible by Arthur Miller

Daisy Miller by Henry James

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane

Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley**

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck**

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Hedda Gabler and Other Plays by Henrik Ibsen

History of The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë*

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman*

Letters of Abélard and Héloïse

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw

Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Memoirs by William Tecumseh Sherman

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka*

Middlemarch by Geroge Eliot

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Mysteries by Knut Hamsun

Narrative of the Lige of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave by Frederick Douglas

Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle*

Nineteenth-Century American Poetry

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Odyssey by Homer**

On Liberty and the Subjection of Women by John Suart Mill

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Passing by Nella Larsen

Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant

Portable Sixties Reader

Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne**

Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

Silas Marner by George Eliot

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Song of Roland

Summer by Edith Wharton

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

The Aeneid by Virgil

The Ancien Régime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville

The Bhagavad Gita

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Guide by R.K. Narayan

The Habor by Ernest Poole

The Hound of Baskerville by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Iliad by Homer

The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings by Olaudah Equiano

The Lais of Marie de France

The Marquise of O—and Other Stories by Heinrich Von Keist

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The Odyssey by Homer

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli*

The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlson

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Three Theban Plays by Sophocles

To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Utopia by Thomas More

Villette by Emily Brontë

A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft

Washington Square by Henry James

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Non-Penguin Classics

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath**

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank*

Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood**

House on Mango Street by Sander Cisneros

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Last Man by Mary Shelley

The Song og Bernadette by Franz Werfel

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien*

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Collections, Compilations, Biographies, and Anthologies

100 Best-Loved Poems (American & British)

101 Great American Poems

A Book of Love Poetry

English Romantic Poetry (1996)

Final Harvest by Emily Dickinson

Five Metaphysical Poets

John Donne

George Herbert

Henry Vaughn

Richard Crashaw

Andrew Marvell

Four Great Comedies of the Restoration & 18th Century

Four Great Elizabethan Plays

Great Poems by American Women

Great American Short Stories (1985)

Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction by Joseph Conrad

• “Youth”

• Heart of Darkness

• “Amy Foster”

• “The Secret Sharer

17. Louisa May: A Modern Biography by Martha Saxton

18. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

19. Possibilities of Poetry (1970)

20. Selected Poetry by D.H. Lawrence

21. Selected Writings by Gertrude Stein

22. Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

23. Short Shorts: An Anthology of the Shortest Stories (1983)

24. Short Story Masterpieces (American & British, 1982)

25. Six American Poets (Whitman, Dickinson, Stevens, Williams, Frost, Hughes)

26. Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

• “A Scandal in Bohemia”

• “The Red-headed League”

• “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”

• “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”

• “The Final Problem”

• “The Adventure of the Empty House”

27. Six Plays of Strindberg

28. Tales of Henry James by Henry James

• “The Aspern Papers”

• “The Pupil”

• “Brooksmith”

• “The Real Thing”

• “The Middle Years”

• “In the Cage”

• “The Beast in the Jungle”

• “The Jolly Corner”

29. Ten Plays by Euripides

30. The Essential Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

31. The Complete Plays of John M. Synge by John M. Synge

32. The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories

33. The Underground Railroad by William Still

34. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry (1990)

35. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

36. The Novels by Samuel Beckett

• Molloy

• Malone Dies

•The Unnamable

37. Victorian Love Stories (1997)

Literary Criticism

38. Women & Fiction (1975)

39. Barchester Towers and The Warden by Anthony Trollope

On Poetry and Poets by T.S. Eliot

Speaking of Chaucer by E. Talbot Donaldson

Symbolism and American Literature by Charles Feidelson, Jr.

* = Started & didn’t finish (yet)/Read parts

** = Read ≥5 years ago

Strike-through = Read

Updated: June 17, 2024

Total count: 162

[thewapolls]

It's funny I could have sworn these monsters were more prevalent but there's not as many of these as I thought there'd be,

HELL HOUND is just the broad mythological archetype of monstrous dogs associated with the underworld or the devil.

GARUM was a misromanization of the mythic Norse GARM or GARMR, a monstrous wolf in the service of the goddess Hel. It is consequently the origin of the concept of a Hellhound alongside the Greek Cerberus.

BARGHEST are folkloric ghostly black dogs of northern England, often with burning red or flaming eyes. Like a lot of these hellhound adjacent myths, they don't actually tend to do anything, but they are considered ill omens, often foreshadowing death upon those they visit.

NINJAHOUND is a neat recolor of the BARGHEST, other than just a blue color palette the fur pattern is different, and it has a scar over one eye. Pop culture wise there's been a pretty long history of ninja attack dogs, although I have no idea how grounded in reality any of that is. The image tends to be of a dog with a bladed weapon in its mouth, in this case making use of the BARGHEST model's giant fangs.

BASKERVILLE is appropriately a black dog named after the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baservilles. The titular hound of the story adheres to the classic lore of barghests and hellhounds, but is of course revealed to be no monster at all, but a regular trained attack dog implemented in an elaborate murder scheme. It's kind of weird that this monster only appears in WA3, frankly it's just kind of what the BARGHEST enemy should look like anyway.

HOUND or just DOG also appears in WA3 as part of a boss quartet --alongside FELINE, FLIER, and DONKEY-- based on the German fairytale, The Town Musicians of Bremen.

And then HODAC, which I'm pretty certain was supposed to be HODAG, a cryptid featured in Paul Bunyan stories of North America and more specifically associated with the state of Wisconsin. It's a weirdly obscure reference to pull out for a JRPG but it does only show up the once, so maybe it was a little too obscure for its own good.