#parasite in love marlowe

[ebonysplendor]

Parasite in Love Review 🦠

TL;DR: You're pretty much in a toxic, nonconsensual relationship with an even more toxic amoeba. Yes, an amoeba. That's it. That's the game

Game Link: https://night-asob u.itch.io/parasite-in-love

Notable Features: She/Her/Hers MC, Named MC, Yandere LI, partial voice acting Spiciness: 0/5 -- No explicit content LI Red Flags: 2/5 -- lack of consent, a lil hands on...but from the inside...?

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Let me just start off by saying... I genuinely thought this game was going to be wack lol. Like, no lie.

First off, from the synopsis I had read on the page, I initially thought that it was going to be more of the hallucinations that we were experiencing versus the parasite itself.

That being said, when I booted up the game...it was mad boring. I'm not even gonna lie to y'all, I was 2 seconds from clicking that ish out and moving on to another visual novel that I had saved to play later; however, I was like "Well, it just started. Let me give it a fair chance because this is clearly only the intro" because let's be real for a second. An intro is kind've hard to write without making it so plain that the person playing just loses interest nor making it so that shit just starts popping off out of seemingly no where. So, with that in consideration, I pushed through. I got through the first, like, day and 3/4 of the second day. THAT'S when things started getting a little more interesting, and I was like "Okay! Here we go!". After that, it was pleasantly interesting!

It definitely had a slow start with all the "I did this, then I did this, and then after that I did this" blah, blah, blah, but once it truly started? Oh, it was on. With that, I think I've rambled enough about my personal experience. Let's talk about the game (with as little spoilers as possible, as always)

So, boom, we're -- well, actually Marlowe -- is taking a vacay by...going in the wilderness.

No shade, no tea to you if this is your style of vacationing. I support, but no way in hell am I partaking. Ain't no way I'm going to get away from indoor struggles by experiencing outdoor struggles, like nu uh. Then again, Marlowe isn't exactly out here roughing it. She has this really nice cabin that she rented out, and she's going to chill the week there.

Even though this is a horror themed game, she actually has pretty solid reception out here, so we're good! We can call for help should we need it, right? ...Right?

Anyways, she goes to take a swim in this lake, and I honestly get why she did that...but why did she do that? Literally the intro to the game was a news story on this brain-eating bacteria that resides in -- you guessed it -- freshwater lakes.

What did we just take a swim in? A freshwater lake. Lol you already know where this is headed.

Okay, now that I'm actually trying to type this out, I don't really know how to present this story without spoiling it, but I'm going to try my damnedest, so bear with me.

So, without spoiling it too much, basically what ends up happening is that Marlowe gets really sick, and the friendly neighborhood germ, who's actually a lil toxic sumbetch, falls in love with her.

...

I know, I know, I said the same thing lol. We -- and by we, I mean Marlowe -- got sick, and the brain-eating bacteria that I mentioned earlier has fallen in love with us. But hear me out! It actually gets super interesting from here, so stay with me!

From this point, it's this odd tug-o-war game of survival. We're trying to survive it, and it is essentially trying to survive us from trying to kill it. To it -- this amoeba that named himself Niall and goes by he/him/his pronouns -- Marlowe isn't a host, but a spouse, and it's trying to build this family with her from inside her. For him, her survival means his death, and for Marlowe, it's the literal opposite.

By the way, this is Niall. Our...husband.

Anyways

During this tug-o-war game, Marlowe gets a little feisty with Niall, and Niall literally keeps her in check without physically touching her. Remember, Niall is a literal brain-eating bacteria. He's very real, but he isn't a person like she's hallucinating -- he's a disease. He's a disease that's making her ill, and he makes her symptoms worse whenever he gets pissed at her. Holy. Shit. Now, that's a crazy concept.

In an attempt to not ruin more than I may already have, I'll just say at this point, it's either him or Marlowe. As with a majority of visual novels, how this ends is completely up to the choices you make.

Like always, I'm not gonna lie to y'all. This game was significantly better than what I was initially expecting.

Like I mentioned before, the beginning was just really mundane to me, and I thought it was going to be the same scenario as another game I'm planning on writing a review about, but thankfully, it did not continue in that manner. Now that I've completed the game, it reads more like a "Everything was going great until it wasn't" type of thing, and it wasn't as "boring" as I initially thought. Still boring, but not "I wish this coworker would stop talking to me about this thing I don't care about" boring.

Now, that what I didn't care for is out of the way, let's talk about what I did care for: the concept of the story.

I could go on and on about how absolutely GENIUS I thought the concept of this VN was. Admittedly, if I did that, this review would turn out way longer than I'd want, and it'd seem like rambling. That being said, I'll just say this: By far, out of all the VNs that I've read so far (and admittedly, I'm relatively new to all of this, but hear me out), this has been the most original and the most interesting one as far as the concept that was chosen, not to mention it was executed well.

During this VN, I actually got a "...Okay, this is actually terrifying if you think about it" feeling. Not to mention, the take of "We're the same but different" premise. Like, Marlowe and Niall wanted the same exact thing as far as lifestyle but from different aspects. Hers was more of a life milestone or value that she had, and his was for the sheer aspect of survival. That was what made him cling to her the way that he had. It wasn't even about her looks or from the typical "You were the only person that was ever nice to me" trope, but a "You have the same will to survive like I do". Like damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! A deadly bacteria falls in love with you because he sees similarities in the two of you and is under the impression that you understand and consent to what he's doing. That is such an insane concept, and damn do I want to talk about it more, but I won't because I'll start rambling it and ruin it.

Overall, I'd recommend giving this game a go! Honestly, to me, it's not the most interesting reading-wise, but if you stick with it for the concept, it's a pretty solid read! Not to mention there's some partial voice acting which is super cool! Be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they're doing a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance. Like mentioned at the top, here is the link to the game if you'd like to try it out yourself! I definitely think that you should if you want to experience something different from the norm.

Anyways! That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around! Until next time~!

Parasite in Love Game Link and Page

[maddymoreau]

While I simp for Niall, above all else I think Parasite in Love is an incredible horror game. I don’t recommend it to people just for Niall.

The artwork, voice acting, music ALL OF IT is done perfectly!! Creating this masterpiece of a horror story.

I don’t talk about the protagonist enough, but Marlowe is an phenomenally written main character. She’s sympathetic yet relatable. Her wit against Niall and journey is fantastic.

That final scene after escaping Niall in the one ending she lives, where she just screams out his name in pure anguish. So upset she can’t even put together the words to express her rage and pain.

IT’S SO GOOOOOOOOOOOODD!!!!!!!

[lynettethemadscientist]

Niall: you should take responsibility for the offspring I’ve created inside your brain

Marlowe: ??????????????????????

[droolfang]

venus fangs oc masterpost

gonna try and list my characters for y'all, will update as need be!! by no means comprehensive.

SETTING: Worth Her Weight In Gold (WHWIG)

planned fantasy novella full of wg/tf/tg shenanigans. Mostly the adventures of Amandine (a 7 foot tall draconic princess who is "worth her weight in gold" and thus fattened magically by would be ransomers) and her retainer Olivier (a transgender mommydom in the form of a nervous beanpole gentleman)

Character: Amandine

she/her, bratty princess, sometimes a dragon

Character: Olivier

he/she? depending on context. Amandine's nervous retainer

Character: Elizar

he/him, mercenary who kidnapped Amandine for ransom

Character: Daire

he/she? depending on context. kink wizard hired by Elizar to fatten Amandine

SETTING: southern fried slasher verse

characters i have with my partner based in the nebulous american south who kill and eat people

Character: Elvis

he/him, bartender and serial killing vampire

Character: Mitch

she/her, vindictive slasher tranny

SETTING: grizzoli's

series of erotic short stories involving the members of the vampiric grizzoli's circus as they hunt magical artifacts and fuck nasty

Character: Antoni

he/him, but maybe she/her??? prettyboy vampire bottom

Character: Dolby

she/her, tgirl hired muscle

Character: Mel

she/her, vampire apex predator

SETTING: d seas

pirate shenanigans w my partner

Character: Sargasso

she/her, dark magic pirate mob boss

Character: Grimleash

she/her, sargasso's left hand, bsdm pirate, tgirl with the strap representation

Character: Juno

he/him, demigod of the sun, hedonist and egotist

Character: Bax

he/she, closeted trans girl and all around backstabbing slut rogue

Character: Hound

he/him, Bax's brother, put-upon noble warrior who has just been fired

Character: Invicta

she/her, bax and hounds overbearing mother, pirate warlord

SETTING: science

mad scientist shenanigans with my partner

Character: Esme

she/her, body-mod snake woman, loves unethical experiments

Character: Ivar

he/him, stoner tboy lab assistant who oozes black ichor

Character: Mandel

all pronouns, bug who's happy to be here

SETTING: gothic fantasy

gothic fantasy shenanigans with my partner

Character: Desmond

he/him, vampire saint who keeps a woman in a cage

Character: Labrador

she/her, dream demon and noblewoman

OTHERS

Character: Marlow

she/her, govt assassin with superpowers

Character: Sable

she/her, office feedee

Character: Mordere

she/her, rat eating vampire lord

Character: Lillith

she/her, ancient vampire businesswoman

Character: Prim

she/her, lilliths familiar and airhead

Character: Vervaine

they/them, partyslut toxic alien

Character: Hugo

he/him, galactic fugitive with a body horror parasite

Character: Sagitta

he/him, alien warlord

Character: Frolick

she/her, frivolous chimera

Character: Cowsona

she/her.... my sona.... sometimes a dragon, or even a mouse

[maleyanderecafe]

Hi! Do you know any yandere games in which the MC is NOT some featureless person? Like MC actually has an appearance, that's not up to interpretation or grey? I'm tired of these visual novels with invisible MCs 😩 them having a personality would be great too!

Oof man, I understand. I personally prefer it when a character has some sort of design, but I understand why they do it. An invisible MC is easier since it means the artist doesn't have to add another character in CGs and it leaves the player able to self-insert more cleanly. Same with the grey people since it doesn't really define itself as a certain bod type or skin color- but honestly it looks really silly watching a grey blob self in CGs. But yeah, having an actual MC design would be pretty neat to see more- you and Cherry have the same thoughts on this.

That being said, most games that do have a design are either BLs or Otome games and very few are gender neutral with a set design.

Otome Games (With Renamable MCs)

Sweetest Valentine - the MC has a nice character design and a pretty interesting personality depending on which route you go for.

XOXO Blood Droplets - the MC (or JB) is very flirty with all of the guys and very forward. It's put on hiatus for now since GB Patch is working on other games currently.

What's Your Name - actually has three female MCs all with different backstories to compliment each of the love interests, though you only really see their designs at the end of the good routes.

Particles of Reality - the MC (or Monika) has a pretty tragic backstory and runs in with a couple of different yanderes.

Please Don't Hate Christmas - the MC (or Molly) has a fairly cute design, though a lot of her personality is surprised otome character, but with a twist! Future Recommendation

Otome Games (With Defined MCs)

Go Away, Yandere! - for essentially a meme, self insert train of thought game, it's actually pretty well made. Coella is amazingly great as a protagonist since they just run with whatever goes. Future Recommendation.

My Puppy Fiancee/In Search of Haru/Jime Quiet Boyfriend- these are all otome IOS games from SeeC Inc which all have pretty good female protags. Though short, each of them has at least one yandere ending which is enough to put this on this list. You can find most walkthroughs on youtube if you can't play it. Future Recommendation.

Apartment No.9/Solopolism Reigns/Dawn of the Damned- all these games are made by @melancholy-marionette, who has a huge plethera of yandere games. I did a huge summary of Solopolism Reigns here, but the other games also have defined females. Future Recommendation.

ITYH: Horror Otome/Saccharine - Amiralo has pretty good and bittersweet games overall and the female characters are always interesting to say the least.

Parasite in Love -Marlowe is placed in a pretty unfavorable situation, but in the true ending is able to use her wits to get Niall off of her case. Quite literally, in fact.

Colorful Mirai: Spooky Edition - a spin off of their other game, Lauren is pretty fun as a protagonist. None of the yanderes have any lasting impressions or do anything too detrimental to her though.

Most Japanese otomes also tend to have MCs with character designs and I think more recent yandere ones tend to have ones with more character than simply just a blank slate.

BL Games

Most BL games have a predefined character already, so I'm not going to split this into two parts.

House Check - you actually play as the yandere, Arlon, who periodically breaks into his crush Owen's house to house clean. Future Reommendation

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel… Help!! - comedic game where the MC gets isekaied into a yandere game he played and has to survive. One of the few on the list that has a renamable MC. I have yet to play the updated version though.

Forgive My Sins, Father/ Forgive My Desires, Father - two sides of the same coin, though only one side is the yandere.

Mistrick/Misfiction/Line88 - all created by @hatogedev, Mistrick and Misfiction's yanderes are the same character, but Line88 is a kinetic novel. Future Recommendation for that last one.

Blood and Lust and Lust for Blood - I like the character design for Dimitri, but the game is a little uh... well, it could be more polished, let's say. Future Recommendation.

Killing Kiss - mobile game, but I really like Ryu and his design. The yandere in this one only really appears in one ending though.

Gender Neutral MC/ Male or Female Selection Games

Heart Fragment - extremely well made game, and you can choose a more masculine or feminine appearance. The yandere in this one is fairly light though.

Froot Basket Dark Chocolate - this one is kind of weird because you're actually playing as the yandere but the "MC" (Jordan), can have their gender chosen and has a set design.

Picture Perfect Romance -MC does have a design, though not given a name or gender. Very surreal game, I will say.

The Things You Do for Love!! - the MC is the yandere interestingly enough and you can choose their gender, and has a cute design. Still debating if I want to do a recommendation on this one though.

Degrees of Lewdity - does this count? I mean you can customize what your MC looks like and there are up to two yandere in this game

Purrfect Apawcalypse - Olive, the main character is nonbinary so I will put them on the list, though the yandere is yandere for another character. It's a triology and very good.

I also have my own game @perfectlovevn, which has Eris, an MC with a design and strong personality as well. I'm still doing the SFX/Music assignment for it but you can see my progress as it goes.

Anyways, I hope that was able to help you. There's a butt ton of other yandere games I still need to get through on itchio, so I may find some more in the future.

[ystrike1]

Parasite in Love - By Night Asobu (9/10)

You've heard of monster boys. What about a monster parasite? Would you like a boyfriend that reads your thoughts? One that eats you alive from within? He looks just like your university crush. Isn't that what you want?

Haven't you always wanted to have children?

Marlowe is the main character in this game. She's a successful careerwoman in her thirties, or possibly forties. When the story opens she's on vacation. She has a great job, so she can afford to take time off when she needs it.

The cabin she chose is a little funky, but it's nice and big. She feels like she wants to disconnect, and swim, and drink coffee until she has energy again. Marlowe adores the great outdoors. She's confident enough to go on vacation alone and enjoy it, but she does want a family. She's no loner. She's an ordinary but successful woman. One day she wants to bring her beloved child on trips like this, so they can enjoy nature together.

She swims every day, but then she gets a headache. The great outdoors is a dangerous place. If you're really unlucky you could inhale a brain eating parasite. Marlowe isn't worried about that, because it's so statistically unlikely. When she gets a dizzy she ignores it, because she wants to enjoy her time off. She sees a blue hand, but still she thinks she's fine.

She's just seeing things.

Everything is fine.

Everything is not fine. She begins to hallucinate after a few days. When she tries to call a doctor a man named Niall stops her. He's blue. Her biggest crush was named Niall, and he's a personification of a parasite. He's been multiplying inside her brain. He is killing her, but he thinks he's a father. He has seen Marlowe's memories, and he's in love with her. He knows her so well. He wants a big family too. He thinks his copies are their children.

This story has multiple endings. We know the parasites are not babies. Niall thinks it's in love with her because it saw her memories, and got attached to her. BUT, he's not willing to go against his instincts. He wants to breed, and he isn't going to stop just because his host is dying. He's living the dream. He's got a family with the woman he loves.

The first ending is tragic. Niall is sentient. He knows what a hospital is because he has read most of Marlowe's memories. He makes her suffer when she tries to call a doctor. When she tries to pick up her phone she gets a headache that makes her throw up. Niall is smart, but he's also not human and stuck inside her. She hates him, but in one of the endings she tries to be reasonable. She tries to keep him happy so he won't hurt her, and then she dies. All while Niall hums the wedding march.

In the second ending Niall feels guilty. He's glad that he'll die with Marlowe after her body rots. She tells him the truth. He's not a father. She knows what a father is. He sees her memories and cries. He objectively knows that what he's doing isn't parenthood or marriage.

He also gets angry, and his rage hurts Marlowe. Their argument about what a family is kills her, and him, in the second ending.

In the true ending there is a fork. Marlowe can die and drown if you fail a mini game. If you pass she gets to live. In this ending she lies to Niall. She manipulates him. She pretends to care about their family. She states the obvious. He can breed inside her for a while, but she will rot and their children will die with him. She says she must go back to the lake, where he can live on with the children. He has to get out of her body, and live in the lake. She lies some more and says she'll return to live with him when she's not sick. Niall understands death and sickness, because of Marlowe's memories, but he's literally a brain parasite. His kind doesn't nest in humans often. Usually they just breed and die. Marlowe's love and desire to extend his short parasite life moves him. He stops hurting her and she runs to the lake. She's very sick at this point so the minigame is keeping her body afloat. When Niall pushes out of her he says all kinds of loving things. He says she is a great mother.

When she stumbles out of the lake she screams his name in a fit of rage. Marlowe is an excellent protagonist. She doesn't love Niall or any of their children in any route. The family love is his delusion. She was literally in pain the whole time he was with her. It's great to see two separate perspectives that make sense. To Niall breeding is his entire life, and making sense of it is the whole point to his existence. Marlowe is more complicated than such a simple organism. His obsession with breeding only scared her. This type of horror is especially jarring for women. If you've ever had a boyfriend who tried to pressure you into motherhood maybe don't play this. It is likely very triggering for women who have been in toxic relationships. Specifically, relationships which involved unwanted children. It's grim stuff. Fair warning. You've been warned.

[yanmaresu]

So I just watched a gameplay of Parasite in Love and aaahhh prime yandere content!! Spoiler warning below :0

The only thing missing was the “good” ending where it’s revealed that a part of Niall remained in Marlowe’s body =3=

nooooo. I mean the ending sounds cool but Niall actually gives me the creeps x'd haha Being honest the game is so well done, the whole symbolism/parallels you can make out of it with the parasite thing is amazing. but the concept is unsimpable for me.

[walaranisiyabai]

[Content warning: mentions of personal violation/ sexual abuse / domestic abuse /and body horror]

Share ko lang:

I was watching a gameplay by ManlyBadassHero, and the game he was playing was Parasite in Love. Ladies and gents and fellow human beans, that's how you write a strong female lead who wants to survive from a brain eating amoeba who violates her body and her pagkatao.

The voice acting and the voice of Marlowe was also such a great choice because she sounds so mature and level headed, and base from her dailogues you can see that she is someone who is mentally strong.

The storyline can also be used as a realistic representation of sexual abuse victims, kidnapping survivors and domestic abuse experiences and the aftermath. Especially there are tons of "dating games" where obsessive and unhealthy behaviors of male leads are romanticized and the small acts of kindness is such a rare thing that everytime the female lead gets an ounce of respect from them, she ended up developing romantic feelings for them, and that is such a bad trope to follow. I mean, I do know that my guilty pleasure is to simp over fictional assholes, who if I ever get hurt, would not even look in my direction, and they might even be the reason I get hurt, but you'll get what I'm saying.

So anyways, it's such a fresh breathe of air to finally have a female lead feel great despise to the "male lead"

[ask-the-mcs]

Hello! First of all, I'm already in love with this blog! 🥰🥰🥰

Second of all, how's Parasite in Love MC (Marlowe is her name if I'm correct) doing?

[fictionkinfessions]

Marlowe, I'm so sorry. I was so horrible.

I hurt you horribly. I never even realized I was going to kill you..

- Ninall. (Parasite In Love)

'

[aliveandfullofjoy]

100 Artists Who Shaped My Year: 2019

It’s been a few years since I’ve done this, and I’m technically two days late, but here we are all the same! A list of 100 different artists whose work made an impact on me in 2019. Some are local, but most are not. One has to remain anonymous for now, because life is silly. 

In alphabetical order.

Pedro Almodóvar, for writing and directing Pain and Glory (2019, film) and Bad Education (2004, film);

Anonymous Playwright, for a play title whose name I can’t mention yet;

Will Arbery, for writing Heroes of the Fourth Turning (2019, play);

Frédéric Back, for making The Man Who Planted Trees (1987, animated short);

Antonio Banderas, for his performance in Pain and Glory (2019, film);

Ingmar Bergman, for writing and directing Scenes from a Marriage (1973, film) and Summer Interlude (1951, film);

Caty Bergmark, for directing Baby (2019, musical) and life;

Eli Bolin, for writing the music for Documentary Now: Co-Op (2019, television) and John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019, television);

Bong Joon-ho, for writing and directing Parasite (2019, film) and Snowpiercer (2013, film);

Nicholas Britell, for his score for If Beale Street Could Talk (2018, film);

Bo Burnham, for writing and directing Eighth Grade (2018, film);

D’Arcy Carden, for her performance(s) in The Good Place (2018-19, television);

Carol Channing, for being a light in the dark;

Benjamin Christiensen, for directing Häxan (1922, film);

Toby Chu, for his score for Bao (2018, animated short);

Olivia Colman, for her performances in The Favourite (2018, film), Broadchurch (2013-17, television), and Fleabag (2018, television);

Willem Dafoe, for his performances in The Lighthouse (2019, film) and The Florida Project (2017, film);

Ana de Armas, for her performance in Knives Out (2019, film);

Donna Deitch, for directing Desert Hearts (1985, film);

Kaitlyn Dever, for her performance in Booksmart (2019, film);

Eugene Fedorenko, for directing Every Child (1979, animated short);

Beanie Feldstein, for her performance in Booksmart (2019, film);

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (2019, musical);

Elsie Fisher, for her performance in Eighth Grade (2018, film);

Jennifer Garner, for her performances in Love, Simon (2018, film) and 13 Going on 30 (2004, film);

Greta Gerwig, for writing and directing Little Women (2019, film);

Brian David Gilbert, for Unraveled (2019, webseries);

Daniel Glenn, for Sixteenth Night (2019, play);

The Great British Bake Off (2019, television);

Adèle Haenel, for her performance in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, film);

Regina Hall, for her performance in Support the Girls (2018, film);

William Jackson Harper, for his performance in The Good Place (2018-19, television);

Jerry Herman, for his tremendous career;

Marin Hinkle, for her performance in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-18, television);

Tom Hooper, for directing Cats (2019, film), the most fun I’ve had in the movies in forever;

Peter Jackson, for directing The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03, film);

Barry Jenkins, for writing and directing If Beale Street Could Talk (2018, film);

Carly Rae Jepsen, for a damn good concert;

Erland Josephson, for his performance in Scenes from a Marriage (1973, film);

Kunio Kato, for directing La Maison en Petits Cubes (2008, animated short);

Val Kilmer, for his performance in Tombstone (1992, film);

Tim Kov and Anna Hulkower, for My Little Tonys (2018-19 podcast);

Yayoi Kusama, for her Infinity Mirrors exhibit;

The Lemonheads, for their cover of “Frank Mills” (1992);

Dan Levy, for his performance in and producing Schitt’s Creek (2015-19, television);

Eugene Levy, for his performances in Schitt’s Creek (2015-19, television) and Waiting for Guffman (1996, film);

Lizzo, for Cuz I Love You (2019, album);

Billie Lourd, for her performance in Booksmart (2019, film);

Jonathan Majors, for his performance in The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019, film);

Dave Malloy, for writing Octet (2019, musical);

Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, for writing Baby (1983, musical);

Djibril Diop Mambéty, for directing The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999, film) and Touki Bouki (1973, film);

Corinne Marchand, for her performance in Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, film);

Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, for writing Six (2018, musical);

Mike Marshall, for his performance of “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” in The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019, film);

Elaine May, for writing, starring in, and directing A New Leaf (1971, film);

Noémie Merlant, for her performance in Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, film);

Anaïs Mitchell, for writing Hadestown (2019, musical);

Hayao Miyazaki, for his entire body of work, but especially the films of his I watched for the first time this year: Porco Rosso (1992), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1988), The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), and Castle in the Sky (1986); 

Elisabeth Moss, for her performance in Us (2019, film);

John Mulaney, for writing and starring in Documentary Now: Co-Op (2019, television) and John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch (2019, television);

Annie Murphy, for her performance in Schitt’s Creek (2015-19, television);

Bill Nelson and Joseph Trefler, for writing Men with Money (2019, musical);

Tim Blake Nelson, for his performance in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018, film);

Rosemary Newcott, for directing The Wizard of Oz (2019, musical) and A Christmas Carol (2019, play) at the Alliance Theatre; 

Griffin Newman, David Sims, and Ben Hosley, for Blank Check with Griffin and David (2015-2019, podcast); 

Yuri Norstein, for directing Hedgehog in the Fog (1975, animated short) and Tale of Tales (1979, animated short);

Lupita Nyong’o, for her performance in Us (2019, film);

Catherine O’Hara, for her performances in Schitt’s Creek (2015-19, television), Waiting for Guffman (1996, film), and Home Alone (1990, film);

ozello, for pronouns, but especially “caleb” (2019, album and song);

Nick Park, for writing and directing Creature Comforts (1989, animated short), A Grand Day Out (1989, animated short), The Wrong Trousers (1993, animated short), and A Close Shave (1995, animated short);

Dolly Parton, for her body of work;

Robert Pattinson, for his performance in The Lighthouse (2019, film);

Paula Pell, for her performance in Documentary Now: Co-Op (2019, television); 

Joe Pesci, for his performance in The Irishman (2019, film);

Christopher Plummer, for his performances in Knives Out (2019, film) and The Man Who Planted Trees (1987, animated short);

Hal Prince, for everything; 

Florence Pugh, for her performance in Little Women (2019, film);

Marjane Satrapi, for writing and directing Persepolis (2007, film);

Céline Sciamma, for writing and directing Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, film);

Andrew Scott, for his performance in Fleabag (2018, television);

William Shakespeare, for his body of work, but especially Macbeth; 

Domee Shi, for directing Bao (2018, animated short);

Stephen Sondheim, for everything; 

Emma Stone, for her performance in The Favourite (2018, film);

Jan Svankmajer, for directing Alice (1988, film);

Jeanine Tesori, for writing Fun Home (2015, musical), Shrek (2009, musical), and Caroline, or Change (2003, musical);

Alfred Uhry, for writing The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997, play);

Liv Ullmann, for her performance in Scenes from a Marriage (1973, film);

Agnès Varda, for directing Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, film) and Faces Places (2017, film);

Vernal & Sere Theatre Co., for their production of Spirits to Enforce (2019, play);

Alicia Vikander, for her performance in I Am Easy to Find (2019, film);

Paula Vogel, for writing Indecent (2017, play);

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, for writing and starring in Fleabag (2017-18, television);

Lulu Wang, for writing and directing The Farewell (2019, film);

Rachel Weisz, for her performances in The Favourite (2018, film) and Disobedience (2017, film);

Orson Welles, for directing The Other Side of the Wind (2018, film) and Macbeth (1948, film);

Lina Wertmüller, for directing Seven Beauties (1975, film);

Chloé Zhao, for directing The Rider (2017, film);

and Zhao Shuzhen, for her performance in The Farewell (2019, film).

[lynettethemadscientist]

Ok well I just played Parasite in Love and I'm feeling the urge to write an essay on why I would come back after the ending. I haven't got all the endings yet. I don't even know how many endings there are. But I am just reeling from this and I have to talk about it.

Ok to set the scene, I'm going into this imagining my MC as having a bit more of a grim outlook than Marlowe (the actual MC). Her description of her life is pretty neutral so it's easy to overlay that with my own context. So in this story, I'm nearing 30 and it's starting to look like I may never get married or have children. I have a good job and my life is by no means without enjoyment, and yet it feels meaningless. Like I'm going nowhere. There's nothing to sacrifice for. No one to struggle or suffer for. And I'm looking down the barrel of a long, lonely future that's just a series of chasing down temporary pleasures and coping. So my MC is emotionally desperate.

And then enters Niall. No I'm not going to call him that. That is a silly name. I'm going to name him Luke. I immediately recognize Luke for what he is: a threat. A lethal one at that. And I am obviously hostile to him. For a moment I wonder if his affection and displays of kindness are a cruel game, but no that's not it. And then I think that perhaps he's acting this way in an effort to make my transition to the grave easier for me. But it isn't long before I realize that he truly does not understand the gravity of the situation he has placed on me. He forlornly tries to relate to me by equating our desires to reproduce, misunderstanding that asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction are wildly different. And it occurs to me that he does not know what death means to a human. He does not experience death the way that we do. But of course I cannot flesh out such thoughts in this moment because I am very sick. I can however, reach back out to him, and try to make him understand why I should live, not on a moral or otherwise human level, but on his level. If I die, so will you, and so will our children. Let me go back to the lake so we may all survive. I promise to come back when I've recovered so we can be together again. A big part of me really means it.

And so Luke says his tearful goodbye and I rush to the shore. I am free. I am safe. I'm not going to die. But after the relief is over and as I start to recover, I can begin to parse what we've just been through. Without the oppressive weight of millions of microbes belaboring my mind, I can marvel at how amazing it is that a single-celled organism could even begin to try and equate his experience to my own. Such an admirable feat for something so small. Even if he couldn't fully conceive of it within those few days, what more was he capable of learning? He had already drawn rudimentary parallels between our distinct forms of reproduction. Considering himself a father and I a mother. Even though he is a parasite and I am a host, does the father not provide raw material while the mother is the one who incubates? I wonder if he really could begin to actually understand the difference between us. If he could understand sexual reproduction, then he could understand that a human is not functionally immortal like he is. He makes endless copies of himself. One perishes while many more still exist. So he is always alive. But when a human dies, they no longer exist in the earthly realm. And underpinning all this marveling is the realization that I savored the relief from loneliness that I got when he cared and cried and said soft words to me. And that I yearned to have that again. I know he could never provide a family for me in the way that a human male could. He could never fulfill me in the way I want most. But he's all I have. And perhaps, even if he can't be what I need, I can be what he needs. He may not give me purpose and inspire me to be a better person the way a human husband could. But I watched as Luke, at my behest, made a very human decision. He chose others over himself. He chose his children and his wife over his own desires, risking the chance that I might never return. What is more gloriously human than making a personal sacrifice for those you love? And if something so small as an amoeba can make a choice like that? What else could he do? Maybe he won't be a source of personal growth for me (in fact he'll be eating away at me, albeit slowly), but maybe I can be that for him. And well, that's enough for me. Especially when I consider that what he learns in our journey together, will never perish, because he will always live. And so in some way, so will I.

So I walk back into that lake and welcome my beautiful husband. For a few days each month, we live together. Until death do us part.

[incorrectagsquotes]

There’s no denying that I have feelings for Marlow that can’t be explained in any other way. I briefly considered that I had a brain parasite, but that seems even more far-fetched. The only conclusion was love.

Pan, probably.

[maleyanderecafe]

Did you make a post for Parasite in Love? I'd definitely say Niall is a delusional yandere, and there's partial voice acting >:3c

I have played See Thru: Need A Friend and I wrote a recommendation on it so you will probably see that tomorrow. Since I got two asks for Parasite in Love, I'll just merge them together to answer it. It seems to be pretty popular lately, I see it pop up now and then.

The premise of Parasite in Love is about a parasite that infects a girl named Marlowe and her trying to survive it. After taking a dive into a freshwater lake while in a cabin, Marlowe gets infected by a parasite. This parasite seems to have gained some sentience, manifesting himself to Marlow as a humanoid being named Niall. Niall takes on the persona of being a husband, feeding on Marlow's desire to have her own family, all while slowly killing her. There are about four endings, of which there is only one where Marlowe survives.

If Marlowe feeds into the idea that Niall is a husband, she will pretend to be okay with him, all while Niall makes her weaker and weaker. Niall presents her their "children" and tries to take care of her, having her eat so she can regain strength and removing any additional pain/nausea that Marlowe might feel. In the end, Marlowe is too sick to move, and Niall promises that the two will be happy in death together.

If Marlowe rejects Niall, she will push him away, being generally rude to him as he is the one who is killing her. Niall seems begrudgingly unhappy with this situation, but for the most part doesn't make it worse for her, at least until the point where he snaps. Getting Niall angry results in Marlowe's condition worsening because of the pain, causing Niall to cry out in disbelief and what he's done before the two once again die together.

For Marlowe to survive, she tricks Niall into making him and their children return to the lake. She shows that Niall doesn't know how to be a father, citing her own father protecting her to prove to him, saying that a father is someone who is willing to sacrifice for their children, and that if she dies, their children will die as well. She proposes that Niall and their children return into the lake, promising that when she regains strength again, she will return so they can be inside her again. Niall agrees to this and after successfully Marlowe is able to finally be free of her parasite. If she is too weak, she drowns, with Niall crying once again at her fate.

For a game jam created game, Parasite in Love is both wonderful in conception and in general aesthetics. The artwork is very pretty with the great touch of having the UI and Marlowe's surroundings being slowly deteriorated as she grows weaker. Niall as a design is also very well made, looking humanoid while also alienlike, as he is drawing from one of Marlowe's memories of her crush while still retaining his parasite nature. I also do like how they do the saves and each day passing, feeling like we're looking under a microscope.

Marlowe is a very good protagonist. We learn early on that she has a hard time connecting with other people, or rather wants to be able to connect with them closer, and having a cute relationship with her father as well, something that she emphasizes on doing after the ending where she survives. She wishes to have a family, which is what Niall feeds on when she gets infected. Throughout the routes, she is always trying to find a way to stay alive, and even when she fails, she is keenly aware of what Niall seems to be able to do like being able to read her mind or his general attachment to her. I think the way she was able to manipulate her in the ending that she survives in was also very clever, using Niall's love for her and their family to get rid of them. Makes you wonder what would happen if Marlowe ever returns into the water. I was surprised that she actually did have a voice to some degree, but it was a nice surprise.

Niall is also pretty interesting as a concept. As a parasite, he's pulling on Marlowe's memories as a way to make himself more appealing to her despite the fact that he's killing her. It makes you wonder if he really does care about her or if it's a survival tactic to keep himself alive and to multiply. While he does seem to know that he is killing her to some extent, the way that he acts is very distant about it, attempting to make Marlowe eat despite the fact that he is the one that is actually killing her. He seems very genuinely upset if Marlowe attempts to push him away and is seemingly very sad when he leaves into the water. I always think that having yanderes that are not human are fascinating (things like parasites, aliens or machines) since it makes you wonder if they actually do feel love for the person or if it's another factor, whether it be something that's programmed into them, something that they're assimilated from the person they're infecting or are using to survive. I always find that those kinds of ideas are really fun to explore.

It does make you wonder if the other people who were infected by this parasite had similar experiences, like having them imitate a loved one. I wonder what would have happened if Marlowe didn't like kids and how Niall would have changed to accommodate that. How did the other four that supposedly survive manage to live and if this is an experience that is exclusive to Marlowe, could it happen again? And why did it happen? These are a lot of questions that the game makes me think about.

Overall, I do think its a very spooky and good game, from the graphics, concept and general story. It's a fun game to play for Halloween, so perhaps give it a try.

[winterscream4]

No Works and No Days (Part 1)

“Love me a good mystery! Tra-la-la!”

The toy soldier advanced forward, climbing over a cake of burned out Pal-Mals, layered with a crust of ash at the top.

“No one can stop me now! I am at the top! And the New York Ripper will soon be in my gr…”

“AHAH!”

Another toy soldier landed from the sky, his spruce green face crudely washed over with pigments of white. Black circles enveloped his eyes and red paint was smudged round his lips.

“No, my dearest Marlowe! The world belongs to me! You better Hyde up or play dead! Not even the devil himself, can save you now!”

“Damn you Hyde! Run back into the gutter where you dragged your stinking ass from! Pew! Pew!”

A third soldier figure arose from behind the ashen pile. Threads of black cloth had been crudely sewn round his torso, ending in a double tail meant to resemble a 19th century frock.

“Time for you both to face the Music! Your Meister has arrived! Your pathetic strife shall serve as fine material for my new sonata!  Ha-hah-hah-hah!  John Martin, you are nothing but a hack! As for you detective, I shall strike you on the back! KABANG!”

Ding-Ding!

Marlowe dropped his toys and rushed to the microwave. White fumes and the scent of crackling meats met his nostrils, as he dragged out what some may called a club-sandwich but what most cardiologists would call the back road to an early grave.

Six slices of bread, the first filled with bacon and cheddar cheese, the second with barbeque sauce and potato fritters, the third with tomato, pork sausage and ketchup, the fourth with mayo and chicken nuggets, the fifth with beef and sour sauce and the sixth with grated parmesan and two fried eggs. A gruesome pile of carbohydrates and animal fat, self-humorously named by and after its inventor.

The Marlowe Sub. Also known as the shortest possible route to the emergency room.

With that monstrosity in hand, Marlowe hauled his newly acquired twenty-pound-extra beer-belly to the dining table, where he rested on a night-sky themed chair, made in 1924 as a gift from Clara Winter, to her son Robert, a few months before she perished from pneumonia. Marlowe, had spent the last two years of his life in the Winter manor, first setting in the Fall of 2018, when he attended the funeral of Christopher Winter’s housekeeper, James Krumphau.

James was diagnosed with liver cancer the previous year but kept it a secret from everyone he knew, including Marlowe. Yet again the people James knew count scarcely be counted in the fingers of two hands. James was never exactly the socialite, having spent half of his life serving the Winter family and the other half, being Christopher’s right hand man during his Music Meister years.

The housekeeper was always nice to him, albeit a little distant. Marlowe had garnered suspicions, that there were certain dark spots in James’ private history, albeit he paid no regard to them for long. After all, since his 2012 brush with Martin and the Black Glove, the classic detective novel mystery of “Who’s the criminal” had been reversed into “Who isn’t?”.

Even if James had claimed his literal pound of flesh, by the time they met, he had become one of Marlow’s handful of allies. In retrospect, James was the one to inform him that Christopher had willed him the Manor and half his fortune on that 2013 night that came to be known since as The Storm of the Century. James was also the man, who facilitated Marlowe by providing him with the passwords for all the Winter-family bank accounts and trust funds, including the house in Wilbraham, where Marlowe discovered the existence of the Black Glove and the spawn of their abandoned experiments. In the ensuing years, Marlowe would even receive letters from James once in a blue moon, typed in a code they had pre-agreed upon. James would share a few notes about his routine, but for the most part he inquired on his welfare and progress in rooting out the organization that had destroyed the life of Winter and Marlowe alike. Upon hearing the news in 2018, Marlowe rushed back to Midvintersville, where he made arrangements for James’ inhumation. Marlowe was not surprised to find himself alone during the ceremony, lest for James’ Asian-American nephew Lee, who had apparently visited his uncle a few times during Marlowe’s hunt for the Black Glove. Meanwhile, James had apparently spent his last years in prosaic retirement, tending the Winter manor and its grounds, interrupted only by a short adventure involving a Pleistocene fossil, his nephew had drawn him into.  Upon its closure, Lee had gifted his uncle with a Chinese pine Bonsai, that James never failed to prune and water and love as if it was the child he never had.

No tears were shed during the funeral, just a merciless silence occasionally interrupted by the uncanny echoes of the maple leaves dancing in the wind, before collapsing on the freshly mowed cemetery lawn. A single line from Homer’s Iliad was read by the Catholic pastor, before the mahogany casket with James in it, was swallowed by the dirt.

Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men.

In the following day, when Marlowe read James’ will, he couldn’t do otherwise but take a moment to weep for James but maybe more so, for himself.  James had bequeathed his share of the Winter fortune to Marlowe and Lee alike, although the Winter Manor was left entirely under Marlowe’s custody. His sole request was for Marlow to care for the tree and be there for Lee should the need arise.

The little pine now rested against the oval window of the Winter Manor’s second floor ballroom. Marlowe would remind himself to water it each day, even when his ruminations became too self-consuming to let him rise from bed, he’d still force himself up to tend the Bonsai before burrowing under the sheets once more. Marlow had even employed the tree in reenacting vignettes from his life, using a vintage toy-soldiers set he had unearthed from the Manor’s old storage, that since 2008 had become the Music Meister’s center of operations. Under its upward pointing branches, lay three soldiers whose faces he had charred against the hearth’s embers and then placed in horizontal position, each marked with the label: Prospero, Driskull, Boisette. Three powerful men who sought immortality, and left mountains of bodies in their efforts to achieve it. And yet the last beheaded the rest and he was in turn penetrated to death by the very man whose cruelty he envied. A much coveted eternity, cut short by the razor-sharp fangs of a monstrous always.

Marlowe often starred at the pine’s, fallen needle-sharp foliage, drying and dying and rotting over the toys representing the inhumane leaders of the Black Glove. And he would often take pleasure in the thought, that his actions, in part, made sure that men like them deserved to have no place on earth, or beneath it.

Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men.

 The once detective, now close-to-obesity recluse, however had little clue on how to care for anything living. Youtube channels on botany and gardening tutorials came to be of great help, teaching him the delicate arts of trimming, soil enhancing and of course, the spiritual and medicinal value of plants across human history.

In his early days at Winter manor, Marlowe attempted to dig deeper into plants, immersing himself into books about foraging and gathering as well as the transcendental aspects of the natural world, he found in the pages of Henry Thoreau’s Walden. Marlowe even attempted to conduct Thoreau’s experiment for a while.

In early 2019, he had moved to a tightly-spaced lodge not far from the Manor, where he spent his days, wandering across the forested lands surrounding the property, ensuring the well-being of James’ child as well as the much larger: mountain planes, black spruces, white oaks, balsam firs and the bonsai’s towering cousin, the white pine. His diet consisted solely of wild apples, grains, dried nuts and a variety of fungi, weeds and berries like the newly sprouting cattails he’d heat and serve with dandelion and purslane toppings, and the salty morels he’d sizzle on the campfire with elderberries and meadowsweets. Sumac and dog-rose teas became his daily refreshments, while his wonderings provided daily inspiration in the shape of new discoveries of various shapes, size and species.

Alien-looking British Soldier lichens, multicolored lady-slippers and processions of various insects and parasites growing out of severed tree stumps were but a few of the curiosities he’d encounter as the woods themselves seemed to come alive throughout spring. Vireos, wobblers, whippoorwills and the occasional grouse, would often surround his lodge for scraps, while in the still of some King’s Country summer nights, a barred owl would descend like a shadow of times long past, a demon-winged silhouette against the silver moon, snatching the avian visitors away from the camp and into scalpel-like talons that promised an one-way trip to the spectral realm. Marlowe witnessed it in full only once, yet he did not fail to see the semblance between the majestic and terrifying grace of the ancient bird and the thing he had seen John Martin transform into, a few years ago.

Reflecting upon that night’s experience, Marlowe started putting bizarre sketches into paper. While finishing the lines of two shadows, facing together at an endless ocean formed of teeth, gloves, hats, scarves and corpse-baring owls, he felt a sharp pain cutting across his stomach. At first, Marlow lifted his flannel shirt, glancing at the ten-centimeter line of still healing flesh, outlining the area below his ribcage. Marlowe gnarled as memories of Stephen Boisette slicing right through him with a double-edged saber, gifting him a scar the size of a pencil, were returning. The Alchemist, the Black Glove’s personal bulldog. The man that framed him for the murder of a girl at Cambridge all those years ago, turning him into England’s scapegoat for a decade. The man who gloated after his mother’s death from cancer. The man that got an inch away from sending him to join her. Now dead, by Martin’s dick and teeth. Served him well.

But the ache returned, stronger now, more penetrative.

His gut began turning ferociously as Marlowe crawled on his knees, pushing himself to and fro against the moss-covered stump of a severed birch.

The last thing he remembered when he woke up in the E.R., was dialing 991 and watching a cauldron of bats with a barred owl, savagely screeching at their tail, breaking away from the canopy and into the evening sky.