#It's not a GREAT aa game but I like the last couple of episodes so it'

[illdothehotvoice]

I am finally picking up The Great Ace Attorney again! I missed the lawyer games qwq

[corvarrow]

2023 Wrap up and 2024 Goals

So I have been keeping track of what books I've read and what games I've played each year, for many years now. It's actually been really fun and interesting to look back and see what I ended up with, and it helps when I have to reference when I last looked at something :D So! I'm gonna put my Book/Games list year and combine it with any goals for 2024

Things I've read since Jan 2023

The Written by Ben Galley

Ariel by Steven R Boyette (read most)

STNG: Grounded by David Bischoff

Ascendant by Michael R Miller

STNG: A Call to Darkness by Michael Jan Friedman

STNG: Metamorphosis by Jean Lorrah

Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars by Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

Witch Hat Atelier 1-11 and Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen

All That Glitters by Loren K Jones

Comments: This is an example of like...I don't even remember reading some of these items. The STNG books (picked up from a library sale) were unexpectedly decent, I believe those were ones actually written by the show's screenwriters, so they read almost exactly like regular episodes. Also, I include manga (and some visual novels) on these lists because of the large quantities of reading ~ as such, WHA was probably my favorite read this year. The art is so gorgeous and the artistic struggles really resonates with me. My favorite non-manga waaas :Ta hmm, probably This Gilded Abyss, though I did not like the ending that much. Its fine if a book is going to be a series but I think that books should be able to be read as a one-off. I guess what I'm saying is make sure the ending is reasonably satisfying for THAT book, even if you want to set up for the next one. For example I'm well aware that ADSOM is a series however it's written with a satisfying ending that I can treat as Just One Book. Which I'm going to do. (Hopefully this all makes sense)

Currently Reading: Well my first book of the 2024 list is Heaven Official's Blessing 1, since its been on my shelf for a while ~ I'm already halfway through and just couldn't finish it before the new year. I see there's a ton in this series so IDK if I'll get through it all, but I do like it more (so far) over the other series by the same author

2024 Book Goals: I have a lot of unread ebooks so I'd like to start getting through those this year, as well as a couple paperback books on my shelf that have been there for years.

---

2023 Video Games:

Baba is You

Cats Organized Neatly

Resident Evil: Village

Ghost Song

Salamander County Public Television

Cassette Beasts

The Mortuary Assistant

Vampire Survivors

Cult of the Lamb

Milo and the Magpies

Pizza Tower

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (DNF)

Celeste (again)

Super Mario RPG remake

The Darkside Detective

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

Comments: Honorable mention is MyHouse.wad ~ I haven't played classic DOOM in so long and didn't want to learn how to mod it to play this, but I watched videos obsessively for several weeks when it came out. Its super cool. The Mortuary Assistant I found....strangely relaxing, I'm pretty sure this was not the common experience LOL. TGAAC made me kinda mad, I love AA but I COULD NOT with this one. I got 3 cases in, the pace was absolutely glacial and I did not like any of the side characters so I wasn't enjoying it. Oh well. My favorite game was probably either RE:V or collectively the two Darkside Detective games I just played.

Currently Playing: I just started Super Mario Wonder yesterday after getting it for Christmas. It's cute! I haven't played any mainline Mario games in like 10 years. Seriously the last ones were like Super Luigi Bros and Mario Maker 1 (and even then I think these are spinoffs 🤣)

2024 Game Goals: I have several games in my backlog that I would consider "Large RPGs", such as BG3, and I'd like to get through at least one of them. They're really daunting because of the time commitment required to finish. I'm currently working on some stupid grindy stuff in FFXIV so hopefully (lol) I will just take a break afterwards and can work on one of them.

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Other 2024 Goals/Art Goals

Yeah I don't like to go too wild with goals anymore. 2023 was just a hot mess year in terms of my day job, for the entire year, and my brain got pretty scrambled. I couldn't think of any silly goal this year (I did "all Ghibli Movies" in a past year for example), so I'm gonna say:

Finish at least 1 sketchbook

Do/Post more finished pieces

Finish a piece of art I've had sitting on my desk since June 2022

I did a big consolidation of art supplies at the end of the year so hopefully I won't be so daunted by what to use in general. The ink challenge I did was very helpful getting a little bit of motivation back. I also have this piece of art that's been sitting unfinished on my desk for a year and a half and I really need to finish it, LOL. I think what happened is the lineart is pretty complicated - once I finished transferring it to a nice sheet of paper I got overwhelmed with the idea of 'ruining' it and put it aside. I really need to get it done though, however it turns out, and move on, as I think the lingering thought is blocking all other pieces.

[emmy-writes-sometimes]

Sneaking Around

You and Jaeden try to hide that you’re dating from your dad, but he finds out in a not-so-great way. Both the reader and Jaeden are 18 in this!

-

           “Y/n, are you sure we should be keeping this a secret?” Your boyfriend asked you as you hid out in his trailer. You had gone on a few dates with him while he and your dad were working on Knives Out, and it was one of the last days filming. You would sneak past your dad every morning, find Jaeden, and hang out with him most of the day. Your dad, none the wiser, thought you were just in his trailer or in the main building at the café they had. But nope – you were with Jaeden.

           “He’ll kill me, Jae,” you said as you held a pillow in your arms, your feet propped up on the trailer’s couch. “Just give me a few more months to crack him. I’ll tell him before Jacob starts filming, I promise. I just don’t want him to…”

           “I know,” he responded with a little smile. He always looked cute, but that day he was extra cute in the whit suit he was wearing. It was your favorite of his costumes in the movie. “Maybe we should wait a little longer.” He sat down on the couch beside you and pulled you into a kiss that only lasted for a few seconds.

           “You really need to go now, you’re gonna be late and my dad is going to come looking for me.” He smirked.

           “Fine. I’ll see you later.” You both stood up and you gathered your backpack to go back to your dad’s trailer. He walked you there before going back to set, leaving you alone. In truth, you had both only meant waiting a couple months. That was in October of 2018. You wanted to see if the long distance thing could work while he was off filming for something else and you were back in Boston with your dad. And then you got the news that Defending Jacob was going to be filmed in Boston, too, and he showed up at the airport and told you that he was in love with you. You were absolutely head over heels for him, but your dad was still trying to tell you not to date anyone. He was still telling you that maybe you should date a guy from school, like one of your old friends, Griffin. You didn’t have the heart to tell him that you were dating the kid playing his son.

           “Hey,” you said over the phone. “Aren’t you supposed to be filming?” It was the middle of the day on a Tuesday – you had just pulled up to the house after school, and as much as you loved Jaeden, you didn’t want him to get in trouble.

           “Yeah, I’m on break though, they’re re-setting up the courtroom. Your dad mentioned he was going out of town this weekend.”

           “Yeah, he has an audition and a few meetings up in L.A., he’s not supposed to be back until Monday,” you said as you shut the door to the car, grabbing your backpack out of the back seat. “Why, what were you thinking?”

           “Well, we could spend the weekend together. Just you and me.”

           “That would be amazing. Do you think you can swing it, though?”

           “Yeah. The hotel staff already doesn’t come on weekends so no one will care if I’m not there, and you know what flights your dad is on we can just… Not tell him.” You grinned.

           “Really? Your one weekend off in forever and you want to spend it with me?” You stuck your key into the door and entered the house, petting Dodger as he jumped up on you.

           “Of course I do.” You heard the set bell ring and he sighed. “I gotta go, but are you down?”

           “I’m down.”

           “I’ll see you Thursday for dinner, okay? And then Friday on?”

           “Of course. I love you.”

           “I love you too.” You could tell that he was smiling when he hung up, and that made you happy. There wasn’t a reason not to go public at this point – you’d been dating for almost a year, you were both eighteen, and you were both used to the public commenting on your lives. The only thing that stood in the way was your dad. And he was either going to find out the easy way or the hard way, and even though you were hoping for the easy way, you honestly just wanted it out there. You talked to Jae about it during dinner on Thursday while your dad was doing a night scene, and he agreed. You would go public with it after your dad got back. You’d both be waiting at the house when he got back, you’d tell him, and then you’d finally let Jae post the picture of you two together when you went hiking one day.

           Friday came and you dropped your dad off at the airport and then went to Jae’s hotel. He smiled as he climbed into your car, putting his bag on the floor. You drove back to the house and had a nice night – you had dinner, you watched a movie, and he played video games until you fell asleep on him and he decided it was probably time that both of you went to bed.

           You woke up Saturday morning and let him sleep, taking the dog out for aa walk before making breakfast. You grinned from ear to ear when he came downstairs wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, his hair messed up from sleeping in your bed, and his eyes barely open. You took the bacon out of the oven as he came down and got a class of juice from the fridge.

           “Why are you smiling like that?” He asked.

           “Like what?” He drained the OJ and collapsed the carton before putting it in the trash bin.

           “Like how you’re smiling.” He was smiling, too.

           “I’m just glad you’re here,” you said. “It feels normal.”

           “Well, when you’re at UCLA next year, you can come over whenever you want. Or just fuckin’ come live with me.” You laughed. Your plan was either UCLA or USC, but he was trying to convince you of UCLA because it was closer to his house. “Y/n?”

           “Yeah?” You were turning off the skillet when he walked up behind you and kissed your shoulder.

           “I like being normal with you.” You smiled at him and finished getting breakfast ready, then brought it all over to the coffee table and shared it. You shared mac and cheese right out of the pot for lunch. Just as you were finishing, there was a knock at your door. The device on the coffee table showed that it was just your Aunt.

           “Oh my God, Jae, go hide in the linen closet!” You said.

           “What? Which linen closet?”

           “I don’t know! Just go hide in one!” He scoffed and went through the back of the house and down to the basement, where your aunt would definitely not go, and you answered the door.

           “Hey, y/n, sweetie,” she said. You gave her a hug, hoping that she couldn’t smell Jae’s cologne on you. You were wearing one of his shirts, too, but it was smaller on him and didn’t look as odd on you. Your aunt probably wouldn’t be able to tell.

           “Hey!” You said back.

           “Just wanted to check in, how are you doing?”

           “I’m good. Just vegging out on the couch without dad,” you lied, showing her the couch that didn’t have a single sign of Jae. “I think I need to take Dodge to the groomer soon so I was going to do that today.”

           “That’ll be good. I just wanted to drop by and check in and see how you were doing. And your dad said I could grab some of the toys the kids left here.”

           “Yeah, of course!” You let her in and she started gathering some of the toys. You had no idea where Jae was, but as long as your aunt didn’t go in your room she wouldn’t see the clothes that didn’t belong to you all over your floor. She had no reason to go in there, and you were incredibly talented at lying, so she had no idea. She left fifteen minutes later and you heard a sigh of relief as she backed up out of the driveway.

           “Jesus,” Jae said as he grabbed you, pulling you back into the living room. Dodger jumped up on the couch and found a space to lay in between the two of you, and eventually you fell asleep while he was watching some TV show. You woke up to Jae shoving you because your dad was calling you, and answered.

           “Hello?” You asked.

           “Hey, honey!” He said. “How are you? Shan came by earlier, right?”

           “Yeah,” you responded. “I’m good. Just watching some movies. I was thinking about getting dinner with a friend later, though.”

           “Go ahead and use my card if you want. I had to change planes, I got bumped, so I won’t be home until around ten. Is that okay”?

           “Yeah, that’s fine.”

           “Okay. Call me if you need anything. I’ll see you tomorrow night, babe.”

           “Okay. Love you.”

           “Love you too.” He hung up the phone and you put yours back on the table, turning around until you were against Jae’s back. The two of you slept so much during the day that you were up most of the night, doing things that you would never, ever do if there was even a chance your dad wasn’t a few thousand miles across the country. You kept checking your phone to see if he’d called you, but he didn’t, and you felt safe enough that you didn’t make Jae put on more clothes before you went to bed that night.

           The next morning you went to breakfast and spent most of the day cleaning the house and packing up Jae so he could go home around eight, but you were teenagers. You did what teenagers did, and that was being too stupid to set an alarm or check your dad’s flight number because you had the same account. If you’d checked it, you would have figured out that he had gotten back on the earlier flight and was going to be home at eight. Not ten. By that time you and Jae still hadn’t put clothes on and were just napping under the comforter. You’d fed the dog and said that the two of you could afford to nap through a few episodes of something, so you did.

           Your dad got home and got his bags out of the Uber, thinking that something was a little bit off. You hadn’t turned the porch light on yet like you usually did when he was getting home. Dodger was out of water downstairs, so he got him some more, and then he saw a phone charger that wasn’t yours plugged into the wall. You’d had friends over, he thought, so maybe someone had just left it. He walked upstairs to go put his things away and saw your sneakers by your bedroom door. Next to them was a set of boys’ sneakers, so he quickly texted your aunt. She said you were alone when she got there, so he sighed. He gathered his energy to gently push your door open and saw you. In bed. With his co-star.

           He saw you curled up against his back, obviously comfortable. He saw Jae’s arms around you, the comforter on top of you, and a pile of clothes on the floor. He sighed and walked over to your light switch, flipping it on and off until the two of you started to wake up.

           “Jae, babe, stop,” you murmured as you pulled the covers over your head.

           “I’m not doing that,” he said back, “I’m literally right here.” The two of you cracked your eyes open to see your dad standing there, absolutely exhausted, and not in the mood to have to punish you.

           “So, why don’t you guys get dressed and tell me what the fuck is going on?” He asked loudly.

           “Hi, Dad,” you groaned.

           “You two have five minutes.” He shut the door and walked to his room to start putting his clothes away. You pulled on what you’d been wearing earlier and Jae grabbed clothes out of his bag to put on. You sat down on the bed, chewing your nails. You didn’t think about what would happen if you got caught because it was the last thing you were planning to do.

           “It’s fine,” Jae reassured you, coming to sit next to you after tugging a shirt over his head. “It’s fine. We were going to come clean anyway, it’s just that he’s already not in a good mood.” You leaned your head against his shoulder.

           “I want the world to know, just not like this.”

           “Yeah, well, hopefully he won’t give us the talk too. Come on.” He took your hand and the two of you walked down the stairs, where your father was sitting, beer cracked open, and Dodger on his lap.

           “Chris,” Jae started. “Um, Mr. Evans, I guess, now, um…” He looked at you, lost, and you motioned for him to sit on the couch.

           “How long has this been going on?” Your dad asked calmly as he started drinking.

           “Since Knives Out,” you answered.

           “WHAT?”

           “We started dating then and we went long distance when I went back to L.A., and we didn’t tell you because we didn’t know if it would last, but it did,” Jae said, taking your hand confidently.

           “And when he had a weekend off and you were gone, I asked him to come stay over. We weren’t planning on you coming home early.”

           “Weren’t planning on…” your dad muttered under his breath. “What else weren’t you planning on? Me walking in?”

           “No, honestly,” you replied softly. “We were going to tell you when you got back tonight. We were going to come clean about it because we didn’t want to hide it anymore, and we wanted to post stuff about being together. We were going to tell you, just not after… you know.”

           “Are you two being safe?”

           “Yes!” Both of you said at the same time. “I can’t believe you’re asking me that, you know I’ve been on birth control for three years.” Your dad nodded and sighed. “Look, we’re sorry. We’re really sorry.”

           “Is he the reason you wanna go to UCLA?”

           “Not completely. But we were talking about moving in together once I got up there.”

           “I just can’t believe you hid this from me. Why would you do that?”

           “Because. You’re my dad, you’re his on screen dad, and we didn’t know if there was even anything there or if we were just teenagers locked in a room together. And people are insane. We just wanted to hide it for awhile until we knew.”

           “And do you?” He asked, exasperated, head in his hands.

           “What?” You asked in response.

           “I’m in love with her,” Jae said. “If that’s what you’re asking.” Your dad looked at you, and then at Jae, and then back at you again. He sat there for a few minutes. You leaned your head into Jae’s shoulder, wondering what your dad was going to say next. If he was going to try to keep you from seeing each other, if he was going to say you couldn’t date him… You were worried.

           “Fine,” he said finally. “I mean, it’s whatever, you’d probably keep sneaking around anyway, but… Just be careful, okay? Both of you. With everything.” You nodded.

           “Thanks.” He gave you a little smile, and then Jae one.

           “I don’t know how I didn’t figure it out already, honestly.” He chuckled to himself. “Jae, why don’t you go ahead back to your hotel? It’s getting late. You should get some sleep before tomorrow.”

           “Yeah, of course,” Jae said. He disappeared to get his things and call an Uber, and just before he walked out of the door, your dad came up behind him.

           “I like you. You’re a good kid. And talented. But if you hurt my daughter I will literally kill you. And it won’t be with a prop knife. Got it?”

[amphtaminedreams]

Farewell to Spooky Season, AHS Style: Lookbook no.12

Hi to anyone reading,

Happy belated Halloween!

I capitalise it because if I'm gonna recognise any day as sacred, it’s the spookiest one of the year! Halloween 2020 obviously hasn’t been as exciting as usual, parties and club nights being banned has meant there’s been far less opportunities to dress up, but I still managed to get out for the night before they announced the upcoming second lockdown and do a couple of spooky movie nights (and carve a pumpkin!)!

I originally intended for this lookbook to be last minute halloween costume inspo but I was lazy and didn’t manage to get it out on time-a lot of these looks minus the makeup and maybe an accessory or two could work on any day or night out so I thought I’d go ahead and post it now anyway. Celebrating the fashion moments of American Horror Story is something I’ve wanted to do for a while; it’s probably not the first show you’d think of for sartorial inspiration but Mr. Ryan Murphy has fucking fantastic taste in stylists and the first five seasons of AHS in particular, which I’ll be focussing on in this post, have given us SO many amazing looks. The man may be guilty of many things-subjecting us to the character of Will Schuester, trying to turn Richard Ramirez into a thirst trap, embarrassing everyone who raved about how good Scream Queens was when he wrote season 2-but costume related laziness is not one of them. We see more consistency in a Ryan Murphy character’s wardrobe than we do in their story arcs and I respect that because honestly, as much as I love joining in when it comes to ripping into his ability to cohesively bring an AHS season to a close when it airs, I’d probably be the same; if you put Lady Gaga in front of me and told me to write her lines I’d probably end up getting overly invested in what her character was going to be wearing in the scene too. 

So! Enough Ryan Murphy bashing from me! I’ll get on with it! Starting with 3 season 1 inspired looks:

Murder House: Elizabeth Short, Tate Langdon and Violet Harmon

-striped jumper from caitlinlark on Depop, kick flare jeans from ellagray-

When it comes to reflecting on season 1 of American Horror Story, all I can say do is thank the internet overlords that Tumblr has moved on from the romanticising school shooters and wearing normal people scare me tops phase to instead collectively taking the piss out of the “GO AWAY, TATE!”, “YOU’RE ALL THAT I WANTTT! YOU’RE ALL THAT I HAVEEE!” exchange. 

In terms of fashion *moments*, whilst season 1 doesn’t stand out as much as the seasons that come after, Violet and Tate’s wardrobes did give birth to a bit of a 90s grunge renaissance with their oversized knits and faded jeans and layering of textures. It did also give us good costumes in the form of Alexandra Breckenridge’s Moira O’Hara and Mena Suvari’s portrayal of the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short; unfortunately, I didn’t have a slutty maid costume lying around so I did the best I could at giving the outfit Elizabeth wears when she makes that fateful visit to the Murder House a modern, more party appropriate update.

In terms of season rankings, Murder House isn’t my favourite. It starts off really great but lulls a bit towards the end and I could never get behind Violet and Tate as a couple because you know, one of them is a school shooter who sexually assaults the other’s mum, and that’s a hurdle that I think most couples might struggle to get over irl. That being said, it was the season that started it all and showcased some of the most innovative writing and directing on TV, and it opened up a spot for horror on primetime television which as far as I know was kind of unheard of before then. Back when I first watched it, I had no idea what to expect not only because I’d never seen horror in a serial format but also because it seemed to be able to get away with the kind of storylines you’d expect network executives to fire people over. It introduced us to Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters and Denis O’Hare who would go on to make the show what it is today and more importantly, through Jessica’s glorious portrayal of Constance Langdon, provide us with an endlessly versatile meme format for this trying time.

Asylum: ‘60s Lana Winters, ‘70s Lana Winters, and Sister Mary Eunice McKee

-afghan coat from louisemarcella on Depop, red AA skater dress from julietramage, pink gingham co-ord from zshamim-

I think we can all agree: Asylum would’ve been a perfect series of television if it wasn’t for the completely unnecessary alien storyline. Like, I get that they fit in with the whole good vs. evil theme as a kind of non-biblical alternative to the idea of a higher, all-powerful being but there was already so much going on that it just wasn’t needed. Aside from that, I think the general consensus amongst watchers of the show is that Asylum has the best writing of any season and I think I’d tend to agree. It’s not my favourite because it’s too depressing to rewatch but if we’re talking the first time round, this is the series that had me hooked. Lana Winters?

Iconic. 

Sister Mary Eunice? Iconic. The Name Game? Iconic. Remember when you couldn’t go a day on Facebook without seeing that one photo of Naomi Grossman as Pepper used as the go to “what I really look like” photo in one of those “expectation vs. reality” style posts on your newsfeed? Those were simpler times.

Because this season was mostly situated within the hospital, we didn’t get that many proper outfits but when we did, they were stunning; if I had to state my absolute favourite AHS character of the entire show I’d probably go with Lana Winters and the part her wardrobe played in her characterisation would 100% play a part in that. The late 60s/early 70s was such a wonderful period for fashion and through her character we get to see both of those explored a little. Of course there’s also *that* Sister Mary Eunice scene with the red slip dress and suspenders too which yes, could be a perfect halloween costume, but I also strongly believe should be a perfectly acceptable outfit for any day of the year. 

Coven: Misty Day, Madison Montgomery, and Zoe Benson

-chiffon dress from rags_to_riches on Depop, pinstripe corset from hanpiercey, and tennis skirt from mollie_morton-

I hate to be a basic bitch but I have to say it: Coven is my favourite season of American Horror Story. Once you get over the complete waste of Evan Peters’ acting capabilities that resulted from the *choice* to have him play Kyle, the unnecessary rehash of the Evan/Taissa pairing from season 1 in what I can only assume was an attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the questionable Tate/Violet relationship, and the subsequent sacrifice of any interesting character arc we could’ve foreseen for Zoe Benson beyond her obsessing over a resurrected, non-verbal frat boy, it’s a perfect season. A supreme (heh) balance of horror, humour, and character drama, as well as the stunning aesthetics and forever quotable dialogue, make it my go-to season if I’m ever considering a rewatch. And if you disagree, let me jog your memory with the most mainstream (not to get all “normal people scare me” and suggest AHS is not a mainstream show, I literally just mean in the sense that even those who have never watched the show will have seen this)  reaction GIF set any FX show has even spawned:

Buzzfeed employees had a field day, Emma Roberts enthusiasts (I mean me) finally saw her cemented as the pop culture icon Scream Queens has since showed us she deserves to be (because not enough people have seen Unfabulous, Nancy Drew or Scream 4) and the gays everywhere rejoiced at the year’s worth of meme fodder they’d been provided with. It was Madison Montgomery’s world and we were truly just living in it.

And the fashion! I mean, Stevie Nicks meets 21st century teenage witches! Come on! 

Freakshow: Dandy Mott, Maggie Esmerelda and Elsa Mars

-olive green satin skirt from morganogle on Depop, headscarf from tonijordan, platform sandals from elliefewt, PVC skirt from bethpin_, corset top from sadieflinter, beret from house_of_erotique, flame detail platform boots from mad_rags_vintage-

When people talk about the declining quality of AHS, they usually point to Freakshow as the beginning of the end, but I have to completely disagree. I wasn’t a fan the first time round but on rewatch it’s probably the most emotional season of them all; no, there aren’t as many “horrifying” moments as in other seasons and Elsa is probably Jessica’s worst performance (which is still an incredible one by anybody else’s standards), however it makes up for it with the most sympathetic bunch of characters yet, and on the flip side, also one of the most amusingly depraved with Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott. Fans usually argue that the season went downhill once *SPOILER* Twisty the Clown was killed off but for me, he really primarily served as the catalyst for the far more interesting devolution of Dandy, who, imo, is the show’s strongest villain to date, rivalled only by Bloody Face. Then there was the episode Orphans too which made me cry buckets, the sole AHS episode to do so. 

We got a lot of great fashion content in this season too: the theatrical opulence of Elsa Mars’ wardrobe, “Maggie”’s nomadic fortune teller costumes, and all those twee suits we saw Finn Wittrock in. Highly underrated if you ask me. It seems an odd choice for me to use Elsa’s Dominatrix look as an inspiration for one of my looks here when we have that Life on Mars performance outfit and all the extravagant robes Jessica got to waltz around in for reference buuuut I didn’t really have anything to do the vibrancy of either of those justice so I went with the black leather option which is much more me. Am I saying I moonlight as a dominatrix? Maybe. Lol, no. I wish. It’s not for lack of trying. WHERE ARE ALL THE GENUINE TWITTER PAYPIGS AT!? Your girl wants to insult creepy men and get some new clothes out of it xoxo

Hotel: Hypodermic Sally, Liz Taylor, and The Countess

-silk white bralet from xlibby_maix on Depop-

Hotel is another season that I liked a lottttt more upon rewatch, once I knew I was okay to tune out the (completely predictable and utterly nonsensical) Ten Commandments Killer storyline that so much of the season initially seems to hinge on. I love Chloë Sevigny but the fact that her and Wes Bentley’s wooden John and Alex Lowe are positioned as the protagonists at the expense of the far more interesting Liz Taylor, James March and Hypodermic Sally really does a disservice to what is an otherwise great season upon initial viewing.

The visuals this season are magnificent and I think if I had to pick one character’s wardrobe to steal from the entire cast of AHS characters, it would be The Countess (a toss up between her and Misty Day tbh, so I kinda just settle for low-key channelling both). No fucking idea where I'd wear any of her clothes to but I’d make it work. Liz Taylor and Hypodermic Sally have some amazing looks too-there’s just honestly so much to choose from; that being said, this post wouldn’t be complete without a specific ode to the vampire goddess Elizabeth Bathory, who is everything I want to be in life minus the murderous qualities:

Everything. EVER-Y-THING. LOOK AT HER!

Lady Gaga is really a fucking goddess isn’t she. And people were claiming before they’d even seen it that she couldn’t act? A patriarchal society doesn’t like women that can do it all. Just saying. 

Anyways!

That’s it for now! I hope you enjoyed the post if you did read til the end! Sorry I couldn’t get this out before Halloween, I was typing and Picmonkey-ing madly from 2 in the afternoon on the 31st but I taking fucking forever to get ready and had to abandon all hope of getting it out on the day by 4PM. I’ve got so much content planned and it sucks because a couple of them are lookbooks which now feel completely redundant given we’re heading into a second lockdown, but maybe I should just do it anyway? The grunge inspired moodboard I just did seemed to get a good reception too so I’ve got some more of them planned. 

As always, hope everyone is keeping well, and feel free to inbox me with any suggestions, queries or even just to say hi if you need someone to talk to! I check here quite a lot so I should see it. Lots of love to everyone in this time!

Lauren x

[tanoraqui]

I have no idea what critical role is but you reblog it a lot. Is it just a bunch of people playing video games or something?

Critical Role is an ongoing RPG game (D&D 5e) played by a bunch of notable voice actors from video games, including Ashely Johnson (The Last of Us), Liam O’Brien (idk, he voiced some guy named Illidan somewhere? I know very little about video games), and Laura Bailey (she’s Laura goddamn Bailey). The Dungeon Master is Matthew Mercer (blanking - Overwatch cowboy) who’s REALLY GODDAMN GOOD at being a DM, and indeed does it as part of his full-time job now, because at some point they all went “fuck it” and incorporated as their own company. Because fuck yeah. Last spring (my god it was only last spring) they did a kickstarter to fund an animated series of some previous RPG adventures, and it broke several records and now - slowed by the global pandemic - there’s gonna be 2 seasons of an animated show, hosted by Amazon I think? (Every time I think about that I scream softly in excitement in my mind.)

It’s currently on its second big, multi-year campaign, with the adventuring party The Mighty Nein. Their previous campaign starred Vox Machina. Some highlights, arbitrarily mixed together, include:

that time Vox Machina had a cannonball contest, displaying their distinct personalities and powersets really well, actually

that time the Mighty Nein accidentally got into a fight with some smugglers and then the city guard, accidentally stole a ship, and thus, and I cannot emphasize this enough, accidentally became pirates

“Take me instead, you raven bitch.”  - Vax’ildan of Vox Machina, half-elven rogue, offering his own life to the goddess of death in exchange for his sister’s and (unbeknownst to him at the time) beginning of long character arc of multiclassing as a paladin

Vox Machina’s archnemeses: doors, and also the elderly

the Mighty Nein’s archnemeses: chairs

Veth Brenatto, sometimes Nott the Brave, of the Mighty Nein regaining - with the help of her friends - her halfling form after years as a goblin, and immediately dip-kissing her husband and kicking all aforementioned friends (and her son) out so they can have sex

Taliesin Jaffe had eerie luck with nat20s in the Vox Machina campaign, but I maintain that Laura Bailey [harp music] actually has the best record for narratively on-point nat20s, including but not limited to:

two consecutive nat20s as Vex’ahlia of Vox Machina, half-elven ranger, to shoot the Briarwoods (sexy wizard/vampire couple) when they were about to kill her brother

True Love’s Nat20, rolling as part of the resurrection ritual to bring back Percy (Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, human gunslinger of VM)

in the culminating moment of an episode in which the M9 one by one spoke with ancient, evil hag about what they might trade her in order to lift the curse on Nott, tiefling Jester Lavorre rolling at nat20 deception check to trick the into hag eating a cupcake laced with magic dust that lowered her ability to resist the Modify Memory curse Jester immediately cast, convincing the hag that she’d already agreed to the deal without demanding anything in return

not a Vex roll but Vex-enabled: dropping Grog (goliath barbarian) out of basically a magical pokeball with perfect dramatic timing for him to roll a nat20 final blow on his evil abusive uncle, cleaving him in twain

“Call me child one more goddamn time--”  - Keyleth of the Air Ashari, half-elven druid of VM, snarling at the ancient green dragon who’d orchestrated the destruction of 1/4 of Keyleth’s people

“You were not born with poison in your veins....Welcome to the Mighty Nein.”  - Caleb Widogast, human wizard, consoling/forgiving/welcoming aa lawful evil NPC who they’d caught playing a major part in creating a war between two empires for The Greater Ultimate Good (and kinda his own personal gain)...but he was their friend already at that point and Caleb had his own history with doing terrible things that he thought were right at the time, and actually someone else might’ve said the “Welcome to the Mighty Nein” part but that’s intrinsically part of it, and it’s...something they say to a lot of people; to a range of NPCs and guest characters. Which is interesting because Vox Machina DIDN’T; they were a tighter family unit but...well, they were a tighter family unit. And kinda...better people, more Heroes(TM)? Disastrous and often very fucked up inside and sometimes out, but Heroes(TM), on the whole. 

whereas the M9 are more trying to sort out their own personal problems, and stumble into international politics almost by mistake. Even their relationships with NPCs are different - they don’t trust, none of the M9 trust in a way VM did, the party took much longer to gel just with each other. Partly, admittedly, because by the time Vox Machina came to the YouTube screen, the cast had been playing at home for about a year, whereas we’ve been watching the M9 from level 1...but even accounting for that, they’re all much less trusting people. Most of them had big secrets in their backstory

which is why it’s all the more wonderful every time they invite someone new it, either outside the group or just with each other. And it pays off - I don’t have a whole meta, but I’ve been thinking idly for a while about how kinda...the big (DM-created) plot twists in the VM campaign were generally...disruptions, dissolutions, or betrayals? The deception of Raishan (aforementioned ancient green dragon.) Hotis’s assassination attempt on Vax, while disguised as a trusted NPC. When Emperor Uriel stepped down and before he’d even finished his speech, there was a sudden invasion of 4 goddamn ancient dragons. Whereas the M9...not only have no NPCs unexpectedly turned on them (the grievous actions of aforementioned lawful evil NPC were mostly pre-story), but it feels almost like a plot twist every time an NPC in authority is benevolent? Like, they arranged peace negotiations between the warring empires and I think every single fan and player was waiting with bated breath for it to all go wrong...and it didn’t. There’s a truce, now. Will it last? Who knows. Jester’s god turned out to not be a god at all, just an archfey in over his head, but he’s not trying to hurt anyone - he came clean and asked for help.

Idk, man. Critical Role streams on Twitch every Thursday at 7pm, or at least, it’ll keep doing so if public health concerns don’t make it take a break again, and it makes me unironically happy to watch, pretty much every time. The cast has great friend chemistry and, now that they’ve all warmed up to each other, so do the characters.

Episodes DO tend to be 3-4 hours long, shaving off maybe half an hour in the podcast versions, so be aware of that. But I just kind of set Thursday evenings aside and I love it. 

it’s funny bc I told my roommate I probably wasn’t going to go on a long emphatic ramble in response to this but Here We Are

[gyakutengagotoku]

GS4 vs AJ:AA - Episode 3, Part 2

Good, I’m not having problems with tumblr this time.

This one’s a bit on the shorter end, which I notice goes for many day 1 trials in cases with more than one trial day, but I can still find plenty of things to share, comment, and explain as always! Like with the previous episode, most of the bulk of work was from the introductions and initial setting.

While the previous one, I could squeal over Yakuza references and all that jazz, this one’s more for Klavier’s fans and classic rock junkies out there. I enjoy the occasional taste of rock too, but sorry, I’m forever a Eurobeat gal.

Oh, if only there were a future AA case about street racing... You just know that Edgeworth would be on that case. He’s probably the only prosecutor (besides maybe Klavier) who can make a sick drift and would know a thing or two about cars. Too bad for the car-less defense attorneys at the Wright Anything Agency, though.

--

> Courtroom

> 1st Witness Testimony, press 1st statement

<Apollo> “なくした”っていう発想は ないのかな。 Isn't it possible he simply misplaced them?

<Klavier> “なくした”で済むか！ Misplaced them!?

カギはその後、死体の手に ニギられていたんだぞ！ Misplaced items don't just wander into a murder victim's hand on their own!

<Judge> な。なんですって‥‥！ そ。それでは‥‥ What's this!? Prosecutor Gavin, if your keys were in the victim's hand...

ハンニンはあなた自身ということに なるではないですかッ！ That makes you a prime suspect!

<Klavier> ‥‥♪　“遅効性の恋は アトロキニーネ”‥‥ ..."Love, slow-acting and new. Atroquinine... is waiting for you..."

<Trucy> ハナウタ、歌ってます。 He's singing something.

<Apollo> 大物だよな。なんにしても。 Does everything with this guy have to be so over-the-top?

Just wanna share lyrics. The original line, taken literally, is "Slow-acting love [is like] Atroquinine", but it's so vague that it can be reworded many ways, since it’s a song lyric.

> Press 4th statement

<Klavier> 部屋から脱出できる出口は、 あの通気口だけだった！ That air vent was the only way out of the room!

そして、そこには、 被告人の指紋が残っていた！ The defendant's fingerprints were found on the grill!

‥‥さあ、おデコくん！ ...Well, Herr Forehead?

ここから、キミは どんな“物語”を想像するかい？ What fairy tale does this suggest to you?

<Apollo> ぐ‥‥ッ！ Urk...!

<Klavier> ‥‥ちなみに。その通気口‥‥ Only one could pass through that vent, that "doorway to heaven"...

“天国のトビラ”をくぐることが できたのは‥‥その妖精だけ、さ。 ...and that one is our pixie.

Another song reference, but instead of a "Stairway to Heaven", it's a vent-way.

I've been watching way too much Among Us lately... but this episode from back in 2007 seems suspiciously related to a 2018 game, somehow.

> Finish pressing, present any evidence

<Apollo> 検察側の主張をくつがえす‥‥ これが、その証拠品です！ This evidence does more than contradict, it flips the whole case on its head!

<Judge> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ......

<Klavier> どうやら、ぼくの言った通り。 ハッキリとした“反証”のようだね。 Thank you for presenting evidence that is both clear and plain, as requested.

<Judge> たしかに‥‥ ハッキリ“ちがう”と分かります！ Yes... Clearly and plainly wrong!

その証拠品で、検察側の主張を くつがえすことはできません！ I'm afraid the only thing flipped on its head here was you as a child, Mr. Justice.

<Apollo> （うう‥‥ちがったのか‥‥） (Ugh... I guess that wasn't it.)

Savage, Your Honor! The original line seems a bit disappointing in comparison: "This evidence doesn't overturn the prosecution's case at all!" That said, it does give me an idea for where the "flip on its head" phrasing came from.

> Select "no proof"

<Apollo> 反証のジュンビは‥‥ あ、ありません。 I... don't have contradicting proof, actually.

<Judge> そうですか。 それでは、さっさと判決を‥‥ Too bad. Very well, this court finds the defendant...

<Hold it!>

<Trucy> ま、待ってください！ W-Waaait!

<Judge> な、なんですか。 Wh-What for?

<Trucy> 弁護側には‥‥えーと。 は、“はんしょー”でしたっけ？ We have, uh, what was it called? Contradictual proof?

と、とにかく！ ジュンビがありますッ！ Anyway, whatever it is, we've got it!

Meanwhile, I think this line from Trucy seems a bit out of place when "contradicting proof" isn't a very difficult phrase to say. Maybe they could have thrown in something sillier like "contradicting poof- I mean, proof!" and it'd work pretty well. In JP, she's still learning her words and especially kanji, so she usually pronounces words correctly, but doesn't write them out in the text.

I like to think that whenever Odoroki speaks and uses phrases that she isn't as familiar with, she actually breaks the fourth wall and takes notes on his textboxes. Hey, learning from your peers is a great way to study! Learning Japanese with your fave Ace Attorney characters is even better.

> Ask for new witness

<Apollo> 牙琉検事‥‥ まちがいありませんか？ Prosecutor Gavin, you claim that there were no witnesses to this crime.

『この事件に、 　目撃者はいなかった』‥‥ Are you absolutely sure?

<Klavier> マチガイないね。‥‥誓ってもいい。 この検事生命と‥‥ Absolutely. I'd swear it on my career as a prosecutor...

１００万枚を売り上げたヒット曲、 《恋のアトロキニーネ》にかけて。 And on my million-seller hit song "Atroquinine, My Love".

<Trucy> ‥‥さりげなく ジマンされちゃいましたね。 ...There he goes again.

<Apollo> ザンネンながら‥‥ この事件には、目撃者がいたのです。 That's too bad, because there was a witness.

Minor tweaking to song titles again. It was "Atroquinine of Love" before.

> 2nd Witness Testimony, present at 3rd statement, Perceive at 6th statement but point wrongly

<Apollo> あなたのココロの動き‥‥ オレには分かるんですよ。 You may have seen the world, but I've seen your heart.

あなたは、今の証言をするとき、 動揺していましたね！ You were flustered during your testimony just now!

<Lamiroir> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ......

<Lamiroir> あなたの言っていることが、 よく分からないのですが‥‥ I do not understand what it is you are saying.

それは、日本語のジョーク か何かですか？　さっぱりです。 Perhaps this is a joke, in your culture?

Making a note here about culture: It's characteristic of Japanese that since they have so many homophones and alike-sounding words or phrases, it's fairly simple to come up with puns out of the blue. You hear it all the time with Japanese comedians and writers who just can't help themselves and have to throw in a pun here or there. And because they can show up so suddenly, it can catch the audience off-guard, so they're more likely to appreciate the humor.

Relatively speaking, of course; as with any language, there are also those kinds of puns that are super obvious and cringy when delivered. As a language buff myself, I'm still fascinated with what goes into creating puns in the first place, whether or not they're cringy or clever.

> Present evidence to Lamiroir's contradiction to her own testimony

<Apollo> そして、こうも証言しました。 事件については“何も見ていない” Furthermore, you testified that you had "seen nothing".

<Lamiroir> ‥‥！ ...!

<Apollo> お分かりですね‥‥ レタス氏が“撃たれた”ことを‥‥ Yet you knew that Mr. LeTouse had been shot!

あなたが、 知っているはずがないのです！ How could you have known!?

<Lamiroir> ！　‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ...!

<Lamiroir> きゃあああああああああああッッ！ Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooowrk!

<Judge> ラミロアさん！ Lamiroir!

‥‥あなた、まさか。 何かをかくしているのでは‥‥ You aren't hiding something from this court, I hope!

<Lamiroir> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ......

<Apollo> （ラミロアさんはウソをついた‥‥ 　ゼッタイに何かを隠している！） (That sweet song of hers was sounding a little too sweet!)

So, I'm not sure why Lamiroir's cries were localized to this. It sounds like something so out of place from someone whose voice is so beautiful and melodic usually. Maybe that was the point? Like, it's a subtle nod to sudden record-scratches or sudden cuts in a piece of music?

Fyi, Odoroki's last line here was simply: "(Lamiroir-san was lying... She has to be hiding something!)"

> Press newest (7th) statement

<Apollo> ほんの少ししか見ていないのに、 よく“弾痕”だと分かりましたね。 Only a glimpse, yet you knew they were bullet holes?

<Lamiroir> ‥‥‥‥ええ。 一目で分かりましたわ。 Yes. I recognized them immediately.

以前にも、銃の弾痕を、 見たことがありますから‥‥。 I have seen bullet holes before, you know.

<Klavier> アナタは歌い手として、 世界中を回られていますからね。 You have traveled the world as a singer...

この国よりも治安の悪い地域で、 歌われることもあるでしょう。 You must have sung in places far more dangerous than our country.

<Lamiroir> わたくしの歌が必要とされるならば、 どこにでも行かせていただきますわ。 I go wherever my voice is needed. Those places... are many, these days.

<Trucy> かっこいいですね！　ラミロアさん。 みぬきも、いつかは海外に出たいな。 That's really cool! I hope I get to travel like Lamiroir some day.

<Klavier> ぼくも、レコーディングは 海外ですると決めていますよ。 I plan on recording my next album overseas.

むこうのスタジオは、 音のヌケがちがいますからね。 Their studios have a different sound, you know.

<Apollo> （へえ‥‥それは、発声練習にも 　良さそうだな‥‥） (Hmm. Maybe I should go on a Chords of Steel tour, too.)

And this last line is totally different. "(Huh... it sounds like they'd be great for vocal training too...)"

("Far more dangerous", huh... Maybe she previously had a tour in the Republic of Zheng Fa... and maybe the Kingdom of Khura'in too.)

> 3rd Witness Testimony, finish pressing, select "There's a problem"

> 4th Witness Testimony

<Apollo> （すっかり忘れていた‥‥ 　オレの知らないところで‥‥） (I admit, I'd forgotten about the song...)

（そんなトンでもないオチが 　ついていたなんて！） (But there it is now, waiting for me... the grand finale, as it were.)

<Trucy> あ！　それに最初に気がついたの、 みぬきですからね、みぬき！ Hey! You know I was the one who first noticed that!

<Judge> “歌詞”に合わせて殺人など‥‥ I've heard of jumping rope to songs, and counting to songs...

“かぞえ歌”と“手まり歌”だけの 世界だと思っていました！ ...But killing!?

<Klavier> 世界は、おジイさんが 思っていたより広い、ってコトだね。 It's a wild world out there, Herr Judge.

<Judge> それでは！ Very well!

この、ナゾの歌を踏まえた上で、 尋問をおねがいします！ We've heard one song and dance, let's get on to the next: the cross-examination!

<Apollo> （ベツに、歌にはナゾはないと 　思うけど‥‥） (I'm not so sure I'm going to be doing much singing...)

By the way, "手まり歌" (temari uta) is roughly like playing handball to a song. A temari is a ball of usually extra kimono cloth wrapped together with fabric. Over Japanese history, it went from a handmade toy to embroidery art. Link to Wikipedia.

Also, "Wild World" is a 1971 hit song by Cat Stevens too. With all the talk of songs, I figured the loc team might have been able to slip in a subtle nod.

Last couple lines there: "Let's build on this mystery song and begin the cross-examination!" "(I don't think the song itself is the mystery here, though...)"

10/21/20 edit: Ash has enlightened me to one of Takumi’s inspirations. Like Agatha Christie’s And There Was None and Van Dine’s The Bishop Murder Case, where a murder seems to follow a nursery rhyme, a classic Japanese mystery novel by Seishi Yokomizo, Akuma no Temari Uta, is a murder mystery that follows the rhymes of a song.

And now looking into his works, I just realized this man is also the legend who wrote the iconic private eye Kosuke Kindaichi. Yeah, the same guy who’s said to be the grandfather to the MC of the Kindaichi Case Files manga, by Yozaburo Kanari. What a small world we live in, after all.

> Press 1st statement

<Klavier> なかなか悪くないじゃないか、 刑事クン。イイ声してるよ。 Bravo, Fräulein Detective. Your singing... it's not bad.

‥‥そして、最後のパート。 Now, for the finale!

“Ｇｕｉｔａｒ，Ｇｕｉｔａｒ‥‥ 　ふたりは空へ” "Guitar, Guitar... Up together to the sky."

この歌詞の通り、 盗まれたレタス氏の死体は‥‥ As it says in the lyrics, Mr. LeTouse...

“空高く”そびえるステージ の上で発見された。 ...was found with a guitar, high in the "sky" over the stage.

どうだい？　これだけ一致してたら。 もう偶然とはいえないさ。 No series of coincidences could be so well conceived!

<Ema> ‥‥カガク的に言ってもね。 He's right. ...Scientifically speaking.

<Apollo> （‥‥一体、 　なんのコンサートだよ‥‥） (What would Wocky have said? ..."That concert was wack.")

<Trucy> あんな風に気持ち良さそうに 歌われたら、反論できませんね‥‥ It's hard to argue when she pours her heart into it like that.

<Ema> ‥‥えーと。と、とにかく！ 犯人は‥‥ Ah, er, ahem! Anyway, the shooter...

Aw, I really wish I could have actually heard Ema sing... or at least hear her textbox beeps change in tone to the music. That would be a bit of extra coding work, though.

By the way, Odoroki was talking about: "(...What kind of concert was this supposed to be...?)"

> Press 4th statement again

<Ema> おそらく、犯人と被害者の距離は、 ２メートルもなかったはずです。 Furthermore, there was no more than five feet between shooter and victim.

これは、ハズすほうが ムズカシイぐらいの距離です。 Hard to miss at that distance.

<Trucy> でも、マキさんは、 目が不自由だったから‥‥ But, Machi can't see...

<Ema> おそらく、“音”と“気配”に たよって、撃った‥‥ He would have had to use sound and other senses to aim...

だから、ハズれたのでしょう。 ...and miss.

<Klavier> ‥‥部屋には大音量で ぼくたちのナンバーが流れていた。 And our music was blaring over the room monitor.

音を聞くには、 不利な状況だったと言えるよ。 Not the best circumstances for aiming by sound.

<Ema> だから‥‥ハンニンは、 目が見えなかった人物‥‥ Which makes it very likely that the shooter was blind.

<Klavier> これが、検察側の主張だよ‥‥ Thus the prosecution's position.

<Ema> うーん！　やっぱり、 カガク的説明って気持ちいいわね！ Ahh! Nothing like a scientific explanation to get the blood pumping!

<Apollo> （今は、 　まったく同意できないよ‥‥） (Why's mine frozen in my veins, then...?)

It was just "(I can't agree with that sentiment at all...)" but I also wanted to make a joke about about "Apopsico".

> Press 5th statement

<Apollo> か、歌詞になぞらえた殺人だって、 じゅうぶん、非カガク的です！ What's so scientific about a murder to lyrics!?

<Ema> 何よ！　それぐらい‥‥カガクで 解明できるに決まってるでしょ！ Lyrics can be explained scientifically!

<Ema> カガクを甘く見ると‥‥ ケガするわよッ！ ...Never underestimate the power of science!

<Apollo> （うわ！　指紋検出粉のビンを、 　ふりかぶりながら言うなよ‥‥） (Put that bottle of finger- printing powder down before you hurt someone, like me!)

じゃ、じゃあ！ 解明してみせてくださいよ！ OK, then explain it! Scientifically!

<Ema> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ......

まあ。それには、まだデータが 足りないかな‥‥ I require more data.

<Apollo> （なんだよ、それ！） (Hah! Likely story...)

"(What kind of weak excuse is that!?)"

> Press 6th statement

<Ema> そのことは、楽屋にいた全員に 知らされていました。 Everyone backstage was told about the maintenance.

だから‥‥当然。 マキさんも知っていた。 ...Including Machi Tobaye.

キャタツをのぼれば‥‥そこに、 “脱出口”がある、と‥‥ He would have known that there would be a way out at the top of that stepladder.

<Apollo> そ、そんな‥‥！ 今、初めて聞きましたよ！ But that's... Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this!?

<Klavier> ‥‥なぜ、あんなところに キャタツがあったか‥‥ You could have figured it out for yourself.

それを考えれば、 カンタンにわかると思うけどね。 You only needed to consider what that stepladder was doing there.

<Judge> ‥‥どうやら、弁護人の異議は、 キャタツに押しつぶされたようです。 ...Looks like the defense's objection has been squished by a stepladder.

<Klavier> どうかな？　おデコくん‥‥ Well, Herr Forehead?

もう、この証人の主張を ひっくり返す武器はないのかい？ Out of ammunition, perhaps?

<Apollo> （‥‥なんだ？　この、牙琉検事の 　挑戦的なタイド） (I've never seen Prosecutor Gavin so... so aggressive!)

（なんか、“不自然”な気が‥‥） (Maybe he's caught the scent of blood...)

That last line has gotten a bit more dressing to it. It went "(Maybe he's caught onto something 'unnatural'...)"

> Accept the prosecution's challenge, but present wrongly

<Judge> ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ......

<Judge> その証拠品に、検察側の主張を 崩すチカラがあるとは思えません。 I'm not sure that overturns anything, Mr. Justice.

<Apollo> （うう。ちがったのか‥‥） (Ugh. Wrong evidence, I'm guessing...)

<Klavier> オドロキ・イズ・ブラインド‥‥ 何も見えてないのは、キミだったね。 Apparently both love... and Justice are blind.

<Apollo> （考えるんだ！ 　何でもいい‥‥何かないのか！） (I have to think! There must be something... anything!)

"Odoroki Is Blind... Seems like you're the one who can't see anything."

(I capitalized that because Kyouya said it in English.)

> Present photo of crime, point out the contradiction, Klavier takes the lead

<Klavier> ‥‥お楽しみはこれからだよ。 おデコくん。 This is where the real fun begins, Herr Forehead!

<Apollo> ぎゃああああああああああああああ あああッ！ Yeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggh!

<Klavier> ‥‥さすがに、ヒトが悪かったかな。 I knew you didn't have what it took.

<Ema> サイテーです！ You... You jerk!

あたし、ナニしに来たか わからないじゃないですか！ Just what was I in here for? Comic relief!?

<Trucy> そうですよ！　あやまりなさい！ Yeah! Apologize!

<Klavier> はっはっはっ。 いやいや、ごめんね。 Ah ha ha. Oh, sorry!

<Trucy> なんですかそれ！ ちゃんとアタマさげる！ That's no way to apologize!

<Apollo> （やれやれ‥‥タイヘンな騒ぎに 　なっちまったな） (He's angered the Trucy now. Look out...)

"(Oh boy... This trial has turned into one huge ruckus.)"

> Point out reason why Machi had to pretend to be blind (or not, it continues either way)

> 5th Witness Testimony, press 1st statement

<Apollo> どうして見えなくなったのかも、 分からないのですね‥‥ So, you don't know why you went blind?

<Lamiroir> ‥‥その通りです。 ...I do not.

もしかすると、生まれつき 見えなかったのかもしれませんわ。 I may have been born this way, in fact.

<Klavier> ‥‥彼女の過去について、 余計なセンサクは無用だよ。 ...It's fruitless to attempt to pry into her past.

これは、きわめてデリケートな モンダイだからね‥‥ And, I might add, it's a delicate subject.

<Judge> 弁護人にデリケートを期待するのは、 少々ムリがありますからな。 I'm not sure we can reasonably expect Mr. Justice to do anything delicately.

<Apollo> （シツレイな‥‥ 　たしかにあまり自信はないけど） (Hey! Why I oughta... take a deep breath and calm down.)

"(Hey... though I actually don't have much confidence about that either.)"

> Press 5th statement

<Judge> 《もくげきしゃ‥‥めがみ》 でしたかな。 "The witness... siren"?

何度も聞かされましたぞ。 弁護人の、迫真のモノマネつきで。 We've heard them many times. Along with a little play-acting by our defense.

<Klavier> 最後のコトバは、死神にノドを つかまれて、闇に消えてしまった。 I remember them well myself, but that statement is not to what I refer.

‥‥あのコトバには、 “つづき”があったんだよ。 I mean what he said before that.

<Apollo> “つづき”‥‥ （“めがみ”につづくコトバ‥‥） ...Before? (What came before that...?)

あッ！ Ack!

<Klavier> ‥‥そう。レタス氏は、 こう言おうとしていたんだよ。 ...That's right. He tried to tell you.

《事件のことは、目撃者に聞け。 　ただし‥‥その証人は‥‥》 When he said "can't see" he wasn't talking about himself.

《“目が見えないぞ”》 ‥‥ってね。 He was talking about the witness!

<Judge> めがみ‥‥えない‥‥ “目が見えない”ですか‥‥ッ！ I see!

<Klavier> “目が見えない”のは、 ラミロアさんだけではなかったねえ。 Too bad the defense did not.

どうだい？　おデコくん。 Well, Herr Forehead?

少しは落ち着いて、モノゴトを よく“見て”みたらどうかな。 Try relaxing and "looking" at the facts first next time.

<Apollo> ‥‥ぐうッ！ ...Urk!

For this entry, it's entirely a matter of how LeTouse's last words had to be translated. The original Japanese script didn't leave a lot for him, and there were places where it was quite ambiguous. As it turns out, he wasn't saying "megami", as in "Goddess", but "me ga mienai", as in "unable to see".

"It was... 'The witness... Megami', if I recall. We've heard them many times, with a little play-acting by our defense." "His final words, just before Death clasped on his throat and he was consumed by darkness. ...Those words had something 'following' them." "('Following'... 'Megami'...?) Ah!" "...That's right. This is what LeTouse-san was telling you: 'Ask the witness about the incident. However... that witness...' 'cannot see.' "Megami... enai... You mean, 'me ga mienai'...!?" "Though, it wasn't just Lamiroir-san who 'didn't see'."

> Finish pressing

<Judge> ‥‥ごくろうさまでした、眉月刑事。 たいへん、参考になりました。 Thanks for looking into that for us, Detective Crescend. It's a great help.

<Daryan> いやいや。 かまいませんよ、裁判長さん。 Oh, no problem at all, Your Honor.

‥‥それじゃ、オレはこれで‥‥ ...I'll be heading out...

<Hold it!>

<Lamiroir> 待ってください‥‥！ Wait!

<Judge> ど。どうかしましたか？ ラミロアさん‥‥ La-Lamiroir! Is something the matter?

<Lamiroir> 今の、その声‥‥ That voice just now...

<Klavier> ダイアンが、なにか‥‥？ Daryan?

<Lamiroir> ミスター・ダイアン‥‥ というのですか。 Mr. Daryan, is it...?

‥‥‥‥‥‥彼、です。 まちがいありません。 ............ It was him. I am sure of it.

<Judge> “彼”‥‥なにが、ですかな‥‥？ It was "him"?

<Klavier> ‥‥ッ！　ま。まさか‥‥ Y-You aren't saying--!?

<Lamiroir> ２発の銃声を聞いたとき‥‥ レタスさんと話していた声‥‥ That voice I heard, talking to Mr. LeTouse... when I heard the gunshots fired.

そう。今の方です！ ミスター・ダイアン！ It was him! It was Mr. Daryan!

Just making a point here since I forgot to last post: Lamiroir and later Machi are the only ones who still call people using "Mr." in English, in the JP script. However, for the briefest moment here, she refers to Mr. LeTouse with the general -san suffix instead, and I don't think this was something that was simply overlooked, since the line immediately after, where she accuses Daryan/Daian, she goes back to using "Mr." Perhaps Lamiroir is getting more and more in-tune with her other language outside of Borginese?

--

...I'm still sticking to my Poland theory, but they could be like a mix of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia... around there in Eastern Europe.

[marithlizard]

Ace Attorney: Rise From the Ashes (part 1)

A couple of people expressed interest in a writeup as I play through the game, so I thought I’d give quasi-liveblogging a try.   It might have come out to be too detailed - let me know if the result is amusing enough to go through the next part.  

(I knew this already, but wow liveblogging is a lot of work.   And it must take twice as much effort to do this for a show and to include screencaps.)

(I’ve tried three times now to put proper line breaks/spacing in, and they’re just not displaying, at least on desktop. I’m sorry.)

A brief,  stylized opening designed not to give away much, except that a creepy-looking doll is involved.

 Two months?  Phoenix, you haven't taken a single client since Maya left?    a) are you depressed, and b) how are you paying rent on the office?

Ookay, you're not going to tell us why you've been moping around. I don't think it's that you have a crush on Maya.  Are you just not able to function without a partner?   That's not great for your ability to survive, but I can sympathize.  

 New perky assistant, right on cue.  (A partner who isn't a young girl would be a nice change now and then. (But not Larry.  Anyone but Larry. In fact, I take it back, this girl with the pink sunglasses will do just fine.))

Oof,  Phoenix still not being able to say out loud that Mia's dead.

In the first two minutes pink-glasses girl has asserted that he's his female boss, the coffee boy, and 'better than nothing'.   Aha!  The problem with all the clients he turned down was that they didn't insult him enough.

Kid, you can't be more than sixteen, and you have silly face buttons  on your lab coat.  You are about as much a scientific investigator as Photography Girl last episode was a journalist.   ...But apparently you have a future job lined up in forensics, so you're more organized than she was.  And this world certainly could use more competent crime scene analysis.  

"I promised her I'd bring Mia Fey".  Huh.  Is Mia's murder not well-known to the public,  then, even though the Edgeworth case apparently got famous enough to earn Phoenix a bit of a reputation?

A murder charge with an eyewitness, and an assistant who "kind of hates" her sister the defendant.  Sounds hopeless, let's do it! Off to the Detention Center. 

...Did we just overhear the defendant threatening their terrified guard with a pay freeze?  Is she their boss? And if she's someone that high up, why doesn't she already have a better defense attorney?

I like Lana Skye's character design. She looks as though she should be starring in a Takurazuka revue show, swearing eternal star-crossed love to a princess.  

She insists she did it.  By genre convention we know that can't be the case; my first assumption is that she's being forced to cover for someone, blackmailed  or coerced  by someone higher up in the system.   But it would certainly be interesting if it  turned out she was covering for Ema.  

Must....resist...plotbunnies...

Oookay.  A prosecutor should certainly know ways to commit murder without getting caught, and this sounds like the opposite of those ways.    WHY does she claim she did this?  You're not even going to ask her, are you?  *headdesk*

Ema:  "Please ignore that totally gay statement by my sister,  because I certainly plan to!"

Lana: "No don't help me, go away go away go away go away go awa-oh fine."

Hmmm.  From Ema's description of the behavior change,  Lana has been being blackmailed or coerced for a long time now.

Time to go investigate the underground parking garage.

Attorneys aren't supposed to examine crime scenes, and defense attorneys aren't entitled to a copy of the police investigation reports.  What does a "normal" defense attorney in this world do for their clients then?  Always assume a loss and try to negotiate a plea bargain?  I wonder if we'll ever get to see one in action.

It's...a cop with a cowboy fetish?  Do police not have dress codes here?  Maybe they're waived above a certain level,  and some people take pride in cultivating a unique style to show off that they can.  It would explain Edgeworth.  

You are dramatically pretending to shave in front of us.  Also you just called Ema a baby cow.  Although you know her and seem sympathetic - I guess Lana brought her little sister to the office sometimes?  Not sure what I think of you, Jake Marshall.

I am revising my stance. Being Phoenix's partner on a case requires precise and narrow qualifications.  Specifically, just enough sense to stop him from doing something breathtakingly stupid, but not enough sense to take the badge firmly away from him and do the job themselves.   Ema fits the bill perfectly.

Ooh, new mechanic!  And an ID card number for a Bruce Goodman who dresses like a white-hat agent in Spy vs Spy. (I was trained on games that would require you to write that number down and remember it later, but AA will certainly be more forgiving.)  

Using the new mechanic on Phoenix's attorney badge,  I deduce that at some point this game it will be stolen.  

It doesn't explain Lana's supposed actions, but that red sports car does kind of scream "My owner is a jerk, stuff a body in my trunk."   Instead of a chalk outline, they seem to have outlined the hanging body with string?  Is that actually a technique, and how do they get the rope to stay put in precise outline?

And the cowboy gives them a hint.  So he's  on their side but constrained by rules?

Lady put the boobs away.  Why are you selling sushi in a negligee under a fur coat, at a crime scene?  And why would anyone trust food from someone whose nickname is "the Cough-Up Queen"?

Angel Starr, dominatrix lunch lady.   It says something that this is not the weirdest witness in an AA game so far.

She hates prosecutors, and therefore especially Lana. Not a trustworthy witness. But it's probably no fun to cater for a group of (relatively) wealthy and powerful people you despise.   Especially if they're smugly giving awards to each other as they eat lunches.  (Eeeevil lunches.  She probably coughs on them.)

"The rhythmic beat of Lana Skye's knife"...  very poetic, but didn't Lana say the victim was stabbed only once?

We can't get back to the car, phooey, so up to the prosecutor's office we go.

Pink...everywhere...no question whose office this is, even if one of his outfits wasn't framed on the wall.  (why do you frame an outfit?)     I see a very ugly trophy on the sofa, so he's the one who won the award.

Ema:  "this is the kind of room that just screams 'I can do the job'. Actually it screams 'I don't need to pretend to be heterosexual', but the two aren't unconnected.    

Is it just me or is that trophy broken off at the top?

Edgeworth did you just roll with being insulted and make a joke about it?   I'm so proud of you, you've clearly relaxed since your murder trial!

BWAHAHA of course it was Edgeworth's car.

Wendy the security guard from the Steel Samurai case is sending Edgeworth expensive presents??   a) that's both funny and a little sad,  b) how can she afford it,  and c)  he keeps and displays them which is very courteous.

WAIT did you - did this game just heavily suggest Gumshoe hangs out in the office a lot?  Twice, once when you look at the shelves and again when you look at the desk?  I don't ship it, but this is the point where I start to see why people do.

Awwww he's embarrassed about the trophy, that's cute.    So he's the one who "devours the evillest lunches of all",  hmm?   I wouldn't have thought the Cough-Up Queen's weird not-even-fresh lunches would appeal to Edgeworth's refined tastes.

Ema actually has a bit of a crush, from the way she's rhapsodizing about Edgeworth sleeping on the sofa.  d'awww.   And I definitely want to know the story behind the outfit.  Made by his mom and too precious to wear?

Edgeworth, no one thinks you did it.   Sheesh.  He certainly doesn't sound happy about having to prosecute Lana,  even though he believes she's guilty.  His car, his knife... it almost seems like this is a plot aimed at him, or perhaps a plot against Lana with a healthy dose of fuck-you-too-Edgeworth to it.

Huh.  Maybe it *is* aimed at him. I've been assuming all this time from his behavior on the stand that Edgeworth has indeed been messing with evidence to convict obviously innocent people, and also assuming that it's common practice in this corrupt justice system. (Much as it is in Japan and in the US).  But the way he's talking about rumors right now, it sounds more like he's being slandered.  And he thinks the award he was given was out of mockery.  Ouch.

So yes, the trophy is broken.   (In RWBY, you assume everything is a gun;  in AA, you assume everything is a murder weapon.  It probably broke when it was used to hit someone over the head.)

Evidence transferal day, huh?  Was the murder timed to draw attention away from a case being closed?    And Edgeworth parked his car only three minutes before Goodman was stabbed  and thrown into its trunk?    No way.  He was there for the murder, or more likely that's not when the murder happened.   (Is he being coerced like Lana?  I don't think so, but it's possible.)

Enter an idiot mailman with a bandaged hand.  And exit, with sniveling. What was that about?

And a hint to go investigate at the police station.  Is Edgeworth being friendly, attempting to signal something, or merely aware that the most efficient way to get rid of Phoenix is to give him a clue to chase?

The police department entrance, with some sort of plywood jester figure in front of it.  We're offhandedly informed that it took 30 minutes to get there from Edgeworth's office, which means that will be important later.

This is the creepy doll from the intro! It's clearly meant to be a mascot. Was it made by the sniveling mailman?  There's  a certain resemblance...

No, I should've guessed that Gumshoe made it.   I mean ... mechanically it's pretty clever for someone who's not a craftsman or engineer?  Moving articulated limbs and all.  It's just the aesthetics and design he shouldn't have been allowed anywhere  near.

Yes, yes it is odd that only the top-ranked people are being allowed to work on the case. Are they all in on it?    A patrolman in charge of the crime scene instead of a detective - that suggests Marshall is part of the conspiracy.  I'm thinking the dominatrix lunch lady is too.

Gumshoe is so happy about the prosecutor's award - Edgeworth probably didn't have the heart to say that for him it's a mockery.  Daww.  (Also there's something endearingly cheerful about  his hopping-caterpillar eyebrows.)   He's also being much more helpful than his superiors would want, probably just because he thinks of Phoenix as an ally in general now.  

Back to the parking lot, with a letter of introduction in hand this time.

I genuinely can't tell if the lunch lady is a sex worker, if she actually has multiple boyfriends, or if that's code for her professional contacts in whatever she's really doing here.   (And that's an interesting cultural bit, isn't it - any of those options seem possible, and I'm not expecting any of the characters to question her competence or morality because of it, not even in court.   If this was a US-made game my expectations would be...different.)

"Good men always die young"...I see what you did there, Marshall.    

Autopsy report confirms one stab wound.  Lana and the victim worked together on "a case a few years back", ding ding ding.   Someone didn't want the evidence for that case transferred. Or looked at. 

 Marshall used to be a detective but got demoted?  And he's lying about why he was assigned to the crime scene, and telling us Gumshoe is off the case because he's friends with Edgeworth.  The police chief, whoever he is, is now at the top of my suspect list.

 Happily, the game will let me do dumbass things like show off Goodman's ID card without consequences.  Marshall seems very uninterested in it and why it was found so far from the spot of the murder, which I take to mean "we have our official narrative, don't go messing it up with facts or evidence." 

Finally we can examine the car!  First up, Lana's cellphone.  The whole business about hitting redial and somehow not knowing that Ema's phone rang was weird.  Phoenix’s lie couldn't possibly have fooled Marshall, who is bizarrely claiming there's no way to know who the last call was made to.  It's an odd thing to conceal, even given the “no facts please we have our narrative” stance.  Maybe he's trying to protect Ema somehow?) 

 Marshall said the rumors about Edgeworth came from Lana.  And we have a note found  in the trunk:  6-7S 12/2, on a piece of Goodman's stationery.  

 Er, yeah, Ema, why didn't you mention your sister called you 3 minutes after the claimed murder time?  If Lana hung up right away that's hardly incriminating for either of you.

 End of Day One!  We are, as usual, completely unprepared for tomorrow morning's trial.

[thereismoretomylifethenice]

Rules: Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Don’t cheat. Tag some people. I was tagged by @throughtimeillbethere

1. Magnificent Seven (1998)

2. Midsomer Murders (Series 1-6 at least)

3. Miss Marple 

4. Agatha Christie’s Poirot

5. Frozen

Who is your favourite character in 2? Gavin Troy (Hence why he’s over on “ANoseForRottenApples”). I just get a kick out of him because he’s young, he’s learning as he goes and he has really decent instincts but he often talks himself out of following them. He’s also a little rough around the edges sometimes but he really is trying. Sometimes you’re like “Troy, you’re an idiot” but he’s also trying to hard that I find it endearing and his character grows quite decently over the years he was on the show.

Who is your least favourite character in 1? M7 is one of those rare shows were all the characters are pretty solid and I like them all (or dislike them in the best way possible if they’re a baddie). If I had to pick one, I’d say it was probably Will Richmond from “Wagon Train Pt. 1 & 2”. Namely put, he’s just kind of an idiot. Treats his wife bad and then gets bent out of shape when she starts flirting with Vin. He’s busy telling Josiah how much he loves his wife and what she means to him but it never occurs to him to actually tell her that. Spends a lot of time being somewhat needlessly antagonistic with the guys (Vin is understandable given that Vin tried to run off with Will’s wife but the rest of the guys are just doing a job and Will’s pointlessly making everyone’s lives harder).  He’s just kind of an ‘ehhh” character for me.

What is your favorite episode of 4? All of these episodes are works of art but “The Lost Mine” from Series 2 is one that I find myself watching particularly often.  There are just so many little bits in it that I love—Inspector Japp still has his sergeant backing him up, the on-going Monopoly game that Hasting and Poirot have going and the conclusion is just really well done. Also the complete face-palm moment of Japp, while investigating the murder of a Chinese man, finds a notebook in the man’s suitcase and declares that the fact it’s all written in Chinese is “very suspicious”.

What is your favourite season of 5? There are no Seasons in Frozen, given that it’s a set of movies. My favorite movie is the first one though—Frozen 2 is good but I feel like Frozen 1 just had better pacing and didn’t feel quite as rushed as the second one. The second movie was better on re-watches but the first time through it was just like “This plot is moving at a breakneck pace! What is happening???” (Or I’ve just been spoiled by watching too many British murder mystery series that tend to be slower in pace and build things up carefully.”

Who is your favourite couple in 3? There are no long-running couples in this series but I ship the daylights out of Louisa Oxley and Alfred Pollock in “Greenshaw’s Folly”. They’re only in one episode (which are all movie length) and they’re so freaking adorable!

Who is your favourite couple in 2? Again…shipping was not the main focus of this show but I do like Inspector Tom Barnaby and his wife Joyce. In American shows, if cops are married, they’re usually getting divorced or having constant fights with them. It’s nice to see a cop who’s in a stable, happy relationship for a change. Also I feel like there could have been some fun things done with Troy and Barnaby’s daughter Cully. They hinted at it off and on for the time he was on the show but nothing ever really came of it, sadly.

What is your favourite episode of 1? At this point I’ve seen all of them and love all of them but, hands-down, “The Collector” is really just a fun episode and the hijinks among the guys is top-notch. “The Witness” is also a fabulous episode in a much sadder and darker way. “Sins of the Past” kind of marries both of these concepts—Vin and Chris’s storyline is very dark and serious while Ezra and the other guys (and his mother) are up to their eyebrows in hijinks. But really, all the episodes are very, very good.

What is your favourite episode of 5? Again, no episodes so I refer to my comments on Frozen 1 and Frozen 2.

What is your favourite season of 2? Don’t really have a favorite but Series 3 and 4 were pretty solid. Series 5 had some really good episodes and some really weird ones so it’s hit-and-miss. Series 6 (what I’ve seen of it) is pretty solid too.

How long have you watched 1? Hmm….a few years now. I think I first saw M7 in….2014? 2015? I found a page of Geology notes from my first degree with volcanoes, the chemical formula for ozone and Vin Tanner doodled on it so I know I started watching the show before I finished my AA. Just can’t remember exactly when I started watching it.

How did you become interested in 3? I’ve watched and read Agatha Christie shows and books since I was 7 or 8. While I watched Poirot from that time, I watched Miss Marple off and on whenever I could find episodes on TV or at the library.

Who is your favourite actor in 4?  Tie between David Suchet (Poirot) and Philip Jackson (Inspector Japp).

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? 5. M7, Midsomer Murders, or Frozen? Sorry, my pair of valiant Inspectors and my Ice Queen but the Cowboys’ win this round. I adore the dynamics of this show, I adore that it’s got great adventure and can go super dark without ever getting gory, pornographic or vulgar. All of the characters are great, the stories are great and it’s just a really wild ride in a very good way. It can be a bit cheesy but in the absolute best ways possible. Besides, I will always pick 1860s westerns over modern stories or Disney princesses if I have to choose one.

Which show have you seen more episodes of - 1 or 3? Probably the same in both of them. M7 only had two seasons but there were more episodes per season. Miss Marple had six series but only three or four episodes per season—plus I didn’t watch all of them. The first three seasons weren’t nearly as good as the last three, mostly because the woman playing Miss Marple in the first three series wasn’t that good in my opinion. So I think I’ve seen an even number of both.

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?! I don’t want to be any of them—they’re all good the way they are and I wouldn’t want any of their jobs! I’m content being some poor person who realizes too late that Poirot is vacationing at their hotel and now dead bodies are going to start turning up XD

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? Most likely, seeing as they were both created by the same woman. Interestingly enough though, even with Miss Marple series and Poirot series being made at the same time, no one ever wanted to have the two detectives officially meet in canon. I heard a rumor though that there was an anime somewhere that had them meet? I haven’t been able to conform that though, yet.

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? (I have thought about this a lot) Captain Francis Riley (Ghosts of the Confederacy) and Terri Greer (Safecracker). They would be such a cute couple and Francis would probably be a good dad for little Olivia Greer.

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? Sorry Disney—I’m going to have to say Miss Marple. I’ve been a fan of murder mysteries before I was a fan of Frozen.

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4? I’m going to say 4 (Poirot) because the theme from that show just….a huge amount of nostalgia is held in that intro for me because I’ve been watching it since I was about 8. Plus, the fantastic art deco style of the introduction and the titles is just so smooth and I love it.

Tagging: @princelyrogue @shadowyavuz

[pbandjesse]

Happy Halloween! Me and James had breakfast for dinner and now we're watching the spooky ghost episode of the Mbmbam tv show. Its been a good day and im sleepy but its a good day.

I slept okay last night. I did get woken up at 3 by knocking my tablet on the ground and then my phone updated itself and I couldn't get comfy or settle for ever. I eventually put on a podcast and was able to get some more sleep.

I woke up and had breakfast. Its my sweet kittens birthday so he got cream cheese with his breakfast.

I spent time in my studio makong set. Working on my diorama. Im very happy with it. Did some stuff for the store. And then got ready to go.

I loved my make up today. And I felt really good about my look. I finished getting myself together and went to the store to get candy.

No luck at cvs so i walked to the rite aid. Much more luck there. Got 2 big bags of candy and headed home.

It was actually really warm out and I changed my tights and that helped. I put all my candy in my backpack and headed to the bus.

The ride in my was fine. Some guy sat next to me and asked what Halloween meant to me. And i knew he was going to preach at me and i told him. I am a teacher and if my kids want to dress up and get candy i think its great. I went to christian school for 12 years and i have no problems. He tried to preach at me but he kept saying you need jesus for holiness to get in heaven. And im Like.,nope. Its forgiveness. Don't try to mansplain jesus at me.

Whatever. I got to work early. Sat in the art closet and ate candy. Marshal and me waited at the door to the community room and yhe kids were all in there to go to the "trunk or treat" they were having in the parking lot. It was a very cute and they were all so excited.

We had a staff meeting and it went well. Some problems came to light. Will get better. And we got some good advice about some of the issues we had. And! Marcus said his roommate is excited about taking Kurt the cat so i really hope it works out!!

Fitsum was leading today and it went well. We still had some trouble with one of the students. But!! We played a game to start and everyone played and it was great. I gave out candy at every available opportunity. It was a lot of fun.

We had a good recess dinner. Had some troubles but it aas all good.

Fitsum lead the project. Drawing the first letter if their names. Had some issues but I handled it best I could. And when it got to bad. Marshal came and helped. I honestly dont know what else i an do with this child. She just doesnt want to be there. But were giving hee another chance tomorrow.

But Fitsums project was a success and i had some kids painting. Lots of candy was had. And at the end we did a question and answer and it was a lot of fun. I can really see pur class improving and i think it will keep going that way. Depsite some hiccups.

We had to wait for a long time for the last of our kids to get picked up. But that was okay. Soon enough we were going home. My neighbor had her dog outside so I pet him for a while. And then james was here and we had breakfast for dinner and its been a really nice night.

Im working full days the next couple days. So wish me luck. I hope you all have a great night. Happy Halloween!!

[curriebelle]

OK so here’s what I figured out about Castlevania

So there’s a couple of theories of games and narrative out there, and one of the theories I particularly like is that games produce spatial narratives. Games make stories by (and stories about) exploring space. While there are good counterexamples and counterarguments and stuff, Castlevania games are a pretty straightforward example of how spatial narrative can work, and the Castlevania animated series adaptation does an excellent job of translating that.

(Funnily enough the only other good video game adaptation - literally the only one I’m aware of - is the Japanese Ace Attorney movie, and AA is a good example of a game that doesn’t entirely rely on spatial narrative - but that just goes to show how hard it is to make spatial narrative into conventional narrative so ANYWAY)

With the disclaimer that I have watched Let’s Plays and speedruns and reviews of Castlevania games but haven’t played one yet, as far as I understand it, Castlevania games are about exploring a castle, and eventually - uh - whipping Dracula? And as you play, your avatar collects new moves or new items that allow you to access new parts of the castle, and you may also speak with various characters to learn more lore and backstory.

So, how is this a spatial narrative? Well, we can loosely define narrative as a series of cause-and-effect events strung together to make a story. In a straightforward, conventional narrative, a character takes an action, and that action has an effect (bad priest man burns Dracula’s wife; Dracula becomes pissed and kills everyone). Causes and effects loop onward to create stories (tadah!). Video-game spatial narratives use cause and effect, but they use it a little differently, because the player also takes actions that create effects in the game’s world. You press a button and Trevor whips something until it dies. Cause: button press/whip. Effect: dead cyclops. Nice.

The great thing about this kind of spatial narrative is that player input and perception become really important, and that’s a great way to get you invested in your avatar character. You might feel very strongly for your lil pixel Trevor, because you control his actions and you decide where he goes. There are narrative elements that never change - you are always in Drac’s castle - but there are narrative elements that are entirely your responsibility, such as the order of rooms you explore and the actions you take to get there.

Think about how you recount playing a video game to other people: “Okay so I unlocked the door and then I almost died because I didn’t see the spiked pit, but I jumped at the last second! I AM A DODGE GOD!” That’s spatial narrative: you explore space, react to it, and that’s your story.

SO THE COOL THING THAT I NOTICED ABOUT THE CASTLEVANIA ANIME is that they figured out how to translate spatial narrative into a traditional linear narrative. Normally this is pretty hard to do. You might have enjoyed your 80-odd hours of exploring 15th-century Venice, but that wouldn’t work in an Assassin’s Creed movie. There’s no player involvement, meaning such spatial exploration would be kind of boring.

And yet....we do watch people play video games online for hours and hours at a time, very often with commentary.

Basically what I’m saying is that in the Castlevania animated series, Trevor Belmont is his own Let’s Player.

Trevor is opinionated, sarcastic, and he can’t shut his mouth. He talks to himself almost constantly, particularly throughout Episode 2 where he spends a lot of time alone. When he doesn’t talk, he’s always reacting to new information around him. He infiltrates Gresit at the beginning of Episode 2, and spends the first half of his infiltration bitching about the smell of sewers and how hungry he is. Then he has to be quiet and stealthy, so we see him smirk at a sleeping guard as he sneaks past, and we see him shiver and pull his cloak when he enters the city, and we see him spit at a pile of corpses below a bridge. These details tell us things about Trevor, but also about the state of the area he is exploring and the lore behind it. It’s cold, it’s dirty, it’s poorly guarded, and death is common in this world.

If Trevor doesn’t draw attention to the details of his surroundings, the camera will. The colour palette of most scenes is either starkly cold (like the cyclops fight or Dracula’s mirror) or very warm (all the torch-wielding mobs). I think this is why the gore is also so vivid; it’s another jarring sensory experience, a way of making violence immediate and physical without putting a controller in someone’s hand.

You see, if your audience can’t experience the spatial narrative directly, because they can’t make decisions about what gets explored and how, the next best thing is to experience spatial narrative indirectly. Trevor acts very much like a Let’s Player, because he comments on details a “player” of his situation might observe through gameplay. He voices his thought processes aloud, and he’s pretty funny about it. My favourite example of this Let’s-Playin’ is the lead-up to the fight with the cyclops, so I’ll show you what I mean.

Trevor finds a secret passage by discovering an optical illusion hiding a tunnel. He smirks and crawls in. He sniffs a torch and smells fresh oil, which he notes aloud; then he knocks on a metal pipe, and says that it’s warm. You can almost imagine those as little dialogue boxes popping up when a player interacts with those objects, hinting at methods of solving a puzzle. This feels pretty game-y, for lack of a better word: Trevor’s navigating and puzzling just like a player would.

He climbs down a set of stairs, hears a noise, and calls, “I can hear you! I’m armed and a lot less happy than you are, so stay out of my way -”

Then he falls through the floor, lands, and comments, “Hah! Reflexes like a cat!” before falling through the floor again.

In both of these cases, Trevor’s comments are quite self-reflexive: they are all first-person statements. When he hears a noise, it’s not “what was that?” it’s “I can hear you.” “[I have] reflexes like a cat”. 

I found this really neat because first-person speech is a hallmark of players who are engaged with an avatar. when you’re playing and your avatar gets zapped by the cyclops, you say “I died”, not “he” died. First person speech is particularly common when you, as a player, are most deeply, immediately engaged with gameplay, as when you’re instinctively reacting to a noise or a fall.

In short, the Let’s Play continues.

Trevor then finds a room full of stone statues, and comments, “Either someone left a statue of a speaker here, or...” (Feels like another text box prompt to me - one that leads into a boss battle.)

Cyclops appears, fight ensues. Trevor comments, “A cyclops. Right out of the family bestiary.” Then he uses the columns, a shortsword, and some slick whip tricks to murder the cyclops.

So, obviously a good staple for spatial narrative is combat, and I think it’s super telling that Trevor’s fight involves using the environment to his advantage rather than just whip whip whip whip. That’s another way of making the viewer care about the space Trevor is in.

Later on, Trevor comments on the electric lights in the cyclops’ cave, pointing out that only Dracula possesses the technology for such lights. Viewers remember those lights because the camera does a good job of focusing on them, but also because we are still thinking of this narrative spatially. This show rewards spatial thinking. When Trevor is escaping from the mob in Episode 3, his clever tricks on how to navigate the town and eliminate multiple enemies are all part of the fun; it’s a circus of combat Assassin’s Creed could only dream of, but it only works because every concept here is so tightly woven together with spatial narrative.

Trevor’s running commentary helps build that Let’s Play feeling of watching someone else experience a video game just like a player would, but it also informs his character as a sassy grump who doesn’t know when to shut up. The Let’s-Play-commentary forces a focus on space, action, and sensory detail, and because viewers are concentrating on those things, the show is able to pull references like the electric lights into focus even though Trevor never comments on them verbally until after the fight. I can’t even guess which of these concepts were intentional, or which came first, because they all work together seamlessly.

and like. it’s good or whatever. idk that’s all I’ve got for now

[solatgif]

THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY: WEEKEND ROUNDUP FOR AUGUST 16, 2019

This week we continued our college month with articles from collegian Aly Lee (This is Not Us? Thoughts from Charlottesville) and college pastor Francis Chow (Back-to-School Exhortations).

Just in time for wedding season, Pastor Ben Shin published Pick Your Battles - his final installment in the AA Guide to Premarital Counseling. After finishing her series on fashion, the fall season finds Judy Lee starting a new two-part series on sports by interviewing Pastor Justin Kim.

Our monthly newsletter will be sent out today and it is a great way to stay connected with SOLA. If you missed this month’s edition, subscribe today so you get our next installment in September. And if you have any links or recommendations to share, please tweet me @musicgoon or email me at aaron@musicgoon.com.

LINK ROUNDUP

1. Moses Lee: How the Korean Pentecost Can Guide Revival Today

Moses Lee tweets: “My latest piece for TGC distinguishes common notions of revival with what actually occurs in history.

The Pyongyang Revival, in particular, began at the end of a 2 week Bible study. No emotionalism. Justice was also central, emphasizing reparations and the common good.”

2. Donny Cho: Why Church Interns Are More Valuable Than You Think

Writing for The Gospel Coalition, Donny Cho details why church interns are beneficial, specifically for the church planter, the intern, and the church member.

3. George Brahm: Skillet’s John Cooper on Apostasy Among Young Christian Leaders

“My conclusion for the church (all of us Christians): We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years(and seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers) that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word.”

4. Caroline Anderson: The Posture of Prayer: A Look at How Buddhists Pray

“Defining prayer in Buddhism is challenging because the prayer rituals are varied in practice just as the fundamental doctrines and tenets are varied across the different Buddhist sects. Buddhism in Thailand looks different from Buddhism in Nepal. And, Buddhism in Nepal looks different from Buddhism in the East.

Here’s a quick overview of the various Buddhists sects and how they practice prayer differently.”

5. Chase Replogle: Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream

“I'm not sure Bonhoeffer could have written anything about leadership more fundamentally opposed to what I had learned and imagined practicing in ministry. Bonhoeffer’s words collapsed the scaffolding on which I had erected my ideal vision of a church and my role as its pastor. His words exposed something shameful. I had traded a real congregation for a dream one, blind to the work God was doing right in front of me.”

WEEKEND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Themelios: Volume 44, Issue 2, August 2019

Read Fulfill Your Ministry by Brian J. Tabb, Strange Times: Never Say ‘the Phones Are Quiet’ by Daniel Strange, The Doctrine of Scripture and Biblical Contextualization: Inspiration, Authority, Inerrancy, and the Canon by Jackson Wu, and more.

2. Shane & Shane: Power of the Cross

One of my favorite Christian artists covering one of my favorite hymns.

3. Jared C. Wilson — Faithfulness in Writing

Host Chase Repogle interviews Jared C. Wilson - Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Spurgeon College, Author in Residence at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and General Editor of For The Church - on the latest episode of the Pastor Writer podcast.

FROM SOLA

1. Francis Chow: Back-to-School Exhortations

“Some of you will experience test scores that fall on the wrong side of the curve, rejection letters, unexpected changes in your career path, a regretful stewardship of your time, relational fallout, breakups, unmet expectations, and disappointment. More significantly, many of you will come face to face with your own sin.

There are a number of ways you can respond to this. Some people see the sinfulness of their own hearts and they don’t care. Others see it and despair, or they believe that they just need to get their act together. Don’t neglect your failures and even your sin because it is a reminder to you of your desperate need for grace.”

2. Judy Lee: God Over Sports, Jesus Over Hockey - An Interview with Pastor Justin Kim

Justin Kim: “I think a lot of people can relate who are passionate about their favorite teams. It’s okay to be passionate. But our love for Jesus must always be preeminent and supersede any other love for anything else, including sports.

I remember seeing guys get so angry on the basketball court. But winning can be an unhealthy obsession because winning isn't the most important thing. You can win a game but lose your witness for Christ. Playing with passion and playing with the right attitude helps us to play sports in a God-honoring way. One can play sports for God's glory. One can be thankful to the Lord for the ability to exercise and to celebrate their physical health. Sports are a gift from the Lord but not when it replaces Jesus as the center of one's life.”

3. Ben Shin: Pick Your Battles: The AA Guide to Premarital Counseling (Part 4)

“The big question then to ask is “which issues or hills should a couple ‘die on’?” So first, do not die on every hill. It simply is not worth it. When a couple cannot agree with older parents who may represent either a different cultural or even generational custom, they will find tremendous hardship and stress. The better attitude would be to have the following simple slogan: give and take.”

4. Aly Lee: This is Not Us? Thoughts from Charlottesville

“This reflection on the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was written two years ago, before my second year at the University of Virginia. I am now entering my last year in college.”

“The events of August 11-12, 2017 radically shaped my perception of my school and America. They left a lot of fear in my heart and a lot of questions for the Lord as I packed my bag semester after semester to return to this place with a deep history of hate. That being said, the Lord has been incredibly gracious to this community. He has opened places for healing and communication and has spoken so much truth to my fears.”

5. Thank God It’s Friday: Weekend Roundup

In case you missed it, here are some headlines from last week: White Nationalist Terrorism and the Gospel, 15 Pieces of Writing Advice from C. S. Lewis, Consuming Culture: Food and the Shaping of Asian American Identity, and How Should Missionaries Help Create Indigenous Worship Music?

[thebeginningofhope]

“Abandon Ship!”

PREPARE FOR TROUBLE, YOU'RE SO NAIIIVE AND MAKE IT DOUBLE, AS WE DECIEEEVEE SURRENDER NOW OR PREPARE FOR A FIGHT! Meowth pops up from fish sub Thaaaaat's right!

commentary from me: they're gonna sink the ship. More follows: 

max- I thought you were just a nice old couple! Jessie- no one's ever accused us of being old James- and certainly not a couple.

na na na DA DA DA (trumpet) di da {Fight music cover of game wild battle soundtrack, possibly] TR goes blast! all our savings are gone! spent on those twerps! our savings aren't the only blasted thing here WE'RE blasting off again a trashbag trap?!

oh its the abandoned ship from the game. attention mystery fans!

aww his marshtomp got seperated from him. Tom and MarshTOMP

i want to drink soda on a ship, too.

obviously thats marshtomp. or maybe it evolved! torchick! no! you have a type disadvantage! wow it did evolve!

of course meowth knows something's up poor them!

AH, THE INDIGNITY I'm gonna cry.

well who asked you anyway max... such a great trainer fury swipes to the rescue!

i know meowth has good reason to be cranky but why the threads? just hold your horsea newton's motion machine desk toy reference

[tada!] it's a golduck box! is that the same duck from orange islands?

noooooooo not like that why is hoenn so... so... cruel. The episodes are good but i cant forget that one threat that came out of nowhere

made by grass types! why... [edit made after watching the episode: grass types... oh tragicomedy...]

i paused it in the beginning of the animation. now it's worse. even more worse! why...

meowth- well, hello there! max is in on the snarky humor too... at least they both can see the funny side

this is cruel... unpause now

infighting?! really, you two. poor torchic.

Who’s that Pokemon?

NO NOT SILCOON yes, it was silcoon. guess “silk” gave it away why... WHY NOT MUDKIP

not May, too!

Brock's mudkip to the rescue! ah, those three have the right sense of tone

update: i would cry, but i'm too dehydrated i'm like alice, i dont take my own advice

"And we're getting picked off, one at a time!" [James]'s in on it too... he's mad from stress max still has a level head

this is a game of chess, isn't it let me guess: third one is Jessie... but she's going to stomp on a seadra and get dragged down there... 

oh no I've succumbed to it too!

They have such faith in her ... James has lost it. I like the poetry of what he said, but it's crazy NO, MANIACAL LAUGH, THEY HAVE LOST IT

I really have tears in my eyes, now

Jessie, you gotta do something Jessie: it's not polite to leave a helpless woman all alone

AAAAH! WHAT IS IT? aa wooper... the wooper is in on it I heard the tada sound effect I'm hysterical now capital Hysterical

"so, you think you're pretty funny, hah!"

(claps hands to head)AAAA LOOK BEHIND YOU!

I'm crying, too.

may made the same joke... I can't believe it...

WOBBUFFET?! SAVE THEM WOBBUFFET! YOU'RE CLOSEST TO A LASSIE THIS SERIES HAS GOT

my temple's twitching... tragic illogic STOP BEING MEAN JESSIE NO! STOP IT [He’s not useless] i have to hit play

it's ground type... so it isn't totally immune? bet it's like grass types, as explained earlier in the season does that make Pikachu a ground... no.

WHY THE CHEERY MUSIC, POKEDEX?!

[Swampert]’s running like a dog

mudkip to the true rescue!

wait, the spider is scared

I don't think that's gonna work, Brock

we get the irony... OH ILL TIMED PUN

this is the determined sound track! tom'll sort this out!

NOOOOOO! NO NO NO NO NO NO HEAR HIM OUT

"you must've thought that I abandoned you, huh" ... pun :')

mudkip... [Edit: the small mudkip reminds Swampert of its youth]

this is so sweet

"I think they're ok now" "yeah"

"I'm really sorry for the trouble we caused you" "Nah, no trouble at all"

cut to team rocket "Ah, we're free at last" "and out of those confining threads" [Meowth confidently crosses his arms]

"dok dok"

A) they really went all out with the sound effects in this episode B) just leave and think about your lives, Rocketeers

"Go team!" NO, TEAM-

at least swampert has a chance to redeem itself now...

same animation from before...

"I think this is starting to get old" "and we're getting too old for dis" "speak for yoursellllves I'm not old"

Hoenn is an amazing season. Team rocket will be good in the end, I'm sure.

[ending song from first season plays] (But this one's more high-quality)

"This ship has become a home for water pokemon" "And it seems to be a kind of refuge for pokemon that are crossing the ocean" "Kind of like a Pokemon Oasis, if you know what I mean" "So I think I'm going to stick around and fix this place up a bit, see?" "Me and Swampert, of course!"

"Hey, that's a great thing to do!" "Good luck to you guys!" nods from May and Max

[”An abandoned ship became an unlikely site for a reunion between two old friends. And now our heroes are off to Slateport city as they get that promised ride from a new friend.”}

oh, swell animation! Great way to end the season...

three ships in one episode. one's a rental out of gas that drifted to the second, and the second's a ship that ran aground. Third's a speedboat. is that the proper term for it?

(I liked the plot in these episodes a lot. The pacing is nice, and I like how real the drifting away plot convenience felt.)

Ah, I initially found the wrong ending song, but my heart is warmed.

The Journey Continues!

[airadam]

Episode 100 : We Made It.

"One hundred on the percentage, I don't talk split..."

- Q-Ball

Wow, what a milestone! In the early days of the show I didn't know we'd still be here after this long, but focusing on just producing one show at a time has paid off. Every month I feel like I must have run out of tunes, but one hundred months in....not quite yet ;)

Thanks so much to all of you for taking the time to listen. Please spread this one far and wide!

Twitter : @airadam13

For this month's charity draw (check the end of the show for details), the website to donate to is MSF, entries close on the 21/10/2017. 

Playlist/Notes

Air Adam & Mega Ran : Pacman

Hitting you with a special right out of the gate! This is one of my own beats, done many moons ago when my man Kev 80s asked if I could make something out of sounds from the "Pacman" arcade machine. I sampled some audio out of an arcade emulator into the MPC and got busy; when I played it for Kev over the phone, he went out of his mind! I knew I had something, and I got this beat pressed onto a dubplate which some of you will have heard me pull out and play occasionally over the years. I've always thought it deserved some lyrics, and I was honoured to have Mega Ran bless it for a 100th episode special. Not only is he an ill MC, but one who knows his video games and has been a real pioneer in flipping gaming sounds and themes to devastating effect! No hook, just straight bars for you - I really hope you enjoy this one as much as I do every time I hear it :)

Visioneers : Apache (Battle Dub)

My man Bane pointed me in the direction of the Hipology 7" set by Marc Mac's Visioneers, and it's a nice five-disc, ten-track set paying respect to Hip-Hop's influence in his life. There's a mixtape of it on Bandcamp, but it's worth getting the full release! To start off a mini-theme in this part of the show, we go with their take on the classic track "Apache", a true foundation break of Hip-Hop. If you want a bit more background on it, check the film "Sample This"!

Ilajide : Apache 2

This man is one of my favourite producers of the last few years, and here he kills it with a great flip of the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five version of "Apache"(you can just hear him letting it play as I blend the track in). Slowed, chopped, and with some added ODB flavour, it's a monster that on its own makes a purchase of "Five Week Heet IV" worth it!

Nas : Made You Look

A lot of people like to talk down on Nas' beat selection, but in my opinion you have to give him this; whenever he needs to drop that one big street single, he can. "Nas Is Like"? "Get Down"? "The Don"? That's just three off the top of my head, and this one could well go ahead of all of them. Salaam Remi flips that "Apache" breakbeat but making it slower and more menacing and Nas is on top form setting out his stall on this first verse. When this track dropped it got everyone open for "God's Son", and you can guarantee crowd response in a Hip-Hop club when the hook hits. Just one verse here, then blending during the hook into a killer remix...

Nas ft. Styles P and Ludacris : Made You Look (Remix)

Eleven synonyms for "gun" in just the first three bars of his verse is what stands out for me on Nas' closer right here. You have to bring it when you get a verse like Ludacris' preceding lyrics, and while you don't hear it on this episode, Styles P also got it done. This remix was killing the net and mixtapes when it came out but to the best of my knowledge, it never got an official release - if you know otherwise, get at me!

Aim & QNC ft. Grand Puba and Sean Price : We Don't Play (Curt Cazal Remix)

A great union of Grand Central-connected acts, along with some big guests! The original from the "The Habit of a Lifetime (And How to Kick It)" LP with Aim's production is dark, but Curt Cazal takes the darkness in a completely different direction for this remix. Treat yourself with a bit of extra volume for this cut because even with just two bass notes every couple of bars, it definitely bumps! Lyrically, all the verses are solid but as usual, I think Sean P takes it. Also check the homage being paid to EPMD, first with the opening bars, and on the hook too!

Seanie T, Karl Hinds, Jeff3, and Skeme : Had E-Nuff

I can't count the times I wanted to play this on the show but just wasn't happy with the mix! From Seanie T's Western-themed "The Blacknificent 7" superteam (just four on this track) we have this thumping AA-side with all MCs sounding seriously vex over a Karl Hinds beat. The Guru sample for the hook is just the icing on the cake!

DJ Spinna : Fancy Pants

Always here for a DJ Spinna beat, and this is an old one which has only just become available. The "Unpicked Treats Volume 1" collection on Bandcamp is made up of unreleased beats from 2005 to the present, and if you're a fan it's definitely one to check. This track has that trademark squelchy keyboard low end he does so well.

Redman : Tonight's Da Night

From Red's debut "Whut? Thee Album", we take the start of the jazzy third single, which has a lyrical switchup after the first few bars, and then do a little switch of our own...

Royal Flush : Best Type Of Rapper

...into this - I did this transition once live and the crowd went mad calling for the rewind! Big tune from the 2005 "Street Boss" album by Queens' Royal Flush. I haven't been able to find a producer credit for this one, but it's an energetic, horn-laden track over a classic break with Flush's staple street braggadocio delivered with what is still a low-key flow.

Naughty By Nature : Craziest

In a time when Hip-Hop was much more localised (and NY-centric) than it is now, the all-area respect theme of this track was a rarity; the video does a great job conveying it too. A fantastic but in my opinion, under-appreciated single from the "Poverty's Paradise" LP. NBN self-produce the track, and the particular combination of sounds like little else while also being very comfortable/familiar somehow. Treach and Vinny then proceed to get amped on the verses (did Treach ever get his money from Jermaine?), and the hook is straight classic. I'd love to hear a Leeds, Manchester, or just a UK version of this one!

DJ Quik ft. B-Real : Fandango

I think this is an amazing tune, and I love to find opportunities to play it when I DJ. The first full track on the "Trauma" LP, it's just big sounding and driving, with the horns taking centre stage and reminding you of an HBCU marching band - if you can't get live to this one, you should seek medical attention!

DJ Quik ft. B-Real : Fandango (Live at the House of Blues)

There aren't that many live Hip-Hop albums so being able to do a mix like this is rare, but taking the opportunity to catch that crowd energy is a winner. This is from the "Greatest Hits : Live at the House of Blues" album, which was recorded in February 2006 and is a release absolutely worth having in your collection! B-Real's killer second verse gets the crowd hype here and Quik brings it home strong, while the band do an excellent rendition of Quik's original production.

Showbiz & A.G. : Silence Of The Lambs (Remix)

Claaassic Diggin In The Crates product right here. The original cut on "Runaway Slave" is dope, but this remix is just incredible. Those blaring, almost discordant horns scream to be heard over Showbiz' wicked drum sampler programming, before settling down into the groove of the verses. This is the time when both members were getting on the mic, before Showbiz (now just Show) decided to focus on his work behind the boards. He could easily have carried on, but given that he's responsible for beats like "Sound Of Da Police", he can be forgiven for rationing his time. One aside - check the low, distorted evil laugh during the hook!

Chemical Brothers : Chico's Groove

The Chemical Brothers' "Exit Planet Dust" was a huge debut release, which came to the attention of me and mine via the use of several tracks on Channel 4's NBA coverage back in the day :) While they're primarily a dance act, there were some more laid back cuts on the album, and this was a standout for me - the feel of the first part of the track before the bass section comes in is just gorgeous.

The Mouse Outfit ft. Black Josh and TrueMendous : It's Like That

New track from a Manchester crew who continue to go from strength to strength - if this is any indication of what their next album will sound like, they're onto another winner! Chini's beat is chilled but the drums snap, and as always the right MCs are drafted in to grace the track. Black Josh has been working with The Mouse Outfit for a while and delivers some solid lyrics, but is at least matched by the dextrous TrueMendous out of Birmingham, who shines on this one!

Camp Lo ft. Mecca : Sky Box

The closing track on Camp Lo's second album, the appropriately-named "Let's Do It Again", this gentle Jocko-produced track is a tribute to loved ones Sonny and Geechi have lost along the way. One of the rare five-star tracks on my iPods.

Tall Black Guy : Broken Lies

A little something from the "Mini Therapy Chops 3" single by TBG, laid back but very tech with the drum programming, throwing in some great rolls and cymbal work!

Raekwon ft. Ghostface Killah : Rainy Dayz

Ok - I don't know if this is definitely my favourite Hip-Hop song, but is absolutely my favourite song on my favourite Hip-Hop album, the mighty and must-own "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...". A beautiful, dark, twisted beat from RZA in his golden period is the perfect setting to hear Rae and Ghost talk about being stuck in the drug business, with Blue Raspberry killing the vocals as the woman left at home worrying about her man. RZA cites it as one of his favourites, and with good reason. As far as my own relationship with this track; a) I played this once a day minimum for at least six months after buying the album, and b) that part where the audio seems to disappear towards end is the cue burn I put on this vinyl learning how to rock doubles on some highly unsuitable turntables!

Jan Hammer : It's Over

A short instrumental from the "Cocaine Cowboys" soundtrack. An amusing story about that OST is that the producers of the film were nervous about asking Jan Hammer to do something in the vein of "Miami Vice", in case he took offence and declared he'd moved past all that; as it tuned out, he had all the old synths upstairs ready to get busy!

Rakim : Bring It On

Very little available info on this one. It appears to be a remix of a 1995 track produced by Dominic Owen, but neither version was ever released. The sound quality on the white label compilation I have is pretty awful, but I tried to add a little top end to the EQ to counteract the worst of the muddiness. Rakim is in aggressive mode over a hard beat that definitely could have gone down well at the time, when the rugged East Coast sound was popular. This is the kind of relative rarity I love to share with you all!

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[bayalexison]

Bay’s Thoughts on AA: Spirit of Justice

I mentioned sometime ago I would post some of my thoughts on Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice. The game has been on my mind for a while and yeah gonna spill out some comments here. Some Spirit of Justice spoilers, though.

I think I'll start out by briefly mentioning the cases.

-Case One was enjoyable overall. I admit to not expecting some voice acting (that isn't from an anime cutscene or "Objection"), and the main villian in that case is pretty amusing. It did took a bit longer than expected compare to other first cases, but it didn't bother me that much.

-I also like Case Two, perhaps better than Dual Destinies's Case Two. While Case Two's villian is "blah blah revenge on the Gramaryes," he's more memorable to L'Belle to me and the other characters are more memorable. And even though Trucy's the main suspect, I think I like her characterization better than in Dual Destinies. It was also nice to hang out with Ema Skye again heh.

-Case Three is where I hear a lot of people complain about, and I can understand why. The Divination Seances just dragged on and Datz's testimony was hella annoying like that old guy in Trials and Tribulations’s third case. There's also the deal with the Plume Puninisher theme that could've been dealt with sooner. Khura'in's court system just makes this case a bit gahhhh. I will say though Maya's been great, Phoenix and Rayfa's interactions are cute, and the twist at the end concerning the priest is very good (and tragic).

-Case Four haha even though it's a filler case I love it. Simon and Nahyuta bickering at one another is great and Athena is awesome in it, too. Bucky and a couple other characters were kinda underwhelming, but oh well.

-Case Five, oh boy. First off, I love Dhurke and oh my gosh game they pulled that stunt there. ;_; His backstory concerning his significant other I think is nice, if a bit vague. Um, I'm actually writing fic on that now anyways, soooo (coughs). Rayfa and Nahyuta I also warmed up to a lot in the end.

Concerning Apollo's extra backstory, I like it a lot! I swore though originally in the fourth game it's mentioned Apollo's mother ran away after father died from an (a magic show?) accident. Then again, that game had that part pretty vague and so the developers decided to expand on that and change a couple details.

I do think Case Five could've been broken down into two episodes like Dual Destinies' last two cases there. Shortly after the civil trial with the orb was finished, the Buffs were kinda forgotten in favor of Inga's murder investigation. An extra episode could also expand the Buffs a bit more. I do think Apollo going against Phoenix is fun, however. Even though the second part of Case Five with Inga's murder has some similarities over Justice for All's second case and Trials and Tribulations final case, it still has some elements to make it its own and a very cool case overall. There might be a few aftermath stuff I would like to see, but I think the ways things wrapped up had some loose ends tied up better than Dual Destinies.

A couple other things I like to mention. One thing I'm urgh over compare to Dual Destinies is some of the fan service. Granted the series did some instances of that in earlier games, but Spirit of Justice has that balloon girl in the fourth game and then a short zoom in of the queen's chest in the last case. Welp. Besides that, I think I like Athena better in Dual Destinies, though that's probably because a lot of her backstory has been focused in the previous game while this game I feel they're unsure what to do with her besides the fourth case. Otherwise, I think I like Spirit of Justice better than Dual Destinies in many aspects.

I think that does it with my thoughts on Spirit of Justice there. Wow, it ended up as long as my Pokemon Sun/Moon review I think, haha. Okay, going to try to finish up that fic now, bye bye.