#I made puppets for everyone and I checked the translations of our work and I directed everytjinf and now im.editing

[catholicjinx]

would everyone in my group hate me if I just ..stopped working on our project

[pinkjiminssi]

So.. About That Hickey..

I think I’m still processing all of this and reminding myself I’m not dreaming 🤣 I seriously only got 3 hours of sleep last night and when I woke up the first thing I did was check twitter to be sure this “drunk bridal-style spinning hickey neck biting proudly showing off” moment actually happened!! 

.. I hate the way my brain works though. I was so happy that it took me forever to fall asleep, spent all day on cloud 9 despite being tired, .. and then my old nemesis, anxiety, stepped in. Well kind of. TBH if all of the MOTS ON:E Jikook moments we got happened with Jimin/anyone else or Jungkook/anyone else.. I would seriously be sitting here saying “well fuck.. I believe they WERE a couple, but looking at all of this it seems they are no longer together.” So really, this just confirmed what I already knew about Jimin and Jungkook: they’re a couple. My anxiety is over.. why? Why show us this? If they can cover all of JK’s tattoos, a hickey/bite mark/whatever we’re calling it should be super easy to hide. Sure it was just rehearsal.. but it was rehearsal with cameras rolling with every intention of releasing what was being filmed as future content. It could have (and some might argue should have) been covered.

Guys... I’m confused. And concerned. ❗❗❗ TW for drama, hate, homophobia, the usual anti issues

That “official” explanation.. again.. why? I’m assuming Jimin and Jungkook were asked and allowed to explain because of the chance of it being spotted and armys freaking out, so BH (or possibly even Jikook) thought to get ahead of the speculation by just being up front about it all.. but THAT explanation? I suppose it works for covering up the army panic of “Jungkook has a girlfriend?! *insert fangirl sobbing*” .. but that’s literally all it does (and only barely if you go looking at some of the anti’s reactions to it all). Really, all it did was draw even more attention and speculation. I mean.. this is, essentially, what we were told: Jimin and Jungkook were together the night before drinking, apparently without the other members as they didn’t seem to know all of this already (and they would have if they had been there), somehow hanging out and having drinks turns into Jungkook picking Jimin up bridal style (random but some of the k-army reactions on twitter were translating through google into “princess style” and I just think that’s so cute 🥰), spinning ensues, Jimin gets dizzy and wants Jungkook to put him down, ... and so he proceeds to do the only logical thing that any of us would have done in that situation... biting Jungkook’s neck? And hard enough to leave a mark the next day?? And instead of being peeved about it (like most of us would have been if our friend bit the crap out of us), Jungkook looks happy?? proud even??? 

And they arrived together the next day and continue to be cute and playful? 

I just.. I mean.. come on. First of all.. that’s a hickey. A bite leaves teeth marks. And one would assume a wild, drunken “let me down” chomp would be something that happens suddenly and ends very quickly. I know I for sure would drop someone on their ass if they decided to take a bite out of my neck (assuming I was even picking up and spinning around with one of my friends like that to begin with.. but let’s not even get into why that was going on at this point) .. but the way this bruised? Yeah. There were no teeth involved (at least not hard enough to leave indentations) and this took more than a couple of seconds of mouth-to-neck contact to still be that visible the next day. So.. in short. Jungkook arrives with a hickey, JK decides to not cover it up (or he would have shown up with it hidden and we see him get out of the car that morning with it clearly visible), BH staff sees it and also decides to not have it covered up and actually have it explained... and the explanation is “oh yeah Jimin just bit him, you know.. no big deal hehehe isn’t that funny?” 🤯 WHAT?! Yeah.. that’s totally normal, platonic behavior between adults...

I’m not saying Jimin and Jungkook are lying btw. I have no doubt it played out more or less exactly as they said with the exception of what they’re calling the end result. Jimin and Jungkook are fine.. I mean, what were they supposed to say? They’re not going to show up saying Jimin was sucking on Jungkook’s neck the night before. We’ll probably never know why Jungkook decided to not cover it up before arriving, but it’s his body and he gets to decide. It’s BH that has me so puzzled. Other than antis and people who refuse to see what’s literally right in front of their faces when it comes to Jikook.. who were BH expecting to believe the bite thing? Just among staff and the other members, it’s a laughable but safe “oh of course *wink wink*” explanation that allows everyone to carry on like normal. But to the public who don’t know them personally, don’t know their usual behavior and patterns, and who don’t have something like a non-disclosure agreement or professional courtesy preventing them from openly speculating.. it doesn’t fly. Pretty much everyone teen and up knows what a hickey looks like (either from having gotten/given one or at least seeing one on someone else in person or online). It’s immediately obvious what it is. And even if there was some uncertainty.. that it’s on his neck (instead of other easily accessible and less sensitive/stimulating locations) and just so happens to be right near his mole as it Jimin were aiming for it? Just another “too many coincidences” thing when it comes to Jikook.

Even antis on twitter couldn’t deny what it was and, so, had to resort to the “well I do that with my sibling and my uncle’s pet raccoon all the time it’s just family things” excuse and/or the “yeah well someone ELSE in the group (or a girlfriend) gave him that and they’re just covering by saying it was Jimin.” Oh. And the same old “it’s just fan service” excuse (as if Jungkook would let someone bruise his neck for the purposes of fanservice which, again, BTS has never done or needed to do. Forever pissed off that so many in this fandom act like Jungkook is a puppet doing whatever the “evil company” tells him to do regardless of his personal feelings or boundaries. The man has tattoos covering nearly every inch of his arm despite that being looked down on in Korea. At this point he can do whatever the fuck he wants). So.. why?? Seriously, why? This all could have easily been avoided with simple makeup.

When they’re doing official content they’re all literally followed around by a flurry of staff fixing hair, dabbing sweat, touching up makeup, etc. Even though it was rehearsal, staff were everywhere in the footage that’s made its way online. If they were worried that it would be seen in the background and “taken the wrong way,” just have the staff occasionally touch up the makeup. “Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” But instead of doing the obvious, BH decides to: not cover it, draw attention to it by asking about it and letting them continue to talk about it, go out of their way to get a camera on it, and then include it in the final cut of the content they sent out?

BTS is literally the most popular group in the world right now and BH has become a behemoth of a company that runs like a well-oiled machine. They’re not stupid; this was not a mistake. For some reason they wanted us to see this and, one would assume based on the lack of a more believable explanation, they wanted us to come to the conclusion that we all have: Jimin gave Jungkook a hickey. You know they have teams dedicated to monitoring reactions to content on social media. You know they know the dialog surrounding Rosebowl, Black Swan MMA, the Memories 2020 “almost kiss,” etc. etc. All of this got “jikook,” “hickey” and variations of their names trending for HOURS (in multiple countries and worldwide). 

Out of curiosity, I decided to check the trends at the time of writing this. As of 3 AM CST (about 24 hours AFTER the clips started showing up online), there was still a hashtag trending related to all of this: #FREEJUNGKOOK.. and the tweets being directed toward BH are.. disturbing to say the least:

While I agree that the boys should trend more often based on their talents and music.. what’s going on right now is a homophobic 💩 show accusing BH of “scripting” interactions (rather than.. you know.. Jungkook interacting with whoever he wants however he wants.. the usual “mindless puppet JK” narrative), trying to coordinate the mass sending of angry emails, trying to get people to stop buying paid content, accusing BH of taking advantage of the members.. I mean it goes on and on. And BH know what’s going on right now. They’re seeing the reactions... the good and the extremely negative. And still they let this out. And this is all not even CONSIDERING the mountain of other moments that made the cut on MOTS ON:E. 

(side note, the above pic just oozes happiness and it’s so cute I love it!! 😭)

So.. even though I’ve said it dozens of times already... WHY? W H Y? I’m an anxious person by nature and not very trusting. I believe Jimin and Jungkook and I don’t think they’ve been lying and pretending for “fanservice” all of these years. I respect them both too much as individuals and artists to believe that they would stoop to such tactics just to generate a little more “interest” and revenue. I’m suspicious of BH. BTS doesn’t need fanservice to get attention; literally all of 2020 and 2021 so far has proven that beyond a doubt. Even if they suddenly made the decision to do fs.. why not go with the most popular ship (taekook) or at least one that isn’t so hotly debated on social media (remove Jimin, Jungkook and Tae from the equation and you still have four members to “play” with who have much less potential to have fs devolve into a toxic crap show all over the internet). Showing us this will do nothing to help BTS as a group or Jimin and Jungkook at this point. In fact.. all it can do is hurt. Hurt BH, hurt the group, and hurt the individual members, heck.. even potentially hurt other BH/HYBE groups. I’ve already seen people on twitter saying they’re “done” spending money on anything BH or BTS puts out because they’re “sick of jikook in their faces and just two of the seven hogging all of the screen time.” Whether or not that “spending freeze” actually materializes into anything noticeable remains to be seen of course.. but the threat is there and always has been. What is the motive? And why now? As much as my “hopeless romantic” heart would like to believe they’re preparing us for Jikook to be “out” .. I seriously don’t think that is ever going to happen. Certainly not now at the height of the group’s fame, with them being given Presidential honors and ambassador status, and with military service still looming over them all. And let’s not forget... Korea is NOT a safe place for a queer couple. Letting us see and know what they did through what was released has the potential to put Jimin and Jungkook (and the other members by proxy) in danger. Sure.. BTS has never been hardline rule followers and have been breaking molds and shattering norms from the start, so “officially” having an openly gay couple in the group wouldn’t be impossible.. just... highly highly improbable. Especially right now... and I’m concerned. I don’t want to sound like the creeps I posted a screenshot of above throwing blame at the company. The boys chose to renew their contracts with the for a reason so we have to trust their judgement as a group... but still, I’m worried and I’m questioning what the purpose was here. 

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

TOSHIYA PERSONAL INTERVIEW SPECIAL HEADBANG VOL.27 TRANSLATION 2/2

The upcoming new chapter of the bassist who established himself while evolving his playing style in the middle of fierce battles he experienced overseas. “When it comes to digital releases, it just feels like data” “I don't think there is another album that makes me want to die so much inside while I’m listening to it as this one (laughs).“ “If I have the opportunity to do music out of DIR EN GREY, this is the genre I want to try “ “If there's a world in front of you that you didn't know before, look at it, and if there's something you think that would be even better, you can pick it and bring it home.”

Notes before reading:  This is the second part of personal interview of Toshiya from the magazine Headbang Vol.27 released on 18th August.  The interview is 11 pages long, this part covers the last 5 and a half. You can read the first part here. You can get the magazine at Amazon Japan or CDJapan.  Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing parts.  

----- ----

Text by Hiroko Goto (First part here) - Even as the start of a new chapter, I think it will be a great time for those who have been waiting for it. I’m looking forward to the reactions towards the new single.

T: That’s right. Also, this time, it’s the first time we are releasing a single in this way, so I wonder how is going to feel. It’s a little wait-and-see.

-Because Dir en grey have never been available in almost any music streaming services before too. This time, are you releasing the single in this format due to Corona?

T: That’s right. Originally, we tried to put it out as a physical one.

-I see. Do you see this digital release format as something positive?

T: I have no choice but to think positively for the time being (laughs)  Because if we release a single, and it’s not going to listened, there is no point on doing it but, after all, as we do it, if there is a way for people to listen to it, I think it should be used. However, to use any method to release it because there is a way to do it, I think that’s different for me. While we were carefully checking those aspects, I think I would like to take into consideration several things. Simply, because I’m a coward (laughs). It’s kind of scary because I feel like the songs are all over and the songs are our best asset. After all, I want to cherish/value them. Of course, I think there are many positive things in distributing them but now that we are doing it, I think we must distinguish between plus and minus sides of it. -Especially for Dir en grey, the package is usually elaborated and you can also feel the sense of commitment/pickiness on it.

T: That’s right. When it comes to digital releases, it just feels like data. So that’s why it’s a matter of the value of the things. The value that you can give it them, or the level that you can take it at. I would like to think about the future as I’m looking at this release.

-After this single, what direction do you want to move towards from now on as a part of Dir en grey?

T: As a band, while constantly incorporating what seems new to us, we want to challenge both, our activities, and songs. Right now, once again, we want to try it with the feeling that Dir en grey can do anything。

-I see. Comparing yourself to the Toshiya from the past, you have a better judgement about what you can do and what you can't, and you want to think about it properly. Each member thinks that way as well, so I think it would be nice if you could absorb each one’s good points and bring it to the band. Nevertheless, as everyone simply has a different age, a different personality, and the environment in which you grew up is different, I think there are different things that each of you want to do. Among them, for me, I don't think it's necessary for each of you to achieve 100% of what each one of you wants to do. Combining several % well, I think you are a band that eventually will reach the 100%. If you can keep that way, there  will  simply always be an interesting taste and you can keep being an exciting band.

“The first band I came across was Guns N' Roses. It was an encounter that felt like ‘what on Earth is this?”

-From here, I would like to ask you about the 'Inspirational albums'  you have selected and approach your personality when it comes to music. Personally, I feel that your musical tastes are less visible than the other four members.

T: Hahaha. I get that a lot (laughs).

-Are you aware about the things that are not appealing to you?

T: I am. I mean, I know what I like, but I don’t know why I like it (laughs) Basically, I like music.

-You chose 20 albums in particular, what was your criteria in order to choose those?

T: I simply chose these ones because I think these might the ones, I was listening to at the time I was more sensitive/impressionable by music.

-There are a lot of works from the 80's and 90's as a whole, Were you listening to these before you got in the band? T: There are also some that are after the formation of the band and I also include some that I was listening to before playing in the band. There are many from the time when the band was formed, and we made our debut.

-The genres are quite wide, it’s firmly pressed line-up to of iconic masterpieces. In what specific areas have you been affected by them?

T: For example, Guns N'Roses 'Appetite for Destruction' (1987), when I was in middle school, I was like ‘What on earth is this?’ when I came across them. It was a time when LA metal (80s metal/glam metal) was popular. Van Hale was also very popular, and Europe's "The Final Countdown" was being played all around. That's how I met Guns, but the first thing I heard was 'Use your Illusion I','II' (1991). Then, I heard there were more amazing (from them) albums before those, so I listened to 'Appetite for Destruction'.

-When you came across Guns N’ Roses, did you think "the band is cool"?

T: It’s a very stupid idea but, it was a time in which music was equal to delinquency, and live houses had the image of being a sink/den of iniquity* (laughs). At first, I was like ‘What is this?’ and then I got interested. Including such an atmosphere, I think it was cool and I had a strong sense of admiration.

*a place where immoral or illegal things are done.

-When you go from there in chronological order, what kind of transition are you going through?  In your selection, there are a lot of grunge (albums) too.

T: That’s right. Exactly after that, the wave of grunge came. But if you say which one is the one ruling the movement,  for me it’s not Nirvana. When I dug down while listening to that genre, I personally fell in love with Pixies. It was a time in which listening to one artist made us feel more connected. Here and here there would be good friends, here and here there would be people that you don’t get along with. I got worried about that when I listened to them. I went to see Pixies’ performance in Japan a few years ago and it was really good. If I have to say something about that time, at the Pixies live, the lighting goes red through one song and it's just red.I was impressed by the effect of only using that colour in the scene. After that, when we talked about what kind of production we wanted to do on our tour, I said "I went to see Pixies and I  said “ I want to do this in the same way because such lighting was interesting" (laughs)

-Is that so?

T: It's a band that's influenced me from that perspective.

“I had a friend who liked thrash metal. He told me that this kind of music existed”

-While there is a trend from hard rock to grunge, on the other hand, there are also metal elements  you are interested in such as Metallica's “Master of Puppets” (1986) and Pantera's “Vulgar Display of Power” (1992), which are known as masterpieces. When did this kind of metal music get into your life?

T:  When I was in high school. At that time, I had friends who liked Metallica and slash metal such as Pantera and Slayer. I learnt  this music existed, and I started listening to it.

-This didn’t come to my mind until now but, in fact, some of them can be called the roots of metal.

T: Yeah, I really liked it. I also liked to listen to the band that guitaris Steve Vai made as a solo band under his name (Vai). When I was in high school, I had a lifetime friend who was shredding his guitar and looked like a bakateru* guitarist (laughs). I had a lot of fun. *Bakateru (A Japanese made-up word from  “baka” and “techniques”) is a person who plays an instrument using simple/stupid techniques that made them look like professional players.

-That’s good (laughs) While there are hard rock and metal in your choices, the overall impression is that there are many bands and works with a slightly downer atmosphere.

T: Certainly, I think I like downer style a little (laughs).  Stone Temple Pilots has also a part of hard Rock and a strong grunge effect, bit I like the indescribable downer feeling. Then, I chose Alice in Chains for the selection. Alice in Chains is another downer band that I like. When I first heard it, I couldn't understand it at all. I didn't even know what was good about them (laughs) From them, I like Dirt (1992) which I chose this time for the selection.

-By the way, it has the same name as your apparel brand….

T: It has nothing to do with it (laughs).  But, as it is an album I like (even if it has the same name) I guess it’s fine.

-And, when it comes to downer works, you listed “OK Computer" (1997), from Radiohead. T:I don't think there is another album that makes me want to die so much inside while I’m listening to it as this one (laughs). When I was in the states with Yoshiki producing the single, I have the impression I listened to it a lot.

-Radiohead also has had several changes through their career, but if you have to choose, is this one?

T: If you ask me which one from Rahiohead I would pick, as expected it’s this one. Maybe I like feeling like dying (laughs)

“If I had the chance to play music elsewhere, I would like to try an industrial band”

-(Laughs). As for genre, you also included industry albums such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.

T: I like industrial because I have the strong impression  it’s not only about the band sound. For me, it has something, like asking for the impossible. If I have the opportunity to do music out of DIR EN GREY, this is the genre I want to try, an industrial band.

-I definitely want you to try to do it.  I can tell you are listening to music with several components but, what are your roots as a bassist?

T: After all, I like Guns's Duff McKagan the most. The one who shocked me like “This…. this is bass!” was Japan’s bassist Mick Karn. I felt like ‘What’s this?’.  He had the magical image of a man that lived in Greece (laughs). I also like the bassline of Alice in Chains or Stone Temple Pilots, which I mentioned earlier.

-I see.

T: Also, in terms of bass, Pantera's 'Vulgar Display of Power' was made in a way that the original cd was only vocals, guitar and drums (laughs). But in their 20th Anniversary Edition (Deluxe Edition In 2012) I was happy to be able to hear the bass properly.

-When it comes to types of bassist, rather than someone who slaps the bass, comes to the front, and stands out, many artists (bassist) have the image of keeping the groove.

T: That’s right. Originally, I didn't really like finger playing or slap bassists. My first motivation was Guns, so I had the image of rocking, like holding the base down and playing with a pick. To me slapping had an image of a fusion style.

-In fact, considering your own play style now, I think they are connected.

T: They are. However, there was a moment when my thoughts changed a bit in that aspect. When I went abroad and went together on tour with Deftones and went to festivals, the bassist Chi Cheng looked very cool. KORN was on the same tour, so I was watching Fieldy’s playing as well.

-It was at the "Family Values ​​Tour" in 2006.

T: That’s right. That was the moment in which there was a change of era not only musically but also of my self-consciousness. Of course, I still liked my play style then, and of course I still like it now, but the idea that I can only do that, and I can only do that…. I started to want to see more things (that I could do). Compared to that time, there is a lot of information, isn’t it?

-Indeed.

T: There are a lot of ways and you choose yourself from that huge amount of information, so you can pick only the good things. But at that time, there wasn’t that much information available, so all I knew was from my own experience. It was like that for things, the length of my ruler was fixed. That…. it overlaps with the story of 'Clever Sleazoid' that I mentioned earlier, when I starter to look overseas, I realized that I could clearly see that “this kind of world exists”. I started to think differently about it, hating without trying it. If there's a world in front of you  you didn't know before, look at it, and if there's something you think would be even better, you can pick  it and bring it home. Looking back at it again, I think my playing style has changed since we made a full-scale expansion overseas and  I turned my eyes to overseas.

“Deftones are the band that influenced me the most once I saw them playing live and went on tour together with them”

-From Deftones, you chose White Pony' (2000)

T: I was shocked when I first heard them. As I said, at the time I saw them live and went on tour with them, if I had to say an album that I felt strong about and affected me, it would be this one.  I think their latest work at the time of the tour was the 'Deftones' (2003) or 'Saturday Night Wrist' (2006), but when they played the songs of 'White Pony', the audience went crazy. I was very impressed.

-From that perspective, many of the bands you chose have co-starred with DIR EN GREY. Are there other bands that impressed you?

T: We were with Metallica together at overseas festivals, but after watching it live, I thought it was really amazing. Since Pantera stopped before I could see them, it was nice I was able to see Metallica. In that sense, I was very excited to be at the same festival when Faith No More restarted their activities. I originally liked it and thought I couldn't watch it anymore, so I was excited when I realized I could see them live.

-That sounds good.

T: Also, we had been with Alice in Chains in a festival.Then, I heard from the dressing room that the guitarist was playing the guitar all the time. I remember thinking “Ah, I like that guitar” (laughs)

-As expected, you have many stories with the bands you were appearing together.

T: That’s right, that's a good thing (laughs)

-You've appeared together with Tool at OZZFEST JAPAN 2015.

T: That’s right. At that time, Tool was active, so we also have appeared together at overseas. I didn't actually watch the live then. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to watch them from a wing* of the stage later, which was really amazing. It feels like being on a trip. Thinking that way, I think I might like bands that makes me go a bit on a trip.

*The wings are the hidden areas to the left and right of the stage

-Also, since Japanese bands were not going abroad as much as now, that you were actively expanding and constantly playing overseas, looking at it, it seems like a good era.

T: Now, I think we were able to go abroad at a really good moment, so it was really a good era. I think it's normal for nowadays bands to go abroad but there are bands you can't see live now; at that time, I could see the music scene. It was good that we were able to go there at that moment.

-Tool’s '10,000 Days' (2006) is the newest work you've mentioned. Since then, there has been a big change over time, and now there are more choices such as music streaming services. Has the way of listening to music, or the variety of it, changed?

T: At that time, you couldn't hear a CD unless you bought it. Furthermore, in the old days, you couldn't afford to pay about 3000 yen each time you buy an album. There are many works that I was interested but I couldn't listen to. In that sense, I think it's a good time to listen anything. But at that time, I paid for listening to that one album, and since I bought it, it was nice to listen to it for a long time. When it comes to streaming, it sounds like "something  you are playing while doing another thing”. Going back to what I talked about, that's why it's a scary part, and I'm still a little behind the times.

-As you are in the artist creator side, you feel like you want people to face your work firmly.

T: As expected that’s it. Well, it’s the selfishness of a creator (laughs). That’s the truth of these things, to be honest, I think that music and magazines are just for entertainment. Because, if had to think about if I will live or die tomorrow, I think I would pick food, not music or books (laughs). If you think about it in that way, I wonder what really entertainment is.I think that because of the entertainment, it is possible to obtain the richness of a human heart. It has become more difficult than it used to be, to determine what kind of value to add there.

[hypmic-info]

HypMic 3rd Western Poll May 2020

Thank you for your participation! These are the final results for the 3rd HypMic unofficial Western fandom poll. After a month of work on this, we’ve got some estimates for general fandom opinions. Do you agree with the general opinions, or disagree? Let us know!

Please click the read more to view our results!

The sample size was limited to 1000 votes, giving a rough indication of the demographic of consumers outside of Japan as well as opinions. The word ‘Western’ has been used, but we have opened this poll to those who were able to read enough English to understand this poll. As such, it is considerably Euro/American-centric.  

This poll received the most activity through Twitter, given that the series is most active on that platform. The poll was also posted on Tumblr, Facebook and the HypMic wiki. Commentary has been given on sections of the poll.

Results will be posted on Twitter and Tumblr.

THE CONSUMPTION OF HYPMIC

This section is to be read as ‘What percentage of HypMic English fans have consumed x media?’ The drama tracks and songs have been split by album. Manga bonuses have not been included in the first two questions as at the time of this poll the 2nd Manga songs/dramas were being released so it would be unfair to add them to the poll.

BAT and DH order is written as such due to later stats in the poll where Doppo and Sasara were next to each other but their official colours were too similar so I used the order in Division All Stars songs rather than release order.

Pre-Season: Referring to the start of a battle season.

Battle Season: Referring to the battle/versus songs or dramatracks

1st Manga Bonus Songs: Songs that were included with the manga

DAS Songs: Division All Stars songs - songs that include the whole cast

Merch: Anything that is official HypMic merchandise or has content of HypMic. Plushies, nendoroids, magazines, stickers etc.

Shibuya Division: Fling Posse Drama Tracks and The Loneliness, Tears, and Hope of a Puppet are the most listened to drama tracks of their respective pre-season. Both belong to Fling Posse.

The debut drama tracks of Dotsuitare Honpo (Back Again, Partner) and Bad Ass Temple (The Heart’s Conviction Can’t Be Broken) were listened to less than the other debut drama tracks.

Yokohama Division: MAD TRIGGER CREW Drama Tracks and Chaser from the Past (Matenrou: Before the 2nd DRB) were the least listened to dramatracks of their respective phases of the pre-seasons.

The Champion album has the least listened to drama tracks (Testimony and Me Against the World).

In all cases, the songs have all been listened to more than the respective drama tracks for their album.

The 1st Manga Bonus songs have not been listened as much as the other songs.

This can be due to the fact that these songs cannot be accessed for free legally.

The most listened to songs are the Division All Stars songs with the full cast.

This can be due to the fact that these are the only songs that are available in their entirety on YouTube.

Fling Posse has the most listened to songs of both pre-seasons.

Buster Bros!!! has the least listened to songs of the 1st pre-season and Matenrou has the least listened to songs of the 2nd pre-season.

The Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- side D.H & B.A.T manga was released as the poll was being conducted, so was not included in this poll. 

-Before the Battle- The Dirty Dawg is the most read manga. -Division Rap Battle- side B.B & M.T.C is the least read manga.

By the numbers given for listening to the Spotify radio show, Hypnosis Radio, 80.4% of this sample size has listened to the radio - 19.6% have not listened to Hypnosis Radio.

Around half of the fandom has bought merch - this poll has included plushies, magazines etc. and all from official sources.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Due to the limitations of Google sheets, Africa does not show up on the chart for location as the voter percentage is too small.

The age ranges used are of a similar range to those of Japanese polls. [ARB’s recent survey and the age demographics of Comic ZERO-SUM, publisher of the FP/M manga]

93.5% of voters use translations regardless of Japanese comprehension.

The option for ‘I bought multiple CDs’ refers to both different CDs and multiple of the same CD during the battle season.

Of those who were around for the Battle Season, 15.66% of this group did purchase a battle CD. 

CHARACTER VOTING

For comparison, here are the rankings from the previous poll (January 2020), From Japan (October 2018) and the Yumejoshi poll (December 2019)

Names marked in GREEN show an increase in vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLACK show that their popularity rank has not changed. Names in BLUE show the character has been added to the polls through voter suggestion.

The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up▲ or down▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed.

1.2% of votes had a minor character as one of their favourite characters (Ichijiku, Nemu and Yotsutsuji - No other minor characters were suggested).

These polls vary in selection method as our polls looked at the top 3 votes of each character.

From Japan’s method has been stated as a poll but we were unable to find the original. Rio and Jiro’s reason for being unranked is unknown.

The Yumejoshi poll was done by people suggesting their favourite characters for rankings, meaning that it was not entirely based upon HypMic. What is shown here are those who ranked. The ranking in their picking of a 100 is listed against them.

These three polls have varying demographics. From Japan’s spread seems to be more broad, while the Yumejoshi poll is specifically yumejoshi/female. Our polls were taken only for English speakers. In addition to this, there is some bias based on who the poll was spread through followers.

For example, the poll was created by a Gentaro stan and main supporters of this poll are Dotsuitare Honpo stans.

Doppo dominates the polls in both English-speaking and the Japanese fandom. 

Characters who received less than 1% of the votes are listed as other: Jiro (0.8%), Rio (0.9%), Rosho (0.2%), Rei (0.4%), Hitoya (0.5%)

Names marked in GREEN show an increase in their vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLACK show that their popularity rank has not changed.

The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up ▲ or down▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed.

The only significant change in division rankings shows that Buster Bros!!! are now more popular than MAD TRIGGER CREW.

Dotsuitare Honpo is the lowest in both the favourite division rankings and perceived lyrical skill.

SONG VOTING

Songs marked in GREEN show an increase in vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLACK show that their popularity rank has not changed. The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up▲ or down▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed.

Debut Songs: Songs that received less than 2% of the votes: New Star (0.3%), G Anthem Y-CITY (0.7%), Meikyuu Heki (1.6%), FACES (1.3%). These songs collectively had 3.9% of the vote.

Songs that received less than 2% of the votes: Sensenfukoku (1.1%), New Star (0.1%), G Anthem of Y-City (0.8%), Bayside Smoking Blues (1.0%), What’s My Name (0.6%), Scenario Liar (1.3%), 3$EVEN (1.9%), Meikyuu Heki (0.5%), Own Stage (1.2%), FACES (0.6%), One and Two, and Law (1.1%), School of IKB (1.2%), Uncrushable (1.4%), 2Die4 (1.0%), You Are Therefore I am (1.9%)

Songs marked in GREEN show an increase in vote percentage. Names in RED show a decrease in vote percentage. Names in BLUE show that this song has been added for the poll. 

The arrow besides the names show if their rankings went up ▲ or down ▼. No markings are set if the character’s position has not changed

BATTLE SEASON OPINIONS

BATTLE SEASON HOPES

For our final question, we asked “What are your hopes for this battle season? Any plot points, theories etc. that you want to mention.” This question was not required, but we received around 300 answers to this. We condensed the material into basic categories so you don’t have to sort through all 300.

Here are some choice points made about the plot:

What does Samatoki actually think Ichiro did to Nemu?

Could Saburo hack Ramuda?

How will Fling Posse react when they realise what Ramuda’s done to everyone else?

How do the other Ramuda clones interact with each other and everyone else

What if this is all Gentaro’s book?

What if Gentaro’s brother is the original Ramuda clone?

How are Chuo seen by other women?

Would Chuo rig the matches? Especially against Matenrou since their victory

What if they cloned someone else?

What if they reshuffled the divisions? Or added more divisions?

And here are a few funny comments before we go... just cause there were a few silly things added in that made us laugh. Yes, these are all as written.

Yo when is it gonna be confirmed that Ramuda has big top energy? 

A song named "ALTERCATION ALTERCATION ALTERCATION"

I hope Rei gets his shit checked.

I'm a fictional doctor's wh o re so I'm rly in this for MTR at the moment sjfjskfkd I hope we get to hear how much the seiyuus have improved too compared to the first season!! :D

Doppo and Hifumi's wedding. Dice finally got some money. Everyone go on a hunt for emus. The 6 divisions go fishing. Rio making proper and digestible food. No more drama protecc ramuda.

I just kinda want them to kiss ngl

CHUUOKU DOWN! JUSTICE FOR ALL!!

i jokingly headcanon that gentaro cant read but i kinda hope its true. also i want sasara and ramuda to interact i think itd be kinda epic

I want Ramuda reduced to scrap metal

- - - - - - - - - - -

And that is it! After a month of work on this, we’ve got some estimates for general fandom opinions. Do you agree with the general opinions, or disagree? Let us know! 

Here are the links to the aforementioned polls from before:

2nd Western Fandom Poll: https://twitter.com/DevsPallas/status/1213842101605150721

From Japan: https://blog.fromjapan.co.jp/en/anime/hypnosis-mic-division-ranking-result.html

Yumejo: https://note.com/yumejo/n/nca7de3e94d91

Comic ZERO-SUM readership: https://www.comipress.com/article/2008/06/25/3603.html

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 162

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 14 - “Karen, The Troubled Student Council President” Date watched: 3 December 2019 Original air date: 6 May 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/ZVrof8Y Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

Karen has a big think

It’s Karen’s turn to hold the character development conch. This time, we get to see how she handles pressure from all directions! We also find out a little secret about Otaka-san and the school’s leadership. Good stuff, so let’s dive in!

The Plot

Various clubs approach Karen, aggressively requesting budget increases. The futsal club can’t afford new balls, the drama club can’t afford costumes, the judo club can’t afford new weights, the list goes on. Karen is taken aback and tries to explain the complexities of the situation to the students, but they are insistent. After trying to come up with a solution, she approaches the Vice Principal and explains her situation, requesting a budget increase for all the clubs. He is reluctant to change the budget that’s already been agreed upon for the year, but because he respects her decision to approach him, he will take it up with the principal. The VP goes to the Principal, revealed (to the audience) to actually be Otaka-san the lunch lady, but she insists that she doesn’t believe they need a budget increase, and there are still solutions the clubs haven’t yet come up with to resolve their budget woes. Komachi talks with Karen, commending her willingness to work hard for the clubs where before she probably would have simply said that the budget was already decided and they had to make do with what they had. The influence of their determined young friends is rubbing off on them.

Coincidentally, Nightmare is also having budget issues of a sort. Although they aren’t in a pinch, Kawarino is scolding Bunbee for blowing a lot of money without producing any results, and implies that his subordinates are useless and the whole department could get restructured. Bunbee decides to go fight the girls himself to get some results.

Back at school, Karen is still being hounded by the clubs, and her attempts at de-escalation aren’t working, so Otaka almost steps in, but Komachi is actually the one to put her foot down, startling everyone. She reminds the club leaders that they agreed to their annual budgets before the proposal was sent to the school administration, and that Karen alone cannot solve everything. With help from Nozomi, she gets them all to line up and explain their problems, to see if they can work together and figure out alternative solutions within their existing budgets.

The biggest offender is the drama club, which is going way over budget because they’ve picked a play with lots of extravagant costumes. However, Komachi gets them to work with the sewing club, who were looking for a platform to display their work, and the two split costs in this mutually beneficial agreement. The Judo club couldn’t afford to buy new weights AND new uniforms, but they also got the sewing club to patch up their uniforms so they could buy heavier weights, and donated their older ones to the futsal club. Now that she doesn’t need to buy weights, Rin can afford new balls, and donates the old ones to the art club, who find their shape and texture very inspirational.

I’d like to point out that the dumbbell Nozomi is struggling to lift is only 5 KG, that’s about 11 lbs.

With everyone’s issues resolved, the girls enjoy a moment of peace as Rin takes her new dumbbells to her club space, but on the way, Bunbee shows up to cause trouble. He turns the dumbbells into a Kowaina and taunts the girls about his own superiority. They transform and fight back, but he is pretty strong. When Mint shields one of the monster’s attacks, he launches a missile that breaks the shield, and he easily dodges when Rouge and Aqua try to fight him in the air. Dream and Lemonade have no luck fighting the Kowaina and they’re all left on the ground, defeated. Bunbee boasts about how much easier it is to do everything himself, and Aqua scoffs. She says she used to feel that way, but now she knows they’d never win if they did that, and the team springs into action. Bunbee tries to missile them again, and again Mint uses her shield, but this time Aqua also blocks it with Aqua Stream and this weakens it enough to bounce off the shield. Dream and Rouge restrain the Kowaina while Lemonade attacks it with Lemonade Flash, then the two throw it and perform their finishers. The Kowaina is destroyed and Bunbee retreats, self-justifying the day by saying you have to spend money to make money.

Back at the lunch table, Nozomi observes that Komachi might actually be stronger than Karen, which gives them all pause. Otaka comes over with a basket full of yakisoba bread, claiming the principal told her how they avoided a budget crisis, and suddenly people from all the other clubs appear, all vying for some of the free bread. Nozomi cries because the crowd beat her to the stuff she really wanted, and that’s the ending card.

The Analysis

What a fun episode. Karen’s commitment to the students is really earnest and inspiring. You can see why she’s the president, and even how much progress she’s made since the start of the show. Old Karen just cared about order, new Karen has the best interests of the students in mind and wants to meet them where they’re at. She fields the ire of the various clubs like a champ, trying not to get overwhelmed, and explaining the delicate balance that is adjusting budgets: since the budget has already been agreed upon, for her to allocate more to one group than previously agreed means the money has to come out of somewhere else, and that could put the other party in a pinch. Important financial lesson for the kids in the audience, too. And when her advice isn’t sufficient for them, she goes to bat for them by requesting assistance from the VP. My only criticism is that she probably should have asked why they needed more money first to see where their funds were tied up at, but honestly I would probably do the same thing, jumping straight to “let me get them what they say they need” and not “let me look into the situation more”.

When they get to the drama club and find out the reason they’re so over budget is because they decided to produce an expensive-ass play, I about died. LOOK AT THIS OUTFIT.

gosh I wonder why

There’s a lesson in here somewhere about working within your limitations. Urara suggests they do a simpler show like Kintarou, which would have costumes and props they could reuse in other shows, but from the club president’s response I get the impression they’ve done far too many shows like that and are sick of it. Also can’t fault them for doing something different. I remember in my junior year (11th grade), my school put on a production of “High School Musical” (this was when that was still a pretty fresh and hot property) and it sold like crazy, so the next year they were able to perform “Little Shop of Horrors”, renting the Audrey II puppets from somewhere. It’s okay to dream big, but you gotta make sure you can afford it. (inb4 ok boomer) However, working with the sewing club was a very good compromise. They get a platform to showcase their work, the drama club gets good costumes for cheaper, and they split the costs. Some of the other deals are a bit more one-sided but as long as everyone’s happy, it works.

By the way, Komachi’s restraint when the club president goes “oh yeah we spent all our budget on that one outfit and we need a bunch more” is remarkable. (I looked it up and I see similarities to Les Miserables: it’s a famous story that takes place over multiple generations and features LOTS of recurring characters) Komachi is, thankfully, very good at keeping herself in check, but if you manage to set her off, she is downright scary. That’s a common attribute for shield-based Cures, and it started here.

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, since they only have a few of the costumes done, the drama club president is only ever seen in-costume, looking like a prince with a pencil mustache drawn onto her face. If we take the bold assumption that this all occurs in one day, even one lunch period, then this makes sense enough, but it’s still kind of silly.

The first half of this episode is so good, and tells a pretty complete story, that both times I watched it I forgot what kind of show it was because I was so absorbed in the antics of the clubs, so I thought the resolution was just going to be sorting out their budgets, when that was actually only the halfway point. The fight with Bunbee in the second half, while good, feels incomplete. I’m not sure if something got lost in translation for the subtitles, because he seems to indicate he spent money on a better Kowaina mask but the subs don’t reflect him saying this, only the girls’ response that it looks the same as normal. I do like them switching up their fighting style, and it comes with one of the strangest calls to action I’ve ever seen:

previously unsaid sentences in human history

The context is that, earlier in the episode, Nozomi and Urara traded lunch items, and now Karen is reminding them all to trade opponents and work together to beat the monster. Hilariously, even though Nozomi was the one who wanted to trade in the first place, she’s the last one to get this coded message, after Rin explains it to her.

She is special.

The elephant in the room here is that Otaka-san, the humble lunch lady who always adds a million onto every order, who appears a little disheveled, is in fact the school’s principal. Books and covers, ya know. I don’t recall if the girls every learn her secret, but it’s revealed to the audience here. I assume she serves as the lunch lady in order to get close to the students and understand what’s going on without calling attention to her position of authority. That’s the thing about power, even if you act relatable, if someone knows you’re way above them on the totem pole, they’re going to act differently, so she has put herself on the level of students. It’s like Undercover Boss except she never reveals the ruse. And honestly, it’s a very good ruse. She is approachable to the students and they all love her, so she can listen to their problems and make sure that the school is running well from the ground level. Also, as the lunch lady, she wears plain clothes, an apron, and flat shoes. Her only accessory is her trademark silver brooch. As the principal, she wears a suit, her hair is more tamed, she wears lipstick and earrings. She even speaks differently between her roles, sounding more raspy in her disguise, while she adopts a more formal and stern tone while acting as the principal. It’s impressive. I know she appears in this role at least one more time in the show, so I look forward to seeing that.

As usual there were some great moments of comedy, wonderful facial expressions, and you can see those chronicled in the gallery.

Next time, in Precure Daily, Nozomi’s mom is sick, so she has to do the housework! How badly will this end?

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 0 kettei!

[nadziejastar]

An important thing I don't see acknowledged often is that Axel wasn't a very good friend to Saix during Days. They had a plan that seemed to be working, almost half the Organization was eliminated at Castle Oblivion, and Axel abandoned it in favor of eating ice cream with a pair of children. Doing so made sense from Axel's point of view, but turn off protagonist centered morality and Saix being upset is a lot more reasonable.

Yeah, I agree with you about protagonist centered morality. I think this is why Saïx’s character got the short end of the stick in this series. Sadly, he never had all of his mysteries revealed, and it wasn’t considered a priority to treat his character with the maturity and respect he deserved. I think once we learned more about him, we were supposed to have a whole new perspective on how he acted in 358/2 Days. That’s why I thought Isa in BBS was such a great plot twist. In so many ways, he was the polar opposite of Saïx. I was SO excited to learn more about him.

It’s sad how little respect the general fandom had for such an interesting character and for the significance of Lea and Isa’s friendship. And I think it was all due to Saïx being an antagonist in a series with very protagonist centered morality. People weren’t able to look past the superficial exterior of a “bad guy” and see what Isa’s character was all about. 

I liked Roxas, Axel, and Xion’s friendship for what it was. But I have to admit, I do find it very annoying that the sea-salt trio gets put on a pedestal as this perfect group of friends (which it wasn’t) just because they were the protagonists. Meanwhile Isa was treated as an afterthought to Lea (which he wasn’t). I lost a lot of respect for this series after KH3 due to this black-and-white writing.

Before KH3, the impression I always got was that Axel and Saïx were prisoners of the organization. Especially Saïx. They made a plan together when they joined. They both agreed to eliminate anyone in their way so they could be free. It was Mr. Nice Guy Axel who was the one that never complained about the dirty work. And he was serious. He was gonna kill Naminé. He was fine with being an assassin for all that time. I got the impression that Isa was probably the idealistic one and Lea was the pragmatic one who did what he had to in order to survive. Isa was trusting like Kairi, and Lea was cynical like Riku.

“……Don’t break him,” were the words that slipped unconsciously out of Axel’s mouth.

“Ohhh, do I detect a soft spot?”

“Sora is half one of us. He’s on our side.” But even as he said it, Axel wasn’t entirely sure what he meant. It threw him off for a moment. Was he talking about the boy they meant to turn into their tool or about Sora’s other half—his Nobody, Roxas?

“You don’t trust me?” Larxene slumped in mock disappointment. “I know when to let up. I’m not stupid enough to break my toys.”

Speaking of trust… Axel still had no idea who the traitor was.

I noticed a recurring theme in the manga. There’s the theme of excessive force being used on a comrade. This scene takes place when Saïx was checking in on Demyx’s training, to make sure he was getting stronger. He thought he was slacking off and attacked him mercilessly. Axel also had a gut reaction to Larxene using excessive force on Sora and breaking him.

“What is it, Roxas? You have a mission to complete. You’ve spent enough time worrying about a puppet.” That word again. Roxas turned a furious glare on Saïx.

“Xion is one of us!” Saïx broke into a low chuckle, the first time Roxas had seen him so much as smile. “One of us? Don’t be absurd. Just count the chairs. When have we ever been more than thirteen?”

Saïx was very disgusted with the idea of considering other people “one of us”. It’s another reason I don’t like the idea that he was just looking for Subject X the whole time. It’s very out-of-character.

“I…I messed up a mission really bad.” Her hands were cold. “Did you hear about that guy pretending to be one of us? But I lost a fight against him. And then Saïx called me a ‘failure.’”

Saïx despises impostors. This might have contributed to his animosity towards Xion when she failed to take out Riku. Her failure reminded him of what happened to Isa. He also called her broken, which angered Axel on Day 193. I definitely think Isa had excessive force used on him by a “comrade”, and he “broke”. This scene is right before Axel arrives on the clock tower and tells Roxas why the sunset is red. I think that after Isa “broke”, that was the first lucid thing he said to Lea, which is why it was a special memory for Axel.

Anyone who gets in the way is shown no mercy. I think Isa was a lot like Demyx. He wasn’t that great at combat, and he was softhearted and probably naive. Lea was the realist who had to make the tough decisions.

There’s a scene later in the KH2 manga that has the exact same themes. I had to conclude that these themes were significant to Isa’s backstory due to how often they came up. Saïx approaches Demyx and threatens him that those who aren’t useful will be eliminated.

He tells Demyx that the orders are to destroy Sora. Demyx thinks destroying him is going too far.

He doesn’t want to destroy Sora because Roxas is inside of him and Roxas was one of them. Saïx doesn’t care.

He said Sora has come to destroy them. He’s a traitor.

He also said Demyx wasn’t strong enough to beat Sora anyways.

When Demyx is defeated, Saïx informs Xemnas and he makes a comment about the weak falling victim. And Saïx looks pissed when he says it.

Day 298: Change of Plans

Author: Saïx

Axel failed to report that the impostor and Xion are working together. Instead, that news came from Roxas. The boy is far more easily handled than Axel, but now Axel has captured Xion and returned her to us. His motives are impossible to read. Our plans can be altered if necessary, but doing so can only delay their realization.

The same themes come up on Day 298, which is when Axel has a moral dilemma. This is a day that Saïx has a really hard time reading Axel’s motivations. Xion is declared a traitor.

Saïx is utterly disgusted at Roxas trusting someone just because they are a comrade. He even said that was “human-like” thinking. Axel is actually on Saïx’s side.

Roxas thinks destroying Xion is going waaay too far, but Saïx is merciless.

This is the day Axel decided to make a tough choice. In the novel, he said he was doing it for everyone, and specifically for Isa—not Saïx. He started to isolate himself from Roxas. The day after, Axel is feeling doubts. And Saïx said he never expected Axel to question whether something was “for the best”. This scene was one of the few animated scenes on the DS. It was obviously very important.

Axel took Xion down with a strike to the neck. And this is also how he defeated Saïx in the manga. I highly doubt this was a coincidence.

After Saïx was knocked out, Axel even made a remark that seemed like he was referencing their past.

And this is why I bought all the localized mangas. Sometimes you get a better understanding from different translations.

Day 356: Unforeseen Events

Author: Saïx

Our plans never accounted for the possibility of both Xion and Roxas leaving. How did this come to pass? When did Roxas grow strong enough to outmuscle me? What were you really after, Lea? We joined the Organization at the same time, and formulated our plan. At this point, it’s just an idle fantasy. Everything changed. You, and me.

Saïx wakes up again and stabs Axel. In the fan translation, he makes a remark that he and Axel really are different, after all. I wasn’t sure exactly what he was referring to, but I figured it was a reference to their past.

And the official localization makes me think that even more so. Saïx tells Axel that he was careless.

Unlike Axel, he makes sure the job gets done. I figured that was probably what he meant, but after seeing both translations, I’m more confident in that interpretation. Saïx and Axel’s roles are reversed from the past. Axel didn’t want to kill Saïx, so he took him down in a non-lethal way. Saïx used that opportunity to try and kill him. It implies that in the past, Isa was reluctant to kill someone, but Lea was more willing to get his hands dirty.

“Axel says he’s willing to harm Naminé to get to me,” Marluxia shouted. “But you won’t let that happen, will you?!”

“…Axel!” Clutching the Keyblade, Sora glared at him. Still? Axel thought. Facing Sora like this reminded him of Roxas, which made him uneasy. The memory of a feeling welled up within, something that had never come over him when he confronted Marluxia or Larxene or Vexen.

But those connections were no more than memories of the past—Axel had never cared about anyone since becoming a Nobody. What was happening? Why was Roxas so important to him? Why was Sora? So long as he understood what the stakes were, he should have no reason to recoil from terminating someone. After all, he was a Nobody with no heart. And yet…he didn’t want to do this.

It’s probably connected to the backstory of how someone like Lea gained the temperament to become an assassin. I think Isa wanted to trust one of their “comrades”, probably a fellow test subject. Lea wanted to take him out. For some reason, Lea knew the “comrade” was going to betray them. Isa wanted to find a peaceful way to resolve things.

“Does it hurt, Naminé? Watching your two childhood friends fight all because of you? You have my sympathies,” Axel said quietly. “From the heart.” His words were meant for the Replica. Not for her.

He gave the traitor the benefit of the doubt and probably stood in opposition to Lea, defending the impostor. This is probably why Axel despised Naminé so much and why he couldn’t destroy Sora. Naminé was manipulating both Sora and the Riku Replica and causing them to fight. And she was luring Sora to a horrible fate by manipulating his trusting and compassionate nature. Being so merciful came back to bite Isa. I think this is why it was always so important to Axel that Saïx trusted him. Isa had already been betrayed by someone he thought was one of them. Lea was the only one he could trust and Axel never wanted to betray that trust. When Saïx called Axel a traitor, it deeply hurt him.

The traitor likely tried to kill Isa, and then Lea probably took them out, or at least tried to. It was what happened to Isa that made Axel and Saïx so cold and ruthless to anyone in their way, and especially traitors. Axel was always doing it all for Isa. It was because Isa was such a kind and gentle person. That was what got him into so much trouble, so Axel agreed to do all the dirty work for him. But Sora, Roxas and Xion were innocent, like Isa was. It would betray Axel’s feelings for Isa to harm any of them. Kairi was the same. She was naive and trusting, and Axel was going to use her to harm Sora.

That was why Axel was so conflicted all the time. He became the type of person he hated. Since he was a Nort, Saïx had no idea why Axel suddenly started acting so differently after Castle Oblivion. You’re right. From his point of view, their plans were going very smoothly. Their freedom was on the line. Then Axel didn’t seem to care anymore and was more concerned with eating ice cream with these two kids. He was getting jealous of Roxas and Xion, but ironically, the one Axel really missed the most was Isa.

When Axel returned from Castle Oblivion, he was fine. But then Roxas told him he was worried about him. This made him not want to report in right away. He remembered a time when Isa was worried about him and it depressed him.

The situation with Xion was the reverse. Axel was remembering a situation where he was worried about Isa. Remembering how kind and selfless Isa used to be was enormously painful for Axel.

In a sense, Saïx did have a legitimate reason to be upset with Axel. All he saw was Axel growing so close to Roxas and Xion and distancing himself from him. But Axel didn’t tell Roxas and Xion they were his best friends because he had a sudden epiphany about how close they were. It was because he was remembering how great of a best friend Isa was.

Saïx was ALSO remembering how great of a best friend Isa was. That’s why he was so upset at Axel. Isa cared about Lea more than anything and would have done absolutely anything for him. He also put other people ahead of himself. His compassion got him into trouble. It hurt Saïx that Axel no longer seemed to value what they had together. Saïx couldn’t really experience friendship, but he still had the memories of it. And he was tormented by them.

[pierrotdameron]

On the set of His Dark Materials, Dafne Keen is about to see a bear.

With battle raging around her, snowflakes flying and alarms ringing, the young actor – who plays lead character Lyra in the BBC’s new adaptation of Philip Pullman’s acclaimed novel – sprints down a corridor, dodging enemies and fighting for freedom. And just when all seems lost, she looks up, seeing her saviour. A broad smile breaks out as she sees who’s standing above and ready to save her… a man wearing a white, faux-bearskin rug on his head.

OK, on set Pullman’s trademark armoured bears (or panserbjørn) aren’t much to look at – but over a year later, when they finally arrive on-screen, they’re an incredibly impressive achievement, realistic and filled with character, a triumph of puppetry and visual effects. If anything, they’re even more impressive than the animal dæmons that have appeared in every other episode so far. But how were they brought to life? What did the actors film with on set, and what were the biggest challenges?

Happily, after we’d suitably calmed down from all the excitement, the behind-the-scenes team were happy to fill us in…

Pre-production

While the 2007 movie adaptation of His Dark Materials (titled The Golden Compass) wasn’t exactly beloved by fans, it did win plaudits for its VFX, with the work of independent company Framestore winning the film its only Oscar. Now, over a decade later, the new adaptation would have to surpass even that achievement – which is why Framestore were brought on board again to work on the TV series, marking them out as the only common element between both adaptations.

“Framestore did the original bears in the original film, which we won the Oscar for, and we’re doing the bears again, now,” VFX supervisor Russell Wilson told us. “And what’s really interesting about that is certain things we computationally couldn’t do then, we can do now – but obviously it’s harder work.”

And the digital work on the bears didn’t begin after the shoot had already concluded, as many might expect. In fact, before a single scene of the panserbjørn storyline had been committed to film, Framestore and Bad Wolf’s in-house VFX gurus were working hard on previsualizations for the bears – in other words, plotting out scripted scenes in basic computer animation in specially-rendered environments, so they could work out how the bears would look before the directors started work.

“That was a combination of Framestore’s bear animation and our [interactive set] environment,” VFX artist and pre-vis supervisor Dan May told RadioTimes.com. “We blocked out the sequence with Russell and the stunt guys downstairs. “They animated the bears to quite a high level in pre-vis, that that pre-vis was then brought to our [digital] set with all its textures.”

In other words, basic digital bears were added onto a specially-mapped digital set, blocking out the scene before anyone had even turned on a camera and creating a “virtual shoot.” And when it came to actually filming the sequence IRL, this preparation meant that the bears could (sort of) be on set as well, with specially-prepared screens and virtual “cameras” allowing the production team to check where the animated, moving bears were at all times.

“When they shot the sequence, they were able to bring that animation and the virtual camera angles, and see them live on set,” May explained. “They were able to line up a digital bear with a real set. And that is not a first, because they’re doing that sort of thing on Jungle Book and Avatar. But we’re doing it on a more affordable, sustainable way.”

Though of course, it wasn’t just digital bears lurking on set…

Puppeteers

As with the dæmons, the bears on set were built and puppeteered by Brian Fisher and his eight-person team, with various different rigs and outfits utilised by the team for different purposes.

“There’s about seven to 10 different bear rigs,” VFX supervisor Wilson told us. “There’s one for smashing into stuntmen, there’s one for representing his face, there’s one where there’s literally a guy with a glove on putting it on his face.

For example, sometimes the bear was just represented by actor Joe Tandberg (who also provides Iorek’s voice onscreen) wearing (functionally) a bearskin costume, while other times he wore a special rig (pictured exclusively above) that allowed Iorek’s bear head to hang in front of his own.

Other times, he just wore a plain boiler suit with a light rig over his face, or stepped away in favour of a static model (pictured) to help the crew include Iorek’s scale, or was replaced by a large grey cushion for scenes where Iorek was less mobile or in a confined space. “You’re basically in a green room, with a weird grey thing which is supposed to be a bear, and with Lin singing? It’s just all very weird,” Dafne Keen, who plays Lyra in the series, told us.

And of course, a lot of the time the full-time puppeteers took over. For example, while on set RadioTimes.com was shown a large puppet version of Iorek operated by two people to impressive effect. Within the rig, one puppeteer wears an ordinary large hiking backpack, leans forward to face the ground and hoists two long poles forward, with a mesh bear head that he can control and turn at the end of the poles.

Another man behind holds two strings to control the front legs. Together they can rear the bear to his full height, stalk him around an area and generally bring him to life. In His Dark Materials episode four, another bear head – one with Iorek’s snarling teeth – was used for a scene where he attacks a foe, and generally speaking the team tried hard to keep things simple instead of using complicated mechanical rigs or creations.

“When the bear attacks – that was much more stuntman, him, us throwing him around on a mat until we worked out something that we liked,” Wilson says. “We take a very human, organic, what I call a man-tronic approach to things that you might take or do in a technical perspective. “When he’s getting dragged around by the bear it is just a guy in a boiler suit and [the victim’s] on a wire, and that’s it.”

Riding Iorek

But the fighting wasn’t the only filming challenge. In fact, a key action shot that everyone was even more keen to get right comes later in the series, when Lyra rides on Iorek’s back as the pair travel into a dangerous new area. On set, the human portion of the shot was achieved by creating a special rig for Dafne Keen to ride (pictured above) – but unlike similar ridable CGI animals like the dragons of Game of Thrones, it wasn’t mechanical, instead requiring the puppeteers to move it themselves.

“When Lyra’s riding a bear, it’s all operated by a human in a backpack,” Wilson said. “You know, we don’t bring in rigs and mechanically programme them because it’s quite slow to do, and it means you get less takes at it.” “To get the specifics, the biomechanics behind how a polar bear’s gait runs, we had to go through and, with the animators, actually break it down into segments, figure out how we can translate that into something that has movement and life but is not purely mechanical,” puppeteer Brian Fisher told us.

“The second you go into a mechanical movement, you can speed it up, you can slow it down, but it is always rhythmic, whereas we don’t work in binary movements.” As you can see in the above video, RadioTimes.com actually got the chance to try out the bear rig while on set, and can confirm it’s definitely man-powered – and surprisingly bouncy. “I loved the bear rig,” Keen herself us. “Though I was too light for it. “It was very funny. They made this rig, and they didn’t calculate my weight. So they had to then harness me, because I bounced too much off the bear. So that was really fun.” “Although I felt kind of bad because I had two human beings bouncing up and down underneath me…”

The final touches

Obviously, the lion’s share of the work done by the VFX team comes after the filming as they gradually work on creating and animating CGI shots right up until broadcast. And for Wilson and his team, no detail was too small when it came to the armoured bears. “In our version of Iorek now he has the muscles underneath [his fur] that flex as he moves, and that also drives the fat on him to jiggle as he runs,” Wilson told us. “But then the skin actually slides over the bones and the ribs, which makes the fur that’s attached to the skin slide over that as well. All of that together gives you something that feels really realistic. “So again,” he concluded “the appetite and the ability is higher – therefore the workload is higher.” Oh well – hopefully, the time and trouble wasn’t too unbear-able.

[poked-acm420-fall2019]

Suky- Done

It’s finally done!

Although we ran into a ton of problems: broken puppets, issues with importing, not having access to the software, pebble color and cactus line color, face issues, and losing a member/increasing the workload, I’m grateful to all my team members for sticking it out with me to the end and getting this thing done. It turned out awesome and It means a lot to me that they were willing to adapt and accommodate my poor directing skills. 

#neverwanttodirecteveragain .....but if it’s with you guys, I’d think about it. :)

Things that I would’ve changed in our filmmaking process... Oh boy:

1. I wish that I had checked and tested the puppets more carefully before sending them out to be used for rough animation. The sad thing about 2D puppets is that the puppet is set as stone once you import it to the scene, and doesn’t reference a file like it does in 3D animation. So what ever animations are done on the puppet cant be translated to an updated version of the puppet.

2. I also wish my animatic was more clear on the exact action, pose and facial expression that was needed for the shots. I was bombarded with questions on how the character should move and what they should do in some shots because the shot from the animatic was a still frame. I think it also created some confusion because some people stayed too true to the animatic, even though the faces and poses were just a guide. Maybe it’s because our 2D puppet process kind of skimmed over rough animation and didn’t really get to the important stuff, like faces.

3.If I was a dictator and not a director, I would’ve made everyone rough all the faces and SHOW them to me or SOMEONE before jumping into final animation. Some shots weren’t shown to me until the very end during editing (and at that point, it was too late to change *cries in a corner*). Because of that, the faces either didn’t match the mood/tone and/or didn’t match the shots before and after it. 

So advice to future 420 students: ALWAYS consult with the director on EVERY shot (even if it’s just for a simple shot), because they will have the bigger picture. (but to be honest, that would probably overload your director)

Then again, the director doesn’t always know what’s best, so if you know that the things that you do will benefit the story, convince them and don’t be afraid to ask questions, compromise, and extor-- I mean, reason with them.

And if you are the director, have patience and humor. And here, I’ll lend you my 🔪, it works like a charm~

[lairofsentinel]

i'm looking at the stuff you're showing about chile and tbh. i just. why are cops always on the side of the government, and never on the side of the very fucking people they're supposed to protect and whose money is used to pay them. why do they always beat up people. why are they like that in pretty much every single protest ever every fucking where. literally why. (tho yours are especially fucking bad, they sure as hell are using the fact that it won't get as much reporting or punishments)

In a oversimplified way to answer this: because the system allows the accumulation of power and resources of a small group [rich people, bourgeoisie, corporations, external interests, pick the one you want, in all cases, all of them are part of the 90% of the political system/parliament/executive power of the country, so this idea of democracy has always been a lie] and they are  protected by their "dogs" [cops, military shit, soldier crap]. Those dogs are also poor people who are paid to beat, kill, and rape other poor people in order to protect the group with accumulated power/resources.

This show of power is Shock Doctrine in its finest. This is all about keeping the masses filled with fear and paralysed [after all, poor people are a LOT more massive than rich groups and could seize a whole country with a massive coordination of disobedience]. Powerful groups know this. And they FEAR this. This is why they use a lot of money in security that reinforces all types of fears and fear to retributions.Of course, their first step is propaganda.

First, they want you to convince you with capitalist propaganda that this is the ONLY system which gives you happiness if you work hard enough, and "freedom" and "peace" and a lot of crap so you focus on it. You keep breaking your bones with three or more jobs so you can “reach” happiness, eventually, since you are working hard like hell. This system also reinforces the individuality, the self-made man [you need to behead everyone to be successful, no matter the cost] and tries to isolate you [this is why the system hates unions and cooperatives or any action that means empathy and cooperation with others].

A lot of poor people share this idea and defend it. This is explained in a sentence by Simon de  Beauvoir: “the oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed themselves”. That's why they want to engrave such propaganda in everyone, it guarantees “social peace” at the expense of many many social groups under terrible living conditions. However, things can't be endured forever, and they explode. And when that happens, you need to install fear in the masses, in order to paralyse them and make them betray each other [Shock Doctrine again. Remember this doctrine was crafted in Canada and USA around the 50-60's and applied, first, in Birmania, aka Vietnam with the terrible war there, and later in South America under the several dictatorships in the region.]

Latinoamerica never liked neoliberalism. This is why the Plan Condor was applied all over the region: to force the neoliberalism in all of its countries. Chile could return to "democracy" with a neoliberal system around 1990 [check dates, I'm rounding everything]. Chile was a social-democracy before their dictatorship, so you can see why it was needed a dictatorship with gringo puppeteers that wanted to destroy “the red”.[A lot of people will say it was communist or some other bullshit... “opinions” go wild here depending of how much History you read].

During the terrorism of State [please, don't call it dirty war – a terrible translation used in books of History written in English, NOT by chance--, it was never 2 armed sides in a battlefield, it was the state [army] massacring and torturing its population], the level of torture and the torture systems used and the dire perversion in it that our parents suffered is something that I CANNOT explain [not because I dont know, I read a lot of heavy stuff related to it, and I tell you, it's impossible to speak these things without feeling your humanity breaking into pieces]. It's because it's too horrible for someone who is not asking details. If you read Shock Doctrine from Naomi Klein, she narrates the slightest versions of it. If you want to know about it from raw material, check just one page of the book Nunca más (Never Again), a report of how the Gov. went savage against their own people. Chile, Brasil and Argentina have a book of this type narrating the atrocities that each dictatorship did on their people, since in those countries it was where the dictatorship was more brutal.

What these pacos [these military shit] is doing is just reopening the fear of all that [as you can imagine, this is more than simple fear. It’s terror.]. Our parents are the traumatised one, and all of them are feeling the looming threat that it was supposed to be closed by now. There is a deep deep scar in South America social memory on this matter. and they are using it to spread fear, and also, to revive the old methods of torture that latinoamerican millenials only read [after all, our parents were the one who lived those shitty times].

Police and military never were supposed to "protect" people in south america. They are sustained by the gov. to repress people. They are the tool for the foreign interests and the bourgeoisie to control the massive poor people. I want to make this clear: they never were meant to defend people. Like gringo army was never meant to “defend” democracies elsewhere.

Military here [in Chile, in Brasil, in Argentina] were instructed in the 70′s in the School of Americas, a fucked up gringo military school where they learnt all the torture system that they used back then [they kept using it in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, so it’s not “ancient history”].  It's not by chance that Chile had been sending military in the last 5 or 8 years to the SCHOOL OF AMERICAS again! [now under the fancy fucked up name of The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) . They are supposed to “teach” our army to “defend democracy and life and freedom” and all that shit. You can see it. Lol. No latinoamerican will believe that shit that says wikipedia about them.

So, you can see the context. Military and cops never were meant to protect people. They have never been trained for that. They are meant to protect the bourgeoisie, the corporations, the big companies that are preying on Chile, on its sea and mining resources, on its water, on its mountains.That’s why this phtoshop is so on spot:

Tell a latino that cops protects them... they will laugh [if they are adult enough to understand the dark layers of our History]

[by the way, just to clarify, I'm not from Chile, but the country beside them: Argentina. Still, everything that's happening in Chile is touching a LOT this side too because both countries share the same scars with the same level of dehumanisation [and to be honest, this country has been boiling shit for a long time and it's just a matter of time to explode too]. I'm just trying to spread the word of my Chilean fellows. And considering how their media blockage is working, I'm afraid many people around the world are receiving a gov. version of the disaster happening there. Something that also happened during the dictatorship times, and before anything, I defend human rights. And what's happening there is a total massive violation of the human rights, and opening festering wounds that are hitting us all.]

[randomnameless]

Final Chapter - Freege to Velthomer!

Last time in FE4, Hilda died and we learnt that Julia was supposed to be the only one to save the world.

What’s going to happen now?

Ishtar joins her mom in the place all Jugdralian people go to before turning into ghosts, and Manfroy reveals his trump card : EVIL!JULIA!

Ishtar will lead the last “human” forces against us. The Weissenritter was mentionned during the first gen, can they live to their hype?

don’t mention the name of that owl to me julius

This is super creepy though, Ishtar apologise because she has to leave his side, and Julius wonders why she wants to get out so badly... Toxic relationships 101 : something you have to avoid at all costs

remember when the isaachian maggot sliced’n’diced you? You know, the one who’s married to your brother? “i have nihil now”

This is side of Ishtar we don’t always see, the one who’s proud to be a part of Freege’s prestigious mages. 

I wonder if this is really bullshit, but i like this part of “they killed my family i can’t let them run amok”. We’re in a game called Genealogy - it works for the heroes, but also for the other side.

Julius is kind of aware that Ishtar wants to escape him? Why? Because he knows that his actions are utter crap, or because he knows she’s found out about Loptyr?

:’(

I don’t know who Ishtar’s trying to convince here, Julius or herself? Or maybe she loves “Julius” but she knows “Julius” is dead, so she has no reason to live anymore and seeks death? Loptyr suspects something, but ultimately, he doesn’t care. 

We’re not in the “i love you” “ i know” Leia/Han, more in the “i love you” “whatever”...

Vaha had children with brown hair?This one has some serious eye problems or red eyes are common? Maybe she’s one of Julius’ half-cousins?

Sorry yourself!

His dad died, Ishtar’s made her last good bye, but to him it’s still a game? Or maybe he sends his deadlords to help Ishtar’s troops?

or maybe they were the reason why she wanted to run away asap from belhalla because zombies are kind of creepy

PURGE THEM MY PAWN

EVIL JULIA IS SO EVIL SHE HAS DOUBLE MIRACLE THAT’S SO EVIL I CAN’T EVEN

:’(

Aerone has no place in the postwar!Jugdral, and especially no place in the future Thracia. Keep going where? For what?

Revenge? I guess anyone who spot the zombies knows that there is no “winning back” anything if Julius wins. If Leif wins, they will never be able to return to the motherland, but if Julis wins, they will never be able to return to, idk, anywhere because there won’t be a somehwere to land on.

It’s not a defiance, it’s just pointless. But it’s the beautiful kind of pointless, something tackled on at the end of the game - this game is called genealogy, revenge breeds revenge, etc...

Oh shit - I forgot to check their skills and they were aware, so no murder in sight for Faval (remember how his uncle Andrei was famous for killing peg knights? Faval tried to do the same, but Meng and co aren’t as naive as Manhya). Seriously those peg knights were a pain to deal with.

Liar, i gave you a sword. Arthur is sassy and rude towards his wife, that’s not very kind of you.

Well, I can’t disagree with him here. You’re in the last map of the game, a sea of red units is in sight, it’s not the time for an idle and pointless support convo!

Of course she’s important to you, she’s your wife! You forgot or something??

OH! YOU DIDN’T

Promises you can’t keep 2.0. : 1 !

Who’s going to inherit Velthomer? Not Saias, he doesn’t exist in this game!

Attack!

Oh. Note that Ced had accuracy issues here, due to all those LS stars around. When I said this part was annoying, it was annoying because i had no reliable way to murder the peg knights, and Cairpre - unpromoted in all of his glory - was loitering around.

Hit 54 for the supposed greatest unit in the game? That’s disappointing - granted, Faval’s hit rate was around 15-20 so...

At least you mention your sisters! It nearly made me feel bad for killing you.

Maybe because Arion isn’t Quan’s and can’t switch sides so easily?

What truly matters is to save the world from Loptyr, but Alty’s going too far. His own vanity and pride? Your new friends killed his dad, and want to put Leif on his throne!

“he promoted since our last meeting?”

Setting his own suffering? Is Seliph feeling bad because he has to kill his brother - wait he just said he’ll managed to convince Julia to do it for her - or because of something else? Like everyone is suffering in this war, but they must do it to save the world?

“and getting rid of my dad to avenge Quan was compulsory to save the world?”

Anyways, RN, Seliph’s fighting to save the world, so swallow your pride and join us? Is it what Alty’s trying to say?

???

Where does this come from? Why making a moving speech just to spit on it afterwards? What about fighting for justice? I don’t understand those siblings at all...

Julius called him a mercenary? And fighting for Altena, really? He gave up on the motherland and all of his previous motives just like that?

Meh.

Poor Tine. She tries to make Ishtar remember how she used to be the kind cousin, surely the kind cousin doesn’t want to fight for a brat summoning zombies around!

Ishy acknowledges she’s doing the “wrong” thing, but she can’t turn back now. At least she managed to save the children, so she’s just here following Julius for “reasons”, not because she believed in his crap. But why dying? Well...

“It is I, Ares the Bla-”

“Shut up”

Ares doesn’t tolerate people telling him to shut up while he is announcing who they’re facing against.

I don’t remember why i screencap’d this. She’s affiliated to Belhalla, not to Ishy? idk.

Well, she already died...

After Ishtar and her friends’ death, Seliph and co run to Velthomer to kill a certain someone but...

What are you talking about

hit 20 - at least he’s not being assaulted by naked women like the FE5 version of the spell but gdi Ares

“Julia, I’m your husband!”

“HA HA HA You’re not even important to the plot, and you’re from the land of no relevance! Even Miletos is more important than your barbarian country!”

She’s too evil to recognise her husband!

Oh. Seliph suggests that Manfroy cursed her, so he must have spot her convo with Ulster.

What about the “do not hate people but the evil in their hearts” or something?

And here, Seliph finally knows what happened to his mother! Has he even believed once that she betrayed to marry Arvis and knew about Siggy being her former husband but didn’t care, or has he always known that his mom was brainwashed to end up with Arvis?

Manfroy is proud to explain his grand plan. And proud he shall be, he played everyone just to bring Julius into this world!

In the old translation he meant that Loptyr finally took possesion of Julius, but here I think it’s more ambiguous?

WELL NOBODY COULD IF YOU KILLED THE USELESS PUPPET YOU SENT TO TORMENT ULSTER

Oh Seliph. I truly believed that your Father would have died in the first gen, regardless of Manfroy’s ambitions. Siggy wasn’t meant to survive in the Granvalle of Arvis, Reptor and Langbalt.

Manfroy is an exception to the “don’t hate the people”, just like the Dozels.

Ares stole the kill - or maybe he wanted to help Seliph “you can’t preach about understanding people if you murder this guy on spot”

What evidence? Some real evidence or your last hopes? I mean, the guy/dragon must have been so relieved to see Julia alive, so what’s another miracle after that?

Detective Felipe!

Just smash the locked case damn it!

So here Arvis’ “take this circlet it will save you” was actually relevant! He knew Julia’d be sent in Velthomer and she’d be able to open the box?

“why can’t we just smash the thing” - “it’s a magic lock” - “can’t we ask Patty” - “Magic Seliph, magic.”

I hope this changes in the remake. Really. I thought she’d be free once Manfroy died, but nope, she continued to try to kill her husband.

You crossed Granvalle on your own without being conscious?

Brainwashed her uh? 

was she going to tell him about her secret identity?

so you know how i hate you because you killed “the kindest man” and how i will never let you near Julius?

kidding

Seliph apologises because he couldn’t fulfill the promise he made her in the first chapter, it’s a cute throwback to chapter 6!

Julia knows why she survived all these years for, not because F!Lewyn was a gentle soul who rescued her out of kindness, but because she was a weapon! 

:)

You never ran away?! You were warped around by everyone and never had any agency! 

This is uncomfortable - Why is Julia thinking it’s her fault because she ran away, and why is Seliph telling her she’s right??

Oh, here we find the same kind of speech Alty gave earlier. They must march on to get rid of Loptyr!

No “welcome back Julia, are you okay?” Goodness, with F!Lewyn around, no wonder why Julia still thinks her dad is the “kindest man” ever.

F!Lewyn is so happy, he didn’t fail his mission! Finally, the naga major has the book of naga! It could have happened way earlier but here it is!

“it was the shiny book on mom’s bedside’ table”

Shining!Julia

TIME TO END THE GAME

[i-am-parsec]

Page 4

Henrik has gone from ignoring me for weeks to monitoring my every move 24/7. Stacy goes around the house making jokes about the benefits of having an live-in doctor since she may go into labour any minute now but I can't tell she's just as worried as me about the Doc. Worried because he's not explaining himself. Worried because he won't tell what's in the goddamn book. Worried because of his reaction when she "dared" to use Google to translate the first page. Henrik claims it's ancient German, too hard for him to understand, "after all, Chase, I only lived in Berlin for a few years as a kid, I barely speak modern German!, but you can't bullshit the bullshiter, Schneeplestein.

He's scared, and while I keep telling myself I don't what of, I think it's time to face up to the facts. It's time to call mom and ask what the fuck happened the night Charles broke his arm and I met my wife.

***

I have two uncles. Both of them in prison. One of them for murder, the other for rape and murder. I had no idea they were in prison or that they existed at all. My mother told me as that trying to contact them was pointless, she swore to my father I would never meet them. Apparently delivering that fucking book wasn't his only deathbed wish, knowing him, the fucker probably made a list. I want to be mad at him, I really do, but I can't, right now I can't feel anything. There's so much going on inside my head and at the same time, it's blank. It reminds me of our time working in Arizona, the attempted robbery - when Stacy shot at that guy with the gun so close to my head, I felt the whole world going completely mute while simultaneously exploding. The ringing right after, that's how I feel now. Silenced terror.

I go back to how mom greeted me and it makes me want to scream.

"I'm glad you called, dear. You have no time to waste; now, listen carefully and everything will be alright, you are the one who's gonna get it right, son."

Reassuring words as she holds me in the monster's den. Nothing but lies, that's all this family is. She asked me to record the conversation. I should have hung up right then and there

Triplets. Dad was born first, then Lucas, then Matthew. The three of them seemed like healthy, happy boys despite their father's distant behavior. If what my mother says it's true, that grandfather I never got to meet only held his children once for a picture after they were born and never again touched them, not a hug, not a caress, not even pat on the back. Their mother tried really hard to make up for their father's lack of affectionate gestures, in other words, she spoiled them. That alone could explained my father's addictions and his brothers' criminal tendencies but mom insists there's more. She insists there is a curse.

I am going insane, aren't I? A sane person would suggest their mother to get herself checked after listening to what I did, yet here I am writing it all down, going over the recording again and again, afraid I might miss some details. This is ridiculous...

A curse has followed the Brody men for at least 6 generations. Someone, somewhere made a pact and apparently screw all of us up; with who or what is up to debate but what my family has deduced over the years is that this entity preys on all of the males who descend from that poor fucker and that it feeds off our pain (either emotional or physical) while working its way into the brain of its victims. Once it achieves this, it starts controlling the victim's body until it completely destroys it and then proceeds to start the same process with the next generation, i.e. It drives you insane and, after killing you, it starts torturing your son.

I've always doubted my mother’s sanity but this certainly sounds like reason enough to lock her up in an asylum - although, given the fact that I might go crazy myself in a matter of months, maybe that's a not a good idea; last thing I need is to end up trapped in a mental institution with her. That could totally happen, I'm unlucky like that, as time has proven more than once.

From here on, I'll just write down her exact words, I'm done with trying to process all this crap, it's obviously not happening. 

"Your father loved you and me more than anyone has ever loved anyone in this world. He made the biggest sacrifices so you and every other man with Brody blood on their veins could get an actual fighting chance, a shot at happiness. He went through Hell, and back for us, my love, and maybe you think ‘no, that's not right, he put us through Hell, he was the devil himself’, but that's just not true and you know it. Maybe that thing managed to slip away from your memory but it’s not an easy sight to forget, once you see it, it sticks with you forever, and you saw it, son, many times. Every time your father pinned you down on the floor, every time he burned your skin with a cigarette, every time he threaten you or me to kill us, there it was, relishing in our fear. You have to understand, Chase, that while all of us could see it, no one knew how to stop it, no one was brave enough to find out, except your father and his brothers. He wasn't the horrible man everyone saw from the outside, he was and will always be the tender boy I fell in love with so many years ago.

He didn't know what was going to happen to him as he grew older, his father never warned him - you see, that was your grandfather’s strategy. This thing needs the victims to love and be loved, to have hope and dreams, it needs them to be happy, so he can rip their happiness apart. Your grandfather learned this from the old book I sent you and he concluded that if he stayed away from his sons and never allowed himself to love anyone, he would be safe, he could starve the demon and maybe even destroy it. But there's no escape from love, no matter how bad it hurts. He suffered just as much as your dad did, but got nothing out of it. When your dad and uncles found out about this curse of sorts, they realized there was no point in trying to fight it, so they didn't. They let it consume them completely, so they could learned as much as possible from it, what it was, how it behaved and especially, how to kill it.

I knew your uncles. They were good men, and they loved your father very much. By the time your grandfather died and the truth came out, Matthew was engaged, Lucas was a successful singer (you won't find his songs on the internet but trust me, he was gifted, just like you, dear) and your father, well, he and I had just moved in together and I was pregnant with you. It is truly a shame you never got to meet Matt and Luke because they would have been the most wonderful uncles any kid could ever have. In a way, they are. They decided your dad was the one who had the most to lose, so they sacrificed themselves, hoping it would prevent the monster from attacking him too. That's how they ended up in jail. They were the kindest people I had the honor to meet, they would have never hurt anyone, but they thought if they became the evil puppets this thing wanted them to be, it would leave your father and his new family alone. They loved you a lot, Chase, if your father made me promise you will never to see them, it's because they are no longer the lovely men they once were. This thing consumed them. You must remember them as the smiling kids in the pictures I'm sending you. You should be getting them soon. That's who you uncles are, not the emotionless shells who are in prison now.

Just like them, your father was not the beast you sadly had to grow up with, he was kind and creative and he would have let this thing eat him up alive if it meant finding a way out for you, son, and I think he did. The book is mostly notes from your great grandfather, the first one to "investigate" this thing, but on the back there are your father's own findings. Read them, dear, prepare yourself but most importantly, don't make your elders' mistakes. Don't try to ignore it or hide it, this is a fight you can't avoid or win alone. I'm glad you married the Walter girl, she always seemed so strong and determined, I know that if you tell her the truth, like your father did with me, she will stick with you.

I'm sorry it took me so long to tell why we could never leave, my love, I really am. I hope, one day, you can forgive us all.”

I want to tell my mother to fuck off, to stop making shit up and accept the fact she married an abusive drunk worthless piece of shit who happens to be brother of two equally fucked up pieces of shit and that maybe now that he's dead she can finally get some professional help to deal with it, but I can't. I want to put this pen down and go to bed and hold my beautiful wife, tell her everything is alright, but I can't. I want to call Henrik and tell my friend there's no need to lie because whatever is written is that book is nothing but some drug-induced crap my great-grandfather wrote many years ago, but I can't.

Because I know it's not true. Because I remember my father's true voice. Because I can see the void in the window's reflection, hovering over my shoulder, reading these rushed words. Taller than a human, wider than my desk, I can feel its freezing breath against my back. I don't want to turn around. I don't want to stare at it and listen to its heinous scream. I don't want to tell the truth. I don't want to admit my father was a good man controlled by a fucking demon because then that means my monster is not gone and I'm still not free.

It means my monster is standing right here with me and this time there's no one to hold it behind a shut door. This time, I have a son on the way, and it's my turn to hold it shut.

4 pages left. Page 3 // Page 5

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[cbk1000]

Jenn Recommends: Historical Fiction II

Welcome to another blog post in which I tell you what to read, and you just sit and passively do it because I have excellent taste in literature and also I’m kind of a bully. Check this tag for more recommendations.

Today we revisit historical fiction, because it’s one of my favourite genres and I have lots of suggestions, all of which you should definitely take to heart. My first list of historical fiction recs (which can be found here if you’re curious) was all gay, all the time; this list is slightly more heterosexual, although not much, because here be lesbians.

If You Like: Dickensian lesbians (and really, who doesn’t?)

Read: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

I’m going to lift the summary from Goodreads, because it’s faster, and I’m lazy:  Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

This novel really hearkens back to ye old days of sensation fiction when literary thrillers were a bit slower, a little more cumbersome; they wanted more patience from the reader, who watches all the little threads get teased out bit by excruciating bit. There’s a sinister undercurrent you feel pulling at you till about the halfway point of the novel, when everything is suddenly upended and you sit up in bed screaming, “BRUH!!” because your stupid ass did NOT SEE THAT COMING EVEN A LITTLE BIT.

Waters is really good at this; her evocation of Victorian England is excellent, and transports you in a way that only the best historical fiction can manage. The narrative unfolds slowly in the first half, building upon itself with a sense of heightening doom that a faster pace could never achieve. As the reader, you’re in on the con (or are you?), and you know what’s going to happen, how it’s all going to end, where the burgeoning relationship between the two girls is painfully trundling along to--except you don’t. Waters pulls the rug out from under your feet, and she doesn’t just do it once, which is why I’m reluctant to say too much about the plot. AND--she does it all in really lovely prose that’s reminiscent of the time period she’s working in; I never really felt a modern hand guiding me. I could have been reading any piece of 19th century literature; the seams between the 21st century and the 19th are never visible, never jarring. If you, like me, are a slut for ornate Gothic literature, and/or you want your historical lesbians and you want them now, give this a try.

If You Like: Watching an oblivious pre-WWI Edwardian society hurtling to its inevitable doom through the eyes of a fucked-up family whose matriarch loses herself in the magic of her own fairytales instead of actually paying attention to the flesh and blood children they are based upon

Read: The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt  

From Goodreads:  When Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum—a talented working-class boy who could be a character out of one of Olive’s magical tales—she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends. But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house—and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. As these lives—of adults and children alike—unfold, lies are revealed, hearts are broken, and the damaging truth about the Wellwoods slowly emerges. But their personal struggles, their hidden desires, will soon be eclipsed by far greater forces, as the tides turn across Europe and a golden era comes to an end.

It actually took me about a month or so to read this book--not because I kept putting it down and then begrudgingly picking it back up again, but rather because I purposefully wanted to draw it out. The language, the atmosphere--it was all just something I needed to savour. This is a slow, thoughtful book that focuses rather minutely on the dramas of one family and the people who become entangled with it; it will not be for everyone (which is a caveat attached to every book, but I feel this one in particular requires the warning). This is a book about the creative process and the myriad escape hatches it offers us from the real world, sometimes to our own detriment. It is a book about WWI even though the actual war inhabits only the last quarter of the book. It is a book about the options of women in a time when society was still debating whether or not they should be considered full-fledged people. 

This is one of those books that sort of just crawled inside me and stayed; I didn’t want to leave it. I think part of my reluctance came in not wanting to reach the end, knowing WWI was bearing down on these characters, knowing many of them wouldn’t make it, because that’s what the war did to an entire generation: it erased it. I knew it was going to erase whole swathes of the story I had spent hours devoting myself to. I knew for so many of the characters there wasn’t going to be a tidy ending, and there wasn’t; they just stopped, abruptly. You follow generations of the family and in the end feel cheated, not through any failing of the author, but through the cruel and arbitrary machinations of history and the things it has perpetuated against the human race through our own blind stupidity (I’m still upset about WWI, ok??? please don’t touch me).

There was magic in this book, in Olive’s fairytales, in the puppet shows of a family friend: but it’s magic that the matriarch in particular is using to encapsulate herself. It’s not a childlike reverence for things we forget about as we age; it’s a hiding. It’s a sort of disappearance into ourselves and our storytelling because we can’t bring ourselves to look at the material world in all its varying shades of shit and wonder.

Anyway, I had feelings, ok?

If You Like: Italian people, anatomically impressive statues, and erotic descriptions of marble (seriously, I think my dude Michelangelo might have put his penis in a block or two of it)

Read: The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone 

This is a biographical novel of Michelangelo which begins when he is thirteen and still in the very beginning throes of his artistic talents. Stone apparently read through Michelangelo’s entire personal correspondence (and patiently waited years for it all to be translated) and also moved to Italy to write this, so that’s dedication, and the least you can do to repay it is sit through the sometimes vaguely uncomfortable descriptions of Michelangelo’s artwork and his sexual tension with it.

While this doesn’t have the literary merits of the previous recommendations, it’s meticulous historical fiction; Stone painstakingly recreated Michelangelo and his work. It’s an interesting peek into a niche section of art history and also covers part of the turbulent Renaissance period and the powerful politics at play which snare the hapless Michelangelo when all he wants to do is sculpt (and probably wank to) realistic marble people, goddammit. It’s entirely believable as a biography (though it is, in fact, fiction).

Bonus: Michelangelo’s poetry, which was not a thing I even knew about prior to reading this book.

[daughterofsinsloth]

Hello. I saw your post about giving recommendations of skk fics and I seriously love them! Thank you ❤️ Is it okay to ask you if you know any skk fics that are complete multi-chapter? I had been trying to search them but I most see one shots and abandoned multi-chapters.

Hello hello anon-chan!!! thank you so very much about your comment!! It means a lot! :) Mmm… I jnow what you mean! I have a lot of favorite fics that are uncompleted! But let’s have some fate that they will be upload! 💪💪

Here some soukoku multi-chapter fics!

i won’t lie (i knew you belonged here) by mountainlaurels:

(AU/9 chpts) this one is my very first fic and the one that actually got me inyo skk. the writer has done a great great job bringing you to their wolrd. here we are on modern setting but abilities are still on. Chuuya works at a flower shop and Dazai at the cafe across the street.  their interctions are slow and natural. you cant help but ship them. the other bsd characters are all in and they are treated respectifully and well done as if they are the mains. i really like the story and how it grows to the finale.its well writen and the feelings are overwhelming! this has a spanish translation from the writer.

Intoxicated by setosdarkness:

(AU/21 chpts) a really really great fic! nothing less from setosdarkness! definatly read her other works that are currently on-going. they are awesome and cinematic-like. really welldone and well-written. the plot is a bit tricky but it keeps you on edge. you get into the characters and when you will finish it, you will be suprized. its a mafia!AU and everyone plays. its a well build game. you are gonna love it. there is also smut in it, but its part of the game too. the hole thing is a game that you cant helped it but fell willingly into it and you will be satisfied with it.

Find Something Worth Dying For (And Learn How to Live) by kibasix:

(17 chpts) read the name of the writer.. no thats it. thats my analysis. KIBASIX! we are talking about one of the best writers, in my opinion. I cant even explain how perfect this fic is! this fic here?! I cried my eyes out! i was waiting the next chapter like kids wait Santa. simply immersive. it was an absolutely agonized journey. it was like a dance between the feels and the rightness of their world. its chapter was more majestic than the last and the next was more painful than the last. the writer’s words get imprinted in your heart and mind and you cant help but want to read more, feel more, see more. it has a cinematic feel. it starts from the very beginning and we see skk relationship how it evolved and how it suttered  like you are seeing it live. a sad poem in a form of a fic. the characters are practically singing their emotions out, only to be ignored by their life. and yet the fate laughs at them as she entangle them together. I can talk for hours how they write each of the character like a living being, forgeting none, and how they give each one a right place and the spotlight they deserve! an amazing work that leaves you full and empty in the same time. this one has a smak 4 chpts sequel “

Sparks Like A Match (Burns Like A Wildfire)

“ and another sequel that is yet to come (I believe in you kibasix-sama!). also check their other works, both multi and one-shot!

Noir by Adargo:

(20 chpts) another gem. another feel train. noir is the color of skk and this fic is the sorry song of their lives. a corrupted fic that leaves you craving for more. here we read with the shadow of Corruption on our back and the characters live under it.  its one of the character lives under their own corruption and try to get out only to have an odd feeling at the end. it could be more chpts or only this this and the feeling will be the same. we never leave corruption, just learn to live with it in this noir world. although I would love to see more, when you finish it you can only mutter a “wow” and then never live properly again. rips your heart out and fixs it momentaly to rip it again later. you live and breath with the characters and in the end you breath a new air, a better one for me. this epitomy of angst heals you so amazingly. as the characters go a step foward you take one too and from then one your heart has a different weight. a truly and without doubt exceptional work.

A Hearts Desire by Kaokita:

(AU/6 chpts) a beautiful fic. prostitute!Chuuya  opens to us a world that we see journalist!Dazai to bark in and challenge Chuuya in a “bet of felling in love".  a proud chuuya is always  present but here it compinate with a kinda impulsive chuuya, exposed to Dazai's hungry feeling for actual feels. here we are talking about the dark world of the underground were a no less dark but bright light (dazai) comes to shake the everyday life of our protagonist. its well written and well build. doesnt leave you with a complain and brings you to another world. really enjoyable to read. spoiler oda and chuuya having seeeeeex

 Forgettable Significance by Witheryvine:

(32 chpts) after the anime, the feels start.  if you thought that dancing with angst was easy, then you havent read this own. betreyal and love complicate each other and come to you to cry with them. a really interesting work and stunning. it is overwhelming but you want it to be. there are things that are needed to be said, words that have to come to the light and the writer not only do that perfectically but also gives you more to heal yourself  and breath.  it takes a lot to take back someone who meant the world for you and throw you away, yet! the writer  has done such a nice jod giving as the feelings, thoughts and fears that you cant help but be one with it. the style of writing helps the fic to encrave into you and honestly i havent see many write it so good.

You Won’t Lose Me (So Don’t Leave Me Behind) by hybridempress:

(14 chpts) now it will be a terrible mistake to leave this out!from bottom to the top its a must read. an emotional roller coster with the best of fluff. emotions well hidden are suddenly out. too fast changes leave you breathless and the characters have to take fast decisions, act fast and start to live from the zero. a phychological rebirth thats requares a lot of courage to abandon everything so you can chase after an old wild dream in a form of a man, new to you but as old as time to your heart. along with sequel of it  “

You Have a Heartbeat (You’re Real, You’re Here, You’re Human)

” by mostladylikeladythateverladied they create a perfectly must read at all cost fic that gives you the most satisfying feeling of “ah thats how it should be done”. skk are a complicate pair but the writers give them to you bare to see and feel with them to all your might. p.s. that amazing scenes with sskk at the sequel cured my heart!

Sorrow Already Spoiled by Soukokuhell:

(AU/16 chpts) an awesome fic is here once again. this AU is really well written and well build around two people  way too hurt, who find love and healing together. trying to move foward but with the past to hunt them down. love and fear are walking together here. the angst is getting healed by the characters emotions and the lovemaking is great! with each chapter the characters are getting healed and at the finale you get to breath again. the fluff is in the love and devotion they have for one another.

All Aboard by Asmicarus:

(8 chpts)an action fic with a lot of feels. chuuya is suffering again and dazai is an asshole but you can see that there is much more behind them. Dazai’s manipulating nature comes out to play and although it fools everyone, Chuuya manage to sutter it to the ground with a few words. the remark is 10000000% what we all need and what Dazai needs to hear. he pretends to be human but chuuya leave him naked to the bone. from here the story takes another turn to dazai realizing what is happening and what he needs and chuuya finaly decides to take what he deserve.

Silver and Shining by ShesAParadox:

(25 chpts) okay thats a fic that i havent read in a long time, but i remember it still in this day how good impression it left me.  the protagonist is fate and the puppets are skk, but not like any other fic. here there are a little things they can do.as their lives unfold and hardships are presented to them continuously, it becomes apparent that they are both the best and worst thing to have appeared in each other’s lives. the well written text  gives you piece by piece their thoughts and mind, fears and love from the first meeting  are amazingly describe and it leaves you complete. it  happends what it should happen. 

Underwater by meupclose:

(11 chpts) one hell of a fic. here is hopeless chaise with mori as the hunter and dazai as the prey. chuuya is the ‘innocent’ love one of dazai who has been called to play the savior. oda feels rip you apart, every character battles with inner and out demons and dazai is having a crisis. yet! the writer never fails to right a complicated masterpiece where life and death are playing chess. the fluff and smut take the fic to another level as a celebration of life and mori is practically playing death himself. a foolish man who wants to be a god and dazai is the child here who is desperate to live. chuuya steals the spotlight and lead to the end. its an excellent work of a mad song with the most logical story in a world that rules are made to be broken.

from my prievious fic rec please read “own no doubt”, “shared gravity” and insomnia_productions.

Why most of them are angst-like I dont know and Im sorry dear anon-chan. Im terribly sorry! kinda..  nonetheless they are all amazing and you should read them!!!

thank you very much for your ask! I hope that my reccomendations were good and you enjoy reading them! Tell me what you think~~ have a wonderful day anon-chan!!!!bye bye :)

[sjworldtour]

20/12/19 Accidental fish in Shibuya

Yesterday wasn't our finest day of the trip. We said goodbye to the lovely Steph and Phil (who drove us to Hirafu in the morning) and caught a bus over to New Chitose Airport.  Checked in and had a nice time being given free samples in the food court- cake and cheesecake and steamed donut. We bought something that looked like a croquette and was labelled as cheese but turned out to be a fishcake yuck. Flew to Tokyo Narita and were surprisingly efficient getting out of the airport and on to a bus to the city centre. Had a fair walk from Tokyo station to the Wise Owl Hostel, and struggled a bit under the weight of our bags that we've happily avoided hauling around for two weeks. 

The hostel (where we are staying until boxing day) is a good one, with a live owl in reception, a free drink in the bar downstairs every night, and pleasingly private upstairs bunks where we can talk to each other but are screened from everyone else.

By this time it was approaching 5pm and we had only had some toast and some accidental fish, so we head out to the neighbouring area of Ningyocho in search of food. We popped in to Suitengu shrine which was quiet and pleasant, we felt a little awkward not knowing any shrine etiquette but didn't get shouted at or thrown out so I guess it was all ok. We walked around for ages trying to decipher food menus - hardly any had English translations and those that did didn't have any prices. We settled on a café that had a menu handwritten in English but no prices, and tried in vain to match the Hiragana characters with the real menu. Joey ended up with stir fried vegetables and Sam with the smallest chicken wings ever. Not terrible, but not enough food given how hungry we were and way more expensive than we'd have liked. Most of the place was taken up with a very exuberant office party which was entertaining.

We left feeling still hungry and walked home a different way keeping our eyes peeled for takeaway pizza to top us up. No luck until a bar/restaurant just round the corner from the hostel where we smugly shared a tasty pizza. Were feeling well fed and happy until we asked for the bill and there was a hidden service charge that amounted to more than the actual pizza. Have made a mental note to check for charges everywhere we go from now on. Feeling grumpy and at odds with Tokyo, we sidled back to the hostel and hid from the world.

Today, Tokyo has redeemed itself! We've spent the day exploring Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku, filling up on sights, Japanese culture and food. 

First thing we took a Ginza line subway to Shibuya - we've bought a 72 hour pass that works on the main subway and metro lines, but not the JR or other privately owned lines. It's all a bit confusing. Luckily they say the station names in English and all the stops are numbered so navigating the lines isn't toooo difficult. The tricky bit is emerging from the right station exit and working out where on earth you want to be on the surface. Every subway station seems to be a maze of underground tunnels.

Luckily this time our platform was right by the Tokyu department store entrance, so we headed to the basement foodcourt in search of breakfast. We were disappointed by the lack of free samples promised to us by the guidebook, but found an enticing bakery and bought a huge warm sweet walnut bread. We found our way the surface and sat on the side of the street looking out over the Shibuya pedestrian scramble, the famous junction crisscrossed by up to several thousand people in each wave. We saw a fleet of Mario style go-karts go by on their Tokyo tour. Nearby we visited the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog who waited every day for his master at Shibuya station, even nine years after the man's death. We had a little wander up Center-gai shopping street, and then over to the new and shiny Hikarie department store. We browsed the many floors of homewares and handbags up to an exhibition space on the top floor. This housed an unexpected display of puppets, as well as some slightly scary craft pop up stores. Back down in the basement, we were yet again denied any free tasters in the foodcourt.

Time was marching on so we hopped on a subway up to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building west of Shinjuku. We visited the observation deck on the 45th floor and a volunteer guide showed us the sights. It was a clear sunny day so we had great views of the city, but unfortunately Mt Fuji was hiding in a wreath of cloud. The gift shop had our names in Japanese characters. Back down on the second floor we're pleased to see climbing and surfing are now Olympic sports but sad squash still isn't.

Walked back to Shinjuku. It's weird how much walking is in underground tunnels, we intended to walk at street level but kept somehow finding ourselves underground again. Had lunch at burger bar round the corner from the Robot Café, which has a cool looking evening show but way too expensive for us. We soaked up the bright lights and buzzing atmosphere of Shinjuku, visited a games arcade with a Star Wars game that had enough controls to be a spaceship, and checked 7 storey electronics stores for fitbit and camera accessories (with no luck). 

Next we walked down to Meiji temple through a large quiet forested area, quite a contrast from the city beyond. We read some prayers on the prayer wall, watched someone important bang on a big drum, and browsed the amulets available for sale. The matrimonial bliss amulet was expensive so we'll just have to hope we find it anyway. You can buy "divine protection” available at three different levels, reminiscent of budget insurance deals. 

Walking out of Meiji towards the south we reached Harajuku, an area known for youth fashion, cosplay, anime, clothing brands of varying expense and second hand shops. By this point it was dark and the avenues of trees at the side of the road were illuminated with zillions of Christmas lights. We visited Condomania (a speciality condom shop, of course), a very extravagant costume shop that was peppered with "no photos” signs, and a thrift shop selling battered old Levis for literally thousands of pounds. 

At the train station on the way back to Shinjuku we were offered a free sample of some sort of biscuit/cake that was actually dried fish. We now appreciate the need to always carry some chocolate in case a post-accidental-fish-cleanse is needed. We went to the Hanazono shrine all lit up for the evening, and then wandered round some of the famous nightlife areas...

The Golden Gai is an area of hundred of tiny bars, mostly only big enough for 3 or four guests. Between the high service charges, the lack of English translations, and the intimidating well dressed men (likely Yakuza) hanging about, we kept ourselves outside and just enjoyed the ramshackle streets. 

Kabuchiko is a somewhat seedy area, with bars having pictures of girls outside as if on a menu, and plenty of "love hotels” offering rooms to rent by the hour or the night.

Omoide Yokocho (aka piss alley from the days before they installed public toilets) was reminiscent of the Golden Gai with tiny establishments and crisscrossing alleyways, but here every bar was grilling skewers of chicken or fish to serve with their sake. It made for a smoky atmosphere bubbling with chatter and calls inviting tourists in to pay the no doubt huge charges. Another great place to wander round while staying safely outdoors. 

We caught the subway back to Shibuya where we started the day, and queued up for seats at a conveyor-belt sushi bar called Uobei. We ordered bits and pieces off our respective ipads and it swooped up in front of us. Very exciting and there were even some veggie plates, although Joey had to scrape some cod roe off an udon dish. Sam was slurping up sashimi like a pro, and we finished the meal with tasty pineapple slices. Went to take a few more photos of the pedestrian scramble, then headed for home and a free sake in the hostel bar. 

[thecrazydragonlady]

“Special Episode: A Dragon in Paris” - Part 3

Author’s Notes: Sadly, this is the last chapter I will be able to update today but there will be one- if not two- more tomorrow. Enjoy!

Jay sat on a rather pink lounge in an equally pink room along with Brandon, Adrien, and the owner, Marinette. The three of them were talking about something rather animatedly. Every now and then, as Brandon had promised, he made sure to translate the sentences and comments to keep her involved. They even attempted to teach her some French. Somehow, she managed the basics like “Je suis Jay” and “Bonjour” and “Bonne nuit” and a few more vocabulary words. Even more surprisingly was her ability to connect with Marinette. While looking around her room, she couldn’t help but notice the sewing and crafting materials. She pointed to a thing on her desk, “You crochet?” Marinette smiled and nodded. “Would you mind…?” She looked confused and then at Brandon who translated. She nodded again. Carefully, Jay picked up the work, making sure to not pull out her progress by undoing the thread. She pulled them apart gently to see the posts better and quickly found the pattern which she muttered, “Two doubles, skipping with chain, single, skipping with chain, double, and repeat across.” She sat it down. Mari gasped and asked Brandon a question.

“She wants to know if you crochet too.”

“Oui,” she smiled in answering. The dark haired girl started rambling something exciting and Brandon didn’t hear much of it as she basically turned, grabbed Jay’s arm, and pulled her over to the other side of her desk to show her some of her crafting supplies and newer designs. The boys shrugged. They started talking to each other as the girls examined the goods; eventually, Mrs. Cheng came up, offering more goodies and drink and the clothes she’d taken from Brandon and Jay upon their arrival. The two thanked her before disappearing into different rooms to quickly change out of their borrowed clothing.

Brandon’s phone rang when he came out of the room. He answered, “Hey Aunt Joy.” Pause. “We’re fine. We got caught in the storm so some friends gave us shelter until it passed by.” A frown. “What? The news? Yeah, we’ll turn it on now.”

Marinette blinked as Adrien translated. She responded positively and went to her computer, turning it on. Immediately, Nadja Chamack appeared on the screen, worry clearly etched on her face. Jay didn’t need subtitles for this newscast.

Pictured on the screen was Viper.

“What the- why is she here,” she groaned.

“Don’t know but someone’s going to have to do something.”

“Leave it to Ladybug and Chat Noir,” Adrien assured the two of them. Viper was laughing, blasting the immediate area around the Eiffel Tower. Jay clenched and unclenched her fist. Finally, she turned on her heels, running for the door much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

Brandon followed after her. “Where are you going?”

“To figure out how to distract her,” she called back, not stopping. “People are going to get hurt if no one gets there.”

“Jay! Wait!” She didn’t of course. Jay bolted out of the store front and down the street, looking back only long enough to see if Brandon was behind her before she ducked into an alleyway, released Cassiopeia from her bag where she’d ducked after they’d entered the bakery.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to need our help for sure. They’ve never faced a person like Viper before.”

“Right,” she chirped. “You ready?”

“Always. Cassiopeia, armor on!”

There was a temporary golden glow in the alley and shortly after, The Golden Dragon leapt out of her hiding place in order to go fight the foreign villain.

 MLGDMLGD

Viper didn’t know being a tourist could be so fun.

She blasted a man that she had unfortunately laid eyes on; missing him by mere inches, she let him run a bit before blasting in front of him again, forcing him to run back the way he’d just come from. It was a horrible game of cat and mouse. She enjoyed every second.

A round object came flying at her but she easily knocked it away, glaring at the hero who had thrown in. Ladybug and Chat Noir stood on the ground, ready for a fight. Viper snickered. “The great heroes of Paris,” she mocked. “Come to save the day.” Ladybug looked at Chat confused as he translated. She returned the glare, stating something but Viper yawned, looking extremely bored with the situation already. “I have no idea what you just said,” she drawled, “but I can tell it was heroic and so cheesy. You’re bothering me now.” She held her daggers up, allowing a blast of energy to come forth, going straight for the heroes’. They dodged. Chat Noir extended his staff, trying to knock her out of the air, but she merely danced around it, kicking it swiftly and making sure that he went down hard. Ladybug swung herself up. She didn’t know that close combat was her specialty. So when the villain managed to dodge every single one of her swings and come up with her dagger pointed straight at the exposed skin of her jaw, Ladybug gasped, unable to dodge. Viper hissed in pleasure.

Until she was knocked hard in the stomach by a staff that came from the blue. It caught her just in the side, forcing her out of reach of the red hero who backed up herself to regain her footing. A gold figure landed in front of her. Chat came up behind her.

“Are you two okay,” she asked over her shoulder. Chat grabbed Ladybug’s shoulders, checking. When all was good, he nodded and asked, “What do we do?”

“Stay out of her reach. She’s nasty in close combat but she’s also got some poison she uses to….” Before she could finish, Viper did it. She summoned her poisons magic and spread it out among the immediate area. Anything it touched melted before coming back as a shapeless blob. “…do that. Keep out of their reach.”

“Get them,” Viper ordered.

The blobs surged forward. The three heroes jumped. Dragon, having the most experience, immediately began to fight back, knocking a lot of them in the head, the gut, anywhere she could really, to push them away or knock them out. The French heroes tried to keep up. These were not as mindless as some of the akuma minions they’d fought before and Viper was no controlled puppet; she directed their movement expertly, enough so to drop into the fray and tussle specifically with the golden hero.

Dragon jumped back when she charged. Viper held her daggers up, blasting a couple of times which she dodged again. She spun her staff. This knocked some of the blasts back but they didn’t hit the villain either. A cry caught her attention. She looked back long enough to see that Chat Noir and Ladybug were being pinned down by some of the poisons and looking was a mistake; Viper used her distract moment to rush her, grabbing Dragon securely by the throat.

“If this is all it took,” she hissed, “I would have done something to that partner of yours forever ago.”

She gritted her teeth and gasped out, “Not… on…my …life….” She laughed.

“If you insist.” She raised her daggers. Just before she could sling them down, a white whip caught her around the wrist and tugged, causing the dagger to fall. Dragon used that moment to push off of her stomach. Viper dropped her. She clutched at her stomach and glared when she noticed that a white covered hero had joined the fray. “Leo,” she hissed. He righted himself, staring her down.

“That’s right and I’ll ask you to kindly keep your filthy hands off of Dragon.”

“You disgust me.”

“And you annoy me,” he tightened his hold on his weapon, “which makes us even.” She snickered. A soft beeping came from somewhere on her and she paused, apparently listening. When the speaker finished, she smirked at them.

“It looks like my fun is over.” She jumped back, holding out her hand for her discarded dagger, which flew back to her hold obediently. Viper stood. “Have fun fishing your friends out of my poisons.” With that, she was gone. Dragon gritted her teeth.

“I’ll ask what you’re doing here later,” she growled, “but first we need to rescue those other heroes.” Leo smiled.

“Easy.” He held up his bracelet. As he walked towards the poisons, he roared, “Royal Roar!” A blast of sound left his mouth and the poisons in the area melted, turning into pools of darkness, exposing the red and black heroes underneath them. Chat sat up, holding his head. A hand was held out for him. Dragon had approached and offered it, which he took gratefully. Ladybug got help from Leo. She asked something but Dragon looked confused until the black cat translated, “Thank-you but my partner and I want to know who you two are and who that girl was.” Leo started to say something but his band started beeping. Dragon held up a hand.

“We understand. We’d have been confused too if you’d just appeared in America. How about this: let us handle this, go recharge and meet you two somewhere later tonight?” Chat nodded and translated for Ladybug. She nodded as well and suggested somewhere even she understood. “Great. We’ll meet at the tower.” She pointed at Leo. “You, get. Recharge. I want to talk to you later.” He smirked at her.

“Of course.” He bowed. “I eagerly await this conversation.” He saluted all of them before taking off over the horizon. Dragon smiled, “I’m going to purify these things before they form back up. Then I’ll have to recharge.”

“Alright. My lady and I will patrol quickly to make sure everywhere else is good.”

“Sounds good.” She took a breath and closed her eyes. Raising her staff, she reached inside of herself, muttering, “Golden purity,” before bringing the staff down between her feet. Ringlets of gold radiated out from the bottom, catching every bit of darkness in the area and erasing it. Chat whistled. Ladybug looked impressed. When she opened her eyes again, Dragon smiled. “There ya go. Area cleaned.” Chat gave her a thumbs up. She saluted the two heroes like her partner and disappeared over the horizon just as he had.

 MLGDMLGD

Jay feigned a migraine to get to her bedroom early. She locked the door with a sigh and when she was sure that Aunt Joy and Brandon were asleep, she transformed again and took off through the window. The apartment wasn’t that far from the tower so it took only a few minutes to arrive; apparently she was the first so she took the moment to enjoy the view again, only this time, without the restraint of the metal fence. It took her breath away. A small surge of jealousy for the two heroes who got to see this every day ran through her system which caused her to shudder.

“Enjoying the view? I know I am.” She smirked, turning her head a bit to face her partner. Leo was leaning against a cross beam of the tower, arms crossed, smiling at her and she took a breath, trying to remember their professionalism. His tail twitched a bit. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here Dragon,” he whispered.

“Same to you,” she returned. She turned, facing him completely. “I owe you an apology,” she added, “I meant to call you but so much happened since I arrived that I didn’t get a chance and it seemed like every time we met, there just wasn’t any time to bring it up.” He nodded.

“I know. I meant to tell you too.” She kicked her foot on the metal.

“So… what brings you to Paris?” He chuckled.

“Visiting a relative. You?”

“Visiting a friend’s relative… ironically,” she chuckled.

“Ironically,” he repeated. The two of them fell into silence with only the breeze of the evening moving about them. She breathed in deep.

“It’s such an amazing view,” she gushed. Suddenly, a pair of hands were around her waist and she squeaked in surprise. Leo was now behind her, burying his face into her neck, breathing deep himself. Her face blushed scarlet. They didn’t move for a long time.

A cough forced them to move. The two other heroes had arrived and they looked anywhere than at the two of them until they broke apart. Leo smirked. He asked something in French which caused the other two to blush and shout at him. Dragon eyed him confused. He shrugged at her. “I just asked if we were in their spot.”

She rolled her eyes. “Stop teasing them and let’s get to talking. We do owe them an explanation.” He shrugged and turned back, speaking in French for them but being sure to translate for Dragon when it was needed. He explained that he is the holder of the white lion miraculous and his hero name is Leo. His partner is the holder of the very rare Golden Dragon miraculous and her hero name is the Golden Dragon but most just called her Dragon. Their main crime fighting area is a city in the states. They fight against a man named Arachnid and his minions Dark Claw and Viper, the girl they met tonight, because their ultimate goal seems to be the Golden Dragon miraculous for some unknown reason.

“If Viper’s here,” Dragon mused, “I can promise you Dark Claw is too. She’s not smart enough to do anything on her own but she’s vicious enough to handle herself in a fight.”

“What would they want in Paris,” Chat asked.

“I hate to say it but I think they followed my miraculous.” Ladybug titled her head. She asked something. Leo shrugged.

“Who knows? I wouldn’t discount it.” Quickly he added for Dragon’s sake, “She asked if it’s possible that they might team up with Hawkmoth.”

“If they’ve been here, they probably have.” Dragon cupped her chin in thought. “If they’ve combined their powers, we could be in a lot of trouble especially since we don’t know what they’d be able to create.” Leo shivered.

“An akuma poison hybrid? That could be a nightmare to deal with.”

“And dangerous,” Chat added. Ladybug nodded. She needed no translation to guess where the conversation had gone.

Dragon spread her hands. “Unfortunately, there’s no telling what they’re doing or going to do. We have to wait for them to make their move; it’s something I don’t like but we can’t just go hunting blindly since it could cause us to be too tired to actually handle anything they throw at us.” Ladybug offered a suggestion.

Chat nodded and pointed to her as he asked, “Could we establish a patrol schedule?” Dragon eyed Leo who shrugged.

“I don’t see why not. What do you suggest?” The red spotted hero laid out a plan which her partner translated as, “We can each take a section of Paris each night and meet back at the tower to report in.”

“That works for me.” She smirked. “I shouldn’t be able to get lost on the rooftops that easily. Not with such a big monument marking the way.” They nodded in agreement. When the decisions were finally made, the four heroes went their separate ways until the following evening when they were to meet again to hopefully prevent the fall of Paris or the world.

*****

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[ciathyzareposts]

Ringworld – Won!

Written by Reiko

Quinn’s Journal #4: “Telepath helmets are apparently a bad idea. Good thing I had that neural wave blocker we found. All’s well that ends well, except we still haven’t found Louis Wu and Chmeee. But the Patriarch is neutralized and that’s a good day’s work. I just had to nearly die to do it.”

I guess the Kzin are a big deal around here.

We’re on the trail of the last stasis box, which is hidden in a palace in a city on the Ringworld copy of Earth. Using the flycycles, we land in a secluded area where a ragged alien (not Kzinti or human) slave is washing clothes. The slave won’t talk to us and seems completely terrified, especially of Seeker. We move on and almost immediately encounter a proud Kzinti riding in a hand-cart pulled by a slave who looks human. Seeker wants to talk to the Kzinti himself, but Quinn requests to handle the situation.

Seeker hopes this guy is only talking to Quinn.

Quinn manages to emulate a human slave and get quite a lot of information from the Kzinti by pretending to speak for his “master,” meaning Seeker, claiming that Seeker has lost his voice and cannot speak. The Kzinti noble reveals the news that a telepath wearing a silver crown is demanding abasement from the local Kzinti nobility and also dishonorably winning any “duel of honor” challenges by causing irrational fear in his opponents. The Kzinti noble calls him a Patriarch – is this the same Patriarch from earlier that started the whole plot? I’d be surprised if it wasn’t, but I’m really not sure why he’s here.

Quinn and Seeker return to the flycycles, where Seeker decides to return to the lander and let Quinn do his thing again. Without Seeker around, I can talk to the slave, who knows very little. He’ll also be able to continue emulating a slave in order to infiltrate the palace. I take a clean but ragged outfit from the slave’s pile, although it doesn’t appear in my inventory. Quinn automatically changes into it before moving back onto the road toward the city.

The castle looms ominously in the distance.

As I move along the road, I encounter stakes, one of which still has bones hanging from it, complete with a vulture to peck at them. Well, that’s gruesome. The castle itself looks ominous in only the sort of way that a medieval-style castle can. I press forward and present myself at the front doors as a slave.

I haven’t seen you before either. What kind of alien are you?

The guards send me off to the slave overseer, who tells me to serve the Patriarch at his dining table. He also mentions that they’ve been running short on slaves because the Patriarch has little patience and keeps killing them. I also collect a bit of clean straw from the floor before I go, although I don’t know what that might be for yet.

I suppose if Kzin are like tigers, humans are like monkeys. Sort of.

I don’t know where I’m going, so I wander around a bit before I find the dining hall, also discovering the Patriarch’s personal quarters in the process. Once I find him, I watch the Patriarch eat for a minute before he demands more wine. Another slave appears immediately to pour the wine but manages to spill it, stammering apologies. The Patriarch kills him, saying the wine was only an annoyance, but the fear is intolerable. In the process, he stains his tunic with blood. He angrily tears it off and shouts again for more wine. I don’t have wine, but I go ahead and click on the tunic, which causes Quinn to smoothly offer to fetch him a fresh tunic. The Patriarch is pleased by this and agrees. With the tunic in inventory, I head back to his quarters.

The guard at the door will stop me if I just try to walk in, but I show him the tunic and then he allows me through. The bedroom holds little other than a huge purple bed. The room beyond is a large closet with clothes, towels, and other supplies. I collect an appropriate tunic and also poke around to see if the box is in here somewhere. I find that there’s definitely a hidden compartment beyond one wall panel, but I have no idea how to open it.

What could the bed’s top layer be made of that it burns briefly and then goes out?

I can also take a lit candle from a heavy candelabra in the bedroom. Oddly enough, I can use it to set a temporary fire in the bed, but trying it on any other random place gives me a message about indiscriminate fires attracting too much attention.

Wall art in every hallway.

The furnishings in the palace are all generally described as big and overdone, typical of Kzinti styles. Carvings and statues and wall art all over the place. It makes it hard to know what’s important, but I noticed that the bedroom contains sword carvings on its pillars that are described as especially sharp and detailed. There has to be some sword connection somewhere else in the palace, but so far I haven’t seen anything.

So I continue to play along and take the fresh tunic back to the Patriarch. But when I show it to him, he doesn’t take it; instead, he wants to see another one. Well, okay, I find that I can now pick up two more tunics from his closet when I go back there. But this running around and fetching doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere.

Since stunning has often been Quinn’s fallback strategy so far, I try stunning the guard at the private quarters, but this time nothing happens. Amusingly, the guard only asks, “Why are you showing me that?” You’d think a Kzinti guard would be a little more alarmed at the idea of an armed slave. More likely he has no idea what it is. That does sort of beg the question of where I’m concealing all the things I’m carrying, especially the suspiciously high-tech ones like the stunner and the stasis negator. I’m also now managing to carry four tunics and a lit candle. Oh well, this is typical for adventure games.

The Patriarch continues not to choose a tunic no matter what I offer him, so I give up on that and go back to his bedroom. I realize that I’d overlooked a hint when I’d set fire to the bed: the flame went out because it wasn’t hot enough. I try putting the straw on the bed and setting fire to that. That did the trick…but oops, I ran into a fatal error. Trying the same thing again worked the second time, though. I’m not quite sure what I managed to accomplish, but I still haven’t found a way into the secret compartment.

The compartment wasn’t even locked, just hidden.

I poke around the closet some more and finally manage to notice a detailed warrior carved into a pillar on one side, with one arrow from his quiver pointing at an odd angle. I pull on it, and there, finally, is the trigger for that compartment. Inside I find a scimitar and a straight sword. All the pillars in the bedroom were decorated with straight swords, so I try using that one on the nearest pillar. It’s a perfect fit: part of the pillar slides open to reveal another hidden compartment, this one holding the silver helmet. I snag it and go.

Now you smell it?

Now I see what the fire is for. When I leave, Quinn moves automatically out of the way and watches while the guard sniffs the air, realizes he smells smoke, and dashes into the bedroom to deal with the fire, leaving the area unguarded for me to just walk out with the goods. (The guard really should have noticed sooner though, given that I started the fire first, wandered around some more, finally discovered the hidden catch, and swiped the goods. Adventure game timing FTW!)

Even the balconies are decorated with carvings.

I go directly over to the balcony at the far end of the room and call Seeker with the scanner, which is also a comm unit. Seeker says he’ll bring the flycycles to the courtyard. Quinn doesn’t want to go through the palace again, so he just climbs down from the balcony and they escape.

Back in the lander, the team discusses how useless the helmet seems to be, and they decide to go back to the canyon area to release the stasis on the crashed ship there. We receive our obligatory check-in from Hindmost. This time they tell him about the stasis control device and the plans to go back to the ship, and this satisfies the Puppeteer for now.

This pattern doesn’t quite work…

…but this one does.

When we get back to the canyon, I use the stasis control device on the ship, and it becomes accessible. There’s some discussion of just how ancient the ship is and what civilization could have made it, possibly the Tnuctipun. At any rate, I open the access panel, which gives me a rather unique sort of puzzle: six tiles with designs that have to fit together in a particular sequence. I poke at it for a few minutes, but it doesn’t take me too long to determine where the tiles have to go to make a consistent pattern: arrows in the corners have to fit together, for instance.

The ancient alien is badly injured.

When the ship opens, immediately we find an alien inside that’s still alive, but badly injured. He babbles for a minute before the translator kicks in and we understand that we need to secure an antimatter device that’s malfunctioning. I can see it in the doorway, some kind of device with loose wiring spitting sparks. I can’t do anything with it directly, so on a whim I try putting the helmet on his head, which I guess helps with his head wound? At any rate, we can now help him out of the ship, and he gives me some kind of magnetic key to open the access panel for the device.

I fight with the interface for a minute, trying to get back into the zoomed-in view of the ship interior. When we helped the alien out of the ship, it zoomed back out to the main view, but then everyone was still standing right around the hatch, so I had a hard time clicking in the right place to look inside again. Then I still wasn’t sure what I was looking for. I clicked around for a little while before I figured out where the panel was that I had to use the magnetic key on.

The antimatter is contained. Really.

Eventually I found it and opened it to reveal a very hot sphere. I still couldn’t do anything with it directly, but I’d already figured out that I needed to put just the device in stasis, so I used the stasis box on it, which solved the sparking.

I try to talk to the alien at this point, but he still says I need to contain the antimatter. I thought I’d done that, but I go back into the ship view and find that I can now take the stasis box with the antimatter inside, and also a pair of some kind of devices from slots near the wires that had been sparking, although I have no idea what those are.

The alien calls himself Tnuctipun, so apparently that’s what he is. And he wants our ship.

Now the alien is satisfied, and starts talking about installing technology into our ship to make its hyperdrive timeless. Seeker and Miranda seem completely willing to do whatever the alien wants, even when he says they must remain here to guard his ship while he takes ours, which is of course the last thing we want.

Clearly that helmet is a bad influence on not just the alien. I’m not sure why Quinn seems to be resisting the influence, but he’s also still got some kind of neural wave nullifier. I use that on the alien so I can take the helmet off him. He slumps down, again in mortal danger. Seeker and Miranda suggest we’d better just put the alien back and put the ship back under stasis for now. The ancient alien may have valuable information, so we can’t let him die, but Miranda can’t stabilize him either. I seem to have pulled everything useful out of the ship for now, so I push the alien back in and Quinn automatically turns the stasis field back on.

Quinn volunteers for what ought to be a suicide mission.

Back on the lander, the team discusses the plan. We still need to stop the Destroyer from attacking the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds, so Quinn comes up with an idea. We can use the unstable antimatter device we put in stasis to destroy the Destroyer if we send it over on the lander. The Destroyer will use its weapons on the lander, which will destroy it, and then the stasis field can be deactivated. When the antimatter destabilizes, it should take out the ship too. Only one problem: someone has to pilot the lander over to the Destroyer, and the rest of the team will wait in the Lance at a safe distance.

I don’t understand why the lander can’t be piloted remotely, but the plot apparently requires that Quinn do this. He volunteers, in fact, and everyone else wonders if he has any way to escape. He just smiles and says he has a hunch about the mysterious devices we just took from the alien ship.

This surely can’t end well…

…since Quinn fails to survive a lander that’s vaporized by lasers, of course.

We get a short cut-scene where the Kzinti give orders to destroy the lander with main lasers, as expected. I regain control again as the lander slowly approaches the Destroyer. If I do nothing, the lander is destroyed, but Quinn is lost and the plan fails. Again, I don’t know why someone else couldn’t deactivate the stasis field on the antimatter device even if Quinn doesn’t make it, but apparently Quinn has to do it.

To win, all I have to do is open inventory and use the alien devices before the lander is blown up. It doesn’t seem to matter where on the screen I use them. This time, Quinn materializes back on the main ship just after the lander is destroyed. Somehow the alien devices teleported him back, so then he can trigger the stasis field. We watch as the antimatter makes a huge explosion, larger than Miranda had expected.

I can’t imagine the explosion being so bright or large that it would be visible to both sides of multiple planets.

Then Hindmost appears on-screen to chew us out again. He’s unhappy because the explosion was so huge that it scared a lot of the Puppeteer population, and he says they were never in danger anyway, which may or may not be true. And he wants his stuff, the stasis items. But this time, Quinn flat-out refuses to give him anything. The team agrees that they’re done with threats and refuse to even talk to the Puppeteer any further.

Once they cut the connection, everyone agrees that they’d better go back to the Ringworld. They still haven’t found Louis Wu and Chmeee, and they have an intriguing alien ship to investigate, if they can keep the remaining crewmember alive.

“Consider the end.”

The final cut-scene is just a conversation between Hindmost and his aide, revealing that they know the team is going back to Ringworld, but they can find them whenever they want. Seems like they still think they’re pulling the strings.

And that’s the end of the game. Obviously we’ll need a sequel to wrap up all the loose ends, but we won’t see that until 1994’s Return to Ringworld. But we still have the final rating of this installment to go. And for those who like reading carefully, there will be CAPs for the first person to report what word is misspelled in one of my screenshots in this post. I guess the game needed a little more proofreading.

Number of people stunned by Quinn: 0 (not for lack of trying); 5 total Number of actions taken by Quinn other than stunning: 23 (including getting 8 items: the slave clothing, the straw, the tunic, the sword, the helmet, the magnetic key, the antimatter, and the alien device); 61 total [Note that several actions in the last section are optional, like taking extra tunics and showing them to the Patriarch; I didn’t count these.] Number of conversational choices: 0; 9 total Number of deaths: 1 (failing to trigger the alien device at the end); 3 total Number of alien species encountered: 3 (the slave, the slave overseer, and the ancient alien in the stasis ship); 9 total

Session Time: 2 hrs 10 min Total Time: 6 hrs 50 min

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/ringworld-won/