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talenlee · 3 months

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June 2024 Wrapup!

That’s it, Pride’s over. We’re done with any need to be queer because we obviously defeated the forces of not queer.

Hey how do all those dudes who are convinced they’re straight think their sexuality handles being attracted to nonbinary people? Like, nonbinary people can look like anything, presentation is a performance and everything, but if you believe in inherent qualities of genders, seeing a nonbinary person who’s hot has to be a problem right?

(oh who are we kidding, they pretend nonbinary people don’t exist. But if you do accept nonbinary people exist, you might be less straight than you think.)

Alright, let’s look at what articles came up in the Game Pile this month!

Gay Sauna: The Board Game, where we talked about the acceptable boundaries of genre mechanisms.

Arcade Spirits, where I made a video retelling my experiences of dealing with a game that I shouldn’t call a visual novel, because someone out there will get annoyed at an imperfect cladistic categorisation of game genres

Signalis, a game that oozes style but also told me to stop playing it, so I did

3 Indie TTRPGs, with Feathers, For the Dungeon and We Saved The World Once in a video

If you think the video on Feathers, For The Dungeon and We Saved The World Once was a bit ropy, yep! It got made very quick and close to the deadline because it was very difficult to make. Cooking these games down to entirely positive feedback without talking more about things I find personally interesting was hard enough, which is why the first seven minutes of the video are about problems with how we talk about indie TTRPGs.

Also, a thing I was really delighted by was getting to play Loom with Fox for the first time (part 1, part 2)!

Then there was this month’s Story Pile, about which I was way more enthusiastic!

Nimona, which is a great movie for kids,

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, which is a great anime, for slightly older kids!

Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess And The Genius Young Lady, which is a mid anime, for slightly older kids still!

Bound, which is, uh, it’s not for kids

What else happened this month that I’m proud of?

Hm.

Hmmm.

This is a surprising one to say because normally I can think of articles that I want you to read in a sort of ‘well why haven’t you looked at this.’ But I’m in a bad mood right now and it’s colouring things about how I look at my own writing. My article on LIGMA is tainted by knowing how little of the greater context of the area I can communicate. My article about What Disgusts Jod got a response from a Locked Tomb fan that seemed to imply that actually, Jod wasn’t bi or pansexual, because a guy can have a threesome with a man and a woman and people will still try and pretend bisexuality doesn’t exist. My article about Tieflings was probably the thing I’m the most proud of this month, in the idea of the kind of writing I like doing, and I think my article on Faces For Skins is important? At least I avoided another breakdown article about how badly I feel Pride culture connects to or relates to me, though maybe that just shows up in the work in general.

There’s this month’s shirt design:

How hard is the Barbie aesthetic to replicate? With lookalike fonts it’s shockingly easy. I note that this one specifically is a drop shadow and not a 3d semblance, as you can see on the bottoms of the ls. Hey, do you want this on a sticker? Go for it!

In terms of real world events, June is jam packed. It’s the end of the Autumn Semester for me, as a tutor for one. This semester, I took on a lot of marking work, which I like to do, but which also meant that I looked at 118 asignments this month, and 60 of them had a 5 minute audio visual component. That’s five hours of student material to just watch. It ain’t nothing, and it adds up over time.

It’s also a time with four major family birthdays in them, which means I have to find ways and times to attend to physical events. This is not a problem, because I love my family but it sure makes me mindful of just how long it takes me to recover from that to do, y’know, things with myself like write for the blog. Marking periods take time out of the blog work.

The subject matter of the month is also less of a freebie than you might think because I feel like some things are too repetitive – I don’t imagine I’m going to find a third Transformers character to write about next year, for example. There’s also the way that February and June kinda blur together – I’m very fond of talking about queer media in February since that’s one of the most fun kinds of smoochy media I like.

I aim to keep the queued posts for this blog up to 50, so every day if I add a post, it goes to 51 and dips back down to 50. I also try to make sure I’m four weeks ahead on the video channels. This month, as I write this, I am one week ahead on the video, and the queue is down to 45. I am frustrated! But I am doing things to overcome that, and in the coming weeks, I don’t have to grapple with a theme!

I haven’t been getting to bed at good times. This month has featured multiple days where I get to bed at 4 in the morning, one even at 5. This is bad and I hate it. I hate it especially because it takes a long time to recover from it, to get back to sleeping at even the modestly more sensible time of midnight to one AM. I also haven’t been cooking as much as I want to — even modest resistance means that suddenly dinner is some microwaved oats and sultanas, with a splash of milk.

I think I may even be missing one of my June goals for Magic The Gathering: Arena, which isn’t exactly important, but it is a bit of a pisser. The aim was to hit gold tier in limited, which at this point I have… a few hours to do, and I’m still in Silver Tier. That’s not a big deal but it is a bummer.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Diary

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unhinged-comics-screaming · 7 months

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Bravern Ep 9 thoughts! Oh my god this got so long I'm sorry

I think if I was more genre aware the transformation/level up shouldn't be a surprise. I am actually fine having to remake the decal because I had to lift it up to fix how I applied it so its already lifting lol.

I'm glad that the theories are right like, a plot twist that can be predicted via foreshadowing isn't bad plus it helps my "keep shows weekly" fight. I honestly think the ramp up of hint dropping is done well like "oh he has lewis vibes, oh he knows a thing about Lewis, oh here's a direct showcase that they have the same gunpla hobby" (btw I love that they got an actual gundam box artist to do the ones in the show, such commitment to the bit). The final nail in the coffin being the Lewis flashback where his favorite toy looks a whole lot like Bravern.

For how mysterious Deathdrives were for a while, I like that the limbo zone reinforces the kind of importance in passing on on their terms for them. Just like, restating that this is the core motivation for them. Like yeah this is Cunty's goal death but Lewis isn't satisfied yet so he's in their loading zone going like "hey no this isn't right for me". My only complaint is that I wanted whole ass. No glowy cowardice. Full naked and just enough to keep it aired on TV.

The like, entire thing that gets me though is that Isami is now living thinking that Smith is dead. And he like. Is. If we consider the overly uh horny parts of Bravern to be from Cunus then he's not 100% himself in the end. Like he sees himself as Smith but is it wholly him? Like Smith is happy he can protect and save the world and have Isami inside him. But especially with Bravern/Smith being all shady Isami is just going to have to mourn him.

I hope that this makes Lulu get closer to Isami and she ends up revealing it somehow. Ooooor Isami is on such a wavelength with Bravern he figures it out on his own. I just want him to know. Bravern has a mouth to be kissed after all.

I don't have any idea what Lulu is cooking but I wanna see it. I like that she's getting agency which, apparently to Deathdrives, is totally unheard of.

The alternate timeline theories slap. Everyone who is able to point out proper discrepancies between episodes I love you keep it up. I don't have the mental capacity for that. I kind of want to go with "world without Bravern" ED/promotional art stuff to be like, final loop maybe? I don't know what kind of time loop that needs to work but like, maybe he takes Lulu with so he doesn't need Isami and can defeat the Deathdrives really early on.

Which. Interesting thought. Before Cunus' proposal she yeets one of her Lulus but appears to have two spots. Lewis, also a two life form system yeets his Lulu so you'd think the resultant mech is a two life form mech, the Lulu from Cunus + Lewis himself makes it whole but he clearly isn't in top form unless he has Isami. Bravern is also more than a Deathdrive/Special TS so who knows how that maths out.

Ugh okay sorry this got so long congrats on getting this far. I like, clearly don't have anime friends to scream about this irl except my partner who watched me go through the spectrum of "gay sex wins" to crying for Isami.

#sorry I'm flooding the tag so much ;-;#I don't have anime friends irl #bang brave bang bravern spoilers

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skye-huntress · 1 year

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The Witch from Mercury Season 2 Reaction

Episode 23: “Unrelenting Tenderness”

Suletta’s at a disadvantage in more ways than one. Just dodging the Gund-bits alone is a feat of piloting expertise, but the main body hasn’t entered the battle yet.

“This doesn’t concern you”? Uh, no. Your actions have already had far reaching consequences, both direct and indirect. Even if, and it’s a big if, Suletta somehow didn’t care about what her family was doing, or the massive loss of life, she still wouldn’t be able to find peace.

Lauda has lost all grip with reality. Miorine brought back the Gundams? They were never even gone in the first place, they just went into hiding. And for every big shot that wants to destroy them and wipe out all the witches, there’s ten opportunistic assholes that want their power for their own gain.

The opening has yet another update. The last one was too minor that I didn’t bother to comment, but this time we’ve got the suits for the final battle.

Lauda is really going all out. He’s fighting to death and doesn’t intend to surrender. We’ll see what Felsi can do.

Seems they caught on to the infiltration team.

Interference from an unknown party that can affect the data storm. Eri seems to know who they are.

Now Prospera is off to murder some teenagers. Guess we’re getting that showdown between her and Kenanji after all.

Why is there yet another secret doomsday weapon in this show?! And it’s basically a discount Deathstar. Also, more scheming politicians and corpos, who’s surprised?!

Take the fucking gun, Bel! Kenanji can’t be the only one armed in a station full of hostiles.

HARU!! Why do you betray me?!

Calling it now, the MVP is officially Felsi. She saw Guel trying to sacrifice himself and was like, nope! That’s right, girl, call both those idiots out!

Splitting up in a station of death does not sound like a good idea. At least Miorine has 5 and Bel covering her.

Of course, she changed the codes! We’re up against a villain that is actually smart.

Notrette used her secret tomato message to Miorine as a secret kill-switch for Quiet Zero. She knew that if anyone misused it, whether it was Delling, Prospera or anyone else, her daughter would stop them.

No. 5 is an excellent shot. It’s one thing to hit your target, but to hit them where you know you won’t kill them accurately, all while in zero G. Who knew I’d end up praising this guy who debuted as such a creep.

And as one doomsday weapon is shut down, another is fired at the very heroes that stopped it.

I didn’t want to know but now we know what it takes to stop Aerial for real. A big fucking lazer. Even then, Eri still manage to block most of the energy and save everyone else.

So here’s where we’re at. The Assembly League had planned to play off destroying the Group as an accident, and since there won’t supposed to be survivors, that idiot was arrogant enough to broadcast his intent. Well, Eri blocked the shot, and all those witnesses to his attempted mass murder are alive. Not only that, even if they could fire off that weapon twice right away, they wouldn’t be able to play it off as an accident. Speaking of which, they’ve also exposed the true nature of their weapon. This massive blunder puts Peil and the League in a very compromising position. Not only that, they probably just killed Suletta’s sister, which makes them the enemy of a lot of people. Sooo, I guess this marks the beginning of the Final Final Battle.

Is that really the title for the next episode? Easy to remember and leaves no room for doubt, but they could have been a little more creative.

#the witch from mercury #g witch #g witch spoilers

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dykedragonrider · 7 months

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Finished Zeta gundam and uh. That's really fucking good. Thematically rich, a well executed tragedy, and it iterates on 0079 in ways fitting a sequel. In pieces bc I hit the character limit (THIS SITE HAS ONE?) making this post

First on the agenda, the Char and Kamille dynamic. It's very much father and son, and this is pointed out in the narrative, but what makes it *so* compelling is the fact that Char is the most fundamentally damaged father, and Kamille eagerly integrates his damage into him, he means well but there's a lot of things Char passes on that he really shouldn't. I think the one that sticks out to me by and far the most is Char's unique way of interacting with problems, that being throw yourself into them if you can fix them, and don't think about how badly the consequences hurt you. Kamille even passes this on to Katz towards the end with his grief over Sarah, telling him to not think about it. It's the right thing to say, of course, they're in a war and have no time to grieve, and his blindness because he's thinking about it is part of what sets off a domino effect of character death, but that's part of the tragedy babey! Something I'm a little more sour on is the way that Zeta interacts with its theme of gender? It was released in the mid 80s, so I do understand that it's very much a product of the times in some respects (the "everyone is either a man or a woman" line being the lowest hanging fruit of an example), but I think its actual struggle is how it depicts women? It does a pretty thoughtful examination of masculinity, in the ways that that ideal is something to aspire to that is ultimately a pitfall in the way that it hurts other people, could be better in some ways but it's the mid 80s. Kamille picks up both positive and negative traits associated with his manhood as he develops, and victimizes himself and others through the negative ones consistently. Zeta's women, however, don't really get anything like this? There's one conversation towards the end where women's relationship with their gender, and, notably, how men interact with that that's got something given the role women perform both in that society and ours. I think it's a problem of Zeta focusing on masculinity when it seems like it wants to examine both parts of it. If viewed as masculinity alone, it performs better, but the fact that there are attempts at conversations for both men and women and their gender roles leads me to believe that it's best viewed and understood as talking about gender as a whole, so you can understand the ways it succeeds and fails. Something Zeta wholeheartedly succeeds at though, is its tragedy element. I'll admit here that I wasn't *super* down for Rosamia, so that element didn't land with me well (we already had Lalah iterated upon so well with Four, doing it again felt out of place and she's compared to Four in universe through Kamille's perception, so it's just. Come on.) but every other element of the tragedy is done well towards the end. Char pointing out to Kamille that after the war, Amuro suffered with his soul trapped for seven years (which is also Char speaking about his own suffering, like everything Char does) and then Kamille getting his soul destroyed by Scirocco, leaving the hero coming back from his journey fundamentally different, and not in the way he communicated to Fa, it's just so good. The way that most of the deaths come from a place of love, too, that it's what brings the people down, but it it also humanity's emotions that give Kamille the capability to kill Scirocco. The beauty of Zeta's tragedy is that it would always end up like this as long as humans cared for each other, which is y'know. The point. (1/2 parts)

#zeta gundam #gundam #tsunny reviews

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theskyexists · 1 year

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gundam ep 18, 19 20

didnt want to watch more gundam bc i was so pissed and i didnt think that the writers/narrative were going to treat what they had miorine do to suletta with enough weight.

i start episode 6 after waiting to let myself calm down.good call on my part. but

why the fuk does miorine feel beholden to prospera when prospera didnt do shit lol

miorine’sover the top anger is no longer adorable. it’s just childish and annoying. a sign of her being stupidly out of her depth. the politics are also so ridiculous. is shin sei now miorine’s subsidiary? when did that happen? WHAT IS OWNERSHIP EVEN IN THIS UNIVERSE. DID MIORINE INHERIT SHARES?????????

this was the ONLY way it could go yeah for suletta to think that i guess. but damn im glad i waited

‘ive no intention of fighting you you saved my life’BUT i will insult your friend.

what an idiot. starting to dislike how this is all about literal children

are we punching miorine. we doing this?

so martin got hurt by a mob and they’re like hey why dont u stay behind to protect the base from the mob. lol

miorine never rescinded earth house’s rights to the ship with which they can just dump suletta at her place? ????? god its so japanese

fuck. chuchu is NOT punching miorine? ‘talking things out’? what the fuck. why are we getting all these fun lil group dynamics after something so shit. why are they still working for gundarm at all. ‘WHEN the bullies come back, dont try anything crazy’ literally leaving the hurt member for the bullies to kill iguess. what the fuck

how is this elan so good at fighting he can stop a terrorist pilot witch from stabbing him in the eye

‘i did not expect him to team up with peil’ why the fuck ever not

wow that went fast. suletta didn’t even fight for aerial. god. the most doormat to ever doormat. not even AERIAL. did prospera arrange for suletta to find aerial because eri wanted to see her?

what the fuck dude i mean. why.... WHY.

ok so why didnt eri ever do this before though like - could have talked to her in this mindspace all along. ok so...uh. they dont need the key which is suletta anymore. and...wait. so there were a lot of children. but surely not so many. what with the timeline. but hold on. and score eight, thats when eri doesn’t need a pilot. you’re telling me there was no way of tweaking the software or hardware for the AI inside to take control of the suit. beyond a score 8 datastorm. why the fuck is eri being so nasty to suletta. i thought she cared about her

what the fuck. literally like. what the fck. why would eri do this to her right after miorine did this to her. what even goes on in their minds

simply ejects her into the vacuum of space with limited air supply. ok.....? i mean. and aerial cannot be steered by herself either we were just told so they’re both just in space i guess.

prospera and eri literally just told her: actually use you were also just a cog in a machine that we were using and we dont need anymore bye

???????????????????????????????????why the fuck would eri do that

‘suletta deserves to live freely’

are you fuckign serious. are you fucking serious. really. you’re fucking serious. you are telling me that. prospera and eri care about suletta as well but they just lied to her again and told her they don’t just to let her ‘live freely’.. all these people are completely insane and psychopaths and completely unforgivable. completely fucking insane and unforgivable. the writers just made it worse. i CANNOT forgive this. i literally cannot.

if suletta does not go apeshit i will kill somebody and that somebody will be the whole writing team

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ep 19

let me just say that i saw some ‘oh we all good now’ fanart and i am absolutely not about it. jezus christ.

wow they really skimped on the animation for miorine

suletta is going further and further into a depression spiral and earth house is jus like: hmmm sucks . and the people who love her are like: lol bye better off without us! fuck yoU!!!

this rando side character from a mid-level company who for some reason does the counselling at the school (???) or hijacks it is like a total ......like. player. reallyjust playing around . its great

what IS benerit group’s jurisdiction? is miorine ever gonna see the terrible circumstances that her friends came from? too bad Nika and Chuchu aren’t along to point out: yeah i worked here as a nine year old 12 hours a day lol

who the hell is miorine negotiating with? and why is she going if she doesnt speak for the group. what can she even promise

this spacian and not-elan and nika have been in thisroom for what. a week? and somehow elan is capable of holding her TWICE. how theFUCK is he not dead. his superior male strength apparently. hate this part. its boring. it’s sexist. it’s stupid. but i guess its nice that theyre doing a fucked up emotional bond between the shitty spacian and the shitty earthian bc they’re both gundam pawns

miorine thinks she can get some goodwill for developing prosthetic limbs....(which by all accounts ALREADY EXIST LOL LOOK AT PROSPERA). wow that went surprisingly well. goodthing the guy’s a doctor. and recognised she means well. might be a way to change things etc.

general guy surely must have been responsible for the 1500 earthians disappeared and tortured huh....

god i cant stand the earth house-suletta dynamics. everybody is so annoying. suletta for being her same old self and earth house peeps for being like: oh but just have a meal with us we’re friends :):):):) shut the fuck up

it’s like these writers have never experienced grief at all

oh she just gotta have a nice soup and a cry and a meal with friends. shut the fuckup

‘even when you know it’s not the right way, sometimes it’s the only thing you can do’

uh. no. what? martin didn’t have to sell nika out just bc he was sure she was a terrorist. miorine and eri and prospera didnt have to stab suletta in all the worst places just to ‘set her free’. that like saying: oh i killed a couple of people but eh, meh, eh, so what?i just fucked around abit and now we’re finding out. so it goes!

seriously this kid actually reveals all this shit to guel??? lol!!!!what an idiot!!! these people almost killed you!!! guel doesnt even care enough to get a you a spot in the academy (’you should ask somebody else’WHO GUEL. WHO IS HE GONNA MEET)

this story went far off the rails

this kid just sold out his people’s best chance of becomign indpeendent and free from benerit group. what idiot adult never told this complete dumbass to keep his fucking mouth shut.

prospera. what the FUCK. how is THIS necessary for anything? Eri. Why are you doing this also. Im looking at all the fanart thats like ooooo we all good after ep 22 we a happy family.

Suletta is a psycho. Prospera is a way worse psycho. Miorine is a bitch. Guel is a total bastard. Even Eri is a total psycho.

oh ok it was an excuse to leave miorine behind with no guards at all. LOL. the guards all left and prospera was like byeeeeeeee

the high council (?) (who the fuck are they then) have been funding the earthian ochs earth corporation gundams....ok thats one mystery solved. so why did prospera attack the gundams there. and was there an implications that there are multiple sophies and noreas or were they simply associated in teh system. but also what. they corrupted GUND principles? you care about those prospera?

Miorine seriously has no direct control over her men or gundams? why is she so......DUMB. i know shes only seventeenbut like.

‘oh we didnt give orders’ that is no excuse. check your lines of command. get your goddamn intel directly. there are like three fucking robot pilots. you can speak to them DIRECTLY. now they’re blowing up shit because theyre getting shot at. soldiers and cops are such cowards. oh ill just laserblast everybody. instead of idk. listening to ORDERS and simply evading

‘guel, you’ve defiled her’

what. lol. shaddiq maybe you should have helped her. idk. always being such a stupid dick

‘prospera mercury was onto us.’ ok so he knows that shes destroyed the stored gundams.

aerial did NOT do the only thing she could. in fact, she could have just said: suletta, our mother is a total pschyo, shes going to fuck everyone over just so i can live again. you shouldnt be part of that. with her actual voice

literally.what is this japanese fucking bullshit. it’s like they literally have different neural pathways. like LITERALLY. every anime has this to some extent. where there’s these contrived mantras based on idiotic non-communciation. as though it is impossible to be truthful or straightforward about anything. its better to stab someone than be straightforward.

really hate the tempo, the futility, and most of all the heart of the emotional conflict. it’s fake. it’s extreme. there’s no payoff. and in the end it is unrelated to any of the earthian suffering.

i predict: suletta is not going to go apeshit

chuchu did not punch miorine and will not

prospera and eri will also not get any comeuppance

‘its all my fault. i did this’

uh yeah. because you didn’t prepare. you didn’t consider that everybody had their fingers on the triggers. you didnt control your soldiers. YOUR SOLDIERS. just let the commander fly off. didn’t intervene in communication. didn’t tell the commander that THOSE robots also needed to be disarmed. yeah. people died because you’re an idiot. fuck you

AND MIORINE IS THE ONLY MORALLY INTELLIGENT CHARACTER IN THE WHOLE DAMN SHOW. THE ONLY ONE IN THE ENTIRE SHOW!!!!!!!!! EVERYBODY ELSE IS EITHER EXTREMELY DUMB SELFISH OR MORALLY CORRUPT. UNFORTUNATELY SHE’S ALSO AN IDIOT.

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ep 20

shaddiq is angry at guel for no reason. guel is angry at shaddiq for important reasons like he accidentally killed his dad at the plant quetta incident that shaddiq orchestrated

what is this ‘comedy’ low-stakes shit between martin and these two leftover student council idiots

‘our mobile suit wrecked havoc while we claim to be a medical company’ maybe shouldnt have a mobile suit. ‘even lilique is angry’ WHY AREN’T THEY.

why is earth house so completely apathetic? Miorine kicked suletta to the curb like its nothing. they didnt much care. Miorine seems to have attacked a major Earth city. they dont much care. fucking hell dude lol

he really thinks guel (who is definitely a dumbass) was the one to taint miorine’s name and soul? he KNOWS prospera was behind it. jezus christ. can they just kill each other already. fucking hell. how did the writing tank likethis.

shaddiq deliberaely wants to have the school demolished....

wow those cathedra guys are terrabad at responding to attacks and protecting civilians

how does shaddiq knowthat. right bc he has connections with. ok its a way to freak him out but cmong guel. SHADDIQ SET THAT UP ACCUSE HIM OF THAT RIGHT NOW. didnt

the weird thing about the gundam fights is why their conversations are always boosted from enemy to enemry to the entire fuckign public

comms just said: dont get involved leave it to security

house jeturk instantly sends out a student. who almost got killed last time. didnt even lift campus restrictions. SURELY thats a single fucking switch

Burion House doesnt have a single pilot with them in the bunker ?

chuchu really going for Nika right now? Martin the rat stopping her and asking Nika to help out? after ratting her out? my god

Nika: ‘this is all my fault’ what the ever living fuck are you talking about. what arrogance

shaddiq was hoping guel would protect miorine from all this shit but he didn’t i mean fair enough. guel is such a fail-man

shaddiq is for sure not. and his idea is pretty good. too bad he keeps having people murdered left and right. if he’d simply ordered his people in dawn of the fold to help miorine out but noooo

ah he wanted spacian losses at asticassia to poke the league....but....then why was he running for president. and also. surely he hasn’t been able to transfer many of the assets yet. just grassley’s

i like how norea’s grief is fuckin realhere alright

wow elan doing his: i hold your arms so you cant hit me move here again. even works in mobile suit form. lol

yap. norea too. i mean. who can care about suletta or miorine or fuckin guel when sophie and norea be imploding right here. the war oprhans, the exploited unprivileged drafted children.they’re mercilessly mowed down by the ‘good guys’ cathedra. who’ve been doing that shit for twenty years.

I HATE earth house lol

i also hate suletta. dont like her shounen shit anymore which isnt shounen shit anymore. thats because all of this is just so.....who cares.who cares. truly who cares.

thing is. this show really likes to do dramatic moments but all the dramaticmoments this past season have not been satisfying. they have been really frustrating narratively. shaddiq and prospera and miorine and the league all fucking shit up. miorine really SHOULD have chosen shaddiq it turns out. they might have actually made a good pair, if shaddiq had been truthful at all

suletta isnt gonna do shit about earth. she really doesnt give a fuck. miorine is too stupid to do anything about it. guel ABSOLUTELY is. and everybody else is infinitely dumb

to be honest, why did prospera destory earth ochs gundams when it destroyed miorine’s chances of becoming president. unless she didnt need quiet zero after all. but then why bother with her AT ALL

#i really cant with these kids anymore #oh nooooo i made an oopsie now people are dead.... : / oh no....#mio is gonna go through some angst #then get better #fuck off #im so done with these characters #suletta isnt even gonna hold it against them #my stuff #vidi #gundam

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aeroplaneblues · 2 years

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Alright! its time for top anime of 2022 list🎉

This year I didn't watched that many however I did found some good ones! 2 of those are recurring shows which I try to avoid, as this might be used as a rec list, but I like them that much!

the tldr; is on twitter

10- Vampire in the garden: this one was on netflix which I guess is why it didn't get that much attention, i like the concept and visuals were very nice its a bittersweet end but I quite enjoyed. 09- Raven of the inner palace: the story is interesting, its starts very monster of the week style with ghosts then moves to a main villain, the relationships between the MC and the rest of the cast is honestly the highlight. My only complain is pronunciation of the names are jp localized so I hope this gets a chinese dub. 08- Gundam: the witch of mercury: the last gundam i watched was wing and do not remember anything but i know its reputation, I gave this one a chance because the designs are really fun and I also went in with the idea that it was yuri bait. TURNS OUT this might not be what I was expecting, there is one more ep of this + the rest of the cour so I'm hoping it improves from here. The characters carry this for me even the background ones, they all feel like characters not props! Plus ZERO GRAVITY HUGS!! 07- Mob psycho 100 III: I know this list is numbered but I love all of these equally ! However, this in comparison with s1 and s2 is one of the weakest, maybe bc it had to close loose ends? idk but its still a good one, the moment I cry was with ekubo more than reigen i know i know but reigen had his moment in s2 and I think that hit harder. Time to read the manga! 06- My dress-up darling: this is ecchi, im saying this first bc if people barely tolerate bnha fanservice this is not for you. I usually avoid this but I was dumb and didn't saw the tag😂 and I got attached to the main characters and the story, I read the manga and the ecchi is very far and far between as the story progresses. I think it has a lot of heart and its quite fun love story, plus you learn so much about cosplaying! 05- Sasaki and miyano: cutest bl I've ever watched/read, sasaki reminds me of childe which I find it so funny I can't unsee it. Miyano isn't your uwu protagonist and their relationship is build sloooowly on a lot of love and respect. Its nice to see this type of bl without its usual uh nonsense. 04- The case study of vanitas II: the thing about this second season is that i didn't know if bones was going to adapt everything, the manga updates at shoujo pace and has had rough months of absence HOWEVER it was all adapted, like a month after the last ch came out we saw that ep which is the wildest thing for me tbh. Anyway that last ep is why this is here, it was the BEST fight scene ending like [SPOILERS] watch it, it was amazing. 03- Chainsaw man: yeah i know ofc this is here, this is one of the best adaptations I've ever watched, it is beyond perfect. Several episodes I felt like I was watching a movie, can't rec it enough it even has its own mads mikkelsen inspired character voiced by the same va of the other mads mikkelsen inspired character from my other fave show. Also love the detail how mappa draws shoes as fujimoto draws them. 02- Spy x family: this is another good adaptation, I started reading this manga in 2019?? And I kept thinking how GOOD of a story it was and it was a shame so little attention it got, but now with the anime its got the much deserved attention. I adore it immensely, here is hoping for a continuous success.

01- Bocchi the rock: THIS is at the top bc of how relatable it is for me and what a nice surprise to know its actually a good anime. I was expecting it to be another "cute girls do cute things" like "do it yourself" from this year and I wasn't wrong its just that it has a little more depth than that. All the girls have good and bad traits, goals and obstacles to overcome so the story focuses on that with their collective goal of playing music. As someone with social anxiety that lean on rock/playing guitar to make friends and not succeeding on that front I want to see bocchi accomplish her goals, its cathartic like that. Also the animator are truly having fun with the different styles of animating the jokes which is always a treat to watch.

If you got it to this part, thank you so much for reading! If you give any of this a chance and like them let me know! I love talking about anime as you can see haha. I hope next year the season isn't as dry mid way so I get to watch more!

Happy New Year!!🎉

#anne txt #top anime 2022 #2022

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okami-zero · 2 years

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Endwalker

So I am glad I decided to postpone taking that quest until today because...

I just finished it. I finished Endwalker (well, 6.0, at any rate).

Cut for spoilers

So when we got to Ultima Thule, I really did not know what to expect. Then Thancred goes missing (which I dreaded as soon as I saw him go at Meteion). And then I figured Estinien was going to provoke the indolent dragons back to some semblance of their former selves, but nope! And and and... I mean, even without the focus, I could rather tell which Scion was going to square off with which tortured nihilist souls. Fucking Raha MADE ME CRY, GODSDAMMIT. The song playing for that part prolonged it, just...

And then THE TWINS MADE ME CRY. (SQUEENIX I SWEAR TO HALONE YOU LET ME HUG ALISAIE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!) But what really got me bawling was after the twins.

The walk. And hearing all those voices (including some no longer with us). I was mostly recovered from the twins, but then the first voice came at me and I'm like, "...wait what...? Was that...?" ANd I started walking to the next shadow - and it's Papalymo. And then Moenbryda. And I was a fucking mess, doing my best to be able to hear each voice. Hien made me smile, as did Midgardsormr (or was it Seto?), but you know who just fucking ended me for several minutes?

Ardbert saying "Let's end this". God, I am gonna cry again, hang on...

Okay, I'm good, at least to finish this.

And then, Hades and Hythlodaeus! <3 And that whole stretch. Using the Ancients' creation magic to finally get through to Meteion (that hurt my heart to see, too). Hades whole thing about why he gave Akagi Azem's stone, urging him to do as Azem did and explore? Loved it! And then...look, I will never not get the shivers when the Azem summon goes off, okay? It's got the same power as when in one of the last episodes of G Gundam before a boss fight, Nastasha goes, "RING THE BELL, DOMON KASSHU!" (Get the fight started, basically, but there's more to it, just trust me). And it's not really the shivers, sort of? Like, it's hard to describe but the power of it, gets me every time.

And Akagi being a shit and teleporting everyone away. And then The OTHER Azem summon and the Trial...and me and another person were first timers, and the folks in there asked how we were liking Endwalker (Me: "Lots of tears, but good!"). I, uh, *really* need to get better about my mititgation (Trusts have spoiled me a bit) and I went into the fight blind, so I missed some dodges and died twice, almost in a row (us tanks both went down the second time, same hit, too. And we were both PLD LOL). But they were super awesome. And I thought we failed the run... And then the cutscene with the Scions praying on the Ragnarok... oof. Just, everybody was like "LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO!!!" and we nailed it.

And CBU3 punched my feels again when Meteion is lamenting to Akagi (look, there were so many places in Endwalker where Akagi's natural predilection to hugs was sorely tested, okay?). The thing that killed me, after her once more asking if they can be friends, was the little sob-gasp and the tear after he takes her hand. Like, he just opened up and let her see and feel everything. Brought her back from the brink. That little moment, right there... all but indelibly etched into my mind.

And THEN, Zenos. Who showed up and backed us up for Endsinger, yea, okay. But finally, he got the showdown he wanted, and Akagi putting everything he had in that last punch? Totally on point. Also, his teleport device (which should have been back on the Ragnarok) showing up right then? Honestly, it's kind of up to interpretation, but... my money is Meteion or one of the Ancients. Somehow.

And the waking up. So this scene just...Raha and Alisaie... Now this scene I need to rewrite, because Akagi would be hugging the shit out of all of them, possibly breaking down a bit (honestly, he would probably have a full-on breakdown once they had been back, whether at the Annex or the Stones. Just, waking from a nightmare and needing everyone there for him to see, to feel, reassure himself that they were okay, that he made it, that they all made it. And then the "disbanding" of the Scions was tough, too. But in a good way. ^_^ Another thing, he would make sure that they knew that they are his family now. More than comrades, more than friends. Family.

And, uh...Azem. That was Azem, right? (Do they use a different VA if the WoL is female? Or is it the same?) But...that voice...and Pandaemonium, eh? Oooh...

So got some new quests to pick up. x3

But I am heading for bed because I stayed up til 4 fucking AM EST to do this, because I did NOT want to break this up, I wanted the whole finale in one go, in my face and DAMN.

Let's see if I can sleep, so much to process.

And maybe some writing this weekend, because m muse finally decides to wake up after all that. Should get through my asks first, but yea. x3

Okami, out (like a light).

#okami plays ffxiv #endwalker #okami rambles #okami's OCs #Akagi Obinata #au ra WoL #raen #Scions of the seventh dawn #endwalker spoilers #and now #I sleep *thud*

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erintoknow · 2 years

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I’m trying to think now, what anime have I seen this year?

My partner has been doing a lot in introducing me to various anime shows. Jojo’s Bizzare adventure (starting at Part 3), we still need to finish the last third of the newest series. I’m not still not sure how I feel about the new season. It’s felt even gorier then the past seasons, and putting a female protagonist front and center has not solved some the series issues with women that I might have hoped it would. Still there’s an enjoyable ‘WTF’ aspect to it.

Speaking of WTF, my partner got me to watch Elfin Lied with ver. I enjoyed it and all, but WTF? I’m glad the anime had a (mostly, sorta) happy ending.

We watched Simoun, which was an anime where girls literally powered flying machines by kissing. Oh also they’re priestess being press-ganged into fighting what is probably an unjust war. In some ways the show felt a little dated around it’s gender politics, but surprisingly forward thinking in others?

La Portriat de Petit Cossette was a fucking headtrip. Great soundtrack, but it’s Yuki Kajiura, of course it would be.

This was the year I finally got around to watching Revolutionary Girl Utena. Goddamn. I’m going to have to go through and watch it again at some point. In some ways I feel like it suffered for lack of budget, in others I feel like any more money at the project might have just ruined the effect.

This back half of the year has been great for gay or at least gay-aligned anime. Gundam Witch of Mercury, Bochi the Rock, Lycoris Recoil, I’m sure there’s more I haven’t gotten around to for one reason or another.

I don’t think I’ve really watched another not anime this year? I’m not a movie goer and I don’t own Netflex or anything. I had planned to catch Westworld at some point, but uh, fuck Warner Bros? There’s a few things on my watch list that my Partner saw and loved. Glass Onion, Tár, Knives out, Shape of Water... I’m always up to add stuff to the to-watch pile if people had suggestions

#animation #movies #2022

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jakka-ningen · 3 years

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I've decided to read the Zeta Gundam Define manga and do a very quick and dirty summary. It's not comprehensive and the "quotes" might not be accurate, but if you don't mind that, let's have fun reading!

This manga is an adaptation of the Zeta anime. Various changes have been made. The anime is from the mid-80s and Define is from the early 2010s, so they're bound to be pretty different.

Something really cute in the first few pages is that "Quattro" tells Apolly and Roberto not to go off on their own and start a fight by themselves, to which Roberto replies something along the lines of, "Do we look like rookies to you? We'll be fine." And "Quattro" responds, "Sorry, Roberto-chuui, I happened to remember an old mistake of mine," which is a reference to the "mistakes made due to youth" line, lol.

Kamille's intro is pretty different in two big ways. Firstly, Bright was already going to be signing autographs at the port where Kamille goes to meet him. Secondly, Jerid throws the first punch between the two of them, making Kamille look far less impulsive and entitled right away. (lol)

During the initial scouting mission, where "Quattro" takes pictures of the Titans base, he mentions that things look very much as expected from the information Reccoa had gathered. I like this mention of Reccoa; it often feels, in the anime, like the women barely contribute outside of piloting, which isn't fair.

The face of someone who very much wants to be somewhere else lol

The manga also does not have Kamille start a fight with the MP as he's getting discharged. Come on! I want my favorite terrible boy, Kamille Bidan!! Who is this kid who thinks before he starts throwing punches, lol??

"Quattro" sees Jerid's spectacularly bad performance in the Mk II, where he crashes into the detention center, and is like, "Well, I guess we can't go back empty-handed." This is my favorite kind of Japanese, where the rest of the sentence is missing. "I guess we can't go back empty-handed, seeing as they're this incompetent. We can probably steal some Gundams no problem."

I think because Kamille isn't meant to be super close to Fa at the start, and because it's not the 80s, they changed to having Kamille refer to her by her last name in the beginning. This also will allow for a bigger emotional impact if he starts calling her "Fa," later. (They still don't use honorifics with each other, and she still calls him by his first name, though, lol)

UH. Okay, I guess Fa got interrogated, too, but she's in her underwear, so what kind of interrogation, exactly?? This is Uncomfortable; Do Not Want. Kamille steals one of the unconscious MP's jackets for her before noting that he was discharged because his parents are with the military, but who knows what would have happened to her. “This is the way Titans does things!”

The first fight is set up very cleverly, with plenty of time to introduce both Reccoa and Emma, and characterize them a bit. There's a spy within the AEUG who gives away "Quattro" and the others' locations, instead of them kind of just running into the Titans on accident, lol.

There's also a lot of characterization of Jerid as a dumbass, which I appreciate as the fandom's top Jerid hater.

It’s so funny to me how much the manga tries to make Kamille a more sympathetic person. He's not ignoring his mom who's concerned her son might've been crushed in a building cave-in; he just doesn't notice she's there!

I think Tomino remembered being a teenager and wrote a teenager. I think this manga has instead decided to have a Shounen Protagonist.

I'm not on his side, but I do think it's funny that Kakricorn is like, "Look, Bright, dude, I don't like you because everyone acts as if the White Base and the Gundam won the OYW on their own. That's not how war works, man." Bad guy, good argument, lol.

Instead of Kamille threatening to step on the MP in the Gundam, we have Kakricorn damn near stepping on Bright, instead. I will not mourn Kettle Corn when he dies.

So far, I don't like Fa's characterization, which mostly just consists of her yelling someone's name with a look of concern on her face.

Kamille: Thanks for your help earlier (stopping Jerid from beating me too severely), but I'm gonna commandeer this Gundam now, okay?

Emma: No, that's not okay! That's not okay at all!!

(That’s not exactly how it went, lol)

Both Kamille and Amuro, in subsequent adaptations, have been changed to have hacked into their fathers' computers and looked over the Gundam's inner workings in detail.

Bright: If that's Kamille in there, he's the second Amuro!

Kamille does just fine, as to be expected. Meanwhile, Char’s Newtype senses are tingling.

Char: Oh, so the feeling I've been getting is from that pilot! Then, rather than the Gundam, we should focus on taking him back with us!

Okay, well, you're lucky he's amenable to that. AU where Char just straight up kidnaps Newtype children...

Char: We just want your mobile suits! If you surrender them, we guarantee your lives will be spared!

Kakricorn: Who'd believe the words of a terrorist!?

Kamille: I believe you!

(lol)

So, Kamille is on team Char (or rather, team anti-Titans) right away, which is similar to the plot in the anime. However, we also get a few other additions to the AEUG right away.

Kamille: I'll come with you, but I'm also bringing Yuiri.

He didn't discuss this with Fa beforehand. She seems okay with it, but again, I'd like more actual character development for her lol. She feels like a prop at the moment.

He also asks Bright to join, and there’s a little dialogue where he gets convinced. So we've already got Bright and Fa on the AEUG's side from the equivalent of episode 1.

Emma remains unconvinced for now and stays with the Titans for the time being.

While the fight’s been going on inside the colony, Reccoa and Saegusa have been sabotaging Green Oasis' docking bay, where the GMs are stored. That's why Titans can't get assistance during that first fight. Good detail!

We switch over to the Titans’ perspective and... I feel like two things are happening. I find the Titans boring and am glossing over their dialogue, and also a lot of it goes over my head at my current reading level (and I don’t feel like poking around in a dictionary for their sake). The worst of both worlds. Anyway, we should actually spend time with them if we want them to be compelling enemies, but I just can't find them compelling no matter how much time we spend with them. A conundrum.

When we move back to the fight, we get this cool Kamille POV panel. We never get straight shots from the pilots' POV in the series. I felt a slight excitement or nervousness looking at this panel, so I think the manga did a good job of getting me in the characters' headspace!

"Quattro" thinks to himself that he never thought he would meet the captain of the White Base under these conditions... Yeah, it's a bit strange, "Quattro"...

Bright being like, "My wife is totes a Newtype," is refreshing, since everyone is usually like, "she's a bit Newtype-ish" instead of fully admitting to it. I mean, I guess he says "NTのよう/NT no you" instead of just "Newtype," but that's still as close as we've ever gotten in a Gundam thing to admitting the obvious here.

Mirai Yashima: stealth Newtype.

Bright: (Why does Quattro-taii think Kamille is like Amuro? If he has firsthand experience of knowing about Amuro's powers, when exactly and where exactly did he gain that experience?)

Gee, I wonder, Bright. That "Quattro" guy is pretty suspicious...

...And that's the first volume! Basically covers just one episode of the anime. I'm sure it picks up the pace from here; there are 18 volumes, I think? I had plenty of fun; I’ll probably keep reading and summarizing it. 🌟

#mobile suit gundam #zeta gundam #zeta gundam define #jakka-ningen summarizes zgd #gundam #zgd volume 2

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mikkeneko · 3 years

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Got tagged by @veliseraptor for a writing meme!

How many works do you have on AO3? What’s your total AO3 word count?

193 works over 10 fandoms; 2,591,823 words.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I would count 10 real ones. Dragon Age; Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle; Critical Role; Marvel Cinematic Universe; The Untamed; The Witcher; Cardcaptor Sakura; Fullmetal Alchemist; Gundam Wing; Weiss Kreuz. Some of these pre-date the existence of AO3, and some of them are better off that way.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A Villain State of Mind; Cover Up the Sun; Laughing As I Pray; I do solemnly swear; The Morning After. All Loki fandom fics. Not too surprising as that was the most mainstream fandom I wrote for, and they’ve been around for a while now, lots of time to accumulate stats.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do! I have a somewhat complex set of criteria for when I respond and how.

I will respond to all comments left on works in my current/active fandom except for: comments consisting entirely of emojis (mainly because I have no idea what to say to that) comments consisting of single words (same) or comments that seem to be about something other than my fic entirely or focus entirely on negativity (i.e., the commentor is using this box as a space to rant about how much they hate a character, the show, or another author/trope.)

I will usually but not always respond to comments on my next-to-last fandom. On older fandoms I will respond only to especially long or thoughtful comments, or ones that specifically ask a question that I can answer.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

That would have to be Rise From Ash, the Loki timeloop fic I wrote in MCU. Since it was intended to lead into Avengers, it naturally had a downer ending since we know how Avengers went for Loki; but the story also ended with him having a major mental health break and resolving to kill himself in order to end the timeloop, so, uh, that was pretty unhappy.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I think that the Never Gonna Tell A Lie series has to qualify for this one by default; two fics of the “characters from wildly different series meet in a bar” format, spanning seven different franchises.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Occasionally. I can’t answer in a lot of detail because I make a conscious policy of thinking about these comments as little as possible, so I tend to forget the details. Off the top of my head I know I received a few comments on my MCU fics of people complaining that the fic was nothing more than a Thor-bashing exercise (it wasn’t intended as such, but you can’t control how the audience will receive, I guess.) And then there was the whole infamous “ableist torture porn of a mentally ill man” episode.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I can recall. It may have happened that I just don’t know about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have you ever had a fic translated?

A fair amount! Sometimes people will leave a comment asking permission to translate. I have always granted it. Sometimes they go through with the translation and sometimes not.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle I co-wrote a couple fics with @faux-fires which were a lot of fun. (Which... doesn’t seem to be on AO3, huh. But Not Quite Paradise is still on ff.net.) And more recently @cerusee and I have been trading scenes back and forth for each other’s stories.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don’t know if I have just one. Maybe Kurogane/Fai. They really manage to straddle all my favorite ship dynamics.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Both of my WIPs in Critical Role fandom, Molly’s Moving Castle and Fjord Mustang’s YEEHAW! Fun and Pony Ranch, are at this point probably never going to be finished. Partly because of Characterization Marches On; the characters that I thought they were when I started writing were not the characters they ended up being in canon. But mostly just because I’m no longer really in the fandom.

Wonder if it’s worth closing out the WIPs on AO3 with final chapters describing how the fic would have ended?

What are your writing strengths?

I can do humor, I can do horror, I can do heartbreak. I can write a complex outline and stick to it, I have a fair amount of discipline and perseverance. People occasionally compliment my character voice, so I’d say that’s decent. I can spin up a plot for just about any situation. I love adapting canon to AU. My dialogue is pretty punchy and my action sequences are adequate.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m really bad at writing OCs, as I admit to every darn time this comes up. I’ve also recently realized that I have a strong tendency to avoid writing about characters I don’t like, on several fronts.

The first way that manifests is that if there’s a main/good guy character who the fandom likes and I dislike, I will avoid writing about them whenever possible. I don’t do character bashing. (Which means that if I am writing about a protagonist character, even if they’re being a jerk and the narrative is whacking them for it, that doesn’t mean I hate the character. It just means that the story requires that they get a good whacking, Thor.)

But the second way this manifests is that I will often just... avoid writing about the bad guys, if they’re unpleasant and I dislike them. Which in shorter things is fine! We’re here to read about the characters we like. But in longer or more plotful things, that means that all of the villain’s bad things happen off screen if they happen at all, so the audience doesn’t get a chance to really build up anger against them, so their eventual downfall is less satisfying.

I’m also weaker at writing romance than I would like, I’d say. If it’s a story that has a plot, the romance will frequently get shoved in around the corners or at the last minute. If it’s a story that’s supposed to be about romance, the characters will usually sidetrack into having philosophical discussions about moral relativity when they’re supposed to be flirting.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’m not sure I understand the question. I don’t think this has ever come up in my fic. I do not speak any other languages fluently enough to have ever tried to write any part of my fics, dialogue or otherwise, in a language other than english. Is this asking my thoughts on other people doing that? Sure, why not?

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

That would have been Gundam Wing! Gosh, it’s been so long that I barely remember what that first fic was. But the biggest thing I wrote for that fandom was a ghost story on a space station, which was not very good, objectively, but I look back on it and think it had some seeds of a pretty cool horror/psychological drama going there.

Was Duo Maxwell really haunting the space station? Or was Heero Yuy just going mad with grief? Who can say.

Tagging! Well, Lise tagged me, so she’s out. How about... @hollyand-writes (if you have the time to spare,) @curiosity-killed, @thethirdamell, @plotdesigner, and @cerusee ?

#long post #mikke memes #mikke meta

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argumentl · 3 years

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The Freedom of Expression Ep 51 - Amazing technology - 'Human with modified skull'

K: Hi this is Dir en grey's Kaoru with this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe, Tasai, welcome.

T: And thank you too.

J: Ta-da! We are wearing it.

K: Hahaha

J: We are wearing it. This is naturally cool, isn't it?

T: Yes.

K: Um, if we don't say anything the viewers won't understand.

J: Uh, Tasai, could you explain?

T: Um, so this is another Tokyo Sports T-shirt collaboration. We are putting one out.

K: It was a hoodie before, right?

T: Yes, that was a collaboration with Don Quijote. This time we've collaborated with the store Hardcore Chocolate in Higashinakano, to create this really cool tshirt.

K: I'm wearing it too.

T: Oh, thank you. Its a Core-choco × Tokyo Sports collaboration.

*clapping/cheering*

K: The back is nice too.

J: Yeah, I mean, I can't see it myself though. What is written on it?

T: Its past Tokyo Sports headlines. The black is pro-wrestling headlines, like 'Inoki's grand KO defeat'.....'Hansen...near murder' etc.

J: Wow.

T: These shocking headlines are...

J: All over?

T: Yes, all over it. And as for the front, Joe, could you turn around?

J: Yes.

T: Those are copies of Tokyo Sports tied up with string, just on the verge of being thrown away, giving a kind if melancholic feel.

J: Ahh, this is cool too.

T: Its very Tokyo Sportsy.

K: Are the white and back versions different?

T: Yes, they are different.

J: Ah! They are different?

K: The white one has 'Matsui' written on it.

T: Matsui's wedding.

J: Oh yeah.

K: This black one says, 'Brody'.

J: Pro-wrestling?

T: Yes, its mainly pro-wrestling. And the white is showbiz...

J: Sports and showbiz? Oh, so it is.

T: 'Elvis lives' and so on.

J: This is great...ah..'The Monster with 21 faces'!

K: Its nostalgic, isn't it?

T: Yeah, this type of thing.

J: Ahh..of course...Ah, shocking photos.

K: 'Discovery of Kappa'....'Madonna had hemorrhoids' haha.

K, J, T: Hahaha.

J: Does it really matter? haha.

T: Haha, that was about one time a long time ago when Madonna came to do a show in Japan. She requested a bidet toilet, so we reckoned maybe its because she had hemorrhoids.

J: Just from that? You put this headline with it?

K: Your info is thin!

T: Haha.

J: Right?! Zero fact checking! Guess after guess!

K: Incredible. So, there are two of these.

J: What should we do with them?

T: Well, I thought we could make them presents for the people who always watch The Freedom of Expression.

J: Ohhh! *claps*

K: There is black and white.

J: One of each?

T: Yes.

K: The size is S.

J: S?

K: Joe is wearing M, I'm wearing XL. Anyone who wants a big one..

J: Please but it.

K: Yes. For people who want S...um, what should we do...you could leave a comment on my Twitter..

T: With your thoughts on this show.

J: Of course.

T: Yes.

K: Yeah.

T: And we could choose one from those.

J: Leave a decent comment..

T: Like which was your favourite episode or something?

J: Ahh, you know how to do this!

K: Joe, its just that you're always drunk.

J: I'm always drunk, haha. When I see Tasai, Im learning how to conduct myself.

T: Excuse me brother, thank you very much.

J: Your stocks will rise with this tshirt. Yours and Tokyo Sports' stocks.

T: I hope so.

K: Everyone will be cool wearing this.

J: They really will be cool.

K: Please buy it, really.

J: If someone wanted to buy this, where do they get it from?

T: Probably online. You can buy it on Corechoco's site.

J: I see.

K: Ok, so today's story is a Tokyo Sports selection.

J: Its a Tokyo Sports day today.

T: A Tokyo Sports produced story...

The headline is 'Will we rise up in 2021? - Amazing technology, human with modified skull'. As for the content of the story, it asks what new technology will appear in the year 2021, and its by our science writer Hisano, who wrote about some of the things he'd heard.

J: Oh, so he's done it properly?

T: Yes. So firstly, well, we hear a lot about this A.I. deepfake problem at the moment, don't we? Like changing faces without permission, and making these made-up sexy images which cause harm, for example. *1

J: Yeah, its the basis of fake news, right?

T: We are hearing about that more and more, thats the first thing. Secondly, there is apparently this idea called, 'Trans-human' where people power up their own body with technology, and Hisano wondered whether Trans-human technology with develop a lot during this year. Specifically, well, there is actually someone doing this in Spain, Manel de Aguas. He peeled back the skin on his head and attatched self-mafe fin shaped devices to his skull. The fins contain a bone conducting oscillator and temperature sensor, so he can tell if the weather is hot or cold through vibrations in his head. So, this is a way to catch very small atmospheric changes that regular people wouldn't normally be able to sense.

J: I see.

T: And there are pictures of him, so please take a look.

J: If you go to the Tokyo Sports website?

T: Yes, you can see it there. Furthermore, well, there are quite a lot of other examples, like a 'trans-human' using prosthetics, or having an IC chip implanted into your hand to use for the train etc. On top of that, France has plans to make a conscription army like this. The name of the project is 'The Bionic Soldier Project', which is a really cool name. They would be like super strong soldiers who never got tired and didn't need sleep, and who could heighten their sight and hearing with medication, and would have communication equipment embedded in their brains to connect directly to wireless netwoks. Bionic soldiers..scary, right?

J: Yeah. Its like the end to the era of traditional fighting.

T: Research has been going on even longer America, in their Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where paralyzed patients have had chips embedded in their brain, and have successfully been able to control drones with their thoughts. They've already done that. Even bedridden people can control drones. Technology his also being developed to go without sleep for 48 hours by running electric currents through the brain. This is not the talk of dreams, we are closing in on these things. There is also a plan by Nasa, a mission to redirect asteroids, where a robot spaceship would grab an asteroid, carry it over to the moon's orbit, and dig up minerals from it. Its like the world of Gundam. What do you think of this for 2021?

J: So, like these might become a reality within this year?

T: Yeah, some of them, as far as the technology goes.

K: It'll be like Robocop.

T: Yeah.

K: Its incredible, its like the world of 'Terminator'.

J: Yeah, it is.

T: In reality, controling a drone with the brain is aleady being used in China with toys.

J: With the brain..?

T: Like, controlling it with your thoughts by just imagining it rising. And in Japan..

J: You have to operate it.

T: In Japan they can be controlled with radio waves *2, but in China they can already move drones around using brain waves. Like, its technologically possible to attatch a bomb to a drone and make it fly somewhere and explode...its scary.

J: If technology advances this far, people won't need to study for exams and stuff, will they?

T: Thats right.

J: With a chip embedded...we talk about preventing cheating these days, but you would have all that data within you, or you could just go outside and remotely update.

K: Or you could send questions with just your eyes and get answers back.

J: Yeah, its like already at the point where you don't have to bother with tests or exams.

K: And it would mean no more back entrance admissions.

T, J: Yeah.

J: Yeah, like whoever has the money.

T: They might starts scanning people with metal detectors when they do exams to see if they have chips or something in them. Like, have you got a chip in your brain?? If it beeps, you'll know they have a chip.

K: They could put the people who have chips inside like anti-vibration shields..

J: Yeah, like to stop the transmissions.

T: Oh, yeah.

J: We're already getting to this point in time.

T: Do we even need to study anymore?

J: Yeah, like the era of people using their brains is ending.

K: We don't even really need universities and stuff anymore

J: We don't! Cause you have have access to all the information in the world in your head, whenever you like.

K:Yeah, if you have it ???*3

J: Well, there's also the issue of whether this kind of thing will be permitted by law. Like how far..

K: Yeah, it wouldn't be allowed immediately.

J: Yeah, like how far can human ability be harnessed in this way. I mean, there is the problem of genetic engineering too, but..thats where we are at now.

K: Well, there might already be people like this out there.

J: Well, yeah, the technology is there already.

K: You don't know whats going on in other peoples' heads.

J: Well, yeah. Eh, what if Kami is one of them?

K: No, I don't think he is. Absolutely not.

J: Haha

Kami: No, gods are different. But the bionic soldiers who don't need sleep, never get tired, and use medication to improve their sight and hearing...they've been around in Nishinari for a long time.

K: In Nishinari?

J: Haha

Kami: People who look like zombies, there have always been tonnes of them. There is also an article about a 'robot girlfriend to go for a walk with you', which Gifu University made, I'm interested in that. I'd like to support Gifu University with that.

T: I see. Yeah, its a robot girlfriend who holds your hand and goes for walks with you, made by Gifu University.

K: What did Kami say earlier about women, doesn't he have woman trouble?

J: Oh yeah. Kami, don't women like you, being a god?

Kani: Thats a whole different story. Um, this is just a hand holding robot, but I'd like them to try harder with more in-depth research on this.

K: In-depth research? Haha

J: I don't know what he means by that. Kami!!

K: I mean, if they've been able to make the robot to this level, Im pretty sure they can also manage 'in-depth' research. haha.

J: They just won't announce it as university research, they stopped at holding hands.

Kami: Ah, I see. I wanna support deepfake technology too.

K: Ha, you wanna support it.

T: Well, this type of technology was originally invented for mens' pleasure. New technology can even start from such places. Like videos...

K: Ah, yeh, popular people from videos turned up a lot in this erotic stuff (*Sorry if I got this wrong*)

J: Ahh, yes, necessity is the mother of invention. Technology increases due human desires.

T: Yeah, thats it.

J: Well, this could be used for evil ways, or for more interesting ways. There are various ways to use it. Kaoru is there any kind of technology that you ever wanted to invent?

K: That I wanted to invent?

J: Like a specific type of robot or anything like that?

T: If you had a chip in your brain though, and you didn't have to study, what would you do?

K: But if all this stuff becomes normal, I think on the contrary, will might start to want to do things in more detail again. When you can get anything effortlessly, you will start to want to do those things that don't come effortlessly.

J: Ahh, hand made things will become nostalgic.

K: Our sense of value would change. People will want to go out and do things...if you can get everything you need without ever going out. And with food, it will be all there, ready as soon as you open the cupboard, right?

J: Yeah

K: Like, wouldn't you feel like going out instead?

T: Yeah, you'd want to go out and see live performances and stuff too.

K: People were told not to go out on New Years eve, but so many people still went out. haha

T: Oh, yeah.

J: Yep, human mentality just goes like that.

K: People will still go out. So, I think thats the direction it will head.

T: A.I. is pretty popular in human competions at the moment, for example with Shōgi, but in the end, what people really want to see is a human competing with another human.

J: Yes, I think thats true.

K: Yeah, its those natural variations

J: Thats it, we need those. Its that type of thing that is impossible to calculate.

K: A computer couldn't come up with this type of thing. (*holds up Tokyo Sports tshirt*)

T: Haha

K: Its a product of wild fantasies.

T: Hahaha

J: Yeah, that would be impossible.

T: If we let A.I. do this kind of thing we would have lost. Tokyo Sports would be finished.

K: A.I. couldn't make this.

J: Its incredible.

K: 'Human gives birth to frog'.

J: Haha, A.I. could never write this.

K: It probably couldn't, right?

J: Only some bombed out person could do it otherwise.

K: It was worth making, naturally Tokyo Sports.

T: Oh, thank you.

K: So, everyone, please buy one of these tshirts. We have a black and white in size S here, so please send a tweet. Ok, we'll finish here this week. Please subscribe, thank you very much.

*1, 2 Not sure its exactly right.

*3 Couldn't figure out

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression #tfoe #kaoru #��#translation

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talenlee · 3 months

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Story Pile: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Media has a context.

2023 for example, was a year where I think the anime offerings were, in the vague and generalised way these terms can be used, ‘bad.’ 2022 was a year where I think that anime in that same generalised way, were ‘very good.’ And across those two years there stood the anime Mobile Suit Gundam, The Witch From Mercury. In 2022 it was one of a number of anime I held up as examples of how the year was going to always sit in history books as overstuffed with quality. In 2023, it was an anime that had a lot of people in the western anime space around me, really, really cross.

Since in this case, I’m going to talk about this anime pretty thoroughly, and I’m going to be making dumb jokes the whole time, you’re probably going to want to decide up front if you want to see something that could constitute a spoiler. That means this is your Spoiler Warning and if you keep going after this point you don’t get to be mean to me about learning things you might not have expected to know.

Rosebud is that guy’s sled.

Anyway, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is the latest as of this minute Gundam mainline anime. Gundam is a franchise of giant fighting robots that has an eye towards creating a really wonderful mix of sick and cool giant fighting robot warfare narratives (which are dope) and real world materially considered war stories, with their meaningful consequences and the idea of militaries as functions of people, operating on and pursuant to those people with power enough to enforce their will. Simplified, it’s a cool big robot show that’s also a gritty realistic war narrative, and that’s how they almost all work.

Even the one that’s about collecting Gundam toys.

Witch from Mercury is a Gundam story set in a space-borne future where humanity has transcended the boundaries of nations and instead are now formed around the much more sensible and coherent and not at all deeply ideologically compromised organisation of extraplanetary corporations. These corporations build robots that aren’t for military purposes as much as they are for things that could be used in a general, vague, sort of schmilitaryish sense. The result is a sort of ongoing perpetual warfare state where corporations are in their aloof, safe spaces away from the problems they’re causing, and contracting around the ways you can make money from, you know, doing the best job of killing the shit out of one another.

In this space, there is a privileged private academy where students partake in Learning To Use Military Weapons (possibly as some sort of prestigious representation of power and as like, iconographic reduction of military ordinance into just generalised positive symbols of technological development) and even do duels with these war machines in virtualised combat arenas to represent strength and enforce a class distinction.

Into this space of high schoolers doing giant robot duels to show how good and cool their uh, medical research technology is, we introduce Suletta Mercury, who is an outsider of this context. That’s super useful because now she gets to have the story explained to her while she goes about the business of having a very busy first day of school in which she finds out about the class structures, and hierarchy and then gets into a duel and kicks the ass of the best boy in school and then in the process steals his girlfriend.

It’s a big day!

But dont’ worry it’s not the first time they met! Suletta met this girl, Miorine, a little bit ago, you know, when Miorine was trying to escape the school since she didn’t want to be part of their games where, again, she got to be a trophy people won in duels.

Like I said, big day!

This is a yuri series. It’s a series about a relationship between two girls. They get engaged in the first episode, they learn about each other throughout the series, they get closer, they develop a greater understanding of one another and what it means to be engaged, they break up, they recommit, they come together, and they get married by the end of the series. The final scenes of the show depicts Miorine and Suletta wearing wedding rings with Suletta’s little sister calling Miorine her sister-in-law.

This, naturally, gets some people mad.

Sure, some of those people are homophobes, which is always a great camp to feel like you’re standing in. But there are also people who are upset about the way this series represents its girl-on-girl marriage. And I get that you may not want the story to be so subtle as to show wedding rings and maybe include more like, making out and cuddling and giggling and living queer life together and sure, that’s a good kind of thing for a story to do, but how is it that the things this story does here, in its representation of its engaged and then married women, is not acceptable? Does this show Lesbians Wrong?

It reminds me a lot of Christian apologetics. That is, the, let’s say the Heteronorm argument is not about what’s likely, or clear, or obvious. It’s about finding a way to interpret the media presented to you in a way that indicates that there’s a chance their interpretation is right, even if it means presenting a sequence of unlikely things upon unlikely things upon unlikely things, that you can then point to and indicate that actually, the show is not presenting the thing, because there’s a chance this position is true.

And this comes from both sides; those that are want to argue the series isn’t ‘even’ gay and actually, Suletta and Miorine are waifus for them to imagine having, or that this series isn’t gay and anyone who likes it for being gay are people who they can then mock for liking something that ‘isn’t even’ what they want. At the same time, there’s people who want to argue that because these two girls who get engaged in episode 1 and married in episode 24, it is inadequate at representing yuri because it should have been something else, should have been even clearer, should have shown more material that forwarded something in this giant robot war story that was less focused on the giant robot war story.

When this criticism is framed as ‘Witch from Mercury isn’t even really a yuri story,’ that’s a categorical kind of argument, and I tend to rankle at those. If it’s ‘I don’t like Witch from Mercury and wanted something else,’ that’s a totally legit approach! Just…

like..

if your queer media criticism feels like Mike Winger arguing about how it’s not impossible that two angels and then one angel were described in the empty tomb, I check out of the argument. Miss me, as the scholar says, with that shit.

What makes this particular position all the more absurd though is that one of the people in the world who has the power to make this kind of ‘well technically’ argument was someone, somehow, who was involved in the production of the show. From the west there were people who saw a narrative that seemed to work where when the anime completed, the official stance was from The Authorities that actually, and the subtitles were being changed for the material release, because these characters weren’t married, because the anime was made deliberately ambiguous.

It wasn’t.

It was so unambiguous that the voice actresess for Suletta and Miorine were talking about the characters as married. This was a fight, and it seemed that one that was going on at levels of authorisation for the anime production, but not the actual making. It’s super interesting as a fight goes because it means someone somehow was non-homophobic enough to make a show about two girls who get married but exactly homophobic enough to recoil at the idea of people calling it that.

What’s even wilder is that it’s not like anime can’t exist in this space of clearly and obviously gay without anyone calling it that in the text. For example, Revolutionary Girl Utena, another anime which exists in the ‘so you’re saying there’s a chance it’s not gay’ straight-baiting narrative space. Why am I mentioning Revolutionary Girl Utena? why, no reason. Why would you compare these two shows to one another?

I mean it is an isolated school environment with overwhelming privilege bestowed to the highest tier of students. It is a high school explicitly made so its graduates and the ramifications of their graduates relate to ‘national’ politics, and are important to the whole world. Our main character is an isolated ace who’s lost a parent, and is trying to take up life in a series of duels after accidentally winning herself a fiancee in the opening. This fiancee is fully comfortable with her environment, and tells her about it while tending to a garden that symbolises a connection to her role as a winnable fiancee.

Oh, and they’re both gay narratives.

Comparisons to Utena are I think, largely superficial. Not that comparing these two requires a superficial understanding of either series, but rather, the comparison between these two, the way the story opens and introduces you to its world is comparable to Utena if you consider the superficial structure of both stories. After all, notice how I referred to them as both losing a parent – which is true! Utena lost a parent! Along with the other parent! But Utena being unmoored from adult ‘ownership’ making her a lone, wandering prince is extremely important to her story, and the way that people want to step into her life as authorities who can take charge of her is explicitly contrarywise to Suletta. Suletta is explicitly not alone – in multiple ways, she’s got her sister and her mother around her all the time.

The way that Suletta is a girl who doesn’t know how to handle attention, turning to her mother and sister for help, is so wildly different to Utena Tenjou, a confident Tomboy who is so used to people pushing at her boundaries that she can rebuff paramours and teachers easily, means that any comparison to Utena has to be seen not as a comparison of media types but rather a series of media references. Utena exists, and it existed in the world before Witch from Mercury ever existed, which means that the way that Witch from Mercury seems to say ‘check this out, it’s like Utena‘ is seemingly not a matter of mimicking the plot or even themes of Utena but instead something I find way more interesting.

I think the details in Witch from Mercury are presented in that opening to say to me, the older anime fan, hey, remember Utena? We do.

That’s… pretty exciting. Utena was not a revolutionary work (hah), because it was always an outgrowth of existing media that was developing in the space. I don’t feel like Utena got to define how things looked or were presented thereafter, in part I think because Utena was such a singular, specific aesthetic presentation. To look like Utena you would do nothing as much as you would look like you were trying to look like Utena.

I don’t know, I feel like somehow Witch from Mercury is using that shape to indicate something. Like, you know, hey, we’ve seen that too, we know what that story is about, and we’re going to do something like that. After all:

They’re both stories about witches.

I think it was Katelyn Gadd who first introduced me to Suletta Mercury, the titular Witch from, and I don’t know if it was her or me who said it, but someone in that conversation described her as The most homeschooled girl ever. This interpretation, to consider Suletta as someone who had a competing want to be good and no good or meaningful representation of what it means to be good, or good at it, in any kind of social context, just immediately gave me a hook for this girl, a character I could empathise with in the first two episodes where she is both incredibly competent at her field of interest and an indescribable bucket of sloppy cringe. That was always going to cloud my judgment for appreciating this narrative.

But it’s not like Suletta is a character that I can just immediately glom onto. After all, her confused adolescent apparent bisexuality, the way she seemingly references a bunch of geek media, the fact she breaks down crying while trying to do a Normal School Task because she doesn’t have healthy problem-solving approaches, her depressing fixation and response to separation from what may be one of her very first friends she could see sharing common interest with, I mean those aren’t extremely relatable experiences that I grappled with myself because you see, I wasn’t a cute girl. I was a very mid boy and how in the world am I going to have those kinds of feelings resonate for me?! And a terrible relationship with a parent but it’s a parent who’s a woman?

Joking aside it colours everything about how I felt about Suletta. I wasn’t homeschooled proper but I did grow up in a tiny repressive microsocial environment – I didn’t even have four peers my own age, and I was deliberately frozen out of social experiences for nonsense reasons. That meant the climax of the first season was something I contextualised to my own experience — which is weirdly, one I’ve had a few times. I know full well the experience, as a child, of being told, being shown, being taught that there are appropriate and morally correct times and places for violence in the face of evildoers, and to then do those things and instead be treated to guilt and reprimand and the confusing complexity of a moral framework around me, of adults telling me that while what I did would have been right and maybe even was right, this time it wasn’t right and nobody was going to treat me like it was right.

Suletta’s life is this kind of two stage thing, where she’s introduced to a big exciting world with all sorts of cool possibilities and the hopeful image of stories she’s been told living large in her mind, and then she hits a hard wall of realising that those stories are just stories, and that glorious violence breaks you as you break the world in its name. And then you learn that your little sibling you forgot was absorbed in the womb of your robot because your mom is all the kinds of crackerpants.

It’s a really universal experience.

Suletta is a wonderful, sweet, goodnatured idiot and I love her dearly and watching her story put her through travails and her insistence on remaining herself throughout that was something I loved to see. I mean what was I expecting out of this Gundam series, not Gundam?

And a Gundam story is typically speaking, going to be at least a little bit tragic. You’re going to see characters who you care about die, you’re going to see War first as a thing presented as it is in our culture, and then the subsequent relationship to that War after people got involved in it through that heroic, idealised presentation. This is an anime in that genre, where every character who partakes in war, and the ensuing sciences and crafts around war, are people who wind up damaged and even broken by it. A Gundam narrative is one that does what it can to engage you in its questions and while you’re waiting for the answers, it uses that as a time to show you characters from a genre you’re familiar with — whether a fun giant robot story or a girls’ romance or a high school bully story — and then show you those characters experiencing the materialities of a war story.

It is a trauma pinball machine.

And that’s the point of this kinda story! A detail that’s so often smoothed over in the story of this story, the way people talk about it, even in its conclusion, is that Suletta comes out of this whole event physically damaged. Miorine has immense emotional scars, yes, but Suletta is phsyically handicapped (and yes yes the social is predicated on its exclusions and so on).

It’s not exceptional as a Gundam story. It’s not out of type. Gundam stories are full of this kind of thing, and almost always there’s some built up point of tragedy, some deeply harrowing conclusion. Almost always these series have moments of some kind of tragic resolution that stands apart in people’s minds. The death of a major character, the destruction of a population centre, the collapse of a satellite into a colony, you know, there’s always this stuff in Gundam stories. Here in Witch from Mercury, there are two major moments of this ilk, and they are both excellent and deeply terrible. And with all those moments, characters emerge from this narrative deeply wounded by the experience of it. Everyone loses something when they engage with this story of war.

Because it’s just a story.

This is a Gundam story where you will get to see sick robots doing cool shit but also will constantly spend the time pointing out these sick robots doing cool shit exist to kill and destroy. The ‘medical technology’ and ‘remote control’ and ‘drone systems’ may have applications in whatever it is you imagine they do, they may be in service of anything you want but you have to remember someone upstream is the person who ordered this piece of art or promotional material to exist only inasmuch as it lets them fill a ledger and continue developing the device that is ultimately dedicated to the final resort of all kings.

Like someone who could say, hypothetically, try to claim this anime wasn’t that gay and change the subtitles.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Media #Story Pile

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bigmeatymudcrabchitins · 4 years

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A not-so-brief overview of my Skyrim Dova OCs bc i need to scream to the digital void about my ideas

Freyora Lind, more commonly known by her strange alias “Bjorne Icepick”

A Nord-eventually-turned-werewolf who orphaned during the Great War and taken in by a Dunmeri mercenary whose residence was in Windhelm’s Gray Quarter. Grew up in a cramped boarding house setting among desperate mercenaries of varying backgrounds. Many of them would all come and go, but there was always some sort of a familial bond between them all.

From a young age she got in a lot of fights against people who insulted her for living in the Gray Quarter among the dark elves. Eventually she took a fight too far and was jailed for murder around 14, but was broken out shortly after by a band of masked vampires. Turns out some of her mercenary comrades unwittingly caught vampirism during a contract to clear out a vampire den and had to skip town, but not before ensuring one of their own wasn’t left to rot.

Lived in Cyrodil for about 15 years, but returned to Skyrim pursuing rumors surrounding a cure to vampirism, as her adoptive father would be nearing the end of his elven lifespan and had wished to die a normal death.

Seeing as she was literally a fugitive, and her long-belated parents were somewhat renowned for their battlefield prowess, she took on a false identity. AND an act to match it.

She’ll eat raw meat, chase prey with swords instead of using a bow like a normal person, harp about irrational conspiracy theories, and more. Everyone’s foul reactions to her outlandish act are plainly hilarious to her and only encourage her to act even stranger.

The alias “Bjorne Icepick” was simply the most ridiculous name she could think of.

Not the most morally outstanding. Besides drunken brawling, she’ll steal from anyone who angers her, even if it’s things she literally won’t ever need such as all the goblets in a household. It’s the pettiness that counts. “Try drinking your damn high-end wine now, jackass.”

Calls Dwarven Automatons “Gundams.” Including she herself, no one knows what that means.

Joins the Companions out of homesickness and a desire to fill in a gap that leaving home left.

Hasn’t bothered curing herself of lycanthropy because her whole schtick is being incredibly resourceful, and that includes using any means of power necessary. Still doesn’t fancy Hircine’s Hunting Grounds as her desired afterlife, though.

As her journey goes on, however, her lightheartedly eccentric face starts to fall off as a number of events push her to begin to question the legitimacy of her actions up until that point.

Some of which include the eventual death of her adoptive father (and how she was indirectly responsible for it even if it was what he wanted), Delphine’s ultimatum, the civil war as a collective, learning the tragic history behind the Falmer and the original Companions’ role in it, and killing of Vyrthur (no matter how much he genuinely deserved it).

She grows disgusted by herself down to the core. She takes to skooma to cope, and starts to be plagued by serious skooma-induced side effects. She ends up shutting herself away from all her responsibilities and distancing herself from her friends.

Does she get better? Maybe. I haven’t thought up anything past this point lol

Moureneris Alta

A very, VERY ancient vampiric snow elf, (though it’s notable she was born a considerable amount of time after the razing of Sarthaal)

Survived many atrocities. Stayed in isolation with a band of vampires for countless years out of sheer disgust for the nature of the sapient races. (I’ll explain her full story some other time. It’s pretty complicated)

She was abducted from her isolated lifestyle by a certain person i’ll talk about later. She managed to free herself south of Skyrim, and uh, walks right into that Imperial ambush. The rest is history.

Super ignorant to modern society as a result of centuries of isolation. Exploited for comedic relief. (“What in the name of Oblivion is a Cyrodilic Empire? Are you messing with me? And please, how does levitation magic simply get outlawed by this hypothetical Empire? What are you to do when you fall down a crevice? Just... let yourself perish? How degrading.)

She reintegrated herself into society with vengeance in mind under the belief that all humans are savage bloodlusting murderers who had to answer for their treachery. (And she was royally angry there was no Dwemer left to spite, but partially satisfied at the same time). But she grows conflicted after being shown genuine kindness, even as early as being freed from her binds in Helgen.

Subsequently has a very muddled redemption arc. Queue Dragonborn hero stuff

She has impaired vision, but she cultivated detect life magic to aid her in daily life and combat (think Hyakkimaru from Dororo ‘19 and his soul detection or Toph Beifong from ATLA and her seismic sense). At her peak, she can detect life from about a kilometer away.

She can just barely read, but only if she holds the text incredibly close to her face, not to mention her Cyrodilic lessons were left unfinished after her abduction, making reading a very taxing process. Weary travelers are often spooked at the sight of a floating, ghastly looking elven woman with her nose pressed up against crossroad signs, and it has become somewhat of an urban legend.

Isn’t as nearly as skilled with detecting the dead and tenses up in burial crypts or around other vampires for that reason. Unfortunately, being the Dragonborn and all, she finds herself in a lot of crypts...

When questioned about her background due to her unique appearance: “Oh, yeah. My mother was one of those mer from the east. You know the ones. Dark elves, I think? And my father was one of those er, tall elv- no, sorry, HIGH elves. Yeah. They both died in a big fire or something though. It was horrible. I can’t get the noxious smell or the deafening screams out of my head. Good talk, but never ask me about that again.”

Queue sheltered old immortal antics: “Wow, you’re THAT old? Enlighten me on how it felt witnessing the fall of the Dwemer. Or perhaps the rise of Tiber Septim’s Empire. The Gates of Ob-“ “Oblivion if I know. I lived in someone’s basement for thousands of years. And I still don’t know what everyone means by Empire. You all are messing with me, aren’t you? That really annoys me.”

She ultimately returns to faith in Auri-El and makes it her life’s purpose to help the Betrayed find peace, as well as to seek out any remaining snow elf groups. Probably good friends with Gelebor or something.

Had a crush on Serana. We all know how THAT went. Damned temples.

Was originally gonna spiral into a much darker corruption arc (another ATLA comparison being Jet or Hama) but I just felt bad for her. Moureneris can have a little found peace. As a treat.

That’s her preliminary design made. I’ll need a mod to properly play her, because that right there was made by choosing Dunmer as her race. But I can’t do that. I’m on console, and while I got the Steam port a month ago, my PC’s stone age specs can’t handle Skyrim yet and I’ll need to wait until I can afford a better graphics card (thanks economic inflation)

Alexandre Armasi, jokingly nicknamed Alexandre the Curious

A complete and unapologetic export of my character from a dead and unfinished DND campaign. Except there are no Aasimar in Skyrim, so he’s half Altmer half Bosmer. And his initial last name was Armas but I thought Armasi suited his Skyrim counterpart more, as subtle a change it is.

He’s mainly Bosmer in appearance and constitution, save for his hair and eyes, which are more similar to that of his Altmeri father’s.

I can’t really export his original backstory though because the campaign wouldn’t translate well into TES lore at all.

He’s a writer who came wandering into Skyrim in search of inspiration. While he mainly writes dramatic fables, he wanted to divert his focus to crafting his own bestiary and herbal compendium surrounding Skyrim’s fauna and flora. The ones at home are simply too vague to him!

He’s very altruistic, wishing to spread cheer wherever he goes, through the art of song (even though he was a cleric in DND and not a bard. My bad.) However, many of his verses are just blatant self promotions of his published fables.

But he’s too naive for his own good. Dangerously so. In fact, he says what’s on his mind with little forethought, with little grasp on the consequences of his actions, which lands him in lots of trouble. “I don’t favor him myself, but you guys kill people over Talos worship? That’s not very cool. A bit scary, if you ask me.” or “A Stormcloak rebel? Didn’t your leader kill a bunch of Reachmen rebels years back, or so I’ve heard. By the divines that’s not a man I’d make a symbol of nonconformity.”

He’s also insatiably curious. The type to ACTUALLY shove alchemic ingredients in his mouth with no knowledge of their properties, experiment with dangerous rune spells, throw rocks at pressure plates, and more. Needless to say he’s very accident prone.

Doesn’t know common curse words. People exploit this for laughs. Think that episode of Spongebob.

Everyone is a little baffled that HE of all people is the prophesied Dragonborn of legend. This agonizingly imbecilic writer who has absentmindedly wandered into burial crypts, troll dens, bandit forts, and more, too busy juggling his manuscripts to pay attention to his surroundings.

His past doesn’t exactly reflect his outlook on life. His mother and father fought in the Great War aligned with the Imperials despite their elven background. Both managed to live to see the war’s conclusion, but his father vanished without a trace shortly after, and it seems his mother knows something she won’t tell him.

With plenty of exposure to bad influences, his innocence is slowly lost throughout the course of his journey, and his altruism begins to grow twisted. But nevertheless, he maintains his jovial, social persona, except this time with much darker undertones. Kinda like a creepy dentist or something.

Whoops. He winds up becoming a feared Dark Brotherhood assassin. (Haha get it “Innocence Lost”???) He somehow deluded himself into thinking that the life of an assassin was the right thing to do. But he’s a funky little guy so he gets a pass for his heinous crimes against society

#skyrim #skyrim oc #dragonborn #dovahkiin

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afinepricklypear · 4 years

Text

**Update: The works mentioned in this post have since been taken down. The “message” was removed by AO3 because it was a violation of their TOS and it seems the author chose to remove their “opinions” piece.**

Despite the ongoing world crisis, I hope everyone is doing great as the year comes to a close and prepping for a safe holiday season.

I don’t really post here a lot, but I just wanted to talk about a problem that exists in every fandom and has recently come up for me in the BSD fandom. This problem is typically referred to as: toxic behavior, however, I sort of hate that term because it’s an umbrella term that encapsulates a wide array of behaviors that is purposefully vague so as to imply everything can be toxic, which means the definition changes depending upon the person, and ends up getting thrown around to describe any behavior that a person dislikes. That said, most people can agree that the term ‘toxic behavior’ includes “shipper wars” and harassing people because of their “ship”.

Yesterday, a user on AO3 going by the penname E_C_arts posted a message titled “deer Soukoku fans” and giving it the not-innocuous summary “please we’re begging you, please stop”. Clicking through leads to a rather prime example of this particular flavor of toxic fandom behavior, guised as an attempt to defend those who were allegedly victims of this self-same behavior, also a lovely example of emotional manipulation.

Although what’s currently posted (and what I managed to screen shot below) may not seem terrible on first glance, if not a little cringey, and can be easy to agree with (don’t bully people that write for a ship you dislike), this was not their original message and has been edited since being posted and, and only after receiving the number of comments it did and which they’re now noting as “proving their point” – a point which they erased, thus manipulating perceptions. I wish I had gotten a screenshot of the original, but if you scroll through the comments, you can find some people that quoted it.

This person most definitely did open their “message” to Soukoku fans by literally telling them to “stop writing” for it. They claimed there was some unspecified AU (or maybe multiple unspecified AUs) that had been overwritten for, that it was overused, and not original. They went on to talk about how the abundance of soukoku content was turning off new fans to the series (don’t even know how that logics…) and bullying people from creating content for other ships, basing these irrational sentiments off some false claim that removing everything with the soukoku ship from the fandom would only leave behind a sad, inacccurate (and oddly specific) 305 posts.

Evidence of their now deleted perspective can be further seen in another post they made to AO3 a couple days before this ugly rant. Titled simply “My unpopular BSD opinions”, they didn’t manage to garner much attention and went mostly ignored because, well, it’s your opinions about the show and that’s whatever. Of course, when you click into it, the very first “opinion” shared, is that they hate Dazai x Chuuya. Okay, that’s an opinion everyone is entitled to, and that’s fine. You don’t like the popular ship, that’s…not exactly an unpopular opinion, there’s quite a number of people that don’t ship soukoku. No problem. Until, they go on to elaborate.

Despite the title of this piece being ‘their opinions’, they state as ‘fact’ that its confirmed that this is “not a thing”, so ‘please stop shipping them it doesn’t work, it’s way too overused for it to be “funny” anymore’ (I’m a little confused about this wording, because Shipping is Serious Business™, so…not sure there are too many soukoku shippers doing it because they think it’s hilarious or whatnot, in fact, most soukoku fics are tagged ‘angst’, which we all know, angst is very ‘haha, lol’…but whatevs). They then include the same sentiment they expanded on in their Dear John to soukoku fans and subsequently deleted: “Please stop, there are too many au’s with almost the exact same plot Chuuya and Dazai being together, its really difficult to find any non-Dazai x Chuuya au’s”.

On the surface, once again, there are some “truths” to this sentiment. DaiChuu is a popular ship and there is a disproportionate amount of soukoku ship fics on the fandom comparative to other ships (soukoku comes in at a whopping 10,000+ currently, with the next popular ship Aku/Atsushi sitting at a decidedly less 2500+). It’s really not that difficult to find non-DazaixChuuya fics, if you know how to use filters on AO3, but there are going to be less to read from when you filter it down, and depending on your ship, you may find yourself in a fic desert, and I can certainly understand why someone young and lacking in rational thought processes might want to blame the popular ship for this predicament.

The problem with this logic, and it permeates every fandom, not just BSD, is that the shippers sharing and loving their ship are not to blame for your lack of ship content. You just don’t have a popular ship. If all the people who love soukoku stopped creating content for it, as this person is ‘begging’ them to do, that’s not going to increase the amount of content for your ships, because the reason that content isn’t being created is because there aren’t enough shippers for it. So, the only way this person’s logic works, is if what this person is actually saying, isn’t that they want these people to stop creating content for the BSD fandom, they just want them to jump ship, stop creating content for soukoku and start creating content for their ships.

Any creator/fan is going to have a visceral reaction to that: who the fuck are you to tell me what to create? And for free, no less!

This moves us more towards a clearer definition of what is toxic fandom behavior. In short, its telling anyone how they should interact with or interpret their favorite content. I mean, even Word of God does not have this power. That’s because every single fan in a fandom is an individual human being. They are possessed of their own autonomy, and as a creator I know, that once you put something out into the world and give it over to others, you have little control over how people consume and feel about your work. You can tell them your intention, but that’s not going to sway them to interpret it that way, and that’s…just the way it works.

Now, the elephant in the room needs to be addressed. It’s easy for me to be ‘offended’ by this person’s post and not see their complaints because I am a soukoku fan. I’m also the target of this person’s rant, and one of those people this person is attempting to emotionally manipulate into writing for other ships in the fandom for which I have no preference. But I am capable of seeing the other side of this argument.

First, because I do have other fandoms in which I am part, and for which I have a rare-pair ship. For example, I am a Gundam Wing fan and a 2x5 (Duo/WuFei) shipper. I’ve posted two 2x5 fics on fanfiction.net. While 2x5 is not the rarest of rarepairs in the Gundam Wing fandom, it is significantly eclipsed (as are almost *all* ships in the fandom) by the 1x2 (Heero/Duo) ship. Do I hate 1x2 shippers for my lack of 2x5 content? No. I just appreciate what I’ve got all the more, and I’ll create content for it when I feel compelled, and I sure the fuck won’t implore 1x2 shippers to stop writing for their fave and write more for mine because I want more 2x5 – that’s sheer entitlement, right there, pure and simple. I also ship 3xD (Trowa/Dorothy) in Gundam Wing, which *is* the rarest of rarepairs – I think there’s only, like, two stories in existence that features this pair on the entirety of the internet. I’m also a RavenxMurphy (Murven) shipper in The 100 fandom and I do not hate Bellarke fans because…those people are scary and have canceled the show’s creator for not delivering on Bellarke, and in BSD, I ship Atsushi/Lucy (yes, I said it, they’re cute af and I hope Asagiri delivers on that ship). I also low-key ship Yosano/Ranpo (sorry, Ranpo/Poe shippers, I understand the appeal, I just think him and Yosano is sooo cute, please don’t kill me…), and I also ship Yosano with Kunikida – all of which are some of the rarest in the BSD fandom.

Second, because I have seen and called out shipping harassment in the BSD fandom, so I am well aware that this kind of thing exists – as it exists literally everywhere and in every flavor. Against soukoku shippers from antis and by soukoku shippers against shippers putting Dazai or Chuuya with any other characters and by soukoku shippers against other soukoku shippers that are, uh, “doing it wrong”. None of these is appropriate. You’re not fighting fire with fire if you’re an anti-attacking the popular ship, you’re just creating a bigger fire and burning the entire fandom down. You’re not defending your ship if you are a soukoku fan attacking non-soukoku fans, you’re just punching down by attacking a less popular ship. And top/bottom arguments aren’t just toxic, they’re also deeply entrenched in fetishization of same sex pairings through a forced heteronormative lens and is, kind of, sort of, actually homophobic in its basis (yes, I said it. It’s ignorant and homophobic and trying to argue with ‘personality/physical traits’ as evidence of who serves what position in the bedroom can be emotionally and mentally damaging to members of the LGBTQ community. Claiming that Chuuya should be bottom because he’s shorter/smaller, or that Dazai has ‘bottom energy’ because he’s more flamboyant and ‘feminine’ is straight up discrimination – a shorter guy can definitely be top, and a manly man can be bottom, it’s not a behavior based on perceived gendered traits, it is just a fucking preferred sexual position, and no, you are not ‘fixing it’ by purposely using positions for these characters that eschews the stereotypes either. Trying to justify positioning by personality/physical traits at all, in any way, shape, or form is just not okay – if it’s your preference, it’s your preference, no justification needed, just recognize that it is *your* preference and arguing what’s ‘right/wrong’ positioning is just plain wrong).

But this brings us to a different issue: bad actors and blaming a whole community for a ‘few rotten apples’. I could easily lump this one person in with everyone that does not ship soukoku and deem them all toxic, aggressive, entitled, bullies attempting to harass soukoku shippers off the platform. Or I could see them for what they are, individuals with individual motivations and drives and morals that also happen to share the same shipping preferences. Is it true to say that there are no soukoku fans that engage in the behaviors described by E_C_arts? No, there are definitely those that do, as there are antis that engage in that same behavior against soukoku fans. But this person also asserts that soukoku fans turning ‘every BSD post about soukoku’ is also a toxic behavior. To which I refer you back to one. This is how they engage with and interpret the work. Don’t yuck on someone else’s yum. People want to gush about how cute they thought soukoku were in an official art, or that they felt there was some hidden (or not so hidden) interaction between them that validates their ship, or their inspired to create soukoku content based on it, so what (for the record, it irks me too when people go ‘see it’s canon and Bones totally ships it’, because it’s unlikely, given BSDs genre, that any romantic relationship will be confirmed, soukoku notwithstanding). It is not, in fact, toxic to gush over it. Let them have their fun with it, let them enjoy their ship. Now, if you go and make a comment about liking the art for other reasons and they reply to you about “…but also soukoku”, then still, that’s not toxic, that’s just them enjoying the content the way that they enjoy it, so let them enjoy it, and you opened yourself to engagement without any qualifiers for the type of engagement you were soliciting, you can’t then backtrack and go ‘but I’m not a soukoku shipper, they should’ve been able to read my mind and known that, it’s totally toxic of them to share their personal reasons for loving the show in response to my sharing my love for the show’. But if you comment about another ship, and they reply to you “…ew, gross! It’s 100% soukoku” then yes, that’s toxic. A lot of people fail to make this distinction, that they are, maybe, merely being triggered and not actually harassed, by feeling like their ship isn’t being validated because they see another ship all over the place and everyone they engage with ships it.

It’s also toxic, to take an experience with one person and hold every soukoku shipper in existence responsible for that one person’s inappropriate behavior. The truth is, that bad actors amongst soukoku fans are not unique, not to the ship and not to the fandom and not even to fandom culture in general. Every group in existence everywhere has bad actors in it that, while the group disavows their behavior, they continue to be held accountable for those individuals and judged by them. For current events, look at how the BLM movement has been blamed for bad actors (many of whom were not actually BLM activists) that took advantage of the protests and started riots and chaos. A small percentage of people were involved in these behaviors, but the entire movement, despite speaking out against rioting, continues to take the blame for it. For me, that’s the root of toxicity. We need to start holding individuals accountable and stop blaming people who have no control over those individuals, because they share a few similar beliefs or interests. That’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But the shippers as a whole are not to blame for the actions of a few, and the reason that it feels that there are so many more soukoku fans that do this is because of volume, there are so many more soukoku fans. It’s basic math. If two percent of fans are these toxic kinds of shippers, then there’s going to be so many more of them in a larger population than a smaller one.

I try to call out toxic behavior, no matter if it’s my ship being lambasted or one of my fellow shippers doing the lambasting, whenever I see it, but the trouble is, I don’t typically go into fan content that isn’t for my ship and, thus, I don’t see it. The same goes for the vast majority of soukoku fans out there. We’re here for soukoku content, we’re seeking out soukoku content, and avoiding what isn’t soukoku content. But here is my offer to all of those who are outside of my ship. I like to argue. If someone is harassing you for having a non-soukoku ship, call me, let me know, I will argue with them for you. I will explain to them in no uncertain terms, and in many unpleasant ways, that they do not represent the soukoku shipping community and they are an embarrassment to us. Content for any and all ships is welcomed and encouraged within the fandom. Write, draw, contribute, be a part of the fandom and express yourself, please. If you are a soukoku shipper (or even if you’re not), and someone is harassing you about your top/bottom preference, call me, let me know, I will argue with them for you. I will explain to them why their justifications for which character should be top or bottom in a same sex pairing is grossly misrepresentative and exploitative of the LGBTQ community and rather disgusting. Do not assume that because we seem to remain silent on these types of harassment that it’s because we are in agreement with them, it is only because we haven’t seen them – why would we, we’re not going in those spaces that weren’t created for us. Ask the community for help, don’t attack the rest of us for the poor actions of a few that we were not even aware of. Let us help you in policing them, rather than assuming we don’t care. We are just too busy staying in our lanes, but if you need us, we are here. Majority of us want a clean, friendly, welcoming community for creators of all types as much as you do.

All of this aside, there are spaces and places for these debates and AO3 is not it. Posting this kind of message is actually a violation of AO3 TOS, constituting as harassment, which is defined on the AO3 TOS as “…any behavior that produces a generally hostile environment for its target…”( https://archiveofourown.org/tos#IV.G.). This general behavior also falls into the realm of another kind of toxic fandom behavior: hijacking a platform/tag for your own purposes that is a direct contradiction to its express usage (otherwise, known as trolling). AO3 is for posting fan-made content that contributes to a deeper understanding and expansion upon the original work. Using AO3 to attack people who are using AO3 for exactly what it is designed to be used for is an abuse of the platform. It’s not okay and invites similar content that will ultimately interfere with the original purpose of the platform. AO3 is for fan content, not for your own personal rants about other people in the community, please keep it that way

I do also want to note, that this person choosing to edit their post after receiving the justified ire from fans (notably soukoku and non-soukoku fans alike upset by the audacity of this person, who, as far as can be told, has never themselves contributed fanfiction to the community, to tell people what they can and cannot write) for their original comments, is a form of manipulative abuse called ‘gaslighting’. They are now claiming to be a victim that “never said to stop writing”, despite that having been the literal words they used in the opening of their original post. They are now pointing at these comments as “proof” of their point that soukoku fans are aggressive bullies that attack without cause when there was definitely cause from the original comments. This person clearly has bigger issues than just lacking shipper content for their personal preferences on the BSD fandom.

To all of those who are afraid to share content for your ship because you think you’ll be harassed, as evidenced by this person’s claims, that is simply not true. While there might be one or two people that say something, we all get them no matter if you have a popular ship or a rarepair ship, haters are gonna hate – I’ve gotten my share of hateful comments towards my ships too, but there are many more people that share your ship and are interested in your content, in fact, some of them are starved for it. While having a rarepair might mean you’ll garner less interactions with your content, you have a better opportunity to form a deeper bond with the people that do interact, and they may be more appreciative, because what you’re delivering to them is so much harder to come by. The existence of one ship does not affect your ship’s popularity, and if it simply went away, that doesn’t mean that your ship would receive more attention – in fact, it might mean the show itself would receive less attention.

Create and let others create and use platforms for their appropriate purposes, and most importantly, when it comes to addressing toxic behavior in a fandom, look to yourself first. Are you placing the blame where it belongs? Are you addressing the root cause of the problem or swinging blindly and attacking innocent bystanders in the process? Will what you say actually help the problem? Or will it contribute to the issue, and maybe even create an issue that didn’t exist before?

#fanfiction #fanfic #bsd #bsd fanfic #soukoku #daichuu #dazai x chuuya #shipper war #toxic fandom behavior #toxic people #toxic #AO3 #bullying #harassment

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despairofthefuture · 3 years

Note

HIRO GUNDAM IS IN TROUBLE BUT WE KNOW WHERE HAJIME IS UNFORTUNATLY HE ALREADY ACCEPTED (as far as we know junko could have been lying) BUT YOU CANT GO YET JUST GET PEKO PEKOYAMA AND THEN GO SHES A MASTER SWORDSMAN AND CAN HELP FEND OFF MURKRO (the alive one) HES SOMEWHERE NEAR THE ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDING EITHER OUTSIDE OF IT OR INFRONT OF ONE OF THE DOORS JUST GO GET PEKO AND SAY ITS AN EMERGENCY AND GUNDAM IS IN TROUBLE HOPEFULLY SHE UNDERSTANDS

Hiro was walking behind Chiaki and Imposter, the two walking towards the administrative building where Hajime had gone, when he suddenly stops moving. His head shoots over to the spirit, as does Chihiro and Leon. "...What?!" Hiro says in disbelief.

"Hiro?" Chiaki calls back to him, the two living companions having stopped walking. "Is something wrong?"

Hiro turns his head to look at her, his face pale.

"I'll take that as a yes." Imposter grimaces, running over to the clairvoyant. "What is it? Did you have another vision?!"

"Not...exactly." He answers. "But I dont have time to explain. Gundham...Gundham's in danger! I-I think he's being attacked by Mukuro, Junko's sister? I-I dont know!"

Hiro was breathing heavily, and was on the verge of a panic attack. People were being attacked now? Like, he knew that if he didnt stop Junko lots of people would die, but someone was actually...being hurt.

Was it because of him?

"Hiro, calm down." Leon's voice cuts through the panicking man's thoughts. His best friend places a ghostly hand as close to his shoulder as he can. "Relax. You got this still, alright?"

"We can save Gundham and stop Junko, you j-just need to take a breath." Chihiro chimes in with a comforting smile.

Hiro looks between the ghostly apparitions of two of his closest friends and nods. The anxiety and guilt in his gut doesnt go away, but it lessens enough for him to take a breath and look to a now extremely worried Chiaki and Imposter.

"The spirits also said we needed to find a...Peko Pekoyama?" He says to them, scratching the back of his head. "They say she's a-"

"Swordswoman. The Ultimate Swordswoman." Imposter interrupts the fortune teller, having regained his own composure. "Its not a bad idea. She is extremely skilled in fighting."

Chiaki places a finger to her chin. "Maybe we could ask Akane and Nekomaru for help? They're extremely powerful fighters, too. If they were in a fighting game, they'd be a top tier choice!"

Everyone gives her a puzzled look for a moment before Leon's ghost speaks up. "We could also ask Sakura, and possibly Mondo! They'd be very strong in a-"

"No." Hiro cut Leon off with a shake of his head, and his allies give him a surprised look.

"No?" Chiaki repeats with a tilted head. "Why not?"

The underclassman frowns and rubs the back of his head. "'Cause, like....there's already a lot of people involved in this mess." He mutters. "The more we tell about Junko's plan, the more'll get hurt. Plus the more likely that a mass panic will break out."

"But if the authorities were to know, they could apprehend Junko and stop her easily." Imposter points out.

"If it was that easy dont you think the spirits wouldve suggested that?" Yasuhiro counters. "Clearly she has more power than even the police. Which is the whole reason I dont even see how I can do this!" He glances over at his ghostly friends and sighs. "But I have to at least try so...if the spirits think Peko is the best option, we'll go with her. But I dont want to drag anyone else into this, ok? Please?"

Everyone was quiet for a while, until Leon snorts. "I'm impressed. Usually you would have run away crying by now. Guess you're taking this seriously."

Hiro rolls his eyes. "I dont really have a choice. I'm still terrified and I feel like giving up with each development. But I dont want to lose any of my friends."

Imposter smiles softly at that and bows his head. "I respect your dedication, Hiro. Very well. We wont tell anyone else of your visions."

Chiaki nods in agreement. "We probably wont even have to tell Peko." She muses quietly. "Just mentioning one of our friends being in danger should be enough."

Hiro nods. "Alright. Since you two know her best, why dont you both go get her?"

Imposter raises a brow. "And what are you going to do?"

"You could sneak over to the administrative building and see how things are going." Chihiro suggests.

Hiro grimaces at the idea but sighs. "I'm gonna...go to the administrative building and scope things out....stealthily."

"Do you think you can manage that?" Chiaki asks.

Hiro hesitantly nods, and after a shared look between the two upperclassmen, they say their goodbyes and hurry to find Peko.

Yasuhiro bites his lip and lets out a large breath, turning towards his destination. "Alright...let's go."

When Hiro arrives at the scene, he is horrified by what he ses.

Gundham is all but leaning against the wall of the building, gripping his right arm with his left as blood drips from it. His shirt is sliced open in several places, blood splattered onto it. There's a large gash on the left side of his face, just below his eye, that flows even more blood down his cheek, and his usually styled hair has come undone, falling into his eyes as his chest rises and falls heavily.

The breeder glares daggers at his opponent as he attempts to catch his breath. "Y-you...vile fiend!" He curses at her, placing a palm on the wall to steady himself as he tries to walk forward despite his shaky legs. "You will never take down GUNDHAM TANAKA!"

"I'll admit. I'm impressed." Mukuro says, ignoring Gundham's words as she stalks closer. Hiro notices there's not a scratch on her, and that terrifies him even further. "Most people would be long dead from the wounds I've given you. You're much stronger than I anticipated." The teasing smile that had been on her face quickly falls to a frown as she pulls out a throwing knife. "But this game ends now. You will no longer get in Junko's way."

Hiro's eyes widen in fear. No...no, this cant happen! He was supposed to save their lives, not end them faster! Could he intervene? But what could he do? He'd just get himself killed!

As he wracks his brain for how to save Gundham, he notices Imposter and Chiaki running his way, and behind them, a girl with a sword on her back.

Peko Pekoyama.

Hope rises in his chest for a moment, before its replaced with despair. Leon and Chihiro understand as well.

"...they wont make it in time." Chihiro whispers, the three of them slowly turning to watch the horrific scene unfold before them.

Mukuro grips the throwing knife in her hand, readying herself to throw it. Gundham meanwhile takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, seemingly accepting his death. Smirking at this, Mukuro throws the knife and-

"Squea-!"

A hamster's squeak is cut short.

Gundham slowly opens his eyes in confusion as to why he had felt no pain. They widen in horror at what he sees instead. Maga-Z, one of his beloved Dark Devas, had been impaled by the knife in his stead, apparently having stowed away in his scarf.

"No....no!" Gundham cries out in agony as he picks up the tiny corpse of his pet, tears forming in his eyes.

"Well, that was unintentional." Mukuro shrugs, pulling out another knife. "But at least you get to taste the sweet nectar of despair before you d-"

THUD!

Mukuro suddenly falls to the ground, Peko standing behind where she had stood with a wooden sword above her head.

Hiro lets out a breath so big he almost passes out. "Oh thank Father Time!" He exclaims, rushing over to join the others.

"We got here as fast as we could." Peko says, sheathing her sword and glaring at Mukuro.

"I dont think it was quick enough." Chiaki replies softly, looking over to where Gundham was knelt down, cradling his falled subordinate.

There is a solemn silence as everyone gives Gundham his time to grieve.

Eventually he stands, still holding Maga-Z in his hands. "I thank you mortals for your assistance." He says, his voice quiet and broken. "I know you did what you could. Maga-Z gave his life to protect me, and for that he shall be remembered." He looks down to the hamster, then to Hiro. "I am aware we are in a hurry, but do you mind if I bury him? You can go ahead. I will find you."

Hiro gives him a sad smile. "Of course. And if you see Sonia, bring her along."

"Though, maybe see Mikan first?" Chiaki suggests. "You're very hurt."

Gundham simply nods before heading off.

The others watch him go for a moment before Peko breaks the silence.

"I will bring this one back to my dorm where she will cause no harm. At least until we figure out what to do with her."

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan." Hiro agrees. "Just be careful, alright?"

Peko smiles at him and nods. "I will, do not worry." And with those final words she picks up Mukuri and walks off as well.

Theres another silence, no one knowing what to say, until it's broken again. This time by Hiro.

"So...where exactly would Hajime be kept?"

A/N: So uh...I'm sorry? 😅 Dont worry I hate myself for this lol. But now you know shit's getting real! So in the next post is really when my lack of DR 3 knowledge will shine lol.

Also in case it wasnt clear, I dont want too many characters to know about Junko's plan, cause then the tension is kinda gone.

But yeah! Hope you guys are enjoying it so far! ^_^

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