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milgram-en · 1 month ago

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Trial 1 - John Doe Voice Drama (Side-by-Side English Translation)

Preface: I’ll say this upfront: The John Doe VD translation on YouTube has a lot of mistranslations. Some things are just pulled out of thin air, especially with Kotoko’s dialogue. I hope this translation can help clear things up and, since the original text from the scriptbook is also provided, you are free to double check the translations itself and develop your thoughts from there. As Yamanaka has said in his Twitter 部外者からの表面的な理解は、攻撃とたいして変わらないからね (A shallow understanding from someone on the outside can feel just as violent as a direct attack). Translators have an ethical duty to respect the original writers and the speech community (the language and its culture) in their translations. Otherwise, it can contribute to a lot of harm. Especially when it comes to portrayals of persons that come from and are shaped by our present-day world, mistranslations of the themes found in this series can result in a lot of violence down the line. Google Docs version of this translation. If using/reuploading/reposting this translation, do not remove the translator's notes, do not color code the translations, and do not change the translations. Any additional Translator's Notes will be found in the replies. Check the original post before reblogging as TLs are occasionally revisited and edited.

ミルグラム監獄内尋問室 MILGRAM PRISON INTERROGATION ROOM 薄暗い尋問室。 A dimly lit interrogation room.

尋問室でミコトが椅子に座っている、足をぶらつかせ、暇そうな態度。ふと、深い溜め息をつき、 Mikoto is sitting on a chair in the interrogation room, legs dangling, looking bored. Suddenly, he lets out a deep sigh. ミコト　「はあ～〜」 MIKOTO: Ha… 思わず、天を仰ぐ。 Unbeknownstly, he looked up towards the heavens. ミコト　「……こんなとこで何やってんだろ、僕」 MIKOTO: …What am I doing in a place like this? I… エス　「本当にな」 ES: Truth be told, I wonder that as well. ミコト　「うわっ！」 MIKOTO: Ah-! エス　「ま、それを明らかにするのもミルグラムの仕事だ」 ES: Well, it’s MILGRAM’s job to make that clear. いつの間にか尋問室の扉は開いており、エスがじっとミコトを見ている。驚いて椅子ごと倒れ込みそうになったミコト、あわてて、 Before you knew it, the door to the interrogation room was open and ES stared at MIKOTO. MIKOTO gasps—startled—and almost falls out of the chair. ミコト　「ちょっと！びっくりさせないでよ、看守くん。ドアを開ける時はノックするってそこそこ常識じゃない？」 MIKOTO: Hold on-! Don’t scare me like that, Warden-kun! Isn’t it common sense to knock before opening a door? エス　「うるさい、指図するな」 ES: Shut up, don’t tell me what to do. ミコト　「横暴なんだけど！」 MIKOTO: Isn’t that tyrannical of you though?! ミコトの言葉に取り合わず、エスは向かいの椅子に座る。偉そうに足を組む。 ES disregards MIKOTO’s words indifferently, taking none to heart, and sits in the chair opposite to him. They cross their legs arrogantly. エス　「尋問を始めるぞ、囚人番号9番、ミコト」 ES: Let’s begin the interrogation, Prisoner Number 9, MIKOTO. ミコト　「いやいや、尋問って言われても……別に何も隠してることなんてないってば」 MIKOTO: Hey, hey- no- Despite calling it an “interrogation”... I’m really not hiding anything. [T/N: Calling something an “interrogation” implies questioning someone in order to get information that may or may not be hidden. Interrogations can sometimes use threats or violence. (Cambridge Dictionary)] エス　「名前、年齢」 ES: Name. Age. カヤノミコト KAYANO, MIKOTO ミコト　「えーっと、榧野尊23歳……じゃなくてさ、僕はずーっと君に話があったんだよ看守くん」 MIKOTO: Uh, well… Mikoto Kayano, 23 years-old… Ah, well I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while, Warden-kun. [T/N: ES uses the katakana spelling of ミコト (mikoto) which frames and highlights MIKOTO’s difference from Es, him the Prisoner and Es the Warden. Katakana is typically used for words with an outsiderness (ex. foreign loanwords), for emphasis, and/or to make something seem “louder” in some aspect. However, MIKOTO uses kanji spelling of his name 榧野尊 (kayano mikoto) which is the proper and legal way, attributing to him a groundedness in humanity compared to the alienation that spelling something in katakana can make. This is why, instead of translating 榧野尊 as “MIKOTO KAYANO”, it was translated into “Mikoto Kayano” instead.] エス　「なんだ？手短に済ませろ」 ES: What? Make it short. ミコト　「ねぇ、いつ終わるのこれ？」 MIKOTO: Hey, when is this going to end? エス　「はぁ？」 ES: Hah? ミコトの質問が想定外だったエス、怪訝な顔。それを見てヒートアップするミコト。 ES looks puzzled. They were not expecting MIKOTO’s question. Seeing this, MIKOTO gets fired up. ミコト　「いや！そりゃそうでしょ！急にこんな所に連れてこられてさ！ヒトゴロシだのなんだの訳わからないこと言われて……なにかのドッキリとか？リアリティショーとか？モニタリングされてる的な！！そう思って我慢してたんだけど！？！だからこそ、他の皆とも仲良くやってんだけどさ！テレビだとしたら映りとか気を使うじゃん！？！でも、でもさ！あまりにも長すぎる！なんなのこれ！」 MIKOTO: No-! Of course! Look- I was suddenly brought to this place and-! Telling me things I don’t understand like being a "murderer"… Is this some sort of prank? A reality TV show? Where I’m being monitored?!! I thought that that was what I was trying to endure!?! That’s why I was getting along with everyone else! If it was TV, you have to be careful with how you look! But, but! It’s been going on for way too long!?! What is this! [T/N: ヒトゴロシ (hitogoroshi) “murderer” is spelled with katakana. In order to translate over the vibes that gives highlight and distance to the word, "murderer" is placed within quotation marks.] エス　「はぁ……お前まだそんなこと思っていたのか？ミルグラムが、何かの冗談だと」 ES: Ha… You still think that? That MILGRAM is some kind of funny little joke? ミコト　「思ってるよ……思ってるに決まってるだろ！」 MIKOTO: I really do… Of course I’d do!

鼻息荒いミコト、少しずつ息を落ち着けると、しゅんとした表情を見せる。 MIKOTO is breathing heavily, calming his breathing down little-by-little, a despondent look on his face. ミコト　「……だって、僕は本当に身に覚えがないんだ。罪を犯したとか、ヒトゴロシとか言われても、知らないよ……僕はただのしがない会社員だし……」 MIKOTO: …Because I, myself, really don’t remember anything. Even if you say I committed a crime or "murdered" someone, I really don’t know anything… I’m just your standard, everyday lowly office worker… エス　「ふうん………」 ES: Hm… ミコト　「……なんだよ、人が真剣に話してるってのに、ニヤニヤして」 MIKOTO: What’s up with you? A person’s talking seriously and you’re here grinning. エス　「……考えてみれば初めてだと思ってな。『まったく身に覚えがない』としらばっくれる囚人は……」 ES: …Come to think of it, this is the first time a prisoner’s tried to feign ignorance saying, “I really don’t have any recollection of anything whatsoever.” ミコト　「しらばっくれてないって！マジで！マジで知らない！ほら、僕の目見て！ほら！」 MIKOTO: I’m not feigning it! Seriously! I really don’t know! Look, look into my eyes! Look! ミコト、エスの肩を持ち正対させ、まじまじと瞳を見つめる。 MIKOTO holds ES by the shoulders and turns them to face him directly, looking intently into their eyes.

エス　「さわるな、馴れ馴れしい」 ES: Don’t touch me. You’re being too casual. [T/N: Alternatively translated as: ��Don’t touch me. You’re being too buddy-buddy [when you’re a Prisoner and I’m the Warden].” which preserves the implications/nuances.]

ミコト　「いいから、ちゃんとこっちを見てよ！」 MIKOTO: C’mon, just look at me seriously! エス　「……ふーん」 ES: Hmm. ミコト　「どう？マジでしょ」 MIKOTO: So? I’m being truthful, right? エス　「知るか。『嘘をついているような目に見えない』とでも言われることを期待したか。僕はそんな曖昧なもので判断はしない」 ES: Who knows. Do you expect me to say, “You don’t look like you’re lying” or something? I don’t make judgements based on vague things like that.

進まない話に、苛立つミコト。エスの肩にかけた手を離す。 MIKOTO is losing his patience, annoyed at the lack of progress in the conversation. He takes his hands off of ES’ shoulders. ミコト　「だー、もう……ん？いや、待ってくれ。そもそも僕が何をしたか看守くんも知らないんだろ？」 MIKOTO: Ah c’mon..! No- Wait a second. Warden-kun has no idea what I did in the first place, right? エス　「あぁ、まったく知らない」 ES: Ah, I have absolutely no clue. ミコト　「なんだよ、それ！それで僕をヒトゴロシだと決めつけるなんて横暴じゃない？」 MIKOTO: What’s with that! Because of that, isn’t it oppressive of you to brand me a “murderer”? [T/N: 横暴 (ougou) can mean violence, oppression, tyranny. When MIKOTO says “Isn’t it oppressive of you” there’s a sense of him calling ES’ action of branding him a label as serious as “murderer” even though ES has no idea what he did or if he really did commit a crime (since ES is going off of what Jackalope/MILGRAM told them) violent— something that hurts, damages, or even kills.] エス　「横ではない。ミルグラムがそう言っている。僕にはそれで十分だ」 ES: There’s no correlation in that. MILGRAM said that you’re a murderer. That’s enough for me. ミコト　「なんで盲目的にそれを信じられるんだよ。話にならないよ………」 MIKOTO: Why are you just blindly entrusting your belief to that? There’s no sense to it… エス　「……」 ES: … ミコト　「とにかく僕は本当に知らない。人も殺してない。悪いこともしてない。コツコツ普通に人生やってきただけ。それなのにこんな変なことに巻き込まれるなんてさ！」 MIKOTO: Anyway, I honestly have no idea. I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t done anything bad. I’ve just been diligently living an ordinary life and yet- I get caught up in some weird, suspicious thing- what’s with that! [T/N: By "weird, suspicious thing" he means MILGRAM.] イライラが募るミコト、思わず椅子から立ち上がる。同時に振り上げた拳を、ゆっくり下ろす。 MIKOTO is getting more and more irritated, unconsciously standing up from his chair. At the same time, he slowly lowers his raised fist. ミコト　「……そんなの冗談だって、思いたいよ……思いたいだろ、こんなの……」 MIKOTO: …I want to believe that that’s just a joke…I want to think that this… エス　「ふむ」 ES: Hm. ミコト　「僕にだって生活があるんだよ、苦労して憧れの会社入ったばかりなんだよ……クビになったら責任取ってもらうからな……」 MIKOTO: I have a life, y’know? I toiled so hard just to get into the company of my dreams… If I get fired, you better take responsibility… [T/N: Being fired in Japan is an arduous task. Generally, if you get fired, you need to make sure that you: (1) get the certificate of dismissal/reason for firing; (2) go through the process of switching your pension and insurance; (3) make sure you get your unemployment insurance/severance pay/compensation; and optionally (4) contest the firing. There’s a lot of paperwork involved and the way companies are structured makes it a pain + take a long time to get anything done. Not to mention the emotional labor it takes to deal with bureaucracy since it’s not unheard of that employers can gaslight or be hostile.]

エス　「……なるほどね。面白い」 ES: …I see. How interesting. ミコト　「面白いことがあるもんか」 MIKOTO: What’s so interesting? 心底面白げにニヤつくエス。わざとらしくパンと手を叩く。 ES grins, genuinely amused. They clap their hands in an exaggerated manner. エス　「よし、一旦その前提で話に付き合ってやる。……思考実験だ。ミコト、お前は何もしていない」 ES: Alright, for now, why don’t we go ahead and talk under that assumption of yours? …A thought experiment. MIKOTO, you haven’t done anything. ミコト　「そう！そのとおりだよ、看守くん！」 MIKOTO: Yes! That’s right, Warden-kun! エス　「一旦な。一旦お前は囚人番号9番ミコトではないとしよう。そうだな、ただのミコトくんだ」 ES: For now. For now, let’s pretend you’re not Prisoner Number 9 MIKOTO. That’s right, you’re just MIKOTO-kun. ミコト　「いいね、ミコトくんでいこう！僕も親愛をこめてスーくんって呼ぶよ」 MIKOTO: That’s right, let’s go with MIKOTO-kun! I’ll also put in the effort and call you “Su-kun” [T/N: The “effort” MIKOTO’s putting in is more so “affection” (親愛, shin ai). Alternatively translated as: “I’ll also put in some dear effort and call you “Su-kun"] エス　「それはいらん。調子に乗るな」 ES: That’s unnecessary. Don’t get carried away. ミコト　「ええ……」 MIKOTO: Eeh…? ミコトに近づき、見上げるようににらみつけるエス。 ES approaches MIKOTO, glaring up at him. [T/N: There’s wordplay here with ミコトに近づき (mikoto ni chikadzuki). Chikadzuki can mean “approach” but it also means “making acquaintance with someone”. In the context of the interrogation, ES is both approaching MIKOTO and making acquaintance, getting to know him.] エス　「付き合ってやるかわりに一旦僕の言っていることを事��だと飲みこめ、ミルグラムはショーなどではなく現実だ」 ES: In exchange for going along with it, for now you’ll have to swallow what I’m saying as fact and that MILGRAM isn’t some show. It’s reality. ミコト　「ううん……えっと、ここがヒトゴロシを集めている施設ってこととか？それを歌と映像で云々とか？」 MIKOTO: Uh… so, this is some sort of institution or facility that assembles "murderers"? Through song and mental footage and stuff? エス　「そうだ。お前の言うことだけを言じるならば、お前以外の9人は全員ヒトゴロシだ」 ES: That’s right. If we’re only going by what you say, the other nine people are all murderers. ミコト　「そんな場所にいるのヤバすぎるでしょ。みんな全然そんな人たちに見えないし……ほら、そもそも小学生いるんだよ？」 MIKOTO: Isn't it way too dangerous to be in a place like that? None of them seem like a person who could do something like that at all… Look, why’s there even an elementary schooler here?

ミコトの言葉に眉をひそめるエス。 ES furrowed their eyebrows at MIKOTO’s words. エス　「……それはアマネにあまり言わないほうがいいぞ。めんどくさいことになる」 ES: …You shouldn’t say that to AMANE. It’ll just become a hassle. ミコト　「ん？なんで？」 MIKOTO: Huh? Why? エス　「まぁ、お前の言うことはわからないでもない。僕も尋問していて学んだ。人の印象はどうしても外見に引っ張られる」 ES: Well, I can understand where you’re coming from. I also learned this while interrogating people- The impression of a person is inevitably influenced by their external appearance. ミコト　「でしょ～？ゆんちゃんとか、むっちゃんとかただのJKじゃん。ハルくんなんて虫も殺せなさそうな顔してるし、フータなんて傘パクんのがやっとでしょ。ほら、マッピーはただの良い人だし。ま、カズさんとかシドウさんとか……ま、あとコトちゃんとかは雰囲気的にワンチャンあるかもだけど」 MIKOTO: Isn’t it~? Yun-chan and Mu-chan are just high school girls. Haru-kun has a face that looks like he can’t even kill a bug, and Fuuta doesn’t seem like he can even steal an umbrella. And see- Mappi just seems like a good person. Uh, as for Kazu-san and Shidou-san… Well, there’s a chance that Koto-chan might have done something like that 'cause of her vibes. [T/N: Umbrellas get stolen so often in Japan that it’s not strange to think that a normal person would steal one at some point, implying that MIKOTO thinks that Fuuta wouldn’t even do something bad that’s seemingly normalized/follow common behaviors.] エス　「……人物評参考にするよ、ミコトくん。ただ、そいつらはミルグラムが選んだ人間だ。間違いなく人の死に関わっている」 ES: …I’ll take your character evaluations into consideration, MIKOTO-kun. Nevertheless, they are the humans MILGRAM selected. Without a doubt, they are connected to someone’s death. [T/N: The “they” そいつら (soitsura) in “they are the humans MILGRAM selected” has derogatory connotations with it. Also, people who use the term 間違いなく (machigai naku) are generally thought of as people who are prideful or perfectionists.] ミコト　「うーん……まあ、まあいいや。一旦信じる」 MIKOTO: Uhuh… Well, alright then. I’ll believe that for now.

苦い顔で受け止めるミコト。エスがびしっと指をさす。 MIKOTO relents, a bitter look on his face. ES points their finger sharply. エス　「では。そんなところに無実のミコトくんが選ばれた理由はなんだと思う？」 ES: Well then. Why do you believe that the Innocent MIKOTO-kun was chosen for such a place? ミコト　「んー……人違い」 MIKOTO: Mm… mistaken identity. エス　「ほう？」 ES: Oh? ミコト　「そっち側の判断基準の細かいとこに目をつぶるとすると……同姓同名だとか、外見が似てるとか、そういう取り間違え」 MIKOTO: If we ignore the finer details of MILGRAM's criteria for judgement… it could be that it’s a blunder from something like having the same name, similar external appearance or something. エス　「ミルグラムの誤作動ということか？」 ES: You’re saying that it’s a MILGRAM malfunction? [T/N: Alternatively translated into: “You’re saying that it’s a failure on MILGRAM’s part?” 誤作動 (gosadou) can mean malfunction; failure; operating incorrectly.] ミコト　「そうそう、他に考えようがないもん」 MIKOTO: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. I can’t think of anything else that it could possibly be. エス　「そうか？僕はもうひとつ思い浮かんでいるぞ」 ES: Really? Frankly, I can think of one thing coming to mind. ミコトの顔を覗き込むエス。 ES looks at MIKOTO’s face. エス　「お前は人を殺したことを忘れている」 ES: You’ve forgotten that you’ve killed a person. エスの言葉に目を丸くするミコト。 MIKOTO’s eyes widened at ES’ words. ミコト　「は？忘れている？人を殺したことを？そんなことありえる？」 MIKOTO: Huh? Forgotten? That you killed a person? Is that even possible? エス　「お前が嘘をついていない。ミルグラムは正しい。両方の条件をのめば、この答えが導き出されるのは、自然だろう」 ES: You’re not lying; MILGRAM is correct; if you’re to accept both clauses, it’s only natural to arrive at this answer. [T/N: The 正しい (tadashii) in “MILGRAM is correct” can mean “correct”, “right”, “righteous”/“just”, “proper” etc.] ミコト　「忘れている……僕が？人を殺したことを……？」 MIKOTO: Forgotten… Me? Killing a person…? エス　「人間はストレスを避けるために記憶に蓋をすることもあるという。解離性健忘のように」 ES: They say that humans sometimes put a lid on memories in order to avoid stress. For example, dissociative amnesia. ミコト　「……ス、ストレス？いやいや、まさか知らないうちに人を殺してるなんて、そんなことあるわけ……」 MIKOTO: …S-stress? No, no way- There’s no way I could’ve killed someone while not even knowing it- That can’t be possible… エス　「……お前の発言を僕が信じてやるには、この線で考える以外ないね。僕はお前のこと以上に、ミルグラムを信じているからな。そこを疑うことはありえない」 ES: …I have no choice but to consider something along these lines if I’m going to believe your statements. I trust MILGRAM more than I believe in you. There’s no doubt about that. ミコト　「……いや……いやいや」 MIKOTO: …No….No, no- エス　「看守として、断言しよう。お前は、ヒトゴロシだ」 ES: As Warden, let’s go ahead and assert this: You. are. a. murderer. ミコト　「ちょっと待って。ないないタンマタンマ……頭おかしくなるって……やめてよ。嫌なことばかり……言うの……」 MIKOTO: Wait a minute- No, no, no- Time out time out- …You’re driving me crazy…please stop it. You keep saying such… awful things…

イラつきで頭をがしがしとかくミコト。その様子を見て、エスがふうと息をつく。 MIKOTO scratches his head in frustration. Seeing this, ES takes a deep breath. ミコト　「知らないうちに……殺人犯になってんの……はは、ないない……」 MIKOTO: Without knowing it…becoming a murderer…haha- there’s no way, no way… エス　「ふん、時間をやる。記憶の糸を手繰るがいいさ」 ES: Hmph. Let’s give it some time. Tugging in the threads of your memory would do you some good. ミコト　「...…うぅ……うう」 MIKOTO: …Ah…ah… 声にならない声でうめくミコトに、背を向けカツカツと離れていくエス。 As MIKOTO groans in a voiceless voice, ES turns their back and walks away. [T/N: 声にならない声 (koe ni naranai koe) “voiceless voice” has a nuance that you’re being assaulted with the emotions welling up in your heart that you can’t express into words.] エス　「人を殺した記憶がない殺人者……だとすれば……どう考えるべきか……」 ES: A murderer who has no memory of killing people… If that’s the case… how should I think about this… 独り言を呟きながら、部屋の中を歩き回るエス。 ES walks around the room, muttering to themself.

エス　「なぁ、ミコー」 ES: Hey, MIKO- ミコト　「ああああああああああ！！！」 MIKOTO: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! エス　「！？」 ES: !? ミコトが椅子でエスを殴りつける。軽いエスは吹き飛び、壁に叩きつけられる。 MIKOTO strikes ES hard with a chair. ES, being light, gets flown across and slams into the wall. ミコト　「あーーーっ！！！」 MIKOTO: Aaaaah!!! ミコトは続けざまに力まかせに椅子を投げつけ、大きな物音が立つ。 MIKOTO continues on, throwing the chair with all his might, making a large noise. エス　「ぐあっ！なっ……何が、ミ、コト……！？！」 ES: Guh-! Wh… What are you- MI- KOTO…!?! ミコト　「ふっ……ふぅう……ふう……！！」 MIKOTO: Hah…hah…hah…!!! 状況のつかめないエス。目の血走ったミコト、息が荒く別人のよう。 ES can’t make sense of the situation. MIKOTO’s eyes are bloodshot, breathing heavily- wildly, like he’s a different person. エス　「げほっ……ぼ、僕に攻撃を……⁉　ま、まさか、ありえない……」 ES: Ack… You can attack me..!? T-there’s no way… ミコト　「ああああああっ！　クソ！　クソが！　いらつかせんな！！」 MIKOTO: Aaaaaah! Fuck! Fucker-! You’re so fucking annoying!! [T/N: MIKOTO’s accent has changed. Before, he was speaking in a typical, standard Japanese accent you’d hear from people in Tokyo (not Tokyo accent, just standard Japanese accent).] エス　「囚人から、看守への攻撃はできないはず！！」 ES: Prisoners shouldn’t be able to attack the Warden!! ミコト　「うるっせえんだよ、てめぇ！！」 MIKOTO: Shut the fuck up, you piece of shit!! エスを思いきり踏みつけるミコト。 MIKOTO stomps down on ES with all his might. エス　「うあっ！ぐっ………！」 ES: Augh-! Guh…! ミコト　「ゴチャゴチャ言ってっと、叩き殺してやるぞカスが！！」 MIKOTO: Yapping on and on and on- I’ll fucking beat you to death, piece of shit!! エス　「ぐっ……！ぐうっ……！！」 ES: Ngh-…! Guh…!!

何度も何度も踏みつける。 Another stomp, then another. Again, and again, and again. ミコト　「だらだらだらだらぁ！ガキのくせに偉そうに！ざまあねえぜクソがっ！」 MIKOTO: Going on and on and on-! Acting all high and mighty like you aren’t just a kid! Serves you fuckin’ right-! エス　「…っ……ろよ……」 ES: …re..member… ミコト　「はあ！？　聞こえねぇんだよ！てめえただのガキじゃねぇか、ザコが！！」 MIKOTO: Ha!? I can’t hear you! You’re nothing more than an unimportant brat, a fuckin’ nobody!! エス　「……覚えてろよ、ヒトゴロシが」 ES: …Remember…your murder… 傷つけられ、口や鼻から血を流すも目の光が消えないエス。ミコトをにらみつける。 Despite being injured and bleeding from the mouth, the light in ES’ eyes doesn’t disappear. They glare at MIKOTO. ミコト　「はぁー？　は、はは、ははははは。もっと痛いのが好みか」 MIKOTO: Ha-? Heh- Hahahahahahaha! You prefer it when it hurts more, huh? ミコト、転がっている椅子を持ち上げる。ゆっくりと頭上に。 MIKOTO picks up a chair laying around. Slowly raising it above his head. エス　「くっ……」 ES: Guh… ミコト　「いいぜ、顔面潰してやるよ……」 MIKOTO: That’s fine. I’ll crush your face in as much as you want… エス　「やって……みろよ……」 ES: …Go ahead… and try… ミコト　「望み通りやってやるよ！おああああああああああ！」 MIKOTO: As you wish! RAAAAAAAAARGHH! [T/N: The -やってやるよ (-yatte yaru yo) in 望み通りやってやるよ (nozomi doori yatte yaru yo) adds a cheeky nuance of “doing the action for the sake of fulfilling ES’ wish (“go ahead and try”)”.]

ミコトが椅子を振り下ろそうとした瞬間に、横から蹴りを入れられる。 The moment MIKOTO’s about to bring the chair down, a kick meets his side. コトコ　「ふん！」 KOTOKO: Hmph!

ミコト　「がっ！？」 MIKOTO: Gah-!? 椅子ごと大きな物音を立てて倒れるミコト。頭を抱えながらよろよろと起き上がる。 MIKOTO falls along with the chair, a loud noise emanating. He staggers up to his feet, clutching his head. ミコト　「……つ。あぁあー！なんだてめぇ！」 MIKOTO: …ugh. Aaargh-! What’s with you?! エス　「！？お前……！」 ES: !? You…! コトコ　「命拾いしたわね、看守さん」 KOTOKO: Looks like you narrowly escaped death, Warden-san. [T/N: KOTOKO talks in a feminine way, as demarcated by her usage of わ (wa). Her mature feminine way of speaking is found all throughout all the VDs she’s featured in.] エス　「コトコ……何故……」 ES: Kotoko… Why… コトコ　「話はあと」 KOTOKO: I’ll tell you later. エス　「…⁈」 ES: …?! ミコト　「……どいつもこいつも……」 MIKOTO: …Each and every one of them… ミコトが飛びかかる。構えるコトコ。 MIKOTO launches himself at her. KOTOKO readies into stance. ミコト　「俺をいらつかせんなあああ！」 MIKOTO: YOU ALL PISS ME OOOOOOOFFF! [T/N: 俺 (ore) pronoun is spelled with kanji in John Doe. Whereas in Neoplasm, ore is spelled in katakana as オレ] コトコ　「……！」 KOTOKO: …! ミコトの大ぶりの拳を、最低限の動きでよけるコトコ。 KOTOKO dodges MIKOTO’s wide swing with minimal movement. ミコト　「くっ！おらあ！ちょこまかすんなあ！」 MIKOTO: Gah-! Fuck! Stop fuckin’ around with me! [T/N: It sounds like MIKOTO’s speaking in a Yonezawa dialect/accent. ちょこまか (chokko maka) is a phrase you’d typically hear from the Yonezawa dialect. Yonezawa is a city in the Yamagata prefecture, in the Tohoku region. In Neoplasm, MIKOTO speaks in Kanto region accent/dialect and Edo dialect/roughspeak. Meanwhile, in his Trial 3 voicelines, MIKOTO speaks with a Kansai region dialect in some lines. Insofar, as of Trial 3, it's possible that he's spoken in 4 dialects/accents.] コトコ　「はっ！ふっ！……典型的な素人の動きだけど」 KOTOKO: Hah-! Ngh-! …Seems as if it’s motions that a typical, ordinary person would make. ミコト　「だらあ！！！」 MIKOTO: SHUT IT!!! コトコ　「っ……！」 KOTOKO: Ngh…!

ミコトの蹴りを受けたコトコが圧力で後ろに下がる。想像以上の威力に怪訝な顔。 KOTOKO staggers back from the force of MIKOTO’s kick. She seems perplexed by the power of the blow, which was greater than she could’ve expected. コトコ　「……この打撃の重さ。彼の筋肉量からは想像もつかない」 KOTOKO: I couldn’t have imagined that a strike with that amount of force could’ve come from someone with a muscle mass like his. [T/N: It's implied that MIKOTO lacks muscle mass which is why KOTOKO thought a strike with that amount of force was inconceivable/unthinkable. Also, the way KOTOKO is talking sounds like she’s verbally taking notes on MIKOTO’s behaviour/aptitude/and other information.] ミコト　「しつけぇ、しつけぇ……あああ」 MIKOTO: So fucking persistent, fucking annoying… Aaargh!! コトコ　「長期戦はそこそこ面倒か」 KOTOKO: Drawn-out battles are rather troublesome. ミコト　「うああああああああ！」 MIKOTO: RAAAAAAAARGH! コトコ　「すう……」 KOTOKO: Sigh… 飛びかかってくるミコトに、コトコのハイキック一関。 MIKOTO leaps at her, but KOTOKO delivers a high kick. コトコ　「ふんっ！」 KOTOKO: Hmph-! ミコト　「がっ…」 MIKOTO: Gah-... エス　「……は、ハイキック一撃……」 ES: …Ha- Knocking him out in just one high kick… 糸が切れたようにドサッと倒れるミコト。パンパンと手を払うコトコ。 MIKOTO falls with a thud, his body collapsing like a string cut in half. KOTOKO claps her hands. コトコ　「ふう……感謝して。気絶で済ませといたわよ。大丈夫？看守さん」 KOTOKO: Hah… Be grateful. It only required him losing consciousness in order to resolve the situation. Are you alright, Warden-san? エス　「……げほっ……コトコ……お前」 ES: …Cough…KOTOKO…You- コトコ　「なに」 KOTOKO: What? エス　「……尋問で招集が掛かる前に勝手に忍び込むとは……」 ES: …Did you sneak in as you pleased before the interrogation was even summoned…? コトコ　「は？まさか咎める気じゃないでしょうね。私が控えてなかったら死んでたのよ」 KOTOKO: Ha? You’re not trying to reproach me, are you? If I hadn’t been waiting—taking notes—, you would be dead. エス　「……何故、尋問室にいた」 ES: …Why were you in the interrogation room? コトコ　「カヤノミコトの奇妙な行動に注目していたから。隣の部屋だから目につくのよ」 KOTOKO: Because I’d been observing Mikoto Kayano’s odd behaviors. It’s all too noticeable since I’m in the room next door. エス　「……何故、僕を助けた」 ES: …Why did you help me? コトコ　「あなたの存在は私にとっても利があるから」 KOTOKO: Because your existence is beneficial to me as well. [T/N: KOTOKO is using あなた (anata) “you” which can imply a closeness or fondness. Alternative translation of this line: “Because your existence is advantageous to me as well.” 利 (ri) can mean “advantageous”, “beneficial”, “interest"] エス　「説明になって、ない……」 ES: That explains nothing… コトコ　「……そうね、そこら辺は私の番で答える。順番抜かしをするつもりはないから」 KOTOKO: …Is that so? I’ll answer that when it’s my turn. I don’t intend to cut in line. エス　「……」 ES: … コトコ　「郷に従うよ、今のところはね」 KOTOKO: In Rome, do as the Romans do. For now, that is. [T/N: 郷に従う (gou ni shitagau) means “in a place/social group, you should behave in accordance with the customs and traditions of that place/group, even if the values differ from your own”. It’s a clipping of the proverb 郷に入っては郷に従え (gou ni itte wa gou ni shitagae).]

問答がさっぱりとしているコトコ。エスはあきらめてよろよろ立ちあがる。 Questioning KOTOKO for answers was proving to be hopeless so ES gives up and staggers unto their feet. エス　「いっ………くそ、ミコト………好き勝手痛めつけてくれやがって……」 ES: Alri-... Dammit, MIKOTO…’s able to beat me up whenever it pleases him when he has the nerve to… コトコ　「……看守さん、こっち見て」 KOTOKO: …Warden-san, look over here. エス　「なんだ、コト……つ！」 ES: What is it, KOTO-?! エスが返事をすると、コトコの拳が目の前に。 As ES is responding, KOTOKO’s fist appears right in front of their face. コトコ　「ふーん、拳が途中で止まる。囚人からの攻撃は受け付けないってのは本当ね。じゃあなんでカヤノミコトはあなたを殴れるの？」 KOTOKO: Hm… Punches get stopped halfway through. It’s true that the Warden isn’t affected by attacks from prisoners so, how is it that Mikoto Kayano can hit you? [T/N: KOTOKO is translated here using the normal spelling for "Mikoto Kayano" rather than in all caps in order to translate over her objective way of speaking including her impartial observations. Writing the character names in all caps can submerge a character into a theatric-quality through its unconventional appearance as well as create a mental barrier that makes the character seem even more spectacle-like, more distant from reader/viewer. It's a way to translate over the vibes that the katakana spelling of the prisoners give.] エス　「……心臓に悪い……やめろ……だいたい僕が知りたいくらいだ、そんなの……」 ES: …This is bad for my heart… Stop… Anyway, I’d really like to know the answer to that… 突如部屋にある時計から鐘の音が鳴り、尋問室の部屋の構造が変化していく。 Suddenly, the bells within the clock in the room begin to ring and the layout of the interrogation room changes. エス　「くっ……時間だ。出ていけコトコ」 ES: Dammit- It’s time. Get out, KOTOKO. コトコ　「心象を歌と映像にするのね、私は見ちゃいけないわけ？」 KOTOKO: You’re turning mental images into songs and videos, and yet I’m not allowed to see it? [T/N: KOTOKO pronounces 私 as "atashi" which is a feminine way of identifying and referring to oneself.] エス　「認められない、出ていけ」 ES: I can’t allow it. Get out. コトコ　「……ふーん。それにしても面白いことになったわね」 KOTOKO: …I see. Even so, things have become quite interesting, don’t you think? エス　「コトコ？」 ES: KOTOKO? コトコ　「あなたもわかっているでしょう。先程の行動からカヤノミコトは解離性同一性障害、いわゆる二重人格の可能性がある。まあ、まだ虚言・芝居の可能性も捨てられないけど」 KOTOKO: You know that too, hm? Based on Mikoto Kayano’s behaviors just a moment ago, it’s possible that he may have dissociative identity disorder, or—as you might call it—“split personality disorder”. Well, you can’t rule out the possibility that he may be fabricating it or acting, though. [T/N: KOTOKO is using あなた (anata) “you” which can imply a closeness or fondness. Also, she uses formal vocabulary, which could be due to her being an observant and articulate character, and the language used in law school. 解離性同一性障害 (kairiseidou itsusei shougai) is the clinical term for “dissociative identity disorder”. Most people aren’t aware of the clinical term as medical vocabulary is notoriously difficult in Japanese. However, more people are aware of the term 多重人格 (tajuu jinkaku) “multiple personalities” or 二重人格 (nijuu jinkaku) which literally means “two-tiered personalities” or “split personality”; both terms are derogatory but understandable by the common, average person.] エス　「……」 ES: … コトコ　「ねぇ、どう思う？私は本物を見たことはないけれど、仮に彼が本物の多重人格者ならば別人格が兆した罪は、主人格が負うべきなのかしら」 KOTOKO: Hey, what do you think? I’ve never seen the real thing before, but if he is a real multiple personality disorder patient, should the main personality bear responsibility for the crimes that another personality cultivated? [T/N: Depending on the listener, Kotoko could be saying “should the main self-state bear responsibility for the crimes that another self-state cultivated?” 人格 (jinkaku) can mean “personality”, “self-state”, “personhood”, “individuality”, “character” etc. It all depends on context and how it’s interpreted by the listener. 主人格 (shu jinkaku) “main self-state” can also mean “false front self-state".]

エス　「コトコ！」 ES: KOTOKO! コトコ　「……」 KOTOKO: … エス　「それを考えるのは僕の仕事だ、囚人の、お前の仕事ではない。それが真実か、それが罪かどうかも含めて、僕とミルグラムだけに判断する権利がある」 ES: That’s my job to think about- Not the prisoners, not yours. Only myself and MILGRAM have the right to judge whether to include it as a crime and whether it’s true or not. コトコ　「……ふふふ、はいはい」 KOTOKO: …Heh, haha. Of course, of course. [T/N: Down to the way she laughs, KOTOKO gives the vibes of a mature woman and femininity. ふふふ (fufufu) way of laughing is usually attributed to mature women.] 不気味な笑いを浮かべながら、尋問室をあとにするコトコ。 KOTOKO starts to leave the interrogation room, an ominous smile on her face. コトコ　「いいわ、任せる。じゃあ私はこれで」 KOTOKO: Okay then, I’ll leave it to you. Alright, that’s it for me then エス　「おい」 ES: Oi. コトコ　「なに？」 KOTOKO: What is it? エス　「……助けてくれて、ありがとう」 ES: …Thank you for helping me. [T/N: This may be the first time in this voice drama, or in all the Trial 1 voice dramas, in which ES actually speaks in a bit more formal and humble way rather than their rather casual, informal way (somewhat haughty) of speaking despite using formal vocabulary. 助けてくれて、ありがとう (tasukete kurete arigatou) literally means “Thanks for giving me the favor of helping me.”] コトコ　「どういたしまして」 KOTOKO: You’re welcome. コトコの背中を見送り、寝ているミコトに向き直るエス。 ES sees KOTOKO off and turns to face the sleeping MIKOTO. エス　「……ふう。わけのわからないことばかりだ……だが、仕事はしなければならないな」 ES: Hah… There’s so much I don’t understand about this… But, I have to do my job anyway. 思い切りミコトを踏みつけるエス。飛び起きるミコト。 ES stomps MIKOTO with all their might. MIKOTO jumps to his feet. エス　「……ふん！」 ES: …Hgh! ミコト　「いってぇ！」 MIKOTO: Ow! 状況のつかめていないミコトを、怪訝な顔で見つめるエス。 ES watches MIKOTO—who isn’t grasping nor understanding the current state of affairs—with a wary expression. エス　「...」 ES: … ミコト　「何、何すんの看守くん！？なんで僕いつのまに、あっ…なんだこれ、頭いてえ……」 MIKOTO: What- What are you doing, Warden-kun? Without even noticing, why did I end u- Argh-... wha- what’s this? My head hurts... [T/N: MIKOTO is referring to himself with the kanji version of 僕 (boku) again.] エス　「……だろうな」 ES: …So it seems. ミコト　「うー…….て、てか！看守くんも傷だらけじゃん！？どうした？何があったの？」 MIKOTO: Eugh… Wait! Warden-kun’s also covered in bruises!? How’d that happen? What happened? エス　「……何も覚えてないんだな」 ES: …you don’t remember anything, huh. ミコト　「え、何、なんのこと………」 MIKOTO: Eh? What- What are you talking about… エス　「さんざん散らかしておいて、なんとも腹の立つ……だが、いいだろう。その態度、挑戦状と受け取ったよ」 ES: [Saying and acting like that] after making such a mess, it makes my blood boil… But, fine. I’ll take that attitude as a challenge. 口元から流れる血を拭い、ニヤリと笑う。 ES wipes the blood from their mouth and grins. エス　「お前からなのか、もしくはお前以外の誰かからなのかは、知らんがな」 ES: I have no idea whether that attitude is coming from you… or someone apart from you. [T/N: There is really good wordplay here. 以外 (igai) means “apart from” and has a nuance of outsiderness; exclusion/exception as in being outside of a boundary. お前以外の誰か (omae igai no dareka) quite literally means “apart from you’s someone”. Since the の (no) is a possessive particle that means “of”, AのB would mean “A’s B”. In English, this clause would be more like “[a someone] [that comes from] [something that is outside of you]”. When ES says “someone apart from you”, they’re implying “an outsider that comes from within you; a someone that isn't you but comes from you"] ミコト　「だ、だから、なんのこと！？」 MIKOTO: S- Seriously, what are you talking about!? エス　「囚人番号9番、ミコト。さあ。お前の罪を歌え」 ES: Prisoner number 9, MIKOTO. Come. Sing your sins.

#Mikoto Kayano #MILGRAM Mikoto #MILGRAM translation #MILGRAM project #ミルグラム #MILGRAM Trial 1 #(Yuno and Kazui's VDs are next to be translated. Thanks for sending in translation requests anon!)

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diceramblesaboutocs · 3 months ago

Text

Undirected Connection || Idia x Reader || Chapter 1

Prologue

Author’s note: wow I actually updated. :) Also the mandatory: English isn't my native language so...

Rating: Teen Pairing: Idia/Reader Words: 3 884 Tags: GenderNeutral Reader - Reader is from Ignihyde - Cat and mouse chase dynamic - minimal editing - I just try to write stuff - no beta, we die like men

The Board Game club. A place for introverts alike to find their voice as they played against other students, something that they all had in common so they had something to talk about. Or for people who like to stay one jump ahead of everyone else, like Azul Ashengrotto, the housewarden of Octavinelle. In the whole college, there was no more ruthless businessman. Strategy games? Be ready to be dominated by the cephalo-punk (as Savanaclaw's housewarden called him). Or witness him develop the best technique to throw the dice so he would always land the favorable numbers for his turn in a game of chance. Either way not many people were willing to play against him. Other than Idia, who could give a good fight and occasionally even win. It was a battle of equal wit and smarts. A match to witness.

But this evening, Idia found himself struggling. Not because of the game but because Azul's newest obsession and he needed Idia's help.

“Just name your price and we can negotiate.” Azul's clear and benevolent voice slithered towards Idia, like a seawitch's tentacles wrapping around someone valuable.

“No.” For once Idia didn't stutter. Maybe it was because they were in the middle of a game, one of his favorite games in fact. The Court of Wonders, a board game of horror and mystery, taking place in an old gothic city based on Fleur City. Fully cooperative, roleplaying puzzle game with combat and story campaigns where the player characters could investigate, fight eldritch beings, die or worse, go insane and start sabotaging the fellow players. Idia had been so excited when he got the newest expansion for the game that he brought it to the club without a second thought. He had done the prep work for it ahead of time. He had a mental list of how he would convince Azul to play the game with him.

But he didn't need the list. Azul had accepted the choice of game way too easy. And now he knew why.

Azul let out a hefty sigh, trying to tug on Idia's heartstrings. Who would help the helpless, benevolent housewarden of Octavinelle? “You do understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity?”

Idia's brows knitted together in frustration as he gestured towards the game hoping that Azul would give up. “For you, now play your turn.”

“And I’m willing to compensate for your efforts. I’m not just a decent businessman, I'm a benevolent one!” The silver haired businessman smiled with controlled brightness, very sure of himself that he would eventually tear down Idia's defenses.

“Azul, it’s your move. What will your character do? We could really use more clues.”

“Listen, Idia, you aren’t understanding the gravity of the losses I’m having here. Through this Litae, I could be making thousands of thaumarks.”

To use his superior technical skills to locate one sorry student who had piqued Azul's attention? If anything, that sounded low tier D rank quest. Idia had better things to do than that. “I can make you a voice generation software, just play your turn.” He had already done the text-to-speech app for the presentations on the Culture event, doing a voice generation on top of that would be a piece of cake. He could look through the best voice banks and implement those to the learning algorithm. He would actually create something, not spy on someone's online activity.

Azul wagged his finger in front of him in protest. “No, no. That won’t do. I need the real deal.”

Why couldn't Azul just let it be? “I’m not going to use my free time to chase after some weird online voice.” The tips of Idia's hair started to shift their hue to more orange as his frustration started to morph into anger.

The change didn't go unnoticed by Azul. “... Very well, I didn’t want to do this, Idia, but you leave me no choice. Jade.” He looked at the door out of the classroom and Idia instinctively followed with his eyes to see the tall eel man with the most gentlemanly demeanor that hid something deep and dangerous beneath it.

The teal haired henchman gave his most polite smile to Idia, who's hair seemed to turn a bit paler in fear. “Yes, Azul.”

Before Azul could even give his orders to lynch the blue haired mage, tha panic had settled in Idia's mind. “Were you waiting for him to call you in like that?! Like some sort of BBEG?!”

“Jade here has some very interesting information on you, it would be a shame if someone made it public knowledge…” Azul crossed his hands in front of him and leaned in a bit, smiling deviously.

“... Wait wait, why are you taking this so seriously? Chill, dude, don’t you think you are going a little bit overboard with this? Like zero chill.” Idia saw how Azul loved to see him squirm under the pressure. He wasn't eager to let his browser history or his other cringe interested to be public knowledge. He was already half-way in becoming a social pariah, he really didn't need a boost for that.

“I just wanted to make sure that you understand how serious I am about this, Idia.” The merchant of the depths said his name with a singsong tune, happy about his victory in this game. “Shees, I wish I could report you. … Fine.” Idia sighed and slumped in his chair, cursing the cephalo-punk in his mind.

“I’m glad we got into an understanding. Let’s discuss the details of payment.” Azul pulled a very official looking paper out of his bag, tapping it gingerly with an expensive onyx ballpoint pen.

***

It wasn't only the day for the Board Game club to gather, but also for the Film Research Club. All the members were busy with their newest project, a horror short film with stylized visuals and extravagant setting. Using the Night Raven College Campus for the setting was ideal, as the tall castle set the mood to the correct base line. [Y/N] loved the project idea. Even though their little family quirk could be used in many ways in performative art forms such as acting or singing, they loved creating stuff with their hands. It was a creative outlet, where their form or sound of their voice mattered little. Only what they created mattered and they poured their heart and soul into them.

They had just finished creating the base for a miniature hill with a large and bare tree on top and was preparing a glue mixture to cover it with. This served as the adhesive for the dirt, gravel and small pebbles. Vil had been very particular about the color of the ground so [Y/N] had to collect right colored rocks that could be grinded down to smaller size to fit the criteria. It was lot of work, but it was worth it. They would never admit it, but getting praise for a job well done from Schoenheit made them feel very proud of themselves.

While other members were busy with costume designs and hunting down the era specific props, [Y/N] had the workshop class all on their own. The Film Research club had used its funding to get all sorts of tools and smaller scale machines to help with the production, ranging from sewing machines to sawing machines. The big windows of the old classroom made sure the daylight filled the room and gave the best light to compare colors in different environments. Two huge workshop tables occupied the center of the room, the other now filled with all the tools [Y/N] would need for the miniature setting.

“And here is the last stop of the introductions." Vil's clear voice echoed clearly from the hallway as he opened the workshop door completely. Behind him floated a familiar figure to all Ignihyde students, Ortho. Idia's "little brother". A technomantic humanoid, a marvel of scientific potential. He seemed to scan around the workshop quickly, eager to take in everything he saw. Vil on the other hand didn't waste time as he strut with decisive steps to [Y/N]. "This is [Y/N], they are in charge of the special effects, practical and computer graphics. But as you know, the film industry is so saturated with CG that people like to see something real and tangible.”

As Ortho's face recognition verified that indeed, [Y/N] was part of the Film Research club, his eyes smiled. “Ah, [Y/N]! I was told that I wouldn’t be the only student from Ignihyde.”

[Y/N] lowered their headphones and gave a quick wave of hand to Ortho with a small smile. “Oh yeah, I did hear you joined the club.”

“Yes, I hope to understand human emotions better and be better at emoting them to others. I got special permission to enroll as a student here so I hope to be a good underclassman for you.” The young humanoid was eager to explain the situation, embodying the very essence of child-like curiosity.

[Y/N] gave a small laugh. They enrolled in NRC the same year as Idia, so it was weird to think Ortho as an underclassman. “... You have been here as long as I have been so I wouldn’t exactly say that you are an underclassman in that sense. But it is nice to see you excited about this.” Now that they thought about it more, Ortho seemed different compared to their first year. His movements and speech had evolved to be more natural, and one could see him hover alone at times, asking questions. Maybe he was trying to make sense of life even back then. But one had to admit, he seemed even more different now. [Y/N] wondered what had triggered it.

Ortho nodded enthusiastically, his eyes looking past [Y/N] and fixating on the miniature base model. “What are you working on?”

“As our current project is a short horror movie inspired by old school movies, we asked [Y/N] to create sets and effects to work in that context.” Vil was quick to take the center stage again, now looking at the work in progress on the table too.

“Yeah, what Vil said. This here will be a miniature set for an establishing shot for the movie.” Feeling already proud because of Vil's words, [Y/N] gestured towards the project. The little gray pebbles were now neatly placed as naturally as possible on the base, waiting for the glue to cure.

Barely audible sound of scanning took place as Ortho leaned closer to the project on the table. “Ooh, yes, I can see it now. You use hard foam as a base and then add details and such with other materials like polymer clay, artificial miniature grass and foliage to make it look like the actual environment. I’m familiar with it as I used to help my brother work on Pirates of Treasure Planet figures and battle arenas.”

The mentioning of the popular miniature strategy game made [Y/N]'s smile wider as the nostalgia flowed into their mind. “That’s pretty much where I picked it myself too. Well I didn’t play the game myself, but my older brother too used to be a huge fan of the game when he was younger.” Their brother let them help with painting the figures and designing the battle arenas that they then took to the local comic book store. The game itself seemed quite deep and complex, [Y/N] was more interested in the creative aspect of the hobby than actually playing the game. “I see.” Ortho smiled.

Vil took a moment to look at the clock on his phone. “That said, have you informed the art club of our order?”

[Y/N] nodded, reaching out for their notes in their bag. As they grabbed the notepad, they could feel as the bag vibrated gently on silent. There was so many notifications coming a long. As soon as the club time was over, they would have their work be cut out for them. But every request would be a step closer to Wonderlink console. “Yes, I delivered the offer and advised them to send portfolios in the club email address. Right now there are couple applications but I haven’t checked them any further. I wait for couple more to arrive.”

“Very well. Forward the best candidates to me as soon as possible.” Vil would quickly take a look at his face through the front camera and then type a message to someone. He really was a busy and wanted person. Always going and reaching for new heights. One could hope to have such passion for everything that they did.

Ortho looked at Vil and then at [Y/N], trying to make sense of the conversation. [Y/N] gave a small shrug, it wasn't really a secret. “Candidates for matte painting for the background of this miniature set.”

“How exciting, you guys hire people from other clubs to work for the projects too?”

“Making films are collaborative efforts, dear Ortho. To get the best film, we need the best talent. Depending on the project, we might need a very wide range of talents to help with it.” Vil gave his signature pose whenever he was offering advice to anyone who just happened to be listening.

Ortho nodded and processed the information for a moment. “Say [Y/N], would it be okay for me to come to such meetings sometimes. I would like to know how these kinds of things really work in real life.”

“I don’t see a harm in that.” The idea didn't seem bad at all. Having someone like Ortho with such appointments would probably be very beneficial. He was an information bank and most likely had cameras installed into him. If some other student started to be too much of an arrogant bitch, they would have evidence. You never knew with students of Night Raven College, the S-rank troublemakers.

“Ah yes, the best way to learn acting and how people talk to each other is in the natural setting. I will allow it.” Vil gave his blessing, which meant that it was more than okay.

“Thank you!” Ortho beamed at Vil and turned back to [Y/N], his eyes fixating on their bag on the table. “Someone is really trying to reach you there. It is barely audible, but my sensors pick up vibration in frequency that would indicate that your phone is getting notifications.”

“Ah, sorry. Yeah, it is probably my friends sharing weird videos on magicam.” [Y/N] said as they pulled their phone out of the bag, the well worn phone charm dangling from it. A graphic presentation of constellations inside a silhouette shaped like a pegasus embellished with silver lines, giving it a look of an enamel pin.

The eyes of the young technomatic humanoid widen in recognition. “Is that the pegasus star system logo from Star Rogue?”

“Oh, yeah, it is.” [Y/N] moved the phone closer to Ortho, showing the small phone charm to him. It was an old charm, but it was beautiful. You rarely saw phone charms anymore, the smart phones rarely had any way to tie one on them. Even now, the old Star Rogue charm was looped around a self-made hole in the phone case.

“Me and Idia used to play that a lot when we were kids. It is one of my all time favorite games ever.”

Of course they would have played it. It was a cult classic. A legend of a game. The story, the graphics and the game mechanics were revolutionary when it was published. “It is a classic! I have played it too many times already, even tho I’m not that good at bullet hell games.” [Y/N] added.

“Maybe someday I can get Idia show you the no-death meteor run!” Ortho seemed more than happy to ask his brother to do that. Though [Y/N] had their doubts, it was already a rare sight to see the housewarden outside his room. Once in a full moon, the older Shroud emerged from his cave of a room and even then he tried not to draw any attention to him. Maybe he really just played all day and night in his room. Well, they could not be too mad about it, Idia still held best marks when it came to tests in school. Expect physical education. He really struggled with that.

“Oh, he has managed that? Serious props to him.” [Y/N] had to admit. It was a pretty amazing feat.

***

The cup noodles became too soggy again. Idia snarled but food was food and he had to eat something. Served him right as he got too immersed in the third volume of Sled Over Heels. It wasn't the newest anime around and the manga was only retelling of the anime, but the original creators were part of the writing process and he saw it 100%. Maybe one day he would learn to put on a timer and not trust his own judgement when 3 minutes had passed.

He sat into his gaming chair, the signed agreement generating damage over time, area of effect debuffing him, reminding him to do his "job". Major L. The agreement and the soggy noodles.

Fortunately, Ortho let himself into his big brother's room, enthusiastic as ever. “Hey Idia! How was the board game club today?”

“Ah, Ortho… It was a drag really… Azul was being crazy obsessed by some mystery entrepreneur and pretty much blackmailed me to help him locate them.” Idia didn't even look at Ortho's entrance, slurping on his meal and glaring at the official paper hoping it would burst into flames just then and there.

The smaller Shroud's eyes filled with worry and he approached Idia. “... You can’t let him do that. I will go to the Octanivelle dorm and have a chat with him.” He would. If no one else was his brother's friend and protector, he would be. It might have been his programming or the fact that his personality was based on Idia's dead younger brother, but he was always worried about him. Idia was quick to bend to his fate, whatever it may be. The depression and the social anxiety had him almost immobilized, and Ortho didn't want anything more than his brother to get better and find happiness and friends.

The offer made Idia's social anxiety raise its ugly head. “No, no no, no really, it is fine. I don’t want him to get super salty at me. It is already awkward to go to the club, I don’t really want the added awkwardness on top of that, plz.”

Ortho sighed. “Very well…” If Idia wished him not to say anything, he would respect his wishes. Even if it pained him. As much as it could pain a technomatic humanoid with artificial intelligence. But he wasn't sure if those were once again programmed emotions or was he truly feeling it. He shook his head. It didn't matter. What mattered was that Idia was feeling comfortable.

The silence that was born out of Ortho's submission to his wishes didn't help Idia's anxiety. “But hey, how was your club? The first day of the film study club.”

“Oh it was great! Vil showed me around and introduced me to everyone there. And guess what, I’m not the only Ignihyde student there.” Ortho didn't want to prolong the heavy atmosphere either and he truly felt excited about his day.

“Mm… I suppose there would be someone who would be interested in films here.” The older Shroud leaned back in his chair, trying to remember if there were any loud movie fans in the dorm. Or atleast any he talked to.

“It is [Y/N], they are from Class D of the third year” Ortho floated next to his charging station, preparing the device for the night.

Idia squinted. “... I have no recollection of them.” One would have to have a booming voice and loud opinions or otherwise eye catching for him to actually remember them. Someone like Malleus Draconia or the Leech Twins. Riddle Rosehearts made himself very unforgettable with his scary presence.

“Well anyway, they seemed super cool, and promised to let me observe as they would negotiate with other clubs for the film!”

“That’s pretty MVP behavior.”

“I know, right!”

Idia was happy to see his brother excited and making friends. At least one of them was and Ortho was always the more extroverted one anyway. It fit his character and Idia was content how the things were. Dealing with other people was tiresome and awkward. And with that thought, dealing with the stupid agreement he was blackmailed to agree to.“... Ortho, I would like to you to help me a bit with Azul’s demand. The entrepreneur in question makes personalized greetings for the clients, with the voices of known big wig celebrities or characters. If you could run your detection algorithm over the greeting I get to see if there is any indications of AI generation, patterns or pitches that could give us a lead for the person in question.”

Ortho tilted his head a bit as he assessed the brief. “Sounds doable. I suggest we choose a famous person who is well documented so we can compare the audio data against them.” “Yeah. Hmm… How about Neige LeBlanche? He is pretty popular and active on Magicam so there would be lots of casual footage and professional quality audio to run the tests through.” Even Idia knew who he was, the rivalry between Vil and Neige was almost a meme on its own.

“That’s a good choice!” Ortho beamed and readied his audio sensors for processing the possible information.

Idia took his phone out and started to type in the contact information and request details for this mysterious Litae. The money would not be a problem, but his mind blanked as soon as he reached the request text box. “... What should I ask them to say…” He looked at Ortho.

“How about a good luck shout or encouragement? Or a good night's wish while playing one of their characters from a beloved film?”

“... Let’s go with that.” Who was he to shoot down the suggestion? He didn't have any better ideas. Hopefully this would give enough data that he didn't need to do this again. He typed in the request: "Neige LeBlanche. A good night's wish." He stared at the request details in silence only to admit that he didn't know any films starring Neige LeBlanche. So maybe his actor persona would be enough.

He pressed send and in ten minutes an audio file was sent to his spare email. There was no way he would use his primary email to something like this.

With a swift click of a mouse the audio file was downloaded and it played its contents clearly: “You look so sleepy… haha… maybe you should go to sleep. Don’t worry, I will bake you an apple pie tomorrow. Like I promised. Good night, my dream. Sleep well.”

It really sounded like Neige. No immediate detection of audio artefacts from audio generation. The voice was clear and soft.

And this all made shivers of cringe travel across Idia's back.

#idia shroud x reader #twist wonderland #twist oc #twst x reader #fanfic #idia x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland x you #idia shroud

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guzhufuren · 4 months ago

Text

if you follow me, or simply see this and have 1 free minute, could you read this post please? i'm in desperate need of as many and as varied ideas as possible from different perspectives and people

i cannot bear to stay where i am much longer, living here is killing me from inside, i'm clawing at the walls. i want to move countries, cut ties with almost everyone, have the freedom of marrying anyone i want, adopt, change gender marker, work in a region where my preferred job field is much more progressive and valued, and stop holding myself back from living. i know what country i will move to and which work program i will go through for it. but in order to do that i need savings and money to get shit done like documents and gender affirming stuff. to do that faster i need a job with as high of a pay as i can get. i really want to get the fuck out of here in 6 or 8 months

i want to kindly ask, please if you have an idea of a job that would be a possible fit for my needs, no matter what it is, leave it in replies here or in anons. might be something innovative and unusual, or might be something obvious that i haven't thought of before

further info under the cut

- note, i live in Kazakhstan so almost any eu/us/nz/au jobs are considered high paying to me because of our enormous difference in the currency value. in case of a possibility of remote job done from faraway i can figure out the taxes issue

my skills and characteristics that can be helpful to think of something, but also not limited to those: - fluent in 2 languages (russian and english) - adaptable, very fast learner, good at finding things and doing varied tasks, analytical - fast to make people open up to me, charm them - good at promoting stuff, but it's fully self-learned from experience - good with computer shit, passable in photoshop - conventionally attractive (it has been helpful in all customer service jobs) - almost completed a childcare degree, have all skills that come with handling kids - though i do not have a degree yet. i quit astrophysics major a decade ago and will only finish my bachelors in early childhood education this summer

jobs that i have done before:

- the most successful and longest one: store chain manager where my position combined responsibilities of offline store manager, sales manager and internet store manager. promotion of top-price brands and their growth in popularity, training personnel, working with vip clients, working with suppliers, choosing and purchasing all products, social media advertising, fully taking care of online store too - various sales - real estate agent

jobs i do not consider: - jobs that will require me to go to another country and exchange stuff. i specifically need money so i can do that in the future, and the whole problem is i cannot do that right now without a security blanket to to fall on. or rent funds - childcare jobs (the field is in the ditches here, the aim is to earn money, not put myself into debt) - teaching jobs, same problem - persuading people to buy anything - translating text. i am horrible with written speech, very very poor writer's skills - the kind of customer service where you have to prostrate yourself to customers. i don't have patience to take shit anymore - please don't suggest sugar dating. done that. trauma

i can easily find a job on my own but i wanted to be smarter about it this time and consider everything, use all resources including this blog. if you thought of anything, please tell me

#mine #biggest thank you to anyone who answers in advance

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hell-alka · 6 months ago

Note

What do you think would be spawn vs ascended Astarion's approach to the holidays. Would either be more fall holidays or more winter? If so what would they do during this time and what would their routine be with Sangvia? And how would Sangvia reaction to the holidays as well?

Feel free to be as in depth as little or as much as you would like, just thought this would be a fun ask, :).

Thank you for a interesting question! I needed time to prepare the art, but I finally finished it ^^

This text has been translated from my native language into english with a lot of help from a translator, just a heads up! It really hurts me to lose Astarion's manner of speech because of this...

Spawn Astarion

Astarion remained vulnerable to the sun and a cure for this affliction has not yet been found. He does not entertain great hopes in this regard, so he learns to accept the new reality that the long-awaited freedom has taken the form of night and darkness. It would seem that this is just his path that needs to be overcome, but Sangviya worries about the lack of sun no less. At first, it was just fear for a loved one - anxiety for a vampire who is delayed on a mission until midday, fear that he has fallen into a trap and the sun is slowly creeping up on him, concerns before each sleep "are the curtains and windows securely closed." Sangvia even began to calculate the exact time of sunrises and sunsets to know when to panic, when it is safe for Astarion to go outside and when it is worth looking for shelter. He brushes off her worries every time, although he is touched by her concern. Sanya knows that he will be careful even without her reminders, which of them is a vampire with 200 years of experience? It was not only about danger, but about longing for a warm sun, and Sanya could not help with this. However, her suspiciousness was not in vain! Studying astronomy and the behavior of the sun more and more, Sangvia finds information about two interesting days - the longest and shortest night of the year! And indeed, she remembers how people celebrated something similar when she was a teenager, it's just that back then she was more interested in the alcohol from the fair than the reason why it was brought here.

Summer solstice

Summer Solstice is the shortest night of the year and the longest day! When Sanya first suggested celebrating this holiday to Astarion, it made him a little nervous. For several years he has been trying out life in the shadows, and the proposal to celebrate the longest day seems to him… a mockery?

"I appreciate your efforts darling, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable thinking about it… let alone not being able to spend the day in the sun that this event is dedicated to."

But Sanya just smiled.

"You're hiding from the sun, not from life! I know it's hard… More precisely, I thought it was just the threat that light carries. But then it seemed to me that you're hiding not only from it, but also from what it can give, namely today - fun, celebration, emotions! We can hide from the rays, but this does not mean that we should be deprived of other joys in life. Let's not run away this time, but brazenly have fun, in spite of fate and fear!"

Astarion did not expect anything good from this venture, but he could not resist the optimism of his beloved.

Sangvia prepared and organized this special day for a long time - fenced off the room in the tavern from the light, bought food and drinks, created coziness and warmth by placing candles. But the main thing she planned was a huge list of games and entertainment for the two of them! Astarion was waiting for gambling strip games, reading terrible erotic novels, lanceboard for drinks, questionable songs, an evening of makeup and nails and much more that came to their minds in the process! It was the longest day of the year, dedicated not to the sun, but to the warmth of two special people.

Part 2

#digital art #digital drawing #hell alka #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #bg3 #astarion ancunin #bg3 astarion #dark urge #sangvia

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thewertsearch · 5 months ago

Text

Ask Comp 9/1

Anonymous asked: has sally been introduced to cursed tavros yet?

[ cursed tavros jumpscare :D ]

Cursed indeed - but mind you, I don't think I could do much better. My handcraft skills are nonexistent!

Anonymous asked: ol tavvy is down with the clown ;o) Anonymous asked: Please, if you will, imagine if when Vriska kissed Tavros, he told her that he was already dating Gamzee.

Heh. I really do think Gamzee x Tavros could have worked out, at least until Gamzee lost his shit. Hell, even if Gamzee did lose his shit, he'd probably still be less of a threat to Tavros than Vriska was.

Anonymous asked: Did you notice Gamzee referenced Earth in his rap? ("6 trillion hemos all up on one rock bleeding as equals") How do you think he learned about it? Some weird pre-game precognition or just his stoned mind being accidentally right?

This isn't necessarily a reference to Earth - but it wouldn't surprise me if it was, because Gamzee's cult seems fully aware of the existence of Earth.

The 'paradise planet' referenced in Gamzee's intro is stated to not exist yet, which is exactly how the narration refereed to Earth in Hivebent's intro. I believe that the 'rowdy minstrels' he's talking about are literally ICP, although he clearly isn't aware of that fact.

@wizardlyghost asked:

A sentiment shared by Eggman, every Space Player, and the villain of Muppets Most Wanted.

Anonymous asked: Now that you've passed where fedorafreak's gray, serviceable hand-held computing device's battery has died, you might appreciate the following short piece of fan art: www tumblr com/vastderp-placeholder/7741061457/savior-of-the-texting-world-rise-up

The fucking implication that the phone is the Player in this scenario is obliterating me.

Also, its God Tier form has wings. Was it a troll all along, or are wings a symbol of divine apotheosis in phone culture, too?

@clueless-rarito asked: Heeey paranatural reference! Hell yeah!

Is anyone else totally stoked to see Eightfold again? I know I am!

Anonymous asked: bilious sick 😭

English's trick made our Bilious sick. :(

Anonymous asked: One of, if not my absolute favorite, quotes/moments in Homestuck is Karkat’s speech to Jade about his failed frog breeding here. Just such a wonderfully tragic moment that stuck with me since the first time I read it.

In a comic chock-full of great lines, that last one might just be the best so far. This was one of the last scenes before Act 5's true finale, and it was an excellent pick.

@drakethedeep asked: One theory I've heard about the Denizen's Choice that tend to headcanon, Is that the choice is to be happy/free or to matter. That much as how God-tiers only grants survival by never having an impact, the denizens have thier playes coose between seeking their happiness and survival, or to struggle to achieve things that while objevtivly monumental, might not be worth the sacrifices needed to achieve it. I like this theory because of how it themes to fit the themes of Sburb.

I really like the space you're playing in, but I'm not so sure if all the Choices we've seen would necessarily fit this interpretation. After all, Davesprite implicitly chose the 'survival' option when he first met Hephaestus, and he's not exactly a happy camper. He didn't end up particularly free, either, since he was almost immediately bound to a Sprite, and later to the Battlefield.

I guess you could say he 'mattered', because he is he reason the Alpha Timeline exists the way it does - but, technically, everyone's actions contribute to the Alpha Timeline being the way it is. I definitely think there's something to this theory.

Anonymous asked: Without the Door to actually enter the universe, all you've done is make a really big frog.

I guess, when you think about it, there's not really anything they can do with their universe without that door. I suppose they could just fly towards their frog and hope for the best, but somehow, I don't think that'll achieve much.

@morganwick asked: Of course, even though he wasn't fooled by Gamzee using Terezi's "voice", Karkat still showed up on the roof anyway. Perhaps he decided he couldn't take the risk that Terezi was actually there and Gamzee might catch her unawares.

Gamzee's been having a lot of fun 'impersonating' Terezi lately. Just like before, I don't think he ever intended to fool Karkat with his transparent ruse - he just wanted to unsettle the guy. It worked.

@morganwick asked: If Typheus is the mailman, does that make him PM's favorite Denizen?

Maybe it makes him the head of her mail service!

We never saw any other mail Carapacians, and I kind of love the idea that they were operating out of a Denizen's Palace the whole time.

@bladekindeyewear asked: You said: "Mind you, I don’t know if it’s necessarily always a good or heroic thing to allow a Sburb Player full agency over their actions, nor is it necessarily a bad thing to restrict them, in certain cases." Oh I'm completely with you there. In fact, you might DEFINE Heroism as denying agency to those who would do ill, in part. This would make both "Heroic" and "Just" deaths result from trying to stamp your own intentions upon reality, halted by others. Neutrality would be ineffectual.

That's certainly part of heroism - but to me, it's not even close to all of it. A firefighter, for example, is heroic in ways which don't involve another person, as their only real 'opponent' is nature itself.

I personally define heroism as the will to do good, in situations where doing good requires bravery. 'Good', of course, is a fairly slippery concept, though, so that definition is just as ambiguous as any other.

Anonymous asked: Doctor Who anon here. Doctor Who has no canon for purely practical reasons. It's so massive - there's the show, but there's also the Big Finish audio dramas, the DW magazine comics, the Radio Times comics, the IDW comics, the Titan comics, the Virgin novels and short stories, the BBC novels and short stories. And no one owns all of it. The BBC don't even own the daleks or K9. And each piece of media will freely contradict others. No one has the right to decide what's canon, so they just don't. It's also because the people running Doctor Who the show have a deep respect for the extended media. In the 90s, it was the non-BBC licensed, fan-led projects which kept DW alive. Russell T. Davies, first showrunner of the modern era, wrote Virgin novels, so did Mark Gatiss. Nick Briggs, modern voice of the daleks, is the head of Big Finish. So they didn't want to decanonise that stuff, but they also don't want to be beholden to it when writing their own stories. So the fanbase tends to operate on tiers of canon. Basically something can be assumed to still be part of the show's continiuity until the show contradicts it. Big Finish would generally be considered the next highest "tier" of canon. The Doctor Who magazine comics probably wouldn't contradict the show, but the show could contradict them any time. The old books and comics are dubious. But that's all just fan categorisation. Officially, nothing has been deemed canon or not. In fact, rather amusingly, the only thing that has been explicitly deemed "canon" by the BBC is the Doctor Who: Battles in Time card game. That's officially canon. Nothing else. Not even the show.

I think I've heard of 'canon tiers' before, in the context of the Star Wars fandom. I think it's a good way to delineate how 'true' a given event is considered to be, especially in a large, complex shared universe - but at the same time, being consciously aware of these tiers might hurt your investment a little.

You'll never be able to escape the fact that your favourite stories or characters are effectively fanfiction, at least from the perspective of higher tiers. They have no influence whatsoever over the more ''real'' part of the story, unless they're promoted its tier some day.

I do like the idea that all the other Doctor Who stories are fanfiction of the card game, though. That's definitely going to be my canon, from now on.

@morganwick asked: Well, back in Act 4 you said that John and Dave would make S-Tier if and when "John [threw] aside his passivity to do something heroic, and…Dave [would] finally drop that poker face and do something sincere", which is why I pegged the suicide mission conversation as when Dave might make the jump.

I think, on reflection, it's almost always a heartwarming event that catapults a character into S-Tier.

In my opinion, that's one of the most impressive feelings that a work of fiction can inspire in you, mostly because it's really hard to get you invested enough for it to hit properly. Homestuck's pulled it off an extremely impressive number of times already, and we're only halfway finished!

Anonymous asked: It is so fucking awesome to see a new reader in the year of our lord 2024 2025 who's actually like. Engaging with the themes of the story. Lotta people just see it for the memes or the "totally random" plot but some of the shit you're reading into what's happening is like. Eerily similar to actual Hussie commentary. Gold star for reading comprehension, you do not piss on the poor Anonymous asked: Your homestuck liveblogs are lovely and insightful and make me remember a lot of details of the comic that have been lost to time. You will comment on something and I'll go "oh huh homestuck was better than I remember it being." Thank you <3 @honestlyvan asked: Truly your liveblog is the best kind of re-experiencing the experience. I'm surprised at how much your thoughts and reads parallel mine, it's kind of fun to see someone else's deductions go along the same routes. I can't wait for you to get to the Truly Horseshit portions of the plot (and I say this lovingly, I think you're in a great position to give us a real raw read on them without having to deal with the various Mega and Gigapauses) Also -- you keep pointing out a shitton of foreshadowing I didn't catch until my second readthrough. I can't wait for you to get to the bits where it applies and be like "son of a bitch", I think where I'm in the reading of your backlog and where you're in the reading of the comic you've passed at least one of those bits already :D @worldweary-walker asked: The liveblog is so cool. It's a lot of fun seeing you put things together, and the posts where you come up with three completely right conclusions and two wrong ones always amaze me. Impressive work!

Thank you so much! I know I say this a lot, but a lot of these sentiments are exactly why I like reading liveblogs myself. I'm just really glad I can do that for others.

I can totally understand why someone would just read Homestuck for the memes. I wouldn't have been nearly as analytical if I'd read it as a schoolgirl, and a lot of the 2010s fandom were even younger than that!

@divineerdrick asked: Now we have multiple explanations for what is wrong with the kid's session. Vriska has made herself responsible for Jack's rise to power, Karkat believes he gave Bilious Slick cancer, and Gamzee created the harlequin doll that would torment John and prompt Jack's rage-fueled act of rebellion. You've already suspected that Doc Scratch probably has multiple plans in play at once, and we can see that here. It seems he insured, through multiple causes, the kid's universe has always been doomed. Gamzee, as usual, seems to be the wild card. But he's acting out during a crisis of faith, a faith tied to Alternia's twisted social structure, which Scratch seems to have had a hand in. So despite how random Gamzee's actions appear to be, it's possible Scratch managed to seed even this seemingly unpredictable action.

I think Scratch probably did 90% of the work in making Gamzee go ballistic, from multiple directions at once. Looking back, it's shocking just how much of the comic was Scratch's doing.

'Caused' is a loaded phrase in Paradox Space, but what's happening is definitely what he planned.

Anonymous asked: It kind of seems like Rage as an aspect is evil, no? Do you think an aspect can carry an inherent moral weight? If not, what are the neutral meanings of aspects that seem to, and if so, how do you feel about it?

Personally, I doubt that any of the Aspects have a moral alignment - not even the scary-sounding ones. After all, you can Rage against tyranny, or bring Doom to a corrupt institution. Yeah, Gamzee is using Rage for evil, but his perception-shielding could just as easily be used to hide an innocent bystander from an aggressive Underling.

I think that more or less any ability can be used for both good or evil. The only real exception would be a power that's deliberately designed to be irreparably, comically evil. 'The ability to torture everyone for all eternity' would be one of those powers, but Homestuck's Aspect abilities would not.

@worldweary-walker asked: have you read Kill Six Billion Demons?

I have not! It's on my long and constantly growing list, which means I'll get to it between now and, uh, 2096.

Anonymous asked: re: the ancestors' story. WHAT IF WE ALL JUST CRIED like. the sheer transition from inane antics to the. that @corporalotherbear asked: There's a very popular fanmade version of the sufferer's final sermon and following vast expletive, voiced by a man that would go on to be the english voice actor of Izuku Midoriya. I can't add links to asks but if it's spoiler-friendly then your vetter can probably send you "The sufferer's last sermon"

Oh, I kind of love this interpretation. It really sells just how unwinnable the Sufferer's rebellion truly was.

@wolygan asked: I forgot how she is so happy when she is running away. This Girl is still able to believe that good is coming. Except Lord English won't let that happen, no matter what. @wickedsick asked:

That was possibly the fastest you have ever been proven wrong about something

That poor girl. She suffered just as much as the Signless did, but she'll only be known to Alternia as a monster - and unlike Troll Jesus, no one will ever mourn the Handmaid.

Anonymous asked: the sufferer cult is definitely independent of the juggalos! the use of the word sectarian to describe the war waged against the signless's beliefs is not a coincidence, imo. (we also see that highblood is most often used to specifically describe purplebloods). they're just two different religious organizations. given that the grand highblood was a juggalo man/subjuggulator and occupied significant power it seems to suggest that clown religion was a Big Thing among the purplebloods, which would not truck with the signless' cult being so small and secretive. there's one theory that part of the reason the neophyte was sent on mindfang's case was bc the GHB (given that mindfang mentions the neophyte was sent by subjuggulators specifically) knew she was a secret sufferite and wanted to get rid of her. mindfang does talk about how it seemed like they were giving up on her case entirely by sending just one neophyte (granted this is partially bc she underestimated her). it would track that while they definitely wanted to get rid of mindfang, they also were fine with the neophyte dying. this also follows with the fact that after mindfang gets out of that trial, she manages to persist without being caught right up until her death at the hands of the summoner. were they happy that the neophyte got killed, enough to stop putting much effort into mindfang's capture?

I think the Highbloods probably did set Redglare up. I speculated that it was possible when we first heard about her death, and that was before we knew she was a Signless cultist.

Also: lmao, do you remember when Hussie told us that the Juggalo Cult was 'obscure'? That's starting to feel like something that was quietly retconned offscreen.

@clueless-rarito asked: In case you like to know, "Dolorosa" is meant to evoke the spanish word "Doloroso" meaning painful but changing the O for an A turn it feminine.

Dolorosa; in other words, the woman in pain.

Fucking hell, she deserved so much better. It's amazing how much bleaker the Ancestors' lives were, compared to their descendants. Modern Alternia is bad enough as it is!

@lon-kasi asked: Fanwork recommendation: The same guy who did the EoA5 reanimation just did Intermission 2 as well. Like, less than six hours before I sent this ask. It's incredible.

Yessss! These are amazing.

My favorite parts are all the extra touches that weren't in the original animation, such as Rose beginning to realizing how badly she was tricked - or Jade, unused to her own powers, almost knocking John on his ass while she teleports him.

Anonymous asked: Now that you've seen what a Reckoning on Skaia looks like, you can see why Karkat was rushing Kanaya to get their frog done. Despite jumping the gun, skipping the lore elements and just killing their way to the end, the troll kids never had enough time. Especially since, now that I'm thinking about it, if it wasn't the Reckoning then it probably would have been Jack as the "time's up, now turn in your work" event. @marinerofthestars asked: With the revelation that Alternia was built to and ended up speedrunning an Sgrub/Sburb session to catastrophic effect (great job reading this far, btw), how long would you expect a “standard” session to take?

We've got two different asks here - one saying that normal sessions are meant to be shorter than Hivebent's, and the other saying they're meant to be longer.

I honestly don't know which I believe. It feels unrealistic for a Sburb session to take months, but Scratch really did seem to be saying that the trolls were extremely effective Players, implying most sessions take longer to beat. Maybe the reboot session will clue us in a little?

Anonymous asked: “How do you expect to out run me, When I Am Already Here.” Is such a hard line, and it’s completely missable in the alt text for the site banner. I know a lot of people missed it when these panels dropped. I remember HS being considered super unique because of how much the comic messes with formatting things like that.

I was super close to missing some of that scene, even though I'd already been warned about the alt text. There was just so much going on at the time, I almost didn't think to look at the banners.

@royalvorpal asked: "I thought words would be exchanged" How do you expect them to talk when they are in person?

pffffffffffffffffffft

Alright, that one fucking got me.

@bladekindeyewear asked: "But no, apparently not, because it took Karkat zero words and sixty seconds to completely shut Gamzee down. Now, don’t get me wrong, that’s incredibly impressive - but what did he actually do?" If you look back IN RETROSPECT at some of what Gamzee has been telling Karkat, it almost looks like pale flirting, like he was actually WANTING him to do this behind his threats. p3361: "FTC: i wonder if you can all be at with me in time and make me get my reconsider on?" Anonymous asked: You may not like it, but this is what peak moirallegience looks like.

Yeah, this really does make that exchange read as a little flirtatious.

Still, is this really how a moirallegiance is meant to work? Are moirails really expected to risk their lives to halt their prospective partner's rampage? This is starting to sound more dangerous than a kismesissitude!

@bladekindeyewear asked: I'm not sure how well it applies to the revised Homestuck website and it's probably impossible in the collection, but you could view any past/future page in any CSS format the site gave you with a keyword, like the black-on-green Doc Scratch format. So when Andrew did the "SNOP" to SBAHJ-mode, he was intentionally giving us a tool to view the ENTIRE SITE in SBAHJ mode.

There's a 'theme override' button, but I need to finish Homestuck to unlock it. I guess the comic's theme will change in more spoilery ways, later on.

Anonymous asked: Dolorosa/Mindfang is the true kicker of the “vriska keeps ending up in mirror relationships to her ancestor” belief, bc its the one where there is NO way vriska could know that shes in a mirror relationship. Eridan- orphaner dualscar and mindfangs romance was in the journal. Tavros- she knew about the summoner. But while there are hints to the dolorosas identity- sharp teeth, lower blood color, and a very vague if you stretch it hint about horn shape- no way vriska could have put those pieces together!!!

Man, it's still so fucked up that the Dolorosa went out like that. I still think it's at least remotely possible that she revived as a vampire, but I'm not gonna kid myself - her story is over. We're not gonna see her.

Anonymous asked: You've mentioned "ratfic" and something called "the Methods" before, is that something you've read?

If I could write an essay about Steven Moffat, I could write an entire thesis about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - but it'd be radioactively critical, and it feels mean-spirited to just post a rant about something unprompted.

If people want my thoughts in detail, I might stick them on the sideblog later - but for now, I'll just tell you that if it wasn't for that fic, XAE A-12 Musk would never have been born. Not a joke.

Anonymous asked: i love the complete about face on gamzee lol. "clearly the fact that he's gone nuts is something wrong with the timeline" gamzee is revealed to be responsible for lil cal "actually fuck this guy"

If we do ever recover the original Gamzee, it's going to really suck for him to face his friends. After everything he's done, will anyone ever really trust him again?

@elkian asked: Love the Exiles. So glad nothing bad happens to them, ever, (I assume the pause before the third s175 post is bc you, like me, took a break to cry over AR hesitating to kill his friend :,(

I was so bummed, guys. Carapacians don't have ghosts, I assume - so the Exiles, sans PM and maybe WV, are gone forever.

The Red Miles will probably have obliterated their corpses, so we can't even prototype most of them - but I'm holding out hope for Waywardsprite.

Anonymous asked: heh, you aren't alone in preferring god tier dave without his hood. i was around for when cascade dropped and wasnt able to watch it straight away due to the various troubles, but one of the first things i heard about it was people talking about how stupid they thought dave's hood looked.

I know, right? Like, yeah, it definitely says 'knight', but Dave's got great hair, and it feels like a shame to cover it.

@bladekindeyewear asked: "PCG: SHE WAS CONSTANTLY FIXING MY FUCKUPS. PCG: ROBOTS FROM THE FUTURE ALWAYS COMING BACK TO TELL ME HOW SOME HASTY SHIT I DID WITH FROG BREEDING OR WHATEVER WOULD MAKE IT BE IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN. PCG: MY OWN PERSONAL MISTAKES PROBABLY ACCOUNTED FOR MORE DOOMED ARADIABOTS THAN ANYTHING ELSE." Now that the Tumor's revealed for the precision device it was, it's also clear that Aradia, likely following the Horrorterrors' instructions, FORCED them to breed the frog JUST RIGHT to create the Sun.

Yeah, the existence of that precision device really fucking threw me. Whatever it did, the frog cancer probably was deliberately engineered to cause it - and I think it was engineered by Scratch, rather than the Horrorterrors. He was also talking to Aradia during the session, and this event was key to his plan.

Anonymous asked: (And one more ask from the person without a tumblr. -DJ) The thing is, Scratch could have just said "you must create the Green Sun, it is essential for the existence of the multiverse, not doing so will create a paradox". But either he chose to trick them, by only but saying "true words", just for fun…or there is some reason telling them about their true mission wouldn't work - RM

Either is possible, and it's pretty much impossible to say. That said, the Vast Glub is proof that he does just like messing with people, so I'm going with the former answer.

Anonymous asked: (forwarding another ask from the person without a Tumblr account -DJ) Do you think there are interesting parallels between Scratch and Tarquin from OOTS? - RM

Well, they are both meta-aware villains with extremely wide-reaching plans, and they're both pretty weird about women. Hopefully this means that Scratch's much cooler son will kick his ass in a later Act.

@bladekindeyewear asked: One tiny cute detail in Cascade I love is how when the Green Sun lights up in the distance for the trolls, Terezi tries to point at it, and Karkat gently takes her arm and re-points it in the right direction. XD

Shoulda brought the Smelloscope, Terezi!

Anonymous asked: The first time i read homestuck my shit bugged out and I literally just missed the entire scrapbook section and cascade. The SECOND time I read homestuck cascade gave me such a neuron firing high that only harrow the ninth has ever gotten close to

That's exactly how to describe it. Cascade blasted my neurons, in exactly the same way that part of Harrow the Ninth did.

@rwbypro asked: Ngl one of my favorite parts about homestuck is the fact that Doc Scratch Won, like he got Exactly what he wanted, and he played everyone like fiddles, one of my all time favorite villains in anything!

He did, the bastard! Scratch managed to pull it off without a hitch.

These are the exact kind of convoluted masterstrokes you want to see in a time-travel story, and I think English's machinations will only grow more intricate, going forward.

@sanctferum asked: The juggalo cult believes in a pair of mirthful messiahs rather than just the one, so if English is one of the messiahs, that's only half the equation. Presumably, the other messiah would be Scratch.

That works! I originally thought that the Messiahs were the two members of ICP, but let's be honest, they still could be. I absolutely would not put it past this comic to reveal that Lord English was Shaggy 2 Dope the whole time.

@sanctferum asked: So now that you've seen Lord English's true appearance: he's got a peg leg, and that peg leg is a golden cuestick, filling in the last missing piece of the Felt analogy - the one that moves the billiards around in the first place. For good measure, English's peg leg, single golden tooth and his garish coat give him a stereotypical pimp appearance, which is fitting given his treatment of his female servants so far (not to mention Scratch's own treatment of both the Handmaid and whichever female player he is manipulating at any given moment. He even explicitly uses the word grooming to describe raising Handmaid!). If there was ever a pimp for Dave to lock in his own crib while dropping it like it was hot, this would be him.

Ayy, you're right! I've been waiting for the Felt's cuestick since the Intermission days!

You're also right about the comic's villains. Scratch and English aren't just screwing over female Players - they've also been fucking with Mindfang, the Handmaid, the Condesce, and even Snowman. It's absolutely a pattern.

These guys aren't just cosmic villains, they're misogynist cosmic villains. Mundane evil and supernatural evil, all together in one convenient package of shit.

Anonymous asked: Now that we've gotten past this point in the comic- I just wanted to say I forgot Expatri8 was ever a name used to refer to Darkleer- mainly because all I ever see people refering to him as is Darkleer. And at first it kinda threw me for a loop when you called him that even though it's the only name you knew for him- Anyhows- You probably noted this at some point but only upper middle class to high blood colors seem to have name names, with some exceptions. Like, they're weird, but Mindfang, Redglare, and Dualscar are all fesable names. Meanwhile the lower bloods just have titles.

It is absolutely in character of Alternia not to allow lowbloods to have names.

Anonymous asked: Just read your liveblog over the last two days. I adore your analysis! I second that one person’s reccomendation of In Stars And Time. Also I reccomend the Blue Lips homestuck video, it’s lived in my head for ages. I’m 99% sure it’s safe to watch now? It’s about the events of murderstuck and I don’t THINK it references anything you don’t know. Anyhoot! I know you mentioned vriska being like Azula when you first started getting to know her. Now that you’re as far as you are, I’d like to argue… Vriska is more like Zuko, in a way? Like. The way she wants to wipe things clean, the way he wants to restore his honor. The way they both have a “parent” that leads them to how things are, and for a while they cling to that as “right” and how things should be… One time I saw a post that Vriska is girl Zuko and Eridan is boy Azula and all the comments were arguing that no, vriska is Azula, but lowkey that post changed my brain chemistry and idk why people were SO vehemently against changing the genders of the characters in the comparison

I think Vriska works well as girl Zuko. You're right - they both started off under the thumb of an abusive parent, and they both try to 'fix' their past mistakes without understanding the wider context behind why they made them. Now, does this mean Vriska will also be getting a kickass redemption arc, which turns her into one of the comic's most straightforwardly heroic characters? Possibly, but I ain't holding my breath.

It's a little harder for me to see the second comparison, though. Like her brother, Azula was made into what she is by her horrible father, whereas Eridan became what he is on his own, with some assistance from Alternian culture.

Perhaps there are layers here that I'm just not seeing. I haven't read the Avatar sequel comics yet, so they might do more with Azula's character that I don't know about.

@mrjocrafter asked: I was trying to think about what the characters' moon alignment means in terms of their characterization, thought "Prospit dreamers are relatively passive while Derse dreamers are relatively active", then realized that's only true for the humans, the Post-Scratch Trolls' 6 Prospit dreamers (excluding Sollux, as his 'official' alignment, according to the Extended Zodiac, is Derse) are the more active characters. Then I realized that on Earth darkness and dark-associated characters are edgy and countercultural, while on Alternia light and light-associated characters are countercultural instead! Goddamn this comic just keeps coming back for more themes Also, I know you've compared Taylor to Vriska in the past, but she really strikes me as more of a Terezi. Beyond the surface level stuff (like going blind and then relying on a supernatural sense), Taylor, like Terezi has a strong moral compass but will twist it into pretzels to do the most horrific shit and there's a 50/50 chance she even regrets it afterwards. Meanwhile, Amy, who I think makes a much better Vriska, does her atrocities either under manipulation (like Vriska) or just does it without thinking about it and feels bad about it later (hey, also like Vriska). Also, Taylor Hebert and Amelia Dallon are coincidentally both valid troll names.

Yup! Which means Kanaya is a troll goth, which is still amazing.

And... hmm, I'm not sure whether I'd call Dave active or passive. He certainly acts more on his own initiative than John, but he also spends a lot of time getting bossed around by Terezi. He's kind of in the middle, really.

I do think Terezi's reframing of her violence as 'justice' is very Taylor-coded - and Amy is absolutely a Vriska, if we're working off the 'female, controversial, and morally ambiguous' definition given by a previous asker. Plus, well...

...yeah. And let's not even talk about Ward. (Because I haven't read it.)

Really, all these characters are multifaceted, and you can draw many different parallels in many different directions. If I had the time, I could probably draw lines from each of the trolls to a different cape in the Wormverse - but for now, we must continue!

@morganwick asked: Bec's influence on Jack is so strong that not only is he reduced to following Jade around like a puppy, he kills CD for completing the mission he gave him and leaves Jade, one of the players he's supposed to be killing, on her quest bed, the nature of which he didn't seem to know about when it came to John. Bec = absolute king.

Bec is a king.

It really does seem like his influence over Jack is increasing as time passes. Is Davesprite going to get more birdlike, as well? Or is Bec just a special case because he's a First Guardian?

Anonymous asked: oh my god you really just cleaned the board with the last minute Dave+Rose quest slab guess??? Like. You were going on about other things and then you just casually mention "oh I guess this could happen too" like okay!!! Seer!!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that one. I was just thinking about how Aradia might help the Derse kids, once she'd met them at the Sun, and then it hit me: she's been in exactly the same situation, in exactly the same place, because of exactly the same sun!

Anonymous asked: dogtier IS in fact what the entire fandom calls her, if you came up with that yourself congrats on the authentic 2011 homestuck experience, move over carcinisation this is the new big thing in convergent evolution

I did, but come on. That pun makes itself.

Anonymous asked: Fun fact: the music used in [S] Begin Intermission 2, "English", is the same when reversed. It is an EXTREMELY excellent detail. And another example of Toby Fox being a brilliant composer. @sanctferum asked: English by Toby Fox is a really cool song in that its a musical palindrome, playing the same both forwards and backwards, as befits the titular entity. The whole Felt album it's from is based around creating songs with time gimmicks in them, so it serves as a very good semifinal track to almost close the album out. @emotionallyglued asked: You finally got to the part where our big bad man appears! Simple question to ask but I'm looking forward towards the answer: what do you think of Lord English's theme? Grandiose enough to fit a villain of his caliber or did you expect something more/else?

Oh, shit, that's cool!

I liked the song a lot. Sure, it's not as bombastic as the boss theme I went with myself, but it is much, much scarier. It was the perfect way to remind us that this wasn't really a victory - that English's plan went off without a hitch. Our heroes are still in terrible, terrible danger.

@morganwick asked: post/756751870755733504 Still think of Doc Scratch as "Big Cal"? @sanctferum asked: You've heard of Lil' Cal and Big Cal, now get ready for the deadliest and dastardliest villain of all: Biggest Cal. Anonymous asked: you've seen lil cal, now get ready for BIG CAL @lon-kasi asked: finally, Big Ca- well. actually. Scratch was Big Cal, wasn't he? so finally, Bigger Cal

This is the real reason Scratch wouldn't tell Rose his boss's name - because if she'd known her manipulator worked for Bigger Cal, she'd have been too god damn scared to go grimdark.

Anonymous asked: T1ck T0ck goes the God Tier Clock. Its chime signals the Br8k of Scratch's H34D. And with the arrival of Lord English, he lets loose two great, Vast honk HONKS. Anonymous asked: Did you notice something about the English sequence? First, we see Scratch's clock. t1ck, t0ck. Then, his head breaks. 8r8k H34DS. He releases the Vast Honk. honk HONK.

This motherfucker died to the very words that birthed him.

I guarantee you that this was deliberate on Scratch's part. He didn't need to foreshadow his plan so blatantly - but this horrible little troll knew that nobody would get the joke until it was too late.

bladekindeyewear asked: "S u c k e r s ." The bioorganic-looking Tumor opening up to reveal a precision device. Twice the mass of a universe. Doc Scratch fucking played EVERYONE SO HARD. We couldn't believe THEY CREATED THE GREEN SUN, so hard many of us watched without REALIZING IT. If you reread the talk Doc and Rose had from p3627 onward, the amount of TRANSPARENT DODGES AND WEASELING he did in that conversation to mislead Rose and the entire readership is so blatant and shameless, oh my fucking god!!! Anonymous asked: Not only did Scratch never said the tumor would destroy the green sun, he also specifically said they would travel to the green sun LOCATION, not to the green sun itself.

God damn it!

Scratch may have been stoic on the outside, but you mark my words: he was absolutely roaring with laughter on the inside.

@sunbluethinking asked: Regarding 'a dozen or two sweeps,' you do have to remember that it seems like one sweep is roughly equivalent to two human years? (See Terezi's and Dave's 'I'm six' conversation, or whatever it was.) So my impression is that a dozen sweeps would be equivalent to 24 years and two dozen sweeps would be equivalent to 48 years. Still really short, but not quite as absurdly short. (Which actually reminds me of the question of the problem of rate of maturation in fictional races with different lifespans. (Dungeon Meshi touches on this, but) in the case of Homestuck, I think it seems like the trolls mature to adulthood at about the same rate. It's just their adult lifespans that are different.) @bellcarved asked: If my math is correct, "a dozen or two sweeps" is a range of 26 to 52 years. Still not great, but 26 would be the low end of the life expectancy, while they tend to live around half as long as a human.

So either Aradia was about to die, or she wasn't - but either way, she was always going to die young.

We still don't know whether God Tier stops you aging, do we? I have to assume so, because death by old age isn't really Heroic or Just, but I'd feel a lot better if it was 100% confirmed.

Anonymous asked: And here we learn the story of Jesus and the second coming- @bellcarved asked: Now you know the truth: Karkat Vantas is the second coming of Troll Jegus Christ. Anonymous asked: I doubt I'm the first to say this but, the story of the Signless is undeniably based off the story of Jesus Christ. @skelekingfeddy asked: you do realise that the sufferer is Troll Jegus right. the irons/cancer symbol is the crucifix. his method of execution turned into the main symbol of a religion. the dolorosa is mary. karkat is the second coming. hes literally just Troll Jegus lmao @sanctferum asked: turns out, Terezi was right all along. troll jegus was real after all, and he was indeed the best jegus. shame on you for not believing, Dave

God damn it, Karkat. You hate yourself so much, even though you're literally the second coming of Christ.

And really does add weight to Terezi's claim that Alternia had the 'best' Jesus. Sure, says she's joking here, but... well, her Ancestor was a follower of the Signless, wasn't she? Could Terezi have inherited more of Redglare's legacy than we thought?

Anonymous asked: now that you know about the signless i recommend you take another read of karkat's long password on page 3972

...huh.

It almost makes it seem like Karkat's vaguely cognizant of the Sufferer's life, the same way the Sufferer was cognizant of his pre-Scratch incarnation. Funny, that.

@morganwick asked: "For a bisexual alien, his shipping is awfully straight, isn't it?" Well, consider that when he drew that he was trying to adhere to the human model of reproduction with its explicit requirement of one person of each sex, as best he could from his alien perspective. Note that in the same conversation he's struggling to understand the "human taboo of incest". @manorinthewoods asked: Karkat's humanshipping is straight because John told him he wasn't gay, and presumably, he extrapolated. ~LOSS (28/12/24) Anonymous asked: Karkat's very straight shipping chart is the way it is because John's Not A Homosexual:tm:

I totally forgot I came to the same conclusion, back in that legendary group chat.

Man, Rose x Kanaya is really going to throw Karkat for a loop. He'll probably think that John was just bullshitting him.

@skelekingfeddy asked: steven moffat is a valid troll name Anonymous asked: You've brought it up too much not to ask, what did Moffat do that pissed you off so badly?

Once more, I am very tempted to make this a full essay, but I'll save time by just pointing to Hbomberguy's famous Sherlock video, which I agree with, like, 80% of - particularly the Doctor Who segment that I've timestamped.

In a nutshell, Moffat was always really good at generating intrigue, and building hype for future events - but as a showrunner, he never really delivered on his promises, and was very fond of handwaving established canon to the side. Pet peeve of mine, as you can imagine.

@rwbypro asked: We warned you bro, we warned you about the most important character @skelekingfeddy asked: carcinoGeneticist may have engineered the cancer…but terminallyCapricious was the one who made it terminal. ;o) @capribornio asked: Honk, honk :0) Heyyyy you reached the part where Gamzee became my favorite enemy. Forget Vriska, Jack and Doc Scratch - Gamzee may have his buttons pushed by the good ol' Doc, but he managed to make things worse than even Vriska got to (and killed more main characters, too!). Anonymous asked:Congratulations on reaching this point. So, Gamzee chucklefucked the universe. Crazy, right? @bellcarved asked: Gamzee's "Bard of Rage" title is looking more accurate than ever, now. His own rage lead him to put the clowns in John's dreams, which ended up inspiring the rage that made Jack Noir go to the lengths he did. Bardic inspiration, if you will. …also, this makes Perfect Jack a collaborative effort between Vriska and Gamzee. @capribornio asked: I feel like you get Gamzee much better than most livebloggers (and a part of the fandom, too). Gamzee is an orchestrator, on a much bigger level than any could have predicted. The silly little troll dissappeared once he got off the slime, got his religion destroyed, and got Lil Cal.

I told you, guys! I told you Bards were overpowered!

Yeah, he's already getting pretty crafty, isn't he? Maybe, instead of manipulating Gamzee like he did the girls, Scratch has actually been coaching him. After all, his own manipulating days are over, so maybe he saw fit to train a successor...

Anonymous asked: if vriska was presented with a choice about the creation of bec noir, it would have had to be before the veil because the trolls only flee into the veil AFTER bec shows up and wrecks their reward- and that's their first introduction to him. any choice she could have made about bec/jack after that would result in a doomed timeline, because it would break the loop. that's why it has to be before the veil. @manorinthewoods asked: What I mean is that the Choice that would have prevented Bec Noir is something that would have made Vriska change who she was, in such a way that she wouldn't later make Bec. Vriska's Choice that made Bec can't have occurred in the Veil, because there wasn't a Denizen to give it, so whatever it was, it must have been something to do with character growth that she failed to do. ~LOSS (28/12/24)

Oh, right, that makes sense!

Yeah, poor Vriska simply wasn't self-aware enough to make such a Choice before the Veil. It's interesting what-if, though.

@flambeaufelid asked: ICP albums liveblog maybe??? (Do people liveblog music reactions? They should.) Anonymous asked: Since you mentioned the possibility of having to listen to ICP albums to understand Gamzee better, I figured I’d better let you know that while reading a bit about juggalos, ICP, and ICP’s music does help with understanding Gamzee better if you’re unfamiliar with them (though I wouldn’t say it’s crucial), I don’t recommend listening to their music unless you’re comfortable with graphic depictions of gore, murder, and other forms of violence. (Speaking from personal experience here; I tried listening to them because Gamzee’s my favorite character and quickly realized I didn’t enjoy that.) Anonymous asked: I would say listening to icp is not necessary… I tried myself and failed not even half way through one album so I admittedly could be wrong but… I think it was never intended to be THAT serious

I checked out Miracles, back when ICP was first brought up, but I haven't seen any of their other music. It's probably not actually necessary to listen to the band to understand Gamzee, but I might still do it for fun, since the graphic content wouldn't bother me much.

@skelekingfeddy asked: according to hussie the fifth wall is what divides two narrators/authors @sanctferum asked: According to Hussie's comments, if the fourth wall is the wall between the character and the author/their audience, then the fifth wall is specifically the wall dividing omniscient narrators from each other. or something like that

I, uh, guess that makes sense. Presumably Scratch would be our second 'author' in this scenario, even though he's not literally another author of Homestuck.

#asks #full liveblog #act 5.2

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pyrrhocorax · 1 year ago

Text

Re: Sweden, Norway, and Denmark's Japanese dialects in Hetalia (and potential implications to their characterization) (with briefer notes about Fin and Ice)

Thanks to @nordickies for being the spark that lit the fire to write this post. This information also personally has informed some of my personal takes on the Nordic 5 for over a decade now, so I hope it is useful. A lot of this was more common knowledge back in the livejournal days of the fandom.

Disclaimer: my Japanese is limited and by no means do I claim to fully understand all of the cultural complexities surrounding this topic. I will try, where I can, to back up my claims with at least somewhat credible sources especially since I am someone who is not Japanese in origin either ethnically or culturally, however I DO know more than the average person would because I have lived in Japan, was exposed from my practical birth to the culture and language waaay more than is typical due to me living overseas, and I have studied the language on an elementary level in several academic settings. I am by no means an expert (I am a wildlife biologist by trade), but all of this is done in good faith, and if you do know more than me (especially since I am limited in my ability to get access to academic texts right now — nor am I going far out of my way to find those, as this is a meta post about Hetalia of all things and I am not going to do a whole giant thesis about this for one post), feel free to correct me and/or send me further resources, as I want to convey as accurate of information I can as possible. Part of my motivation for making this post was to spur conversation and hopefully have others who know more than me contribute to the ongoing conversation, to which, I encourage those who read this post to check the notes for any further updates. Another note that I also do not originate from a Nordic country, so there may also be additional layers people from those countries may be able to add. Thanks! Let's begin.

*********************************************************** Like several characters in Hetalia, the Viking Trio speak in unique Japanese dialects that further make them distinct and characterize them in Japanese. Sweden speaks in a Touhoku dialect, Norway in the Tsugaru dialect (which is a specific type of Touhoku dialect), and Denmark speaks in Ibaraki dialect. The Ibaraki dialect is sometimes seen as belonging to the Touhoku dialect group or the Kantou dialect group, and the classification is debated. Generally, Touhoku accents are characterized by slow speech, the slurring of words together, and the muttering of words — as well as being associated with rural country folk (Kumagi 2011, direct PDF download). This dialect is often translated into English as a redneck/hick accent and drawling speech — and as those who speak it are often characterized or stereotyped as unintelligent folks from out in the sticks. Kumagi cites Inoue (1977) as saying that Touhoku dialects are "degraded at the bottom in the Japanese language" scoring low on "intelligence and emotion-related associations." One American English rough equivalent (not localized, but in terms of reputation in U.S. culture) by my best estimations would likely be Appalachian dialects, which are also stereotypically characterized as being a hillbilly, unintelligent, and rural accent also featuring drawled speech and often truncated speech (source). Like many Touhoku dialect speakers in Japan, Appalachian dialect speakers often hide, mask, or reduce their accent, especially if they relocate someplace outside Appalachia, in order to seem more credible to others, as it is generally seen as an “inferior” dialect of American English in the wider culture (personal/family lived experience, but also a good radio piece on it here). The other way Touhoku dialects are translated in media are as Upper Midwest or Northern Plains dialects of American English (not the most credible source, but a lot that is on here that I can confirm to be correct). This characterization is likely a more accurate candidate for the Nordics (and may be why Hima chose this dialect group for them), as many immigrants from Nordic countries settled in the Upper Midwest/Northern Plains (source, personal experience living in this region for a lot of my life). Touhoku dialects are also a more northern dialect group, which geographically coincides with the Nordics being, well, northerners!

(Map of Touhoku dialects regionally) I have not been able to find any information re: if Sweden speaks any particular type of Touhoku dialect (or if it is more broad), but I will talk a bit about how his speech was transliterated in early scanlations before moving on to the other two. Because of how slurred/more truncated/less intelligible Touhoku accents generally are (and remember, Den/Nor/Ice did not make their appearance until well after Swe/Fin did!), likely early translators decided to chop off letters/make Sweden's speech seem less intelligible in order to convey that to readers. Unlike Norway and Denmark, Sweden also often speaks in shorter sentences/phrases in Japanese, and given that Finland canonically says "it's just hard to communicate with him" (see Running Away with Mr. Sve) that is also likely why early Hetalia scanlators before official translations of the comics were available (note: god this is making me feel old as hell) made the decision to give him the speech patterns that they did, and that ended up spreading through the fandom. When the other Nordics with their regional dialects dropped, given how Sweden’s vocal trait got translated into English and then fandom ran with it to varying degrees of intelligibility, I think the decision was made to not translate Norway the same way to cause less trouble in fanworks, while the Ibaraki dialect did influence how Denmark was translated (more on that below.

Norway speaks in a very particular Touhoku-family dialect within the series that is generally not well-reflected outside of the source material at all. The Tsugaru dialect is spoken in the northwest part of the country, specifically in the western part of Aomori Prefecture — Tsugaru dialect is a particularly unusual dialect, even by Japanese dialect standards, by being one of the most difficult dialects in Japan to understand (source). Even within Japan itself, people speaking this dialect often have to be subtitled on television for other Japanese audiences to understand, and there have been occasions where the dialect has been displayed on television to marvel at how strange and unintelligible it sounds to other Japanese speakers. Sometimes speakers of this dialect have been characterized (or mischaracterized for comedic effect) as French in Japanese because the odd sound and unintelligability of the dialect (source). Kumagi (2011) also states that "[...] within the Tohoku [alternate transliteration of Touhoku] dialects, Aomori [prefecture in which Tsugaru is spoken] dialect is at the bottom [of the hierarchy]," meaning that even among the already disrespected Touhoku dialects, Tsugaru belongs to the worst of the bunch in terms of reputability and respectability in Japanese perceptions. The Tsugaru dialect is a source of fascination, comedy, and disrepute/low standing all at the same time. While we don’t know why Hima selected Norway to have this dialect, I have a few proposals. First, this gives him a similar flavor to the other members of the Viking Trio while keeping him distinct — while Ibaraki is a more southern dialect geographically (for the region), Tsugaru is spoken both more north and more west than it. So if you map their dialects out on a map, their geographical location to each other also somewhat resembles their actual locations as nations to each other in the Nordics! Which is neat!

Second, Hima characterizes Norway has being slightly otherworldly and unusual largely due to his fairy-friends and such. But I also think that he likely chose Tsugaru for him not only because that makes him seem like he’s out of this world, but also because Japan is kind of fascinated by that dialect in particular despite not holding it in high regards by it too — sure, it is a hick accent, but it is an interesting hick accent. I think the fact that Japanese speakers sometimes liken the dialect to French is interesting specifically because of how Japanese people often view the French — French culture something that is often romanticized and idealized, and given how Tsugaru dialect can sound French-ish to Japanese speakers, that may be why Norway is kind of designed as the “pretty boy” of the trio by the fandom? In the same way that “Paris Syndrome” is a thing, where Japanese who go to France are often shocked at how their idealized version of France does not live up to the realities of the country (trust me it's real there is a wikipedia page lol), I think you can argue that in-universe Norway can be seen in a lot of different ways depending on the preconceived notions of how you view the dialect. If you view it as French-like and think it sounds interesting, you may find it alluring/beautiful. If you think it is crass, you'll look at it with disdain and disgust. If you think it just sounds silly and stupid, it is. If you think it is nostalgic (as Kumagi states that this is the only positive association this dialect has) and has a close association with nature/pastoral life because of that, it is. I think Norway in canon is characterized on all four of those axioms at the same time (if you really wanna pull canon receipts I will at another time) which makes this make a lot of sense to me as to why that dialect was chosen for him. Third, I think that given Norway was largely the worst off of the three kingdoms for most of history, it makes sense to give him the worst accent in terms of reputation/status out of all of them, too. Note: specifically, re: how Norway uses "brother" in Japanese is also interesting when referring to Denmark. What he is saying is "anko" (あんこ), which literally means "young man/eldest son" directly translated and is specifically only used to mean that in northern Japanese dialects. A good way to put it is it is like people in the U.S. use "bro" as a catch-all term for a similar-aged guy you are trying to get the attention of kind of informally, in the same way you can say "nii-san" to both mean "older brother" and also "guy who seems older than me I am addressing informally" I guess?? Funnily enough, which I didn't know until researching shit, it apparently also means bottom (homosexual) in prison slang??? Which may or may not be intentional I guess on Hima's part, and could also influence your characterization of Norway as a result. Finally we move on to Denmark. The Ibaraki dialect is characterized by number of things, but for our purposes I think that the two most important traits are the general lack of polite speech and the slightly faster rate of speech (unfortunately, my only written sources I can point to are wikipedia and TV tropes again, but I have heard this orally from someone a long time ago - I looked for more credible sources but couldn't find any easily). Because of it being debated as to whether or not is a true Touhoku dialect or if it is actually a Kantou (more southern/eastern) dialect, I think you can also argue that makes sense given Denmark is kind of the "gateway" into the heart of Europe geographically. People have generally translated this as him being excitable and more casual in the way he communicates to other people. I have been able to find less resources on this particular dialect and how it is perceived culturally, so I will sadly have to leave it at that, but from my understanding he is generally translated appropriately in the manga from what I have seen, with the -in' instead of -ing and ya instead of you to have it seem more relaxed/familiar/casual.

Final notes on Finland and Iceland: I cannot confirm this personally, but from what I can hear from Finland, it sounds like he speaks pretty standard Japanese to me, but take that with a grain of salt since I am not the expert here. Which, dialect-wise, places him as the odd person out (which fits with Finnish being the linguistic outgroup of the five) and also puts him as the relatable “stand in” for Japanese people learning about the Nordics — reminder he is the one who introduces them all in that one comic (see The Nordic 5+a) and even earlier comics (see Running Away with Mr. Sve), and we’re viewing the Nordics from largely his perspective). Since Finland in this series is largely characterized (and often deemed a poor stereotype by Finns) because of the Japanese perspective on Finland/Finns, it makes a lot of sense Hima used him kind of as a self-insert for Japanese readers/viewers to understand the Nordics from, as of the Nordic nations, Japanese folks are likely going to have the strongest familiarity/connection to Finland because of the Moomins. Please take the following information about Iceland with heaping grains of salt, but from a memory, I believe he also speaks the Tsugaru dialect, at least some of the time???? This makes sense he shares the Tsugaru dialect with Norway, as he’s Norway’s in-canon sibling, but I have a vague memory of a meta post I cannot 100% confirm or deny exists re: him only speaking the dialect/the dialect coming out more when he’s alone?? This following is speculation since I cannot confirm/deny that right now with my current abilities, but if it is true, would also be an interesting level to his character and make sense — it puts further distance between him and Norway if he purpsefully doesn’t speak the same way as his brother when his brother is present, and it also is reminiscent of my own experience living with people with discriminated accents who then mask their “less desirable” dialects in their teens/20s so they don’t get discriminated against as they move up in the world. Kumagi (2011) states that "Therefore, young female native speakers of Tohoku [alternate transliteration] dialects feel ashamed of their dialects and hesitate to speak them in big cities such as Tokyo. They are made to feel inferiority complex about their dialects, which are stigmatized as unfeminine". Since Iceland is very much characterized as a teen in canon, I think that this makes sense to do in the broader context of Hima’s choices. The specific reason as to why I state that I believe he speaks Tsugaru some of the time but not always is because there are some panels he speaks without it and some where he does seem to have an accent (HWS Chapter 112, relevant screencap below, this is the only time he speaks like this from what I can find in scanlations/translations, but it has to be a deliberate choice). Would love more info on this from someone who knows more about Japanese than I can do.

Again, please check the original post and/or notes for any future additions that I will add/edit accordingly (with notes as to where/when that happened) if any other relevant information surfaces, but I hope that was at least a little informative and interesting to read. I consulted a bunch of other resources too (read a bunch of papers I could find online), but a lot of those I read several months ago and no longer can find :x otherwise I would list them here.

Let me know if there are any typos/things are unclear, b/c holy shit this took a lot more effort and time for me to write up than I thought it was going to, and I am too tired to proofread it after spending several days on it. X_X

#hws norway #hws denmark #hws sweden #hws nordics #aph nordics #hws iceland #hws finland #pyrrhocorax meta #just so it is easier to find again :/a #anyway i hope this is interesting at least. idk how this fandom tags stuff anymore

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