#and because of the premise it allows me to have things affect the world at large and not just these specific characters

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Ya know what? There’s an easier way to explain Meteors AU.

“I make an excuse to magically turn every animatronic one by one into flesh and blood versions of themselves and gleefully clap my hands at the fall out.”

[blackkatdraws2]

[Original Characters] One of the Tower Residents (who is usually very stoic) is acting strange. Did the Missiontakers trigger something? (-or is this an unscripted scene?)

[More Info under Read More.]

These two are fan-OCs for a webnovel titled [Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game]

Quick premise for the novel: There was an apocalypse that trapped the whole world in a game-like tower. Missiontakers need to go into a Tower Resident's Nightmares and solve them in order to progress higher up the tower [and maybe escape.] What the Missiontakers didn't know was that the Tower Residents are actually also real people just like them, but they're more limited in what they're allowed to do because the tower forces them to become Actors and pretend like they're NPCs.

The older man is called Kim Seung-Jun.

He's a Tower Resident that's trapped on the higher levels of the tower.

He's never acted out any major roles for a Nightmare and is always in the background.

Even among the other Tower Residents, he's a hard man to talk to, only voicing a curt reply that doesn't leave any openings to continue the conversation.

The other man is called Nick Fuentes

He's a semi-well known Missiontaker that wants to climb all the way up the tower to find the escape.

He's usually the helper of the group and he's good at being flexible with adapting and making quick decisions in tough situations.

Gets attached to people quickly if they're nice to him.

Basic OCs premise: Nick Fuentes sees the usually stoic Kim Seung-Jun acting unlike his character. He starts to get more curious about the older man, and their slow development but eventual close relationship made him unravel a different point of view about truth of the Tower and everyone who was trapped in it.

-------------✦

KOREAN PEOPLE, please tell me in the reblogs and comments if I got the old man's name right!! I'll change it into something more appropriate for his character and age if it sounds silly. I'm a huge fan of Asian webnovels, the things I always consume are Chinese/Korean webnovels that I find in illegally English translated websites HAHAHA. It affected the way I named my characters because Chinese/Korean names are the only thing I'm constantly being exposed to. [But I have no idea if these names are actually correct or not. Sorry!]

Oh MAN, I have not re-visited this novel in YEARS. Literally one of my biggest worldbuilding inspirations [not to mention it has all my favorite tropes in it] and I will continue loving it forever.

I found the novel by pure chance. At the time, there was only one website that translated it into English. I thought the premise was interesting and decided to give it a try, thinking it was just another one of those garbage junk food novels that I'd drop half-way, but no, it was actually really good.

I'm not gonna spoil anything about the novel itself lololol I'm only gonna be working on my OCs.

To be honest, I'm probably gonna make an original world and story for them soon. I like this idea too much, I'll make it mine someday. For now though, I will have a minor hyperfixation.

Go check the novel out, by the way!! It's great.

[felassan]

Cliff notes on the new info on Dragon Age: The Veilguard from the print issue of Game Informer (DA:TV spoiler warning for link) that came out the other day (magazine hub link) that contained story spoilers - spoiler free version. This post is a version of this post (DA:TV spoiler warning for link), only with story-related information of note removed.

In CC you can customize things like shoulder width, chest size, glute size, hip width, how bloodshot your eyes are, nose crookedness, and more

There are hundreds of sliders for body proportions

CC detail: “Features like skin hue, tone, melanin”

There is nudity in DA:TV, “which I learned firsthand while customizing my Rook” in CC

Rook’s backstory also affects “reputation standing”, along with the other previously-known things like in-game dialogue etc

Lords of Fortune are pirate-themed, “piratic”

Rook ascends because of competency, not because of a magical McGuffin, contrasting with the ‘destiny-has-chosen you’ angle DA:I has for the Inquisitor

Rook is here because they chose to be, “and that speaks to the kind of character that we’ve built. Someone needs to stop this, and Rook says, ‘I guess that’s me'”

The 4 voices we can choose for Rook each have a pitch shifter in CC

The game starts inside the bar (as previously detailed in other coverage)

In some dialogue wheels there is a “romantically inclined ‘emotional’ response” option. These are the replies that will build relationships with characters, romantic and platonic alike, but you can ignore them if you want to. Giving a companion the cold shoulder might nudge them into another companion’s embrace however

Bellara’s surname is Lutara

In the streets of Minrathous (in the opening segment of the game), there is a wide, winding pathway with a pub which has a dozen NPCs in it (is this The Swan tavern?)

The devs used the DA:TV CC to make each in-world NPC, except for specific characters like companions

There is smart use of verticality, scaling and wayfinding in the gameplay

If you play as e.g. a qunari Rook, the camera adjusts to ensure larger characters like them loom over those below. The camera also adjusts appropriately for dwarves to demonstrate their smaller stature

Neve Gallus is described as being capable

Demons are fully redesigned in this game, on their original premise as creatures of feeling that live and die off the emotions around them. “As such, they are just a floating nervous system, pushed into this world from the Fade, rapidly assembled into bodies out of whatever scraps they find”

Our base in this game is the place where the team bonds, grows, and prepares for its adventures

Clock symbols over dialogue icons signal optional dialogue options

If you are playing, e.g., a qunari, and you encounter elfy stuff, you might be missing unique dialogue options and an elf Rook would have more to say at that point

“There’s a heavy emphasis on storytelling and dialogue, and it feels deep and meaty, like a good fantasy novel. BioWare doesn’t shy away from minutes-long cutscenes”

For Rook, this story is about what does it mean to be a leader? We define their leadership style with our choices. “From the sound of it, my team will react to my chosen leadership style in how my relationships play out.” This is demonstrated within the game’s dialogue and a special relationship meter on each character’s companion screen

In gameplay/combat, players complete every swing in real time. Special care was taken in development for animation swing-through and cancelling. We can dash, parry, charge moves, and a completely revamped healing system that allows us to use potions at our discretion by hitting right on the d-pad. You can combo attacks and even ‘bookmark’ combos with a quick dash, which means that you can pause a combo’s status with a dash to safety and continue the rest of the combo afterward

Abilities can be used to customize your kit. They can be used on the fly as long as you account for cooldowns

When you pause and pull up the ability Wheel, it highlights you and your companions’ skills. There you can choose abilities, queue them, target specific enemies, and strategize with synergies and combos

Each character plays the same in that you execute light and heavy attacks with the same buttons, use abilities with the same buttons, and interact with the combo wheel in the same way, regardless of which class you select

Sword and shield warriors can hip-fire or aim their shield and throw it like Captain America

Warriors can parry incoming attacks which can stagger enemies. Rogues have a larger parry window. The mage the writer played couldn’t parry at all. Instead they throw up a shield that blocks incoming attacks automatically, so long as you have the mana to maintain it

On the start/pause screen: it has the map, journal, character sheets, skill tree, and a library for lore information. You can use it to cross-compare equipment and equip new gear for Rook and their companions, build weapon loadouts for quick change-ups mid-combat, and customize you and your party’s abilities and builds via an easy-to-understand skill tree. There aren’t in-depth minutiae, just "real numbers”. For example, an unlocked trait might increase damage by 25 percent against armor, but that’s as in-depth as the numbers get. Passive abilities unlock jump attacks and guarantee critical hit opportunities, while abilities add moves like a Wall of Fire to your arsenal if you’re a mage. As you spec out this skill tree, which is 100 percent bespoke to each class, you’ll work closer to unlocking a spec, complete with a unique ultimate ability

Combat is flashy and quick, with different types of health bars. Greenish-blue represents a barrier, which is taken down most effectively with ranged attacks

The game is gorgeous, with sprinkles, droplets, and splashes of magic in each attack a mage unleashes

The game looks amazing on consoles both in fidelity and performance modes

Bellara is bubbly, witty, and charming. She is spunky and effervescent, a sweetheart and a nerd for ancient elven artifacts, which is why she’s dressed more like an academic than a combatant

While Neve uses ice magic and can slow time with a special ability, Bellara specializes in electricity, and she can also use magic to heal you. electricity magic is effective against a certain mob type. “However, without Bellara, we could also equip a rune that converts my ice magic, for a brief duration, into electricity to counter the [enemies]”

If you don’t direct your companions in combat, they are fully independent and will attack on their own

The style of the game is more high fantasy than anything in the series thus far and almost reminiscent of the whimsy of Fable. Matt Rhodes says that this is the result of the game’s newfound dose of magic: “The use of magic has been an evolution as the series has gone on. In the past, you could hint at cooler magical things in the corner because you couldn’t actually go there, but now we actually can, and it’s fun to showcase that.” however, areas of whimsy will starkly contrast to the game’s other areas. The devs promise some grim locations and even grimmer story moments because, without that contrast, everything falls flat. Corinne says it’s like a “thread of optimism” pulled through otherworldly chaos ravaging Thedas.

We can advance our bonds with our companions on their own personal quests and by including them in our party on main quests. Every Relationship Level you rank up, shown on their character sheet, nets you a skill point to spend on them. “The choices you make, what you say to companions, how you help them, and more all matter to their development as characters and party members”. Each companion has access to 5 abilities.

Each companion has issues, problems, and personal quests to complete.

You can create Arcane Bombs on enemies. It does high damage after being hit by a heavy attack

It sounds like mage characters can charge heavy attacks on their magical staffs. “then switch to magical daggers in a second loadout accessed with a quick tap of down on the d-pad to unleash some quick attacks”

Some enemies are “Frenzied”, meaning that they hit harder, move faster, and have more health

re: an arena-like boss fight "[it] attacks, hitting hard with unblockable, red-coded attacks and a massive shield that you need to take down first. It is weak to fire"

The design of the game is not open world. The devs describe it as a “hub-and-spoke” design where the needs of the story are served by the level design. it is not a connected open world. locations include Minrathous, tropical beaches, Arlathan Forest, “to grim and gothic areas and elsewhere”. Some of these areas are large and full of secrets and treasures. Others are smaller and more focused on linear storytelling.

Each location has a minimap, though linear levels won’t have the 'fog of war’ that disappears as you explore like in some of the game’s bigger locations

The game has the largest number of diverse biomes in DA history

The Thedas of DA:TV “lives in the uncertainty”. “the mystery of its narrative”, “the implications of its lore”

The writer is surprised by BioWare’s command over the notoriously difficult Frostbite engine, and by how much narrative thought the dev team poured into these characters, even for BioWare.

—

[source: the Game Informer pages from Issue 367 - the cover story from June 18th (link), two] <- DA:TV spoiler warning for links

[artoriarts]

there’s a lot of talk about missed potential in jjk, and I agree, while culling games onward was a good ol fight shonen, shibuya incident was something special, dark and painful but built on a core foundation of hope and positivity that drives yuji as a character, but it kinda peaked there, never hitting the same emotional depth after, with the exception of maki and the zenin assassination arc.

But from the many things I’ve seen brought up, one of the things I haven’t seen is just the core premise of cursed energy not being used like it could be from the getgo. Instead of just being Ki, it was something developed *through* the negative emotions that pool and spawn curses. This is just gonna be me spitballing but listen listen.

Yuta’s the best way to segue into this. A sensitive kid loses his best friend and spirals into grief, unknowingly channeling his cursed technique (instead of just being able to copy, him being able to replicate/leech soul ‘data’ in general) as he hangs on to every memory and memento of her, acting as almost ritual and binding her soul to his, resulting in the vengeful spirit we know of rika, his raw cursed energy output resulting from the feedback loop of negativity that comes from the mass guilt of the horrors rika enacts in his defense, as well as the guilt of trapping her with him in the first place when he learns it’s his fault. His power is the direct result of the weight he carries with him.

And in the same way, other characters bear their trauma in their power. Maki’s frustration and spite at the circumstances of her birth placing her under every disadvantage with the system as it is. Sukuna’s raw hatred and disdain for his fellow man. Gojo’s isolation from his own humanity as The Strongest, growing up both closer to everyone than anyone could ever know, as the six eyes’ ability to see the flow of cursed energy allows him to practically read people’s minds emotionally, and yet expectations and power have placed him on a pedestal so far away from humanity, pressured and forced into sorcery, not a single other interest permitted, from the moment of his birth. Yuji, being a newcomer, predominantly working off fear and the still fresh grief of his grandpa, along with the pressure he now feels as someone capable of sorcery to protect those who are not, one bornout of love but no less harsh, and after shibuya, like yuta, he gains a burning core of guilt for what his life has allowed to happen. Stretching more now but instead of becoming racist and getting skilljacked, geto breaking at the end of hidden inventory is where his character launches off from, instead of how it dooms itself to end; I would need to put more thought into it to make it make concrete sense but his want to rid the world of nonsorcerers and “evolve humanity” is not out of hatred for the weak but his love for humanity as a whole, he wants a humanity that can defend itself against the natural consequence of its existence that is cursed energy, and sorcerers are basically the only ones who can do that, so non-sorcerers are simply liabilities and sources of cursed energy that don’t pull their own weight, and kenjaku is maybe more like a symbiote to him, his patron that just so happens to have the same practical goals as him, albeit a different motive of pure scientific curiosity (assuming they still want the tengen merger or if they’re still in the story at all, they don’t fit into this brainbaby idea quite as well as everything else, but I digress).

And this isn’t just a story thing, it also affects the battle system too. Desperation while losing a fight actively makes you more powerful - also means consequently that like people who keep their cool like gojo (ignoring the minor insanity (and him seeing his ex-boyfriend)) have an inherent power limiter; he may be the strongest but he doesn’t get the same power buffs that everyone else can. Maybe positive energy actually like exists aside from mahoraga and rct. it’s harder to use because well people latch onto negative emotion easier than positive emotion and if you’re fighting obviously things are not sunshine and rainbows, but it is more effective against pure curses and can heal (also then if you can only rct off positive emotion, that power swing from negativity kinda shifts you into a glass canon with more damage but less ability to heal).

Do I turn this into fanfic. Do I do that thing where you make fanfic but break it so far from anything canon it’s basically just original content. or do I just keep it all locked in my head because I’m lazy. Decisions decisions.

[wheelercurse]

The Upside Down is a tesseract.

(time theory)

The writers tweeted a picture of the book Wrinkle in Time, which its title refers to a tesseract. You may ask, what's a tesseract? The basis is that a tesseract is a fifth dimension (the fourth dimension is time). Even in the book, to explain it, they use the same metaphor that they used in Stranger Things about the flea.

Here they're only using this concept to travel through dimensions. In ST, creating gates with so much power that tore space and time. And in the book, in a very similar way, to make a shortcut go to point A to point B.

We know that El has the power to create these gates, so Vecna is interested in her. And she also was the one who sent Henry to another dimension for the first time. But if you pay attention, this dimension didn't look like the Upside Down, so it makes me believe that these aren't the same place.

One is blue with spores and looks like Hawkins on November sixth, 1983, the day Willl disappeared (remember that the Duffers said this was important, and they will explain it in s5). And the other has warm colors and looks like a desert with many rocks.

My theory is that Will created the Upside Down while trying to hide from the Demogorgon. As in Wrinkle in Time, not everyone has the power of tesser. And Will manipulated time and space to create this fifth dimension.

We have seen how the Upside Down can affect the real world via the lights. They use light particles to communicate with others. A similar way that Interstellar uses the strings in the fifth dimension (also a tesseract). But in Stranger Things, they have only used it to communicate in the same period of time (the present), but what if there's a way to also communicate to other periods of time (the past)?

In Interstellar, the tesseract is an enormous structure used to communicate through gravity. Still, it's Copper's love for his daughter that allows him to see her in the past and communicate with her in this exact period. Because the premise of the movie is love transcends time and space.

ST also uses the trope of the power of love. So where I'm going with this? Our heroes will find a way to communicate with their past selves to try to prevent things, but I don't think they will be able to change the past even if they try.

My reason to believe that they will also play with time is that our villain literally has a clock motif and is obsessed with time. Also, there have been some references about time travel. And going back to season 1, the night Will disappeared, the lights in Mike's house were flickering. And the light in Will's bike also started to flicker, so he was able to notice the Demogorgon. Maybe it also was a warning. Still, if we continue with this theory, Vecna was living in the other dimension, not in the Upside Down, so he wasn't the one manipulating the lights because Will hadn't created it "yet." So who was behind the flickering? Our heroes in the future.

This isn't a new theory; I know this is the basis of flickergate. It's cute the idea that they were kissing in the Upside Down, but I think they were trying to prevent Will from leaving. Like in Interstellar, Cooper uses Morse code to send the message "STAY" But in both cases, they couldn't stop it.

Remember the iconic scene with Joyce and the Christmas lights, when she painted an alphabet, and someone warned her to RUN. Some people had questioned how Will was able to see the letters when the Upside Down was stuck on the day he disappeared. So, what if it wasn't the Will who was stuck in the UD and was someone from the future that was trying to save her (maybe Will but his future self).

There may be more examples of lights flickering, but these are the two that I remember right now.

Also, we know that Will could call his house via the phone. And in season 2, when they discovered that the way to defeat the Mindflayer was by closing the gate, the phone started to ring, so Will knew he was in the Byers' house. Maybe Vecna also will figure out how to use the Upside Down and try to intercept their plan, calling the house at that time.

Bonus: Arrival was in the s4 movie list inspiration. A movie that also plays with the concept that time is non-linear. The key to communicating with the aliens is understanding how they perceive time. You can read more about it in this analysis of the movie.

In conclusion: The Upside Down is a fifth dimension (a tesseract) where you can communicate with others dimensions, not only in the present.

[saintsenara]

You know I think Snape has been successfully paired with every other named character in canon by now, what a delightful slut, but how about Snape with one of the very few people he is demonstrably fond of…Draco.

thank you very much for the asks, anons! it's no longer draco's birthday, but i think having to wait for things is probably good for him...

back in the mists of time, i answered an ask about snaco and said that i didn't back it because i thought that the relationship between snape and draco had too much of a paternal flavour for me to enjoy them doing the nasty.

well, that version of me was a clown and a fool who didn't know what she was talking about.

because i am now of the opinion that snaco slaps - and the complex power dynamic between the two is the reason why.

after all, you have in snaco a mirror of something you have in snarry - snape working tirelessly to protect draco [because, as canon heavily implies, of his profound affection for narcissa], but, since his true motivation in undertaking this work is secret, with snape positioned not as someone controlling draco, but as someone serving him.

[it's really striking - for example - that, in the argument harry overhears at slughorn's party, snape spends the entire thing making offerings to draco. which draco then rejects.]

and you also have - and this is something which i always thinks bangs in snarry - the way that snape's inclination to position himself as a supplicant in relation to his partner is challenged - and either turned into something more equal or allowed to become more entrenched - by the way draco would come to understand the power dynamic between them after the war [or, indeed, after snape covered for him with voldemort, and he was spared any punishment for failing to kill dumbledore].

perhaps you have draco trying to grasp some control post-war, after everything he believes about the proper order of the world has been upended, by punishing snape - accusing him of only having helped him because he was a spy, or accusing him of not really caring about lucius or narcissa - and snape - unmoored in a world he never expected to live to see - retreating into the comfort of shame and grief by submitting to him.

or perhaps you have draco wanting snape to stop seeing him as someone he has to serve and look after, and - accordingly - gradually leading him towards seeing them as partners.

after all, they do have a fair amount in common. harry might try to claim otherwise, but draco is canonically good at potions - and he and snape have similar senses of humour, similar impulses towards childishness and pettiness [draco being a better occlumens than harry is because his stubbornness is much less self-righteous than harry's, rather than because he's more controlled or mature], and similar journeys of disillusionment with the blood- and magic-supremacist views they once wholeheartedly believed in. while i think there are certain points of tension which they'd need to find a way round - above all, their clearly divergent views of draco's wealth - i think they could get there...

[and i think there's an extremely compelling premise - although it won't, of course, be for everyone - in the idea that a relationship between them would be something voldemort directly encouraged during the last year of the war, as one more brick in the wall of his humiliation of lucius throughout deathly hallows. not - perhaps - expecting it to turn into something more.]

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Whole Series Overview

I started this series in January. It took me just under nine months to finish and in that time, I've become the most relevant Higurashi blog according to the Tumblr algorithm. I'm genuinely upset that it's over.

All the way back in my first post for Abducted by Demons chapter 1, I said "This is a story about repentance, forgiveness, and second chances." When I said it then, I didn't intend to repeat it as many times as I did during the second half. But it just so happens to fully encapsulate what I think this story is about.

The first half of this series is about everyone screwing up and causing horrible tragedies either directly or indirectly. The second half is instead about them overcoming those faults and working toward a better future.

Now you might think "All their actions get undone and they don't remember anything. None of the bad stuff they do actually happens so there's no point to all this forgiveness stuff since there's nothing to forgive." But that's not really true. The stuff they do each arc gets undone, but everything they've done coming into each arc and the effects those actions have on them are still there.

Even if Keiichi doesn't murder his classmates in a paranoid fit, he still assaulted a bunch of children with a toy gun and accidentally shot a girl's eye out. Even if Shion doesn't kill all the village leaders out of a misguided desire for revenge, she still resents her sister for the mixup when they were little and the village for how it treated Satoshi. Even if Rena doesn't kill people who are trying to extort her father and hold her class hostage due to suffering paranoid delusions, she still blames herself for her parents' divorce and is always afraid she'll lose everything she loves if she isn't diligent.

Each of these bad timelines are what could happen because everyone doesn't confront the worst aspects about themselves and truly strive to become better people. The question arcs are all scenarios where those negative aspects of the characters are allowed to fester and act completely unimpeded. The answer arcs meanwhile begin to address them and bring everyone together. Most importantly, the answer arcs continuously assert that what you've done in the past doesn't matter as long as you are actively trying to be a better person now.

The turning point in the entire series is in Atonement chapter 11. We've had some allusions to Keiichi's past but this chapter airs out all his dirty laundry. And we the readers might think "Oh Keiichi is not a good person after all for hiding this from us" but when he confesses to his friends, they all agree that he didn't need to tell them this because he's actively trying to be a better person because of what he's done.

Shortly after, Keiichi is flooded with the memories of what he did in Abducted by Demons. For normal people who don't truly have the power to traverse worlds, this might feel more like a premonition of what could have happened if he didn't address his personal issues or kept himself distant from his friends because of them. And this drives him to reach out to Rena and show her similarly that she has people she can go to even with what her past is.

In the final chapter of the entire series, Dice Killing chapter 6, everyone comments on the idea of a world where none of their crimes and sins happened, and they all agree that they're better off in this world because it allowed them to become better people. They still regret what they've done, and it will affect them all their lives, but it's ultimately best that they learned from them.

This series has a lot of fun with throwing supernatural and occult aspects at the reader. We start the story with a premise that there's some secret death cult running the village. Then as we keep going, we get things like the dead coming back to life, doppelgangers, death curses, and the mortal incarnation of a god.

All these different elements become a tangled mess that the reader is left to try figuring out how they come together. And in the answer arcs, we get to find what is true and what is false. And it turns out most of these supernatural elements are actually mundane coincidences or misunderstandings. In fact, Atonement seems intent on proving there isn't anything supernatural going on by introducing a new element, mind controlling alien parasites, and showing how we could mistakenly think that's a thing.

But as the story shows how some supernatural elements aren't real, it doubles down on others. As we learn that aliens, doppelgangers, and zombies are not part of this story, we're also shown that Oyashiro is real, Rika is Oyashiro's reincarnation, and they both have something to do with everything going on.

And all these strange elements were ultimately a distraction. The main point to it all is there is a conspiracy to destroy the village and Rika's death is a core aspect to it. Once all the occult mysteries are solved, we get to focus on the main plot.

Digging into a bit of what I can surmise about Ryukishi07 based on his work here, he definitely believes strongly that a person's mental wellbeing needs to factor heavily into the actual culpability of their crimes. Nomura and Okonogi are the only ones in the story who are painted as truly evil. They did everything they did with full soundness of mind. Most everything else is done by people who are repeatedly shown that they would never do what they did if they were in their right state of mind.

Massacre chapter 1 refers to a heavy-handed example of Keiichi. We're introduced to him by watching him go mad and kill his friends. But subsequent arcs show us that that behavior is very much the exception. Ultimately, every person is a very bad situation away from doing something they would never do normally.

One of the notes in the epilogue to Festival Accompanying is Irie would release a thesis on how changes to the brain affect personality and it will make people reconsider whether people should always be blamed for their actions. So part of the good ending of the story is that mental illness and wellbeing are factored into how to approach the guilt or innocence of a crime.

The ultimate shift from researching Hinamizawa Syndrome as a weapon to researching treatment and prevention is also part of that good ending.

I've gotten this far and I feel like I haven't really talked much about actual media itself. So this is a manga adaptation of a Visual Novel. The arcs were all written and released concurrently over what I'd say are three primary waves. The first wave saw Abducted by Demons, Cotton Drifting, and Curse Killing release at the same times followed by Time Killing releasing after. The second wave was Beyond Midnight, Eye Opening, and Atonement. Finally, Massacre and Festival Accompanying released together with Dice Killing releasing after.

This would really explain why manga sites at the time hosted each arc as it's own separate series since they were treated as their own separate series. When it was given an English release, the volumes were released one at a time as part of the Higurashi series rather than as their own individual series.

If she were allowed to, I bet Karin Suzuragi would have done the art for every arc. Looking at the series by release order, she was involved in the manga adaptation from start to end.

Each question-answer arc pair having its own artist really added to the sense that each arc is a different story and these are different worlds. I don't know if there were any real-world reasons for why it happened, but Hinase Momoyama adapting Massacre rather than Jiro Suzuragi reprising her artist role for it ended up being one of the best examples of how different artists made each world feel inherently different. Massacre is a world unlike every other world and it ends up looking like none of the other worlds.

And I've pointed out multiple instances of it throughout the series, but the team involved in the adaptation knew how to use the manga medium to its maximum. From page layout, to visuals, to shading; the team knew how to give the make everything have the most impact on the reader. The team LOVES the Higurashi VNs and they wanted their favorite moments to leave the same impression in manga format that they felt when reading it as a VN.

Sadly, not everything could be adapted into the manga. There are details about the world that are told to the reader of the VNs that just cannot be carried over into the manga in an effective way. If you wanted to experience both, you're better off reading the VN first and then the manga. It would have the same impact as reading your favorite book and then watching a (good) movie adaptation. Your imagination fills in the visuals as you read what happens, then you get to enjoy those vivid ideas being blown up into a beautiful visual medium.

I think that's everything I have to say about this series as a whole so I'm just going to end with a few notes I either forgot to mention or changed over time.

First, I mentioned Shion wasn't a main character in Eye Opening chapter 4. I bring it up several more times as a light joke throughout the series, and I want to mention that I originally intended to be far more aggressive about that than I ultimately was. I planned to put several instances of "(and Shion)" into every mention of the group whenever Shion was with them.

I realized early on that the degree I was going to use that joke would stop getting funny and start getting mean really quickly. I stand by my statements that she's ultimately part of the secondary cast and she's not anywhere near as close to any of the main cast as they are to each other, but they still consider her a friend and she's always welcome to join club activities any time.

I also wanted to tie Beyond Midnight to a few instances of talks about the future but kind of forgot about it when those moments happened. In particular, that arc can never happen in Festival Accompanying since it hinges on Hinamizawa being a ghost town in 2004. So I'd like to know what happens to Otobe and Towada in a world where their story can never happen.

I wanted to make one or two references to Eriko (The girl who was fed to chickens in Festival Accompanying) near the end of the series but it didn't work out. When I read Festival Accompanying chapter 4, I wanted to mention her during the very last chapter of the arc by saying something like "Everyone lived happily ever after, except Eriko and all the other children from the orphanage. They died horribly." And then when Hanyu tells Rika how everyone is living their best lives in Dice Killing, I was going to mention that maybe Eriko also got to live a happy life as well.

I'm pretty sure that once or twice, I mentioned Resident Evil when talking about Tokyo's plans to use Hinamizawa Syndrome for military use. If I didn't, then I intended to and forgot. I was going to add RE1's original release as one of the things Rika can look forward to in the future and was going to joke that it was secretly inspired by Tokyo's plans to use Hinamizawa syndrome in biological warfare, but I couldn't figure out how to fit it in.

I'm working on one last thing for this series before I begin my next one. I'm putting together a post where I try to show what events happened concurrently across arcs. I'll hopefully have it done within a week.

I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

back

[callofloony]

As fate would have it. (141)

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Very long HC post up ahead!

Tags: Fluff, angst, mentions of death and violence, 141 headcanons, hurt/comfort, everyone is hurt, Price is the comfort, semi proofread, found family dynamics… with an asterisk, i guess? Lmk if i missed any!!

A/N: This literally took me so long to type out auagwhhwhw!!!!! It’s been in my drafts for SO LONG. The premise is Price slowly realizing the ways 141 wormed their way into his heart. Hope you likeyyy!!!

~ Post begins under the cut ~

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Maybe it’s because I’m really into found family, or because I’m in love with the idea of a stoic, serious man, having soft spots for those he’s closest with. But I’m having thoughts, so now it’s everyone else’s problem.

I am the absolute firmest believer that Price wasn’t all that close to his team when they first joined, with the only exception maybe being Gaz. He only saw them as coworkers, nothing else beyond that.

He recognized their capabilities, understood where their limits were, and treated them like the assets they were. But that’s all he saw, assets. Of course, he still cared about them, but it didn’t go as far as to call them friends, let alone family.

But things started to change when he heard something slip from Soap while staring at a calendar, muttering that he missed someone… It was the anniversary of his mothers death, and it had him feeling a bit more worse for wear than usual.

Price felt a sudden pang in his heart hearing that, one that he’d never felt before. He knew what it was like to lose a loved one, especially a parent, and his heart ached for Soap.

He’d never felt such empathy towards a teammate before, let alone someone he was literally fighting tooth and nail with, risking their lives, and getting their hands dirty… So the world stays clean.

He decides after some internal debate to give Soap the day off, he didn’t have any work or missions to be completed, and he was mostly just making his way around base anyway. Training, looking for a distraction.

When asked why, Price didn’t have a clear answer. He didn’t want Soap to know he’d accidentally overheard him speak about his mother, so he simply said, “You’ve earned it.”

That was the catalyst to Price beginning to loosen up more, show a little more affection to his team. He kept that date in his mind, often allowing Soap a little more leeway on things during that month, before turning back to his no nonsense boss persona.

He wrote it off internally as just comradery, giving Soap some room to mourn while also getting his work done, it’d help him out in the long run! Simple as that…

Then, he walked in on Gaz having a panic attack.

Gaz was horrified when he saw Price, snapping his gaze towards the reports he was supposed to be working on, trying to hide the shaking in his hands and the tears that threatened to spill out of his eyes, giving his Captain a slight wave before brushing him off. But the air in the room was tense, and obvious.

Price hadn’t experienced a panic attack before, but he knew what the signs looked like, and had helped people through them before. He wasn’t just gonna leave Gaz like this… What was he thinking? When had he started empathizing so hard with the other man?

He just sighed and shut the door behind him, walking over to Gaz with a stern, yet soft gaze on his face, making Gaz whimper and tense up with worry. But when Price reached out to him, he simply placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

Gaz flinched and turns to Price who had a look of understanding on his face, like he understood, and wouldn’t judge Gaz for whatever it was that caused this. And that made Gaz break.

He buried his face in his hands and sobbed softly, trying not to make too much noise or being annoying in fear that Price would think less of him. That just made Price shake his head, wrapping his arm around Gaz’s side and pulling him forward, allowing him to rest his head on his Captains shoulder. And that only made him cry harder.

He pulled Price into a hug, grip loose so he could pull away whenever, but he didn’t… He just waited until Gaz was calm, he was already struggling, Price didn’t want to add onto that.

After a minute or two, Gaz finally calmed down and was able to catch his breath, feeling way better as he’d been holding that cry in for a while. And Price smiled at him, asking a simple question… “You wanna tell me what that was all about?”

And the question shocked Gaz, he didn’t expect his Captain would be so open eared about this, but if he was offering… Gaz figured he had nothing to lose here.

He began opening up, hands continuing to tremble as he recalled having to put an injured dad and his kid to sleep, the kid looked at Gaz with such fear and panic, but the father was practically begging for it to be over, they both knew it was for the best, but… He couldn’t get the kids face out of his head.

He’d put a fatally injured child out of their misery after a bombing, their eyes and begs burned into his mind like a bad scar, and the report was for that mission… He was crying again, looking away and apologizing.

Price looked shocked when he’d heard that, Gaz never mentioned anything like that when they’d headed back to their getaway. Price saw that Gaz looked slightly shaken up, but he chalked it up to nerves… He hadn’t known.

He shook his head and firmly told Gaz not to apologize, that these were circumstances he couldn’t have controlled, and that anyone would’ve preferred a quick death rather than a slow one, comforting the other man.

He took the report from Gaz’s desk after, making the Sergeants eyes widen in shock, and upon questioning why, Price says, “I don’t need you getting more affected than you already have, I’ll finish this up. Go rest.”

And Gaz nods, not wanting to argue with him.

Price feels exasperated with himself as he finishes the work Gaz had been assigned, why had he just done that? When had these feelings of neutrality, turned into ones of concern?

He shook his head, brushing it off again. He was just giving Gaz a break from the stress of missions and work, nothing more. Nothing like this would ever happen again, he had to promise himself…

Then, he had a smoke with Ghost.

Ghost was probably the most reserved person on his team, and Price didn’t mind keeping it that way. It was just easier to keep work, work. And personal shit, personal.

It was the only way he’d keep from completely caving, anyway.

That was until he noticed Ghost outside base, leaning against the wall, mask rolled up in order to have a calming smoke. Looking up at the sky in seemingly deep, intense thought.

Price knocked on the wall to let Ghost he was there before walking over, tilting his head at the other man. Ghost just gave him a nod of acknowledgment before returning to smoking. He didn’t mind Price being there, the man had already seen his face anyway.

“Mind if I smoke with you?” Price had asked simply, leaning against the wall Ghost was on. He could see the faintest flicker in Ghosts eyes when the other man spoke, he hadn’t looked at the Captain, he just exhaled the smoke before nodding again. Allowing Price in his bubble.

Price smiled slightly and pulled a cigar out, lighting it while looking up at the sky like Ghost was, a vein of curiosity spreading through his body as glanced at the other man, once, twice, thrice… He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t hold his tongue anymore.

He took another huff of the cigar, releasing the air as he prepared for whatever response might come from this.

“What’s on your mind?”

His voice was soft and genuine, giving Ghost a full look as he definitely noticed the glances Price gave him before, he’d just been waiting for his Captain to say something.

Ghost paused for a moment, contemplating his answer before sighing and shaking his head, putting out his cigarette against the wall, a soft sizzle being heard as it died out.

He said he wasn’t required to say anything, which made Price chuckle and nod. The other man was right, he didn’t have to say anything if he didn’t want to, and Price wouldn’t interrogate him for it, however… That didn’t mean pestering wasn’t on the table.

Price continued to lightheartedly press about the things going on in Ghosts mind, Price already knew about some of the things the other man had been through, life altering and ruining things that didn’t look like something anyone could bounce back from… But Simon did.

Or so he thought.

Ghost huffed and rolled down his mask, crossing his arms and looking away from Price right after. Truth be told, he wasn’t necessarily in the mood for Prices insistent attempts at getting him to speak. Though, he couldn’t help but appreciate the effort.

After a bit of contemplating, he sighed and gave Price a slight glance. Tensing up a little before beginning to speak. He trusted Price, he knew he wouldn’t be judged for everything that was on his mind.

He spoke in a low, slightly softer tone than Price was used to, which caught the Captain off guard, but it only made him listen more intently. Simon revealed he was reminiscing about his family, his mother, Tommy, Beth, and his adorable nephew, Joseph.

He never showed it outright, but he missed them dearly. Nightmares plagued his mind about finding their dead bodies, the grief and horror he felt was something he’d never been able to let go of. How it still hurts to think and remember, and the haunting realization that’d he’d forgotten what even his own mothers voice sounded like.

He gets a bit choked up while speaking, his voice laced with a slight quiver, a tremble in his hands as he reminisces. He blamed himself for it, deeply.

Prices heart and face softened when Ghost said this, he knew part of what the other man had been through, but he didn’t know the full extent, let alone the amount of trauma and scars that had been inflicted onto him.

Hearing all this now? It made his heart break, and he knew he had to do something. He’d pressured Ghost into opening up, he wouldn’t just leave the other man in heartache.

He looked at Ghost with a somber gaze, and places a gentle hand on his shoulder, a comforting gesture that he’d allow Ghost to pull away from. But he didn’t, he just looked at Price with his eyes slightly widened.

Prices expression read, “It’s okay to cry, mate.” And that’s exactly what he did, Ghost couldn’t remember the last time he had a good cry. He looked down as the tears begin to stream out of his eyes, he barely made any noise, but with the waterfall of tears, the impact was there, and it meant a lot to him.

Price just continueed to be there, patting Ghost on the shoulder, eventually moving to his back. He was encouraging Ghost to cry, everyone cried. Everyone needed to cry. Even Price sometimes.

Price wouldn’t pretend to understand what Ghost had gone through, or even how bad it affected him, because he knew he’d be wrong. But, when Simon turned to him with slightly puffy eyes, giving his Captain a nod and a quiet, “thank you.” He smiled, knowing he did something right.

After those instances, he started to notice some changes. Everyone seemed to be acting a bit more casual and chill with him. Striking up small talk, engaging in banter, hell… Even smiling more around him. And like the man he was, he indulged them.

Soap got him small gifts and trinkets as a way to show his gratitude to Price. Perhaps a kind of chocolate he ate when he was younger, that he thought wasn’t being manufactured anymore. He mentioned it in passing, feeling nostalgic. And Soap had found it again.

Gaz began offering to help comfort and calm Price down whenever a mission goes to shite, because that’s the same thing Price had done for him. He offered a shoulder to cry on without judgement, and Gaz wanted to show he’d be there for his Captain as well.

Ghost began to strike up more conversations and show his true colors to Price, after generally being a bit more reserved than anyone else, and it showed Price just how comfortable the other man had become around him, even after just that single interaction.

And all of it, makes him crack a smile.

It frustrated him, why was he like this? He’d made a promise. A promise that he wouldn’t become attached to anyone on this team, that it would remain strictly professional… But he failed. What was wrong with him?

It’s only when 141 plans a surprise for him, does he find out why.

They’d been scheming for ages for the perfect plan, holidays were usually spent working. Whether it be missions, paperwork, training the recruits, they were always busy… But that day, his team had their chance.

Gaz knocked on his office door, gesturing that there was something he needed help with, and Price followed, feeling confused when the other man had brought him into a dimly lit room, was this a trick? A prank? He’d be on his ass if it was…

And then Gaz flipped the light switch, and everything made sense. In front of him were 3 presents (one from each member), a cake, and Soap and Ghost standing there, yelling out, “Happy birthday!”

He stood there stunned for a moment as Gaz chuckled, giving the other man a pat on the shoulder with an eyebrow raised, asking, “So… What do you think? Are you surprised?” He certainly was, he’d forgotten it was his birthday, and he didn’t even realize the others knew.

He continued to stand there shocked before chuckling, a smile creeping onto his lips, he couldn’t express his gratitude properly as an affectionate, “You muppets…” Escaped his lips. And they all celebrated.

It was a small party, sure, but they all had the time of their lives. Bonding, joking, and all around just being happy. Price never could’ve expected this to happen in his over three decades of living, but he could honest to god say… This was the best birthday he could’ve asked for.

And that’s when it hit him, the reason why he was being so affectionate and understanding towards these men, the men he set out to only view as subordinates, and nothing else… He’d always had it in his heart to love ‘em.

He didn’t want to get attached because subconsciously, he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle losing them, even if he never got close to them. But… Life has a funny way of twisting fate, so this destiny was his, and he had no choice but to accept it. With open arms might I add.

They were his family now, a family he knew would stick by his side, and always be with him. No matter what came to tear them apart. Rain or shine, life or death, they’d be there to support him until kingdom come…

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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A/N: WOOOOOO IT’S DONE!! IT’S OUT!!!! SCREAMS! A lot of this is prolly very very unrealistic but SHHHH LEMME BE AUTISTIC… ty for reading hehe !!

[inventedfangirling]

PatPran & the Bet Era™

A week ago Bad Buddy PatPran Bet Era discourse started heating up again and i thought i should finally try to put to words my unending (that's in BOLD so you know what to expect :3) all consuming thoughts about this most brilliant, jam-packed with funny, heartfelt and equally wholesome moments of an episode- episode 7, an episode that I have watched a minimum of 14 times in the past 2 months and so yes finally, here I am, let's go.

Before anything else though I first want to scream about something i realized while writing this post which is that episode 7/ bet era is probably THE ONLY time in the whole show where PatPran truly and completely enjoyed having and keeping their secret. Like they were truly thriving off of the fun they were having at the expense of and with the other. And keeping it hidden only added to that experience.

With the whole world oblivious to what's going on between them, the secret is undemanding, mostly easy and even fun to keep cos the bet was for them and just for them...

...unlike a relationship which they would want to experience around other people too.

But for an episode that leaves you with so many good feelings (after the first watch) it is quite easy to forget just how much it took to get to that ending. Episode 7 Pran still had his reservations about their possible relationship and he still had to work through years and years of repression and trauma. Episode 7 Pat too was not always in the best frame of mind, because while all else was said and done they were still in an in-between, unlabeled, unprecedented and unfamiliar space in their dynamic. One that a simple uncomplicated guy like Pat would loathe to continue to stay in. And yet for an episode set on such an underlying premise for the most part they made this liminal space appear as such a fun, warm, wholesome and enjoyable place to be in that there are times when we forget the shakiness of the foundation of it all -> A still undefined rival-turned-friend-situation-ship.

And in the light of this, episode 7 can easily be seen as a microcosm of their incredibly layered relationship and the show as such and when packaged in such an attractive, intriguing, exciting, seldom seen set-up (that was designed to subvert years of terrible tropes in the industry) who wouldn't sign tf up for it. If i could live in an episode of the show, it'd most probably be episode 7. If i was asked to name an episode to rewatch forever it would be episode 7. If asked to write endlessly on my thoughts about the show again it would be episode 7 that would take a substantial part of it cos i just love it that much.

Here's some secret footage of Pran feeling all warm and fuzzy over thoughts of him and Pat me any time i think about episode 7.

Alright now actually getting into the episode, we know that Pran was still deciding when and how exactly to progress with his now reciprocated feelings for Pat yes, but he was also finally getting a space to express his long held affection for Pat without having to pretend otherwise.

Without rolling his eyes and "reluctantly" letting him in. Without pretending to scold him for "stealing" his breakfast when he had in fact made it for Pat himself. Without stopping himself from getting closer. Without the numerous restrictions he had placed on himself, the bet era finally gave Pran space to care for Pat openly but also unleashed the romantic in him (not that i'm ignoring the fact that Pran wrote a whole song about Pat in high school, but you geddit).

And eventhough none of his schemes to make Pat confess worked, (Pat confessed on his own like he would have on the first day of the bet if Pran had allowed him to talk about it), the baby steps he was taking was crucial for laying the base for their eventual relationship, but also for Pran as an individual making significant strides in learning to be vulnerable and more open.

It not only gave Pran opportunities to try out a lot of things, helping him figure out along the way what Pat likes and what he doesn't, and what Pran himself would like to do to and with him, things that a younger Pran would have died to have gotten the opportunity to do with Pat- the cooking, the feeding, the prolonged charged eye contact, the physical proximity (and I will never stop being devastated but also delighted over the fact that baby gay pran would be thinking that he's dreaming if he could see his future) but also of course the bet gave Pran time to process his own issues while it operated on the familiar turf of competition, with his fav and only rival and boy, and allowed him freedom to think and act in ways he wouldn't have earlier.

The seeds to Pran's "being with you already feels like freedom" to Pat in episode 11, were sown right here in this very episode. What he learnt and absorbed during this time expanded his field of vision regarding the possibilities of his own life and the power he had over his own choices, broadened his emotional horizons and quite literally opened his heart.

While earlier the dark shadow of his closed off heart would loom large over his face each time his feelings surfaced...

....post bet era Pran's face could fuel a couple of hundred thousand solar panels.

Pre-bet Pran loved Pat of course. But the feelings of love that bet era and post bet era Pran exude, is of a wholly different texture. It's borne of a more layered, luminous sort of love. The one that gets to be expressed and is reciprocated. And you observe the look of love on his face and its is as if he glows from inside out.

It's based on the foundation of reciprocation and therefore no longer something that needs to be hidden from the receiver, but it's also as if he learnt to love in a different way, like he learnt that he could love this way too, that he could make use of his heart this way too. Post bet era Pran's love just flows out of him in waves, nice and easy, minimal repression and none of the doubt that accompanied it earlier.

And at this point I can't not mention the swagger that Pran gains post Pat's episode 6 reveal (that he didn't have feelings for ink), finally secure in the knowledge that Pat really feels the same love that he feels for the other, his whole demeanor changes and its something that just hits you immediately.

The assurance and confidence of reciprocation in his face, contrasting with the hesitation and doubt each time he allowed himself to feel pre-bet (as if each time he is looking at Pat 'loving you is a losing game' plays in the background) is just remarkable. And that confidence just increases each episode and i was LIVING for it.

And again, back to episode 7 and my point which is that Pran has loved Pat for years and years by then but all that time his love was something to hide, his heart was closed off and barred from any encroachment no matter how ineffective it was against Pat. It was the bet era that allowed Pran's heart to undergo a renewal, a second coming, a rebirth so to say, of a heart that is no longer so boarded up and closed off, a heart with a lot more windows and a few more better oiled doors and a heart that most importantly Pran would eventually, wholeheartedly hand Pat the keys to.

In many ways we can see Pran's growth beyond this episode, from the "I care about you more" to the "I came quickly because i was worried about you" to "how can i stop if i think of it like that" to the brave way he stands up to both Ming & Dissaya all of it in the span of a few weeks, all of it as borne from the lessons he learnt during the bet era.

Pat also went through his own growth during this time. I have already talked a bit about the episode focusing on Pat's side of the things here. While not as evident as Pran's growth was during this episode (but only because we see him transform more gradually over the course of the first few episodes itself) Pat also learns to use his heart in newer ways that veered off a bit from how he had pre bet era. For the most part though the bet was more of a fun thing for him than it was for Pran for whose sake Pat even agreed to this in the first place.

And so while Pran tries to make Pat confess, Pat defers the confession because he knows that Pran needs more time, and Pat takes to that reality and adapts to it so beautifully, with such wisdom that's so above and beyond what could be expected from a 19-20 year old man, the thought of it still takes my breath away and turns me into a puddle.

Just look at just how careful and gentle Pat is with Pran. And think of how much he has grown and how much he will grow from here. Think of Pat as a child telling Pran to not talk to him in front of people cos "they will think we're buddies". And then years later (in episode 8 and beyond) think of him wishing wishing oh so desperately to proclaim his love for Pran out to the world, for Pran to let him do that, to claim their relationship and celebrate their love. I WILL NOT BE OVER THIS. Or anything in this episode/show actually. Cos it really is that special. Episode 7 Pat my beloved did that.

That being said, it ofc wouldn't have been all easy and he would have had his share of upsets. The confusion, the lack of clarity, the staying in the limbo, the lack of any tangible progress could all have deterred him. There is also the fact that Pat doesn't strike you as a patient guy. He is the first born male child in a patriarchal asian household having been pampered as a result of this his whole life. His every whim and wish probably granted within days. And yet for the bet, for their relationship, for Pran he learns to be patient. He learns to bide his time. He learns to not immediately take action without thinking (the time he silently walks away from Pran's room post Wai's guitar return, he could have said some hurtful things, but he didn't, he bit his tongue, kept quiet and moved on).

{I am totally in the camp of "we should have gotten a 'how could you give it away Pran?' conversation after this scene but i also understand why it didn't happen}

Over the course of the episode and his time with Pran in general, right from the beginning Pat steadily starts learning to put the other person first. To cater to people around him and not for them to cater to him, always. We see this transformation begin in episode 3 itself when Pat just goes out of his way (multiple times) to help Pran out, but that is at least partly in due to his new found need to be around Pran (courtesy his crush that he is still not aware of) and not as much a conscious effort to be better. Although ofc that is there too. His transformation from entitled boy in the episode 1 family lunch scene to the considerate helpful man in the finale family dinner scene is so stark you might think they're two different people, and a lot of that growth is owed to what he learnt and unlearned while he was falling in love with Pran.

He learns to read Pran. The feelings that won't be uttered with words, but the ones he'd have to pry out from his eyes. And he does all of that while still being respectful of any boundaries that Pran may have, while also testing the waters to come closer.

I know i've used gifs from this face cleaning scene thrice already but i just love it so much?? I love how it might look like just a fluffy scene but the layers?? Just how deep and meaningful and just full of substance it is??? I might need to write a whole essay for that itself. And also when you think about it what i said about this scene could literally be said about bad buddy (and the whole of episode 7 for that matter). With an uncritical eye you can watch it as the beautifully executed romance(cute fluffy episode) that it is. But when you unearth the layers whoa boy thats where the real beauty of the show (episode) comes out. But also this is extra special because this is the first scene where we get to see Pran completely softening when Pat tends to him. His adoring melting puddle looks reserved usually for when Pat's attention isn't entirely on him. But this time he lets himself be softened. Lets himself feel. Lets himself be babied. And even if non verbally he lets himself express, agreeing to move closer and tracing hearts on Pat's face. It is more than just a cute moment, it's a small declaration of faith. Among the first in a long series of declarations of faith that led to the ending we ended up loving.

So yes, Pat was learning to use his heart in a different way too, to love in quieter more mundane yet still special ways, but also learning to respond to Pran's emotions, and the repressed ways he sometimes continued to express his feelings, he learnt to read between the lines, not jump to hasty conclusions he would have done earlier and was thus steadily progressing into the partner that Pran could trust his heart with always.

Episode 7 shows us how patpran changed and molded themselves in various ways to fit into the other, but it also shows how they change to accommodate not just the other, but also the world. Not in a compromising way, but in a way that allows them to function in it more effectively and later on in the fake break up era, diabolically using it to pull wool over the eyes of anybody who threatens their peace.

Also i wont go into it in detail here but it is entirely possible that Pat was going through a spiral of his own issues during this time because of worries fueled by insecurities due to the fragile nature of their relationship at that point and the lack of certainty in the situation like I talk about here, but even if he was feeling all of that, even in that in-between state of limbo Pat had tons and tons of fun teasing Pran and trying to outdo him each time and we know that his cheery exterior which he may have put forward occasionally to keep it light for pran wasn't just for show, he really did enjoy the whole push-pull thing they had got going on, his smiles popping out when alone too.

I mean look at his delight each time one of their(Pran's) plans to outwit the other fails.

The bet era was without a doubt a VERY fun time for both of them (and for all of us watching) the flirting, the teasing, the act of courting one another, the familiar feeling of competition and the easy sense of play that pervades their interactions during that period....

...everything, everything, everything was just * chef's kiss *.

And also I still can't get over the fact that it's the only time the secret is theirs and only theirs and they have THE BEST TIME keeping it.

And also if Pran was able to shed his loving you is a losing game attitude to finally accept the love that Pat offered, it was possible in no small amount due to Pat's willingness to lose to Pran over and over again if that meant he was happy. And Pran having had to harbour a long drawn painful unrequited love for years and years, used to all the repression and self denial, he really needed that assurance, that dependability. And Pat readily gave it to him because that's just the way he loved. Fully, freely and fiercely. And you won't ever catch me feeling normal about any of that ever.

And also speaking of things i wont be normal about that scene at the end when Pat arrives to save the day and all eyes are on him and the flashback to Pat's audition with his callback to their rooftop conversation and Pran's 'fuck i love him so much i can't believe he's doing this here' face oozing pure love and then present PatPran exuding the sun looking at eo, with Forever May playing in the background, that scene? That scene is everything to me. I will die for that scene.

So to recap, Pat flexed his emotional intelligence muscles and his literal actual muscles and learnt to be more patient than he had ever been his whole life, meanwhile Pran got to flex his flirting skills, looming skills all while he learnt to let go, express and be more vulnerable.

And also not to forget that apart from all the space for growth that the bet provided patpran it also allowed them to indulge in their love for shenanigans and roleplaying that continues well into their relationship even years later, more on that in the ever amazing miscellar's post here . There are so many more posts of their's and a buncha other accounts i really want to reference but then we'd be here for days if not weeks and so i wont :3

And also I can't not take a second to mention just how wonderful it was that throughout this episode we see the seeds being sown of all the ways they and their relationship would grow, and especially when it came to consent and boundaries. Just how equal their relationship is. How they're always, always meeting in the middle.

No interaction, nothing is initiated without knowing what the other wouldn't want. And of course both PatPran were being respectful of each other's non existent boundaries with eo, they were all up in each other's faces but you just know that if one of them expressed actual discomfort the other would step away immediately.

And thats just so so rare not only in dramas but also real life and i love them so much for it.

Episode 7 showed us not only how patpran became better partners to eo but also better human beings as such, their influence on one another so evident, molding them on a fundamental level into better versions of themselves. Pran who gifts a bottle of liquor (to the man who ruined the better part of his & his mother's life) as a peace offering but also as a sort of pre-engagement ritual, choosing to open up, to be vulnerable, to love more loudly, being a more well adjusted adult and he did it for Pat, because of the lessons he learnt from Pat. And Pat who learns to read between the lines, who recognizes the value of gestures that might appear small but aren't, offering to wash dishes, serving food to his sister and in general taking responsibility and also the importance of order and routine to contribute to society and just be a well functional adult, and he learnt it in no small amount from being inspired from the man he loves, from Pran.

But all of that of course is in full splendor only after the time skip. That being said Episode 8 that comes immediately after this episode shows PatPran taking the lessons they started learning in episode 7 and putting it into effect with them openly communicating, asserting their needs but also compromising their wants for each other and illustrated exactly how and why they work together so well, why this isn't the product of a childish bet but a very serious relationship into which a lot of thought and effort has gone into.

A relationship based on the softest, kindest, most tender (but also often, feral) forms of love even in the more hostile of circumstances. There's a saying in my mother tongue that "What's born in the fire, won't wilt in the sunlight." And that to me perfectly captures PatPran's resilience despite their obstacles. Ming & Dissaya & the Architecture-Engineering rivalry and whatever other hurdles stood in their way never really stood a chance against their love.

TLDR; The bet era played an irreplaceable role in their lives helping PatPran pick up and refine the tools that were going to prove invaluable in their eventual relationship with each other but also with their relationships with everybody else around, but they did that while having (for the most part) the time of their lives where for the first time since they realized their feelings they were getting to act on it, each attempt at getting the other to confess a declaration of their own love, without the pressure of a relationship and...and despite whatever anxieties or worries they may have had during this time, we also can't forget that it ended up in the biggest most content whipped in love smiles known to humankind and a relationship for the ages <3

The work they put in this episode thus laid the foundation for the rest of their relationship and their lives and I'm so glad it worked out in the best way for both of them, that they worked for that together and even more that they grew up and beyond the versions of them that got together and then stayed together as the better versions that they made together.

[shadowthief78]

Thoughts about Ego’s Backstory

Warnings for manga spoilers for Blue Lock below the cut!

So Ego is obviously one of the driving forces behind Blue Lock: he’s the organizer, the head coach, and I’m willing to bet he probably designed a good portion of the building/Blue Lock holograms/etc as well. But for such a majorly impactful character, we really don’t know much about him.

What we do know is:

He had a restricted diet sometime in the past

He has some kind of old friendship with Noel Noa

He used to have a job that required a special diet (possibly an athlete)

Above: Proof that Ego had some kind of career in the past that restricted his diet so he couldn’t eat instant ramen.

Above: Proof that Noa and Ego knew each other before Blue Lock.

I would like to put forth the consideration that his backstory went something like this:

Very talented athlete, went overseas because Japan was too small for him (much like Sae Itoshi), met Noel Noa along the way, failed to score a winning/somehow very important goal, returned to Japan and faded into obscurity until Anri hired him for the Blue Lock Project.

Here’s why I think that, and also take this with salt because it’s really mostly circumstansial evidence.

Firstly, in chapter one. The imagination story that Ego gives: pass or not at the World Cup? Maybe he’s just being imaginative but from what has been shown, Ego isn’t the kind of person to tell stories for the sake of stories. They’re always an allegory, like the famous “luck is bird shit” one. Is Ego drawing form parsonal experience?

Now, I’m not necessarily sure that he’s played in the World Cup. It might have been another game. But the possibility is there.

I also find the following page intersting: even though Isagi is speaking/narrating the “nameless striker” part, Ego is the focus of that panel. Heck, Isagi hardly earns a spot this page! This might be me just not noticing a lot of things, but it seems odd that Isagi referring to himself is superimposed over Ego and not, say, a picture of Isagi having lost. So, is/was Ego also some “nameless striker”?

What really made me consider all this was the panel below, from ch56, when Ego is explaining to the JFA why Blue Lock is necessary instead of just natural talent growth. Again, this might be a strech, but I don’t think it’s too far off to say that Ego might have experienced something very similar.

Afew pages after, we get this shot: Buratsuta saying failure isn’t allowed and Ego without a snarky comaback, for once? I do think this speaks to Ego having some failure in his past that impacted his philosophy of Blue Lock today.

And finally, Ego is so careless about his life after Blue Lock. Take a look at these three pages in Ch 131:

Ego doesn’t care! He’s giving up! He’s completely abandoning the one single thing he’s spent months or possibly even years building and defending!

Why?

What could have possibly affecte him to the point of willingly and knowingly giving up on something he’s spent countless hours designing the best possible training regimen for?

Listen, I really think Ego wants to help the Blue Lock participants succeed where he couldn’t. That’s why he calls them “lumps of talent,” “diamonds in the rough,” etc. Yeah, he does it kind of insultingly, but those things... they aren’t bad at all?

And it’s also worth mentioning that in the three panels, he’s basically lying. Not about the end of Blue Lock, I do think he was genuine about that part, but about the whole premise fo Blue Lock. He said right at the beginning that 299 out of 300 would die (more or less as a metaphor but, still...) but here he’s planned for the future of the remaining Blue Lock members. I don’t know if this was a lie all along or he planned it this way, but his promise of making a single #1 striker would have been broken here had Isagi not refused to accept this future.

Anyways. Ego is such an enigma and I really want more of his backstory. Maybe someone smarter than me has said this all before and I’ve just given an incomplete summary. My brain is shot after all this.

[iceyrukia]

IT IS OBSCENE: A TRUE REFLECTION IN THREE PARTS

PART ONE

When you are a public figure, people will write and say false things about you. It comes with the territory. Many of those things you brush aside. Many you ignore. The people close to you advise you that silence is best. And it often is. Sometimes, though, silence makes a lie begin to take on the shimmer of truth.

In this age of social media, where a story travels the world in minutes, silence sometimes means that other people can hijack your story and soon, their false version becomes the defining story about you.

Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it, as Jonathan Swift wrote.

Take the case of a young woman who attended my Lagos writing workshop some years ago; she stood out because she was bright and interested in feminism.

After the workshop, I welcomed her into my life. I very rarely do this, because my past experiences with young Nigerians left me wary of people who are calculating and insincere and want to use me only as an opportunity. But she was a Bright Young Nigerian Feminist and I thought that was worth making an exception.

She spent time in my Lagos home. We had long conversations. I was support-giver, counsellor, comforter.

Then I gave an interview in March 2017 in which I said that a trans woman is a trans woman, (the larger point of which was to say that we should be able to acknowledge difference while being fully inclusive, that in fact the whole premise of inclusiveness is difference.)

I was told she went on social media and insulted me.

This woman knows me enough to know that I fully support the rights of trans people and all marginalized people. That I have always been fiercely supportive of difference, in general. And that I am a person who reads and thinks and forms my opinions in a carefully considered way.

Of course she could very well have had concerns with the interview. That is fair enough. But I had a personal relationship with her. She could have emailed or called or texted me. Instead she went on social media to put on a public performance.

I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. But I mostly held myself responsible. My spirit had been slightly stalled, from the beginning, by her. My first sense of unease with her came when she posted a photo taken in my house, at a time when I did not want any photos of my personal life on social media. I asked that she take it down. The second case of unease was her publicizing something I had told her in confidence about another member of the workshop. The most upsetting was when she, without telling me, used my name to apply for an American visa. Above all else was my lingering suspicion that she was a person who chose as friends only those from whom she could benefit. But she was a Bright Young Nigerian Feminist and I allowed that sentiment to over-ride my unease.

After she publicly insulted me, it was clear to me that this kind of noxious person had no business in my life, ever again.

A few months later, she sent this affected, self-regarding email which I ignored.

Friday September 15 2017 at 4.35 AM Dearest Chimamanda, Happy birthday. I mean this with all my heart, even though I know I have fallen (removed myself?) from your grace. It would be impossible for me to stop loving you; long before you gave me the possibility of being your friend you were the embodiment of my deepest hopes, and that will never change.I think of you often, still – stating the obvious. I grieve the loss of our friendship; it is a complicated sadness. I’m sorry that I caused you pain, or to feel like you can no longer trust me. There’s so much that I wish could be said.I pray this birthday is the happiest one yet. I wish you rest and quiet and abiding stability, and of course more of the kind of success that means the most to you.I hope mothering X is everything you hoped and prayed for and more.Have a wonderful day today. Love always.

About a year later, she sent this email, which I also ignored.

Thursday November 29 2018 at 8.42 AM Dear Chimamanda, I realise this is long overdue and vastly insufficient, but I’m really sorry. I’ve spent so much time going back and forth in my head and my email drafts; wondering whether to write you, how to write you, what to say, all kinds of things. But in the end, this is the thing I realise I need to say.I’m sorry I disappointed and hurt you by saying things publicly that were sharply critical, unkind and even disrespectful, especially in light of all the backlash and criticism you experience from people who don’t know you. I could have acted with more consideration towards you. I should have, especially given the privilege of intimacy that you had offered me. There are many reasons why I chose to behave the way I did, but none of them is an excuse. And I clearly realise now, after many, many months of needless sadness and angst and hurt and actual confusion, that I did not treat you as a friend would—certainly not as someone would to whom you had offered unprecedented access to yourself and your life.You’ve meant the world to me since I was barely a teenager. It’s been very hard navigating the emotional fallout of the past several months, knowing you were displeased with me but truly not quite understanding why, then deciding I didn’t care, then realising that would never be true. I’ve always cared. But I was too mixed up about the situation to be able to make sense of it, or properly see past my own justifications. I’m sorry it took me so long to grasp how I let you down.I realise that I don’t have room to ask anything of you, but I would be grateful for a chance to say this in person. Still, even if I never get that, I really hope you believe me.Congratulations on restarting the workshop, and on all the other amazing successes of the past several months. I think of you often; it would be impossible not to. You look so happy in your pictures. I really hope you are well. All my love,

I hoped never to hear from her again. But she has recently gone on social media to write about how she “refused to kiss my ring,” as if I demanded some kind of obeisance from her. She also suggests that there is some dark, shadowy ‘more’ to tell that she won’t tell, with an undertone of “if only you knew the whole story.”

It is a manipulative way of lying. By suggesting there is ‘more’ when you know very well that there isn’t, you do sufficient reputational damage while also being able to plead deniability. Innuendo without fact is immoral.

No, there isn’t more to the story. It is a simple story – you got close to a famous person, you publicly insulted the famous person to aggrandize yourself, the famous person cut you off, you sent emails and texts that were ignored, and you then decided to go on social media to peddle falsehoods. It is obscene to tell the world that you refused to kiss a ring when in fact there isn’t any ring at all.

I cannot make much of the hostility of strangers who do not know me – fame taints our view of the humanity of famous people. But the truth is that the famous person remains irretrievably human. Fame does not inoculate the famous person from disappointment and depression, fame does not make you any less angered or hurt by the duplicitous nature of people. To be famous is to be assumed to have power, which is true, but in the analysis of fame, people often ignore the vulnerability that comes with fame, and they are unable to see how others who have nothing to lose can lie and connive in order to take advantage of that fame, while not giving a single thought to the feelings and humanity of the famous person.

And when you personally know a famous person, when you have experienced their humanity, when you have benefited from their kindness, and yet you are unable to extend to them the basic grace and respect that even a casual acquaintanceship deserves, then it says something fundamental about you.

And in a deluded way, you will convince yourself that your hypocritical, self-regarding, compassion-free behavior is in fact principled feminism. It isn’t. You will wrap your mediocre malice in the false gauziness of ideological purity. But it’s still malice. You will tell yourself that being able to parrot the latest American Feminist orthodoxy justifies your hacking at the spirit of a person who had shown you only kindness. You can call your opportunism by any name, but it doesn’t make it any less of the ugly opportunism that it is.

PART TWO

When I first read this person’s work, which was their application to my writing workshop, I thought the sentences were well-done. I accepted this person. At the workshop, I thought they could have been more respectful of the other participants, perhaps not kept typing dismissively as others’ stories were discussed, with an air of being among people below their level. After the workshop, I decided to select the best stories, edit them, pay the writers a fee, and publish them in an e-magazine. The first story I chose was this person’s. I wrote a glowing introduction, which the story truly deserved.

They sent this email.

Fri, Aug 7, 2015, 8:20 AM Thank you so much for that introduction. It means so much to me and I’m going to keep reading it to get through the rest of my stay at Syracuse. I sent it to my mother and she got nervous about the piece because you said ‘it disturbs’, said she’s not sure how she’s going to feel when she reads it. But she’s also one of those ‘let’s leave the past in the past’ people. My sister approved, which meant a lot because our childhoods were each other’s.All that to say, I’m so grateful you gave me the space to write the short version of this piece, the encouragement to write the longer piece, and now, a platform for it. I definitely have plans to write more about Aba.Thank you, with all my heart.PS- I wanted to sign off gratefully + gracefully in Igbo but I said let me not fall my own hand 🙂

About a year later, they sent another email to let me know that their novel would be published.

Wed, Jun 8, 2016, 8:20 AM Greetings! I hope all’s been well with you this past year. Belated congratulations on the baby’s arrival, I hope she’s being a delight (I’m sure she is), and on the Johns Hopkins honors.I was thinking about how this time last year, I’d just received the email from you about Farafina and I wanted to reach out with a quick update. I’ve just accepted an offer for the novel I excerpted as my application and it feels like the workshop was a catalyst for the events that’ve led me here. So, thank you, for the workshop and your words and the Olisa TV series and listening to me babble on about my story at the hotel. I deeply appreciate all of it and you. All my best,

Before the novel was published, I spoke of it to some people, to help it get attention. I had not been able to finish reading it. I found the writing beautiful, but the story false-hearted and burdened by bathos. When I spoke of the novel, however, it was the former sentiment that I expressed, never the latter.

After I gave the March 2017 interview in which I said that a trans woman is a trans woman, I was told that this person had insulted me on social media, calling me, among other things, a murderer. I was deeply upset, because while I did not really know them personally, I felt they knew what I stood for and that I fully supported the rights of trans people, and that I do not wish anybody dead.

Still, I took no action. I ignored the public insult.

When this person’s publishers sent me an early copy of their novel, I was surprised to see that my name was included in their cover biography. I had never seen that done in a book before. I didn’t like that I had not been asked for permission to use my name, but most of all I thought – why would a person who thinks I’m a murderer want my name so prominently displayed in their biography?

Then I learned that, because my name was in the cover biography, a journalist had called them my “protegee” and they then threw a Twitter tantrum about it, calling it clickbait, viciously disavowing having received any help from me.

I knew this person had called me a murderer, I knew they were actively campaigning to “cancel” me and tweeting about how I should no longer be invited to speak at events. But this I felt I could not ignore.

I sent an email to my representative:

From: Chimamanda Adichie Date: Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 2:06 PM I’m writing about X She attended my Lagos workshop two years ago and I selected hers as one of a few pieces I published after the workshop. Apparently I was referred to as her ‘mentor’ and/or she was referred to as my ‘protege,’ in some articles, which led to her tweeting about it. Her tweets were forwarded to me by friends. In them, she reacted quite viscerally to my being called her ‘mentor’ and her being my ‘protege.’ To be fair, she is not technically my ‘protege,’ and it is perfectly fine that she feels this way, but her ungracious tone and the ugliness of the energy spent on her tweets surprised me. I recently received her book and noticed that my name was included in her official book bio. I was stunned. Surely if she is so strongly averse to my being considered a person who has been significant in her career, (which is my understanding of the loose use of protege/mentor) then it is unseemly to make the choice to include my name in her bio. I found it unusual, as I don’t think I’ve seen it done before in a book bio, but I also now find it unacceptably cynical. It is only reasonable for a person who sees my name as it is used in her bio — ‘her work has been selected and edited by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’ — to assume some sort of mentor/protege relationship. To publicly disavow this with a tone bordering on hostility and at the same time so baldly use my name to sell her book is utterly unacceptable to me. I’d like you to please reach out to her publishers and ask that my name be removed from her official book bio. I refuse to be used in this way. Chimamanda

After contacting her publishers, my representative wrote:

They have asked whether your preference would be to remove the Acknowledgment to you in the back of the book also, in future reprints.

I replied:

I don’t think that is my decision to take, and so will not answer either way, although it would be ideal if she herself made the decision to do so.

On the subject of how to go about it, I was absolutely determined not to be used by this person, but I was also sensitive to the costs the publisher might incur, as this was not in any way the publisher’s fault. Instead of pulping the already printed copies, I asked that the jackets be stripped and rebound. To my representative I wrote:

I’m completely determined that I not be used in this opportunistic and hypocritical way. But I want to make sure to proceed reasonably.

I was assured that my name would be removed and I moved on.

But from time to time, I would be informed of yet another social media post in which this person had attacked me.

This person has created a space in which social media followers have – and this I find unforgiveable – trivialized my parents’ death, claiming that the sudden and devastating loss of my parents within months of each other during this pandemic, was ‘punishment’ for my ‘transphobia.’

This person has asked followers to pick up machetes and attack me.

This person began a narrative that I had sabotaged their career, a narrative that has been picked up and repeated by others.

The normal response would be to ignore it all, because this person is seeking attention and publicity to benefit themselves. Claiming that I have sabotaged their career is a lie and this person knows that it is a lie. But if something is repeated often enough, in this age in which people do not need proof or verification to run with a story, especially a story that has outrage potential, then it can easily begin to seem true.

My addressing this lie will indeed get this person some attention – may they bask in it.

Here is the truth: I was very supportive of this writer. I didn’t have to be. I wasn’t asked to be. I supported this writer because I believe we need a diverse range of African stories.

Sabotaging a young writer’s career is just not my style; I would get no benefit or satisfaction from it. Asking that my name be removed from your biography is not sabotaging your career. It is about protecting my boundaries of what I consider acceptable in civil human behavior.

You publicly call me a murderer AND still feel entitled to benefit from my name?

You use my name (without my permission) to sell your book AND then throw an ugly tantrum when someone makes a reference to it?

What kind of monstrous entitlement, what kind of perverse self-absorption, what utter lack of self-awareness, what unheeding heartlessness, what frightening immaturity makes a person act this way?

Besides, a person who genuinely believes me to be a murderer cannot possibly want my name on their book cover, unless of course that person is a rank opportunist.

PART THREE

In certain young people today like these two from my writing workshop, I notice what I find increasingly troubling: a cold-blooded grasping, a hunger to take and take and take, but never give; a massive sense of entitlement; an inability to show gratitude; an ease with dishonesty and pretension and selfishness that is couched in the language of self-care; an expectation always to be helped and rewarded no matter whether deserving or not; language that is slick and sleek but with little emotional intelligence; an astonishing level of self-absorption; an unrealistic expectation of puritanism from others; an over-inflated sense of ability, or of talent where there is any at all; an inability to apologize, truly and fully, without justifications; a passionate performance of virtue that is well executed in the public space of Twitter but not in the intimate space of friendship.

I find it obscene.

There are many social-media-savvy people who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion, who can fluidly pontificate on Twitter about kindness but are unable to actually show kindness. People whose social media lives are case studies in emotional aridity. People for whom friendship, and its expectations of loyalty and compassion and support, no longer matter. People who claim to love literature – the messy stories of our humanity – but are also monomaniacally obsessed with whatever is the prevailing ideological orthodoxy. People who demand that you denounce your friends for flimsy reasons in order to remain a member of the chosen puritan class.

People who ask you to ‘educate’ yourself while not having actually read any books themselves, while not being able to intelligently defend their own ideological positions, because by ‘educate,’ they actually mean ‘parrot what I say, flatten all nuance, wish away complexity.’

People who do not recognize that what they call a sophisticated take is really a simplistic mix of abstraction and orthodoxy – sophistication in this case being a showing-off of how au fait they are on the current version of ideological orthodoxy.

People who wield the words ‘violence’ and ‘weaponize’ like tarnished pitchforks. People who depend on obfuscation, who have no compassion for anybody genuinely curious or confused. Ask them a question and you are told that the answer is to repeat a mantra. Ask again for clarity and be accused of violence. (How ironic, speaking of violence, that it is one of these two who encouraged Twitter followers to pick up machetes and attack me.)

And so we have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow.

I have spoken to young people who tell me they are terrified to tweet anything, that they read and re-read their tweets because they fear they will be attacked by their own. The assumption of good faith is dead. What matters is not goodness but the appearance of goodness. We are no longer human beings. We are now angels jostling to out-angel one another. God help us. It is obscene.

[navree]

Are you still working on that velaryons team green fic? if yes can you talk more about it please it sounds really intresting

I've got an idea of it in my head, haven't done much to put pen to paper because I've got a bunch of other fic drafts that I want to get out (I'm legit so close to being done with my "Rhaenyra doesn't react to B&C like a dumbass" fic, and I want to get my MAWS Slade/Addie fic and my TMA season 5 au fic out into the world sometime this year too, plus I do have a Dance au that I'm far more actively plotting out, it's just between Daemon and Rhaenyra rather than Aegon and Rhaenyra, where fun fact the Velaryons are on Daemon's side). But I've definitely thought about it, and plotted some stuff out tentatively.

Basically, this is all based on the fact that, as I've mentioned in other posts, the show has given me no reason to believe that the Velaryons should want to side with Rhaenyra, any of them. Corlys should be feel antagonistic to Viserys and whatever his final wishes may be because of the constant disrespect he has been shown by Viserys specifically. Rhaena shouldn't be on board with anything Daemon is on board with because he's been a profoundly shit father to her. Baela, as someone who grew up on Driftmark watching it be ruled by a woman, should not be on board being no more than someone's consort (especially when she doesn't know him because she spent the first ten years of her life in Pentos and then the ten years after that warded at Driftmark, she shouldn't know any of the Strongs or Rhaenyra at all) and losing a throne that should have gone to her own mother to someone she doesn't know either. Rhaenys especially shouldn't be on Team Black in the show, because she spends the entire show hating Rhaenyra's guts, first for just being the heir (OK girl) and then for seemingly cuckolding her son and later, in her view, straight up murdering him, to say nothing of the antipathy she feels for Daemon as a person and specifically in keeping Laena away from her for the last ten years of her life. None of these people should be willing to follow Rhaenyra (and to a lesser extent, Daemon) down the fucking road, much less in a war. This is an inter-familial succession crisis, who the family members choose to side with comes down largely to personal preference, and based on what the show wrote, the preferences of the Velaryons should lean far away from Team Black. Like, I'm supposed to believe that Rhaenys does a complete 180 on how she's been characterized for the last twenty five years of the show's timeline because Rhaenyra managed to avoid singlehandedly starting World War Westeros in the twelve hours since she'd been crowned? Be serious.

So basically, the AU of the Velaryons being Team Green rests on the premise that the show would allow the Velaryons to be, like, upset at the constant disrespect they've been shown by the key players of Team Black. Corlys is upset at how Viserys has treated him, Rhaena is upset at Daemon for how he treated her, Baela has a stronger connection to her maternal side and Driftmark as a result, Rhaenys is consistently characterized and thus consistently upset at how Daemon and Rhaenyra affected her children, both of whom she's outlived. So during the Driftmark inheritance debacle in ep 8, Rhaenys does not magically come to Rhaenyra's aid after hating on her the entire episode, but instead keeps out of it and is neutral, as does Baela herself. And when episode nine rolls around, Rhaenys is much more amenable to Alicent's proposal. One, because Alicent saying "let us direct things behind the scenes since we're smarter even if we can't have institutional power because of the gender roles of our society" is the exact same thing Rhaenys has done her entire marriage (we legit see this in episode 5 and it's the entire basis of her power anyway). Two, because Rhaenys is, again, consistent, so she's against Rhaenyra having power, though largely for personal, petty reasons, though she does have legit concerns over having unrepentant murderers on the throne, since Rhaenyra and Daemon letting people believe they committed Laenor-cide unprompted just to satisfy themselves should have, like, consequences and people should fear what they're capable of as they said, thus not wanting them on the throne. Three, because Rhaenys and Alicent in this AU would have a pre-existing working relationship. Rhaenys has essentially been ruling over Driftmark ever since Corlys left ten years ago, while Alicent has simultaneously been the acting queen of Westeros as Viserys has grown more infirm. They've had to communicate with each other, as rulers, during that time, and be able to do so cordially and effectively in order to do right by the people living on Driftmark, who are under both of their purviews as liege lady and queen. So when Alicent gives this proposal, bolstered with her sincerity about how queens need to count the cost to their people when it comes to conflict, Rhaenys takes her at her word, and does decide to stay in King's Landing and lend legitimacy to Aegon. She stands with him on the dais, and she takes charge in sending negotiations to Rhaenyra to get her to capitulate without causing bloodshed, and she also leverages this for her own power.

One thing Rhaenys is adamant about in this AU is the same thing she's adamant about in episode 7: that the Driftwood Throne should pass to her granddaughters, not Rhaenyra's sons. So she uses the promise of her support to get the Greens to agree to that, that they will proclaim that, given the obvious bastardy of Rhaenyra's boys, the true heir to Driftmark is Baela. And Baela, who has gone back to Driftmark in the meantime, is on board with this. Again, Baela spent the last ten years there, watching Rhaenys rule. She has seen how a woman can be a ruling liege, and she has also seen Rhaenys treat with Alicent on occasion and how those two have operated as rulers themselves. And Driftmark is her connection to her mother, a mother she mourns and spent too little time with, a mother she can't even talk about with to her father because her father immediately remarried and treated his first wife and their children as if they didn't even exist. She doesn't know Rhaenyra, she doesn't know Jace, but she does know Driftmark, and Rhaenys, and even Alicent a bit. So she's fully on board with Rhaenys essentially kinda blackmailing the Greens into supporting her claim to Driftmark. And the Greens are on board with it because it gives them a PR boost. Now, they can say that they're not just disrespecting Viserys's wishes and being "sexist" for the Hell of it; they're trying to prevent a succession crisis by not allowing a woman whose heir is a clear bastard to ascend the throne and cause chaos in the realm. Look, they're fine allowing a woman to rule Driftmark, but she has trueborn Velaryon blood, even if it is descended through the mother (and this in turn vindicates Rhaenys even more, since it's lowkey a repudiation of what Jaehaerys essentially did with the Great Council, saying that not only could women not inherit but that men could not inherit through their female relatives, denying both Rhaenys and Laenor the Iron Throne). Rhaena, meanwhile, is conflicted. She has spent time on Dragonstone, she does know Rhaenyra and she does know Luke, though there's never been any formal betrothal. But she also knows and loves Baela as her sister, and she has legit issues with Daemon that have only grown and kind of left her standoffish towards her half-brothers and Rhaenyra as well. She's not sure what side she falls on, and she doesn't even know what power she really has because she doesn't even have a dragon. Corlys meanwhile I haven't given much thought to, since he's not that interesting to me, but I'm sure if I ever actually tried to write this I'd figure something out for him.

One knock-on effect of this, for the broader teams, is that it obviously gives the Greens a boost, since the Velaryons being on their side means that they get the fleet, something also important considering that Rhaenyra is on an island and desperately needs sea power as well as other kinds of power. And it makes Rhaenyra and Daemon a lot more militant, since they're now firmly disadvantaged. They're gonna be far more reliant on dragons, and far more willing to use them, and there likely would be a dragon battle involving Meleys, though not ending the way Rook's Rest did since Sunfyre and Vhagar would be on her side, not against her. I'm unsure as to whether I would have Rhaenys die in this version too, but I know at least Baela and Rhaena would live, and Baela would end up lady of Driftmark (and likely also the Greens firmly win with fewer casualties since this is my AU and I like the Greens). Luke also probably wouldn't die, since Storm's End might be less necessary now than it was in canon, and also Rhaenys would be the one to go to Storm's End to deal with the Baratheons since she is, in fact, part Baratheon through her mother, rather than sending Aemond, thus there's no chance for him to get mad and for his and Luke's dragons to then act out as a result.

Also, I haven't read it, but I saw it in the bookmarks of someone who'd left a kudos on my fic about Alicent and Viserys's engagement period, but I think this is also a bit along the lines of "Velaryons join the Greens rather than Team Black", if that idea interests you and you don't want to wait ten million years to see if I write something for it or not.

[cherry-pop-elf]

🥀 : Ok. I got this AU idea That i wanna throw into the world, as I’m drawing art for it. It’s called “ReallyHogwarts” it’s a dumb meta AU of Harry Potter

🥀: The premise is that JKR did pull a Rita Skeeter, and made a prophet off of Harry Potter. And of course tweaked it and edited ir to meet her own agenda of course.

🥀: By the time the Ministry was aware of it, it already became to big of a deal. Meaning if they got involved, so many eyes would be on them

🥀: So they did a sneaky. They FED INTO IT. They have muggleborns work at the infamous Harry Potter World, and Harry Potter Locations. Feeding into the idea that magic is fake. That if anyone saw real magic, they wouldn’t even believe it themselves. Along with be seen as insane by others.

🥀: The main setting for the AU is at Harry Potter World. Where real wizards pretend to be ‘actors’ and such. Mostly muggle borns, as they would be used to the muggle world. Able to be able to ‘act muggle’ if you will.

🥀: One of the biggest reasons the wizards work there, is also because dark wizards try and take advantage of the fact muggles think it’s all fake. So it’s a breeding ground for dangers. Hence why another reason wizards work there. Governmentally assigned even as agents.

🥀: Doesn’t mean you can’t have other characters outside of the setting. That’s just where it ‘originated’ if you will. It’s a AU. HAVE FUN!

🥀: Here are some stuff I’ve gotten the ideas for. And hope you guys can add on and just ya! And tag me to! Pls! I wanna build this fun world with you guys!

🥀: Fred and George are very aware, and honestly have the most fun with it. They even straight up snuck a floo network inside of the Fake WWW. Hidden behind a fake door, that’s suppose to look fake. Like a prop. They love being ‘face characters’ and just kinda have their fathers spark about the muggle world

🥀: The HPMA cast is there to. Of course. Since Daniel is a muggle born, he works there as a ‘Potion’ master. Which is running a kid friendly bar in ‘digaon alley’ that has a happy hour for adults

🥀: Cherry is a ‘Durmstrang student’ there, and loves showing off his fire breathing. Since they are governmentally assigned to HPW they are allowed to use magic. Encouraged if anything. But he won’t lie. Being told the ‘special affects are amazing’ kinda gets old

🥀: Lottie does character’s there, and loves being able to see so many new faces. Along with hear stories, and see how happy their world makes muggles. She loves to also doodle her fellow wizard family constantly

🥀 : The likes of Cassandra and the twins more so go there to be a menace and tease them at the park. Which looks like just ‘acting’ to muggles themselves

🥀: Another trick they have at the park is when doing a thing where they pick people out of the audience, they’ll typically pick actual wizards. As to keep things safe. They do pick out muggles here and there, to avoid suspicion, but it’s mostly wizards

🥀: Wizards do also work at HPW, but it’s mostly muggle borns/half borns. As they know the lingo and body language to keep from being to uncanny. Along with not fucking up with their magic at the wrong time

🥀: Of course the actual cast of Harry Potter pop in now and again. Fascinated by it all, and playfully pointing out what’s wrong and what’s wrong. Like how Harry and Draco are 100% together, and find it comical that everyone on the fandom is painfully aware of or. That even JKR couldn’t write the gay away

🥀: Guess you can see this AU very meta. How the fandom literally took HP away from JKR and made it its own entity. How we just re wrote things, and accepted that. How her canon isn’t our canon. A love letter to the fandom if you will! : D

🥀: When using this concept, the hashtag is “ReallyHogwarts” it’s fun and simple. Along with effective! Please tag me if you make art/writings about it! It’s a fun little meta AU where you pretty much put your OCs/Canon characters in a setting like this. MC’s as well! Where they are following YOUR canon, and just hijinxs of wizards working in a place where muggles think it’s all fake.

🥀: Have fun with it! Let me see what crosses your mind! I’m excited! I’ll have art for this soon! : D Thanks for reading my little silly thing! Ask me any questions you have! Please!

[kitakit-otome]

Just downloaded the new Obey Me app and I’m going to be giving it my review and opinion!

I never finished the first game, got around to season 2 some time after the MC came back from the human world and then my phone ran out of memory for the game lol. It kept lagging so much and sometimes it would just crash right away so I gave up an uninstalled it from my old phone 🥲

But I did get hundreds of followers in my old tumblr account because of Obey Me and honestly it was such a fun game at the time. I had fun interacting with other fans of the fandom and gush over our love for the demon brothers. I wasn’t too keen on the MC’s origin story so I’m just gonna… ignore it 😅

For those who don’t know, I am working on the design for my online persona for the past week now who is an angel, but now after playing OMN a bit it’s been giving me the itch to give her a sort of alter ego or alternative versions of herself. So I’m planning on the works of her human form (which I guess will represent me in the old Obey Me game) and her demon form which will represent me in Nightbringer. I’ll post it here when I’m done if anyone’s interested because for sure I’m gonna start drawing art for Obey Me again after this.

Anyway I digress—

I really like the new features of the DDD app in Nightbringer. We have a new rhythm game that I don’t really understand yet how to time my attacks.. and we have like a parody of the Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter?

They also have 3D models for the boys now! I love watching the interactions between the brothers with this, plus it’s great for the video call feature in the Wanderer’s Whereabouts because it seems a bit more realistic than just the audio calls we used to get. The 3D models are very expressive and the animation seems smooth. The backgrounds are being used well here from the old version of the game.

And I think it’s cute that we can see the brothers voice their thoughts when we gift them a sheep stuffed toy. We’re essentially spying on them or “babysitting” as the brothers sees it. Since we are their attendant now in this game, ordered by Diavolo, I guess it makes.. sense? Humans have like a CCTV in their homes to keep an eye on things when they’re not around so I think that’s what the WW is meant to be as an app. It’s not bad of a feature and I enjoy seeing more of the animations of the brothers being put to use.

Also can we please take a moment for this scene of Mammon wondering why he cares about this toy so much that resembles his MC (AKA us)?! 😭

Bro doesn’t know us because of the plot line of the game being the MC traveling back in time (I don’t really know why yet aside from the premise of a certain demon granting our wish of taking us to somewhere where we will be happy AKA to reunite with the 7 brothers in the Devildom)

You will probably need to play the first game to understand what’s going on. Or at least to understand our connection to the characters of the game from the future timeline.

Personally I think the new chibi art of the game is stellar! Super cute! The designs on the cards are great too.

The story seems interesting and I’m getting really hooked since we have a lot of new apps on the DDD to keep me from being bored. I felt like the affection raise in the first game seemed useless but it was explained to me that affection level allows you to get bonus stuff like Devilgram posts or extra calls, so yeah that’s cool to know now.

I think my only complaint is the rhythm game mechanics. I don’t really get how it works or I do and the timing is off? I don’t know if I’m the only one who has this problem or what, but I’m annoyed that I keep missing so much like wtf. My scores in the first game were way better than this 😭 Every time I tap when the item is on the line it just doesn’t work so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong lmao

I’ll continue playing the game but so far I want to give it a 7.5/10 ⭐️ I will be posting more of this game soon.

[yume-x-hanabi]

I thought of simply copy/pasting my twitter thread but you know what, we’re on Tumblr, we’re allowed proper paragraphs, so let me just ramble like in the good old days :p

Assorted B²TSM Headcanons pt.1: Worldbuilding

Honestly the funniest thing about this fandom is that the entire canon consists in four skits, two music videos, and a song. That is to say, BARELY FUCKING ANYTHING. Guys, I’m used to a video game with extensive lore developed over several games, eight guidebooks, thirteen Drama CDs, five short story series, and some manga. I cannot begin to tell you how different this experience has been 😂 Anyway, as frustrating it can be to have barely anything concrete to go with, it also means… it’s free real estate, baby 😎

A. The Time Machine

So, I’ve been thinking about the mechanics of the whole time-travelling thing for a bit longer than is healthy, and I’ve developed some potential ways it could go that could be fun to play with.

But first, a crack theory I’ve become very fond of: the "time machine" gave them new young & healthy bodies, but the creation of those bodies was influenced by whoever was operating the machine at the time. That's why they all look vaguely like Brett or Eddy—I mean, Bang YG and his assistant. That would also explain the fact they can all speak modern English (+ the accents).

Now let’s look at a couple ways they could have been brought to the future:

1. Actual, full-fledged time-travel

They were plucked from some point of their lives and dragged to the future with no warning. That opens up a few possibilities:

1.a. Continuity errors. Plucking them from their past lives will alter the timeline, and probably change the world of classical music irrevocably. Basically Bang YG u done goof. You’re gonna need forty Ling Ling stones to fix that mess. Oh boy.

1.b. The timeline is not affected, which means they’re fated to go back to their own time at some point, probably with some very convenient memory loss (this was a common plot in HP time-travel fics when I used to be into it /tangent). This one comes with high angst potential: knowing their time here is limited, having to make the most of it, and the worst is that they won’t even be able to use future knowledge to make their past lives better when they go back. Oh the drama, oh the angst.

1.c. The timeline is not affected, because this basically creates a parallel universe, in which history up to the use of the time machine remains unaffected.

Whichever scenario you go with in this category, this means they were brought over when they were still relatively young, and likely haven’t yet composed some of the great hits they’re known for. Imagine Tchaik and Shosty talking about Beethoven’s 9th symphony, meanwhile he’s like “huh, I have no memory of this piece”. That can lead to some complex feelings, knowing such-and-such famous piece is yours but in a way it’s not (not yet). Or, worse, learning about facts from their personal lives that haven’t happened yet. Momo realizing he’s got about five years left to live when he goes back to his era (in scenario 1.b.)

2. Kind of a reincarnation AU

So this summer I watched Paripi Koumei, which is a very fun and light-hearted anime (highly recommended), and I bring it up here because I really like the concept and think it could apply here. The premise of the anime is that famous strategist Zhuge Liang (Kongming) from the Three Kingdoms is reborn in modern-day Tokyo after he dies. He basically spawns in modern Shibuya with a youthful appearance and all his memories. So, I thought this could be a way to go with how the “time machine” works here: it brings the guys’ consciousness from the point of their deaths and gives them a younger body (a copy of their own, or *see crack theory above*).

That means they know exactly what they did in their past lives. That also means that they remember their own deaths. Very trauma, much angst.

On a brighter note, that means they’re here to stay. They’re basically given a second chance at life, in a world that’s hopefully a bit easier to live in than their past one.

B. The Band’s Concept

I can’t imagine the public being told they’re the real deal. I mean, imagine if people learned that there was a time machine out there that could bring loved ones back to life. That would cause unending chaos. And that’s if they’re believed to begin with—the most likely reaction would be to dismiss it as a prank.

So, the “official” version they’re going with is that it’s simply the band’s concept, that they’re roleplaying the composers (like I think there’s a kpop group whose concept is that the members represent the zodiac signs). So, in essence, they’re pretending to be random guys who’re pretending to be their actual selves XD

Regarding roles, there is much debate about who the maknae is. Is it Shosty, because his birth date is the most recent? Or is it Mozart, who’s the youngest in terms of actual years lived in his previous life? I like to think that the company never confirms either ways and lets the fans argue about it to their hearts’ contents. It’s part of the mystery~

(In truth, the actual members don’t give a damn about “roles”, they’re just there to make music.)

(Maybe that’s part of their unconventional side that makes them popular among some people.)

Also, Pag wasn’t meant to be brought to the future, it’s a result of a time machine mishap. He basically barged his way into their debut because “How dare they form a band without me, greatest violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini?! Mamma mia…” and now he’s hanging around. Not quite an official member, but often heavily involved (whether they want it or not). Mozart says he’s their mascot. No one is sure how to feel about that statement.

Lastly, since so far they’ve either been using their last names or nicknames to address each other, I’ve developed some headcanon that their last names are their stage names, but also simply the names they go by now in their day-to-day lives. Like they’ve shed their first names, it’s a thing of the past, an identity they can’t truly assume anymore. Maybe that’s why they’re so fond of nicknames, because it gives them a more personal touch (Mozart started the trend, and it caught on very fast after that). They do still use full names from time to time in certain circumstances, and that’s what’s on official documents, but… it’s complicated. I like to think they eventually start reclaiming their full identity between themselves as time passes and they grow more comfortable in their new circumstances and their bond grows closer. (Names as a sign of intimacy, in my fandoms? It’s more likely than you think!)

Anyway that’s it for the worldbuilding side. I have a few more posts planned about different aspects of this universe and their characters.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this, and your own headcanons if you have some!

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

top 10 anime! go!

OK here's a post that might have been better saved for a more suitable time than a Sunday night after I've just eaten dinner. I'm sure you will enjoy it

This list will probably be very different from the lists you (or anyone reading these tags) would probably compile on your own, or even from lists by other people. These aren't my favorite shows, and there are plenty I haven't watched. This is not a list of the best anime, not even the best classic anime. But it is the one that seems to best capture the experience of my (mostly) non-Japanese-speaking fandom, the one I recommend to most of my mostly non-Japanese-speaking followers.

It's a list of all the anime that I've seen a significant amount of episodes of, because for a long time I've watched the anime that I know, but this is much more my kind of thing than any other list. Not much plot, more character-focused, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, about the human experience, about relationships, about the future.

And, to start, an anime whose story is largely about the future, and what that future might hold:

Tetsuwan Atom, 1967 (the first series, and most famous). An anti-war story, in the genre you've seen a lot here, of a scientist who is involved in some kind of government science project, and decides to secretly help those affected by the Vietnam War -- specifically by creating a sort of giant robot capable of fighting the US military. The government is initially horrified to learn of his project, but by the end of the first season they've begun to realize he may actually be making a point.

Sailor Moon, 1990-ish. This is the show that gave me the term "otaku" (a word which has a somewhat negative connotation, so don't get carried away). It follows the story of Usagi, a young girl who is summoned from her home in rural Japan and goes to Usagi, who then goes with Usagi to the futuristic city and then has a life there full of magical girls. By the end of the first season Usagi is a magical girl herself, and by the second season there are four magical girls all summoned and sent out to save the world from evil. (The fourth magical girl, Ami, is a sort of subversion of the normal magical girl, in that she doesn't wear magical girl make-up, so even when in battle she is indistinguishable from a human.)

Fullmetal Alchemist, 2003. It might be obvious here, but I am a sucker for this sort of story. The protagonist, a young orphan boy, sets out to find someone he can sell his soul to, in order to receive a huge sum of money. His path to salvation is not necessarily clear at first, involving many twists and turns and unexpected companions. By the end of the first season he finds the person he was looking for, and the two become brothers-in-arms (and perhaps more).

Golgo 13, 2006. The premise is simple: a bunch of characters are imprisoned in a large, seemingly-empty building, with the walls gradually closing in. This is a great premise, and Golgo 13 is a great series about a bunch of people trapped in that sort of environment, and the sort of psychological drama it causes.

Gintama, 2006. More psychological drama (although less extreme), this one has the protagonist locked up in his home.

Mushishi, 2005. This series' premise might as well be "weird anime about bears that eat people." A group of bear-mushroom hybrids go on to investigate a series of weird deaths.

Death Note, 2003-06. This series combines psychological drama, murder mystery, and time travel.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, 2011. While the original plot may seem silly, it isn't; the magic system is pretty clever. The premise is that magical girls are granted some sort of power as children that allows them to create a magical world, as a way to protect themselves from monsters, but that this power can be given to anyone in a moment of extreme emotional duress. This is why this series involves time travel; in order to get to another world you have to travel through the past.

So, what am I most fond of?

Haibane Renmei, 1997. Haibane is actually four seasons long, I know, but I have only watched the first two so far. It is the sort of thing that could be described as "dark fantasy," but this is a very lighthearted, whimsical version, with a lot of wacky hijinks and silly plots. It involves a bunch of weird, alien things that are actually human people, and that's one of the main things about it. The main character's name is actually "Hanabino." There is a huge amount of time spent looking at cute animals, a sort of "everyone here is a character" thing is going on, and at the end the hero and the villain have a final fight, which involves a lot of wacky hijinks and silly plot twists, and then they run away into the stars together.