#different guy who is half of a protagonist. but like in a 'his soul got ripped in half' way not a 'his soul got ripped out of his body' way

[dreamsy990]

honestly i think i was destined to be a kh fan since my favorite character type is guys with severe identity issues

[blueblurseptember]

damn. can't stop thinking about binghe being shen yuan's comfort character in his previous life now. idk, but i am simply convinced that shen yuan has had the childhood of a typical asian middle child, made worse by the fact that he's from a rich family. all his little quirks and oddities would actually make a whole god awful lot of sense too if that were the case. like it would just makes sense.

ofc nobody else would be as good in watering down their feelings, devaluing their positive qualities, and underestimating their ability to make any real impact (on anyone they of value) than a second child who grew up often compared to the first and had been, intentionally or unintentionally, made to feel like they never have or never will measure up or measure enough.

i think it's also why of all the moments, he only genuinely started to understand binghe's true feelings when binghe began going off about feeling unwanted and never being enough to make anyone stay. all those feelings, those exact insecurities too, despite himself, he understood well enough bc he'd lived with them his entire life. even built half of his personality and put up most of the mental and emotional walls he have up to cope with them.

for so long, he'd seen binghe, post-abyss, as someone so unlike him. as far as he's concerned he's just some average guy who needs to learn how to settle with whatever life gives him bc he'll never be good enough to really, really achieve things. binghe, on the other hand, is an OP protagonist destined for greatness, to have everything and everyone he can ever want, to be chosen by anything or anyone he chooses.

they can't be any more different!!! except as it turns out, casting roles aside, binghe doesn't feel any differently about himself as shen yuan feels about his own self. and worse of all, and he's realized this too, that he's the last straw that got binghe feeling so strongly that way about himself.

anywaY, yes. binghe as shen yuan's comfort character—hoo boy, yes. he would soooo love a character like the original flavor binghe, alright. middle child who's constantly made to feel like he'll never be enough would totally love the living hell out of a white lotus who's constantly treated like a lesser being by the people around him only to emerge as a blackened OP protagonist who finally has achieved power not just over his life but the whole fucking world!!!

even before binghe turned real, he's helped shen yuan embrace, even just a little, his own feelings. they really are soul mates, idk, god.

[mcrololo]

I've thought more often recently that Bleach really deserved more recognition from the shounen community, especially back in the day. Shounen fans loved to say Ichigo was a boring protagonist and that the story sucked in comparison to more beloved titles. But the first arc alone is about dealing with death and the loss of a loved one. Arguably the entire series represents finding connection with others, even through death, and isn't it beautiful that for the brief time we got to know each other, we left a mark in both our lives?

Regardless of ships, meeting Rukia was the greatest turning point in Ichigo's life. She was death in a different way than he has dealt with before. Death isn't just an ending, death is also the beginning of a new cycle, and after meeting her we see Ichigo connect more with his living friends.

Orihime, who had lost her brother to a car accident when she was younger (and no living family left). Ichigo helped both her and her brother make peace with it, and ever since, Orihime and Ichigo are connected. Without Rukia (death), none of that would have happened.

Sado, who reflects Ichigo in some way; both having lost a beloved family member and are willing to go the extra mile for others. He helps Sado help a spirit to the beyond. Without Rukia, none of that would have happened.

And even in other arcs, Ichigo leaves his mark on powerful souls! He reunites the gotei captains even when some of them aren't fond of each other. He brings Renji back in contact with Ikkaku, an old squad mate before he ranked up. He closes the gap between Rukia and Byakuya. And for most of it he doesn't even need to be the powerful protagonist... he just needs to be himself.

Which brings me to another point; his relatability. This is where he kind of suffers in terms of appealing to a fanbase which is used to high fantasy-like stories. Main heroes in shounen always dream of something bigger, whether it's a rank or a power they can unlock or something else entirely, like a treasure to find. Ichigo doesn't have a dream. He has a goal which keeps evolving. He wants everyone he cares about to be safe, and will do anything in his power to protect them.

Isn't that incredibly human? We all want our loved ones to be safe and happy. Sure, he could have dreamt big and become a captain of a squad in the living realm. But that doesn't make sense for him or the story, because we get introduced to captains in the second arc, and at that point they are the villains. It would be in the start of the third arc if we were to discover such a desire, and at that point it's kind of too late to establish.

Not to mention he would lose the simplicity of his humanity. Sometimes all you have to do is your best. Sometimes you only have to care. And that, to me, is what Ichigo represents as a main character. Even when the world spits you out, even when it seems the whole world is against you: never forget to care. Never forget to be kind. You never know who needs it the most.

And my last point on Ichigo himself and what makes him relatable: his ever evolving powers. At times it gets boring when a hero keeps receiving power up after power up, especially when there were no hints prior. But in Ichigo's case, that kind of has a purpose. He goes from human to shinigami to vizard to fullbringer to half quincy as well, and you might sigh deeply and think to yourself "really? This guy gets ALL the special powers?" Yes. Because his story is also about identity, and in turn, the struggles that go with it.

From the very day we meet him, we never learn Ichigo's desires in life. What does he want to be when he grows up? What drives him? What is he scared of? Who is he? And the truth is... he doesn't know. He's 15, and suddenly the weight of not just his friends but the whole world lies on his shoulders. He doesn't have time to pause and think about irrelevant stuff like a future career. His power ups reflect this. Who IS ichigo if he falls in every category?

And personally, I believe that is the most realistic way to write a guy stuck between worlds. Maybe it wasn't entirely deliberate, but the metaphor is there. The narrative even emphasizes it! And yes, repetitive plot points will become boring if you keep using them. However, just like his power ups, it serves another purpose.

The pathway of life. We all have lessons we need to learn to work through challenges we face, and if we don't learn them the first time, the problems will just reappear in a different manner until we find the solution to navigate. Ichigo needing to save a loved one from the clutches of evil is, in and of itself, the lesson he has to learn, as well as a challenge to face head on. He is the protector, and until he fully embraces it, he will always run into a problem like this. And we see him gradually pick up the burden of being a hero: from refusing to fight hollows to help random spirits to protecting the whole of Soul Society.

Tl;dr: Bleach's narrative is way more functional and reflective of ourselves than the anime community gives it credit for. From dealing with death and connecting to identity struggles. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

[gallusrostromegalus]

tell! us! about! bleach! (aka ask game #37 "talk about your current wips" for AEIWAM. I stopped reading somewhere in the early stages of the arrancar arc but my brother keeps telling me Crazy Shit that happened and tbh the soul society arc had some really strong points, so I have some lingering affection for the early characters.)

An Elephant Is Warm And Mushy is based on:

That time I read about the... first half? third? of Bleach (Ichigo hit Aizen real hard with a sword and tried to quit being a protagonist about it) when I was in college and then dropped out due to brain damage from Dengue Fever.

Beloved children's book Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young.

A lecture I got to attend by Paleontologist Dr. Bob Bakker about how dinosaurs and other extinct animals are reconstructed from fragmentary evidence, and what kind of assumptions you can and cannot reasonably make from different kinds of data.

It's also me, once again, taking an excavator to the backstories of characters I like but I felt were underdeveloped or written weirdly for their stated motivations.

... Like how Unohana's later backstory of extreme violence and what sounds to me a hell of a lot like ND pleasure-seeking behavior, is great, actually, but nobody goes and practices medicine for 1,000 years and not get even weirder than before.

Or how Yachiru by herself is an interesting fucking character if allowed to develop and Zaraki is a DRASTICALLY more interesting if he's a guy who spent centuries killing but it's his decison to become a father is what finally grants him personhood.

Or Tousen, a character with an intense grudge against the system that he decided to infiltrate with a body that would *barely* allow him to do so (the weak reiatsu thing more than the blindness thing tbh), but made that system drastically more effective and less corrupt while he was actively betraying it and to me that speaks of a man much, MUCH weirder than a mere hypocrite?

There are Several Elephants in the room, and nobody can see more than a fraction of any of them :)

[cut-content-contest]

Moonjumper

The jist of his character is that he is the corpse of a prince, and his two rivals are the princes ghost and the princes ex. The 3 fuckers want to rule over the same area so competition. Also moonjumper I think only appears on the horizon, meaning he is the only 2d character in a 3d game which is pretty dope.

They were a cut character that was originally supposed to be pretty important, but all we got was gamefiles of vague information, a flat character model, a bit of dialogue, and some music. That hasn't stopped many different and wildly unique headcanons, designs, and stories from taking shape from the original scraps of this one axed character.

The third area/chapter in the game had a much different story in its concept stage, and even though the level was designed enough to be playable for a demo, the devs decided to simplify the story for that area from three central characters to one and a half. Originally, he was a prince that met with a terrible fate at the hands of his obsessively jealous princess, and he somehow got trapped on the horizon without any memories of his original life, instead going mad. He was going to offer information about the area to help to the protagonist, though he really wants to manipulate and control her and everyone else into being unable to leave the area. Mj's backstory was ultimately given to the new central character, Snatcher (who also existed but got a bit of a personality shift with his new spotlight), his musical theme (and somewhat his design) repurposed for the game's item dealer, and MJ himself was removed from the game. Bits of the original story are still scattered around (a spectral body outline on the wall, a face painted in the attic of an icy manor, the scrapped explorable area that still exists out of bounds in the final version of the game, a broken tower), but the character only exists in mods, fanworks, and the concept artist for the original level fleshing out his ideas in art. He has a lot of speculation about his full backstory, abilities, and role, but there's very little sources to have anything beyond theories.

okay. so. let me give you the basis of a hat in time's third (or second during the time moonjumper still existed) chapter. evil ghost guy steals the protag's soul and makes her do shit for him and along the way you can get Lore on why he's a ghost and turns out Another ghost-like entity that you encounter in the chapter killed him while they were both Alive. its more detailed than that but that is Not the point. ok. ghost guy who steals your soul. his name is snatcher. ghost guy who Killed snatcher. her name is vanessa. Where does moonjumper come in you may be asking. well. ORIGINALLY moonjumper was in snatcher's place. but! snatcher also existed in the game at the same time as moonjumper- just with a different backstory. eventually, moonjumper was scrapped, and snatcher filled that role. there are So many things involving moonjumper that got just outright removed because of this. However. there are also things that Didnt get removed that are still in the game that can be traced back to moonjumper, mostly through his design being different from snatchers- moonjumper's design is much, much more closer to the design of moonjumper/snatcher while he was still alive opposed to snatcher, who is just a purple ghost noodle. but even then, their human design and moonjumper's design still have quite a few differences. many people in the fandom/fan community of a hat in time like to try and incorporate moonjumper back into the story, and everyone's different takes are always fun to see :)

He was originally to be the remains of the prince, and was to haunt (and I believe attempt to take over) Subcon Forest. I’m pretty sure he was scrapped because a) there would have been too much going on in that one region and b) Snatcher was the spirit of the prince and in charge of the forest, so maybe they decided it was a little weird to have two characters come from the same dead guy. Also he would 100% have been a tumblr sexyman

Moonjumper is a cut character from A Hat In Time. Originally, they were going to live in Subcon Forest, and have puppetmaster motifs. He was also going to be the prince killed by Vanessa. The motifs and being killed by Vanessa were instead given to Snatcher, my little scrunkle doo.

Apparently originally there were supposed to be three characters for the Subcon Forest level, Moonjumper was supposed to be the Prince in the original story, but was later replaced with the Snatcher, who wasn't the Prince in original story. He still had NPC files on the full release of the game, but it wasn't a model, rather just 2D image with particle effects

He was a scrapped antagonist for the level of Subcon forest! Moon Jumper was scrapped due to the Snatcher being the main character for subcon forest, and not having room for subplots. Early developer commentary states that the Moon Jumper was stuck in the horizon and that his role throughout the level of Subcon forest was to get Hat Kid to join him in the horizon.

wiki link: https://ahatintime.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Jumper video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mor-oR5ti9E showing off the NPC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krHXy8afF74

Yosuke romance route

persona 4 has got this friendship/romance mechanic called "social links" which is basically just 10 events that you can choose to gradually level up for each sociable character in the game where you raise your relationships with said characters, which gives you various in-game boosts. most of the women in the game are able to be romanced. however, there is cut dialogue which implies that at some point, one of the male characters was meant to be a romance option as well! yosuke hanamura, the main character's best friend, has cut dialogue for his social link rank 10 event which is voiced (VOICED!! IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE!! WHILE PEOPLE HAVE DENIED THIS SINCE THE ENGLISH VOICE LINES HAVE HIM SAYING "I LIKE YOU," IN THE JAPANESE VOICE LINES, HE IS EXPLICITLY CONFESSING TO YOU I'M PRETTY SURE!!) that implies that there was at some point going to be an option to romance him. it's assumed that this was cut somewhere later in development due to the lines being voice acted, though i believe that the reason this was cut has not been confirmed yet (though, seeing as how persona 4 was made in the 2000s....... you can probably just guess why lol)

there were unreleased voice lines that showed what was supposed to be a gay route for Persona 4 (there ARE Japanese lines for this as well, and the way in which the "I like you" part is said is the Japanese version of confessing to someone you have a crush on) and a lot of fans do agree that the protagonist is best paired with Yosuke for character development purposes, but it was probably scrapped because of homophobia 😭

Exactly what it says. Was likely scrapped because Atlus are COWARDS who didn't wanna give us the gay romance we deserved. It would have been so cute though I'm forever pissed it was scrapped...

We know it was programmed it. Yosuke is the only male character with dialogue flags, meaning you can fail his social link. The only other characters with these flags are the female love interests. Yosuke also has recorded, in both English and Japanese, final confession lines, something unique to max rank romance social links. This means it was likely scrapped very late in development. As the game also covers (badly) gender and sexuality, we can hypothesize that Yosuke's character arc was supposed to be overcoming internalized homophobia. Instead he just kinda stays "jokingly" homophobic and never grows past it.

The player would have been able to enter a romantic relationship with the character Yosuke Hanamura— text and voice lines for this option still exist within the game, and can be activated via modding. They even have proper translations, and the English versions of the lines are voiced as well, implying that the cut was made rather far into development. While this is a sad loss in its own right, it also has devastating implications in regards to the original state of other pieces of LGBT+ representation which may have also been scrapped and/or heavily modified to appear. For example, Kanji’s attraction to men and Naoto’s gender situation were both downplayed and/or walked back in the final version of the game, but it’s highly likely that Yukiko’s arc was originally intended to include more bisexual overtones, and arguments can be made for Rise’s arc being meant to center on the struggle to come to some sort of terms with her own sexuality and presentation in an industry that keeps such a tight hold on those aspects of its workers lives.

throughout the entirety of persona 4 (+golden), yosuke is portrayed to be the best friend of the protag, but also extremely homophobic towards another male character who was hinted at being gay (before atlus fucked that narrative up too). his social link hints at him having a crush on the protag, and he was intended to have a romantic route just like the female characters, but that was cut (not sure why). the whole game is about embracing the truth, including your hidden sides that you are ashamed to show to others, and having yosuke come to terms with his repressed homosexuality (& realizing that he has internalized homophobia) would have fit perfectly within that theme, but atlus said fuck that shit and cut that entire romance out. the cut dialogue can easily be found on youtube. the thing with this being cut out is that without the romance and coming to terms with his homosexuality, the only thing left of yosuke is being very homophobic. no one condems yosuke for what he says to the other male character, and it is never addressed beyond mere gags or jokes. it's horrible to sit through and honestly it was such a missed opportunity. it's such an issue that people have made a mod implementing a romantic route for yosuke just because of this. every day i mourn thinking of what could have been

This game explores many queer themes, but lacks any explicit queer relationships. The fact that file scrapers and modders discovered an unused voice line for one of the male characters that implies a romance option for him was cut from the final game makes queer fans feel let down, regardless of how groundbreaking the other queer plot points were at the time of release. It's speculated that it was cut because devs or localizers thought that it would be too much queer content in one game, and that it would affect sales and create too much controversy. I, however, believe that anyone who manages to get through the mandatory gay sauna dungeon would have had no stones to throw about an optional mlm romance.

The first party member in Persona 4, Yosuke Hanamura, was originally going to be a viable romantic partner once the player got far enough into his Social Link. This was removed rather late in development, as voiced lines for a scene where he and the protagonist begin dating were recorded in both Japanese and English. To this day, Persona 2: Innocent Sin remains the only Persona game where the protagonist can enter a gay relationship with another boy.

In this game you can choose to romance several people. There is cut voiced dialogue for a romance route for Yosuke, the main character's best friend, but in the final game he is not a romanceable character. Some are of the opinion that taking out the romance option for Yosuke removes the complexity from his character.

https://gamerant.com/persona-4-golden-mod-yosuke-romance/

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

How do you rank the Yakuza games by story quality?

Welp, this will be opening up a can of worms, but to thank you for asking... (still leaving out both Judgment games because I'm a loser who hasn't played them) And obviously, this will get long, so much more under the cut:

First: Yakuza 0 -

You can all dunk on me for putting the popular choice first, but it's popular for a reason. The story stands on its own feet; if you never played another Yakuza game, you still got a satisfying story out of this. No dangling plot threads or criminally underutilized characters*. I think as a whole the series could have built more on these themes, I think Kiwami 1 does a little, which we'll get to in due course, but in general my biggest problem with Yakuza series writing is they adamantly refuse to view their writing as a story and only see it as a vehicle for a video game which... makes for some really questionable decisions. (* I know there are those who think more should have been done with Makoto or Nishitani living and there's room to argue here. It's half the reason to write fanfiction, but I think from a bird's eye view, we have a cohesive narrative where the stakes were fulfilled.)

Second: Yakuza 7 -

On the whole, this was a really solid entry writing wise. There's only a couple of missteps I see here and mostly they're to do with the very end. So, spoilers for the end of Yakuza 7, skip to the next point if you don't want to know. I think it would have been really cool if they'd just made Ichiban Black-Asian, but that's a personal quibble for me. I think crowbarring Kiryu in was... questionable and not really good??? For Ichiban??? But my biggest problem was killing Ryo, that was absolutely unneeded and kinda makes a mockery of Kiryu's entire arc. Like, Ichiban and Kiryu, as have oft been noted, are very different protagonists. Kiryu is haunted by the sins of his father and the death of his brother. These slowly eat Kiryu from the inside out (much like cancer) turning him bitter and away from the yakuza as a whole. We deal with these themes in every single game, more or less. That's not what Ichiban's set up to deal with. Ichiban from day 1 is Just Some Guy, started at the bottom now we're here. He's all about success and joy and loving life, especially in the face of adversity, and in particular, in the face of social convention. Killing his brother saddles Ichiban with deep guilt and grief over what could have been, should have been, or at least it should, right? Ichiban spends their last minutes together trying to save his soul and I think would have been successful if the writing hadn't fucked him at the last second. And just... why? What purpose does it serve? Tying up loose ends? I don't know how to explain this, but you actually can let a character's story be over without killing them. That's actually just a very normal thing you can do. And this is what I mean about viewing the story as a video game rather than as a story: the boss must be defeated, Ryo must die, whether or not that makes any fucking sense. And especially in the context of what Kiryu went through, this looks super fucking bad because I can almost guarantee we will never revisit any guilt or sorrow over that death in any future game. Like, we do the exact same thing, Ichiban traumatically loses a brother he had a fraught relationship with, just like Kiryu, but instead of changing him and his trajectory irrevocably it just... bounces off. Really, really bad choice, I do not care for it.

Third: Yakuza Kiwami 1 -

Haters gonna hate, but I love Kiwami 1. I think it's an excellent retelling and refinement of the first Yakuza while incorporating a lot of relevant details and character progress from Yakuza 0. If I was going to level a criticism at it, it would be that we still shy from letting Kiryu confirm his emotional tethers. For all that I think there's some very strong writing regarding what Kiryu cares about and what motivates him, at strange moments the writing will suddenly back down in a fit of cowardly homophobia and cling to just enough plausible deniability that they won't upset censors or alienate less subtextual readers. This goes hand in hand with the narrative cannot fucking figure out what to do with Majima. He's important! But not that important. He's Kiryu's closest friend and also they hate each other. Sometimes the narrative tries very hard to convince you It's Not Gay We Swear, The Rivalry Is So Straight And Malicious You Guys when two scenes before they lovingly stared into each others eyes while speaking deep personal truths for like a full three minutes, unblinking, unlaughing. And in the context of later games, it's weird to give Majima so much space in this game and in 0, to give him oodles of screen time, to make it very clear how close he and Kiryu are, and then frantically backtrack and nearly try to erase him from the narrative later, assure you he's Just Some Guy to Kiryu, after they've already painstakingly proved otherwise. It's frustrating, but certainly not a unique criticism. And I get that Majima has a big pull promotional wise, we all love the mad man, but... pick a lane. Either let him be Kiryu's one true love or stop messing with this shit, since it makes you so uncomfortable to imply otherwise.

Fourth: Yakuza 3 -

Okay, this game has really, really good writing actually! Yes, it drags in spots, but I think this game pulls off the greatest villain reveal of the whole series. It's really hard to reveal a villain's motives at the very end and have it resonate with the audience. And when you hear Mine say "Daigo is the only man I ever loved" it fucking makes sense. All his weird behavior, his barely contained rage, his psychotic choices... it all becomes crystal clear why as you see this picture of a man with the worst kind of self-esteem problems, who pinned the whole of his essence on someone else and cannot come to terms with the reality of human frailty. I make no apologies for being a huge fan of Mine and he's definitely the best written character in the game. This game still struggles with letting Kiryu put proper emotional weight on his core relationships, both with Majima and with Daigo specifically. And even with his orphanage, we introduce all those children but when do they ever matter? Yes, this is a yakuza game, Kiryu has to go out and fight people because this is a game and he's the protagonist, but then why have him retire to the beach at all if you're just going to have him come back, painlessly, every time?

Fifth: Yakuza 5 -

Oh, Yakuza 5, my ugly beloved. My swan song. My cherished disaster. Equal parts sublime and terrible. This is peak writing for Kiryu, of all the games, this one understands him the best. He's tired and sad and bitter, he's riddled with guilt and doing his best and his best is shit, and in the end he still tries to come home. God, this... this was the closest we ever came to letting Kiryu grow, letting him learn his lesson, letting him understand that dying like his father did and abandoning his family is not the fucking answer. Kiryu's arc in this game is so good, so earned, we even let him go bug fucking crazy at the idea Majima is dead, I could swoon. God, this was So Good, I will not hear any criticisms about Kiryu in this game, 10/10 Kiryu.

On the other hand, it has been well documented that I am a Mirei Park hater, RIP to her lovers, but I just hated every part of that. I think Majima was character assassinated this game. I understand that at the time, 0 and both Kiwamis didn't exist yet and so the writing is responding to this impulse that for Majima to work, for him to make sense, there has to be deep pain and tragedy in his background. But this was a catastrophic vehicle for it, it does not fit for him, and they did a 10/10 job in 0 so... that's the canon I believe. Semi-related, I don't love making Haruka an idol? Not only does she state in previous games that she's not interested in being an idol, but I just think it's a waste of her potential. I love her being a protag, I wish we could get MORE protag Haruka, god she deserves it, we deserve it. And I think there were many other ways we could have done that, I think this fell prey to a lack of imagination on the part of the writers. But, she does call her father home in the end and decide this isn't what she wanted after all so... I do love that. They snatched it back in the end.

And hey, we even got a fulfilling arc out of Saejima! Who knew! On balance, the writing of this game is really good, it just has a couple of critical failures for me. But mostly, expert characterization and finally allowing emotional weight to have its due. It's cruel of me to say, but I so wish the series had ended here. Or even hard reboot with 7, that's fine. Just... man. I wish we hadn't destroyed everything we did correctly here.

Sixth: Yakuza 4 -

Everyone loves to dunk on Yakuza 4 for being too complicated and difficult to understand. That actually doesn't bother me. I think the plot isn't that bad to follow and I think the introduction of non-yakuza members to the crime world, Akiyama and Tanimura, are really good world building. It helps to understand that there are forces that can impact what the yakuza do and what they are capable of doing. I think Daigo is 10/10 in this game, I think his mistakes are entirely justified, and I love how we have to deal with it.

What I don't love is Kiryu's amnesia from Yakuza 3, that those lessons seem to be entirely lost and have to be learned again. I don't love that there's no continuity of consequences, either from other games into this one or from this game into later ones. That's really my biggest problem with 4. That despite introducing fan favorites like Saejima and Akiyama, both of whom are executed really well and are excellent additions, the political tension and themes that I think are very coherent here don't have much impact on the later series. And maybe that was down to poor reception and people complaining that they didn't like the story. That could just be an artifact of serial publication and bending to the whims of public opinion. Again, for me that's an issue of viewing the story as a video game and product rather than maintaining loyalty to the story above all else. But that's my bias as a writer and as a professional academic when it comes to story.

Seventh: Yakuza 6 -

Full disclosure: I have almost no love for Yakuza 6. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a fog in my brain. I find it particularly egregious of erasing past lessons, of ignoring understandings we already had. I think it deliberately ignores emotional weight we already established and used. I loathe what we do with Haruka, that her entire autonomy is stripped from her and she is little more than a bauble used to torture Kiryu. I find the choices made for her at best perplexing and at worst deeply misogynistic and narrow. I hate that rather than use characters already long-established to deal with Kiryu's trauma regarding organized crime, family, brotherhood, and fatherhood, we introduce new people who do not matter and will never be seen again instead of resolving anything with the people we already know and care about. It feels like an incredible slap in the face to anyone who cared about those previous characters and the relationships they had with Kiryu.

Think about that letter to Daigo at the end. How earned, how deserved it is. And yet, it's so hollow because it's literally the bare minimum Kiryu needed to do for him. Think about how much more fulfilling this story could have been if we actually spent it with Daigo, resolving all the pain there. Also, Kiryu faking his death??? Abandoning his family, after we just literally in the last game proved why you shouldn't do that??? I get that this was supposed to be the end of the series and nothing is more final than death. But at the first opportunity they drag Kiryu back, like they always do. So his faked death does nothing to the plot except hurt the people around him, the people who cared about him. I in fact wrote an entire fic about how bad a job I think this game was and how much it hurt me personally. So it's very hard for me to be objective about this.

Viewing it apart from continuity, it's a relatively engaging story about a middle-aged dad trying to navigate a shady past. And if you look at this like that, if Kiryu was just some guy, some stranger, I know I wouldn't be as devastated by it as I am. For all the people who love this game, maybe that's what's working for you. It's also lush and beautiful and Kiryu's ass is in every shot. But putting it in context... I can't really think of anything I like here.

Eighth: Yakuza Kiwami 2 -

Now, now, before you get angry, I love Kiwami 2! In terms of enjoyment, I rate it very high! But... it's a pretty hot mess in terms of story. It's a real odd duck in continuity and I know that's down to it was originally a sequel to a standalone game that was never meant to have a sequel. And when they remade Yakuza 1, they couldn't very well not make Yakuza 2. But considering what we later did in the series... it just doesn't quite come together. Like, Ryuji should matter. The shit we bring up about that backstory should matter. This was a great opportunity for Kiryu to unpack some of his feelings about the yakuza and it makes sense that he's depressed as shit here, but... there's just a lot of missed opportunities. In our pursuit of putting Daigo on the throne, there was so much more work we could have done regarding the sins of the father, the narrative is kinda set up for that since we're a father-son team, but... we don't really. We again let Kiryu refuse to unpack and shy out of the emotional weight of our choices. I don't love that. And since we do some of the work, we at least start it, in Yakuza 3 with Kiryu having to acknowledge that he abandoned Daigo in a shit position (god if only, if only...), it's weird that we didn't build more of the blocks here. Again, I know this is largely down to Yakuza 2 was never supposed to exist and they didn't know how many games they would get, but since it's a remake, they had time to go back and clean things up. *sigh* Oh well, at least there's Ryuji titty and tigers to fight.

[mister13eyond]

Alright so confession. I have never read or seen JoJo. So my question about DiaDop is WHAT IS GOING ON? I thought they were coworkers but I see posts that imply they're sharing a body? but sometimes not? Is it a Yugi and Atem situation? Is one of them a Stand? are they a fusion? are they one guy who got split in half? I am so confused and intrigued and it's funnier to just ask than to find a fandom wiki about it

AHJAHKDJFGSKD GOD YOU MUST HAVE A HELL OF A TIME INTERPRETING MY POSTS THEN

uh spoilers until the end of jojo part 5, since diavolo and doppio are The final villain of that arc, but

uh, to answer the questions: "Is it a Yugi and Atem situation? Is one of them a Stand? are they a fusion? are they one guy who got split in half?" ... yes. (to which one? yeah.)

IT'S A LITTLE FUZZY ON PURPOSE BECAUSE THEY HAVE A LOT OF MYSTERY AROUND THEIR ORIGIN & BACKSTORY but we can essentially presume it's either a Yugi and Atem situation, or they're a case of DID in which alters not only have unique speech patterns & identities but like. entire... appearances.... we watch doppio grow a foot taller and extremely more muscular when Diavolo fronts.... it's.... Interesting.... there are actually a good variety of headcanons on what exactly Doppio and Diavolo's deal is

(I personally jump between 'two souls in one body', 'actual dissociative identity disorder', 'Diavolo is actually the stand King Crimson who has developed his own human identity', or 'they were originally twins and one absorbed the other in utero but they still retained individuality' which are all equally viable). either way, 1.) they share the same body. 2.) eventually, a stand with the ability to swap around souls into other people's bodies hits them and sends them to separate places, 3.) they have different fates at the end of the series; one is defeated by the protagonist and the other never even makes it to the final battle.

Oh also! In addition to all of the above, Doppio does not know that he shares a body with Diavolo! He fully believes Diavolo is his boss, who exclusively contacts him via phone, and Diavolo hides his identity from even his flesh roommate. Doppio thinks of Diavolo as his boss, and believes Diavolo is calling him on the phone. And if he doesn't have a phone, any relatively phone-sized item in the area will do (while he walks around making a phone ringing noise.) we've seen him talk to diavolo through a frog, a cigarette, an ice cream cone, and a plastic fisher price toy phone

Together they run the mafia!

[canmom]

more Candle. around chapter 78. bloody addictive, these webnovels lmao

i read up to the end of book 4 and a little beyond last night.

this book develops Joon and Fenn's relationship, and the adventure of the week sees them attempting to teach Joon 'soul magic', which turns out to give him access to his 'true character sheet', which lets things get pretty wild.

that comparison i made to Baru Cormorant? seems like it's going to continue to be relevant, because most of this chapter was about dealing with an adversary who can rewrite someone's motivations, particularly 'values', here understood as a list of discrete concepts assigned importance by various criteria. this not by a lifetime of indoctrination but a magic touch. so we have a book with our cast forced to regard each other with extreme paranoia - paranoia which proves entirely justified.

also first party death. even though resurrection is possible, it's not surprising that this leads to everyone becoming worse, short-tempered versions of themselves

now the author's rat background is becoming increasingly evident, although I don't think this is going to become a HPMOR-style propaganda piece - it's more that the pool of concepts he's playing with is, well, the sort of thing that gets discussed on Lesswrong. it's clear there is going to be some kind of 'AI risk'-type question implied in Joon's ability to fuck with his own values, and if the author continues to be pretty good at writing, I expect he's going to do his best to make Joon's likely slide to the dark side seem entirely justified in the narration the whole way.

oh yeah there's more sex going on now. the mc's hangups are conveyed pretty well. it's putting him in the middle of a harem plot, which is not universal but not uncommon in litrpg (something else we can probably blame on Sword Art Online). given how openly metafictional this story is, I assume it's going somewhere with that.

one thing briefly about the power fantasy here. when I was much younger I read about half of another massive webnovel, Fallout Equestria. it's not an especially good book and I wouldn't go out of your way unless you really like deranged pony fandom shit and specifically the kind of story where the bad guys do a lot of (often weirdly creative) sexual violence to show how bad they are. anyway, I'm reminded of that because the MC of that story gets a girlfriend who absolutely adores her, and the MC of course turns out to be the best at sex ever, so she's oh-so-embarrassingly overheard by the rest of the party. I'm sure there are other examples.

so the fantasy isn't exactly that you have a lot of sex with different people. it's that you're recognised by your peers as attractive (and good at sex), and you get a committed relationship with someone who's perfect for you. this happens through no special effort on your part.

harem anime and manga used to be a major subgenre, usually a comedy where a hapless bumbling male character ends up in an all girl environment by some contrivance and antics result. I can't comment too much on its usual story devices since, well, I never watched much of it beyond a small amount of Urusei Yatsura, and what I have is pretty far from the core of it. as far as I'm aware it's a subgenre that's basically dead and buried now, partly swallowed by the isekai wave and partly just tastes change

all the same, afaiu a core part of the genre is that the protagonist does not really pursue the girls - he's just a nice guy and everyone's got low enough self esteem that that's enough. the expected ending is that the protagonist will pick one of the girls and settle down.

by contrast, the type of male character who is having sex with multiple women is usually depicted as a brutish character, probably a rapist, overflowing with dangerous sexual energy - a demon in Berserk or many an 80s OVA for example. this is actually true even in reverse come to think of it - consider Zero of DoD3. (exceptions definitely come to mind, notably Naze Turbine in Gundam IBO, but that's more recent. it also seems less likely to apply this sort of frame to lesbians.)

so in a very stereotypical harem story the point isn't that you get loads of girls and have sex all the time. it's that you could do that but you don't, because you're a good boy who observes the cultural taboo against non-monogamy.

I expect this may get explicitly addressed in the story at some point, because among rationalists, polyamory is a lot more accepted or even a norm. right now we have the amusing idea of achievements intruding into sex scenes, and it seems like the game 'wants' Joon to be fucking all seven of his current and future companions. Joon doesn't like this, and I can only guess what the author is planning with this plot, although if this somehow ends up with Joon fucking the deer that will be goddamn hilarious.

anyway, moving on...

I've changed my mind about Arthur being the DM, or at least it now seems less likely than the ancestor sim angle. I now think this simulation was definitely built by Joon himself, much older, as a way to resurrect Arthur and give him a good life, but something went very wrong and activated Joon's ruthless DM tendencies, or maybe the only way Joon could get the resources to resurrect Arthur was by building his dream immersive MMO or something. in any case, I think pov!Joon is probably a version of admin!Joon inserted into the game in order to save Arthur. or maybe Arthur took control and is now doing to Joon what Joon did to him. AI gods are not my favourite trope, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, because I have no idea what modern ratfic is like.

(I kind of want Tiff to be involved in running the sim somehow, because to me she's the most interesting member of Joon's D&D group. seems unlikely right now, but I'd be glad to be proven wrong.)

the basic arc of litrpg is that a character goes from the bottom of the heap to the top. in accordance with conventional storytelling wisdom, the early part where a weak character survives by their wits tends to be the most fun. Wales has done a good job so far of maintaining tension - honestly so much of it that the death of this arc's fantasy-Mengele villain came as a serious relief, although as a character the queercoding was a bit much lmao (a lisp? seriously?).

but Joon getting the ability to fuck with his soooouuuullllll very directly seems like it's going to be a turning point, even if the 'soul' here definitely seems to be another abstraction; and given I'm not even at the halfway point of this behemoth, I'm curious what will happen if we finally move out of the reactive protagonist territory.

many lampshades have been hung on Joon's lack of a strong driving motivation, incidentally. the closest thing he has to a main goal is resurrecting Arthur, but that is more of a vague long term aspiration than a project that structures the story at large, and indeed, we now learn it officially ranks several rungs below Joon's devotion to his immediate companions. in RPG terms, the DM - the cosmic force of Narrative as the characters see it - is doing most of the work to structure the story, sending a series of threats and problems Joon's way to hook him into adventures; as an RPG player, Joon himself has given few 'flags' to help signal what he's interested in doing. ironically, while Joon seems like he'd be a great DM, he seems like he'd be a slightly frustrating player - although he'd probably give more to work with if he weren't playing 'himself'.

that Joon is a reactive type of protagonist is apparently important enough to call attention to in narration, although I can't guess where it's going with this choice. generally speaking that's seen as a writing flaw, and motivated protagonists are preferred, but this story is so eager to call attention to narrative devices and artifice that I feel like I must assume it's doing this for a reason. I'm just not sure what that reason is yet.

guh i promise I'm not going to be just blogging about this webnovel for a while. these webnovels really get their hooks into you in much the same way an actual game does, the chain of overlapping problems and solutions is a powerful thing.

[testingcheats0n]

Since everyone who's offering their lukewarm microwave reheated takes on tender is the flesh doesn't seem to read all that much I am here to offer a somewhat lukewarm (but not reheated) opinion myself.

First off, yes Marcos got Jazmín pregnant everyone who's ever read anything (and watched the shape of water) could tell you that was going to happen because otherwise there would be no narrative catharsis. The book would be half as long if he gave Jasmín up. Some of you act like he really had sex with an animal.

On a side note I would have loved to read some more of Marcos' day to day until he cracked under the enormous pressure the system puts him on and destroyed his life.

The ending made no sense as in the characters were forced into a situation that they would never get into and reacted in character. I guess.

I am typing this at 3am please help.

The premise is very flawed, and the system is moronic. The gore is there for shock value and it makes no sense like when is the last time you've heard of a trend in which people take live animals into their home and eat them piece by piece? Nonsense.

Author likes to lamphsade cliches and commit them unironically at the same time.

That said, it is a disturbing read, it does inflict psychological damage and I do recommend it to new gore/horror readers who want to be quickly and easily immersed.

A personal theory of mine is that the virus was in the humans and never in the animals causing a mass hysteria and abnormal behavior bc some of these people were acting mighty not... human. Like beyond typical human cruelty and grimdark and yadda yadda yadda. Genuinely these people let themselves go in like 20 years.

People talk a lot about the objectification of women (duh, that's every media everywhere always) and don't talk about the multiple men with severe mental health issues and how the system pits them against eachother- and even the objectification of men which are treated as crash test dummies, and animals to be hunted.

The bad guys are literally eating babies and kicking puppies, like. Come on.

Marcos is not superman btw. He can't snap his fingers and create a new life for Jasmín, she doesn't even understand personal safety- she thinks that her own blood is a good substitute for floor paint!!!- he cannot give her agency because they will both die if he does!!

And yes obviously she deserves a good life, but american media has brainwashed us into believing that Marcos has the power or responsability to give it to her when he's barely managing on his own.

Am not excusing literally everything else he did to her goddamn. Why author? Why? He could destroy his soul in different ways!!

He is the cleaning service after the rich men party, yes he comes in contact with them, he might even know them by name and be friendly with them, and have been on the same level once upon a time, but he doesn't have nearly as much power as them.

It's also not his responsability to be the hero- he might be the protagonist, but that's it. He can't fight the government or singlehandedly demolish the system. He can undermine it, temporarily until it kills his puppies and makes a funeral for his dad which he didn't want.

And just... yes it is about hypocrisy because he wrote the same rules he is now evading, but you see how we never ever got in contact with the real powers in the world? It was just this cog against other cogs at the bottom of the machine none of what they were doing had any real impact (his rules were to prevent further human abuse btw, he ensured that some very bare minimums were met in the framework of an absolute nightmare)

Marcos is a beautiful character btw, I'd like to put him in a petting zoo and see how he interacts with the other animals. He is not placing animals at a higher position like we do in the "i prefer dogs to humans" way he's just genuinely and utterly lonely missing a past life and surrounded by people who pretend to be humans, he is disgusted by most people, and yes that does include the captive humans- he's in a constant horror movie that never stops once he gets out of the house. And then Jazmín invades his house too.

Marcos doesn't treat women badly (except the end and all that led to it which is uh... yeah. Still makes no sense.) women treat him badly. His wife abandons him after the death of his son while he has 0 emotional support, his sister is a narcissist, he snaps at a woman while he's grieving (ONCE), he helps another one through emotional turmoil, the only other woman who he meets is literally nicknamed "Doctor Mengele". His thoughts were also rated E for everyone that man disliked every single person in his life except his father

[lumilasi]

Surprise ask game! Pick your 5 favorite blorbos from your shows (or your own, or both!) And list 5 random facts/things you like about each! Tag or send this to 5 other ppl and spread the joy of rambling about things you love!!!

Ohh, since I can do both, I'll do both.

Show Blorbos

Tomura (bnha)

He didn't start as my fave, but dethroned Aizawa insanely fast lmao

I love how his design tells a tragic/disturbing story on its own, no words needed

I want to fluff his hair, no matter the color or length

I don't need a ref anymore, I've drawn him sooo many times by now

I hate that my fave's design included shit ton of hands, thy are a pain to draw lol

Grimmjow (bleach)

I love how his colors are essentially the inversed versions of the protag. Ichigo.

I love how his personality ALSO shares similarities with Ichigo. He feels much more of a special rival to berry boy than anyone else

He survives to the end of the story and even sorta turns into more of a antihero. Ichigo even starts treating him like one of his friends, whenever Grimm realizes/likes it or not lol

CAT.

BIG CAT

Rukia (bleach)

She's actually a very well written shonen female protagonist

She feels like a person & is allowed to be both ridiculous/awkward AND cool & competent, have moments of self doubt as well as confidence based on her own abilities, and these are just couple of things I like about her writing. Basically, again, to summarize, she feels like a proper, well rounded person which I find kinda rare with shonen girls.

Her drawings crack me up

Her Bankai is super pretty...and cool (pun intended lol)

she's my all time fave manga woman (so far)

Death the Kid (Soul Eater)

He's funny as hell

He's also cool as hell

I love his dynamics with his friends

I like his design

I found it actually pretty interesting how his comedy gag actually is quite central to his character, beyond being funny. It has a story reason behind it and is tied to his character development in a sense (as far as I remember, been a while I read SE)

Himiko (bnha)

The best written girl of bnha imo (tho could be better still)

While I complain about it, I actually like her hair!

Writing her as the lil sister character is fun

I like how she's actually considered one of the most dangerous ones, not due to brute force, but intelligence, survival skills, etc.

I still feel like we haven't truly heard her story yet, since what we did get wasn't from her perspective...

Mind Blorbos

Jurou

I have two versions of him now, the main difference between them being the setting they live in (and one being a protagonist while other is a side character) One lives in a modern setting, other more traditional/fantasy type

His voice claim is the same guy who voices AFO (japanese va)

His modern AU version is grumpier due to his different story. He's still a DILF in both tho lol (according to my friend, I regret teaching her that term lol)

In the fantasy version, Hitomi is adopted, in the modern AU, Hitomi is his biological daughter

He was difficult to design but once I got it down, he quickly became one of my faves

Konjou

He's my second fave, his design just sort of sticks to my brain better than anyone elses I've made?

He can even turn his hair to vines eventually, as well as create different types of vines instead of just spiky thorns

His voice claim ended up being Kankuro's japanese VA from Naruto lol

His and Jinchou's dynamic is the ultimate Himbo x Gremlin tsundere thing lol

He has a nephew and niece later on through his half brother Yaguro/Asahi, and the baby niece especially likes to glomp his face as a greeting lol

Chouma

His relationship with lil Youko is my favorite thing with him

Chouma's voice claim is Dabi's VA essentially

I haven't yet figured out his full backstory, which is rare for me OTL

He will have a modern AU version whose bf will be another character instead of Angus, as their dynamic wont work in a different kind of story setting (and he deserves a proper bf lol)

Chouma often uses his wings as a blanket cape

Yume

One of my fave girls, I enjoy her strong willed, temperamental & lil grumpy personality

I still dunno exactly how her outfit works at the back lol, need to figure that out

She's an excellent archer, and a shadow bow is her main weaponry she tends to form from her magic

Her favorite nap spot is Yaguro's back fluff

She's demiromantic pan, this is something I only recently realized makes the most sense for her lol

Aand finally....Toshiko

Her personality is probably closest to my own while not an exact match, and I did not make her that way consciously lol

She enjoys seafood the most, and pork the least

She's awkward around kids and doesn't want to be a mom ever, but still tries her best to be a good role model to those kids who do look up to her (specifically Jurou's kid Hitomi)

She's the one with braincells among her friend group (namely her, Claude, Caelan and her bf Raitei)

Her and her sister Akiko are opposites in almost every way possible, but she still doesn't mind spending time with her

Idk who to tag, maybe I'll send this to someone else, but for now its an open tag!

[erica-cannot-draw]

Look at these horrible boring men that I really did not want to draw except for completeness's sake. I'm doing the characters from my shitty story first because I wanted to have a drawing of Jenna and the other characters were the next natural thing. You can tell which one is the antagonist and that the author was an egg simply by using your eyes and brain.

Jarravin is our Boring Boy Protagonist. He isn't very interesting.

In the very early versions of the story when I was still working from a model of "give every character a special talent, like the Baudelaires" his talent was to pick any lock as long as it wasn't "a simple lock and key."

Yes, I intended for the protagonist to be the guy who opens doors.

There are two interesting things about Jarravin, at least:

Due to time travel shenanigans, he is his own father. The major characters of this story are a family whose genetic code is in an incestuous information time loop.

A[redacted] is a clone of him. In fact he is a clone of himself. At a young age he got cut in half by a big laser. The halves were recovered by separate parties and regenerated, but since they each had only half a brain of memories they had to be mind-wiped, but traces of the trauma remained, which were slightly different per hemisphere. Jarravin became timid and reserved and A became cynical and vicious. This is cool in a stupid way, but also I came up with this after deciding that this setting featured souls, and never really noticed that there was any tension there.

Jarravin was adopted by Literally Just Some Guy that time travelers handed him off to in order to have him in the right place at the right time for the story to happen, which is stupid.

A is the guy behind the evil hive mind. (It's not really a hive mind.) A big reason I decided the premise was unsalvageable was there was simply no good reason for him to do that. His motivation was originally so that nobody would suffer as he had (his wife was fake-executed - I'll get to her in another post, she does more than just die) and also he was kind of tilted by that experience, but he also knew how his tech worked and knew it did not prevent suffering, just the outward expression of suffering. (It magnetically contains the soul away from control of the body while still letting it experience sensory inputs.)

When we first meet him he is the principal of the school Jarravin attends, because subtlety is for cowards. He is using some kind of new "discipline extracurricular" (???) as a cover to put students in the not-hive-mind.

Also when I drew him in the past I often gave him power armor that looked like plate armor for some reason. (One of the teachers in the school, if memory serves, actually wore plate armor).

You will notice a pattern, that this story seems oddly visual and not really suitable to being a book.

There is probably more I want to say but fatigue is really catching up to me.

[father-time-and-baby-new-year]

happy 200! i’m so glad to see your blog grow, it’s one of my favorites and i adore all your writing. i’ve never cried so much and i love the kind of unsettling feeling you write in your fics, it’s perfect in the category of yandere and dark content. in particular, i loved your drabble about shigaraki mourning over a dead reader and i’ve reread that one too many times to count haha! as for asks for headcannons and drabbles, it would be amazing to see that with bully!eren especially since he was such an awful person to the reader. i’d love to see him suffer honestly, but if you don’t want to write it, that’s completely fine! once again, i’m so proud of you for hitting 200! that’s such a huge milestone and hopefully, there will be many more in the future! :)

SYNOPSIS: bully!Eren has to navigate the world without you.

Pairing: Bully!Eren x Fem!Reader

A/N: I can't even explain in words how much I CHEESED at this message like my grin was ear to ear. can't explain how many times I read this. It singlehandedly made my day anon, and to repay you for my happiness....here is some angst. this is a slightly different route than the shiggy one but I hope it still suits you <3

TW: mentions of death, past dubcon/noncon, mentions of trauma, bullying, alcohol addiction, drunk driving, abusive behavior, revenge porn, nonconsensual photography/videography, mentions of infidelity, angst, so much of angst, violent behavior

WC: 2.5k

It's not like Eren had been doing a lot of soul-searching. He's not delusional enough to label his half-assed epiphany of "maybe I'm a shitty person" as soul searching.

It's just the conversation with his very sick mother burned holes through the back of his mind. Carla had asked about you and why you don't come by the house anymore. How she missed baking with you in the kitchen, and how you sweetly smiled whenever you would see soft creamy peaks form in the meringue.

Eren felt like he was swallowing needles as he assured his mother with false truths, that nothing was going on and distance between childhood friends is natural, and if it means so much--ok ok he'll bring you over.

He stays until he sees her chest slowly rising and falling into a gentle asleep. He touches the tip of his ears, unsurprised by how hot it was.

Eren, when you tell a lie, the tips of your ears turn red.

You're not at school the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.

Guilt is not an emotion he feels often but the events of the past weekend replay in his mind. It was just a dumb party that Floch threw, and he was surprised to find you cornered by a trio of thee dunderheads. Like a distorted fairytale, he swept you away from the bad guys like a knight in shining armor, to only shove you in an empty room and demand compensation for playing hero.

Fuck, with that big mouth, you would think that you'd know how to suck cock.

Use your tongue stupid slut. If you use teeth, I'll shove this dick in your ass without any prep.

No, I don't care, you're taking all of it.

There's a video on his camera roll. How could he not record it? You're sobbing, mascara running down your cheeks, looking so beautiful and ruined with jizz smeared at the corner of your mouth. He was brutally fucking your mouth, making you take all of his length.

Breathe through your nose dumb whore. Or else you're gonna run out of air.

You were pleading with whatever garbled sounds you were constricted into producing.

Breathe through your fucking nose. This is for your sake. Otherwise, I don't mind face fucking your lifeless body. You'd be more useful that way anyways.

Eren is conflicted with muting the video because he can't stand to hear himself like that. But he didn't want to miss out on your pitiful whines.

He remembers the distraught expression on your face when he was finally done with you. He tucked himself inside, and sneered, "I've got a girl coming here. Get lost." You looked so fucking distraught. Why? All he did was make you suck his dick. He didn't even fuck you.

He should have. Eren thinks grimly when he stares at your empty desk on the first day you didn't show up to school. He's gotten off to the video more than enough times than he can count over the weekend, and he was aching to see your pretty face twisted into a terrorized expression when he flipped up your skirt to grope your ass.

Kindly, Eren decides he'd allow you to have a rest day. But the second day, Eren pays a visit to your house finding it dark and locked, like no one was home and hadn't been there for a while.

On the third day, you're declared missing.

Your incompetent workaholic mother who finally came home and decided to give a damn reported you missing to the authorities who had scratched their heads because as far as they knew, the pivotal 72 hours were up.

Paradis was surrounded by forests. No one wanted to say it, but they were all thinking it. If you got lost in there, chances are you wouldn't make it out.

Eren wasn't always this admired and fawned over. He had his fair share of behavioral issues that frightened people (not you though, not then at least, not when you were children, and you still came back every day to play).

But when he channeled that anger into sports, there was somewhat of a star in the making, especially for some small-town boy. He was becoming extremely popular, and that's nice and all, but at the end of the day, he has a mother whose health was taking a sharp decline. He was constantly under stress, stress that he took out on you.

Where did his favorite stress-ball go?

It's all fucking surreal. Having detectives in the school. Not that there were many students to question (because christ, did you even have any friends after Eren turned everyone against you?).

Eren was questioned. He can't help but mirthfully chuckle. Maybe this was your grand plan, maybe you were able to finally sort out a mountain of evidence against him. If you were going to fuck him over, didn't you want to see it happen with your own two eyes?

The dark-haired boy wishes that was true. If you had gotten your revenge, would you be here? No, revenge isn't the right word. If you got any justice for what he made you suffer, would you come back?

Hi, I'm Detective Hange. I would like to ask you some questions today. You're Eren Yeager, right?

Yes, that's me.

How do you know ___?

We were childhood friends. We're uh, we're not as close anymore.

When was the last time you saw her?

Friday night at Floch's party-

-Floch Forster right? There were a number of kids there from your school.

Yeah. It was a big party. She uh, doesn't usually come to parties but she was there that night.

You were the last person to be seen with her. Other kids have said that they saw you and her entering a room together, and then only her leaving the said room.

[Sigh] Yeah we sorta...hooked up.

I thought you said you guys weren't close anymore.

You can be not close to someone and still hook up with them.

But you guys were close once right?

Yeah. Once.

The dark-haired boy asks if he was under any suspicion. The detective waves their hand in a dismissive gesture, “If her diary tells us anything, it’s only that she really liked you.”

Were detectives even allowed to divulge that sort of information? Eren doesn’t know but the stray detail that they offered off-handedly made him feel like he was swallowing needles.

At that point, Eren honestly still doesn't believe you're gone. You had a habit of running away, even when you were little kids, but you always came back.

Still, he participates in the search parties with a renewed vigor, even going alone in the forest with a flashlight on most nights.

And he's just so fucking tired. The darkest crevice of his mind almost wishes you were dead because this ignorance was just agony. Almost. Because he still clings to the feeling that one day, he’ll stroll into class and find you in your seat in the back of the class, looking out the window like some cliche shojo manga protagonist.

There are folders and folders on his phone. Albums. The most recent one is dedicated to your crying face as you were choking on his dick. Earlier albums are composed of creepshots of your panties, of that obscene o-face, of your skirt flipped up and your ass cheeks, pictures of your cleavage, videos of you thrashing as he dunked your head into toilets like a villainous middle school bully.

Pictures of your neck covered in hickeys, your naked breasts, ass cheeks striped with red after getting spanked, your leaking cunt, just endless and endless media dedicated to pieces and pieces of your body like you were never a whole person.

The earliest ones though tell a different tale, from off-guards to your drooling face as you napped in the middle of the day.

He has a favorite picture. Your eyes are watery from the cold, snowflakes stuck between lashes, nose and cheeks flushed red, and you're smiling. Smiling right to the camera. Right at him.

"Eren, are you taking a picture?" You asked, bouncing in place, giddy that it was finally snowing.

"Not of you, shut up. Get out of the way." His voice is gruff but not harsh.

You laughed and jumped into frame anyway, and the bright streetlamp behind you made you seem like you were wearing a halo.

He wishes he had more pictures of you being...yourself. Because now your crying face displayed over countless pixels haunt him. But like a fucking degenerate, he still jerks off to all the nudes he coerced from you. Sometimes he cries when he's jerking off which is probably the most pathetic thing he's ever done. This is what you've reduced him to.

He hates the sound of his own voice.

Breathe through your fucking nose. This is for your sake. Otherwise, I don't mind face fucking your lifeless body. You'd be more useful that way anyways.

Eren goes through the motions of life without really feeling like he's in the moment. Seasons change and time flies. His mother dies, and his withdrawn father dies a year later. He proposes to Mikasa because it's something he was always supposed to do. She loves him unconditionally, so even when he doesn't put any effort into the relationship but proposes, she says yes hoping he'll change and be a good husband.

He doesn't go to his parents' funerals because they're already dead. What's the point. He doesn't visit the candlelight vigils in your honor either. After tearing his ACL again and a somewhat traumatic injury, he kisses his pro-football career goodbye. To be totally honest, he's relieved. Because he had gotten quite bored, and maybe he was looking for excuses to quit the entire time. It's not like you'd be cheering on the bleachers anyways.

Mikasa has an affair, more out of a desire to see her fiancé feel something for her as opposed to any burning lust. But when she asks him if he's ever cared at all, with tears springing out of her eyes, he's just calmly drinking his fifth of whisky.

The dark-haired man doesn't even look up, "Let's break up."

"Is this about her, huh? Fucking get over it already Eren. She's GONE. And you have some big fucking audacity moping about her death like you weren't making her cry in the bathroom stalls every fucking day you piece of shit."

"Get out."

"You know what, I bet she killed herse-"

SMASH

The dark-haired woman doesn't finish her rant because the whiskey bottle smashes on the wall next to her head, sending glass everywhere and staining the carpet amber. She's unharmed, knowing it wasn't Eren's intention to hit her but Jesus Christ, what a monster.

She packs her bags and leaves the town like she should have a long time ago. All her friends had left years before and she stayed behind because that's where Eren was. She thanks her lucky stars that they didn't marry.

It's funny because he had always imagined himself being the first to move out of their small town, but he's the one staying. He can't leave this place. feels too tethered to ever leave. Every diner and liquor store is saturated with memories of you. He remembers buying cigarettes and exhaling the smoke to your face to piss you off in empty parking lots.

Maybe he stays in case you'll come back.

Eren's days consist of alcohol-fueled hazes. He doesn't know how his liver is still functioning. He doesn't know he's still alive after crashing his car into a tree when he was drunk out of his mind. He was on his way to get some more vodka.

He barely recognizes himself in the mirror anymore, not that he looks at himself much. His hair is long, nestled around his shoulder because he couldn't be bothered to cut it, dark circles under viridian eyes, and a perpetual stubble on his jaw.

His parents had left quite a sizable inheritance so there's no need to work but he's good with his hands. Likes crafting up birdhouses and cabinets, and occasionally does odd jobs around the neighborhood, never charging the elderly.

He's under the sink, tinkering with a wrench against the pipes when he hears the old lady coo at him.

"We're so lucky to have you Eren. I'm surprised a handsome young man like yourself doesn't have a special lady. The girls must be lining up at your door!"

The dark-haired man winces, and offers no comment, knowing that that the older lady was susceptible to long tangents.

"You know, we're getting a new neighbor." Eren grunts as a response. "They're young, I've heard. Isn't that exciting? Oh my, Eren! I think they're gonna be living in the house right next to yours..."

He tunes out the rest of the conversation because doesn't really care. He just hopes his new neighbors are quiet.

It's Sunday noon when obnoxious noises of moving trucks and people wake him up from his deep slumber. Eren's annoyed to wake up despite the fact he's probably been sleeping over 15 hours. He oscillates between getting too much sleep and getting none, his sleeping habits completely dependent on his dreams.

His nightmares are too visceral, visions of your corpse asking him if he'd enjoyed hollowing your soul with his teeth.

His dreams are achingly sweet. You in your prom gown, shining so iridescently like diamonds were sewn into the silk. He's dancing with you, holding you close, and then after you guys go to your favorite diner and gorge on burgers and milkshakes.

There's a peal of distinctly feminine laughter that stirs up Eren's senses. He's so pathetic, was the mere sound of a woman laughing getting him excited?

He sighs. He thinks of the whore he's frequently visited because of her resemblance to you. Hair color, skin color, face shape--with enough alcohol, he could really convince the person beneath him, was you. Maybe it's time to give her a call, but she's gotten so fucking needy and he hated how her voice didn't match yours.

The green-eyed man peers from the lace curtains, irritated by the brats playing on his lawn. A full family next door? Great, just what he needs.

The friendly knock on his door breaks him out of his daze. He contemplates whether he should answer but on the second more muted knock, he lets his feet guide him.

He turns the knob.

And Eren Yeager completely shatters.

Because it's you isn't it? You're the person standing in front of him? He can hear what you're saying but he doesn't really register it, soaking in the cadence of a voice he had long forgotten because all he had were pleading whimpers and frenzied moans stored on his cell.

He's shaking. Is he dreaming? He's dreaming, right? He knows it's you. You're older, far more beautiful than he's ever seen you. You have a different hairstyle, wearing clothes he would have mocked you for, and there's this joyfulness within you that makes you glow.

There's a mess of emotions electrifying in the pits of his stomach from euphoria, anger, and dread. He could feel his skin growing clammy like he was about to vomit at any second.

"Hey, are you all right?"

Doe eyes full of concern peer up at him. He voices out the syllables of your name like a desperate prayer.

You tilt your head to the side, "How do you know my name?"

[dorkus-mcdingus]

Hi! I was wondering if you could do like a head cannon on how the brothers(or at least the first 4) would react to an MC that always falls for the villains/anti hero’s in Tv shows, animes and movies. Like would they be worried or a little happy lol thanks in advance.

Probably gonna do the first four because they're all bonafide NERDS

The Older Brothers React to an MC Who Falls for the Villain (or Anti-Hero)

Lucifer

- You both were returning home from seeing a stage play. A famous Devildom drama of sorts that left you both on the edges of your seats

- However, there was something about the main antagonist that seemed to draw you in. He was charming, beautiful enough to where he could rival an incubus, but he knew his way with words. His poetic monologues of how much he desired the protagonist and how much he was willing to sacrifice just to be with them, sounded an awful lot like someone you knew.

- While you both were conversing about your favorite moments in the play, Lucifer seemed to notice that dreamy look on your face whenever the main antagonist got brought up

"My, my, my dear. If I didn't know any better I'd assume you were in love with him." He teased with a smirk

- However despite all the heinous things he's done just so he could have the protagonist and no matter how much you tried to justify it, he was beyond amused

- That cute little blush, that dreamy look in your eyes, he's almost jealous

"My sun and stars, though we may be worlds apart, though you may have broken my heart by going around my back, my heart has always been yours. Do you still feel the same with me?" He quoted, softly whispering into your ear.

Mammon

- You both were in his room watching the Harrison Porter marathon on TV

- You were fairing fine until you both reached the second film where you saw the main antagonist as a teenager. You found that he was very, very persuasive but also insanely good-looking

- When you absent-mindedly told Mammon

"Why is Tom so hot?"

Okay uh... Mammon's a little concerned

- First off this guy wanted genocide against non-magical folk, he split his soul into seven pieces just because he feared death, killed Harrison's parents, framed the half-giant for the murder of a ghost when it wasn't even his fault, the list could go on and on

- It only got worse when you found out the main antagonist's backstory causing your simpery to skyrocket

Leviathan

- Ah another night of watching Ultra-Witch Rainbow-chan with the weeb you adore so much

- Surprisingly, your eyes were always glue to the screen whenever her wisecracking, self-serving friend was always on screen. Didn't exactly care if she was able to save the day or if people got hurt

- There was something about her lack-a-day attitude that seemed to really draw you into her character

- As for Levi, he really gets it.

- He normally is the type to simp for the heroes. I mean, Henry, Ruri-chan, Rainbow-chan, need I say more?

- But he definitely understands the appeal of villains or anti-heroes.

Satan

- Another calming night of watching your favorite Detective drama with Satan

- However, what drew you both in was that the detective, while he had a good heart, was very self-serving and very much a wisecracker

- He loved his job not because he likes serving the people, but rather he enjoys the thrill of investigating the murder from finding the evidence down to convicting the criminal

- From Satan's POV it's a very different take from some of the detective stories that he read and it was quite refreshing but you, his sarcastic humor really drew you in

- Needless to say, Satan was rather amused by the dreamy look in your eye

[mrsmaybank]

Honey - Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Summary: Spencer and the reader were very much in love during Reid’s brief stint in Pasadena. When he has to see her again on a case, he is super nervous. 

a/n: first section is inspired by such great heights 

C/W: Swearing

PASADENA - 2002 

A note from the love of your life is a lovely way to wake up. 

------

When you can understand everything but yourself, finding somebody who does is like seeing a comet; disappointingly rare. My shaky hands can only be stilled by the smile of my most incandescent--in every connotation--creature, and that is you. The universe always seems to know what it is doing even if humanity does not. The stars align and move in patterns we as it’s audience do not fully understand. I think we have watched the stars so much the universe has aligned us as a favor to our poor, overestimated souls. I am so grateful!  Tolstoy noted that "We are asleep until we fall in love!” And I thank you for waking me up.

However I thought it best the favor not be returned this particular morning. You were up late last night, and looked too cute to disrupt. Do not kill me, I am getting coffee. 

I love you and do not leave the bed.  

-Spencer

------

Only Spencer Reid would write that on a sticky note, and only for you would he do so. 

You heard the rattling of keys and a door being opened and shut as Spencer made his way back to your bedroom. The smile you saw on his face was the start of a story that ended on the upturn of your lips, revealing the two protagonists in a mad frenzy of love. As soon as he reached you, your lips pressed to his in a desperation to be impossibly closer. 

“Hi.” he said. 

I am thinking it's a sign

That the freckles in our eyes

Are mirror images

And when we kiss they're perfectly aligned

“Hey love.” you tucked a loose brown hair back behind his ear for a closer look at the face you adored. “Please get back in bed.” 

He sighed but crawled in next to you, big nimble hands making their way across your torso to diminish the space in between you two. You nuzzled into his chest. 

“Your note was beautiful.” you whispered into his ear.

A big, goofy grin spread along his face.

“I meant every word.” his voice so sweet, it sounded dipped in honey. 

Honey is incredibly sticky. 

-----

There had to have been a world where it all worked out. 

In this world, my things never got old, and the ice cubes in my coffee never melted. I could listen to that song over and over again without draining the life out of it and I could like my hair style for more than three months. 

Spencer had read to me the greatest works of the world. Words of the greatest thinkers, authors, and minds. He had an appreciation for them greater than those of the average passerby and I adored that, because so did I. Truly, our similarities are what connected us. Our minds were correlated perfectly when it came to subjectivity. 

In accordance to human nature however, certain matters were never agreed upon. In particular, we argued about the future. The canyon of discrepancy so vast it tore us and our love in two. I didn’t think that was possible.

I wanted to write the book and watch the film as I lived my life and he and his arrogant over-practically thought that impossible. He thought himself an oneirocritic, but my dreams were not looking for critiques. 

Like I said, Spencer read to me the greatest works of the world. And years would pass and the heartbreak and sorrow would fade, but I would always find it ironic how the last thing I ever heard in that honey soaked voice was a work of Confucius.  “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”

Spencer chose to go to Washington. He took his heart and a piece of mine with him.

-----

BAU JET - 2011

Seaver must’ve noticed my flinch when the sound of her name resonated through the jet. I’d never liked going to California, but this...this had never happened.  “That name mean something to you Reid?” She smiled, “You look kind of horrified.” 

I ran my hands through my hair in a futile attempt to ground myself. “No. I just...I used to know her.” 

In between the fine lines of love and hate, fell a blurry midsection where feelings came before logic and screams and whispers sounded the same. She ruled over this midsection of chaotic emotional fury. 

Morgan spoke, and I quickly realized I might be falling into a conversation I really did not want to be having. “How the hell d’you know her pretty boy?” 

There was no point in lying on a plane completely occupied by profilers. My best option was to clumsily dodge any direct questions about just how well I knew her.

“I’m from the West coast.” 

“So are over 50 million people. You mean to tell me you know all of them?” he laughed.

“The exact estimation is actually 53,492,270. And no, I’m not saying I know all of them, Morgan. I lived in Pasadena for a year after I graduated from Caltech.”

“Okay?” Morgan questioned my previous statements relevancy. 

“She went to USC. We were in the same social circle.” 

Morgan laughed again, “You had a social circle?” 

Emily, next to us, was presumably combing through her file.

“You, ultimate three doctorate dorky dork, were in the same circle as a film major?” she asked. “

What the hell is ‘doctorate dorky dork’ supposed to mean?

“She double majored actually. Film and political science.”

Emily double checked the file, “And Reid’s right. Per usual.” 

“Reid and Prentiss, Y/L/N has agreed to talk to us in her home. She lives in the Hills. When we land, you guys go talk to her.” Hotch stated. 

“Why?” I said before I could stop myself. The team sat in confused silence in reaction to my bluntness, but Hotch, like always, was not having it. 

“Because we have a serial killer that is reenacting the murders in her movie, Reid.” his tone was stern and swift, with a patronizing sarcasm I supposed I deserved. 

“Sorry,” I got out, “I guess I just meant..why me?” 

“Well, you know her don’t you?” Rossi asked. 

I was not ready to divulge the personal details between me and this girl to my entire team, so I just pursed my lips and nodded. 

“Right. Sorry.” 

----

Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament. George Santayana. I was in the biggest fucking predicament I’d ever encountered in my life. 

Nothing could slow the incessant, double time pounding in my chest. I was showing symptoms of the beginning of a heart attack. Hopefully I would die and never have to face this.

Fuck, don’t think that.

Have the seats in these cars always been this uncomfortable? God, is California always this hot?

I looked at Emily for half a second, and instantly recognized that keeping quiet from her was proving to be dysfunctional. I could feel her eyes burning into my brain with every profiling skill she knew.

“What are you not saying Reid?” 

I sighed. “Do I have to tell you?” 

“Yeah. Unless you want me to just find out on my own. It’ll be a lot less delicate.” 

Here goes nothing. 

“I dated her. For two years. I was very much in love with her. It ended....abruptly. I haven’t spoken to her since, and now, nine years later, I am on my way to her house. I might have a heart attack.” 

Emily's eyes widened, “Shit..” She laughed a little, “Reunited at last?.” 

I answered with a glare. Hard no.

“Fine, sorry.” She said, masking a giggle with a cough.

I shifted in my seat and I could practically see the gears in Emily’s profiler cerebrum spin. She knew exactly the question to ask. “Is it nerves?”  

I nodded my head, “I was a very different person back then.” 

“Nothing like time and the bureau can change somebody.” she said. “But, hey..”She smiled again and my eyes widened when I realized what I’d revealed. “I asked you if you were nervous. I didn’t-” 

“Emily..” I started. 

“Are you nervous she won’t like you now? Do you still like her?” her mouth hung open, “Oh my god Reid!” 

I shook my head, “No, I don’t still like her! I don’t even know her anymore! I just..I’d never loved somebody the way I loved her.” 

Emily had figured me out at the same time I had. “And you still haven’t.” 

Fuck.

“Correct.” 

The car pulled into her driveway, and conversations from all those years ago started to replay in my head. 

“When we get a house, can we paint our front door bright blue?” 

“I want a lemon tree in the front yard.” 

“Windows. Huge windows. It’s a must.” 

All these things I’d promised her in our future home she’d gotten for herself. Good. 

Fontaine said “Sadness flies away on the wings of time”, but the pain I felt from the loss of her was as prominent as ever. 

Here goes nothing. 

---

Thank you for reading!

a/n2 :  this is completely unedited so if its sucks dick i am sorry :/ i just wanted to post it lol

A/n 3: the typos oh my fuck. I wanna Kick myself for letting this cute fic  be up in that state for so long. Anyway, fixed! :) 

[suzuran777]

CHiRAL MOBiLE: False Alkanet and World's end Nightmare.

Recently I’ve been really interested in two Nitro+CHiRAL works many people might not be too familiar with, Itsuwari no Alkanet (False Alkanet) and World’s end Nightmare! They were released exclusively for CHiRAL MOBiLE, a subscription based app that could only be accessed by those who owned a Japanese cellphone. The app launched in 2010, but ended its service only two years later in 2012. Members paid a monthly fee of 300 yen to use the app, which gave them access to wallpapers, new illustrations and these two (visual) novels. 

Itsuwari no Alkanet

Itsuwari no Alkanet, also known as "False Alkanet" in English speaking fandoms, is the first game Nitro+Chiral released on this app. The common route was released in June 2010 and every following month a new character's route was added to the game. The original opening movie of this game can still be found on Nico Nico. Itsuwari no Alkanet also got its own drama CD and the plot seems to be based on the events that happen in the novel.

Synopsis Kei Takatori found himself standing in Marunouchi, Tokyo. Glittering buildings, paved roads, everything was completely different than what he was used to. The story takes place in the Taisho period, during the political crisis which would become the end of Japan’s oligarchy, causing the rise of democracy. The Takatori family’s sucessor is the aspiring Pianist Yuto, whose skills keep improving along with his plans to study abroad. Everything looks favorable, but things are about to get complicated. In this game, you meet Kei's father suddenly re-appeared in his life after a long absence, Kei's talented brother, a free-spirited uncle, and a serious butler.

Characters (from left to right)

Kei Takatori The protagonist of this story, and also Yuto's half-brother. He has one-sided romantic feelings for Yuto, which he doesn't know what to do about.

Yuto Takatori The half-brother of Kei Takatori. He wear glasses and looks very smart. An excellent pianist who wants to be taken seriously.

Sakae Tachibana The man who tricked the Takatori household chief so he could take over their business, yet somehow not a bad guy. Easy-going and elusive. His next target seems to be Kurae.

Kazuki Kurae Butler of the Takatori family. He takes care of the mansion and the two sons of the Takatori family. He cares a lot about them. Him and Tachibana are on bad terms.

All three characters mentioned above had their own routes. Unfortunately even after looking at several Japanese blogs for a couple of hours, I have not been able to find super many details about the story of every route. The drama CD is still available on multiple Japanese second-hand websites, so I might purchase it one day and listen to it. I also found some art the artist tweeted a long time ago, which you can see below!

World's end Nightmare In December 2010, Nitro+CHiRAL added another title to their CHiRAL MOBiLE library. A visual novel written by Toriko Nanashino and illustrated by Mimori Sinov. Serialization began in December and the series ended with a total of 30 episodes. The genre is dark fantasy and the story focuses on a man called ‘’It’’.

Synopsis ''A poor soul who doesn't know love. I will give you another chance.'' The protagonist wakes up in a strange world, guided by an unknown voice. A square blue sky, a thorny garden and a towering castle in a deep forest. A fairy tale-like world, clearly different from reality. He is aware that he died before coming here, however, he is unsure who brought him to this world after he died. People who are brought to this world are forced to participate in a compulsory game, in which everyone has to prove what true love is. If you lose this game, your soul will be turned into something they call "furniture". A beautiful boy, a red shadow, a white shadow, and a masked man all participate in this game.

Characters (from left to right)

It "…I'm not good at that kind of love, I don't understand the meaning." The main character of this game. He died and came to this world, also called "the end". In order to escape this place, he will have to challenge Faceless. He can't seem to recall why he died and is not very interested in others. 

Faceless "I want you to prove true love " The god who created “the end”, also called the king and judge. He is the greatest being that exists in "the end". He forces It to participate in the game. Although he is a god, he has no dignity and sometimes gets ridiculed by other inhabitants. Cheerful and friendly, but also selfish. He is very unpredictable and emotional.

Siegfried "… The more time you spend here, the better you will understand each other." The oldest inhabitant of "the end". Characterized by a melancholic appearance. His motto is "If you spend time together, it will lead to love." Intelligent, rational and calm. His human emotions have vanished a long time ago, but he is still kind to others.

Ky "Generally, love doesn't have to be romantic'' Beautiful enough to often be mistaken for a girl, but he has a sharp tongue. He is not interested in romance and grew bored of this world because he has lived there for a very long time. Outspoken, confident and sometimes naughty. He pays attention to people he likes and easily speaks his mind.

Barron "If you do it, you might start feeling emotions right?"  A forceful woman-loving older man. One of the "players" of the game. "Love doesn't need time" is his motto, and in his quote above he's referring to having sex "doing it". Although he looks the oldest, he is the newest inhabitant of “the end”. Rough, crude and forceful, but he always follows the rules.

Finding information about World’s end Nightmare was somehow even more difficult than Itsuwari no Alkanet because that game at least has a drama CD, but it seems like it had 30 chapters and only one route (which was probably the character called Faceless). I also found some artwork the official artist drew to celebrate its first anniversary.

You might recognize the art of both of these games if you purchased the third volume of the Nitro+Chiral 10 Years Archive, which was released in 2016. It also features some illustrations of the other Nitro+Chiral games which used to be content only members of the app could see. You can find some scans here!

I was personally not able to play any of these games because I unfortunately didn't own a Japanese phone in 2010-2012, but there are still some Japanese blogs which talk about these games. You can still find older information about them in BL game magazine Cool-B as well, so luckily not all information about these games has been lost forever.

Some of the Japanese sources I used can be found here: Ｘ　Ｘ　Ｘ

[cut-content-contest]

Moonjumper

The jist of his character is that he is the corpse of a prince, and his two rivals are the princes ghost and the princes ex. The 3 fuckers want to rule over the same area so competition. Also moonjumper I think only appears on the horizon, meaning he is the only 2d character in a 3d game which is pretty dope.

They were a cut character that was originally supposed to be pretty important, but all we got was gamefiles of vague information, a flat character model, a bit of dialogue, and some music. That hasn't stopped many different and wildly unique headcanons, designs, and stories from taking shape from the original scraps of this one axed character.

The third area/chapter in the game had a much different story in its concept stage, and even though the level was designed enough to be playable for a demo, the devs decided to simplify the story for that area from three central characters to one and a half. Originally, he was a prince that met with a terrible fate at the hands of his obsessively jealous princess, and he somehow got trapped on the horizon without any memories of his original life, instead going mad. He was going to offer information about the area to help to the protagonist, though he really wants to manipulate and control her and everyone else into being unable to leave the area. Mj's backstory was ultimately given to the new central character, Snatcher (who also existed but got a bit of a personality shift with his new spotlight), his musical theme (and somewhat his design) repurposed for the game's item dealer, and MJ himself was removed from the game. Bits of the original story are still scattered around (a spectral body outline on the wall, a face painted in the attic of an icy manor, the scrapped explorable area that still exists out of bounds in the final version of the game, a broken tower), but the character only exists in mods, fanworks, and the concept artist for the original level fleshing out his ideas in art. He has a lot of speculation about his full backstory, abilities, and role, but there's very little sources to have anything beyond theories.

okay. so. let me give you the basis of a hat in time's third (or second during the time moonjumper still existed) chapter. evil ghost guy steals the protag's soul and makes her do shit for him and along the way you can get Lore on why he's a ghost and turns out Another ghost-like entity that you encounter in the chapter killed him while they were both Alive. its more detailed than that but that is Not the point. ok. ghost guy who steals your soul. his name is snatcher. ghost guy who Killed snatcher. her name is vanessa. Where does moonjumper come in you may be asking. well. ORIGINALLY moonjumper was in snatcher's place. but! snatcher also existed in the game at the same time as moonjumper- just with a different backstory. eventually, moonjumper was scrapped, and snatcher filled that role. there are So many things involving moonjumper that got just outright removed because of this. However. there are also things that Didnt get removed that are still in the game that can be traced back to moonjumper, mostly through his design being different from snatchers- moonjumper's design is much, much more closer to the design of moonjumper/snatcher while he was still alive opposed to snatcher, who is just a purple ghost noodle. but even then, their human design and moonjumper's design still have quite a few differences. many people in the fandom/fan community of a hat in time like to try and incorporate moonjumper back into the story, and everyone's different takes are always fun to see :)

He was originally to be the remains of the prince, and was to haunt (and I believe attempt to take over) Subcon Forest. I’m pretty sure he was scrapped because a) there would have been too much going on in that one region and b) Snatcher was the spirit of the prince and in charge of the forest, so maybe they decided it was a little weird to have two characters come from the same dead guy. Also he would 100% have been a tumblr sexyman

Moonjumper is a cut character from A Hat In Time. Originally, they were going to live in Subcon Forest, and have puppetmaster motifs. He was also going to be the prince killed by Vanessa. The motifs and being killed by Vanessa were instead given to Snatcher, my little scrunkle doo.

Apparently originally there were supposed to be three characters for the Subcon Forest level, Moonjumper was supposed to be the Prince in the original story, but was later replaced with the Snatcher, who wasn't the Prince in original story. He still had NPC files on the full release of the game, but it wasn't a model, rather just 2D image with particle effects

He was a scrapped antagonist for the level of Subcon forest! Moon Jumper was scrapped due to the Snatcher being the main character for subcon forest, and not having room for subplots. Early developer commentary states that the Moon Jumper was stuck in the horizon and that his role throughout the level of Subcon forest was to get Hat Kid to join him in the horizon.

wiki link: https://ahatintime.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Jumper what we know and some theories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mor-oR5ti9E showing off the NPC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krHXy8afF74

Timmy

when a hat in time was in development, it had a kickstarter with stretch goals. one of these stretch goals was co-op multiplayer. we did get co-op eventually- but the character used alongside the protag wasnt always the same. the protag and main character of a hat in time is hat kid! in co-op, the second player plays as bow kid. but, originally, the second player character was going to be a boy named timmy. not much is known about him as im pretty sure he never really had much put into him before he was cut. what we do know is he is a bit older than hat kid (maybe he had an older brother dynamic with her?), and had physic powers. whether or not he would be able to Use those powers in gameplay is unknown. he's been modded back into the game by multiple people all with different interpretations of him.