#like the typewriters are basically identical

[cq-studios]

I love that Ephemer’s first conversation with Player is like “Thanks for the help! Did you know your life is a lie?”

There’s no way he’s not knee deep into conspiracy theories.

This was prior to Data Daybreak Town and the glitches, before the Keyblade War even. Did he come from one of the worlds being portrayed? (I don’t think so but it’s a thought) Judging by Player’s reaction they have no clue what the hell Ephemer is talking about (to quote the novel “It was the part about the world being holograms that had you stumped”) so where holograms even a piece of technology that was common knowledge? What evidence did Ephemer have to even make that claim?

Like I don’t care wether or not he was right (though for his sake I’ll say he was half right, it was just data, not holograms [which I think is further evidence for my whole no one knows about computers headcannon]), how the hell did he come to that conclusion? What happened to him that made him figure that out?

[bfpnola]

IMAGE DESCRIPTION ADDED. REBLOG THIS VERSION AND THANK YOU @lab-labrava FOR WRITING IT!

ID: An infographic from the Instagram account @letstalkpalestine consisting of 10 slides. Image 1: The title page of the infographic. The text says: "Let's talk Anti-Zionist Jewish History." A smaller subtitle underneath the title says: "Jewish solidarity with Palestine until today." End ID.

Image 2: The infographic continues to the next panel. The text says, "As long as Zionism has existed, so has Jewish resistance to it. While today the majority of Jewish people and communities worldwide still have a Zionist connection, more and more Jewish people, especially from the younger generation, are unlearning Zionism & speaking out. Swipe to learn more about just part of anti-Zionist Jewish history - since there's more than we can fit in 10 slides." A semi-transparent image is overlayed in the background, of someone holding up a sign that reads: Jews for Palestine! #Free Sheik Jarrah. End ID.

Image 3: Icon of a location tag next to the words Eastern Europe. In large, blue text is the word "The Bund" and the subtitle describing what it is, "A Jewish Socialist movement, established in 1987." The following paragraph says, "Opposing Zionism from the start, its 50-year tenure saw hundred of thousands of members across Eastern Europe advocate for workers' rights and cultivate a Yiddish culture." Location tag and the title, "North America." The paragraph says, "After mass immigration to the US in the early 20th century, [American Jewish Labor groups] (highlighted in chalky blue and bold white text) criticized Zionism for its colonial, nationalist, and bourgeois nature." Next to this text, is a circle with women protestors holding up signs. End ID.

Image 4: The title, "Middle East and North Africa." The paragraph states, "In 1945 a group of Iraqi Jews founded the Anti-Zionist League. They recognized Zionism as a form of colonialism linked to Western Interests. They hosted events and published pamphlets throughout the Middle East about the difference between Zionism & Judaism. They warned that Zionism is dangerous to Arab Jews, forcing them to split their Arab and Jewish identities, and urged the UN to create a unified Palestinian state.

Image 5: The panel is titled, "Anti-Zionist Jewish figures." A faded image of Hannah Arendt's visage is in the background. Overlayed on top, the following paragraphs discuss her. "Before 1948, several prominent Jewish leaders and scholars came out in opposition to political Zionism. Writers like Hannah Arendt turned against the Zionist movement and opposed a Jewish state. They correctly predicted a dark future if Zionism continued on the same path in Palestine. End ID.

Image 6: The day after the Deir Yassin Massacre in 1948, when Zionist militants wiped out the Deir Yassin village & its inhabitants, Albert Einstein wrote: "When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be the British and the second responsible for it the Terrorist organizations built up from our own ranks. I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people." The former paragraphs are imposed against a tan, parchment fragment, in typewriter font, and the letter ends with Sincerely yourn, Albert Einstein, both his signature and typed name. End ID.

Image 7: Titled "Anti Zionism Today." Blue sketchy image of someone's hand gripping jail bars breaks up the following paragraphs which say: Jewish solidarity with Palestinians is growing around the world, including even some Israelis who take the basic step of refusing Israeli military service. As punishment, Israel imprisons these conscientious objectors — but unlike Palestininas, they have a fair trial & often severe relatively short sentences of a few months . This is a first step towards solidarity and has the real consequence of depriving the occupation state of its soldiers. End ID.

Image 8: Titled "Israel's Crackdown on Jewish Anti-Zionism" Behind this text are a picture of handcuffs. In the corner is a picture of Jonathan Pollak. The following text says: Jonathan Pollak is a Jewish Israeli and long-time anti-Zionist activist. Israel has detained him several times, most recetly in January as he protested with Palestinians in Beita, (a Palestinian village) for allegedly throwing stones. Jonathan has been violently attacked for his activism. In 2018, Jonathan was slashed across the face by settlers who ambushed him outside his workplace. Earlier, in 2005, Israeli soldiers shot a tear gas canister. directly at him, causing internal bleeding in his brain." End ID.

Image 9: Semi-transparent image of an umbrella behind the title text is "Jewish Anti-Zionism isn’t one ideology. It’s an umbrella movement that encapsulates multiple communities and beliefs towards decolonizing Palestine. Some motivations or Jewish anti-Zionism include: 1. Pursuing millenia of Jewish tradition as a diasporic community 2, Detachibng religious and cultural tradition from political nationalism. 3. Socialist visions of a Jewish Society. 4. Believing in the right to self-determination for Palestinians Standing up to Zionism is: 1. Standing up to apartheid and colonization. 2. Standing up for a liberated, equal, and just Palestine from the river to the sea.

Image 10: An ending quote, and call to action, by the Anti-Zionist League. It says: "Jewish Men! Jewish Women! Zionism wants to throw us into a dangerous & hopeless adventure. Zionism contributes to making Palestine uninhabitable. Zionism wants to isolate us from the Egyptian people. Zionism is the enemy of the Jewish people. Down with Zionism! Long live the brotherhood of Jews and Arabs!" --The Anti-Zionist League. End ID.

[directdogman]

hi hound, got a question for ya . kind of related to phone sex. Yippee

anyway, so i feel its kind of established in dialtown that being a phone head is equal to being amab, and being a typewriter head is equal to being afab (based on oliver and karens refusal to date types/phones respectively ofc) so i was wondering - what about people born with neither, like karen? would she be considered a form of intersex by society?

followup - how do like. Genetics work? like are they born with specific heads based on their parents (would karen be more likely to have a printer child, for example)?

Appologies for the long and strange questions, your game is rotting me as we speak

anyway, so i feel its kind of established in dialtown that being a phone head is equal to being amab, and being a typewriter head is equal to being afab (based on oliver and karens refusal to date types/phones respectively ofc)

Kiiind of. It's mainly a cultural thing. Basically, the tradition is to assign heads to babies based on the gender assigned at birth. Because of this, someone with a phone head is widely considered by others to be male, and vice versa for typewriters, and this is why many trans people in-universe switch, in the same way as someone might style their hair or change their wardrobe in ours. However, because the heads are modular (and can be changed), it's best to view this correlation as more of a cultural trend rather than a rigid system that everyone follows without exception, one of which I'll explain in the next part of the answer.

what about people born with neither, like karen? would she be considered a form of intersex by society?

Karen actually HAD a typewriter head before she was given the printer. A little bit of background context here: Callum Crown, the inventor of the phone head, invented his first ever cybernetic augmentations (his revolutionary prosthetic limbs) in order to help other disabled people gain mobility and independence. He wanted to give other people the same opportunities that his technology had given him.

When he moved onto the phone head concept, he never forgot about his initial goal of using technology to help people with disabilities. Karen's typewriter head was actually a developmental adaptation. Basically, it allowed a young averbal Karen to produce images, which assisted her in communication before she could learn to speak (and helped her learn to speak sooner than if she had never gotten the upgrade.) While it's quite a modern solution for a disability that wasn't well understood in Crown's time, it's absolutely in line with his philosophies and it's an application he'd be very enthusiastic about, if he was still fully conscious.

Similarly, there are NPCs in-game who have non-standard heads and aren't trans or non-binary, like Rachel at the Dialtown News Network, who has a teleprompter head! In much the same way Karen's head was switched for utility purposes, the same is true for many people who work certain jobs where these heads come in handy. Therefore, I think it's safer to say that someone's head type more or less correlates with their overall identity, with gender, occupation, or any other relevant circumstances factoring into what kind of head they might have.

There's a few NB NPCs in-game and the cultural way many express that is by having hybrid heads, or heads with elements of both phones + typewriters. Take Curie, the curator of the DT Modern Art museum, who has a typewriter head with a phone dial added to it. Gabby (the store clerk who sells phone parts in Uptown Dialtown) also mentions that this practice is common.

followup - how do like. Genetics work? like are they born with specific heads based on their parents (would karen be more likely to have a printer child, for example)?

Genetics don't factor into it outside of the cultural tendency to give phone/typewriter heads based on the gender of the child. Basically, all babies are born with an adapter, and right after birth, the baby is given their new head. Think about how difficult it would be to give birth to someone with a FULL-SIZED typewriter head! There's more than one reason it's set up the way it is, but that's the most important thing to mention. Hope this helps!

[luminouslywriting]

Chapter 12—Mastermind (MOTA Fic)

A/N: The moment you've waited for has arrived....so sit back, enjoy, and let me know what you think! Reminder that my requests for this fic are open and I want to know what YOU WANT to see :) So please let me know! Thank you!

Abe hadn’t liked basic training all that much.  He hadn’t ever been scared though.  He had never been afraid of the dark—though he did hate thunderstorms.  He just simply didn’t scare easy.  But standing in front of Robert Rosenthal—someone who very much knew that he did not belong here and was not old enough to be here—oh he was scared and very very doomed.

But Robby’s stern demeanor lifted ever so slightly as he gave a tight smile to the other guys.  “Abe, buddy it’s been a while.  Couple years, hasn’t it been?” 

“Uh yeah!” Abe answered, a little too quickly for Robby’s taste.  “Great to see you too, who are your other friends—” 

“Oh you two already know each other?” Nash asked, a grin bubbling onto his face as he looked between Rosie and Abe. 

“Grew up down the hall from each other,” Rosie said with a grin. 

“No way!” Nash exclaimed.  “The odds of that are so small!  I guess war does have a weird way of bringing people together.  Well, Abe—this here is Pappy and this over here is Speitz!” 

“Great to meet you, I gotta get going.  Probably have an inspection or something—” Abe started, going to take a step in the other direction.  

“Oh, no, no, no—we should take a walk and catch up!  In fact, I think I insist!  After all, you’re like a kid brother to me!” Robby said jovially. 

Abe could only bear the grin painfully on his face as Rosie’s iron grip settled on his shoulders.  “Yeah, great!” 

Yeah, just great.  Figures, he runs away from home to join the military and he gets sent to the one base in the world where Robert Rosenthal is assigned—and that guy was just too good of a guy to just let Abe live his life and make his own mistakes.  Yeah, he was definitely going home and his life was officially over.  

As soon as the duo was out of earshot, Rosie just looked at Abe with a flabbergasted expression.  “What the hell were you thinking?” he asked, nearly shoving at the kid in worry.  “You’re not 18!” 

“Keep it down!” Abe hushed in a panicked tone, glancing around to see if anyone noticed it.  No one seemed to spare the two of them any glances, so that was a minor win. 

“No, I will not!  You’re just a kid!  You shouldn’t be here!” Rosie crossed his arms in a pointed manner. 

“Listen, I want to be here!  Daniel signed up—” 

“Daniel is 18.  You’re—you just barely hit sixteen. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you and you think that coming over here is gonna be fun—” 

“No!” Abe exclaimed in a forceful tone.  “I came over here because I was sick of reading the death reports and watching parents hang up flags!  I want to do something about it!” 

Rosie just stared at Abe for a long time, trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with this kid and what his obligation here was.  And then it absolutely hit him.  There was a solution and it had nearly insulted him earlier.  And her name was Ruth Sharpe and she just so happened to be on the base. 

He let out a deep sigh—and prayed silently that Abe wasn’t going to hate him after he did this.  “Come on.  There’s somewhere we can talk.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruth was just in the middle of typing up another report when a knock on the door to her office caught her ears.  Letting out a deep sigh, she curled her fingers over the last of the keys on the typewriter to finish up her word and then leaned back.  “Come in—” 

She had no sooner said the words that Robert Rosenthal came hauling in, holding none other than her brother Abe by the crook of the elbow.  Her brother Abe—who was wearing an identical uniform to Rosie.  Her brother Abe, who had been missing for months now and the family had presumed they wouldn’t be able to find him, even with Ruth searching. 

And now here he was, standing in her office looking like a fish out of water. 

“What are you doing here?!” Both Sharpe siblings blurted at the same time. 

Almost immediately, Abe knew that he was utterly screwed.  Ruth rose so quickly from the chair, Abe thought he was going to get whiplash from watching her.  The last time he had seen her this angry was the potato debacle of 39’ and Sarah had gotten a potato straight to the nose.  He wasn’t eager to have that be repeated. 

She crossed so quickly to him that he was certain he was going to get slapped but then she was flinging her arms around him tightly and letting out a deep breath.  “Oh you stupid, stupid, stupid, little boy!  What the hell are you doing here?!” She demanded, shoving out of the hug and holding tight to his shoulders with a scrutinizing look. 

“I think I oughta—” Rosie started, gesturing at the door. 

“Did I say that you could go?” Ruth demanded, gaze flickering to him.  “As far as I know, you were in on this entire thing—” 

“That’s not true!  I brought him to you, didn’t I—” 

“Oh my God—” Abe burst out, glancing at the two of them in annoyance. “You two are still so bad!” 

“The point is that you ran away and now you’re here!” Ruth hissed.  “I mean, what—” 

“I’m a Navigator, Ruth!” Abe snapped.  The words fell like beating drums against Ruth’s ears and she stumbled backwards, unable to know if she was correctly hearing him.  “And I’m a damn good one!  I don’t want to go home, I want to stay here—” 

But Ruth’s mind was already racing.  Because if she ousted him to Harding, then it would reflect poorly on her and that meant that she would get a reputation for trouble and scandal and that wasn’t what she wanted on her record.  There was also the fact that Abe would likely hate her for the rest of her life if she took him away from the one thing that he wanted and she didn’t particularly like the idea of her most precious baby brother hating her. 

There was also the fact that he would, as siblings tended to do, oust her to their parents.  At which point they would demand that she come home because the boyfriend was entirely fictitious and that meant that she should be focusing on other problems.  

Ugh, this was a damn mess. 

“Okay,” Ruth breathed out. 

Abe’s jaw dropped and Rosie craned his head upwards, as if he was having trouble hearing her.  Rarely, if ever, did Ruth respond so simply or without a fight about anything.  “I’m sorry, did you just say—” Rosie started. 

“No, he has to stay.  If he gets found out, even if one of us turns him in, they’ll assume that the other person is in on it.  And at least if he’s here, he won’t sneak away again and I can keep an eye on him,” Ruth said heavily. 

“How would you—” Abe started in confusion.  

“She’s a JAG-Corp Lieutenant,” Rosie mumbled out.  “Lawyers for the military.” 

“I know what it is!” Abe said in slight annoyance.  “But you said—” His gaze drew back to his eldest sister, the military uniform she was wearing, the lack of a ring on her finger.  “You said you were here for a man?  And I thought you were working on women’s causes?” 

Ruth’s eye twitched ever so slightly and this may have been the only time Robert Rosenthal had ever seen her so annoyed in his entire life.  “Ah yes….about that….I—” Her gaze trailed onto Robby and she knew that she was going to kick herself for this later.  “I’m here because when Robby told me he wanted to be a pilot, I knew that I needed to get sent over to Europe too.  So I got here before him.” 

“You—” 

“That’s not—” Rosie’s jaw dropped but then Ruth was looking at him with what he could only describe as a pleading sort of look.  “I mean—” Damn his sensibilities and desires to not make a woman upset with him.  Especially one that dealt with Court Martials.  “She just didn’t want anyone to know that we’re actually friends now.” 

“Wait!” Abe exclaimed, wide-eyed as he was looking between the two of them.  “You’re friends?” 

Ruth blinked, once, then twice.  “Yes,” she said slowly.  “Clearly.  Why else would he bring you straight to me?  And he already knew that I was here, so obviously we are friends.” 

“Yep,” Rosie’s voice died in his throat along with any common sense. 

“Oh this is great!” Abe exclaimed. “I can’t wait to tell—” 

Immediately, both Ruth and Rosie were frantically shaking their heads at him and telling him that he needed to keep his mouth shut about that.  “I don’t think we need to tell anyone about that.  What we do need to figure out is what the hell we’re doing with you.” 

“I thought that you—” Abe started. 

“No, she’s right,” Rosie let out a deep sigh, leaning against the wall and looking over at Abe.  “You’ve got to keep up appearances.  It won’t take long for everyone to realize that you two are siblings.  Family resemblance and last name—and whatnot,” Rosie added.  

Ruth thought for a moment, biting down on her lip at the thought that was blooming in her mind.  “You said you’re a Navigator?” 

“Well yeah—” Abe answered. 

“Then I’ll talk to Kidd and have you transferred into Rosie’s plane—” 

“Woah, woah, woah—” Rosie’s head snapped up just as quick as she had said those words.  “You can’t just—” 

“If I were a pilot and Daniel showed up here, I would want him in my plane,” Ruth said in slight defeat.  “And I hate to say it….but you are the only person or pilot in all of Europe that I’d trust my brother’s life with.” 

Rosie blinked at the words.  There was no backhanded compliment there, no biting tone that usually accompanied Ruth’s words.  This was an older sister asking him to take her brother and protect him.  Because she couldn’t be up there herself.  And as an oldest sibling, he understood that desire to protect his younger siblings on a deep and personal level.  

“Okay,” Rosie mumbled out, barely able to make sense of the turn in conversation. 

“And that way, you can keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t—you know, oust himself as a sixteen year old High School dropout,” Ruth said, gaze turning back onto her younger brother.  

“Ruth—” Abe started. 

Ruth let out a sigh and took a step forward, placing a hand on her brother’s cheek.  “You are such a troublemaker.  You know you have everyone worried sick about you?” 

“I didn’t mean to make you all worry.” 

“It’s my job to worry, you little shit,” Ruth said, giving him a small smile.  “At least now that you’re here, I can…keep an eye on you too.” 

“You won’t be able to protect me up there, though,” Abe said in a small voice of realization. 

Ruth just grimaced, then glanced at Rosie. “Why do you think I want you in his plane?  Now you look tired and you clearly need something to eat.  Get to the mess hall.  Rosie can take you.” 

Rosie didn’t even really want to argue with her at this point.  “Afterwards—” 

“You and I will have to have a talk,” Ruth agreed, suddenly feeling very tired.  “But later.” Just as Rosie was about to escort Abe out of the room, Ruth caught onto Rosie’s arm.  “Thank you,” she murmured in a quiet voice. 

He couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his features.  It was the first time she had ever thanked him.  And she seemed very genuine.

[superiorsturgeon]

Blake: *reading a new book with rapt attention*

Yang: Whatcha reading? Ninjas of Love?

Blake: If you must know, I happen to be enjoying a new series of romance novels!

Yang: Oh, really? Who’s the author?

Blake: Nobody knows! Whoever it is, they’re a literary genius, and yet nobody has seen their face in public or discovered their identity!

Yang: *tilts her head sideways to read the book spine* “The Lusty Argonian Maid?” The hell is that?

Blake: It’s basically a romantic story about a young woman with lizard traits.

Yang: That’s kinda weird. Who would write a story like that?

Meanwhile, in Menagerie…

Ilia: *humming happily as she opens a massive royalty check before turning back to her typewriter* Time to start volume 4!

[batakrim]

Hi could you tell us more about your Trials oc :D

Waah hello, hi, sorry for the late reply, I didn't see my askbox lately 😭🙏

I played Trials but my laptop can't handle it in the long run, so I had to stop playing it (and I'm still in level 1 being stuck because fuck Coyle), hence, I can't offer you any information about in-world references and I'm pretty out of the loop in this fandom nowadays 😓

So, um. This is Wilbur/Wilkan. Basically my current main OC. How do I say it... He's like that OC you like, doesn't have any backstory, and you just basically shove him inside some random AU for fun

So I had a funny scenario about him being a world traveler (it's kind of a "canon" version of Wilbur among me and my friends, essentially), and somehow got trapped inside the Outlast universe and was forced to be one of the reagents. And if you haven't noticed, yeah, he's a cover up for my oblivious ass refusing to read in game documents and lore... (I'm sorry lmao)

On the outside, Wilbur is kind and gentle, wholesome even, and he hides his identity being a world traveler (honestly no one would bat an eye if he decided to say he's not from this world anyway, but still). Basically he's forced to accept what Murkoff did to him and he can't help but comply, while looking for a way out to escape this universe. Something like that.

I'd imagine his specialty rig is x-ray. Not the athletic kinda guy, but he's sneaky at least. He would predict any enemies nearby and warn his party, basic stuff like that.

His aesthetics usually include dark academia and vintage stuff, so his room is filled with phonograph and vynils, typewriters, some books and journals, etc.

He draws... But his art is like those children's drawing in horror movies. This is an inside joke about him being fond of a god creature that he takes care of in his original world, but it's too much info with 0 context already, I don't want to burden you with this nonsense 😭 thank you for the ask though, I'm glad other people have interest in my OC's!

If you want to ask more about him (in/outside of Trials) tho, I'm perfectly very okay with that as well!

[corruptedroses]

hi, i saw reqs were open!

nsfw novelist hcs with a fem reader 👀

⌞ask box open⌝ | ⌞commissions open⌝ | ⌞ko-fi?⌝ | ⌞Patreon coming soon⌝

— “A little research goes a long way, darling ❤„

Fandom — Identity V

Featuring — Orpheus / The Novelist

Content Warnings — AFAB reader [no pronouns], mentions of scratching, mentions of biting, temperature play, a suggestion of Nightmare joining in on the fun.

Author's Note — at the time of writing this we still do not know Orpheus' real name [as the name Orpheus has ben confirmed to be his pen name], in the near future I may end up coming back to fix this to include his real name but for now, he shall just be Orpheus.

As the title of this post suggests, Orpheus isn't a stranger when it comes to the concept of intimacy or topics regarding sexual intercourse. While this man may be a bit frigid himself, he certainly wouldn't deprive himself of the chance to learn new things. As a writer, research is a vital role of writing, and thus research means divulging in desires that would make even the devil himself sweat in pure sin.

While he leans on the vanilla side of the spectrum, he isn't afraid to experiment on his beloved or himself; while scenes like this don't usually appear in his books given that he is an author specialising in the detective genre, you have noticed that if he does something like tying you up, it usually ends up in the next book. It's weird but oddly enchanting. His personal favourite of these scenarios has had to be when he had watched your skin pebble as he dragged an ice cube across your exposed bosom. He really did like seeing you tremble

Being a bit of a frigid person, you will have to guide him at first; use him how you see fit, guide his hands, his legs, his arms to hold you tightly, squeeze you, embrace you, allow him to absorb the scent of your skin and the taste of your sweat into his brain to the point that he cannot forget it. He will not forget it. As a fast learner, one that tends to save every little detail to his memory, it wouldn't be too shocking that he ends up finding himself knowing your body like the back of his hand by the fifth time you fuck.

Talking about his fingers, he's got some long ones, he likes to make you sit in his lap, watching your face as he touches you ever so slowly, gentle circles, beautiful melodies, he's a man that likes to watch his pieces come together [and apart] with his fingers. From his years of typewriter and pen, he has callouses that also provide some nice texture. He wants to make you drip all over his thigh whether you like it or not.

He really, really likes to see evidence on each other's bodies that you two have danced the tango only meant for the most desperate of people, scratch his back, bite his skin, and he will return the favour in a way that no other man would do. He wants to leave evidence that he was there, for you to remember how he felt against your skin even long after the bruises and scratch marks have faded, he wants to remember how your heels felt digging into the small of his back as he made you sing broken syllables of his name. His true name.

When he begins to run out of ideas on how to best keep you on your toes, do not be surprised when certain books of a certain genre start appearing in his home; it's all important research to him.

There are certain nights, however, that he tends to forget, ones where his notes have already been done and you lay sound asleep. Those are the nights that make Orpheus think that he must've given into his most basic of instincts, the yearnings of the living man. As long as his notes are presented nicely and well in case of future projects, he best not dwell on them for too long.

[illumoonated]

Thoughts about Wednesday (the show)

I wished i liked the Wednesday show more. Truly. But...

...the writing felt half-assed. The characters felt lazy. The addams family felt not quite weird enough. It seemed to be a very safe (somewhat boring) reboot that ppl are groveling over simply bc they want winclair to be canon (which, fine do your thing -- but you're setting yourselves up for heartbreak bc these writers/showrunners give zero effs about making wednesday canonically queer). The love triangle was actually painful to watch.

There was throw-away "representation" with her being asked if she was into someone a "guy...or you know, a girl?" to get woke points. Someone else pointed it out too, but the black male mayor being told he doesn't "know what it's like to be not heard" was so incredibly tone deaf it threw me off. As well as the only real POCs having a personality being the actual Addams crew.

(The siren queen bee was cool but she like immediately became Wednesday's bestie after 2 minutes of a heart to heart at a dance? Idk she felt wasted/characterized too quickly to feel impactful when she helped in the last episode. There was no emotional "oomph" to her being on Wednesday's team.) ((Also there was the aapi vampire who smiled once and had a single line of dialogue or smth...? wish we got more from her bc that's a cool-ass concept of being stuck in a place like nevermore where ppl know you're an immortal--like I was waiting for a big reveal to be pulled from this vamp being like "hey I knew your parents when they went here, oh, that fancy book you need? I have read all the nevermore books so many times I can just rewrite it for you by memory, where's your typewriter?")) Basically none of the students "banded together" for Wednesday in a believable way. They just...did....?

And if the intent was to simply get a flavor of the month moody white boi as Wednesday's love interest -- fine, but you didn't even make them likeable (not the actors' faults, bc they were clearly given no direction other than "go and be in love w wednesday for no reason bc she's MC"). And Wednesday as a character would avoid the moody bois and possessive "nice guys" like the plague (pun not intended) and would find interest in a strange/true social outcast more. (If she's gotta be with a boy make sure it's like whatshisface in Addams Family Values who is nerdy and nervous and a true social outcast that Wednesday had a real banter/challenge with instead of gross obsession/ownership like fuccboi #1 and #2. Again, not the actors' faults.)

I am so torn as an ace person bc I want her to be aroace so badly (and I believe it would be an appropriate identity for her). I also don't want to be the ace person being like "no winclair shouldn't be canon" bc I want sapphic stories to be represented but I hate how any close platonic relationships are automatically romanticized/ran away with despite how the characters feel about the other person. Again, if this is a friends(roomates) to lovers story fine. But there's zero chance that'll happen with the writing where it's currently at (I mean, they can change this but rn I don't see it happening).

TL;DR 1. wednesday shows how thirsty we all are for true queer rep/romantic or otherwise

2. the love triangle trope (esp the cishet ones) have to be damn good in this day and age to be worthwhile (the triangles in 1899 come to mind as good, current examples involving fleshed out characters with chemistry)

3. the show is trying to earn woke points without committing,

4. the addams family is mischaracterized from the source material,

5. this reboot entry is safe, lazy, and predictable from a plot, character, and worldbuilding standpoint (I was expecting far out weird/spooky shit like the Sabrina netflix series tbh and was really disappointed in how safe this reboot played it)

6. I wish I wanted winclair to be canon but i don't and I wish I did so ppl don't think i'm being "too ace" or "anti-" bc anytime platonic relationships occur between two pretty ppl the internet loses its mind and disregards what the characters actually feel about each other (reinforcing that friendship < romance)

[rogueddie]

Omg!!! 21 tattoos!! That's amazing I'm so jealous and so happy for you at the same time. I've also watched waaaay too many tattoo tours but it's just so cool and fun and easy way to obsess over tattoos and I'm happy I'm not the only one doing that. I'm curious, do you have a preferred style? Like, neo-traditional, old school, blackwork, fine-line, realistic, sketch (that's not an official style, I think, that's just what I call tattoos that take on a more drawing-like look because I don't know if it has a name) etc. Or are you someone who doesn't look at styles but just focus on the tattoo you're going to get?

When I got my first tattoo I preferred fine-line and sketch-like styles (That look like drawings) and I didn't really care about or looked into the specific styles, I just picked the tattoo shop from reviews and the way I liked their website was presented. But now, 5 years after my first one I actually really really love old school and neo-traditional (Which is funny because I couldn't stand old school 5 years ago and now I'm in love with it, though I haven't got a tattoo in that style yet)

The leg Hermes staff tattoo you described sounds so cool!

Yes! You can ask about my tattoos. As I said, I only have 4 which is a major bummer. The first one I got is just the word "Hope" written in cursive, nestled in one side of my hip where I cut myself for a period of time. When I turned 18 I'd just come out of a really rough time of my life, a really hard year where I relapsed on self-harm, so when I managed to stop again and I started feeling better, I got the word Hope as my first tattoo because it felt right and as something to hold onto if things went bad again (I'd been thinking about getting a tattoo since I was 16). The word was made too small though so it doesn't really look that nice anymore. But that's okay, I don't need it for the purpose I got it for anymore

I have a gymnastics pose in fine-line on my upper arm. The lines all look like they were drawn in one continuous, never-ending line so there are a lot of swoops. Like a drawing in cursive, if you can describe it like that. Then I have a typewriter on my forearm, which I got made last August. And my latest one, which was made through several sessions throughout september-november-december is a Phoenix half-sleeve. It ends by my elbow where there's a peony (directly on top of my elbow, which was a fun experience). It's absolutely my favourite one. It's big and cool and epic. Made in Japanese style. It's basically an homage to my identity as a trans and nonbinary person. I call him Felix (phelix, if I'm feeling punny). I felt like he ought to have a name since he's a creature. And it's a he/him even though hes a representation of my trans identity and my gender identity is 100% agender (no gender, none whatsoever). I hope to get the half-sleeve into a full sleeve sometime in the future

- tattoo anon 🦇

I think the only preference I really have is for the patchwork sleeve look. I do try to keep things consistent though; my left arm and leg are all traditional/neo-traditional, but my right arm is a little chaotic, less tattoo style and more aesthetic (mostly solid blackwork).

The Hermes staff tatt is definitely a cooler than I can make it sound, it's the best idea I've ever came up with and my artist made it even better. It's based on the version of the myth where Hermes finds two snakes fighting and stops them by putting his staff between them.

Your tattoos sound really cool! Especially the phoenix, that sounds SO good! And the gymnast one too; I know exactly what you mean by a drawing in cursive, they always look beautiful.

[ogsherlockholmes]

2nd October

So I know this month is intended for villains, but the next character isn’t exactly a villain, but he’s not the nicest person either.

James Windibank is the antagonist of A Case of Identity, and whilst he didn’t murder anyone, it was pretty weird of him to pretend to be his stepdaughter’s lover, just to leave her on her wedding day. I mean, I’m not saying he should have married her, because that would be even worse, but waiting until the wedding day? Really? 

As well as just being a general dick, Windibank isn’t too smart either. He gets caught because he used the same defective typewriter to write messages to his stepdaughter as for everyday use. Okay, so it’s understandable he didn’t think of that, since it’s only something Sherlock would notice, but Windibank’s disguise was fake facial hair and glasses. His stepdaughter fell for it, I suppose, but I wouldn’t call him inventive. 

And why did he do this? He married a woman a lot older than him, for her money, and knew if his stepdaughter got married, she would get the money when her mum died. So, he made sure his stepdaughter didn’t get married. Delightful. 

Though, I’ve got to say, it was nice of him just to do that rather than resorting to murder like other Holmes villains. 

[Important note: this is a continuation of the J villains in the Holmes canon, and we’re only on day 2. Shocking]

Windibank attempts to defend himself, but it only make him out to be even more of a piece of shit than before. 

“It was only a joke at first,” groaned our visitor. “We never thought that she would have been so carried away.”

I don’t know what he expected when he basically locked up his stepdaughter from practically all human contact, but when someone pays her attention, she’d certainly try to keep it. 

Sherlock hates this man, and rightfully so. 

“The law cannot, as you say, touch you,” said Holmes, unlocking and throwing open the door, “yet there never was a man who deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!” he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon the man’s face, “it is not part of my duties to my client, but here’s a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat myself to—” He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road.

Yes, you read that correctly, Sherlock was about to whip him. I included Windibank in this collection not because he is a compelling villain, but that Sherlock’s attitude towards him is so interesting, and it really shows his moral outlook. Woman murdering a blackmailer to protect herself and/or others? Fine, let her go, don’t tell her secret. Man pretends to be stepdaughter’s admirer to not lose the inheritance? Whip him. 

[fourcolour-ace]

What am I Writing These Days? #2

Hello everyone, it's been a few months. Let me catch you up on what I've been working on!

As you might have guessed from the state of my blog, everything has more or less been pushed aside in favor of Dragon Ball, and this applies to writing projects as well.

I've got several pieces of DB fanfic going at the moment:

The one I've been working on the longest, set in the middle of the Super anime(after Goku Black arc), in which I indulge my fantasy of Gohan having a tail again. It centers around such interesting things as Gohan's Saiyan identity, Gohan and Vegeta's relationship, and that perennial struggle of balancing family, work, and fighting. I have been sharing it with a friend, but as with so much of my work it's very much my version of the characters and I worry that y'all won't like it. Regardless, I really like it and maybe I will share if you ask nicely.

I got too into the idea of Gohan as nonhuman and ended up writing a piece where he's been living in the wilderness since after the Cell games. This one is a HanVi one, a challenge since I've never encountered Videl in Z, but it feels good to me. I can't guarantee her characterization but I write for fun so. The piece arose mainly from a desire for a more beast-like Beast Gohan after I saw Super Hero and eventually evolved into "what if after puberty Gohan looked a lot less like a human?'.

Then I rewatched DBS Broly and suddenly wanted Gohan and Broly to fight. I want them to meet and be friends, but I also want them to fight, you know how it is. So I conceived of a reason for them to do so(Beast form too strong for even Goku) and started writing. It's like a sequel to both Broly and Super Hero? And it serves no purpose other than getting those two in the ring so it's basically the DB version of fluff. We'll see if my action-writing skills are up to par for this one.

A piece I haven't been progressing with but remain proud of is my take on the old "what if Raditz took Gohan?" AU. I've only written a couple of scenes but I have a good idea of what I want to have happen. It's just a little hard to stay motivated knowing you'll have to write Chichi in mourning for her son(it's too sad guys i can't). I have to thank those of you who also do work on this AU, I see it and I love it, you're all amazing.

Aside from those, I have several undeveloped AUs. I think Toriyama would be proud of my Star Wars/DBZ AU, haha. I've been writing Gohan meta that I'm too nervous to share(on the typewriter too) because of the aforementioned issue of it all being my opinion, which differs from popular opinions I see.

And of course there's always other stuff. I came up with an idea for X-Men movie fanfiction that might not go anywhere now but whatever. I posted another chapter of Storm Kids, and then had to rework the plot of the following chapters because I noticed a discontinuity! I think my next big project k-pop fanfic will be developing my Stray Kids Power Rangers AU, so stay tuned if you think that'd be of interest to you?

[pathbend-blog]

Here is how this is useful

I can't easy copy paste and break the frame of this easel and conversation forum in one

@chuckpalahniukquotes

So I can Add and Ad to each box, I want to keep the integrity of the algorithm but the ruthless humor of this place like in the matrix, is closer to a nice office I would like to be in

And it's Free. So I can PrintScreen with screenshots or actually if I feel like an old fashioned typewriter. Click clack from haptics from 📱 and typing with my thumbs is limiting from that route from my motor strips to PFC, but programmed once I dewürm myself of the Jap 12 year old Kid Drinking Moonie Filth , by video games in youth is a cheat code.

This Box is For This and that

But their Dumb Boxes like in the Film "Pi" and all their instruments that don't make music without their Psychosis added and Humanity removed

This 📱 little 🥔 Chip can enBox a thinking thing and does. She will be a 9 Pro unless Anthony Fucks this all up again. But she got form 6 to 7 so sush. 🍶

Never a thing of meanign

@bbc6music-blog

Willow 🤭

@thatannieclark

@washingtonpost

Anyway, basically Chuck like I've done for a long time now

Successfully every time integrated and greater personal success and general because of the nature of my job

I'm looking for a job that'll pay me to write a very specific way that will last forever and is Good in any court on Earth in retrospect.

I'm trying to sell some fiction cuz when you do that job as hard as I've done it well you get covered in a lot of f****** filth. And it ain't from the patients.

@chuckpalahniuk

@bbcradio1 *6 .

So Basically. This Is My Office as it feels and my exam room, to me most close of all applications of The SpwinePig Internet Trap they shouldn't have given me at all like this 📱 And She isn't the 🥔 Chip or she still wouldn't be so in Love with HTC and Korea as I still am also.

I can go back here and my pitch for "A League Of Our Own ⚾" on HBO promoting Female Professional Baseball as a Serious Concept

And That Psychologist I As A Not at work yet Human told how I feel about her kind, and those Deeds they are Skimming from Virginia's Good Family's in this Psych Ward, in my office giving her her last chance as a Human to be okay in the future in the most Professional on our Level way Possible

@nypostmodern-blog

@halfpricebooks

The United States postal Service just caught another very can't cover their budget lawsuit from me

They have so many of those already

And Ticketmaster has because my data has been stolen does doesn't matter, I have TurboTax identity protection and USAA will understand.

Meta now caught an even bigger one than in gurnsville California

Like Natalie Mering so-called and all Associated With the act called Weyesblood. When: this is your last chance to Sue.

@bbc6music

You have nothing I want.

Threads will be exactly what I described it to be

But currently it's my Eddie Brock as Venom in Eddie Brock's news desk

Firing off a headline that echoes from New York to everywhere

There is absolutely no point in doing anything like that in Virginia. That is Washington DC. They can just be like that at The Free Press Club

Most Swine. But now that California and Texas are taken care of, we have a chance in court

@bbc6music

@washingtonpost

@miketyson

And why would he need that money? 🌴

[therubymuse]

Cobwebs

I haven’t written for awhile. Not anything beyond a couple paragraphs on various content I’ve shared on Facebook. And I think that has a lot to do with how cluttered my internal workspace has been. The words have not been flowing. However, since purchasing a writing program a couple months ago, what I have done in the interim is collect all of my past and sort it into working files where I can call past work up very easily, I can make edits to it and keep track of revisions, and I can export collections of work in an automated way, all things a basic word processor can’t really do. And I’m finding that’s helping my brain a lot. 

One of the subjects I’ve broken out into it’s own library is my poetry. For a number of years I was enamoured with writing poems, it probably started when I was 15 or so, and I wrote significant quantities of it. Back in 2018, I came across an old backed up hard drive, which contained all this work that I thought had been lost to time. I converted it all into more modern formats, and have kept it with me since, but rarely looked through or at it in any thoughtful way. 

So imagine my surprise then when I began sifting through these documents, to find not only some striking lyricism and images, but also some positively sapphic passages about prior crushes and loves, things I never shared with them because I had learned by that point in my life that my “sensitive nature” was not in keeping with my presumed gender identity. I am elated to find out that I’d never deleted any of these works, even the ones that make me cringe. The earliest work in the pile goes back to 2002, a whole two decades ago now. 

It’s also curious to note the change in tone and style as my life progressed. In my earliest works, I see a vividness that belied the use of exacting or efficient language, and instead revelled in the flowery and the awkward. When I went to university and took writing classes in 2011 and 2012, they appear to have sapped a lot of that latent joy and individuality from my voice. My focus became efficiency, there was a drive to remove all unnecessary articles and non-descriptive language. Whenever I’ve attempted to go back to writing poetry, I’ve returned to that secondary style that supplanted my earlier work, and I think moving past that and really examining my prior work will help me find my real voice again. 

So while I haven’t made any progress on the now-passed Nanowrimo, I think I’m getting myself into a space where I could have a chance at it next year. I’ve created collections for my poetry, blogs, short stories, and film reviews, creating what are essentially the digital version of binders full of writing, much like I used to keep when I was working mostly with a typewriter. And hey, maybe I’ll even bust out the typewriter again for some inspiration when I feel inclined. While I wait for the flow to resume, I can at least rearrange my workspace to help me find and inspire the right words. 

One day, where all that stood here was grass, I intend there to be a cottagecore village full of laughter and inspiration. I can't wait to see it take shape.

[directdogman]

Dialtown related question, when ppl in the Dialtown universe are born, are they born with their default gross flesh heads or are they born with the phones/typewriters automatically,,

Since I joined this gay little fandom I’ve always wondered that, ty for your time :3

i get this question a lot and i've kind of intentionally avoided going too deep into the mechanics of it (aka, how baby's physically look when they're born) because perhaps some information is best left in my head (or in this case, Crown's.) But, I guess I'll throw you guys a bone, since you've all been so good. Alright, here's a recap of what I've previously said about this topic with a smidgen of extra context attached:

Anyhoo, no, in Dialtown's universe, babies do not come out with object heads already attached. All births would for sure have to be C-sections if that was the case, and natural births would be fatal! Crown would never put his name on such shoddy design! Crown's design actually heavily REDUCED fatal birthing scenarios (as what the baby is born with is much much thinner than a normal head.) Off topic, but Crown's phone heads having a separate hole/eating slot for food also means that many designs of phone heads (namely, his own and all that copied his designs) are designed so people cannot choke to death on food, like we can. Again, Crown would never put his name to such shoddy design!

Heads are applied directly AFTER birth. In most cases, it's usually applied based on the sex of the child (though, not always. In most places, the parents get the final say), but the head assigned at birth can always be altered later. In a sense, your head is kind of like an analogue to gender in the sense that it's more of an identity than something extremely literal, but it just so happens that most people's correlates with their born sex (with most guys being phones and most women being typewriters.) Ofc, there's people who don't identify as either (and extra apply parts to their head) and then there's people who replace their heads for, say, their jobs (in this case, you could say that their career is the core identity before their gender, in a sense.) Head more or less equals core identity, basically.

When Crown designed the system, modularity was something he always intended for. Karen's head (for instance), being a printer, was given to her as a young toddler to help her communicate (as she struggled to communicate verbally and seemed to struggle developmentally, prior to the swap.) While this may seem like an impressively modern adaptation that's conveniently possible more or less by coincidence, these kinds of adaptations were one of the core reasons Crown wanted the heads to be modular in the first place. After all, Crown initially went into creating prosthetic limbs in order to help folks with disabilities!

Hope this answer helps!

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep22

All of this ‘the culprit’s motives are super shallow and they’re just unhealthily obsessive’ discourse is giving me war flashbacks to . . . . basically every other part of the entire When They Cry franchise, lol.

Thoughts under the cut. [Plus spoilers for Umineko]

I feel like at the end of the day we’re all just gonna have to agree to disagree about how we feel about how Ryukishi is handling Satoko as the culprit here, since I don’t really think any amount of social media posts detailing our interpretations of her character are gonna change anyone’s minds, lol. But I’m still gonna give my thoughts on her anyway because it’s fun, even if I’m basically just preaching to the choir.

To be honest, this feels pretty much in line with how Ryukishi already wrote characters like Takano and Beatrice, in terms of them having unhealthy obsessions that lead them to mass-murder. The amount of violence Satoko has caused is arguably worse than either of them, but they’re all pretty awful if you think about the reality of what they all did as villains.

Sorta like with how a lot of the old-school Umineko discourse went, I think people are too focused on the whole idea of Satoko hating studying, and ignoring everything else about her character and her circumstances. Although even then I feel like people are being kinda unfair toward Satoko about how strongly she feels about academics, but maybe I’m just biased because of my own history with schooling and the intense levels of anxiety and self-hatred that can go along with it.

Plus the fact that Satoko already has a long history of sever abandonment issues, and has basically always had HS that amplified her feelings of paranoia and persecution. It’s pretty obvious at this point that she never really got ‘cured’ in the first place, though it’s less important to think about HS as an in-universe fictional disease with it’s own rules, and more important to just think about it as a representation of real-life mental illnesses which aren’t bound by the rules of made-up brain-worm parasites and aliens or whatever.

Also, the Satoko that started all this looping in the first place was one who never dealt with Teppei returning to the village, and thus never went through her whole character arc related to that. The series is kinda ambiguous about how it handles the idea of people’s character development carrying over between loops, but it explains a lot about Satoko’s attitude here if you go with the idea that she never really had to overcome any of her trauma or coping mechanisms in the “good ending timeline”, and this is the consequence of that taken to it’s logical extreme. The idea of her view of the world being skewed by the fact that she only remembers the “good ending timeline” is also kinda lamp-shaded by the part where she hears about Rika’s looping and is like “oh yeah, that’s the month where we had that cool action movie stand-off with the Mountain Dogs :)”. By the time she really got to understand exactly what was going on beyond the specific timeline she had experienced, she was already way over the edge.

I get why people don’t like the idea of Gou ‘tainting’ the VN’s happy ending, but I honestly like the idea that it’s examining the consequences of how Matsuribayashi was such an overly-specific timeline where basically nothing bad happened and everyone just banded together to beat Takano. It kinda glossed over a lot of the personal problems that the main cast had in the rest of the series, and this really goes to show the effects of some of that stuff not getting properly addressed. It also reminds me that Minagoroshi is a timeline that even in the VN, Rika completely lost her memories of, so I can see how even post-Matsuribayashi she might have never let Satoko know about the details of that one timeline where she overcome her abuse.

I also feel like it only really got to this point because of Featherine’s meddling. In the original Matsuribayashi timeline, Satoko just started drifting away from Rika and ended up wandering into the Saiguden and meeting Featherine before anything actually serious happened in that timeline. I think that if she had just been left to her own devices and that timeline had just kept going, Satoko probably would have either found a way to reconnect with Rika, or they would have just slowly drifted apart for good. But then Satoko got given the power to time travel, and only started going off the deep end after going through another five years of identical suffering.

And on that whole note, it reminds me of how in Umineko, Lambda had a whole conversation about the idea of an abused person becoming an abuser themself if they’re given the power to lash out. Which is basically what’s happening here. Satoko is being given the tools to completely detach herself from reality and try as many times as she likes to get what she wants.

Which also reminds me that this episode in particular REALLY lays the Umineko parallels on thick, lol. Particularly the whole ‘Satoko is turning into Lambda’ thing, which feels just about 100% confirmed now. They straight up have Featherine bring up the exact same ‘monkeys using a typewriter’ analogy to explain Rika’s situation that Lambda uses in Umineko to explain Bern’s situation.

I know a lot of people don’t like the increasingly blatant Umineko tie-ins, and that a lot of people still think it might just be misdirection, but considering how much stuff in Gou has been surprisingly straightforward and predictable, I think it’s pretty much exactly what it seems to be.

Though to be more specific, this is probably more about the start of Lambda and Bern’s relationship, and their appearances in Umineko, rather than the very first origins of them as individuals, if that makes sense. Obviously the concept of Bernkastel as an identity has been around since Higurashi itself, and we’ve known for a long time that Lambda was the one who originally gave Takano her blessing of certainty, but we’ve never known the full details of how those two started their relationship, and Featherine’s whole series of name-drops in the last episode makes it seem like Lambda as a meta individual more or less already exists, with Satoko being an iteration of her. So I think they both technically already exist, but this is how the two of them come into contact and start their whole unhealthily obsessive relationship.

I guess it’s still possible that, even if she’s already existed for a long time as a meta individual, she hasn’t actually come up with the name ‘Lambdadelta’ for herself yet, and this might be where she does so. Even with the list of names Featherine referenced, she didn’t technically bring up Lambda’s name directly. So in that sense this might be ‘Lambda’s’ origin story, even if she already exists.

Considering how basically the entire story at this point seems to be acting in service of setting up the whole LambdaBern relationship dynamic no matter what, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that this will end with Satoko and Rika fully embracing their codependency and mutually ascending to the meta plane so they can stay together once and for all. There might still be human versions of them that stay behind in the real world and continue living normal lives, though.

At the very least, it feels like that’s the logical outcome of the whole Chekov’s Sword Fragment plot device that’s been hanging in the background for ages now. I think it’ll just be the in-universe explanation they use to show the mechanics of how exactly that process works. It’ll probably be used to ‘sever’ Satoko and Rika’s meta consciousnesses from their physical bodies and allow them to basically become witches.

Mainly I just can’t really see this having a ‘happy ending’ at this point, aside from the whole idea that maybe the severing process leaves behind ‘normal’ versions of the two of them who stay in Hinamizawa and go back to their normal lives. I dunno if that’d make people happy, but it’d at least be a way for Ryukishi to have his cake and eat it too, lol.

I just don’t think that there’s any real chance of this ending with them just talking to each other and agreeing to put an end to all this, though. For one thing that’d just feel kinda anticlimactic and honestly make Gou’s story feel even MORE pointless, if it just ends with literally the exact same ending as the VN with nothing really being changed. But I also feel like Featherine wouldn’t be willing to just let Satoko ‘give up’ without having one of them definitively win their current game. In general I just feel like Ryukishi should just commit to the story he’s setting up at this point, instead of just backing out at the last minute and circling everything back to the same ending we already had like nothing in Gou ever happened. If we’re gonna have this whole new story to begin with, it should at least have some lasting consequences.

Anyway, I think in the next episode we’re finally going to loop back to the Damashi arcs and see how they played out. At this point I don’t care too much about getting answers to the ground-level mysteries of those arcs, and I doubt the story will spend much time on that, but I’m curious to see how it progresses Satoko’s whole development through these loops, since I think she goes through some changes with her motives and methods over the course of them.

Specifically I think that the actual experience of being physically present in her own set of loops and causing so much pain and suffering started to get to her, and she might have almost given up in her own way during Tataridamashi and wanted to just stay in that arc, but things went south anyway. Maybe, if that’s what happened, Featherine basically let her know that she won’t let her give up, and will force her to keep looping until one of them ‘wins’ no matter what. Either way, I think that arc was a turning point for her. Like how she asked Featherine to arrange things so that Satoko can make sure that she and Rika’s loops are synced up, she probably asked Featherine after that arc to change the rules again so that Rika will start remembering the details of her deaths. At this point it’s pretty obvious that the Hanyuu fragment Rika was talking to earlier in Gou was more or less just Featherine putting on an act and manipulating her, so the scene of Hanyuu giving her the power to remember her deaths was probably just Featherine telling her about the rule change.

And going by how the Nekodamashi arc went immediately afterward, I think that rule change was related to Satoko becoming increasingly desperate to put an end to the loops as soon as possible. And considering how she was willing to spend so much time reviewing Rika’s hundred years of looping just to prepare for this, it’d make sense to me if she becomes desperate because she basically gives up, but realizes that she isn’t actually allowed to give up, so she has to try and make Rika give in as fast as possible. Either way it’s pretty obvious that Satoko’s methods start becoming more violent in that arc, and she basically tries to brute-force Rika into submission, leading up to the loop where she just spawn-camps her and straight up starts screaming at her to just stay in the village while tearing out her guts. It’s still possible that her attitude in that loop was just one big act, but I think that was the result of her being genuinely desperate to just have Rika give up once and for all, and her starting to crack under the pressure of doing all of these things with her own hands across so many loops. 

So now we’ll just have to see how the confrontation between them at the end of Nekodamashi plays out once we get back to it. In the long run I just think it’ll lead to the ending I talked about before, with them using the sword on each other. The exact nuances of how that sorta ending might play out are up in the air, though.

Either way, I think there’s probably enough time to wrap up all that in two more episodes, but there’s still reason to believe that there might be some kind of sequel in the works. I don’t really want to bet on it, though, so I’m just gonna assume that there’s two episodes left and base my theories on that. In which case I think the next episode will go over the Damashi arcs and end with Rika and Satoko’s confrontation at the end of Nekodamashi, and then the final episode will wrap everything up. Considering that they both more or less know exactly what’s going on with each other by that point, there isn’t really that much that needs to be wrapped up. I think that will be the final loop we get, so it’ll all just come down to how their confrontation plays out, and what decision they come to about how to handle each other.

I honestly don’t really know how I think a full sequel would go, if it’s at least one cour long. Assuming that it’s not just a new Umineko anime that more or less continues Rika and Satoko’s arc via Lambda and Bern, but is a straight up ‘Higurashi Gou Season 2′. It just feels like there isn’t really that much that needs to be done to wrap things up, now that everything’s being laid out in the open, and Rika and Satoko are both aware of each other’s looping. They might switch it up so that they both end up teaming up to take down Featherine, but I kinda doubt that’ll happen.

I’m still hoping this is leading into some kind of new Umineko anime though, lol. That feels like it’d be the main reason for putting so much effort into this whole elaborate LambdaBern origin story we’re getting here.

I’ve heard rumors that there’s been listings for a 25th episode of Gou, so it’s possible that rather than another full season, there’s just one extra episode at the end. I’m not exactly sure what the point of doing one extra unannounced episode at the end would be, though. It might end up being a bridge between Gou and a new Umineko anime.

At the very least, if it’s just ‘Satokowashi Part 8′, it makes me wonder why they haven’t announced it yet, and why they didn’t just split that arc into two BD volumes with four episodes each, instead of having it be one big volume with seven episodes, and one random episode at the end for some reason. But if it’s more of an epilogue or a bridge of sorts between Gou and something else, with Gou’s story concluding with episode 24, then I guess it’d make some sense to do it that way.

We also know there’s gonna be a panel for Gou at a convention around when ep24 comes out, so if anything gets announced it’ll probably happen there.

Anyway, this whole episode can be summed up as “Satoko does a gay little psychological torture that pisses Rika off”, in the most morbidly entertaining way possible, lmao.

[longitudinalwaveme]

Longitudinalwaveme Reviews More Old Comics (and One New One), Part 1

I’m going to be doing these reviews in chronological order, starting with the oldest of the bunch. 

Batman #292: “The Testimony of the Riddler” 

This issue is actually the second part of a four-part story, “Where Were You On the Night Batman Was Killed?” Basically, everyone thinks Batman is dead, and a bunch of his villains are coming forward to claim the honor of being his killer. Catwoman’s claim was dismissed last issue; now it’s Riddler’s turn. 

The mock trial that the villains have set up to determine the identity of the killer is amazing. Ra’s al Ghul is the judge, Two-Face is the prosecutor, and the jury is composed of the Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze before B:TAS gave him a good costume, Scarecrow, the Signalman (*snicker*) and the Spook, who I only know as the D-Lister beheaded by Damian Wayne. 

The Riddler begins his testimony, regaling everyone with riddles (some of which seem more like jokes, but whatever), and telling them about a crazy criminal caper he launched, during which time he posed as Bruce Wayne in order to steal a ridiculous jeweled typewriter ( “made of gold, platinum, and ivory...its keys studded with diamonds and rubies...its ribbon made from a Ming Dynasty robe....and its case encrusted with emeralds!”). 

Amusingly, since Riddler doesn’t know Bruce Wayne is Batman, his Batman is not at all surprised to come across “Bruce Wayne” at the party. Batman ends up following the Riddler’s clues to find the Riddler and the ridiculously fancy typewriter in a quarry, whereupon the Riddler uses a knife he has to cut a rope that was holding some rock slabs. According to Riddler, the slabs fell on Batman, pinning him. Riddler then blew him up with dynamite (which he set off using a latern’s flames).

As soon as he finishes his testimony, Two-Face calls him a liar; gets permission to take the entire court outside, sets up a deathtrap using the dynamite Riddler claims he used to kill the Batman, and orders the bailiffs to tie Riddler to the trap and light it all on fire. 

They do, and the Riddler promptly passes out. Two-Face then walks onto the trap himself, and nothing happens. As Two-Face explains, “dynamite does not explode in fire! It can be lighted only by electric spark or percussion!” 

Riddler is eliminated as a potential candidate and escorted from the courtroom (with an apparent $25,000 fine for the dynamite display). 

Several other claimants retract their claims, and Ra’s adjourns the court for the day. 

Also, Bronze Age Riddler makes a surprisingly convincing Bruce Wayne, all things considered (this was back when he still had black hair; rather than red). 

Batman #293, “Luthor’s Testimony”

This issue takes up immediately where the last one left off, with Lex Luthor of all people taking the stand in the costume you can see in the picture above. It’s...certainly something, all right. 

Cluemaster, Killer Moth, the Cavalier, and some random gangsters are also at the trial. Most are impressed by Luthor’s amazing(ly hilarious) new outfit, which I’m pretty sure he only ever wore once (for this trial).

Luthor does his usual grandstanding before launching into the story of his latest plot to kill Superman. 

Said plot involved a fake robbery to lure Batman into a trap that would allow Luthor to put Superman’s mind into Batman’s body. 

Luthor then punched Superman-in-Batman’s-body to death and launched the body into space. Luthor says that now he’s leaving to go back to Metropolis, where he’ll put his own mind into Superman’s body so that he may become Super-Luthor. 

Two-Face proceeds to demolish Luthor’s story, first by calling in one of Luthor’s goons to reveal that Batman had infiltrated Luthor’s gang by posing as a henchman, and then calling in Superman himself to prove that, in fact, Superman’s mind is still in its body.  Superman just dressed up as Batman and pretended to be Superman-in-Batman’s-body to fool Luthor. 

Exposed as a liar, Luthor storms out of the room, but not before yelling at Two-Face for “colluding with Superman” and insulting the criminal pretensions of everyone in the room. 

Also, Two-Face somehow managed to convince Superman to grant every villain in the courtroom amnesty. (Although if I’m remembering the fourth part of the story properly, I think “Two-Face” is really Batman in disguise, explaining why he was so easily able to get into contact with Superman and probably making the amnesty fake.)

The comic ends with the Joker’s signature laughter; he’ll be the last villain to give testimony in front of the kangaroo court. Sadly, I don’t have that issue, so I won’t be reviewing it here. 

Batman #296, “The Sinister Straws of the Scarecrow” 

Scarecrow has henchmen he calls “Strawmen”. They have weird costumes and exist to give him someone to deliver all his lectures to and test his fear gas on. As usual, his speeches to his underlings sound...well...like simplified college psychology lectures. 

Otto the burly henchman’s deepest fear is Batman. What a surprise. 

Phobias namedropped by the Scarecrow (and narration boxes): phobophobia (the fear of fear), pyrophobia (fear of fire), algophobia (fear of pain), pathophobia (fear of illness), taphephobia (the fear of being buried alive), inutilophobia (the fear of not being able to carry on one’s work) and “chiropterhomopobia”. The last is especially interesting since it’s not actually a real word; it’s a fictional one that manages to effectively follow the formula used for naming phobias. “Chiropterophobia” is the fear of bats. “Homophobia”, in this case, is the fear of men (homo referring to our species name, homo sapiens); therefore chiropterhomophobia would be the fear of bat-men. Good work with conjugation there, writer! 

Anyway, the Scarecrow uses a crook named Skibo’s taphephobia to convince him to give them the location of the turnpike bond money he stole from Gotham City’s National Bank several months ago.

The next day at the bank, the money is returned, puzzling Bruce Wayne. Wayne goes to interrogate a crook who talks in confusing criminal slang, who tells him that Skibo was the one who fenced the stolen bonds. 

Batman tracks Skibo down...and finds him being assaulted by the Scarecrow, who believes that the bonds he returned to the bank were counterfeit. This is problematic for the Scarecrow because it suggests that Skibo was able to withstand his fear of the Scarecrow and disobey his orders, which would interefere with his ability to intercept criminals who are obeying his orders to return stolent money and take the money for himself. 

Batman, Skibo, Scarecrow, and his goons get into a free-for-all that ends up causing an explosion. In the chaos, Scarecrow and the goons escape and Batman gets information out of Skibo about the Scarecrow’s plans. 

Scarecrow and his goons then go after a thief who stole a valuable Gutenberg Bible, but before they can use the fear toxin on him, Batman shows up and they use it on him instead. It affects Batman, but he shakes it off and manages to defeat the Scarecrow and his goons as well as capture the thief who stole the Guetenberg Bible. 

The story ends with Batman telling Commissioner Gordon that he found the case exhilarating. 

All-in-all, a pretty standard Scarecrow story. 

Batman #308, “There’ll Be a Cold Time in the Old Town Tonight” 

Some guy named Jacob Riker has betrayed Mr. Freeze. The man in question is promptly murdered by Freeze and his henchmen. 

In this issue, Mr. Freeze is wearing an outfit that’s reminiscent of Captain Cold’s, but with a bubble-helmet and pink shades. 

Catwoman shows up in Bruce Wayne’s office to tell him that she’s reformed and wants to invest money in Wayne Enterprises. Bruce agrees, and also agrees to meet her for dinner at some point next week. She also brings a cat with her to this meeting, because of course she does. 

Lucius Fox introduces Bruce Wayne to his daughter, Tiffany, who works in a drug rehabilitation program sponsored by the Wayne Foundation. After exchanging pleasantries, Bruce tells Lucius to give him a complete rundown on what Selina’s been up to, presumably so that he can know if she’s on the level. 

He moons over Catwoman for a bit before getting called into action by the Batsignal, and he subsequently arrives at the scene of Riker’s murder. The guy is frozen solid and very dead. 

Some rich guy name Mr. McVee comes to Mr. Freeze; he’s exchanging all his wealth in exchange for the promise of immortality. 

Unfortunately, the process turns the man into a Popsicle zombie. His body is alive, but his brain is dead. 

Also, Mr. Freeze has a girlfriend named Hildy, whom he loves and is planning to make immortal (as he himself effectively is). Unfortunately for him, she does not reciprocate his feelings and is using him solely as a means of staying young forever. Interestingly, she’s blonde, just like Nora usually is (Nora, of course, didn’t exist at the time this was written). 

Meanwhile, at STAR labs, a medical treatment goes wrong and kills somebody. 

Batman finds and breaks into Mr. Freeze’s hideout...and is promptly attacked by Mr. Freeze and his Popsicle zombies. Mr. Freeze dubs them his “Ice Pack”. 

Mr. Freeze manages to take Batman out of the fight by freezing his legs, which causes him to fall to the floor. This allows him to be captured by the Popsicle Zombies and put inside Mr. Freeze’s immortality machine. 

Batman is apparently turned into another mindless Popsicle zombie as Mr. Freeze exposits about how lonely his life is and how much he loves Hindy. 

Mr. Freeze leaves Hildy in the room with the Popsicle zombies, at which point Hildy starts to talk to Batman about how she thinks he’s cute and she’d rather be immortal with him rather than with Freeze (who she’s planning to kill in any case).

Unfortunately for her, Mr. Freeze overhears her and is predictably furious, pointing his Freeze Ray directly at her face. 

Batman saves her from an icy fate by attacking Mr. Freeze, revealing as he does so that he had only pretended to be frozen by the machine (having disconnected several of the building’s extra power lines). Cue another fight with Freeze and the Popsicle Zombies. 

Batman uses a piece of ice to break Freeze’s bubble helmet; preventing him from giving any more orders to the Popsicle Zombies. He then fights Freeze some more. The Freeze Ray goes flying and gets grabbed by Hildy, who plans to kill both of them. Unfortunately, the gun backfires on her and she’s killed instead. Mr. Freeze is arrested. 

Meanwhile, we learn that the dead guy was the Blockbuster, Mark Desmond, and that he isn’t quite as dead as the people at STAR Labs think. 

Justice League of America #167, “The League That Defeated Itself!”

The splash page is of Superman punching Hal Jordan Green Lantern in the face.

The explanation is pretty quickly forthcoming: the Secret Society of Super-Villains has swapped bodies with the Justice League. The Wizard from Earth-2 is in Superman’s body, Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash is in Green Lantern’s body, Plant-Master is in Wonder Woman’s body (ew), Star Sapphire is in Zatanna’s body, and Blockbuster is in Batman’s body.

The real Justice League are trapped in the bodies of the villains and locked in a cube-shaped cell. Superman guides Hal into using his new super-speed to help them break free of the cube.

The Joker stars in a Hostess Fruit pie ad!

The villains have left for Earth, leaving the heroes (who are trapped in their bodies) alone on the JLA Satellite, along with an unconscious Red Tornado, whom they promptly wake up.

Naturally unaware of the switch, the Tornado attacks them and they fight. Zatanna manages to bring the tornado down using Star Sapphire’s powers, and the JLA go off to find their bodies on Earth, with Batman telling Zatanna that she’ll have to reverse the spell as their only magician.

Green Lantern gets some information out of Hijack (who I think is a member of the Royal Flush Gang) by pretending to be Reverse-Flash. The information helps them locate the Society’s HQ.

As soon as they break into the building, however...they’re promptly incapacitated by Green Arrow (except for Zatanna, who remained outside). Green Arrow is suspicious of the way Superman is behaving and decides to keep an eye on him and the others who “located” the HQ of the Secret Society.

Justice League of America #168, “The Last Great Switcheroo”

This issue picks up where the last issue left off. Ollie and Hawkman are supsicous about the behavior of their allies, while Black Canary ad the Elongated Man don’t think anything unusual is going on.

Eobard traps the “villains” in a diamond cell, and then the Wizard chucks the diamond into another dimension!  

The Wizard covers for himself by claiming that the “villains” have been put into “time-stasis” by “Green Lantern”’s ring. “I just tossed the diamond into an orbit around the solar system! They’ll remain there until science perfects criminal rehabilitation.” For some reason, everyone except Green Arrow immediately accepts this excuse.

Red Tornado breaks free of the trap Zatanna-in-Star-Sapphire’s-Body had to put him in last issue and criticizes the decisions he made in the fight with them.

Zatanna then arrives on the satellite and convinces Red Tornado of the swap that’s taken place.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, the Secret Society and the remaining members of the Justice League are, at least allegedly, guarding some jewels for the Mexican government. Elongated Man, Hawkman, and the Flash are also becoming suspicious of their supposed allies.

And then Eobard ruins everything in the most Eobard way possible: forcing a kiss onto Black Canary!

The real Justice Leaguers fight and defeat the impostors (except for the Wizard, who left to “patrol the city”)...but before he can step in to salvage his plan, Superman uses the Wizard’s own magic to take his body down.

Zatanna reverses the mind-swap, and the day is saved.

Was it this story that later got retconned to include more mindwiping thanks Identity Crisis, or am I thinking of a different storyline?

Flash #275, “The Last Dance” 

In this issue, Iris Allen dies! 

The story starts with Barry in the grip of a teenaged girl with ESP powers (no, really. Cary Bates, the issue’s writer, really liked the paranormal). His marriage with his wife Iris has been struggling, and she fears that he might be cheating on her. 

She’s also spying on him by bugging his costume rings with “micro-mini homing signal devices”, which just goes to show that literally anyone in the DCU can invent amazing technology at the drop of a hat. 

Stalking the stalker is Clive Yorkin, a character from the plot thread that’s been building up to this issue. He’s kind of based off of the brainwashing scene in A Clockwork Orange and hates the Flash and Barry Allen. 

The teenager uses her mental powers to force the Flash to meet her at a motel and take off his mask, which he does. She’s apparently disappointed by the results, complaining that there’s nothing remarkable about him, and promptly storms out. 

Iris arrives in her car just as the girl storms out, and discovers that she’s coming from the room that her tracker has Barry in. She storms inside and accuses Barry of cheating on her, then runs out in tears.

Also, right before she storms out, Barry looks at himself in the mirror and thinks “ “Ordinary”? What in blazes is that supposed to mean? I may not be Robert Redford...but I always thought I was sort of sexy...at least, that’s what Iris told me.” It’s mildly hilarious. 

Iris promptly gets into a car wreck with a tanker truck. Barry manages to save both her and the two truck drivers from the massive explosion that this causes. 

Barry convinces Iris that he wasn’t cheating and the two promptly make  up. 

Meanwhile, Mysterious Shadowy Man on the Phone tells someone to kill Barry Allen at a philanthropist’s upcoming costume party for all of the employees of Central City’s government (e.g., police officers, firefighters, etc.) The Mysterious Shadowy Man on the Phone will eventually be revealed to be the corrupt police chief of Central City, Chief Paulson.  

Iris and Barry decide they want to have kids, then kiss. D’awww! 

Iris’ costume for the party arrives; she’s going as Batgirl. Barry was planning to rent a Batman outfit, but it was already rented, so Barry ends up going to the costume ball dressed as himself (that is, the Flash).

Clyde Yorkin is still stalking both of them. 

Barry’s friend from work, Frank Curtis, arrives to pick the couple up. Hilariously, he’s also dressed as the Flash. 

The theme of the party is “Dress as Your Favorite Super-Character”. Iris comments “it’ll be interesting to see whether we get more heroes or villains!”...which raises a question: Namely, why is everyone totally okay with people dressing up as people who are, in their world, real costumed criminals? That’s always seemed odd to me. 

Clive Yorkin sneaks into the trunk of Curtis’ car and slips out as the other three head for the party.

Inside the mansion, we see a huge number of people dressed up as famous DC characters, including Hawkgirl, the Calculator, Heat Wave, two Green Lanterns, Zatanna, Aquaman, Green Arrow, two Black Canaries, Abra Kadabra, Batman, Wonder Woman, Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash, Star Sapphire, Supergirl, Pied Piper, Poison Ivy, Captain Cold, the Golden Glider, the Top, mustachioed Superman, some guy in a purple costume I can’t ID, Mirror Master, the Golden Age Sandman, and Captain Boomerang. 

The Golden Age Sandman is actually an assassin in disguise; he was hired by Chief Paulson to get rid of Barry Allen before he discovered his corruption; he drugs Barry by “shooting” him with his Sandman gun. One of the Green Lanterns is actually Hal Jordan, who pops up to say hi to Barry and Iris. A later story will reveal that the Captain Boomerang in this issue was the real Captain Boomerang, and that some of the other Rogues were also actually at the party so they could, quote, “party and pick pockets”. Yet another subsequent issue will reveal that the Reverse-Flash at the party was in fact the real Eobard. So...which of the other Rogues do we think were at the party? We know that the Captain Cold isn’t real; he’s “Phil from Vice”.  That means that the Golden Glider alongside him is probably not the real one either, and it seems unlikely that the Top here is the real one, since he was dead at this point. So that leaves the Pied Piper, Mirror Master, and Heat Wave as possible candidates. 

Chief Paulson calls Barry to meet him in his office at 9 AM the next day; Barry agrees but notes that the man seems oddly tense. 

Curtis, still dressed as the Flash, goes outside for a smoke break and gets jumped by Yorkin, who mistakenly believes him to be Barry (until he rips his mask off, at which point he just throws him off the balcony.)

Barry sees a Green Lantern making the moves on Iris and gets upset until Hal reveals that he’s the real Green Lantern and congratulates them on their plan to become parents. He then flies out the window, and somehow all the party goers are fully convinced that it’s just a really elaborate costume. Huh?

Iris tempts fate by saying that “this might be the happiest moment of my life!” The two go off together to get some privacy...but then Barry begins to feel dizzy, as though he’s been drugged. Iris goes into the bathroom to get him some water...and then Barry hears her screaming! He bursts into the bathroom to see Iris on the floor, with Yorkin standing over her. Yorkin then jumps out a window as Barry runs to his wife. 

A bunch of the guests, including Mustachioed Superman, burst into the room to see what the commotion is, and Barry passes out. Curtis bursts in a few seconds later to learn that one of his friends needs a hospital....and that the other is dead! It’s a very effective cliffhanger.