#Fink the Slaughter Artist

[trubbishrubbish]

I don't know if someone else made a post like this before but I'll do it anyway. I made a full list of every Rain Code character that shares a VA with a Danganronpa character.

Source: Behind The Voice Actors.

Character: Yuma Kokohead.

Voice Actor: Lucien Dodge.

Shared with:

Hifumi Yamada.

K1-B0.

Character: Yakou Furio.

Voice Actor: Kaiji Tang.

Shared with:

Yasuhiro Hagakure.

Gonta Gokuhara.

Character: Hana.

Voice Actor: Dorothy Fahn.

Shared with:

Sayaka Maizono.

Chihiro Fujisaki.

Tsumugi Shirogane.

Character: Servan.

Voice Actor: Derek Stephen Prince.

Shared with:

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu.

Kokichi Oma.

Character: Fink the Slaughter Artist.

Voice Actor: Sean Chiplock.

Shared with:

Kiyotaka Ishimaru.

Monotaro.

Character: Ama-Pal.

Voice Actor: Janice Kawaye.

Shared with: Peko Pekoyama.

Character: Various npcs.

Voice Actors:

Erica Mendez.

Morgan Lauré Garrett.

Shared with:

Nagisa Shingetsu.

Maki Harukawa.

Akane Owari. (Danganronpa 3)

[swagworm99]

i think we as a community should draw fink like this more often

[loremaster]

all right, let's talk about some rejected* ideas from boba au's chapter 4. (big spoilers ofc)

yakou, as we know, is a very sad man. secretly plotting to unalive himself for revenge.

but in this au, pucci catches him, right?

she can't wrap her head around his selfish motivations. sure, his wife was important to him when she was alive, but now she's not, so why is she still important? pucci doesn't think the revenge would be worth the suicide. but yakou is a firm believer in the Core Tenets Of Marriage (and considers seppuku to be one of them)

*this is for not what will end up happening in the actual boba au ch4. but from here on out... i will probably still use some of the ideas below, so if you want to be totally surprised when i post the whole thing this summer, turn back now.

...but if you want a little treat, then keep reading ;)

after the gang reunites, yuma interrogates yakou, who confesses everything, even the extent of his murderous rage.

mystery labyrinth happens in which yuma uses whatever leftover evidence he can to prove dl6 dr huesca was responsible for yakou's wife's death. yuma reaps huesca's soul... and when he leaves the labyrinth, yakou is still alive!

AND AFTER ALL THAT HARD WORK THEY PUT INTO SAVING HIM HE DIES ANYWAY

(he tries it one more time and gets that finger bitten clean off.)

if anyone out there knows what the scorpion reference is from, you have earned my undying love. (if you don't...... well, then stay tuned for the neon downpour zine to find out B))

anyway. vivia is understandably struggling with this. he appoints himself as the guard to the kitchen/bathroom door, behind which zombie yakou is... uh, well, there.

melami gets straight to the point.

"did you love him?"

i thought vivia's feelings could have grown into something more, but never got the chance before it was ripped away.

this was pre-dlc. i was a fool.

he was madly in love the whole time.

[cladu-blue-bird]

Character chart I made on reddit

[blazerwyvernmaster]

Kinda Minor Rain:Code spoilers. It's just a name from Chapter 4

FINK

FINK THE SLAUGHTER ARTIST

[kanai-ward-census]

Raincode Tournament: Fink the Slaughter Artist Vs Number One

[wildfire317s-oc-box]

Raincode Alternate Timeline idea: Mrs.Furio lives timeline

In this timeline Mrs.Furio (Yakou's wife) would somehow manage to avoid her murder attempt until just before the blank week mystery where, knowing that Dr.Huesca is trying to kill her; she would go to the fake blood test in some type of disguise and with an alias having already put in her two weeks notice. She would get her blood drawn which would then be used to produce her homunculus on accident or purposefully but made to seem like an accident depending on whether or not she had made friends with any of the lady peacekeepers or any of her fellow lady scientists who would have enough access to sneak it into production while Dr.Huesca was distracted with planning Mrs.Furio's murder. Dr.Huesca would be successful in his next murder attempt while she was getting her belongings from her desk which would be right before the Homunculi escape. After the blank week mystery Mrs.Furio wakes up at the submarine along with Yakou finding everything just a tad bit messier than usual and not remembering anything from the week before like her husband and the rest of Kanai Ward's residents. Makoto having found a way to manipulate Dr.Huesca into leaving Mrs.Furio alone, respects her two week's notice. Over the next three years with Yakou's love, support and negotiation skills Mrs.Furio also becomes a detective of the WDO who also lacks a forte and works exclusively at the NDA. During the time that Vivia, Halara, Desuhiko, Fubuki and Yuma are around everything goes mostly the same way but with Mrs.Furio helping Yakou keep an eye on their "work-kids" as the "work-mom" and naturally getting dragged into their shenanigans until chapter four.

At which point Yomi having gotten sick of Dr.Huesca's crap has hired Fink the slaughter artist after finding a convenient note mentioning where to find him, and Makoto having figured out Yomi's plan has brought Yuma along to "solve" the "mystery" and take the advantage to get Yomi arrested. However the plan goes astray due to Mrs.Furio getting a bad feeling about where Yuma is running off too which lead's to Yakou and her rounding up the rest of the detectives and going to go find him. At which point Kurumi tells them that Yuma was going with Makoto to the Amaterasu HQ and that according to the peacekeeper's Fink the slaughter artist was going after Dr.Huesca. All of them knowing how Yuma is decide to go and get him or at least go help him before he gets in over his head and ask Kurumi to keep an eye on the submarine. Once there Desuhiko gets all of them into their disguises and split up into pair's to go find Yuma; Desuhiko with Yakou, Vivia with Halara and Fubuki with Mrs.Furio. At some point before Desuhiko, Yuma and Mrs.Furio go to get an Amapal and to go check on Dr.Huesca and leave Fubuki to keep watch, Yakou circles back around after distracting the peacekeepers and happens to overhear that Dr.Huesca left his intercom's microphone on and happens to overhear Dr.Huesca's plan to escape by pretending that Fink had somehow snuck in and that he was under attack to lure Yuma and the other detectives in, kill them with the toxic gas, frame Fink as their killer and using the sulfuric acid to make one of them a body-double. And Yakou being Yakou decides that he CANNOT allow that to happen, and decides that he needs to get to Dr.Huesca before Dr.Huesca can get to the people he cares about even if that means drawing the ire of both Yomi and Fink. Skipping forward to just past Dr.Huesca's murder at Yakou's hands to around the time Yakou gets stabbed, Instead of blocking out his face on the picture of him and Mrs.Furio he uses his blood to leave one last message "saved you-". At which point most of the rest of chapter four continues as usual. But it is revealed in what phantom-Yakou says that he was trying to protect them all.

Then skipping to chapter five Makoto places a body-double of Mrs.Furio along with the body-doubles of the other NDA detectives but her note's mention the pill she was working on before she quit and a "hidden" message as to where to find it and the respective research papers on it but otherwise it goes as normal.

Then during Yakou's dlc only the ending changes with Mrs.Furio revealing that she had snuck into the restricted area to get Yakou and give him the pill that Yuma retrieved for her with Makoto's help.

[tobiasdrake]

I know what it looks like but it's not what you think. I'm just trying to harass your top scientist into revealing company secrets. It's cool.

This would be the funniest possible time for Huesca to die. We've done Locked Room Quartet. We've done Open Air Locked Room. Are you ready for the Most Locked-est Room Ever Locked!?

The same underlings who tried to solve the last four murders? Sure, those guys are credible.

What is Yomi implying here? That Makoto came down here and knocked out two guards, then left in a car to go pick me up, and then came back down to capitalize on the chaos created by a fake letter he'd sent to Yomi earlier?

Because that... is alarmingly plausible and answers my question as to why that letter would even exist.

Looks like we pushed too hard. Makoto's being placed under arrest.

...so. Like. Am I cool to hang out, Yomi? You're just taking him, right? It's fine for me to still be here?

YUMA NO

YOU FOOL

We almost got away with it. Yomi was so laser-focused that he was legit going to take Makoto and leave us here. Your masterful disguise of freezing up and being so useless that you become mistakable for a floor lamp was working until you spoke up!

Floor lamp. Like I said. Pay us no mind and have a wonderful day. Oh, what is that noise in the distance? Is that the sound of some malcontents? Someone must go step on their necks, and that someone is you, Yomi. You got this, man. I believe in you.

Aww, that hurts my feelings. You were ready to get Halara'd trying to kill us all over me, like, yesterday. :( Am I really that forgettable?

I hope so too. It'd take out this entire building. We've got Yomi and Makoto here at the same time, plus Huesca. That'd solve a lot of problems for Kanai Ward right there.

Alright, we've time-skipped. Now someone is surely dead.

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtroo--Desuhiko. Halara must have delivered my IOU message.

To be fair, I'd be doing shit like this to him if he was the one over a barrel like this. Though I'd be going for more goofy prankster shit. Desuhiko is weirdly obsessed with shilling the Yuma/Kurumi ship at every possible opportunity.

HOLY SHIT, IS THAT YOU, YAKOU!?

Fuck, I thought it'd be Fubuki or Halara. Someone useful. Instead, we get these two clowns. But I suppose it will have to do. Thanks for rescuing me, try not to die on the way out.

DON'T UN-DISGUISE. Y'all have helmets. Just take those off. You don't need to strip down and make yourselves fully vulnerable to being caught, you fucking morons!

He didn't, actually. If he used DIsguise, he would have taken on an appropriate height for a Peacekeeper grunt. This was a disguise, but it wasn't Disguise. Which was honestly for the best.

Given how much Disguise takes out of Desuhiko, a non-Disguise disguise was the right call. With face and body fully covered, there was no need to burn energy on the full shapeshifting shenanigans route.

While true, your behavior in the past has done little to establish a relationship of trust and open communication.

It's like parenting. When you constantly tell Yuma, "DO NOT go snoop around, DO NOT get in trouble with the Peacekeepers, AVOID solving mysteries or doing anything meaningful," and then get mad at him every time he does those things? It's not going to discourage him from doing them. It's going to discourage him from telling you that he's doing them.

If you convey to your child/apprentice that they cannot confide in you about the things they are doing, then they will continue to do those things but they will not confide in you about them. Yuma went behind your back because everything you've said to him up to this point has convinced him that you must be lied to.

My IOU letter!

No, for real, what is that actually? Did Fink the Slaughter Artist tell them I was here?

...that's not a yes.

But it's also not a no. This sent a chill down my spine.

Nuh nuh nuh go back. Don't just yadda-yadda over your arrival here. You have to pass through a biometric scanner to enter the premises. How did you pass through the biometric scanner?

I guess Desuhiko could have Disguised a member of Amaterasu staff to get them through. That shit is practically shapeshifting so it might alter his biometrics. That or they smuggled their way in on, like, a troop transport? Maybe?

That is a fair assessment of what happened, yes. Yuma's floor lamp impersonation needs work.

Yomi had a plausible explanation for that, but obviously Makoto himself couldn't have dropped the letter at the sub. The timing of which still makes me think he did it specifically to get them to come fetch Yuma.

Makoto and Fink aren't proven to be in cahoots but they're likely to be in cahoots. Cahoots are more plausible than not at this point in time.

Hold up, your plan is to kidnap Amaterasu's most highly-protect employee from the middle of their HQ and then walk out?

Yakou, 95% of the time I want you to grow a spine. Then, in the other 5%, you are the boldest motherfucker I've ever met. I love it. I'm here for it. It's too bad Huesca's most certainly dead by now.

HOORAH! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

Into the poison gas chamber and DIIIIIIIIE!

...plan needs work, but we can workshop it. Gonna stay positive!

The hell is that supposed to mean, Desuhiko? I'll have you know that I have only Disguised as a woman one....

...four....

...five times. Out of five.

Okay, yeah. That's fair. Gimme the female suit and the polyurethane molded breast forms you set aside as mine.

You heard it here, folks. Yuma doesn't have a preference between male or female. Canon he/they.

Purple question-mark hair and pronouns.

You don't need your bag. These were disguises instead of Disguise. You should still have two of the disguises on you, Desuhiko. Would it be that hard to locate a third?

...we're going on this detour so you can make Yuma a female Peacekeeper, aren't we?

[seth-burroughs]

MDA:RC Character likes, dislikes and abilities

Yuma Kokohead - likes detective novels & peace and happiness for everyone, dislikes amnesia and war. Forte: Coalescence.

Shinigami - likes Yuma, dislikes boredom. Ability: Mystery Labirynth interactions.

Pucci Lavmin - likes classical music, dislikes loud people. Forte: Audial Aptitude.

Melami Goldmine - likes beautiful, heartwarming clothes, dislikes ugly, non-heartwarming clothes. Forte: Spiritism.

Zange Eraser - likes whisky, dislikes modern cellphones. Forte: Thoughtography.

Aphex Logan - likes basketball, dislikes rogues with no sense of justice. Forte: Life Detection.

Zilch Alexander - likes animals, dislikes destruction of nature. Forte: Animal Investigation.

Fake Zilch Alexander - likes destroying nature, dislikes animals. Ability: impersonations.

Swank Catsonell - likes fatty sirloin steak, dislikes fish. Ability: speed eating.

Yakou Furio - likes Kamasaki District meat buns, dislikes debt. Ability: flair for negotiation.

Number One - likes cigars, dislikes sweets. Ability: running away.

Halara Nightmare - likes cats and dogs, dislikes cruel con artists. Forte: Postcognition.

Kei Colan - likes baseball, dislikes loneliness. Ability: foot racing.

Jiei Colan - likes his son, dislikes wasting time. Ability: fixing clocks and watches.

Seth Burroughs - likes wind instruments, dislikes untuned instruments. Ability: chess.

Priest - likes faith, dislikes atheists. Ability: making speeches.

Worshipper - likes urban legends, dislikes a world filled with happiness. Ability: knowledge of the occult.

Nun - likes death metal, dislikes people who can't get into music. Ability: price negotiations.

Servant - likes anime figures, dislikes violence. Ability: video games.

Yomi Hellsmile - likes handmade torture tools, dislikes foolish humans who defy him. Ability: torture.

Martina Electro - likes Yomi's photo / impartial justice, dislikes stalkerish underlings / self-serving people. Ability: interrogation.

Desuhiko Thunderbolt - likes all cute girls, dislikes popular guys. Forte: Disguise.

Kurumi Wendy - likes cameras, dislikes information manipulation. Ability: tailing suspects.

Aiko - likes acting, dislikes fighting. Ability: acting.

Yoshiko - likes teddy bears, dislikes syringes. Ability: sewing.

Waruna - likes trendy makeup, dislikes sympathy. Ability: makeup.

Kurane - likes romance novels, dislikes electronic gadgets. Ability: memorizing the script.

Makoto Kagutsuchi - likes raw ham & peace and happiness for everyone, dislikes olives and his original self. Ability: cat's-cradle, Forte: Coalescence.

Fubuki Clockford - likes exciting adventures, dislikes unexciting adventures. Forte: Time Leap.

Shachi - likes resistance comrades, dislikes Amaterasu Corporation. Ability: fishing.

Iruka - likes firearms, dislikes lip service. Ability: sniping.

Margulaw - likes antiques, dislikes Amaterasu products. Ability: accounting.

Servan - likes complex machinery, dislikes bullies. Ability: mechanical repair.

Icardi - likes swimming, dislikes losing. Ability: swimming.

Guillaume Hall - likes happy, joyful killing, dislikes boring prey. Ability: fortune telling.

Dominic Fulltank - likes sleeping lazily, dislikes thinking. Ability: arm wrestling.

Vivia Twilight - likes fluffy pillows, dislikes hard pillows and living. Forte: Spectral Projection.

Dr. Huesca - likes research, dislikes people who disturb his research. Ability: mental arithmetic.

Fink the Slaughter Artist - likes knives, dislikes large crowds. Ability: murder.

[ineedtofinishthh]

Fink the slaughter artist die challenge yomi hellsmile die challenge i think these things should be very popular and hapoen very frequently.

[momentomori24]

Ok, so I just finished chapter 4 of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code a day ago and I absolutely LOVED it. There's so much to talk about in this chapter but what I want to dive into is the book of death, the rule of the Mystery Labyrinth and Shinigami and Yuma both in this chapter and in general. My thoughts are inevitably going to be all over the place and I haven't proof read it so bear with me here (also I haven't seen anything about chapter 5 yet so no spoilers for that please).

MAJOR SPOILERS WARNING UP TO CHAPTERS 0- 4 UP AHEAD:

The Mystery Labyrinth and Shinigami are, to me at least, one of the most fascinating aspects of the game. The purpose of both is to uncover the absolute truth on a higher power; cut and dry, no morality or consideration for the circumstances needed. The Book of Death grants whoever has their hands on it to-- best described with Number One's mindset-- discard all emotions to reach a perfect deduction. Murderers, regardless of why, who and how, are punished as such, recieving the death penalty for their crimes every time. But not only is that logic deeply flawed, but also extremely hypocritical and put in the hands of humans with no right to wield it.

Throughout the game we see Yuma clear Labyrinth after Labyrinth and even though he exposes the absolute truth each time, he clearly struggles from the weight of his own power and the damage he causes. Yes, he's able to save others like Kurumi and the Watchmaker by solving cases, however he's forced to deal with the guilt of killing the culprits as a consequence. Take those Aetheria girls for example. The Labyrinth condemned them as murderers for killing Karin. By its rules, that is the absolute truth and only they will solely be punished. But we know the actual truth is that they resorted to what they did because of Karin killing Aiko and with Kanai Ward being the way it is, her death would be swept under the rug with no justice served. They're guilty, that doesn't change no matter what the motive was, but we as people can empathise, try to find a solution appropriate for their circumstance based on real world discernment. Same with Yakou. Led by the nose and egged on by Yomi, he killed Huesca, the man who murdered his wife for nothing more than a way to keep her quiet because she posed a risk to his position. In the Mystery Labyrinth, he was deemed the perpetrator and killed (if he wasn't already dead). That is what it considered the 'truth', but what it blatantly ignored was Yomi's involvement in whole thing. How he instigated Yakou's crime by sending him that letter and the items he needed, knowing full well he'd take the bait. He hired Fink the Slaughter Artist to stab Yakou and cover his tracks. All the atrocities and immoral acts he's commited long before the case even. In the face of higher power, he was deemed innocent, solely for not having the blood of Huesca directly on his hands (nevermind everyone else he's most likely killed). Yakou and the Aetheria girls have done something terrible, but at the end of the day they were people placed in difficult positions with no other options to get the justice they so desperately needed in a place like Kanai Ward. And yet, they're still judged the same as Icardi, the Nailman, the Worshipper and imposter Zilch-- hitmen and serial killers and traitors and inspired murderers that have taken the lives of others for less justifiable reasons behind their actions.

And Shinigami's perspective up until chapter 4 is no different from how the Labyrinth functions. Minus Yakou, a person she grew to care about, she enacted the same execution on every culprit because to her there is no difference between them. What we see as tragedy she sees as entertainment. What we can understand to be a desperate, broken-hearted victim she only views as another dangerous criminal. She isn't a person; she's a Death God on a much higher plane of existance, so she doesn't feel the need for compassion or empathy or understanding because it's all below her and unneeded to clear the Mystery Labyrinth. Her purpose is to seek the truth and truth only, emotions would only get in the way of that. She understands those principles better than anybody, which is why she can reap the souls of the culprits without regrets. But unlike her, Yuma is a person with an overwhelming amount of empathy and compassion, even towards culprits that didn't deserve it. And because he's human, because he's on the same plane as everyone else, the thought of killing them haunts him because he knows what conditions these people are living under, knows how limited their options were, knows that under the right circumstances that he could've ended up the same. Heck, in a way, he is the same. Where three girls kill their classmate as revenge for killing their friend, he kills three highschoolers to find the truth and save his friend. Where a man takes matters into his own hands before his wife's killer can escape his consequences forever, he exposes the truth at the cost of his life. Regardless of his motive, Yuma has killed people in his pursuit of the truth-- a motive lacking the emotional weight and connection like revenge, or justice, or self-preservation. It's not as if that's Yuma's only reason; he does it because he wants to save others. That's the conviction he needs to see it all through to the end and that's great, but the same goes for every other culprit (except Icardi , the Worshipper and Zilch). They don't kill for themselves, they killed for others and that's what led them down the road they took. And still, he can pass judgement on them in the Labyrinth for an act he himself is committing by solving those cases.

All in all, when it comes to solving cases, making a pact with Shinigami and clearing the Mystery Labyrinth to obtain the truth is a double-edged sword. It allows you to reach the truth of the case and punish the culprit in one sitting, sure, but that's all it is. Humanity and morality are the price for that kind of power. The culprit will never be tried for their crime. Regardless of the motive, they will only be punished with death and you can't get out of the Labyrinth alive without commiting to ending their life in exchange for the truth. You get the truth of the case, but there is no justice to be had because only the one who did the deed is considered guilty without taking all those other factors into account. Yomi is a psychotic, immoral and downright evil piece of shit, yet even the Mystery Labyrinth-- this higher power far above our own-- couldn't punish him because he gets others to do his bidding for him, making THEM the guilty party instead. The Master Detectives with all their Fortes and abilities couldn't do anything to stop him because he's the director of the Peacekeepers with the entire city under his thumb. Martina couldn't do anything to stop him even though she's both his lover (and I use that term very loosely) and the vice-director. It took Makoto, the guy who's literally only one position above him, to take him down. As satisfying as it was to see that scumbag taken down by the system he created with own two hands only to have it turned upside down and be treated with the complete opposite philosophy of what he put on others, what his idea of justice truly was, it just goes to show how the Labyrinth isn't always the solution. The rules it abides by and what it considers the absolute truth don't always correlate with the real world.

Discarding emotions and staying professional is important to reach a perfect deduction removed from bias, but compassion, empathy and good judgement are what is needed to decide on how to handle the people involved in the crimes. Some people are just bad people, others trying to adapt to their environment because they can't do anything else, and those should be treated appropriately and separately depending on what they've done and what their reasoning was. The book of death is far from the correct solution, but here in Kanai Ward it's the only way for mysteries to not be lost with how corrupt the system is. Shinigami has a point and Yuma does too. The Mystery Labyrinth is hypocritical and a power he should not have in his hands, but he has to do what it takes to protect others while still holding on to his humanity and understanding for himself and everyone involved. Both ideals are what it takes to make a great detective and I think does the game does a good job at not making this dilemma all black and white, rather more of a 'necessary evil'. I wonder where he's gonna go from here...

[jacksmysterylabyrinth]

Damnit I forgot Fink the Slaughter Artist in the fucking factory. When you talk to his zombie form you find out that Makoto basically double-crossed him thus he ended up killed by him, and brought to there. That’s easily missable..........

[becomingthecrone]

Fly Away, Little Bird

Her arms ached as she wrapped the purple silk in a loop around her ankle. A month and a half, and she still hadn't managed to nail this drop accurately. Another stretch, and the fabric around her waist fell away, leaving her to tumble toward the swiftly-approaching ground. Just as she worried that maybe she had miscalculated the tension around her ankle, the fabric tightened and tilted her into an impressive dip as she spun across the ring.

"Yes! Finally!"

The words rang out across the empty tent like a slap in the face, and Persephone focused on completing the drop and safely twisting down to the floor before she turned to face Tomi. She knew he hadn't intended to insult her. He was just excited for her. Right?

Shaking her head, she crossing the ring and slipped an arm around his waist. "Tomi, you ass. How many times have I told you not to distract me when I'm on the silks?"

"I dunno, Sephie, how many times have I told you not to go up the silks without a bleeding net?" Tomi wrinkled this most, making his dark, oiled mustache wiggle like a caterpillar. "Or drunk, for that matter. Uh, uh, uh." He held up a hand to shush her protest even before it crossed her lips. "I can smell the alcohol on you, woman. I thought we talked about this."

"It's just the rosin. Billie mixes it with the cleaning alcohol," she muttered. Even she had to admit that it would've sounded more convincing if she weren't protesting straight to the dirt of the ring, where her feet were scuffing unintelligible designs.

"Mmm. Right. Which is why there are no rosin marks on your fabric. I told Billie last week to stop mixing it, so you couldn't keep using that excuse."

Rat-fink. Her eyes narrowed as she contemplated the best way to get back at Billie for betraying her. Each new idea was cut short by a brilliant flash of green, one after another, until she found herself sitting in the dirt, propped up against one of the straw bales. Tomi was hovering over her, concern etched into his face.

"That's the third time this week, Seph. It's getting worse. We weren't even talking about...Her...this time."

Huh. He had a point. Why had she flashed back to the Green Mansion? Thinking...she had been thinking...

Oh.

She had been thinking like the Mistress. Or like Clara. Calculating weak points she could lean on for leverage. Assessing the sociopolitical divides in the camp: who would fall where.

"I'm sorry, Tomi." She was as surprised as he was to realize that the contrition in her voice was genuine. "I don't...you all have given me a good place here. I don't wanna mess that up. I just...ya know. I haven't got anything else."

"I know, Hummingbird." His voice was gentle, but she could clearly hear the undertone of reproof practically ringing in her ears. "But I also know that's why you drink. And why you fly without a net. And why you test Lila's patience. You're waiting for us to get sick of you. To toss you out on that perfect ass of yours. Or maybe..." He loomed over her, suddenly neither gentle nor caring. "Or maybe you're just hoping one of us drains you. Throws the remnants to Billie. Leaves your chewed bones in a ditch along one of our back ways. Hmmm?"

Persephone closed her eyes against the tears shining in her eyes, but one slipped through her lashes and down her cheek despite her efforts. She'd known this was coming, ever since she'd learned that the Caudill tents only housed Undying. She just hadn't expected it to be Tomi. In the end, though, it didn't matter. Apparently familial love was exactly as trustworthy and reliable as romantic love. Raising her chin and setting her jaw, she opened her eyes and faced her death with dignity.

Tomi let out a strangled noise, somewhere between a frustrated sigh and a manic laugh, and it was incongruous enough to shake Persephone's resolve. Grabbing her hand, he started to drag her out of the tent.

"Lila said you'd do something like that. Idiot child. We didn't clothe and feed you like a sheep we were fattening for the holidays. Go wash up and get changed. Billie should have left an outfit on your chair. Meet us at the fire circle at sundown."

Oh. It was going to be a ritual slaughter, not a casual feeding. Something in Persephone straightened up proudly. She'd picked up a smattering of witchcraft from the Delcambre swamp witch, and she knew ritual components were at least killed swiftly and for a purpose.

Tomi saw the change in her posture and completely misinterpreted it. He smiled warmly.

"Exactly, hummingbird. It's finally time to make you real Family. Hope you've picked a good place to get that tattoo, or flying practice is cancelled until your wrists heal." 

Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five - Part Six - Part Seven - Part Eight

(Artist source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/680760745/the-silky-lady-printable-art-aerial-yoga)

[loremaster]

ARE THE DLCS OUT NOW??? I'm gonna cry I thought it was tomorrow

[pbr-street-gang]

I was tagged by @mrs–mojo–rising , Thanks!

1. Nicknames: Kelloggs (My last name is Killough)

2. Gender: Guy

3. Star sign: Sagittarius

4. Height: 5′11

5. Time: 5:13PM Est

6. Birthday: 12/9

7. Favorite bands: Black Lips, The Seeds, Guantanamo Baywatch, 13th Floor Elevators, The Cramps, Dead Moon, Oblivions, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, King Khan and the Shrines, The Mystic Tide, Los Tones, Shannon & the Clams, Allah-Las, Mystic Braves, Natural Child, People’s Temple, The Growlers, Gaye Blades, The Gories, The Mummiesilly Childish, , The Ramones, Paint Fumes, Iggy & the Stooges,

8. Favorite solo artists: Bloodshot Bill, King Khan, Roky Erickson, Mark Sultan, Jay Reatard

9. Song stuck in my head: New Kinda Kick - The Cramps

10. Last movie I watched: Tales of Rat Fink

11. Last show I watched: Warlocks Rising

12. When did I create this blog: December, 2014

13. When do I post: Most days, pretty irregularly recently

14. Last thing I googled: “rat fink hillbilly hat”

15. Do I have any other blogs: /">nah

16. Do I get any asks: sometimes

17. Why did I choose my url: It’s the name of the boat from Apocalypse Now 

18. Following: 823

19. Followers: 822

20. Favourite colours: Green, Orange, Black

21. Average hours of sleep: like 6-9 hours

22. Lucky number: 3

23. Instruments: learning guitar and bass

24. What am I wearing: black levis, and some random surf company shirt

25. How many blankets do I sleep with: 2

26. Dream job: Playing in a band

27. Dream trip: Thailand

28. Favourite food: Pizza, Chili Dogs, Fried Chicken, Fried Rice 

29. Nationality: Thai-American

30. Favourite song right now:  Apophis To The Slaughter by Mark Sultan

if you wanna do it say I tagged you

[lostlegendaerie]

Slept On Sunday: Defending Bioshock 2 and its Optimism

(Disclaimer: spoiler warnings follow, and I will take to my grave that B1 is a revolutionary and near-peerless video game. this isn’t an anti-Bioshock review, i swear.)

Bioshock is an amazing series of games is a pretty safe blanket statement to make. The first is an absolutely stellar game in nearly every aspect of the word, the second considerably improved the gameplay, and the third could be said to have redefined what it means to have a companion character in a first person shooter. However, a lot of people like to discount Bioshock 2 or completely ignore that Bioshock 2 exists, partially because it doesn’t break the mold like the first and third games do. I’ve heard some people say it isn’t part of the canon because Ken Levine didn’t write it, and it was made by 2k instead of by Irrational, and therefore don’t even want to give it a chance.

I can’t really say I’m surprised. Loyalty to a formula you love works like that. However, Bioshock 2 escapes one of the most insidious flaws of the first and third games, and that is with its compassion, optimism, and considerable improvements in respectful diversity. Not to say that there isn’t some objectively bad treatment of female characters and female sexuality in this one as well, but really there wasn’t much of a place to go other than up when it came to the first game.

Bioshock the first is set in a capitalist's paradise turned hellscape, a world where greed and the advancement of technology and science unchecked by ethics committees or any real overseeing factors has turned its citizens into monsters. The principal characters, and all but two of the named characters you see alive, are white or white passing men. The two Jewish coded characters are especially painted monstrous by the narrative; Sander Cohen is an openly gay psychopath with a penchant for plastering his often still-living victims, and Brigid Tenenbaum was a Holocaust survivor who aided the Nazis in their experiments. And while Cohen at least isn’t explicitly evil because of his homosexuality, Tenenbaum’s character is a mess down to her inconsistent accent. The only person of explicitly non-white descent is Suchong, who is not only a brutally cold scientist but whose dialogue is every audio diary is cringe-worthy stereotypical Engrish. Bioshock Infinite somehow manages to make this even worse, by setting the rebellious Irish and Black Vox Populli as being ‘just as bad’ at the white christian supremacist of Comstock’s faithful; the potential of Daisy Fitzroy as a compelling character is utterly wasted in the hands of these false equivalencies, and even the brilliance of Suchong and his plasmids is usurped by white scientist Fink and his drinkable Vigors. And let’s not even get started on Infinite’s DLC, Burial at Sea, and its treatment of Elizabeth.

Both of these stories, intentionally or not, feature a very colonial mindset; the intelligent white man arriving to the lost paradise filled with ignorant savages and slaughtering them for his own personal quest.  Though the bodies you leave in your wake may be white, and though the former especially allows you to spare the ‘innocents’ and play a more peaceful and kind role, you are still the outsider who knows better than any native.

Bioshock 2, and it’s amazing DLC second story of Minerva’s Den, are different. You are constructs of Rapture, created there, returning home to a world that hates you as you try to reclaim what was taken from you. While the antagonist may be weaker than the first game, the supporting and side characters are considerably stronger; some are even as sane as you are, kindred spirits in a world gone mad, and none are reduced to cartoonish stereotypes of their race or gender. Where Grace Holloway is motherly and deeply loves the child she helped raise, Sophia Lamb is utterly clinical about her daughter despite her socialist compassion. Milton Porter is a soft spoken and extremely respected black scientist in contrast to the slightly more outgoing (and also black) Holloway’s career as a struggling artist.

But perhaps the best and simplest way to contrast the tones and moods of all of the Bioshock games is to compare the ways in which they twist our perceptions of our companion characters; Atlas, Sinclair, and Elizabeth. For the first, this twist comes at the start of the third act, where it is revealed that Atlas was simply a persona and that the protagonist (Jack) had been created and used by con man Frank Fontaine to take out his rival and the founder of Rapture once and for all. It’s a twist that, when followed by the iconic and utterly chilling death of Ryan, manages to make you somehow sympathetic for the cold hearted man who has spent the last seven or eight levels of the game actively trying to kill you, because at least he’s not as big of a cockbite as Fontaine. Bioshock Infinite reverses that tradition by making you the cockbite all along, and informing you that the teenage girl whose tits you’ve totally been staring at half the game is your daughter from the future-past, you sick disgusting bastard, and then drowns you for your sins. Both are extremely solid twists, but Infinite’s twist is a much bigger betrayal of the theme of Choice that defined the two previous games. There is no redemption for Booker other than death.

But Bioshock 2’s twist is a surprisingly tender one, and one that plays with the expectations that you carry into it from the previous game. Sinclair is consistently shown to be just as much of a self-serving, profit-maximizing capitalist dog as every other major economic force in Rapture, and spends even less time talking you up and reassuring you than Atlas does. The twist, however, is that Sinclair has been your friend this entire time, and when the protagonist (Subject Delta) is in danger risks and spends his own life trying to help him escape and reunite with his daughter. In a game series where every character you meet has their own agenda and use for you, Sinclair stands out as shockingly selfless in his dedication to his word.

All three games have their own version of hope in (one of) their endings. Bioshock the first gives Jack the potential to spare lives he could easily take; Infinite offers Elizabeth a chance at her own life not ruled by the agendas of Booker and Comstock (which the DLCs then completely, utterly ruin) but Bioshock 2’s ending(s) are about being compassionate by example, and of kindness breeding kindness. Eleanor is shaped by Delta’s positive influence on her life, contrasting to how Atlas and Booker influence their respective wards Jack and Elizabeth, and has a more bittersweet feeling to it than the others.

Bioshock 2 (and Minerva’s Den) doesn’t hit you over the head with a nihilistic plot twist baseball bat, but it doesn’t need to. It is it’s own particular brand of sequel that doesn’t need to completely change the formula or teach everything to the protagonist anew. It is a return to a familiar setting that plays with your expectations of it; and while Lamb cannot reach Ryan’s particular level of cunning nor can her Rapture hivemind strike the same idyllic horror of Columbia, it is a worthy game that deserves considerably more praise than it is given.