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#in which I may be reading WAY too much into animation details
lazycranberrydoodles · 4 months
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I am now opening custom Ace Attorney sprite commissions!
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I have 3 open slots.
Depending on how the initial slots go, I may or may not offer more. DMs also welcome.
>> Commission form! <<
Details
What exactly will you receive for $60?
Two 12fps looping .gif files in an Ace Attorney style, one talking and one idle, of the character of your choice from the waist up. They can be in pretty much any still position, but I get final say on whether something is too difficult or too complex. I will work to make the sprite as accurate as possible while adhering to the style.
What will you receive for $20?
Either a short 12fps animation of your character or another two looping gifs (talking and idling) in a different pose/emotion. An animation can be combined with talking. For example, this Wei Wuxian MDZS would be $80: $60 as a base price (standing still and talking) with $20 added for his hand gesture.
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This set of Lan Wangji MDZSs would be $100: $60 (base price, neutral animation) + $20 (happy) + $20 (displeased).
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What counts as a "slot"?
Art of one character, no matter how many pieces I was commissioned for.
For more examples of my Ace Attorney-style work, here is the masterpost for my MDZS x Ace Attorney crossover series, which I have been adding to for a while now. Here are Kabru, Miku, and Hela Vitrum (my most recent commission). They are a good example of the base commission -- a looped talking gif and a looped idle/blinking gif.
Policies (read this before filling out the form!)
I am not affiliated with objection.lol. The sprites *can* be used in the program to great success. However, I will not guide you through creating a case in objection.lol. There are a lot of tutorials available. I am selling animated illustrations of your character and nothing else.
I am not affiliated with Capcom or Ace Attorney. My work copies the style of original games. In many cases, I have referenced pre-existing animations or sprites.
Just in case, I'm limiting the max number of pieces for a single character to 3 poses and 1 animation ($120) (so I don't get bored drawing them over and over again). One person can commission me for multiple characters but they will count as different slots (i.e., you may commission the max amount of work for Blorbo Bingus ($120) and also commission two poses for Dworbo Dingus ($80) for a total of $200, counting as two slots).
It is my privilege to take or refuse commissions at my discretion.
Depending on demand, I may adopt a first-come first-served waitlist system, but I really can't know at this point.
Payment depends on the price of the commission, but in general I will not start the piece until I am paid via Paypal. Venmo is a secondary option. My prices are in USD.
Once I get started, I work quickly, so any changes should be requested at the sketch stage. I will work with you to get it right. Once I have started work a piece (once planning is finished) I will not give refunds. Finished piece(s) should be done within a month of finalization (you giving me the go-ahead to start).
Filling out the form does not mean I have accepted the commission, but it does mean that I will contact you in a routine way about it.
These commissions are intended for personal use. The pricing reflects that. Tell me if you wish to use a commission in a monetized way, as that will require renegotiation.
If you wish to communicate with me about commission work without filling out the form, my email is [email protected]. I am not planning to offer commissions other than Ace Attorney sprites at this time. I will reply within the week.
Communication via tumblr DMs, asks, or comments is welcome!
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see-arcane · 5 months
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Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.
Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!
 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.
This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:
“Well. Why don’t I make something?”
And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)
So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…
FICTION
Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:
The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…
Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.
Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.
Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.
Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)
The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.
Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.
Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein
Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes
The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man
Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles
Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves
……
………
…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)
The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.
What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.
The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  
NONFICTION
Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.
‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.
Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  
“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  
Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.
 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.
…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.
This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.
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moonastro · 10 months
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Pick a Picture
--𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊--
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left to right(top)-> 1,2
left to right(bottom)-> 3,4
sidenote- do y'all like the four picture layout or would you prefer more pictures?? let me know to keep or switch it up a bit>
°DO NOT take this as literal, take everything with a grain of salt as this is purely and intendedly for entertainment purposes.
°don't be afraid to give feedback and opinions about this post (as i would entirely appreciate it).
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𝓹𝓲𝓵𝓮 1-
✦ they love how you break the norm and are not afraid to do your own thing.
✦ love how nurturing you are and how you always help out other people- this can be helping the homeless, helping stray animals, donations, charity work.
✦ they love how you care and provide so much care for your loved ones- they view you as someone who would literally leave everything to fly across the globe to help out a friend or family member and then come home the next day 😂.
✦ they love how careful you are though- like you aren't the who who wings everything- you plan every precise detail and like that about you.
✦ yeah they love how you take time with certain projects- how you are patient with everyone. they love the nurturing side of you.
✦ you arent easily distracted, they love how when you choose something, you stick by it. like whenever you promise something you do it- i feel like they love telling their secrets to you because you are so good with keeping them.
✦ they might like your hair- they may prefer it when it is down and not tied- might be their preference.
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𝓹𝓲𝓵𝓮 2-
✦ love your work ethic- love your work in general. they love how you work for yourself and not rely on someone else. they see you as a person who strives for success and independence and they love seeing you earn your own possessions and finances.
✦ they love your compassion, how you let go of stuff that no longer serves you.
✦ they might love how easily you fit into new environments. like you may join a new class and within like 10 minutes you make a new friend. your just really likable and they lovvee that.
✦they love how straightforward you are-how you tell the truth. they love the honesty- there is truly no lies that travel from your mouth.
✦ they might like how you are not too introverted nor too extraverted- you are just the perfect amount of both which i think makes them want to be more around you.
✦ you believe in standing up for yourself and being a good person at the same time which your fs highly respects and finds it unique.
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𝓹𝓲𝓵𝓮 3-
✦ they love your goofiness. lol, they love how you just liven the whole room and never appear awkward. like you may just always know what to say at the perfect time which your fs will find fascinated.
✦ they find your mind very interesting. you might have questionable ideas or thoughts but they make really good sense in a way??? they find it very interesting and find it appealing.
✦ yeah, they will find your soul very freeing, which will motivate them to become more free as well. i feel like you will be an inspiration to them, you will be a role model to them which of course they find it very attractive.
✦ woww, they literally love your body movements- how you walk, move your hands, move your body- just anything to do with moving your body, they looove. you might actually like to/ do dance so they might love it when you dance for them or when you dance for fun (a scene of someone dancing in the kitchen while making breakfast just popped up😂)-take it as you may.
✦ they love how studious you are. you might like to read, write, study etc. whatever it may be they find it attractive.
✦ i feel like they might love your back. like they love when you show your back off, maybe by wearing a dress that shows off your back and such. they might actually love the way you dress yourself up like they love the neatness and classiness of outing clothes.
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𝓹𝓲𝓵𝓮 4-
hellooo pile 4, welcome!!!
✦ random, but i feel like your fs will like the little bursts of anger that you let out sometimes when you get annoyed or angry- lol they find it cute. aww.
✦ you may be very good at seeing the truth, seeing the reality of a situation/or person. like i feel like you are a person who tells a friend to not trust a certain person, a few months later that same friend comes running back to you saying you were right!!!
✦ they love how easily you adapt to a new/unknown situation. like whenever they suggest something you are like 'yeah, sure lets do it!'.
✦ they love how in control you are in your life. how responsible you are.
✦ they love how you accept other people's advice and how you don't criticize others' opinions. they love the generosity.
✦ i feel like they will find your hands attractive- you might have beautiful hands.
✦ they might find it attractive when you act the bigger person. like when someone tries to start some argument with you, you just exit without it becoming heated. like you just know when to leave a situation to prevent any conflict.
that's it everyone!!❣️ thank you so so much for reading this, i am so grateful for all of you🤍 feel free to interact with this post and don't be shy to share some thoughts or ideas
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skulldetergent · 17 days
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ghost scar headcanons (CW for his backstory)
no tattoo/no text version & explanation under the cut
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CW⚠️ discussion of child abuse, torture, self harm & sa
since i headcanon ghost to have quite a few scars, i decided to make a "character sheet" or "scar map" to keep my art more consistent.
in the drawing, the scars are already labeled and i think pretty self-explanatory, but i will go into some more detail and elaborate on my headcanons. again, please read the content warning. i did my best at trying to discuss the following in a sensitive way, but it may be upsetting to read nonetheless.
let's begin with the ones that say "mission". i imagined they are just random scars he sustained during his service over the years, like gunshot scars or knife slashes from close combat.
but others like "roba's hook", the autopsy scar, tally marks, the whip scars and his glasgow smile are from during the time where he was captured and tortured. i headcanon reboot ghost to have pretty much the same backstory as OG ghost, with some slight differences and additions of my own.
things like the glasgow smile or tally marks are made up by me, and others like the being hanged from his ribs actually happened (comics). ghost was also canonically sexually assaulted multiple times, which gave me the idea of said tally marks to emphasise how cruel his captors were.
correct me if i'm wrong, but in the comics ghost doesn't have any scars after being tortured, any cuts shown on his body just cease to exist a few panels later. but considering what he was put through, i do think that there would be permanent scarring.
now, it's also canon that ghost was abused by his father in ways like him bringing large animals such as snakes in his room to scare him, or having him watch a woman die from OD, which made me consider what the full extent of his terrible father's "parenting" must've looked like.
ghost has a small, almost faded scar under his eye, he was too young to remember how he got it, only finding out when his mother told him. his father was being neglectful when he was supposed to watch him, and simon injured himself while wandering around.
now, it is unclear in the comics if mr. riley's abuse was purely psychological, or if it extended to physical as well (again, correct me if i'm wrong). but i didn't find it unrealistic to have the latter be the case, which is why simon has cigarette burn scars on his neck and legs. his father found it amusing under the guise of "making him a man" and seeing how long little simon could take it before he would start crying. nowadays the burns are barely visible.
and lastly, the self harm scars covered up by the tattoo sleeve on his left arm. considering what simon had to go through at an early age, it is not unlikely that he might have resorted to SH as a teenager. and later, he got the tattoo as a reminder to himself that those days are his past and not his present.
i really read the comics and said:
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sunnymainecoonx · 3 months
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Previous
First
Unfortunately it ends here but errrrr... yuh guess what happens next :3 (details will be written later) sighs I am fully aware there were more efficient ways to post these but this week literally destroyed me so errrr yeah life's great guys(it'll be better from now on)
Oooookay ranting time!! This is gonna be a lot so..... I'd be surprised if you even read it
Based off of real complaints from multiple people, horror doesn't fit in the mtt. For a few reasons anyways...... I won't go into details on that, but ya I decided to make him worse :3 we're travellin' to cannibal horror😈 instead of eating humans he eats actual monsters tho. Because of the lack of magic and also the monsters desperate needs they're slowly turning into flesh and bone.... something horror can actually eat. Not all monsters r flesh and bones though, like papyrus for example(I killed him off guys I'm so kawaii UwU) but anyways.... by just having something in his mouth, horror's starvation gets the better of him and he goes on the hunt... and is essentially insane. I just think... he'd either eat too much or too little, sometimes accidentally starving himself and sometimes going too crazy and just. Eats too much. Either way it's resulted in a lot of vomiting..... he's kind of self aware but he's just too insane to be bothered, and kind of getting bored he gets creative with his food(prey). Sometimes he may psychologically torture them, he likes the hunting games :3 he may add soemthing to his food to see if it'll get better, and he learns a way to add monster dust to his food..... I also think it'd be silly if he studied anatomy as a part of his.... scientific side. The anatomy of critters and underground animals, so if he decides he cares enough he can actually like. Make meat out of. Yk.
As for the bad Sanses part... horror does have Lv but it's rather low bc he works more with psychological torture and cleaning up. He has fed the others human before but he's the only one that can be considered cannibal, considered he ate actual monsters. Anyways he's rlly unhealthy w food bc. Like I said, he either eats too much or too little. He learns more about cooking with nightmares books(he just got books of everything rlly) and bc of his own situation he tries to get the others to eat healthily. I don't think he'd like- take care of his own eating though... bc thoughts r getting back at him. This results in a lot of starving hismelf(cutely repeats myself a bagillion times) which results in a lot of.. "hunger pangs". Like how he reacted to fried human(Aliza) in the actual horrortale comic. So he's got bad first impressions generally...(trying to eat the others)
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alphajocklover · 14 days
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Commissions, Rules, Story Index and Other Information ----
Commissions Information
I only have 3 slots at a time, but that may expand one day. I charge 1 cent per word. Below is a link to my ‘commissions page’ (it’s a google doc) with all the details, including a list of what I won’t do, what I definitely will do, and how to contact me. If you’re interested, please DM me and let me know!
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Firstly this is a Jockification blog. It’s mainly about turning nerds into alpha male jocks. That doesn’t mean I won’t do other transformations or go into other kinks. I’ve already done some slightly different things like the macro tf and the Muscle daddy tf stories, both of which I loved writing. But most of this stuff is going to be jock tfs. Just wanted to make that clear.
Now, onto what I absolutely will not do. These are off limits, and I’ll explain why too. I’m not here to kinkshame or anything but I write these stories for fun, and if I’m not into something then it’s so much harder to write about.
Anything that’s not 18+. I know this is a very controversial topic, and I want to be clear. I do not have issues with age play (although personally I don’t love to write about that stuff either). As long as there are no actual children involved in the making of an erotic piece of fiction, or you are encouraging people to actually do horrible things to kids, you can write whatever you want. But since it’s so controversial, and it is way too easy to write something that makes light of a traumatic experience, I would rather avoid that all together.
Rape. Once again I am not going to kink shame anyone. A lot of people have a rape kink, and that’s perfectly normal. As long as all parties are consenting and of age irl, you can do whatever you want in the bedroom. But once again it is incredibly easy to write something that offends and hurts people, and on a personal note I just don’t feel comfortable writing something like that. I’m not gonna claim that everything I write, with all the reality bending and changing identities, is perfectly consensual, but there’s a big difference between writing about impossible magic powers and writing about realistic rape, and I don’t feel comfortable crossing that line.
Beastiality and Animals. Once again not going to kink shame anyone. And I want to stress I’m not talking about furrys or pup play or whatever. I’m talking about actual beastiality. You can write and read whatever you want as long as it’s not hurting people, but as far as I’m concerned animals can’t consent, so I won’t be writing anything with them in it. I’m also not entirely comfortable with human to animals tfs. Those are just not my thing.
Bathroom stuff and Smegma. This one is less complicated. I just don’t write this kink because I don’t like it. Watersports and scat and smegma all do nothing for me. Just a personal preference.
Real person Fiction. Once again it’s nothing personal. Plenty of people love real person fiction. I just feel so awkward writing about real live people. So I avoid it. Fanfiction about characters is another story.
Inanimate and Body part TF. I don’t really understand why, but these types of transformations make me uncomfortable. Really it’s just my preference.
Entirely Female Focused TFs: I am a gay man, and have a harder time writing erotic stories about women. While I can write about straight sex and women, I prefer to keep men as the focus, or at least have them heavily involved.
Gender TFs: I know this will probably upset some people, but I’ve personally just never enjoyed gender change tfs. Perhaps I will experiment with it one day, but not now.
Racial Slurs: While I do like raceplay and racial changes, I will not include slurs I cannot reclaim in my work. 
That’s all there is for my big limits. If theres anything else you’re unsure of and want to check, just DM me. I won’t judge, the worst I’ll do is say no. I hope all this serious talk didn’t upset anyone. More stories coming soon!
Will update as needed!
Just a reminder that I am up for story suggestions, questions, and DMs. I especially want story prompts because I’d love the opportunity to make more stories for you guys. I’m also open for trades if anyone is interested
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Story Index
Below is a list of my bigger stories and ongoing series. I'll be doing this chronologically, and adding to it periodically! I'll be listing some kinks that are controversial or unusual for my blog next to each story they are in. I won't be marked G2S because I use that a lot. I hope this helps you guys get around my page better!
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SuperNova TFs | A person makes a wish on a SuperNova
Older Brothers (My first story!) (involves incest)
Unmoved (involves bisexual sex)
Stereotypical
Professor to Frat Bro
Supernova Comedian (Political Play)
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Wake Up | The true self awakens, and spreads
Wake up Bro
Wake up Pops
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Marvel TFs | TFs themed around Marvel Characters. Not all connected
No longer a Spider, finally a Man (Implied relationship between a student and teacher)
Possessed by the Power of Thor (Giantism)
Like the Hulk
Like Wolverine
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InstaJock TFs | A mysterious app that jockifies users.
InstaJock Introduction
InstaJock: A Small Glitch
InstaJock: On The Go
InstaJock: Details and Settings (Race TF, Asian)
InstaJock: Payback
Revert Mind
InstaJock: Preview
InstaJock: Research and Frats
InstaJock: Tricking a Thief
InstaJock: Regional
InstaJock: Secondhand
InstaJock: Girls
AlphaJock?!
InstaJock: Boyfriends
InstaJock: Double Friend Request (Race TF, Asian)
InstaJock: Sexuality
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Alpha with a Capital A | A look into literal Alphas
Alpha with a Capital A intro
Alpha with a Capital A: Sexuality
Alpha with a Capital A: Alphas and Gender (Transgender Character and physical gender transition)
Gay Couple to Straight Beta Bros
Greaser Alpha
Alpha with a Capital A: Big bro and Lil bro
Asian Alpha Bro
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Jock Studies | Coaches and their brainwashed Jocks
Jock Studies: Swimming Coach
Straight to Gay
The role of Coaches
Assistant Coaches and Baseball
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Eye of Beholder (EB) Jewelry | Jewelry Company with a secret
Engaged
Science Teacher to Football Coach
EB Jewelry: New CEO
EB Jewelry: The New COO
AirBFnBF
EB Jewelry: My Friend and Gauges
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The Best Club in Town | Gay clubs and their members are turned straight
The Best Club in Town
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The Douchebag Revolution | Time traveling fight over your right to be a straight douche
Welcome to the Revolution
Douche Rehab
1,000 Follower Special, The Douchebag Revolution Begins
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The Hometown Hex | The town where everyone is a jock. Everyone
The Hometown Hex
Baxter Beach
500 Followers Special: Wally's Visit
Made for This Town
The Hometown Hex: Exports
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BDE: Big Dick Energy | Literal BDE causes changes
An intro to BDE
BDE: How it Works
BDE: Extreme Buildup and Infection
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Retsam Mirror | Swapped with your selection. By force
Retsam Mirror
Trapped
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My Uncle | Lore on my character, and his journey to save his Uncle
My Uncle
My Uncle: A Follow Up
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Nick the Devil | A friend (Boyfriend) of my characters Uncle, whose a literal Devil
Nick the Devil
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The Church | Evil Church converts people into new member
The Church (Semi-religious themes)
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Potions Set | I gave an Actor a bunch of potions. I hope it works out...
Getting the Role
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Camous | Those who change to fit in
Camous
Personal Transformations | Transformations my character performs | references other stories
Personal 1
Personal 2
Magic Spell
Time Travel
Biker Badass
Family Tree
De-aged
Mindset
Miscellaneous Stories | Stories without a series or common theme
Wholesome
You Already Are Straight
Sometimes it just happens
Magical Mishap
Genie Glory the Game (A trade with @bigwishes)
Transforming Transform4U (Based on a prompt by @transform4u)
Exchange (Race TF, Black and Argentinian)
Neanderthals! (Caveman TF)
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I hope you guys like this! It took a lot of work putting this index together. If you have any questions or ideas, or just want to, dm me! Total stories: 80
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thebirdart · 7 months
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Some features of the earth urchins compared to the four hedgehogs of the world of Sonic!
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One day I asked myself the question of how would be the anatomy of Sonic and I began to investigate the anatomy of the ground urchins but I liked so many details of them that I put together some characteristics of these animals to compare them with the four hedgehogs of the world of Sonic.
us start!
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Starting with obvious facts:
In the world of Sonic only showed to have four hedgehogs; Sonic, Amy, Shadow and Silver, (the green does not count because it is still Sonic)
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They all appear to be of a "same species of hedgehog".
For we know 16 types of earth urchins on our planet.
On the other hand I thought Silver was of a different species like Shadow. (By the shape of its spikes) But I don’t see the point, so they must be the same species. Although Shadow might be a little authentic in his design, I’ll explain later.
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(Data: the hedgehog Atelerix algirus and the hedgehog Hemiechinus auritus are the ones who take care more to be pets at home)
FOOD
-Ground urchins eat insects, worms, molluscs, snakes, some fruits, small vertebrates, acorns, young birds and eggs.
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(the hedgehog thought about it a little before attacking)
-Sonic and the others eat things that could be considered human; chili dogs, coffee beans (this is done by Shadow), strawberry cake (eaten by Amy and Sonic hates it), hamburgers (by SonicBoom), apples (by a drawing of Silver), and so on.
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ANATOMY
The ground urchins have very good flexibility, an arched spine and strong and flexible muscles, that allows them to become ball. Comparing it with the deformed hedgehogs (Sonic) there is not much difference since all present good strength and flexibility, except Silver that can not be made ball.
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The spikes of hedgehogs are made of keratin, which is a protein substance. I guess the same applies to Sonic and so on. Although in Sonic Unleashed when he is electrocuted we can see that it does not have "bones" in its large spikes, it is a little obvious to know but data that goes without saying.
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The skeleton of ground urchins is similar to other mammals, only that its spine is a little more curved, as well as other details; as that its clavicle is well developed so that it can dig hard. This is very different from Sonic’s body and so on as it would resemble more a human structure.
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Although also to keep in mind Sonic’s feet are… a closed thing…
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By the way the snout and mouth are very different too. Sonic has a snout but the nose and mouth are different from the ground urchin. And another fact: the hedgehogs take incredibly long walks if it is for food; something like 7.2 km/h and if we combine it with the particularity of Sonic being very fast this powerful detail does not overlook.
Time when I jumped out of my spot when I was reading this.
I love this, I have no idea if the creator of Shadow has taken this as a reference but did you know that hedgehogs have a blue border that surrounds their dark eyes? This can only be seen when hedgehogs look to the side. So the great "eyeliner" of Shadow could be a real detail of the animal but taken as a reference to leave it beside your eyes on the outside.
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The tail of the common hedgehogs is bare, but the tail of the deformed ones appears to be of the same color as all their other spikes.
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I think, canonically, the characters of the Sonic world can mate. But I didn’t see anything that highlighted this, I mean, we can witness Cream’s mother.
Male hedgehogs have a small penis, (bulge), located in what would be their navel and have intra-abdominal testicles (they remain in the abdomen instead of leaving through the scrotum) and the female vulva is a small button that is located in front of the anus.
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I guess since they’re characters from the '90s, it’s obvious that this wasn’t thought of at the time of their creation. There’s not much to think about since they’re characters who may or may not wear clothes (Tails-Nine and Sally-Amy) and yet we wouldn’t see anything, not even the nipples! Because hedgehogs have five nipples, both female and male, and you’ll notice that Sonic has nothing.
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But I found a picture of Sally where she has more clothes. I suppose it must be a hallmark that female characters wear clothes. (Although Sally is not a canonical character, of course.)
THE 5 SENSES:
Sight: they do not have good view, it is said that hedgehogs have no sense of space, but they can distinguish shapes. Although the hedgehogs are blind and may have collisions with objects, they continue to travel great distances and this does not cause them to slow down, they continue with the same speed as if they had good eyesight.
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Smell: very developed, so I guess the four hedgehogs can smell very well from several meters, maybe Sonic can smell Eggman without making noise, will smell of egg?
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If you hid a chili dog under the ground in a box, Sonic could find it.
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Hearing: the ear of hedgehogs can detect high frequency sounds, their developed sense allows them to locate their prey underground.
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Tip: If you saw the Sonic Prime series you will notice that Sonic’s ears move often before a sound. I think a good detail added for the blue hedgehog, this is also added in the IDW comics, I did not find the panel but it is when Amy stays listening to the ground and knows that two hedgehogs are close, those hedgehogs were Shadow and Sonic.
But although hedgehogs have a very sensitive ear I do not consider it the same for the four hedgehogs as they would go crazy at the sounds of Eggman machines, explosions or a simple click of the computer mouse. (Ground urchins get stressed too fast with a simple computer click)
Taste: These animals have a peculiar… sense of taste. They like the taste of a hundred feet. So it’s not uncommon for Shadow to like bitter, for Sonic to like spicy, and for Amy to like sweet, what would Silver like? Healthy or the first thing he finds in his world to eat?
Types of sounds hedgehogs make
Sounds of joy: these little things purr like a cat, and they can even mix it with whistles. Could it be that Shadow purred when he was with Maria?
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Bullying sounds: they emit a sound through the nose from a strong breathing, they do it when they feel attacked or are upset. (I don’t know if they thought of it this way when they made Shadow growl annoyingly in Sonic Prime. The same with Amy and Sonic when they got jealous or bothered with each other at Sonic Boom)
Whining sound: when they feel pain they emit a sound like a scream, I could notice this in a video of a hedgehog that was in the water of a bathtub. (although there are always exceptions)
Sleeping sounds: Hedgehogs snore, I guess they all snore too?Hedgehogs fall asleep anywhere. In the Sonic game where Amy’s birthday is celebrated, Tails mentions that Sonic can sleep anywhere, even in the most unusual.
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Data: the hedgehogs have nails/claws that they use to dig the earth and since the of Sonic characters are put gloves to not show their hands I think they should not have pads like normal animals but rather human hands. Well, Sticks is the only one I’ve seen without gloves and she’s a badger and badgers have pads. So all Sonic characters should have hands without the characteristics of their species.
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BEHAVIOR
The behavior of one ground urchin and the other four is very different, except Shadow, he should stay on the side of the ground urchins.
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Since hedgehogs are solitary, they only come together when it’s mating season. (Although Sonic likes to spend time alone…but he’s not a lone wolf like Shadow)
UNGIMIENTO (I couldn’t find the word in English)
When tasting a taste or perceive a new smell, or rare, the animal bites the source of this flavor or smell (Animals, objects, people, whatever) to then make a frothy, thick and white drool that with the tongue are smeared on the side peaks and those near his face. (Scientists don’t know why they do this) If I imagine it for the four deformed hedgehogs maybe this does not exist for them, as they smell new things all the time.
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EXTRA DATA: Hedgehogs can swim but they don’t like to stay in the water too long because they can drown, I saw a documentary that mentioned this. I like that touch they gave Sonic that in the water he is scary, I don’t know if it’s something canonical or fandom but it was nice to see him be the only one with a life jacket in the Olympics.
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Remember when they did that twitter and tiktok special where they asked Sonic what would happen if he was a worm? Well, hedgehogs eat worms. And did you know that the Egyptian hedgehog is prey to foxes? While it’s another kind of hedgehog this is funny. In Sonic the movie the character Longclaw is the "mother" of Sonic… the funny thing about this is that she is an owl and owls eat hedgehogs.
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Who had the idea to give a friend and mother predators to Sonic?
That’s all. I hope you liked these characteristics that I came up with. See you later!
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numinously-yours · 2 months
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Pick a Card: Messages from an Ancestor
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I'm back with a free reading! The most popular vote on my latest poll was messages from an ancestor. I have four groups for you to choose from. Each group has it's own message from your ancestor, as well as information about 1) who they are 2) what they want you to know and 3) advice they want to give you.
If this reading resonates, let me know in a like, reblog or tag! I also have $1 and $5 tipping options on my etsy: Leave a tip
CW: Pile 4 does talk about the passing of a young relative (not many details, but it felt a little heavy to write and it felt like the right call to let you know)
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Who is this ancestor?: Seven of Coins
This card is feminine energy. For some reason, I really am getting single, aunt vibes lol I think this person is passed on, perhaps a few generations ago. People around them at the time may have thought this person’s way of living was going against the grain. This person may have been judged for not taking the traditional “courtship, marriage, kids” route in life. But, they flourished in what they did do. They enjoyed being solitary and taking care of things around them. They could have been a caregiver for a family member or they had animals and plants that they considered their babies.
What do they want you to know?: Two of Swords rev.
This card really fits the idea of feminine energy and going against the grain. I think this particular ancestor is coming around to remind you to listen to your intuition and take care of yourself. You might be feeling stuck right now. You want to please everyone but, no matter what decision(s) you make, you feel like someone is going to be let down. As someone who took their life into their own hands, this ancestor wants you to know that it IS possible to succeed and flourish when you choose yourself.
What advice do they have?: The Moon rev.
Their advice to you is to liberate yourself from fears and anxieties about making the “wrong” choices. You know that you know the right answer and it’s taking that plunge that is the hardest thing. Once you do, though, the weight off of your shoulder is going to lift and you’re going to feel so much lighter. If you are feeling like you don’t know the answer, take some time to meditate or use divination tools (tarot, oracle cards, etc.)
What message do they want to leave you with?: The Star rev. & Ten of Swords rev.
“Trusting yourself will lead you to revitalization”
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Pile two: first I wanted to note that during your reading, I was listening to ambience music. The song that was playing as I started to shuffle was called Ellis Island which I thought was neat! If you aren’t familiar with Ellis Island, it was the business center for immigrating into the United States from 1892 through 1954. Many people’s ancestors came to the US through Ellis Island which makes it quite perfect for an ancestorial reading 😊
Who is this ancestor?: Ten of Cups
For this, there is a father figure coming through. The ten of cups is about the contentment surrounding relationships and family. My first thought was “a person who created the family line”. This could be a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. Based on the song above, it could be the grandfather-figure that first came to your current country (US or not).
What do they want you to know?: King of Pentacles
I really think this ancestor is here to tell you how proud they are of you. They see the hard work and dedication you put into your goals. They see the power that you wield in your everyday life. They really think you’re doing awesome and know that you have nothing but success ahead of you.
What advice do they have?: Five of Pentacles & Three of Wands rev.
Don’t let your lack of resources slow you down. Of course, you need resources to move forward with some tasks, but there is still progress possible without money or other tangible resources. You don’t have to go too far out of your comfort zone, but they want to remind you that you are smart enough to take “safe” chances. You’ll know in your gut if a particular situation will put you behind in a negative way or if it will help you take baby steps. Baby steps are still progress!
What message do they want to leave you with?: The Hanged (Wo)man – this deck uses the hanged woman for the hanged man card*
“New perspectives create new opportunities”
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Who is this ancestor?: Queen of Coins
This ancestor is likely a maternal one – a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, etc. This person was likely a single parent for most of their family’s life. Either the spouse passed away or they left early on. This person worked their butt off to provide for their family. They tried very hard to leave work at work so that they could enjoy their time away from work and focus on their children. From an outsider’s perspective, your ancestor seemed to pull this off without a hitch.
What do they want you to know?: Justice rev. & Page of Wands
It feels like this ancestor wants to explain why you had to absorb generational trauma from their offspring (your parent or your grandparent who passed it onto your parent). I think that you are trying to break some cycles. This ancestor knows you were dealt a hard hand with the parents/guardians you got. They love their child(ren) but know they can be stubborn, unkind, and ignorant. They want you to know that they really did try their hardest. Being a single parent was difficult, especially during the years they were around. It was hard providing adequate attention to all the kids all the time. They tried as the kids got older to teach them new lessons, help them understand their mistakes, and help them understand this ancestor’s mistakes, but it feels like it was too late to change. This person also wants you to know that the person in your life that you’re trying to break cycles from tried their best (most of the time). They got tripped up but, overall, they really wanted to make the best life for you. This ancestor hopes you understand and can give grace. But, they also want you to know that they don’t expect blind forgiveness and are not trying to make excuses for anyone’s behavior.  
What advice do they have?: Two of Wands
As you seek to break cycles, move forward, and basically “start over” (aka parent yourself, prep for your own family, etc.) this ancestor wants to advise you to create plans of attack. They are SO proud of you for breaking away from this but want you to be cautious with moving too quickly. Determine what it is you want, then plot out general plans of how to get there. You can absolutely take some spontaneous action as you move forward, but this ancestor wants to make sure, as a whole, you set yourself up to succeed.
What message do they want to leave you with?: Three of Coins
“Use what you have learned from others, good or bad, to propel you”
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Who is this ancestor?: The Fool
The ancestor coming through has young energy. I think they are a child or young adult who has passed on. The reason for their passing may have been from doing something reckless/not being careful enough. They may also be from a place that speaks French. When I picked the deck I used, I didn’t remember that the words were in French until cards started  coming out. It feels like “this tarot deck was meant to be read for this specific pile.”
What do they want you to know?: The Magician
Even though their life was not as long as anyone would have hoped, they had the best time living it. They saw the world as their oyster, and they want you to know the world is YOUR oyster. Life is too short not to move forward with your ideas. It’s too short to spend it doing things you don’t enjoy. Your experience with life up until now has given you so many tools you can use to your advantage to create the best life for yourself. They want you to know that the world is at your fingertips.
What advice do they have?: Strength
They want you to know the difference between a gut reaction and your intuition sending messages. Always check in with your inner voice/intuition when making decisions. Allow your head and your heart to work together. If something feels off, then it’s off. If something feels good, then go for it. This person wants you to enjoy your life and have fun, but they also want you to do it smartly.
What message do they want to leave you with?: Wheel of Fortune
“Life happens, but you’re allowed to control the roads you take along the way.”
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kafus · 8 months
Text
over the weekend at the knoxville regional pokemon championships, i met up with a longtime internet friend in person for the first time, and he traded me a very special pokemon - a unique celebi that takes a bit of context to explain the significance of
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from november 2001 to january 2005, the building that is now a nintendo world store in new york city was actually an american pokemon center, which hosted the "Gotta Catch ‘Em All!" station, a large machine that you could pop your gold/silver/crystal cartridge into (or later ruby/sapphire/firered/leafgreen, but that's not relevant here) and get a special distribution pokemon unique to the store. often times these were normal pokemon in eggs with special moves they couldn't usually learn, but other times they ran distributions for shiny legendaries, and of course, the mythical celebi.
there's very few pictures of the machine and all of them are pretty low quality, but you can see an iteration of it here during the gen 3 era:
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when PCNY (pokemon center new york) shut down, the machine and its contents were presumed lost forever, but due to the preservation efforts and the good luck of a few individuals, some of the distributions have been preserved, as well as parts of the machine and its software. this is extra incredible because almost all gen 2 save files from the time the machine was actually functional are long since wiped due to the battery inside dying, meaning that very very few of the gen 2 event pokemon distributed from this machine at the time still exist. i won't go super in detail on that in this post but you can read an article about all of that here (julie, the person who runs this historical PCNY fansite is incredibly passionate and if you want to know anything about the PCNY store i absolutely recommend reading her writing!)
so, one day when i was rambling to my friend (his name is Venty!) about my fascination with the PCNY machine, and how i wish i had been born early enough to experience that, as well as wishing that i could have traded with anyone in gens 1-3 as a child but never got to due to isolation, venty told me that he's actually friends with a guy (Professor Rex) who knows the guy who owns the remnants of the PCNY machine (Gridelin), and he would love to reach out and ask if there's any way rex could distribute a celebi to himself and trade it to him sometime so that eventually when me and venty met in person one day, he'd be able to trade the celebi to me.
i pretty much burst into tears and very passionately explained how much that would mean to me - not just because owning a celebi actually distributed from the historical PCNY distribution station is just... insanely cool, but because like i said, i had never traded anyone in the old internet-less generations of pokemon, and having that be my first was just... a monumental thought. i am deeply fascinated with old gen event distributions because of the tactile, interpersonal nature of them, in direct contrast with my isolation and loneliness as a child. it might sound silly to be so worked up over a collection of bytes/pixels, but i really couldn't believe venty would offer me something so kind. and not only did he offer to ask - rex said yes!!
so on may 21st last year (2023) rex traveled out and distributed the celebi to his pokemon silver cartridge. specifically, the celebi is from the "Celebi Present Campaign" which ran from the 22nd of november 2002 to the 28th of november 2002. the display on the monitor is the same video that would have appeared on the screen in the PCNY store, but flipped sideways here haha. (the gen 2 distributions were special and had custom animations for the legendaries and stuff, which you can watch here in full quality on gridelin's channel - there's videos of the other distribution animations on his channel, too!)
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and then months later, during the weekend of august 11th 2023, rex and venty met up at the pokemon world championship in japan and rex traded the celebi to venty's gold cartridge...
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...then, finally, just this past weekend, on sunday (february 4th 2024) venty and i finally met in real life for the first time at the knoxville TN regional pokemon championships, and with link cable in hand the celebi finally made its way to me in my hotel room, after crossing the ocean twice and passing through canada to the US to japan and back to the US...!!
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gen 2 pokemon data isn't very complicated, but you can tell that my celebi is unique from the other PCNY celebis dumped online (here and here if you'd like to play with some of these historical pokemon yourself) because it has the trainer ID of 00204 which none of the publicly available celebis have - though of course to me, regardless of what becomes publicly available in the future (and i hope one day the common layperson can simply emulate the PCNY machine, video game preservation >>> unique collections always) this celebi will always be special and unique because of how it got to me, and because it represents my friendship with venty who i care so much about. it was an extremely kind gesture i will never forget and i can't believe how much traveling and how many people were involved with getting this tiny bundle of bytes and pixels to me. i hugged venty after the trade was done haha
oh, and by the way, don't worry, i have the hardware to back up my gen 2 save files so this celebi will never die even after my crystal cartridge battery eventually dies once more!! (also, while i don't think it would be an issue i do want to say please don't bother any of the people mentioned in this post...! gridelin & co are working on making the distribution machine in question available for anyone to use, it'll come out whenever it's out and for now there are dumps of the events that were recovered. i would not want them to receive any annoying requests for pokemon because of me. thank you!)
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shatcey · 4 months
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I've become an animal (Ellis)
Ellis Elbert
I'm not a native speaker of either English or Japanese. So there may most likely be errors in my translations. I use autotranslation and rewrite the text to a readable state. Some phrases are not clear to begin with, and I use my gut feeling and some experience of reading such poorly translated texts that have taught me to see meaning in them. My summaries are always full of my comments and jokes. If you prefer a clean translation, then you definitely won't like it.
Hmmm… Not bad. I have to put that on my main page.
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Where were many onomatopoeic sounds that varied greatly in shape and duration depending on what Kate was "saying", I will stick to the original as much as possible. I haven't used it here often, but I'm warning you just in case.
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Kate woke up and realized that something was wrong. She looked in the mirror, slowly processing what she saw.
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She remembered how the day before they went on a date with Ellis and she saw a black cat.
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Ellis immediately asked if she interested, and she replied that she wanted to pet her and was worried if she was hungry.
Don't worry, girl, Alfons feeds them… She's fine.
So… back to the present.
She finally accepts the fact that she is a kitten and runs to Ellis. But she stopped worriedly in front of his door not knowing what to do.
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Suddenly the door opens and Ellis kicks the poor kid. Ouch! He immediately apologizes and notices that she seems to be in pain.
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I do not think so… But I have no choice but to agree when you smile like that…
Roger examined her and found only a bruise, but put a bandage on just in case… And recommended complete rest. As Ellis likes, she is completely under his care. But suddenly Roger heard something...
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NO! Don't leave me with him...
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Thank you, thank you, thank you... I'll kiss you later.
Jude is clearly not happy with this addition to their team.
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Initially, it was an even more colorful description, but I didn't figure out how to make it sound normal. So I shortened it to this.
I can almost hear him saying: "What is… THAT?" pointing an accusing finger at the cat. Hah…
Jude listens to Ellis's explanation and gives them time to eat. So Ellis feeds the cat milk, puts it in his pocket, and they all go to work. I wonder which pocket? I only see them on his pants… no… I don't wanna think about it… Damn it! I cannot stop thinking about it!
This was another person who decided that he might NOT return the money to Jude in time. Why are they so stupid? They know about his reputation, but they keep doing it…
As usual, Ellis and Jude are playing good and bad cops. But… suddenly, the nobleman noticed the kitten and was very scared. He's allergic. So in order to save his life (or pride), he immediately returns the money.
Outside, Jude is thinking out loud, looking at the cat.
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I'm sure he figured out… He's too smart not to notice…
And after that, he gives Ellis the day off, and they return to the castle. Ellis went all over the rooms and couldn't find Kate anywhere. He became restless, so Kate, in the form of a cat, tried to calm him down by asking him to pet her. Ellis remarks that she behaves exactly like Kate.
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Premium ending
Somewhere on the way home, Ellis bought everything he needed to take care of the cat. And decided to comb her fur, of course, for Kate's sake.
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They're both having a great time. But Kate suddenly thinks about what would happen to Ellis if "she" continued to be missing, and somehow… she kisses him…
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Ellis is in complete shock
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He recovered from the shock and gave her his jacket. He remembered all the awkward details of what she had been doing all day… And suddenly Roger knocked on the door, saving her.
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But Ellis wouldn't let him. When Kate asked him why. He said he didn't want Roger examined her entire body… So the fact that she turns into a cat and back should remain a secret between them.
And after that, Ellis starts checking if Kate is human by kissing her…
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So...
I didn't buy the epilogue. I'm already a little burned out of Ellis (I'm so fickle). I'll probably buy Elbert's epilogue though. His event made a greater impression on me. NOT because of Alfons! Okay, partly because of Alfons. But the event is really interesting for a completely different reason.
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🔝 Start page 🔝
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drconstellation · 9 months
Text
Come Back When You Can Make A Whale
This is going to contain some speculation for S3, so you know what to do! Or not do!
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SITIS: What did God say? JOB: Um... I'm not sure. I didn't understand much. Things too wonderful for me. Ostriches came into it. SITIS: Ostriches? JOB: And whales. God's very proud of the whale. Went into some detail about... how great whales are. SITIS: But did They explain? JOB: [shakes head] I think the point was, if you want answers, come back when you can make a whale.
Whales, huh?
If you aren't well read, this could be quite the misdirection. It should be reasonably obvious, given who is doing the talking - Job - what he is actually referring to, then we can join a couple of dots to make some speculative leaps.
You still with me?
No? Then let us start with how do you make a whale?
By giving it another name.
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Leviathan.
Chapter 41 of the Book of Job is all about the Leviathan, a great sinuous sea serpent with impenetrable scales and breath like fire. It sleeps beneath the sea until the end of days. Over time it came to be associated with any sea monster, then anything large, and what is the largest animal ever known to have lived? The whale.
The top of the matchbox is also worth a look. We have a skull and crossbones, which is classic Memento mori symbolism, fitting in with the resurrection theme of the Second Coming - but look at the way the address of the pub is spelt! Now, this not the same way it is spelt on the record single Maggie gives to Aziraphale; Goatgate is spelt as one word, not two. A little bit of searching reveals the meaning behind this fictional address that backs up and reinforces the quote on the side of the matchbox.
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Strong's Concordance for 66 gives us "wild, savage, fierce." Goatgate is an interesting one, because it turns out to be a relatively modern term from the urban dictionary, and I'm just going to refer to the polite version of it here - it's another word for "mouth." So 66 Goatgate is a "fierce and savage mouth." Yes, that does sound about right - in more ways than one, once you know who it is. (If you want to look up the impolite version, go ahead - I'm sure you will still find the connotations very amusing.)
Our metaphorical Leviathan is Crowley. He gave the game away at the end of S1 during the appearance-swap.
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This also means Aziraphale is his counterpart, Behemoth. Why - well, I made a bit of joke in my post here that he was playing at being a "river horse" while he wallowed in the bath of holy water during his part of the appearance-swap scene. Modern day scholars think the description of Behemoth in the Bible may be that of a hippopotamus in real life history. If that is so, I'd still be betting this is what the "dark horse" comment from Nina in S2E1 is foreshadowing.
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Maybe none of this new to you if you've been hanging around the the fandom for a while. That's fine, I'm just trying to establish the scene. And the next bit we need to talk about is this one, where Job gets a lecture from God.
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During this sequence, we hear lines that come from Job 38 and 39.
GOD: Job, if you have questions for me, I have questions for you. Do you know how I created the earth? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, Job? Were you there when all the morning stars sang together and all the Angels shouted for joy?
These lines are paraphrasing some of the beginning of Job 38.
Then we have:
GOD: Do you know the rules of the heavens? Did you set the constellations in the sky? Can you send lightning bolts and get them to report back to you? Did you give wings to peacocks, Job, or teach the ostrich to run?
These lines are again, paraphrasing Job, half from 38 and half from 39.
So then, we need to ask, why highlight these lines in particular?
Job 38 is mainly about setting the boundaries of the universe around us. The Earth might seem impossibly huge to a human, but it started with a single stone at its foundation. Earth and the other planets obey certain laws as they move around the Sun. The patterns of the stars in the sky take so long to change that it seems like they are set and inconstant. Even the chaotic form of lightning respects its Creator and returns to its point of origin.
From the last part of Chapter 38 to the end of 39 God challenges Job with a list of animals. The theme here is about freedom and wildness. Whether it is a noble lion, a loathsome crow, a nimble mountain goat, the head-strong wild ox or the willing war horse, they all flourish upon the Earth under the sight of the Almighty. Even the mightiest and most fierce beasts of all, Behemoth and Leviathan, have a place, although only God has the means to control those two.
None of this needs a human to be involved. We are so often the center of our own universe, and try so hard to control every aspect of the world around us that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Shit happens. Some things are out of our control. That doesn't mean its your fault and you're wicked and damned to go to Hell because of it. And that was the point God was trying to make to Job. The world is a far bigger, wilder and chaotic than you can imagine, but its also incredibly beautiful, and it runs itself within the rules and limits that seem to be set by invisible forces you can't see.
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So back to the script from the show.
The first set of questions from God could apply to both of the duo. They were both around when Earth was created and were more than likely there when the "morning stars" (the highest angels, such as Lucifer, Gabriel, Michael and angel!Beelzebub) sang together.
The second set of questions are the ones that seem to have got the most attention so far, with ops cross-matching them to things Crowley does in S2.
Do you know the rules of the heavens?
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Did you set the constellations in the sky?
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Can you send lightning bolts and get them to report back to you?
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Did you give wings to peacocks, Job...
(I make a suggestion this has something to do with Michael, but also see comments below)
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...or teach the ostrich to run?
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The first three of those questions are fairly straight forward, and I doubt many would dispute what they are referring to. But the reference to the peacock and the ostrich are more subtle and curious, and I would like to take a moment to look at the actual verse - because it is only one verse that is providing both questions - that is being paraphrased here.
Job 39:13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
Did you realize that the King James Version of the Bible is the only one that mentions peacocks in this particular verse? All the other versions mentions the first sentence of that verse in relation to the wings of ostriches: "The wings of the ostrich wave proudly." The ostrich is considered a cruel and witless bird in the Bible, pleased with the way it looks, and seemingly careless about its young.
Why does that sound familiar...
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Shax thinks this ostrich feather-clad angel in disguise isn't too smart either.
So using the peacock line is a curious choice in the script. Other than the "eyes" in the tail of the peacock having a connection to Michael's many watchful eyes on the world, it's still not clear how Crowley helped them upwards. Unless both lines are supposed to refer to Gabriel, and how the vain peacock was helped to both fly and run to a distant location in the stars.
Edit: Since I first wrote this, @beebopboom pointed me to some more peacock lore, and this helped me delve a bit deeper into them. Peacocks were associated with wealth and royalty, but they were also associated with immortality in early Christian beliefs. There was a belief that the flesh of the peacock did not decay after its death. The bright colours in its tail came from its eating venomous snakes, which reminded people of Christ becoming sin for humanity's sake (think of Crowley downing the laudanum to save Elspeth from Hell in the crypt in 1827, its a similar action.) The "eyes" on the males tail also represented the all-seeing eye of God. So we have a connection with both royalty and resurrection here.
(Oh - just as an interesting connection here - a number of the newer versions of the Bible not only don't mention the peacock in this verse, they compare the ostrich to the stork! The meaning is meant to be that the stork cares more for their young than the ostrich, but if you read the words at face value, you could take a double meaning away...)
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Let us return to questions, answers, and whales.
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Questions. Always questions. It's like the proverbial toddler who's always asking a never-ending string of "but, why?" for funsies and you just want them to shut up for a moment and think about the last thing you said first. They, too, are a bit like Job. They are the center of their own universe at that age, having not had much experience of the world. They have no grasp of how far it extends beyond them, and how little even we as adults know.
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If at this point you're going "oh, no, no, no, no, op, please don't tell me the point of this meta is it's all ineffable," relax. I'm not.
The point was to set you up for some nice, juicy, awesomely sweet S3 speculation.
Because I believe Crowley will finally get to ask his questions of God.
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(oh lordy, I made the mistake of taking a break to have a shower before trying to finish this off, because I was having trouble seeing how to finish this in a tidy way, and that caused me to have "shower thoughts" and now the nice sweet simple speculation has turned into a slightly bat-shit crazy kind-of one, although still on the same track as what I was originally thinking. Here goes...)
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We have this three card spread from waaay back at the beginning of S1. We all think its something to do with the three babies.
What if its not?
Because we need something like this to happen again - Aziraphale and Crowley either side of a third protagonist. What if it's the King of Kings, Love personified, Jesus, in the middle? (Or Adam again, I wouldn't discount that option either...)
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If you would look at the GIF and the screenshot together again and go, well that makes, sense, white for the angel on the right, and green for the demon on the left, I would jump up and shout at you - NO!
Look at the cards again! In the Tarot, that's the Ace of Swords on the right - it belongs to Aziraphale. It's a very powerful card, about new beginnings and change.* Lets call the one of the left Knight of Wands, which also represents the element of Fire. Knights are all about movement and journeys. Who owns the Bentley? And look what Gabriel has instinctively done with his hands - he has held his screen-left hand out to Aziraphale, the Sword, the angel who wears green, and his right hand out to Crowley, the Knight of Fire. The yin and yang qualities are actually swapped. That was what I was trying to tell you in this post. They aren't as obvious as they seem at first glance.
And love is the answer, it turns out. Did you see my comment the other day on another post? In Strong's Concordance 25 = to love.
Anyway, we should get a third parallel scene somewhat like this, and like when Aziraphale and Crowley took Adam out of time to talk to him in S1.
Only this time the three of them (with who ever is in the middle) should be having a talk with God about what is or isn't supposed to happen.
JOB: I think the point was, if you want answers, come back when you can make a whale.
Crowley could be a literal serpent (though I would be very surprised if he did manifest that way) but it should be a metaphorical Leviathan that stands before the Almighty to ask his questions and get his answers. And it will be that he has earned the right to be there, because he finally understands the lessons of Job.
@makewayforbigcrossducks I hope this answers one of your questions
*The Ace of Swords speaks of new beginnings, but it is a two-edged sword that can cut both ways. It is strength in adversity, victory out of struggle, good out of evil, a change in the old order on the way.
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misscammiedawn · 5 months
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Ange Ushiromiya's Recontextualized Memory and Unprocessed Trauma in Umineko No Naku Kori Ni
CW: Full spoilers for Umineko, a mystery visual novel game which is best enjoyed without knowing spoilers in advance. The game and thus this essay will feature discussion of child abuse and suicide.
For those unfamiliar with my blog I have a tag called Media, Myself and I where I talk about positive/accurate representation of dissociative disorders in media.
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Today I want to talk about Umineko No Naku Kori Ni the third and fourth titles in 07th Expansion's "When They Cry" franchise. The game is a multi-layered fiction that starts off as an Agatha Christie inspired closed circle murder mystery taking place during the weekend of October 4th 1986. The murder mystery displayed has no more than 18 humans stranded on an island in the middle of a storm and the audience is invited to try to work out the mystery of what happened.
As the story progresses the audience are presented with a number of different possibilities, each an in-universe attempt to rationalize the tragedy that took place and killed all but two members of the Ushiromiya family.
It is eventually revealed that to the eyes of the world, no more than 18 humans were on the island that weekend and only one returned to their life afterwards. Some in the world have been quite focused on working out what happened during that weekend.
It's a complicated narrative that has multiple layers and each layer communicates not only with the audience reading the game but an audience of people in-universe trying to solve the mystery as well. When we first experienced the game we had joked that it was sold to us as Anime Homestuck but it ended up being Anime House of Leaves.
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The easiest way to describe the narrative structure is that the first 7 episodes of the game, each containing about 20 hours of narrative, have within them a fictionalized version of events written in-universe by people who may or may not have been present at the event with episode 8 is mostly its own thing. To explain in further detail would distract. The point is Umineko is a complicated narrative and there is too much to cover a play-by-play.
The narrative is intentionally convoluted and contradictory with part of the fun of playing the game being to work out what events are true and what the rules are for discerning "magic" from "truth".
Even with a concept as seemingly opaque as Truth, there is the often quoted "Without love it cannot be seen" motif, that our emotional connection to events will always color how we interpret events.
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The story is remarkably long. How Long To Beat puts each half of the game up at about 60 hours. So that's 120 hours of pure reading with very little gameplay.
There are multiple plural characters ("Oh, I am one yet many", indeed) and we shall discuss them in due course, but for clarity I wish to focus my discussion today upon the relationship between a survivor and their histories. The novel has much to say on the topic.
The above image discussing the nature of truth is from Episode 4, the chapter where the protagonist is Ange Ushiromiya. Younger sister of the protagonist of the first Episodes, Battler Ushiromiya.
Ange, 6 years old at the time, was sick on the weekend of October 4th 1986 and was not present on the island for the massacre. One weekend she had a full and lively family and then in the span of a single week everyone she had a connection to was killed in unknowable circumstances, she was whisked away to live with her aunt, the sole survivor of the tragedy, and would live the life of a cursed child, forever haunted by the tragedy that stole away her life.
Ange's story takes place in "The World of 1998" where she seeks The Truth. She states multiple times how she is incapable of going on with her life until she knows The Truth.
The events of 1986 are presented via "forgeries", published stories which tell the story of the 1986 tragedy utilizing facts that are known about the family. Ange pours through them, attempting to uncover the truth. She suspects her aunt may be responsible. Why wouldn't she harbor suspicions? Aunt Eva was the only one of the no more than 18 humans to leave the island and became the sole inheritor of the Ushiromiya family fortune.
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is formed when an individual endures long-lasting and repeated bouts of ongoing trauma, typically in childhood. Survivors often find themselves caught in an inescapable cycle of grieving that lasts months and years beyond the loss and remains fresh and raw in spite of the time and changes that have occurred since the event. The individual is tethered to the past by an inability to move on from their loss. In psychology this is referred to as Complicated Grief and though it is most commonly discussed with death, it can present itself for grieving lost time, stolen youth and lives unlived.
Ange is riddled with Complicated Grief. Her story takes place 12 years after the events on the island of Rokkenjima and yet she constantly tells those around her that she is unable to live without knowing the truth. Ange's unprocessed grief is unearthed when her aunt, the only survivor of the massacre, passes away while maliciously refusing to give Ange any insight into the truth that she alone knew, twisting the knife as she turned over the family fortune to a child that was not her own beloved George.
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Ange's sole reason for existing is to make peace with the tragedy of her past and Eva's final act was to tell her she would never have it and would instead live a cursed life of a victim in the public's eye. Eternally scrutinized and criticized.
Ange, now knowing that the only chance she had to be given the truth and still feeling that she needs it in order to live her life, runs away and starts a journey to either make peace with her tortured past or end her own life.
Ange's suicidal tendencies are played up dramatically and much of the final episode is the conflict between Ange's inability to live with her grief being played out in hyperbolic fiction. The stakes of the story amounting to "will she be able to live after learning The Truth."
But what is Truth? Would learning who is responsible for her family's death truly give her peace or would it only serve to trap her further in her endless cycle of grief?
Trauma therapy tends not to focus on Talk Therapy for the most part as such therapy indulges a survivor to dwell on their unprocessed traumas and will only serve to retraumatize the client. In many cases it is detrimental to perform Motivational Interviewing (reflective statements designed to display to a client that the clinician is listening and interpreting their words without offering direct guidance or intervention) or Rogerian "person centered" (a similar tactic designed to keep a client talking without engaging in a back-and-forth, every reply should be a prompt that inspires the client to continue sharing without boundaries and reach their own conclusions) techniques.
The reason why is that these forms of therapy have a belief that "the client holds all of the answers" and the clinician's job is to let the client get out of their own way and walk towards the answer. It is a solutions based therapy where the client is trusted to clear cognitive distortions and navigate around mental blocks between themselves and what they need.
Ange's stated goals are far from healthy.
In survivors their Core Beliefs are informed by their trauma. Those who were raised in a house of neglect may have an unresolved core belief that they are unworthy of love, those who feel shame and guilt for what happened/how they were treated may have a belief that "I should have..." - A helpful list of common negative core beliefs and positive beliefs that can be instilled, click here.
Trauma therapy contains an element of identifying these beliefs and where they originated and working to overcome them. There are many different therapies in the world that attempt to do this but they all include some element of processing trauma, accepting trauma and committing to the future.
In Ange's case she does not need to know what happened in order to live. She has to accept what happened and live.
To make this clear, should Ange learn what is presented to be The Truth it will break her and she will be unable to accept it and in doing so ends up unable to live.
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All of this is a prologue to talk about acceptance and our emotional connection to memory.
Prior to Eva's death, Ange was raised in a boarding school where she was ruthlessly bullied by the other students. Both Ange and her aunt are in the public eye for the scandal associated with the Rokkenjima massacre and Eva actively despises Ange and refuses to give her the care, nurture and privilege that the other students of the rich academy enjoy.
She lives a lonely and cursed life. Her one solace is getting to find time alone to sit and read her cousin Maria's "Grimoire", her journal. When she reads the journal she can clearly picture her cousin in her mind and interact with her. A form of "magic" that Maria taught Ange back when the two of them were friends, prior to the massacre in which Maria lost her life. In the past Maria had created a magical society called Mariage Sorciere and Ange was one of the members before being excommunicated.
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We'll discuss it further in a while however while introducing Maria I wish to note that she was most likely forming a dissociative disorder prior to the massacre. The series writer Ryukishi07 was a social worker prior to his career in visual novels. He does a remarkably good job of displaying how abusive and neglectful family dynamics can impact a young mind. Maria, despite being 9 years old, has speech patterns linked to an infant's maturity, she often switches into a "witch" persona and she will hold up her stuffed animals and voice out their speech, treating them like separate individuals. She is bullied at school and her mother hits her when she does this but she is incapable of acting any other way. It's who she is.
A small portion of the second chapter even having some of the cousins stop to discuss the possibility that her overactive imagination and play-acting may contain elements of dissociative identity disorder. It's never fully confirmed and she dies at age 9, but Ryukishi07 displays a convincing depiction of extreme childhood neglect that would lead to a severe dissociative disorder had she have grown up.
We learn throughout the story that her journal contains sketches of many magical entities impressed upon the servants of the island and toys that Maria has. These entities becoming the magical cast of the "Gameboard".
Though not the focus of this particular essay, each episode of the game is depicted as a chess match between a game master (representing the author of a murder mystery) and an opponent (representing the reader trying to solve the mystery) and these matches take place in a world of purgatory. This world is populated by a magical cast of characters each of whom is paired with a member of the mundane cast on the island.
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The game often repeats that it takes "two to create a universe". There needs to be one to imagine it and one to perceive it and mark it as real. This is displayed on the gameboard but it is also displayed with the way that for every imagined character who exists as part of the magical cast, there is the one who imagines and then there is one who their imagination is displayed onto.
Maria is a child of extreme neglect, as we will discuss soon, she had no one to displace her imagination upon (spare for her mother who she imagined as being possessed by an evil witch when she became violently abusive) and so she imbued life into her toys. Bringing Sakutarou, her stuffed lion doll, and her band of toy rabbits to life. This earned her the title "Witch of origins".
The magic in the game's universe operates on a rule that "it takes two to create a universe" logic. The concepts of Magic and Love being intertwined. "Without love it cannot be seen" has many meanings but in terms of creation it means that anyone can apply "the anti-magic toxin" of mistrust/disbelief by simply rejecting another person's reality.
So much of the magic and love in this world is built on trust and being able to believe in that which is shared. The concept is explored from many angles throughout the game, Episode 6 focusing on love in the form of trust between a writer and a reader and the contract between them requiring a murder mystery to be solvable and for a reader to earnestly engage with the fiction and accept it as it is written.
Within Mariage Sorciere, this love is to accept that the characters and imaginings of its members. To be a member is to accept all as it is presented. Sakutarou is a magical lion boy who speaks. To doubt this is to be excommunicated from the order, which is why Ange was kicked out of the witches alliance. To say Sakutarou wasn't real was tantamount to trying to kill him.
Maria's love is without doubt. In Episode 7 we learn that she is not capable of viewing people as anything more than how they present to the world. Her imagination paints how she perceives the world. When her mother's behavior drastically shifts when she enters a violent and abusive rage she firmly believes that her mother has been possessed by a cruel witch.
When a familiar adult approaches her speaking as the Golden Witch Beatrice, she does not see the adult. She only sees Beato. This is vital to her testimony throughout the game regarding the murder mysteries.
One last thing I wish to go over during this analysis of Ange and Maria and their relationship to their traumatic childhoods. That is the title of witch.
By now I hope it's been made clear that magic is imagination and love is trust. Whether it be testimony being believed, the contract between author and reader or the inner reality of one being seen and regarded and acknowledged by another.
As someone with DID, I like this concept a lot. It would be so easy to simply dismiss our condition and the presentations. But with love it can be seen.
The game shows a number of different types of witch. From the witch of origins who can make new imaginings that do not require another person to validate them to the Golden witch who has enough money to make reality via sheer financial coercion or the witch of truth who can make reality by asserting it to be so or witch of resurrection who can keep those who died alive in their memory.
Each witch is using their magical ability to "create" by taking their imagination and moving it out into the world. The Witch of Truth is a detective whose deductions are believed to be fact even if the accused disagrees. The Golden Witch can take any scheme or desire and pay people to make it a reality.
And Ange, the Witch of Resurrections, can bring back the dead by remembering them and keeping their voices in her heart. They live on in her writing. In her words. In her memory. So when she reads Maria's journal she can bring the Maria of 1986 into the world of 1998. When she reads of Maria's magical companions they can accompany her.
With this context, we return to Ange in her teen years.
Lonely and consumed by grief she is only able to find solace in imagining Maria with her, imagining Maria having forgiven her for saying Sakutarou wasn't real.
As she accepts the role of apprentice witch she is allowed to perceive Maria and her menagerie of imaginary friends.
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Though there's a certain amount of strain and physical discomfort in maintaining the thought process of so many at once. Maria is able to do it remarkably easy but Ange has to struggle.
It's okay, Ange, dissociation headaches are an absolute bitch. They get better after a certain amount of stabilizing and communication work.
All the while she reads about Maria's home life.
To break the essay structure and be real for a moment. This segment hit me hard. I choked up crying and needed to take a break from the game for a while. The depiction of child neglect and abuse was too real and I feel it serves the fiction to depict it as such but it is a hard read. Please be kind to yourself as you read on.
Rosa Ushiromiya is the youngest of the Ushiromiya children, furthest from the inheritance and least respected of Kinzo's progeny. She likely suffered a large amount of abuse and neglect in her own childhood both physical from the eldest sibling, Kraus, emotional/psychological from her sister Eva and a combination of both from her other brother Rudolf.
Children raised in abusive households are more likely to develop personality disorders born from attachment trauma. A typical display of this is dichotomous thinking, praising and devaluing the same subject in waves based on stimulus. Within Borderline Personality Disorder, for instance, this is where the concept of Splitting and Black and White Thinking come from.
For Rosa, this manifests with her mood swings that have her violently scream and hit her daughter before lavishing her with apologies, affection and attention.
Every character in Umineko is burdened with a painful past. Each character feels the need to displace that pain outwards and project it onto other people. For instance Rosa displaces her pain onto Maria. Both of Ange's aunts displace theirs onto her. Kyrie displaces hers onto Battler.
Generational trauma is a heavy theme of this game.
Rosa makes her way as the head of a small fashion design label though she does not see a lot of success in her role. Early in adulthood she had a relationship that ended with her pregnant with Maria. Maria's father, upon learning of the pregnancy, left.
Rosa is young, lonely and feels that having a child makes it difficult for her to find love; in the time and culture of 1980s Japan being a single mother was seen as shameful. She finds that the best way she is able to date is to act like she does not have a daughter and take extended vacations across the country on weekends with her dates.
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Leaving her daughter home alone.
Rosa has a number of hang-ups about the optics of leaving Maria in someone else's care, she is shown on multiple occasions in the story to fly into a rage when her ability to be a parent is put into question and she has massive cognitive dissonance in that she cannot bare to be seen as a bad mother and so she acts like a horrible mother to avoid looking bad.
I have seen a lot of debate on the logic here and first off, anyone who approaches this story with a view of "it does not make sense that a character acted this way" lacks the Love required to enjoy this story in full. The author enters a firm agreement with the audience to work within the confines of the fiction and not to disrespect the fiction by rejecting that which is offered. He will deceive us but never lie. In that we have to believe in the story.
But it's also a sign of those who have grown up with a proud optics obsessed parent and those who did not. Sad to say, I have experienced a few of the things which happen in this chapter and I have no doubt that Ryukishi07 saw some of it in his social worker career.
When Rosa leaves Maria alone at home, for days at a time, she orders her to never make anyone aware of her situation. More important than anything else never speak to the police about what goes on in this house.
That. I have lived that one.
What Ange reads and what Maria shows us in this episode is a weekend where Maria is home alone, her mother having forgotten a promise that was made to her and Maria is locked out of her house. She spends an entire evening searching for the lost key and eventually needs to seek a friendly store worker who recognizes her to get help.
This leads to police intervention, a social worker showing up at Rosa's house and...
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I glossed over a lot. This is a dense book and this story takes up much of Episode 4. Suffice to say, Maria's friend Sakutarou was murdered in retaliation for Maria summoning attention of Rosa's bad parenting. Rosa abandoned her daughter for a full weekend after breaking a promise and when she was locked out and defenseless she asked for help and was violently punished for doing so.
Another function of the witch of origins is the ability to break the cycle of generational abuse. She does not take her pain and push it into someone else, she creates an imagined evil mother to hate and fear while continuing to love her 'real' mother. This way she never has to doubt the love she has for the mother who she has happy memories of and who custom crafted a lovely plush lion just for her.
Which leads to the discussion of trauma, memory and processing.
Ange, upon reading this story is crestfallen. She views Maria as a pitiable child, only to be confronted by MARIA who defends Rosa. Arguing that she legitimately forgot her promise, rather than deciding that her daughter was not worth the time or effort.
She claims constantly that Rosa is a good mother and that she is happy.
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Maria, a being who can only view the world with love, despite being abused and hurt; chose to be happy and so through her magic it was so. She was happy.
There's a misconception I have seen and I will admit I held for myself upon reading Episode 4 that Maria was preaching to deceive ones own self in order to be happy. That it was enabling and accepting of her own abuse.
But this is actually one of the deepest things Umineko has to say about generational trauma...
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Chapter 8 revisits the idea with a version of the gameboard where the Ange of 1986 is allowed to be on the island, something which was impossible because in truth she was not. Not even the witch of miracles could change that which is certain.
In this game, set by Ange's older brother BATTLER, the 6 year old Ange is treated to a fun halloween party with her aunt Eva run by her loving family. Throughout the entire story Grandfather Kinzo was made out to be the source of all evil and in this episode he is displayed as a kind and loving grandfather.
The entire reason I wanted to write this post and include it in my Media, Myself and I series (in lieu of discussing the overt plurality in the game, even) was due to a conversation Ange has with Battler about this deception.
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Source: LP Archives - The full conversation can be found on this page for anyone who wants the full breakdown.
The entire story of Umineko is a struggle for those who experienced horrors to be able to come to terms with their memories and process them. This is true for Ange, it is true for Maria and it is true for the other members of the cast also.
Memory is malleable and uncertain and can and does become distorted due to understandings and contexts gained at a later stage, particularly when bias is in play.
For a graphic of how this works please look at this:
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Source
The more a memory is reactivated the more it is eroded of its initial context and additional contexts bleed in. For Ange's circumstance she remembers her parents through the lens of knowing that her father was embroiled in legal troubles from his womanizing behavior. It is unlikely a 6 year old Ange remembers Rudolf in this light but her view of her father is painted through this lens and thus when she retrieves these memories the present context forces itself into the past.
This is just how the human mind works.
EMDR and other trauma treatments are focused on hijacking this system. When a traumatic memory plays out the amygdala processes the emotions and sense of danger which activates the nervous system. This process does not even require a conscious recollection; should a trauma memory be associated with a certain scent the nervous system will activate upon smelling it even if the survivor does not recall the event attached to the stimulus, the amygdala most certainly does.
I have spent too much of my life considering which of our memories had lavender scenting…
For EMDR the process involves retrieving the traumatic memory without allowing the client to reexperience it while ensuring they do so within the context of the present while highlighting safety and security. This allows the memory to be filtered through without the activating the nervous system. In some therapies this can be a process of re-parenting in which the emotional absence is provided either by the self or via a proxy. The idea is to allow the memory to break association with the trauma and be decontextualize until the memory no longer has negative associations.
Where I had assumed Maria's choice to be happy and think the best of her abuser was an act of enabling and self-deception, I now see was an attempt to stop dwelling on the negatives of the situation and allowing the past trauma to become a defining point within the present.
Maria cannot choose what happened to her. She can choose how she intends to live with what happened with her. She cannot know for certain what Rosa's motivation was in her actions. In fact as we go through the game the audience comes to be given some sympathetic information which though can never redeem Rosa's terrible parenting, can allow one inclined to feel sympathy for her. Like everyone else in the game, she's a victim too. Quite literally in 1986.
There's no way of knowing if she maliciously lied to her child and went off on vacation abandoning her or if she legitimately forgot her promise. No one is arguing that what Rosa did was forgivable. But it helps Maria continue living a happy existence knowing that she was loved and that the good memories she has of her mother are true, even if the bad ones are also true.
Maria, filled with love as she is, elected to see The Good Mommy and The Bad Mommy. Is this right or wrong? It's unimportant. What matters is if Maria can be happy.
Sakutarou was a stuffed lion said to be handcrafted by Rosa. Given as a gift and beloved above all things for Maria. When Rosa destroyed the Sakutarou doll the lion cub boy died and could not be resurrected by Beatrice because it was a unique item created by Rosa.
In Chapter 4's conclusion, Ange does the impossible and resurrects Sakutarou. She does this because Sakutarou was never a custom made doll crafed with love. He was a mass produced toy sold in travel gift stores that Rosa happened to pick up on her way home. She lied. Ange never tells Maria this. The miracle of Sakutarou's rebirth is enough. Knowing that the beloved handmade toy was not hand-crafted would not make Maria's life any better. Sometimes believing in magic is the best thing for someone living in a world painted by despair.
Funny that Ange understood that much for Maria and yet still sought after the One Truth up until the very end.
The finale of the game comes down to presenting this option to the player and by proxy Ange herself.
In a world where you cannot change the past and you cannot fully accept what happened, is it better to continue digging up the past and re-experiencing the trauma in hopes that there lays a truth that will make it all finally make sense or to try to make peace with the past and find moments of peace to hold onto. Holding to hate and pain only serves to bring the pain of the past into the present.
Ange, the witch of resurrection, has the ability to keep her family with her long after their death. Should she be haunted by the family that she was deprived or be happy for the limited memories she had and not be tethered to a world of the past she could never have possibly been part of.
Healing in Umineko is accepting love and making peace with loss. It is learning to live unburdened by tragedy and do the best with what was done to us.
If we cannot let go then we'll continue living in the world of the past turning over the events over and over trying to make sense of it and even if we are somehow granted the magical context, the one and only shining truth... it will only serve to make things worse. You can keep the past alive without letting the past control your future.
And Umineko does a remarkably good job of showing that.
-
Gosh... that took far longer than I'd hoped. Umineko is a difficult piece of fiction to type about because so much of it is subjective and hard to present to a broad audience without providing ample context.
I'd hoped to talk about Yasu's DID but I suppose that shall have to await another update. My original draft for this discussion was to discuss the different forms of dissociative amnesia with Ange's story serving as an example of how recontextualizing memory works. I may yet go back and do a full amnesia based ramble in the coming months. I just needed to get at least one aspect of Umineko drafted as it's been living rent free in my brain since December.
If you enjoyed this breakdown and found it interesting, please check out some of my other Media, Myself and I essays.
Derealization in Night in the Woods and Metal gear Solid 2 - Describing the sensation of derealization where the brain stops connecting associations between the self and the things one perceives in their surroundings. One example displaying how this impacts a person living with DPDR and the other showing an example of a game attempting to make a player share the experience with the player character.
DID and the healing process in Mr. Robot - A run down of the experiences of discovery, exploration, rejection and healing within DID as displayed in each season of Mr. Robot, along with a disappointed rundown of why the final episode fumbled the ball.
Bruce Banner and the roles of his alters - A breakdown of the formation of The Incredible Hulk's DID and what roles his many alters play.
Romantic relationships with systems - A look at the marriage between Bruce Banner and Betty Talbot-Ross Banner in Hulk comics and a frank discussion between Betty and one of Bruce's alters about how relationships function in a system.
Personality Play in Penlight - A review of one of the routes for a hypnokink visual novel called Penlight in which the protagonist hypnotizes a woman to have an alter personality, along with some descriptions of how dangerous play like that works in real life and what the consequences could be.
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toreodere · 1 year
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So here's something I was working on that kind of got out of hand the longer I got into it, hhh
I was thinking for a bit about how underwhelming the overall presentation of Psycholonials was, not just in the general artstyle it went for but with how it's panels and UI were overall way less interesting to look at than anything seen during the lifetime of MSPA, and from that ended up having some silly idea to make a conceptual mockup of what I thought a slightly better UI for this COULD look like, so I hope yall enjoy how that ended up looking.
Additionally, There was a bunch of other stuff I had written down for how to better implement screen transitions and animated panels too, which BIG shocker, Psycholonials sorely lacked in, the novel usually consisting of hard cuts between completely static panels of characters standing around idly, or a slow and completely unskippable fade into shots like, a character pulling a poorly drawn face, or having their face zoomed in on, maybe with an extra hand being drawn in on the shot that's been drawn at a completely different resolution, this variably becomes a little to severely tedious to when doing re-reads, which I had to do to get reference for how panels in this were actually formatted, h.
I'd make examples of those in this post itself but little known fact right, I get very tired all the dang time!! and probably don't have too much time to be making every little individual element of a hypothetical "better" version of a Visual Novel I'm a fan of all day when I could be doing anything else! but I may make an addendum detailing how I would do stuff like that if anyone showed any interest in reading that.
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lightlycareless · 2 months
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I'm sorry for sending you a lot of ask 😭😭😭
I found this one tiktok vid and i want to share it with you
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFWmwA37/
I imagine this with naoya and naomi 🤭
Hello!!
UGHHHHH I CAN'T BELIEVE I TOOK TOO LONG AND NOW THE VIDEO ISN'T THERE JESUS 🤬😭😭😭😭
But I remember well what it was. It was essentially a daughter receiving her father (dress up as a princess) giving him a rose, and he's really moved by the gesture :')
And of course, my version of it :3 Thank you so much for waiting for me 🥺💖 And I'm sorry it took me a while to reply :'( but I still hope you like it!
warnings: none. fluff. Naoya loves his family.
Happy reading!
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Dressing Naomi up comes as one of your many attempts to show how much you appreciate Naoya and all the things he’s done for his family.
You do it quite frequently, whenever possible (and as secretive as you could—you don’t know how he manages to always figure out your surprises! Could it be the bank statement?) for there’s no one else that knows better than you about all the things he’s had to sacrifice to do his duties.
But up to that point, you really hadn’t involved Naomi—outside of phone and video calls, photos here and there of the cute outfits you’d put her in for the day or places you’d visit with her, her participation in such gestures is often limited.
Perhaps it’s because she was still too young and there wasn’t much that she could do besides well, being cute and existing.
However, now that she was a bit older, 3 years to be precise, Naomi had become a bit keener to help you out! And such, your mission to do something father-daughter related begins.
It took you a while to settle into something that would wow Naoya (far more than the usual)— at first you considered dressing her up as his favorite character from that one anime you recalled he particularly enjoyed—Neon Genesis Evangelion.
But complications would arise soon enough, beginning with Asuka’s hair color which you initially thought easily fixable with a wig… until realizing it was too itchy for your poor baby, at one point she simply gave up, swiftly pulling it off her head and throwing it away.
The other option that ensued was temporarily dying it, but you wouldn’t dare ruin her precious dark hair, never!
So, you ruminated on your options. Continuously wondering what kind of surprise would blow away Naoya, far more than the others!
Why not go dressing her up as what she was? A title that once belonged to you, but now you were more than happy to pass down onto your daughter: A princess.
With a cute pink, puffy dress, little pink flats and of course, those chubby cheeks that lightened up with her toothy smile! Accompanied by her now classic two ponytails always adorned with ribbons. She’s just gotten enough hair for you to style her like that, so there’s no way you weren’t going to take advantage of it!
And finally, but not least, her pacifier. The eternal struggle of whether to slowly start detaching her from it or let her keep it for a bit longer always plaguing your mind.
Her doctor says it’s ok if she keeps it for a bit longer, she’s still around the age where kids use it…. At the same time, she tells you to not fret too much—you and Naoya had unwittingly become the type parents that ask her just about anything regarding Naomi’s safety, continuously worrying that the slightest action might harm her to the point where she had to remind the two:
“She may be a baby, but she’s still capable of doing things.”
Well, the pacifier will remain then, a pink one to match her dress!
“Are you ready, mochi?” you ask after adjusting the last details of her dress, Naomi responds with a curt nod and the serious look on her face she always had whenever sucking on her pacifier. It’s as if she was determined to do so, and nothing else! How adorable! “Now remember, when papa arrives you gotta run to him and hug him! Hug him as tightly as you can and never let go! He’s been away for so long and misses us terribly——so be sure to remind him how much we love him, ok?”
Naomi didn’t need to be told twice to know what she needed to do, for her sentiments aligned exactly with what you told her. The video calls were not cutting it anymore, all she’s been wanting now was to see her papa again and be pampered by him!
So, when the fateful day arrives, you and Naomi eagerly stand by the entrance, giddily waiting for the moment his car drives past the gates, subsequently steps out it and heads over to the two to be promptly received with a big kiss from you, and of course, a tight hug from his baby daughter.
But more than that, you wanted to see the kind of reaction he’ll have upon noticing his baby all dressed up as the princess she is. The culmination of all your efforts to make this father-daughter moment happen!
And thankfully, it was all that you imagined, if not more.
Naoya’s heart was always a mess whenever he knew it was time to come home. There mere thought of seeing his family again, especially after weeks of absence, was enough to have him in a frantic state.
It was almost impossible to believe that the always level-headed Naoya, the collected, assertive heir had sweaty hands when driving back to the estate. Something that began when he saw the familiar trees of the nearby forest appearing on the horizon, worsening at the sight of the gates he both loved seeing when returning, loathed when leaving.
In just a matter of minutes he’ll be walking onto the estate, to his home. But even when it was nothing that he had to wait, he couldn’t do it. Naoya couldn’t take it anymore—He needed to see his family, now, which he knew were anxiously waiting for him on the other side of those doors!
So, before the car even came to a full stop, Naoya swiftly prompted the door open and jumped out, ignoring the nearby staff which asked him to be careful and heading straight towards the loves of his life, to embrace them and shower them with his affection—
Only for Naomi to win him to it, dutifully obeying your request by bumping into him first, a small pink flurry tightly holding onto his leg and snuggling against it, her way of telling him welcome back!
Naoya tried his hardest to not pass out at the sight of his adorable doll-like daughter tackling him, though he later thought that if that was the way he’d leave this world, then it wasn’t that bad.
Of course, he wouldn’t desire that, for there is nothing more than he wished than to be with his family right now.
“Princess!” He eventually manages to exclaim once snapping out of trance, a wide smile, slightly teary-eyed look on his face as he swiftly scoops her up and places kisses all over her cheeks—something she would’ve gladly accepted per usual, if it weren’t ruining her look! Naomi soon tries to push him away, effectively letting him know of her discontent. “Oh dumpling, what’s wrong?”
“You’re ruining her makeup” you giggle, walking closer to the two and placing a kiss on his cheek.
“Makeup?” He repeats, leaning a bit backwards to get a better look at her face, smiling when noticing what you meant.
From subtle glitter on her eyelids, to a tint of blush on her cheeks (not that she needed it anyways, she was naturally rosy most of the time) Naomi was fully committed to the role of princess, naturally. And of course, it made her look even cuter. Though you and Naoya knew she didn’t need much to look good, for in your eyes she was perfect.
“Ah, I didn’t mean to ruin it, pumpkin.” He chuckles, kissing the top of her head as an apology. With this her frustration ceases, completely succumbing to his embrace. “You’re very pretty, as you always are—did mama dress you up?”
Naomi shakes her head, you and Naoya laugh.
“Ah, so you chose this yourself?” She nods. “You have good taste then, as expected of my daughter.”
Naomi’s eyes glisten, flattered by his words as her cheeks warm up before hiding her face at the crook of his neck, seemingly embarrassed. Naoya likes that she reacts just like you whenever shy.
“Did my princess miss me?” He asks, she nods again. “I missed you too, very, very much.”
“Welcome home, Naoya.” You finally say, stepping on your toes to give him the customary, much necessary, kiss on the lips which Naoya gladly reciprocated—unless Naomi was to protest, feeling left out and demanding she’d be included. “But you were just kissed, pumpkin! I need a bit of papa’s kisses too.”
Dejectedly, Naomi ends up relenting… for now.
“It’s good to be back.” Naoya smiles, taking in the warm company of his wife and daughter and what it represented: he’s finally home. “You don’t know how much I missed the two of you.”
“We can imagine—we missed you so much too.” You respond. “Specially Naomi, she’s been nothing but talking about you!”
“Really?” Naoya breathes, imagining her cute babbles intertwined with papa’s here and there—and how much he wished to hear them! “Then I guess a reward is due. And thankfully, I brought enough toys for that.”
Naomi’s ears perk at the mention of toys, as they always do, followed by a prompt attempt to escape his grasp and reach for the back side of the car where she expected them to be.
Her father would’ve not wasted anytime at this point to give her such gifts, for her reactions were always endearing to see…
But first, there was something else he needed to do.
“Actually, my love, can you hold Naomi for a second?” Naoya asks you with an uncharacteristic shyness, followed by a subtle redness forming in his cheeks that naturally has you growing inquisitive.
Until seeing him take out his phone, that’s when it became clear what he wished to achieve, and thus, continued to happily do what he requested.
“Naomi, look at papa.” You say, softly gesturing at the lens. The way Naomi quizzically looked up at him made his heart swoon, unwittingly giving him the perfect shot.
It’s rare to see Naoya taking the initiative when taking pictures, he just… never liked doing so. Made him feel embarrassed by it for some strange reason, but you never pushed him about it; and why would you? He did enough for the two! Surely one thing he didn’t want to do would be ok.
Instead, you gladly took on the role of designated photographer, the one in charge of captivating these moments and subsequently sharing them with Naoya for him to take as a reminder of home when away.
But this was too cute to pass up that no amount of shame could make him lose this opportunity. And such, after taking his phone out and focusing the camera on his wife and daughter, he takes a picture: the one that would become his new wallpaper, replacing an equally adorable picture for an even better, newer one. Showing how much his daughter has grown.
“Thank you so much, pumpkin.” Naoya coos, proceeding to take Naomi from your arms and giving her another kiss on her soft, round cheeks. Naomi sighs, accepting his gesture as she closes her eyes, letting him continue peppering her face. “I don’t know what I would do without you in my life. I love you.”
“Hmm!” Naomi whines, her version of the same words, which makes Naoya melt as well as remember why he’s doing all this for.
Why he spends days, weeks, if not months away from his home, sleepless, dangerous missions where the slightest mistake could potentially lead to his death…
To see his family happy, warm, fed, safe.
Things that he would do over and over again, forever if needed, just to see them smile.
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And there you have it!! More fluffy moments between our favorite family 💖 gjkasjgkasjg whenever I get asks involving Naomi and Naoya I smile, I really, really like enjoy writing things for them. Even though I get angsty sometimes hahaha
Well, once again, thank you so much for sending me this 🥺💖 I'm a bit sad that the video isn't there anymore, or maybe it's an error from my part? AAAAA ANYWAYS 🥺 I'm happy with this. And don't worry, you can send all the asks you want :> .... I might just take a while to respond with all them requests💀
Once again, thank you so much. Take care, and hope to see you soon!!
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syrpai · 1 month
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Some kind of muttering
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I love visiting Tumblr and seeing how amazing people keep the Mirai Nikki fandom alive. It makes me smile and wonder why I didn't stumble upon this community sooner. To all you wonderful people out there, thank you for existing. You've restored my faith in the fandom after ten years of aimlessly wandering alone.
But anyway, that's not the point. Seeing how my feed is overflowing with posts has inspired me to write something of my own. I decided to gather a few fun facts and details that I find intriguing but perhaps not widely known. You might already know some of these, but I'm going to share them anyway. Cause I love to geek out… Sorry in advance!
Fact 1: Filament isn't about Yuno
The single "filament" was released on February 8, 2012. In the lead-up to this, Yui-sama - the vocalist and lyricist of Yousei Teikoku -appeared as a guest on the online show "Lantis no! Anison Tuesday!!" to promote the upcoming release. The show is your typical Japanese variety program: lively, full of laughs, and Yui-sama constantly making witty remarks with her signature stone-cold expression. The most interesting part comes toward the end.
At one point, Shiraishi Minoru (Kosaka Ouji CV ❤) asks Yui-sama what thoughts she had while writing the song. Her response:
This song is dedicated to one of the key characters of Mirai Nikki, Akise. The lyrics are about him. I can't go into too much detail, but I tried to capture his unspoken feelings and hidden thoughts in my own way.
But it seems Asread either didn't notice this or chose to focus on the main fan-favorite Yuno, so the video highlights her. The fact that no one noticed this divergence between the creator's intent and the final product says a lot about the similarities between Yuno and Akise. Or perhaps it speaks to the limitless freedom of artistic interpretation.
Fact 2: Favorite Characters
This is fairly well-known, but it made me think deeply when I first learned about it, and I realized it's pretty obvious even without direct confirmation.
Esuno Sakae's favorite character is Uryuu Minene, which he mentioned in the guidebook and at the Lucca Comics 2012 conference (very cautiously and vaguely, unlike in the guidebook). Sorry, Esuno, but you didn't exactly hide it, constantly making things easier for your favorite…
Another one of his favorites is Houjou Reisuke. But I'll stop here so you can wait for the guidebook translation from other wonderful people and read all about it yourself~.
Murata Tomosa's favorite character is Kurusu Keigo, as she mentioned in a promotional review of pachinko machines. For some reason, her choice made me really happy (maybe because Kurusu is one of my favorites too).
Fact 3: Gundams
As you may know, a certain percentage of the Murmur's Section is an adaptation of omake from the manga. And the one I'm talking about here is no exception.
In the Murmur's Section 12, Kurusu tells us about an incident from his childhood involving a figure of a mecha from the anime Gundam, which indirectly inspired him to become a detective. In the manga, he starts his story with:
When I was a kid, I wanted a plastic model of Zaku Recon Type.
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The conversation then proceeds exactly as shown in the anime. You might think, what's the big deal? Well, here's the thing.
Let's revisit the same moment in the anime:
When I was a kid, I wanted a plastic model kit badly. It was a Gyan.
Interesting. Why did Zaku from the original become Gyan? It's understandable when a studio changes some details during adaptation to fit the runtime, but here Kurusu goes out of his way to express his love for Gyan, even at the cost of extra screen time. Why did the poor Zaku get swapped out by Asread?
The issue isn't with Zaku but with Gyan. To uncover the reason, we need to check the role list of Tanaka Masahiko (Kurusu's CV), where we quickly notice…
That's right, Tanaka voiced a character in one of the Gundam movies, M'Quve. If you're familiar with the Gundam universe, you should have already figured it out. But all I know about Gundam is that it has big robots. Beep.
Looking up the character, we finally find what we're searching for.
It turns out that Kurusu's CV, Tanaka Masahiko, once voiced a character in Gundam who, in turn, piloted a Gyan. So how could Kurusu love Zaku when he has his own beloved robot?
Fact 4: The Kansai Dialect in Hinata's Family
One of Hinata's traits is her Kansai dialect. I won't delve into the details since most of you probably know what that is.
What's interesting is that in the park flashback, Hinata's mother and Tsukishima Karyudo also speak in Kansai dialect, emphasizing their closeness and familial ties. However, during the game, in the few moments where Tsukishima Karyudo appears, he speaks in Tokyo dialect. Right up until his last conversation with Hinata. Tsukishima teases his daughter and mocks her entirely in standard Japanese. But then, at the very end, when he asks Hinata not to become as bad an adult as he is, he suddenly switches to a warm, gentle Kansai dialect. And it's just…
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I don't know if this nuance was conveyed in the English translations, but I wanted to mention it because it really hit me hard when I first noticed it.
Fact 5: The Suggestive Billboard
At the end of episode 12 of the anime, Yukiteru tries to call his father to pick up a telescope… with a pawn shop ad in the background. Someone on the background art team clearly has a sense of humor.
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Fact 6: Tired Artists and Their Deadlines
In the episode 6 of the anime, Yukiteru meets his mother at Sakuraimi Station. The station itself is modeled after the real-life Sagamihara Station (相模原駅) in Kanagawa Prefecture, where most of the anime's action takes place, based on other clues. In the TV version, it seems the poor artists were in such a rush that they forgot to change the name on one of the stands. This was fixed in the Blu-ray release, but I imagine for seichi junrei fans, this mistake was a treat.
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Fact 7: Choroi
Choroi (ちょろい) is the line Yuno says as she brings an ax down on one of Omekata's followers in chapter 7 of the manga. It translates to "a piece of cake," but there's something memorable about this "a piece of cake." To simplify, it became a meme among Japanese fans that was cut from the anime, causing a flood of "choroi" on forums. Eventually, we got our "choroi" in the Blu-ray. Choroi?
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Fact 8: Kanagawa?
As I mentioned earlier, it's generally accepted that the anime takes place in Kanagawa Prefecture. At least because that's what it says on the police cars. However, there's one exception. On the postal delivery that Reisuke receives in episode 7, it says とうきょうと, meaning Tokyo Metropolis.
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Fact 9: Miura Azusa?
I've seen posts about this even in English, but yes: many people recognized Miura Azusa from THE IDOLM@STER on the Bridal Fair poster in episode 10.
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Fact (?) 10: I still want this art in high resolution
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I found this piece of art when I was young, naive, and just beginning to learn Japanese, driven by a desire to read fan-made manga and fanfics about NishiMine on Pixiv (yes, that was my motivation to learn the language), so I have no idea what it was originally attached to. Japanese NishiMine fans were raving about this art, so you've probably seen Minene in that red dress. I don't know much more about it, but I still love it dearly.
Conclusion
I'm sure there were plenty of other amusing facts that I've come across over the years, but as soon as I decided to gather them all, most of them scattered to the corners of my memory. So I probably forgot a few more interesting tidbits… But oh well. At least I've managed to collect these ones in one place now. And as everyone knows…!
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treason-and-plot · 8 months
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I can't remember if you have posts about your picture taking process but I'm really curious how did you get a lot like Prosper Room so crowded and look so lively. Do you pose everyone or do you just get them there and leave them be?
I would love it, if you have time and motivation of course, if you showed us your process for setting a scene and taking pics. I never did those in any sims game tbh and I always love seeing behind the scenes things.
Love you and your work to bits!! ❤️ ❤️
I don't think I have made any posts about my picture-making process because prior to today I don't think anybody has ever asked! But I really appreciate you sending me this ask and your lovely comments. Thank you so much!
For these particular scenes I have 16 Sims in the active family. (I did originally have 20 as stated here but my game kept freezing.) For anyone reading who may be unfamiliar with this process, I add the Sims to the household by clicking on my active Sim and then selecting NRaas>Master controller>Household> Add Sim. I then filter by age and gender so I have a decent cross section of Sims, and enable testing cheats so I can teleport each Sim to the active lot, in this case the Prosper Room. I have a decent gaming rig and can usually add 20 Sims to a lot before my game starts to protest, but as mentioned in an earlier post I had to reduce the number of household Sims in this case to 16, I suspect because the Prosper Room already contains a number of service Sims.
Once all the Sims have been teleported to the lot, I then set about dressing them. This can be a laborious process but I usually have a couple of Sims in the household who have a dozen outfits in their inventories for this very purpose. It is then a simple process using Nraas to transfer one of those outfits to another Sim in the household. I click on my active Sim and then choose NRaas>Master controller>Intermediate>Transfer clothing. A box will then appear as shown below asking for details of the 'Destination Sim' and I then choose 'current lot.'
A list of Sims will then appear of the same age and gender and I just choose the one I want to transfer the outfit to. You can also choose them all if you want!
Now, for my current Prosper Room scenes, I placed meals on all the tables using Nraas Debug enabler: Nraas> Debug enabler>Options sim> make food. (Again, quite a laborious process, because I like there to be a good variety of dishes!) I then instructed the majority of my Sims to sit at the tables and start eating the meals placed in front of them, as seen in the below pic.
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Once they have finished eating, I can make them stay in their seats by having them converse with each other (which is probably the best way of making the scene 'lively') or by using Nraas animator: Nraas>Animator> Animation by category> Play Specific Idle>Seated Idles>a_chairdining_idle sigh_x. The wonderful thing about using Animator is that you can direct Sims where to look, too. (I know you can do that using pose player add-ons if you choose to pose your Sims instead, but if you use Animator the Sims continue looking until you cancel the animation).
I tried to illustrate my answer by using more screenshots but I kept getting warnings that I'd exceeded my character limit, so if anyone reading this needs more clarification of my process please don't hesitate to ask! Thanks again for the wonderful question @oasislandingresident!
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