#it'd help put a lot more in context probably

[creatively-cosmic]

Hi Starry, I’m back! :D

I’m glad you like the questions and that they aren’t annoying, because every bit of lore I read is like a taking a shot of dopamine lmao. And that picture of Fire getting a hug 🥹 brightened up my whole day. Trust me when I say that you guys reposting pictures and adding content to older ones isn’t obnoxious in the slightest. The art (at least for me) makes it easier to digest and form connections about the story in my head, plus y’alls art is great—who wouldn’t want to look at it? The lore/art in the last one was particularly interesting. (Like, young Red looks like such an polite, upstanding citizen and then you scroll down two pages and now it’s like “Tf you lookin crazy for”? Was that an implication that Steven had something to do with Red going missing/becoming Glitchy? And Leaf is funking DEAD?-)

Anyways, you know what that means! Question time: Leaf Edition!

The First (and most obvious) question: What happened to Leaf? Why is the homegirl dead? (Why was Leaf being dead, out of all the things I’ve seen so far, the one thing I wasn’t expecting?)

Second: What’s the relationship between Leaf, Fire and Blue? You said that Blue and Fire’s murder-suicide loop was spurred on by her death, so were they friends before she died? Did they see it?

And two smaller questions: How tall are the main four (Red, Blue, Fire, Leaf)? And do they have Pokémon Teams? If so, what are their teams looking like?

That’s all till next time! Have a good day/afternoon/night wherever you are!

TUMBLR FUCKING CRASHED HALFWAY THROUGH ANSWERING THIS ASK IM SO MAD FUCK. FUCKKK

We honestly can't thank you enough for all your questions, compliments, and just overall being a huge sweetheart. We're really happy you've been enjoying these, and whatever dopamine you get from seeing these, we probably get like. TENFOLD, just for seeing someone so interested, and giving us a chance to talk about this wild ride of a story. So really- thank you. This has been a delight!

This one is gonna be REALLY long (I have to rewrite fucking HALF OF IT now DAMMIT), as we want to talk on the stuff you crossed out, too.

(I'll put their heights and teams in a follow-up post btw, so watch for that.)

1. Red.

Young Red is an interesting point in time. See, he and Blue had a LOT in common- a lot more than you might think. Of course, Red was a good kid, genuinely- always so caring for his Pokemon, kind and passionate about them. He was polite to the people around him, and always soft spoken, when or if he spoke at all. The adults around Kanto and his hometown always adored him for how well mannered he seemed- a real role model, and stand up child. Just a bit shy.

In all truth though, Red moreso had a very strong mask. One that he only dropped, allowing himself to relax and act like himself around one person: his best friend, Blue.

Both of those boys were a lot more immature and competitive with each other- the main difference being Blue didn't hide it like Red did. They LOVED competing, always trying to one up each other in everything they did. When they were together, Red wasn't afraid to speak his mind, signing or whispering to his friend with a smug grin on his face. Around his friend, Red could really be himself, and they both loved it. Having so much fun, roughhousing and taking jabs and just being children around each other. A lot of people, when seeing this, would assume Blue- who was always rude and a bit more standoffish- was a bad influence, but really, the two couldn't be happier than they were with each other.

... When you spend God knows how long, trapped in a dimension with no human life, desperate and angry with unholy forces eating away at your mind, will, and sanity. Let's just say masking doesn't end up staying a necessary skill. A good portion of why Red being Like That now is honestly? Just because he just gave up on trying to make himself presentable.

He has bigger problems now than worrying about how people see him, anyways.

2. Steven.

I'll try to keep this short, as the Strangled Red elements of this story could warrant it's own post entirely.

To put it simply: Steven is, in part, directly responsible for Red's fate.

It wasn't HIS decision, mind you. He barely even thinks for himself anymore. But there were things that wanted Red, and Steven is very suggestible when it takes the right approach. So it lays itself out so simply.

Red trusted Steven, after all. Idolized him. Missed him. Would follow him anywhere. What better possible option could there be?

Of course Steven is the one to drown that boy on the coast of Cinnabar.

3. Leaf. (cw for animal death.)

Finally, the star of the show for this ask (as if this isn't long enough already). I can see why the information for her is more supriding as we haven't posted as much for her, which. We do feel bad about- our ability and motivation to make art for her was severely hindered by our struggle (I'm talking MONTHS) to make a design for her that we were happy with. Her story is WELL figured out, though, so we're glos we get to discuss! And now that her design is actually finalized, there should be more visual stuff for her coming.

So what happened?

Well! As is the entire premise of Missing Numbers, each major individual is based off of various Pokepastas. The easiest way to answer that is one of two of Leaf's sources:

Abandoned Loneliness.

But first, we have to go further back.

Fire was not the only Vessel made by the Almighty.

... He was the first, and the favorite. But he wasn't the only one. Leaf was the other.

Once Fire had come to Palette town, the next Game was set to begin any time now. But as the Almighty looked down on the world, He looked back at the others that had been built, and realized that the new Kanto was missing something. An alternative option. Though He was reluctant to change the structure of the world, it was, by all means, an improvement, and something the Players would expect after the past Generations.

She was less meticulously made than her brother. She kept her Heart and Mind about her, as there wasn't time, nor was it safe, to rid her of them like Fire. She would serve well enough as a Vessel regardless- and she did, as when the Game began, Leaf was chosen as the player's Avatar. (Not quite what the Almighty had expected, but the choice had been given for a reason, so it would be foolish to change anything now...)

Blissfully unaware of the nature of her existence, Leaf proceeded to go on a triumphant adventure through Kanto.

This is a good time, before we get back to the tragedy, to answer your second question!

Leaf, Blue, and Fire's dynamic changed throughout their journey through Kanto. At the beginning, let's just say things were... Tense.

Fire acted hollow, in the beginning, as he was meant to. Genuinely, it was fully expected that he'd be chosen as the players Avatar. So without it, he was left... Quiet and cold. It seemed he didn't care for anyone- not Blue, nor his sister.

Blue, meanwhile, was NOT in a good headspace. But at this point, after about two years passed since Red's dissapearance, he'd learned to hide those feelings. The people of Palette town, including his Rivals, knew him as this bitter, irritable person, resentful towards the world for incomprehensible reasons.

Leaf was the only "normal" one, basically. A cheerful, excited girl, whose heart bled for everyone she cared about and always tried to stand for the right thing. She didn't know where she came from... She had no memories of her life before "Red" and Hazel (Fire's mother) Yuuji found her, seemingly abandoned in the tall grass just outside of Palette Town, under the falling autumn leaves. Taken in as a part of their family, she grew attracted quickly, her loyalty and love and impulsive need to protect coming to be what she was known for.

With all this given, when the journey started. Leaf HATED Blue- he seemed to despise and bully her brother more than anyone. Blue didn't like Leaf much either, but wasn't as harsh towards her as he was Fire. Fire was as... Neutral as ever. But he silently followed the two once they went out, almost as if he wanted to watch over them. Ensure their safety.

As the journey continued, over time, away from the stuffiness of their hometown, the three started to grow closer. Maybe the fresh air was doing Blue good. Maybe Leaf was learning more about the world. Maybe Fire's deep brown eyes were growing warmer.

Somehow, a death was the tipping point for all of them to finally become friends. It's absurd, how grief was the thing driving them apart, but ultimately went to bring them together.

When Blue's Raticate died, he quickly fell back to his lowest point. Angry and hateful and heartbroken, lashing out, and ultimately running away. ... But it put everything in perspective. Through all her guilt (it was in a fight against her, after all, that the Raticate had been so severely injured), Leaf suddenly understood why Blue had been so horrible before: he was mourning. And he needed someone. It didn't make her forgive him, but it made her extend a hand.

And for once, knelt over the grave of a lost Pokemon, Blue accepted it. From that act of kindness, Blue genuinely began to get along with the others, and slowly, the trio came to be friends- all the way up to and after the Championship, where despite losing again, Blue felt closer to the others than ever.

... It seems in this world, good things don't last.

The events of Abandoned Loneliness happened several months after Leaf became champion. When revisiting Raticate's grave with Blue, Leaf came across a peculiar Pokemon- a horribly sickly little Eevee, too weak to even cry. Leaf had never been the kind to leave a Pokemon in need to fend for itself- kindly, she took the little stray into her care, determined to nurse it back to health.

The properties of Glitched or Corrupted Pokemon aren't something I need to dive into right now this is already ungodly long. What's important is that the Eevee was not a natural Pokemon. It should've been dead.

It always starts with a Pokemon that should've been dead.

Let's just say... Everything unraveled from there. Fully explaining what the events of Abandoned Loneliness translates to in Missing Numbers isn't something I have the energy to write at the moment (this is so long and I've been putting off finishing it cause I'm still mad all my initial writing got deleted >_<).

The important part comes down to Leaf's demise at the hands of this "curse." Bonded to that sickly little Eevee, when the world pushed her to put it out of its misery- voices of the damned screaming, unbearable, suffocating, demanding she DO IT DO IT DO IT, you can't bear to watch it suffer anymore, after all... The destiny bond it held her in dragged her down with it.

Nobody witnessed her death. She was alone and isolated at the foot of a mountain. She thought she could solve everything herself. Thought she could handle it all.

Her body was only found days later, curled up on the ground, rotting blood seeping from her eyes, with the body of the poor little Eevee in her arms. Trapped and suffocated by the hands that killed it. It was far too late. To maje it worse, her friends were the first to know of her death.

Fire was the one who found her body, after all.

Leaf's demise was a SEVERE breaking point, and unlike Fire, she didn't get a chance to be revived by God. Her modern presence in the world was not... Authorized, let's just say. Leaf had to claw and fight to keep hold of herself and climb back to existence in ways unprecedented, and believed to be impossible. But despite being a corrupted entity, her body was stable. And so, rather than Smite her as he would other Glitches, the Almighty decided to make good of an unintended situation: He could make use of her. A man on the inside is a powerful tool, after all.

So long as He kept her anger for her fate targeted towards the "true" threats.

I could keep going but I've babbled on way too much already for this post lol. I'm so sorry about the delay on this one- life REALLY got in the way. And Tumblr's buggy ass mobile app 💀

hopefully i can elaborate more without any crashing in the next round if there is one ashfshf

[oddygaul]

the REDLINE manifesto

In honor of my second DIY screening of Redline, here is, at long last, a prettied-up version of my most popular reddit post, an unabashed love letter to my favorite movie. Most of this is probably less groundbreaking than it was when I first posted it a decade(!) ago, but whatever, the internet needs more Redline content anyway.

REDLINE Trivia

–JP stands for Joshua Punkhead, and in the very first draft he had 26 children and raced to pay off his child support. Also, the catchy moniker ‘Sweet JP’? English-only… the original Japanese gets the mouthful ‘very sweet weaponless prince’.

–You'd be hard-pressed to tell without looking into the lore a bit, but Miki & Todoroki are damn near the only actual humans in the movie; everyone else is some species of alien. Some are obvious, like Shinkai (Oceanic/Chikulun hybrid) and Trava (Anista tribe), but even the most human-like characters are some other race. Sonoshee, for example, is listed as being half human, half Oceanic tribe (海洋族). 

The most curious case, though, is JP. While it'd be easy to assume he's human, there's a lot of details that don't add up: his unique elf ears, his super-lanky-even-for-a-Koike-character-design physique, the fact that his race is conspicuously redacted on his bail sheet… and his seeming immunity to death. Seriously, bro crashes every single thing he drives in the whole movie, then emerges unscathed with just a fiery flash of the eyes – that ain’t normal. If I had to wildly speculate, and I do, I’d put money that he’s somehow linked to Mikuru and the Giant species, as seen in Trava: Fist Planet. The physique matches, the Giants have displayed some preternatural healing abilities, and Trava lays the groundwork for a few other threads in Redline (namely, the existence of bioweapons and Shinkai & Trava’s past military experience), so there’s precedence. Maybe one day we’ll find out for sure…

–We all know and love Funky Boy thanks to the Roboworld president’s endless tirades. But the giant data-motivated crocodile monster Volton fuses with to engage Funky Boy in thrilling combat? She is a lady, and her name is Wire Girl.

–All of Redline’s vehicle and mechanical designs are nuts – they’re insanely complicated and filled with organic curves and details. Despite the immense difficulty of keeping such complex designs consistent, every mechanical shot is hand-drawn, without the aid of any CG. To help the animators stay on-target while drawing, the team made some sweet-ass production models for them to reference. What I wouldn’t give to own one of these…

–Before deciding on Redline being a film, writer Katsuhito Ishii and director Takeshi Koike considered making a TV series. Initial writers’ meetings saw the team fleshing out a comprehensive story bible about the setting: it included not only a wide-scope view of the universe and its history, but also detailed backstories for each racer. Even after deciding to make a feature film, Redline’s initial script gave each racer as much time and focus as the final cut gives to JP & Sonoshee; all of this was, unfortunately, cut for time. According to Ishii, though, much of this ancillary information made it into the novelization…

one day my Japanese will be good enough to read you ;_;

–Confused about why the movie ends with that sparkly, PowerPoint-ass ~LOVE~? Well, you shouldn’t be – Redline is ‘unabashedly dumb’, after all, per Ishii – but there is a little context. Over the course of the movie’s 7-year production, Koike and Yukiko (a producer on the film) fell in love, tying the knot in Switzerland just before Redline’s world premiere. If that doesn’t justify the ending for you, I don’t know what could.

–This isn't trivia but idk where else to put this stupid-ass Lynchman meme I made

Subtext you may have missed on first watch

–Machine Head is Sonoshee's estranged father?!

Crazy, I know, but hear me out. 

First of all, Redline unambiguously shows the viewer that Sonoshee and Machine Head have some sort of pre-existing relationship, the nature of which isn’t explicitly clarified. 

At the Oasis restaurant, Sonoshee tells JP she's waiting for someone; it may sound like she's simply brushing him off, but the moment Machine Head enters the scene, Sonoshee perks up and waves to him. When the Crab Sonoshee is flipped by missile fire during the Redline race, we get exactly two (2) Dramatic Anime Freezeframes: JP and Machine Head, implying those two, out of everyone, care the most about Sonoshee. During the final stretch of the race, as Machine Head prepares to pop his steamlight, he is not only aware that Sonoshee also has one, he taunts her about it:

“I see you still have your steamlight – got the guts to use it this time?”

JP even draws attention to the fact that Sonoshee’s looks identical to Tetsujin’s. Finally, though this is certainly ancillary, it is interesting to note that the exact moment Godwing loses its structural stability is right after JP declares he’s going to win because he, not Machine Head, has Sonoshee at his side.

So let’s line this up with what backstory we definitively know. As stated above, Sonoshee is a human / Oceanic hybrid; Machine Head, though his body has been modified beyond recognition, is referred to the same way. While talking to JP about the steamlight, Sonoshee says her father is the one that gave it to her, then describes him as a skilled racer who ran a junk joint. In that same conversation, when JP suggests she’s too focused on racing at the expense of personal relationships, she bristles and tries to end the conversation. During the flashback of young Sonoshee racing, her reaction to crashing is intense: she’s clearly holding herself to a higher standard, and is already dead set on racing in the Redline someday.

Now, there’s other plausible explanations for all this; maybe there’s just a romantic entanglement between Sonoshee and Machine Head, with JP barging in as the third vertex of a love triangle. But is that the most likely scenario for two people constantly characterized as putting racing before any personal matters?

No, I think Machine Head is Sonoshee’s father. 

Picture it: Machine Head raised Sonoshee at his junk joint, so she grew up around racing and car modification. After seeing success on the circuits, Machine Head stopped being content with mere victory, and started spending all his time and energy modifying his body, pushing himself farther and farther. Sonoshee, feeling neglected and cast aside, turned to racing, seeing it as the only way to get her father’s attention. This lead to her perfectionism complex; if she’s not the very best, why would the King of Kings ever look her way?

Anyway, while it’s not confirmed in the text, I think there’s so many hints it might as well be. It makes JP and Sonoshee’s romance a lot more interesting, too. Their arc isn’t just two people falling in love, it’s about Sonoshee moving past the trauma of her father’s emotional abandonment and opening up to someone new. After JP explains his match fixing history in the climax, Sonoshee isn’t placated because he told the truth, she’s fired up seeing the strength of JP and Frisbee’s friendship: she sees the folly of chasing approval from her absent father, and that she could instead be forming bonds with friends who support her unconditionally. She can race for herself.

Koike and Ishii said Redline is about adult friendships, after all!

pictured: the most romantic kiss in cinema history

–The Redline race is, in fact, underhanded political maneuvering

Now, this one is sorta just The Plot Of The Movie, but I feel like there’s so much going on in Redline people often don’t connect these dots. 

We all laugh at the Roboworld president’s hammy word salad:

“I wonder if this might be some kind of ploy by our enemies to infiltrate our borders. If that’s true, do you realize Roboworld’s military secrets could be at risk here? We’d be exposed!!”

…but he’s… kinda right, though?

At the time of the movie, the M3 Nebula has just emerged from two devastating interplanetary wars. The galaxy’s superpowers are under a tenuous peace agreement – one of the most important stipulations of which is a ban on the use and development of “bioweapons”, which in the Redline universe are less ‘weaponized bacterial strains’ and more ‘gargantuan synthetic monsters that can be deployed to wreak unthinkable destruction’. Despite this ban, the government of Roboworld has been continuing with bioweapon development unabated… and not only does Planet Supergrass seem to be aware of these violations, it really seems like they’re leveraging all their soft power to expose them.

Now, we know Supergrass is generally involved with the Redline final. As a member of the Redline Committee, they have a reason to be involved; they’re helping out with nuts & bolts logistical stuff, like transporting the racers to the course and prepping the finish line. But when you consider the significant, tangible political blows dealt to Roboworld by the race – Funky Boy and Wire Girl’s presumed destruction, Roboworld’s violation of the bioweapon treaty being broadly exposed to the public, the decimation of Roboworld’s military – the long string of coincidences that got us to that point start to seem a little suspicious.

Who pushed for the Redline final to be held on such a hostile planet? Who knew about Roboworld’s experimental orbital laser cannon – a project so tightly under wraps even their president only learns about it during the race – and hired contractors to sabotage it? Who organized a group of malcontents to attack both Roboworld’s power relay station and Funky Boy’s containment creche, right when such disruptions would be the most impactful? And who decided the race’s crucial middle stretch should go right over the restricted military zone housing said creche?

Supergrass has the motive and the means – plus, the race is already illegal, so what can Roboworld do, sue them about it? No sir, that Princess is on some subterfuge shit, and Secretary Titan, that shady fuck, is her inside man. And you can take that to the bank.

Craving more REDLINE?

Unfortunately, due to the movie’s commercial failure, there’s not much else in the franchise. The Redline production pilot is fucking sick, though, and there’s Trava: Fist Planet, an OVA by Koike & Ishii that predates Redline and focuses on Trava and Shinkai’s misadventures. While Trava never got the continuation it deserved, they did make a trailer for season 2... ahh, what could have been.

If you’re just after more of Takeshi Koike’s mind-blowing animation, there’s only a scant few projects in his trademark black-filled style. His most well-known work is probably the Samurai Champloo OP, or maybe World Record from The Animatrix (can’t find a link for that one, but y’know, do your thing). Koike also contributed animation to two other Ishii films: an extended intro for Party 7, and this aggressively horny dance sequence for Funky Forest. Back at Madhouse, it seems the studio liked to use Koike as a bait-and-switch, letting him direct lavish production pilots to secure adaptation rights then switching the staff up for the full production. Feels kind of scummy, but we got the immense Afro Samurai Pilot and Iron Man Pilot out of it. Finally, he made the series of Love shorts for SMAPxSMAP, the SMAP variety show, which are as dope as they are low-res.

I really wanna know if Koike was the one ballin out to CYNE and Gang Starr for this

—

And finally, as I threatened in my last post about Redline: let’s talk thematic depth.

~Thematic Depth~

In conversations online, Redline is often given this caveat of just being ‘eye candy’, or hit with the classic ‘style over substance’ cliche. Now, the phrase ‘style over substance’ has always bothered me, generally – it feels like it comes from folks who have never tried to make art before, who make light of the painstaking work and dedication that goes into creating anything – but it particularly frustrates me in animation. The process of animation is such an absurd, masochistic timesink that it’s a wonder anything ever gets finished at all; something this ambitious being finished, with this level of consistency and polish, is nothing short of a miracle, and to simply call that ‘style’ massively undervalues the whole endeavor. 

Because, make no mistake, Redline is ambitious as hell from a visual standpoint. The consistent focus on kinetic motion and speed, buoyed by Koike’s masterful use of exaggerated perspective, spatial distortion, and dynamic camera work; lots of moving, hand-drawn backgrounds instead of matte pans; lively crowd animation in most scenes; remarkably expressive, constant character animation that imbues personality to every character and never settles for industry standard lip flap dialogue… and all of this using incredibly complex character & mechanical designs, many of which feature distinct alien physiology, and a rendering style with bold, detailed shadows that would be more at home in illustration than animation. It is truly a singular work.

And the thing is, that wild ambition and unfailing dedication to the craft is the message.

The very first moments of Redline, before we see a single car or alien, are a brief series of title cards. I think most first-time viewers, and even many repeat viewers, immediately forget these words seconds after reading them due to the famously high-octane opening act. They read:

“In the far distant future, when cars are giving up their wheels in the changeover to air-cars, there still exist stubborn fools who carry on a vanishing spirit of racing…”

It’s easy to pass over this narration because, well, Redline simply isn’t about this conflict. We don’t see a single air-car racer, and there is no on-screen depiction of this purported old-school / new-school racing divide. So why is it here?

Because it’s the thesis of the whole damn project. Redline is about a group of old-school animation industry vets coming to terms with a changed industry that doesn’t support the type of art they want to create anymore, and their determination to pour their hearts into one last, stupid, beautiful swan song.

Madhouse was founded in 1972 by a group of ex-Mushi Pro staff, including Masao Maruyama and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. A response to Mushi Pro’s shoestring budgets and spartan timelines, the goal of studio Madhouse was to create production schedules where animators could flourish, rather than choosing the cheaper route; as Maruyama puts it, their mission statement was to ‘create animation other people aren’t interested in creating’. And, well, for decades, that’s what they did – Madhouse consistently gave a platform to idiosyncratic creators and produced incredible results. Their film canon includes pivotal productions like Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, Rintaro’s Metropolis, every single Satoshi Kon production from Perfect Blue to Paprika, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the film that launched Mamoru Hosoda into stardom. While their TV output might be seen as more workmanlike, they were still dedicated to creating original stories. For example, despite his proven track record, Masaaki Yuasa was unable to secure funding and creative freedom anywhere else but Madhouse, with whom he produced Kemonozume, Kaiba, and The Tatami Galaxy prior to the establishment of Science Saru.

Takeshi Koike’s formative years as an animator were during this golden era of Madhouse. Poached directly out of high school by Yoshiaki Kawajiri himself, Koike was taken under his wing – his first job as a professional animator was inbetweening for Wicked City, and he’d moved up to key animation roles just one year later. I think Kawajiri’s intent was for Koike to be his protege; in this boom era of animation, with high-budget feature films and OVAs as the de facto standard, creative vision and a unique style is what you’d look for in an up-and-coming director, and Koike had both of these in spades. For a time, this pathway seemed almost assured; Koike’s big-league directing debut on The Animatrix produced one of its most well-received shorts, even amidst an anthology stacked with superstar creative talent.

Unfortunately, the turn of the millennium brought a lot of change for Madhouse and the industry at large. Budgets shrank, and production schedules started trending towards today’s unsustainable nightmare grind. CGI became ubiquitous not for the unique shots and compositions it allows for, but as a corner-cutting method for complicated actors like vehicles or mechas. A certain homogeneity and tendency toward ‘safe’, appealing designs and premises took hold; what good is your off-the-wall, creative worldbuilding idea when the anime industry revolves around merch sales, and generic moe waifus are outselling your original IP ten-to-one? All these industry vets could see the writing on the wall: animation would survive, but things were changing, and the ideals they’d founded their studio around were becoming untenable.

So I genuinely believe Redline is a parting shot from the old guard, a celebration of the era of the industry they cut their teeth on, one last lush, extravagant farewell before they passed the torch to the next generation. Maybe not from the start, sure, but after years of troubled development, progressing slowly due to the team’s meticulous vision, I think they rallied around the cause, dead set on making a masterwork, no matter what. Just look at the talent they attracted, the staff list reads like a best-of: Shinya Ohira, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Sushio, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Sayo Yamamoto, Katsuya Yamada, Takafumi Hori. 

And that’s where we come back to that opening message, about those stubborn fools. Suddenly, that movie chock-full of characters putting everything on the line for their passions feels a lot more personal. Koike is JP, the traditional [animation / racing ] purist who’s become an anachronism and just wants to be able to do things his way; Kawajiri as the God of Racing, who JP’s looked up to since he was younger, giving him one last thumbs as he achieves his goals; and Maruyama as Frisbee, putting his livelihood in danger to buy his team the time and money they need for one last gig, who wants to see his friend finish the damn thing on his own terms, just this once. 

In a way, it makes it heartbreaking that Redline performed financially as poorly as it did; Japan’s frosty reception to the movie is at such odds with the fervor of its creators. But you know what? Redline exists, and it exists without compromises. They did what they set out to do. They made it across that finish line.

—

[erwinsvow]

Okay okay it doesn’t make sense within the context of the show but shhhh

Arranged marriage with pope.

Please hear me out. He’s so awkward and off putting and you’re so nice and innocent. Everyone is scared for you because well… look at him. But pope is just so obsessed with you. Staring at you 24/7. He touches you because he can. I imagine him trying so hard to delicately brush hair out of your face to be romantic but he just kinda ends up looking like the terminator

you have truly appealed to my ancestral roots. how did you know arranged marriage is my favorite thing in the world. there is really no canon context in the show where this makes sense but youre right, we are rolling with it because that is what i am here for. it'd have to be some sort of business transaction/deal with some other family... definitely some family that does not care about you and very old schooly decides to trade you away in order to get the codys to do jobs maybe... or a really big job where they can't have anyone snitching on them so the traditional way to go about it is to tie the deal with marriage.. idk. unnecessary context! the real answer here is just as you said—hulking, lumbering season four jacked andrew. there's no real 'wedding' which he doesn't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. it has to be him because duh he's the oldest. they probably try to get j to do it after a brief moment of thinking maybe it's not the best idea to give pope a wife but i think i could imagine j spinning it around and convincing the others it would be the best for andrew because it'd be stable and whatnot. i think andrew assumes you'd be some bad-tempered spoiled child of criminals like his own family. gets very uneasy at first seeing how quiet you are and how you can't meet his eyes and just little things that tell him you were not what he was picturing at all. maybe you made dessert for everyone and help clean the table after eating and while everyone's talking you just go start washing dishes to escape the conversation. and he'd already be in there cleaning so maybe you both realize you were very mistaken about the other. i like that a lot! i loooove arranged marriage aus gaaah. the niceness and innocence only grows. maybe you two get to see each other a few times before going to town hall to sign papers—you wear a white skirt with a pretty top but he was really itching to see you in a white dress. it's okay though, once you two are married he envisions a future where he can get you whatever you want in the security of your home with him. everyone's cracking jokes about you and him but he has a new mission in life now, which is protecting his wife. i imagine he takes it very very seriously. i can imagine reader being very very nervous and not sure what andrew's personality is really like because she hasn't heard the best things. mean taunts about how her new husband is a beast and she'll be lucky to stay in one piece. i mean you have to consider his reputation to outsiders too. he's just a big softie inside though once he trusts her and i think he innately does since they're bonded together now.

fondness has to grow and fear has to leave before anything happens. you unlearn flinching when you turn around to find him waiting for you already, realize how much he cares about you when he comes home with something you had mentioned in passing yesterday. and since there's a new small home for you both, he tells you to decorate it how you'd like and helps you with house hold things like putting up curtains and moving furniture to lay down a rug. just very cutesy domestic life. i think it would soften you both up a lot. and also i think he wouldn't sleep with you right away, even if you were open to it. he sees it as something more special than that since you two are married. in fact i imagine a month in, after lingering touches and lots of staring (all the time, when he's supposed to be laying out the rug he stops since he got to where you're standing and gets distracted by your legs and your hand hovering and especially distracted when he sees the wedding band on your ring finger. in the store when you're holding up two options asking him to pick his favorite, doesn't answer just keeps staring. when you're washing dishes and ask him to bring you his coffee cup and he just stares realizing this is how domestic bliss feels) anyways after a month of that and andrew trying to be a cutesy husband but it's more of an endearing sort of awkward (let's be real, would this not work on you?? it would on me) i think you'd be begging for it (you've been begging for it since the first week when you saw how big his arms get when he's lifting something for you and how veiny they are at night when you fall asleep next to each other) and only then would he complete his duties as a husband. alternatively, the entire house is so cute and set up now and it just feels like a home and you two have a routine and you feel like a real husband and wife and now with everything in place he finally feels ready to give you a baby because isn't that the point of marriage after all <3

[justafanofwhatever]

Jayvik ship<3

As an openly Jayvik shipper, I must admit I like creating stories in my head about them (and all my ships in any stories, truly). So I thought, might as well share!

Context: This is basically imagining if Jayce and Viktor got in a relationship at some point during the time skip between episode 3 and 4.

I'm pretty sure Viktor never had a lot of affection in his life, while on the other hand Jayce seems like an absolute teddy bear, especially if he's in a relationship.

So here's a little collection of moments I imagined of Jayce being sweet/worried, with a confused/flustered Viktor in response of it, because he's not used to it. (Honestly he probably would never get used to it, but at some point he'd most likely have less reaction, so I imagine this being more at the start of their relation)

(mostly all cute moments, a bit of arguing in the second stories, nothing too big though)

Flowers

Jayce always liked to give flowers to people he fell in love with, man or woman. It's classic, but it's always sweet, plus it brightens the space. So one day, as he passed by a flower shop on his way to work he couldn't help but think he should buy a small bouquet, or at least a rose for his dear Viktor, that they could put in their way too empty lab.

So he walked inside the lab, passing by Sky, who gave a sad smile. She had a crush on Viktor for a good time, but she knew he was with Jayce, but at least she was happy that he could be happy in love, even if not with her. Jayce passed the door and entered, walking to Viktor who was as focused as always on his work. So much that he didn't even realized Jayce walked in. Jayce gently placed his hand on Viktor shoulders to get his attention. As the other man turned around and looked at him, he presented him the flowers.

Jayce, handing Viktor the flowers - "There, for you V."

Viktor - "You got me flowers?" He said, a bit surprised. Obviously he knew giving flowers was a common way of saying "I love you" without words, but he still didn't really expect it, even less on a random day like this. If it had been his birthday or Valentine day he would've got it, but today? No, today was no special day.

Viktor - "Why? It's not Valentine day... Right?"

Jayce, chuckling - "No, no it's not. I just thought it'd be nice. You could place them somewhere in the lab" He suggested, before leaning down and pressing a small tender kiss to Viktor's cheek. The only answer he got was a small smile from Viktor, but he was more than satisfied by it.

Working late

(slight arguing)

Viktor always had this upsetting habit to come back home at crazy hours after work, or sometimes he doesn't even come back at all! This always worried Jayce, how much Viktor neglected the importance of sleeping. Today was no exception either, it was already passed midnight and he was still sat down at his desk, face in his book, where he was taking some notes. That is until he heard the sound of the door open, which was unusual, usually only Jayce and Sky would come here, sometime Heimerdinger, but never without a good reason and certainly not at this hour. He turns around to see Jayce walking in, to his surprise.

Viktor - "Jayce? What are you doing here at this hour?"

Jayce - "Viktor, I can't believe I'm about to do this, but I'll drag you home by force if I have to"

Viktor - "Slow down here, what's the matter?"

Jayce - "The matter? You never take care of yourself, that's the matter! You spend your nights here!"

Viktor - "And? I'm working on hextech"

Jayce - "Yeah, I know that. I know how important these discoveries are for you, but you should still care a bit more about your health!"

Viktor - "My health is as fine as it can b-"

Jayce - "Bullshit, and you know it! You have to come back home" He said, grabbing Viktor by the arm, his touch firm but not so tight. Viktor pulled away and frowned, with an irritated look on his face. As he was about to speak back, he saw Jayce placing himself down on his knees in front of him and resting his head on his laps, which certainly shut him up.

Jayce - "Look... I don't want us to argue about this... I just worry about you, and I want you to come back home with me after work. I... I miss having you at home with me" He paused, taking Viktor's hand in his own. "You're hurting yourself by doing this, you're exhausting yourself, and if I have to carry you home on my shoulders I-" But he was cut off by the hand of his lover gently caressing his cheek and answering.

Viktor - "Well, you might have to, more often than not... But I guess I could indeed take a break right now..." And at that Jayce smiled like a kid who just got given a bunch of candies.

Jayce - "Will you really?" As to which Viktor answer by a slight shrug and a smile. So Jayce finally got to convince his lover of getting a bit more sleep... For today at least, he knew deep down that this would be a never ending battle between the two of them.

Cuddles, kisses, soft touches and tender words

Jayce was affectionate in every way, but even more so physically. He loved to just come up to Viktor and snuggle in his arms, to wrap his arm around Viktor's waist as they were standing next to each other or to just lay his head on his lap, his chest, his shoulder, wherever he deemed would be comfortable truly. Viktor wasn't so surprised by it anymore, but one thing he'd never get used to were the small kisses left here and there.

He was just casually laying down shirtless on his and Jayce's bed, thinking about a multitude of things all at once, as usual. That is, until Jayce walked in and decided to lay down on the bed next to him, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his head on his stomach. At first Viktor just moved a hand down and gently played with Jayce's hair, before he started feeling him leaving a few soft kisses on his skin.

Jayce - "Love you, V.."

Viktor wrapped both his arms around Jayce's strong frame and hold onto him tightly, slightly flustered by the kisses but enjoying them nonetheless.

The end!

Ps: Sorry if some sentences are weird or something, English ain't my first language.

[our-queer-experience]

So so so (for context, i'm in latin america) Pride is in june and this is my second year going, right? First time i went very lowkey, since i was new AND im very much not out to my conservative family, and i would die if they saw me in the news. it was lovely, everything went fine, and nobody suspected a thing.

now, this year it feels important, and i want to do something flashy, but i'm not sure what

not helping the matters is that now i know more queer people (yay!), that i met in different contexts/places, and everyone has a different perception of my queerness, and i don't know how i feel about everyone seeing a part of me that they might find, contradictory i guess.

some of them know i'm asexual and aromantic

some of them i've talked with about my aesthetic attraction, and how i find people of all genders very pretty and cool and awsome

nobody knows i'm non-binary, and this one is a bit new and i feel very, vulnerable about it.

and everyone kinda sees me as... idk, i'm very openly sex positive, but also the kind of asexual that is "so, i don't have any attraction ever, but a lot of this is really cool (as in, to me personally), and i really like to learn about things like (for one of many examples) leather and the culture, even if i'm not sure i'll ever have sex", and ANYWAYS, having a good sex ed is IMPORTANT, but i guess people tend to see me as a prude???? for some reason??? maybe??, as an uwu asexual who doesn't know anything about sex

and like, it has gotten some queer friends baffled when we're talking about things, and i'm perfectly capable to hold a conversation about, idk straps for example. And they get all "how do YOU know about that????" ugh is so frustrating. one of those friends was a person who tried to put his penis in the urethral opening of his partner at the time not that long ago btw, and he assumed he knew more about general sex stuff that someone who cares about doing research and staying informed.

THE POINT IS. they are very much not expecting to see me showing much skin. ever. and ok, my usual style of clothing is not very revealing i'll give them that. But i really want to show off at pride y'know? i want to show off my thick and dark body hair, i want to show off my tummy because depression has made me lose a lot of weight, but i'm hoping to get better by june and be able to show the body i was really happy with. i want to show off my curves and big thighs and be proud of being non-binary with the body that i have.

And i want to maybe use something more revealing, because yasmin benoit is so cool, and seeing her leading pride was very important to me.

and i also kinda want something inspired by chappell roan, because i'm not immune to her ok

and i want to be loud about the aroace bit, because it meant the world to me to see others like me last year, and i want to be there for others too.

but i'm also scared, oh so scared of being filmed and recognized by someone dangerous. i'm disabled and young for fucks sake, i can't afford being kicked out or losing support. and, i know i'm not in the usa and that it's getting really really scary up there, but i'm also afraid of what will happen at the event, because my country tends to follow usa's lead, and our president is not exactly the best (a lot of us in latin america had also shit elections this last year lmaon't), and it'll probably be fine but i'm still worried. it'd be safer to go very lowkey and with the usual outfit for going to dangerous protests, but i don't want to have to keep myself lowkey, not when i have a choice.

gods sorry for the rambling, this got away from me huh.

anyways, any advice on anything? honestly even if it's only costume/outfit ideas i'll be happy to see them

id say wear a face mask- its good to do in public anyway- and a hat. borrow some friend’s clothes. if your family cant see your face and isn’t expecting you to wear “revealing” clothes…. you’d probably be fine :) good luck!

[bladekindeyewear]

Beyond Canon 2024 October and November Artist/Writer Commentary

So the new Artist and Writer commentary for this month's latest upd8 popped up on Patreon, and even though I've been working (pathetically slowly) on a draft post that goes back through the commentary in order from the past where I left off, I feel like the last two updates have been HAMMER BLOWS in terms of the seriousness, hopelessness, et cetera and I feel like everyone wants answers as badly as I do, and the teaser we got at the end of the last upd8 to whet my excitement can offset the bad news only SO much on its own. So even though I'm kind of too sick to be doing this today, I want to help myself and others cope by liveblogging the last two months' posts of Artist and Writer commentary each so we get some more... words from the word of God on why they're subjecting us to this.

As much of this is Patreon exclusive content I won't be quoting everything, I'll be making just a couple out of context quotes and summarizing or paraphrasing things that I find important to point out about what I'm reading.

I'll put a TL;DR here above the cut once I'm done-- ahem: "Oh yeah Rose was even more doomed to feel fucked in that sort of situation than I realized, and also there's a hiatus because an animation is coming to kick off the End of Act 1 / Start of Act 2, holy shit. Maybe I’d have known that already if I’d read the news posts, oh well".

10-24 Artist Commentary

This is the artist commentary for the update I liveblogged starting here.

They mention how it contains a lot of standout moments, "things are coming to a head in the story"-- there was indeed a climax between this update and the one that followed it, I certainly agree. Since this is the artist commentary, they talk about their appreciation for proposed pacing, the jaw-dropped yelling of some on reading the proposed script... there's a shot of the story board, of course.

They go into some interesting detail on how they went about devising how they wanted Jade's "Space force fields" to look.

Everyone loves Jade's paw-print gloves, as they should.

Haven: this panel showing “how rose ‘sees’ things now” was added late into this update's production and floral didn't have a description other than “haven go wild” 

Yes I can certainly believe that. Nice touch in retrospect thematically coloring Rose's blood with her color instead of the literal red it'd be.

"generic troll soldier bumps into a god"-- nice how they're lumping Kanaya in with the god-tiers when referring to the Gods of this world.

Oh I never actually noticed the rebellion's "massive crab tanks" in the background of all these other shots, no wonder they surprised me the following update.

The full hemospectrum of Blood around them grasping hands:

Haven: sometimes very blatant symbolism is the way to go.

exactly, noted, noted...

Some notes on how they did up Jane's office and her bridge, and the storyboard for that BRUTAL scene with Jane and Jake, ow.

Practice the different artists had at drawing Jane and Jake in "Guardian Mode", which is the new clearly adult sorta-hero-moded silhouette term that I probably would have gotten from reading the other artist commentary in order.

Nice thoughts on how even the framed photo of Tavvy next to the blaster button is a distant shot-in-passing photo that doesn't communicate a close family.

The shot, the heal, the turnaround and beatdown.

I got storyboarder brain and I love the excruciating anticipation of making people hold their breath between panels... When you know something’s coming but you can’t help but clasp your hand over your mouth like, “OH NO…”

Yeah, no kidding...

Nothing too concrete to note in this artist commentary, the writer commentary's probably going to be richer. So to save my sanity I'm going to do the next Artist Commentary first:

11-2024 Artist Commentary

This is the artist commentary surrounding the most recent upd8 i liveblogged.

Oh holy shit, this one has some big news I wasn't aware of!

Chumi, hoping you guys had a Happy Thanksgiving: Welcome welcome! 🎉🎉 We’re really getting into the holiday season with this one! Unfortunately, this is our last update until the Flash Production break. Look forward to the Flash guys, we’re working really hard!

I didn't expect them to start off our new session with a big flash, but if they're going to bust out some Animation to really emphasize any new stepping stone in Beyond Canon, the introduction or pre-introduction to The New Session™ is probably the time to do it. I'm pretty busy and/or sick lately (the annoying sort of sick not the dangerous kind) so I'll be glad if it takes a little longer before the next upd8 than it did this one.

They talk about how they carefully gradiated the sky over past updates to reflect the danger closing in, much appreciated.

Tavvy writes with something called "Magic Link" handwriting apparently; they go more into it here.

An Andrew-embossed-seal reference, huh? I'm not gonna elaborate on that but it is funny.

Rose covering the kids' eyes before the shot:

I thought I was so clever putting a bit of shadow underneath her hands… Because her aspect is Light… She’s blocking the Light / knowledge from reaching the kids…That’s why she’s a silhouette too… Heh…

Yep.

Kim: This particular bit gets me every time I think about it… Jade loves her child!!! The way it completely throws Jade off her game when the most precious thing in her life right now is suddenly in the middle of a freaking battlefield of a WAR. These kids just can’t stand still for one minute can they!!

Gahhh, it just tears my heart out. Rose could have stopped this with a word, earlier, but didn't... why not?! What does she KNOW where she sees this path being the better path forward than others?!

Jade getting shot...

Floral: I can feel how much this hurts, it’s so good.

Guhh my heart. Owwwwuch. Can bad things just stop happening to Jade Harley for once? Can some good things start happening where she gets to be cool and not shoved out of the way unceremoniously by the narrative? :C

Okay there's something interesting here.

Floral: I did a single panel for this update too, featuring Dirk’s bell tower and the rest of the human city that stands between it and the meteor site. So much to parse. Wonder what the significance of it all could be.

Implying this has some significance... does it have something to do with what's brought into the game session? With how much IS and how much isn't? Or are dramatic things happening at "Dirk's bell tower" repeatedly being themed to be brought home by something else happening there later? Hmm.

Oh:

The impact is also knocking over whole tanks and the trees around the area, so the Rebellion guys near the meteor are totally vaporized. Sorry fellas. The two peeps in front are just some random soldiers to fill the empty space HEHE.

This explains my confusion around the explosion. The crab tanks I hadn't noticed earlier that they helped point out above, and these indeed being two random soldiers and PROBABLY not a stealth inexplicable Aradia appearance. PROBABLY.

So the "End of Act 1" bit:

Chumi: We are not done with Act 1 just yet…

I was wondering how much the "psyche" meant, if it meant psyche regarding our place within the story, how much was left to go, whether this was a real act ending et cetera... apparently the end of Act 1 is coming somewhat soon from the sound of it, and that gives us an idea of what exactly is planned for this lovable clusterfuck that is Beyond Canon. Is this a three-act tale we're planning, or effectively one, sort of like our three most major build-ups and climaxes across the six acts in the main story (Descend, Cascade, Collide)?

A slight preview sketch of the computer exploding in GC's face you can see if you opt for the Patreon commentary, and that closes out that. Now we'll have a look at the really, REALLY juicy stuff for the last two updates, the WRITER commentary. I'm dreading seeing them drill down into the dread these last two updates gave us before the hope of a new session with our favorite new kid-kids in it, and I'm desperately hoping that as they explain their choices they sprinkle in some EXTRA hope they hadn't given us with Rose's twisted hopeless perspective, because I could use the positive reinforcement.

10-2024 Writer Commentary

Been so excited/apprehensive for this update to drop!! It’s been months and the entire time we’ve been going back and tweaking and playing with things to perfect it and it was worth it. Super satisfied with the response.

Any writers getting ready to write such meaningful dialogue and traumatize their audiences are going to be chomping at the bit to, I've had the taste of that in my mouth before as someone on the writing end and the twists you're ready to unleash can have you salivating even when you know they're going to cause suffering. ESPECIALLY when you know that. It's the entire author's curse that is essentially THE ENEMY in the form of Dirk Strider in this narrative.

And I was inspired to handle it in a way true to a Seer or Light, heavy in lore and reminiscent to Rose’s GameFAQs Walkthrough of the SBURB Beta.

That's a very good inspiration for putting most of Rose's predictions in her narrations below her walking away from that conversation.

They go a lot into the idea of her creating a Spatial shield, whether it would fall into the confines of her powerset. I like a lot of the keywords used here:

A stray missile comes towards them and the shield won’t bounce it off but manipulate and control the space around it.

Note the keywords 'manipulate and control', the change/control/manipulate keywords we've always held so central to the theorized Witch role and possibly the Heir role by extension.

And ultimately:

I think in general, a lot of aspected powers are limited only by the user’s imagination!  But even putting that aside, it makes a lot of sense to me that she’d have the tight control necessary of a spatial perimeter necessary to do something as basic as maintain a shield.  We’ve seen her do way crazier shit before.

--who could disagree?

FLORAL: There was a lot to explore with this conversation between Rose and Jade, the first one they’ve had privately since fucking… ACT 5, 2011?

Yeah, they barely got STARTED with the unpacking. And Rose refused to continue it because she foresaw that it'd be ultimately pointless.

Many thoughts of how their dynamic could be and how their dynamic would evolve under current conditions went into it and it was so fun!! Writing two people that obviously understand one another so well while feeling completely misunderstood and frustrated because they’re not being empathized with is complicated! But exactly how you show a character's specific perspective the best in my opinion. Rose and Jade share a lot of experiences, especially considering their Aspect switcheroo fake out, and have taken such completely different lessons from them. I love their friction! 

What's also unsaid here is how their Aspect switcharoo fake out was also secretly potentially paired with a REAL class switcharoo in the form of role inversion that they BOTH underwent, Jade getting a distrust of Seeing and Rose gaining a distrust of Witchcraft in making any ultimate difference as this wasn't the way they were best meant to operate as themselves, but can't help but project onto each other when stressed.

We know from Meat that even without all of Candy’s baggage they aren’t close. So why? There are very probable, passive answers and then there are equally probable drama answers, that actively communicate parts of these characters we never got to see clash.

Really interesting. And yeah, we DID get to see that from this update.

MILES: I think, and this is something that we’re going to touch on later in this commentary/update, part of that is that they really aren’t that compatible in terms of their interpersonal problem solving styles. 

We talked about this in a great deal of detail surrounding the update in question, and I'm glad they were intentionally provoking us to think about these things!

Okay there's a section here that I'm going to quote in FULL from the Patreon commentary, and it also outlines a divide, a HUGE rift between Candy Jade and Candy Rose that Meat Jade/Rose wouldn't have experienced, and the tragedy of its basic inevitability because of how events turned out:

MILES: And speaking of dear, sweet Yiffy, and the way Rose and Jade’s attitudes differ, there really isn’t a better example of their incompatibility than the two entirely polarized attitudes they take towards Yiffy’s existence: Rose’s detached view of Yiffy as amounting to nothing more than an inconvenient favor she did for a friend, as part of a cosmic obligation she barely even understands (more on this later), spits directly in the face of Jade’s knowledge that Yiffy is, without question, the most important thing in her life.  It’s arguably “right” that Rose chose to completely sterilize any feelings she might possibly have had (but probably barely even ever did) for Yiffy in terms of maintaining some modicum of emotional fidelity to her Actual Wife and her Actual Daughter, but obviously that’s going to chafe Jade.  Jade’s a lonely person!  Yiffy was a way to fill that void, and although having a daughter has absolutely brought some purpose, companionship, and stability to her life, the complications that came along with it have absolutely served to isolate her even more in other ways. 

:'(

With all the setups being given to us like Dave's stuffed corpse falling out of Jade's pocket, or the idea of Kanaya finding "new love" before Rose is saved that she refused to Foresee (I'm still banking on that Light Between Space OT3, you can't stop me), I'm really hoping that Candy Jade can both live through this and come to a MUCH LESS LONELY peace than she's come to in other timelines we've been forced to witness. I don't want Meat Jade to be the only Jade that comes out of this healthier and happier than she went in.

The commentary gets into Jade and Rose's debate on what Truth means, from a Light perspective or a Space perspective almost...

That’s why it was felt important to comment on Rose’s estranged relationship to Roxy too, in her ramble. Really cementing questions that were hinted at before, can you find closure in another, younger version of your dead parent? How does that evolve over the years?

I really hope that we get a version of Rose and Roxy out of at LEAST one of the two ongoing timelines that end up MUCH closer than this update implied Rose's parental relationship had forced them to stay estranged rather than get closer like they could have, possibly should have. I want them to come to terms with each other because they could be SUCH good sisters to each other. And maybe in the Meat timeline when they're put into direct conflict, when Roxy achieves some sort of victory over Rose, Void over the gaps in Ultimate Light, that it finally punches through her emotional barriers and lets that version of Rose accept her essentially-sister the way her Candy Self never let happen.

And now we get to that horrifying future-sight screed of Rose into the narrative text zone...

FLORAL: Everything Rose talks about in her monologue was so, so nerve wracking to write, to take so many points of what makes this character who they are laid out for the reader.

Yeah, it made so little sense why she'd say such callous things to Kanaya earlier unless she had been DELIBERATELY trying to push her away... which as it turned out in this monologue, she absolutely had been, having foreseen her own coma.--

Which is hard for serialized media because you guys don’t get those answers the way you would if you were watching a movie or a book, there’s real time waiting completely out of your control. It’s anxiety inducing! I’ve had a good deal of Homestuck induced anxiety myself lol.

Hell to the fucking yes. We're all feeling that incredible anxiety and only the writer knows, for sure, that it's all going to turn out okay, but we the readers have to wait in limbo with our anxieties gnawing at us all the while.

MILES: I totally get where you’re coming from, on that.  This bit felt like a part we really did need to write, partially for that exact reason; taking the readers on an exciting voyage to the twisted shores of Rose’s nihilisthmus is a peek behind the curtains that hopefully DOES serve to contextualize just how checked out she is and provide some more clarification on why it is she’s acting the way she does.

Instead of taking individual text blocks, Miles is going to give us the whole shebang summary, so I'll pull it straight out of the patreon commentary wholesale since anyone suffering like me probably ought to hear it with me:

Overall, as a Light player trapped in a universe/timeline/whatever-you-want-to-call-Candy devoid of “real” narrative consequence (and thusly, devoid of any “real” fortune that might seek to inform her Light-aspected guidance), she’s been sort of adrift!  Imagine having access to a cosmic intuition that points you towards what’s “best” and then, one day, you notice it’s broken.  Still trying, but broken nonetheless.  Rose is already predisposed towards existential malaise; she’s always needed action to fill that void, and when the little voice in your head suddenly starts telling you that you live in a world where action is fundamentally meaningless, coping with that reality probably... fucking sucks!  She has nonetheless done an admirable job of trying to keep herself anchored with a wife she DOES care for and a daughter she DOES love, but fighting the creeping thought that none of it means anything at all?  Having what you believe is objective cosmic confirmation of nihilism woven into the foundation of the reality you inhabit?  That’s scary shit.  Honestly, it’s kind of a wonder she’s even as sane as she is, but Rose, for better or worse, is quite the badass. Not great for the people around her, though.

I'm starting to see, that's useful additional information. Rose's Seer of Light powers aren't just telling her that this timeline doesn't matter, they're also almost broken to the point of uselessness by the fact that so little 'matters' in the entire world. And those malfunctioning powers have been reinforcing her nihilism just as much as the message that this is a Doesn't Matter Timeline is. Gosh that's depressing... and I hope what Vriska, the Plot Point, and the New Session pulling in their children does manages to eventually shake her out of it, even if she needs to get miraculously saved from a coma first.

Moving on...

Karkat and Kanaya clasping hands being awesome, yeah.

Jake and Jane's confrontation. As much as they wanted in their hearts to give Jake a win, they had to make him lose here because Jane is just too wildly powerful to fall to him when he'd only just turned around, and had to make it sentimental and personal instead of doing something cold and unloading enough lead into her to kill a God of Healing, which wasn't something he'd prepared himself to do, doing something more Jake and "cinematic" instead.

Then we cut back to the kids, and the next update:

11-2024 Writer Commentary

Okay, here we go. What are you going to give us from that last update that was such an emotional whiplash of impacts?

FLORAL, loving some bacon: THE HOMEWRECKER IS DEAD!!!!!!

God damnit XD You fucking jokesters.

Some comments they have about Jake's letter here, which seems unintentionally tailor made to provoke Vrissy into a frenzy:

We’ve been trying to give him a little shade of passive aggression, just a hint of spice, and I think this letter was a fun place for that.  “Sorry but you guys are kind of weak as fuck, can’t do a single backflip, and so you need to sit here and eat these considerately provided packages of snacks while a real gymnast handles shit.”  It’s a flex, but I think it also demonstrates his caretaker tendencies.

I'm trying to dissect what they're saying about him and more could mean about, like, his potential Class and Aspect, but I'm coming up with bupkis aside from all our previous scattershot analyses. Gymnasts can be Breath, Breath can be Provokers, and plenty of classes can be Caretakers, but... I'm still not entirely sure where Tavvy is going to land on the hero spectrum.

MILES: Unfortunately, he probably should have accounted for the fact that these two aren’t really inclined to listen to him.  When Tavvy flips the script on their established relationship dynamic, as he has quite a bit these days, it rubs at least Vrissy the wrong way. 

Yeah it didn't seem like Tavvy was TRYING to provoke Vrissy to run out in rage and try to do something heroic to keep her kismesis from showing her up, but he definitely had that effect unintentionally as hard as it possibly could have been, and any variety of Breath player could have unintentionally managed that, even a Bard. The Caretaker thing is being reinforced by the soda and snacks though, and this writer commentary... is it pointing to a specific caretaker class like a Maid of Breath? Hmm.

On Jade dying right in front of them:

Clearly shit is popping off a bit more flagrantly than the kids imagined.

To put it mildly, yeah.

Tensions have been building for a while, but blood’s been definitively drawn now.  It’s been a lot of setup to get to this point, but it’s super satisfying to see it all reach a boiling point here, even if it comes at the cost of poor sweet Jade’s cranial structural integrity. 

Everything this entire-- well, "Act", now that we KNOW it's an Act, has been building towards THIS climax in particular. A moment where so much shit goes down that we can officially say in every way that Shit Has Gone Down, and they had to herald it in with SOMETHING shocking I guess... especially if they want to neutralize the lingering macguffin that is Candy Calliope's spare Ring of Life if I had to guess from the hints they've been dropping.

The act curtain drop, the psyche, and...

MILES: You’ll notice that, with this little gag (which felt so fun to do, by the way), we’ve returned to the ACT structure, abandoning the CHAPTER format HS^2 utilized before the production change.  This was a point of a lot of thought, for us, but ultimately we think that the Act structure makes more sense for the story it is that we’re trying to tell, for a variety of reasons that I’m not gonna get TOO into here.

With a new session on the cusp of starting, I can really imagine why.

That said, we’re coming up to the climax of what we consider... I don’t know, the “setup” period of the plot?  It’s been a long, long road, and it’s tough to say what final percentage of HS:BC this whole saga is going to represent, but capping it off all under the purview of one Act feels appropriate.  Everything, from the beginning of HS^2 to now, has been dedicated to fully selling the transition from the Epilogues to what has become Homestuck: Beyond Canon.  It’s been just over a year of updates on our end, and it’s so crazy to see this arc getting ready to finish!

That confirms a feeling I was getting but wasn't sure whether to confirm. That the entire time we've been experiencing HS^2, interrupted by that long hiatus in between, was meant to be a setup for THIS moment where we realize a new session is starting, and we're dumped fuck deep into the Game Session format with all the establishing situations and incoming vectors and player collisions to come laid out like bullets streaming in converging on a single point of impact.

And to finish it out, they analyze our new Dark Purple Text Friend!

HAVEN: “Negging” this is new! And again with this 108 number pattern, how curious.

I genuinely forgot they did that 108 earlier in Vriska's plot point. Read back on my Homestuck Liveblog tag for people pointing out the significance of that as HS:BC's act number.

This person seems to drag on each sentence... Before snapping back to finality.

A trait I hadn't noticed besides the bombs, but a trait one bomb-and-fuse oriented could be reasonably said to have without indicating to us which Doom class this obviously-Doom-player is.

HAVEN: A lot of information here! TC and AA, who are curious characters and what could their roles be? (well I suppose you could guess their upcoming roles.)

There probably ARE hints to TC and AA's literal hero roles, their classes and aspects (such as Oracle being listed there), but we don't have enough of them on hand to tell the wheat from the chaff just yet beyond that. I'm sure we're going to be getting piles of hints in the coming pages both up through and after and possibly within whatever flash-like animation they're taking extra time to cook up for us to celebrate the miracle of this new beginning.

They point out GC's "and we did spend a lot of time on it..." meaning they're the ones that must have coded this new incarnation of The Game out of the Ruins codebase.

HAVEN: Here I think there was going to be a line specifying they had “47 friends lined up” but it got switched out.  JAMES: I wonder if that's important. I guess we still need to be sort of coy about it.Which is horseshit. HAVEN: Yeah, that IS horseshit! Anyway our coyness continues.

I like how they wanted to make at least a JOKING reference to a 48-player Squiddle session that isn't going to happen, because I'm still betting that somewhere between 8 and 16 people is the most we can comfortably fit in a new plot like this, not to mention the Gene pattern that seems to be being followed so far, but we'll have to see.

Alright, that's the end of four posts of commentary. I've gained a LITTLE bit of meaningful information and some expectations on the upcoming timeline, and I hope you have too, and I also hope I didn't pull so much out of the Patreon exclusive info that y'all don't feel discouraged to chip into Homestuck Beyond Canon too like I'm doing if you have extra dosh to spare (but only to spare, don't impact your livelihood if you need the money for important/life things, that's advice they and anyone else would give you).

I'm feeling slightly less sick by luck now that I've rammed all this typing out of my fingers, and hopefully y'all feel a little less of the ominousness that can't help but hang around recent in-canon events. Phew.

I see in the Patreon comments some commenters are extrapolating from that cut "48" that Dirk wants to create the session that made the TROLL session (with the trolls' 48 star signs) to complete a solid loop, which I concede is possible, but I doubt his goals are really all that pedestrian, that wouldn't make him the most important the way he's aiming-- you already have my counter-speculation in hand that Dirk intends to create the session that gave birth to the chess game ITSELF, that gave birth to the Prospit/Derse system and the very seed session for the propagation of Paradox Space. Alt!Calliope seems like they're practically in alignment with him on the goal, wanting to tie Beyond Canon back down into a neat self-causing loop excepting that Alt!Callie's intending to ensure he doesn't get to make himself the Author Of All That Exists, no matter who it hurts when she forces the issue, which makes Alt!Calliope not much different from him. And between these dueling forces, we have the ever-underestimated plans of Calliope and Roxy across both timelines, the Muse of Space and the Rogue of Void, who seem to have SUCCEEDED in collaborating knowingly or unknowingly across the timelines to use Vriska as a shunt to SOMEHOW get the Candy Kids to be important friends and players in this new Game, bringing things all full circle in a way not even Alt!Calliope thought would save their home timeline but quite possibly can. How exciting!

It hurts, sometimes, but gosh do I still love Homestuck. See y'all whenever that next hiatusy bombastic probably Flash-animation-like update goes up in a month or two or however long it takes them, bless their diligent crazy hearts.

[cripplecharacters]

I have a story set in 1982 and forwards. Two of the characters are brothers, with an age difference of around 10 years. They're both adults, so the older one needs to be in his thirties at minimum for the story to work. I thought they'd both be wheelchair users, but i'm unsure about what exact condition i should give them. There's also a third brother, and possibly one sister, who wouldn't have it.

Since they're brothers it should propably be something inherited (it'd be kind of contrived if both just happened to get injured), but i'm not sure what exactly. What i've already figured out is that they can't have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, because the older brother would propably bee too old to still be alive.

Hey,

There are quite a lot of genetic conditions that could result in this scenario, so to name a few;

Spinal muscular atrophy (recessive), type 3 specifically because the types matter a lot (type 1 and 2 had a very short life expectancy in the 80s while type 4 wouldn't require someone to use a wheelchair in their 20s). SMA3 has a lot of range in when it can start, so the younger brother would probably have to be diagnosed on the earlier side to be using a wheelchair at that age.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, which also has a ton of types, so I'll focus on Calpainopathy because it's the most common. The recessive variant can start almost whenever and depending on the progression of the condition it can result in inability to walk anywhere from 10 to 30 years after first symptoms.

Friedreich’s ataxia (recessive) and Spinocerebellar ataxia (dominant) are two conditions that include, as the name suggests, ataxia (which is a muscle coordination disorder). They are both progressive and could work for both characters if the younger one was diagnosed early.

Central core disease, which is a type of congenital myopathy (mostly autosomal dominant). It's one of these conditions with very wide presentations, so one of the brothers could be ambulatory as an adult while the other never actually walked.

Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as Brittle bones. It's mostly people with type 3 that use wheelchairs.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which is really common and also has a wide range of symptoms. Most people with CMT are ambulatory and might use things like orthotics, but more severe types could result in someone being unable to walk.

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome because it will inevitably get mentioned a lot in the notes so might as well put it here already. It causes hypermobility, which can make joints dislocate and sublux. It's common as a condition but would be pretty rare for two people to have it be severe enough to use a wheelchair.

Spina bifida isn't actually genetic as far as we know, but having one child with it increases the chances of having another born with SB as well, so it could be an option.

For context, dominant here means that at least one parent actually has the condition with its symptoms, while recessive means that neither does.

You can also of course have the brothers have two unrelated disabilities, it's obviously rare, but it happens. Maybe if they were in an accident together, they could've both sustained injuries. Or, they could have completely different disabilities where the older brother had polio (even makes sense with the timeline if my history knowledge doesn't fail me) and the younger was born with phocomelia, or anything else.

Hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[bleue-flora]

tbh that book cpunz had with kinoko kindom Cords and the "be safe" probably from cdream was so cute. Like he could have Say "don't be seen" or "don't fail" "do your job" even "be careful" but cdream's saying "be safe". He shows more worry for punz well being and that lining up with his other ways to keep cpunz put of the direct line of fire is so cute. Like cdream of course cares a lot for cpunz. They're Friends from the begging of the server and he's one of his last Friends he has and hasn't cut ties with him yet. Punz defended him in the start and Even when they weren't on the same side they still got along. He Even is intereses on the Revival book helps with the death experiments like idk these details on these two Friendship are cute for me Even if both actions sometimes aren't the Best

[context]

Oh you think it was from Dream?... see I think it was for Dream from Punz. As in, he got the coords for Kinoko and left them there for Dream to find (since in that scene after prison Dream talk about how the tower is the way they use to communicate) so he could go get his armor or whatever. Especially when he threatens Kinoko in his confrontation with Sapnap, it is highlighted how he does not know where it is. Either way, it's cute. Even the difference between "be careful" and "be safe"... ya know I kinda just realized that it'd make sense for Punz to say "be safe" to Dream not "be careful" because he knows Dream won't be careful, but he hope he'll stay safe :)

[qoldenskies]

would cc donnie be out before she and tim started dating or come out during? and would she come out to tim or her family first? i have Thoughts about them

honestly i always imagine donnie and tim would just peacefully slowburn for like. a Comedically long time (literally everyone knows and they both know but neither of them want to make it weird so whatever) so i think tim would be the first person donnie comes out to while theyre still friends, in this hypothetical. she's comfortable with using him as a sounding board for ideas before she goes to the rest of her family, mostly because he's not so intense and overprotective and he doesn't have all of the context and bias that would make it, like, weird. plus he's pretty grounded and hearing his opinion really helps her realize when the others are being unreasonable. it makes it easier to express her boundaries and talk about herself. whenever she tries to put her foot down, there's always some kind of baggage with the others at first, and she usually feels like it's her fault.

i think it would be a conversation kinda like "is it normal to want to be a girl? do you think it'd be weird if i wanted to be a girl?" and idk tim seems like a really chill person, he'd immediately be supportive. it'd make her a lot more confident before she comes out, although i think she'd do it very quietly to one of them (probably mikey) and he'd do a lot of the heavy-lifting and telling everyone so it doesnt have to be a Big Thing.

i think she'd phrase it as "im just trying it out" because she doesn't want them to ask her if she's sure like they kinda do with everything else-- even though they probably wouldn't, with something like this. she's sure and she isn't-- she doesn't see a reason to want to go back once she realizes how euphoric being a girl makes her, but there's a constant what-if mostly born from all the anxiety. this fear that she could be wrong. she doesn't want to make a big fuss about it, even though it's something that deserves being celebrated. they ease into it and get to do that later, when she's built her confidence up.

[princess-of-the-corner]

So I was ranting to my mother about ML and how I hate Chat's lack of importance in the narrative and how he constantly gets sidelined, and after going into the details, she joked that Chat is Ladybug's sidekick.

Which got me thinking (always a dangerous affair). How WOULD things change if this wasn't pitched as an equal partnership? If Chat was purposefully given the sidekick label by the narrative and the characters? For argument's sake, let's say that Marinette had some more direct training from Fu before he sent her loose with the miraculous, but Adrien wasn't Discovered TM until after that time period, so Mari is more experienced and also still has more important powers.

I don't think Chat would feel as much resentment about being edged out and not trusted with secrets, because that's not his job anymore. He'd still be a bit salty about being lowkey replaced by the other temps, but nowhere near as much.

But I also think it might make him take more initiative to prove he can be trusted to do and know shit. Nobody, including him, holds the assumption that he's entitled to the same responsibilities and knowledge, so he might be more active and deliberate in showing Ladybug that she can lean on him. It'd encourage more open communication and responsibility from him, but I think it might also make him kind of reckless and desperate by constantly throwing himself at problems before anybody else gets a chance.

I feel like that may take pressure off Ladybug too. Whenever Chat starts to goof off, I don't think she'd feel as put out or upset about it, because it's not immaturity from someone who's supposed to be putting in as much legwork as her, it's someone she's supposed to be mentoring, so I think she'd treat it more like when Alya or Nino do something silly and dumb. Still "Not the Time or Place," but a lot less "You Should Know Better" happening.

It'd probably change the lovesquare up a little bit too. Not by much, since Chat is functionally her sidekick in canon, but it would add a few more parallels between Gabe and Nathalie, which could be fun. I also think that her being his outright teacher would take Chat's idolizing of Ladybug and crank it up to 10, which would kind of put him on par with how Marinette feels about Adrien in the earlier seasons (they both over-idealize each other in canon, but I think Marinette is probably worse about it).

In general, I think an acknowledgement of that dynamic between them might make their relationship less. . .tense, for lack of a better word. Just. A lot of miscommunication and shit might be cleared up if the two of them had different expectations for each other and themselves in the LadyNoir context.

I also think it might open avenues for Chat to do Fun 60s-Robin-Style Sidekick Shenanigans, which would be VERY entertaining, and it would DEFINITELY change up the tones of the New York special and how they interact with UV and Sparrow.

Idk, just interesting thoughts I had after subjecting my mother to my sleep deprived rambling.

So I do wanna address at first like.

This might just be how it's worded, but it makes it sound like Chat only feels /entitled/ to knowing secrets because he's there while doing nothing to prove himself, and also that him 'goofing off' is a constant problem.

Which is quite the opposite. Chat is putting in just as much effort as Ladybug, he's just given the short end of the stick because...... literally no in-universe reason. Like I've seen some people argue 'it's because Mari turned in the Grimoire to Fu while Adrien didn't', but Adrien took the book and was gonna bring it to Ladybug's attention, he didn't know about Fu. Hell, Mari didn't know about Fu at that point! Tikki told her! For some reason Plagg didn't tell Adrien.

He's even stepped up and asked 'hey please give me more responsibility, even if it's something 'minor'!'. Like offering to help Ladybug hand out and recover the Miraculous from the various temps he knows the identities of. He's just shut down and called a hindrance who would fuck it up.

Meanwhile Chat goofing around rarely causes problems. It /can/ of course, but it rarely does. Usually Chat is able to be both silly and effective, and when his silly nature does cause problems he typically backs off and reorients into focus mode.

But also this really highlights how it's so dissonant in the narrative. Chat is sidelined not because there's any in-universe reason for him to be sidelined, but because the writers want to sideline him

Anyway:

While I think some of Adrichat's frustration would be lessened if he was a 'sidekick' character in the first place, I think there'd be less changes and more just a re-contextualizing of the actions. Instead of 'Hey I'm supposed to be your partner but you're treating me like a sidekick(at best)', it's more 'I know I started as your sidekick but I think I've done enough that I should be respected as a long-term teammate who's been here for nearly every fight over the people who have been in less than i can count on one hand'.

[pinkpeccary]

1, 2, 9, 14, 19, 25 for the spotify wrapped asks!!!

1: Catchiest song

i'd give this to #18: Bad Day by Charlotte Sands. the chorus is fun and the beat punctuates it really well. it captures an emotion i am very familiar with (i'm upset right now and you can't make me feel better) and i've found it popping into my head when i'm in that sort of mood which a) helps surprisingly much and b) supports it's catchiness

2: A song you didn't expect to see in your top 10

i'm a little surprised by #6: every word by Animal Sun. of the four songs from them in my top 100 it's the one i discovered the latest, and i really like it but wouldn't've guessed it'd be so high.

9: Favourite lyrics of your #1 song

Make me bleed if you need to confirm that it's something I can do And I'll paint it red If you're still unsure, let me lie for a day Before they formally announce me dead When I'm gone, cast the bronze for the bust of my head To be displayed in the library Engrave that I gave my consent To be anything that anyone prefer I be

specifically it's that last line that speaks to my heart, but i think the context of the chorus as a whole is important to that.

14: A song you think is underrated

Like A Child by Mother Mother (#31). fun fact, MM was my #3 artist this year but only two songs made it into the top 100. i have a deep love for their music in general, and there are more songs i listen to, but this is one that's been resonating with me the most recently and i think it's a bit of a hidden gem based on streaming numbers compared to others on its album.

i feel like this song represents something important for me about where i am in terms of healing. the Mother Mother songs i listened to in high school was largely about depression and anger and struggle. songs like All Gone or Happy or Body or Burning Pile. then in 2018 they released It's Alright (and the rest of Dance and Cry), which timing-wise was around when i was starting to put myself back together and figure out who i was as an adult, with the ability to make my own choices. and now, Like A Child feels like a acknowledgement of progress. and importantly, a recognition that having an unhappy childhood or growing up too fast doesn't mean you can never go back. it won't be the same, but engaging with childlike wonder and joy even as an adult is still a powerful thing.

MM has a lot of bangers, but this one deserves more love imo

19: Is the most streamed song by your favourite artist your favourite of them?

now this is a hard question because it says favorite artist not top artist. which means i need to pick. i think i'd probably have to say Raynes or Noah Kahan- if it's Raynes, maybe? top song by them was Cast the Bronze at #1 and i do love it, but Second Thought (#7) might be my favorite so i'm not sure. if it's Noah Kahan it's an easy no- my favorite by him is Homesick, which was #2 last year and #21 this year. but my most streamed this year was Catastrophize at #3.

also fun fact: in the artist message for top listeners Noah Kahan called us out for having gone through "something traumatic" and said "if you're an emotionally stable person and you're listening, i would consider listening to something else" which. yeah. if it was not clear already the theme of my music listening seems to be "childhood trauma" (but in like. a normal healthy it's just a part of who i am way)

25: Favourite lyrics of your #100 song

I just turned 14 And I think this year I'm gonna be mean

for this one it's definitely this specific line and doesn't need the surrounding lines for context. i've seen this song getting clowned on more recently for being written by a trans man cringe which is weird cause it's good. i think it's interesting from a personal gender perspective because i relate to it on vibes more than actual matching experience. kind of like how mountain goats songs are somehow the most relatable when they're about hyperspecific characters in hyperspecific situations. distilled emotion or whatever.

anyways i had a lot of anger as a kid and tended to bottle it up and then explode. i also have a lot of baggage about being "nice" because it feels like a box i was put into very early on and never allowed to leave. one of the biggest healing things for me has been allowing myself to feel anger, embracing the idea of being mean, and especially in the context of being a kid.

"i think this year i'm gonna be mean." as a teenager i never knew where the anger came from. like, i knew immediate causes, but it took moving out for college to realize just how much living with my family was fucking me up on the daily. so like. idk, the idea of just. deciding to be mean. not for any reason. i just am. it's relatable.

Ask Game Here

thank you for the ask!!

[loachbrain]

trying to get more adept at parsing my disassociation in general; a lot of why I started to seriously explore plurality as a possibility the last six months or so was bc I figured even if I wasn't it'd help to be more aware of the timing and nature of my disassociative symptoms, since I experience at least mild forms of disassociation, depersonalization, or derealization pretty much every day. last night had a pretty solid moment for me in that regard; I came back to my room (and boyfriend) after a while involved in a group conversation with the IRLs abt some logistical stuff, and was able to look back on the conversation and recall that at one point it had gotten overwhelming and I had been trying very hard not to cry, and that then that suddenly wasn't a going concern for me and that I was only vaguely aware of why I'd been so upset.

I think I do tend to clamp down very hard when I feel 'put on the spot' or like I'm experiencing an emotion that's not safe to express in my present context; it wouldn't be exaggerating to say that I have a pretty well honed 'reflex' for shoving my momentary needs aside in situations like that and changing up my, like, behavioral template. That's a situation I previously would've described as switching into another mode, or changing my masks. Lately, I'm considering that those experiences are likely ones where fronting is passing between different facets; my memory is probably worse around those moments of extreme emotion not only because I've always had a harder time forming memories when I'm in a tight spot like that, but, I'm now thinking, also bc these situations (stress that can't be externalized comfortably -> pushing it away 'for later' as hard as I can -> change in communication style and level of comfort, without an accompanying sense of having processed or buried the emotion) are ones where I'm switching and in a more pronounced degree of disassociation as a result.

Unfortunately I don't have much to go on regarding the distinctions between facets. It's not like, oh, I was a really nervous guy and now I'm a really angry guy, or whatever. it's just like, well, it's different! Anything beyond that would at present represent raw guesswork. Whatever I was presenting myself as after the presumed moment of switch got me a bit more efficient, largely by way of getting a bit more overtly demanding/willing to draw attention if it expedited getting the information I needed. My internal communication is still crap/next to nothing. I think I've got more going on than the one or two facets I've been able to elucidate, particularly since I don't really get a strong sense of who or what is fronting; in the moment, I'm always experiencing life as a contiguous 'me', even if that me has little connection to reality or the immediate past.

[frigid-moon-fall]

Welcome to what I ended up calling the StahnLeon Tales of Rebirth Isekai Roadtrip. Look forward to 1 a week for 22 weeks.

Part 1: Where the heck are we? [Next] I'll tag all of these ones specifically with "torirt" (and not with Tales of Rebirth since it's kind of the background character of all this) just in case you don't want to see this strange crossover. All of them will also have the StahnLeon tag even though a decent chunk of them might plausibly look platonic. There won't really be any major spoilers for Tales of Rebirth in the pictures themselves unless you consider "this is an area that exists and this is roughly the order you go to them in" as a major spoiler. But the included text in the rest of the post will probably include spoilers. I'll mark them and put them under cuts as needed, so you can still enjoy the pictures if you're trying to avoid spoilers.

More information/ranting (but no spoilers) past this cut.

When I first started playing Rebirth when the patch was released, I put this shot together just to be cheeky. Destiny's PS2 remake was built off the back of Rebirth, so its art style is also somewhat similar. Similar enough that you can swap character sprites between them and they don't look too terribly out of place.

I thought it'd be neat to just imagine them in the background of the game somehow remaining ignorant of everything around them. But then I got more involved and made more.... one for each play session. So there's a total of 22 (+1 bonus) of these that I'll be posting.

It became an exercise in improvisation as well because I decided the next picture always had to be in a place that we had been the previous week, and somewhere that it would make sense for them to go. I'm happy with the resulting pictures, but I'm also happy to be done with Rebirth so I don't have to do this on a weekly basis anymore. The timesink varied.... a lot.

Q: When does this take place for them in the context of TOD? A: Post-game, survival route, mixed continuities where Leon rejoined in Libra IV before the explosion. I never quite decided how long after TOD. Maybe a year? A year sounds good, considering...

Q: In that case, how long have they been together in this? A: I never decided that either... Maybe also a year? Maybe since the night-before-the-final-battle? I don't know.

Q: How did they get there? A: Don't worry about it.

Q: Shouldn't they be freaking out? A: Don't worry about it.

Q: Okay but what about Gajuma A: They already kicked Mictlan's butt for what basically amounted to eth/nic clean/sing. Do you really think they'd make a big deal about race? They might have been a little surprised at first because they're new, but they didn't make a scene about it.

Q: Shouldn't they be looking for a way home? A: They're keeping an eye out as they go, but everything back home was fine when they left, so they're not worried. They're enjoying just traveling peacefully and seeing a new world.

Q: Why are they just letting the plot happen around them? Shouldn't they be helping? A: They are very conveniently and somewhat comedically just managing to miss the plot. A lot of luck led them to never notice anything weird happening.

Q: Wait, if it's post-game, do they have their swordians...? A: They don't! Sorry! (And I don't know what that means for how strong they might be considered in the world of Rebirth!)

...

Here have a stale meme

[kushami-hime]

Shadow context in mind?? I am interested ☺️

Well I had an idea for a scenario where, on the ARK, Shadow must have gone through a lot of experiments and tests to ensure his 'ultimate lifeform' status, right? This would probably be a bit before the invasion of the ARK when all was peaceful and he and Maria were just chilling in space

Basically G/erald needs to ensure all his senses are working, and working better than any other living being. Taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell...basically G/erald puts together a specific chemical makeup to test his nerve cells, olfactory organs, mucos membranes, turbinates, ect. It's essentially the world's worst sneezing potion (idk if it'd be more of a perfume or a powder like chinknii) so he basically hooks him up to some monitoring equipment, and then waves this mixture in front of him to elicit a reaction, and if he gets one, everything is running fine! But maybe the mixture is a bit too much, and it causes a more...surprising reaction 👀

If ya have any other ideas to add feel free! I imagine M/aria is like 'ohoh grandfather can I help?' And she's just happily holding a box of tissues for Shadow during the test idk 😅

[msfcatlover]

Shadow Tim (Reverse Robins)

So, a few very important things to keep in mind for Tim's iteration of the Shadow design:

Tim is taking it up as a tribute to Steph after her death.

Tim does not have a Moonbeam as his partner. (He was supposed to be the next Moonbeam, apprenticed under Cass, until shit went down.)

Tim lacks the fully context & perspective on Being Shadow that Steph & Damian had about it (but he's trying his best.)

To start with, Tim brings Shadow back to Damian's greyscale & gold color scheme, but with one critical difference: where Damian had pops of red, Tim uses very light touches of purple.

(Tim also keeps Steph's bat symbol, so here's a quickly thrown together contrast. Tim has no Moonbeam, so he gets no light/metallic accent on his bat symbol.)

The second major tribute is that Tim adds a cloak, specifically taken from Steph's original Spoiler design. Tim's version is black with a purple lining, and gold trim around the edge of the hood, calling back to both Steph's dual-tone hood & her hair. The cloak itself is ankle-length; not practical, but evocative & stylish.

(So this style cape, and massive thanks to the Stephanie Brown Costume History page, y'all are lifesavers.)

Tim relies on the cloak to disguise his form, with the costume itself being much closer-fitted than previous iterations. The top is a black bulletproof vest with short sleeves added not dissimilar to his traditional Robin costume, but the weird stripes are actually places for him to tuck gadgets he expects to grab in a hurry.

(Basically this, but all one piece, with the Robin sleeves, and obviously lighter on detail to keep from being visually cluttered. No one wants to draw or look at all those lines & straps, or that little wheel-velcro-thing.)

Tim wears a dull grey chainmail body suit between his black undersuit & outer costume. It shows mainly on his arms, between the top sleeves & his gloves, but if his pants tore it'd be visible there too. The gloves themselves are his spiky gauntlets from more modern costumes, in black but with a gold hem at the very top to reflect the band on his hood (paying tribute to Steph's thick hems & blonde hair, while also bringing back Damian's color scheme.)

(These bad boys.)

Tim sticks with the neck gaiter Steph switched to, but does not keep the greasepaint. Instead, Tim has a headset styled after ski-goggles. He was originally designing it for becoming Moonbeam, hoping an AI scan of his opponents' moves would help him predict what they were going to do (allowing him to better mimic Duke & Cass's skillsets.) It's still a pretty rough prototype by the time Steph dies, but Tim's put a hell of a lot of work into it, he's not not going to field-test the thing, now is he?

(You meet the new Shadow, and this stares back at you from under the hood [lightly edited for appropriate drama])

Below the utility belt (grey with gold snaps/buckles,) Tim wears black heavy-duty cargo pants tucked into knee-high armored boots. The extra pockets even further emphasize that Tim is a character with a diverse set of skills and especially gadgets, and the slight puff caused by tucking not-entirely-fitted pants in at the knee calls back to Damian's "Infinite Frontier" outfit that inspired my original Shadow design.

(Not quite that puffy, but that would probably be down to the artist.)

For the boots, I do really like the ones Tim's been recently wearing in comics... mostly, at least. The ones on-panel have a little tabi toe-stripe most of the time, which either appears to be decorative (just a notch in front of the toe, which I don't like the look of) or does weird things to the depth (making his feet look flat.) Also, as someone who cannot even wear flip-flops without getting bloody blisters, it just looks uncomfortable to me. I really like the version Tim wore on that cover with Damian—the shape looks more comfortable, it looks like it has better grip & heavier armor, and looks like a shoe it'd really suck to get kicked by—but the stripes are nearly invisible, and the weird spike of armor above the knee is a bit much.

Combine the foot from the cover-boots with the shape & highlights from the panel-boots. Make the stripes & knee-pad border gold, and add a gold trim along the top edge of the green sole; the sole itself should be dark grey.

And that's Shadow Tim!

A little higher-tech to foreshadow his ascendance to Oracle, while also reflecting Tim's canonical love of weird gadgets through the ages.

Pays heavy tribute to Steph, but not in any way that'd be super-obvious if you weren't in-the-know, without directly ripping off her designs or looking so much like her that the other Bats could mistake Tim for Steph out of the corner of their eyes.

Pays light tribute to Damian, but aside from being a Shadow costume, Duke & Cass have about as much influence on the changes Tim makes (see: chainmail, glove style, face covering) as Damian does.

Misses a few important details of Shadow's design (see: no longer visible eyes, no more grease paint, dramatically changed silhouette) showing Tim wasn't prepared to step into this role but is doing his best anyway.

Extra armor & pockets shows that Tim's got even more protection than previous Shadows, hinting through design alone about the impact Steph's death had on the family.

Sticks to Tim's fashion tastes without going overboard.

Adds a cape for him to go swish.

I'm pretty happy with it!

[honeydots]

For the ask game- Xanlow 30 and 33

OTP ask game

maybe i should just put all of these under a cut at this point

30: Pet names? Yes or no?

laslow 100% yes. i think he's a man who says darling, lover, my dear. perfect. my love. dearest, even. i can imagine him using babe in a modern context too LMAO and goofier ones i think he could use jokingly at xander just for fun. but i think when laslow starts using them it's very notable to xander. the first time he calls him lover.... agh........ ;A; xander.... okay had you asked me this like half a year ago i probably would've said not really but ive been warning up to it lately. "my love" or "my dear" or POTENTIALLY something like "dove" would be cute. i don't think he uses them nearly as often as laslow does, and i think they're usually reserved for more intimate moments (but not necessarily always?). im always iffy w pet names bc sometimes its hard to make them work. but i think there ARE ways to make them work w these two, it just needs to be like. correct? lol. if u have ever seen me use a pet name in a fic know that i most certainly agonized over it LMAOO

33: What is their wedding day like?

WEDDING DAY SOBS SOBS SOBS okay well.... for one thing i do think laslow is a bit of a wreck. anxious to be in front of all these people, anxious to do well in a culture so unlike his own, anxious for what's to come after marrying a king. i think he'd also have a melancholy about him. his friends aren't all there. even if odin and selena are around, i really think the consequences of staying in nohr will weigh on laslow for like. ever. i don't think he'd be able to shake some of the sadness and loneliness. and on a day like his wedding, i think it'd be on his mind. EVEN STILL!! i think he'd be faced with a lot of joy, too. especially once he's with xander and they're celebrating. laslow probably voiced some of his anxieties leading up to the wedding, so it's not like xander doesn't know that he might have some trouble. and i think he'd do what he can to make him comfortable. xander is probably also very nervous. we know he has a lot more anxiety than he seems to, and a royal wedding isn't going to be without its fair share of stressors. i think his siblings would be trying their damnedest to make sure things run smoothly, and probably have to keep reminding xander that it's *his day* and he doesn't need to be in charge of everything, just this once. he's a little antsy!! i think it goes well, tho. laslow probably does cry and its VERY embarrassing. of course they dance together. i like to think peri helped to make some of the goodies and pastries that're served, too. and afterwards i think that a lot of the stress and sadness melts away, and they're filled with a lot more giddiness and excitement. they're married :) !! and then honeymoon in cyrkensia or something HEHE