#re 4 third trailer

[winksasleeplesseye]

Luis naming characters from Don Quixote in his dialogue was not on my bingo card but I love it

[undreaming-fanfiction]

My brain refuses to sleep, so more drabbling! Probably modern-ish AU?

Steve makes a career for himself as a re-decorator (or de-decorator, as he loves to call himself). His clientele are those celebrities who rose to fame so quickly they have plenty of money, but they don't have time to make their houses feel like home. They just bought penthouses and mansions and now live in homes that are fancy, but they feel like hotels.

Steve is there to fix that.

One of his clients is the hard working rockstar Eddie Munson whose life path went from a trailer park to couch surfing to living with 4 people in a tiny apartment, then suddenly tours, hotels and boom! He has a house that looks like an IKEA prop.

He doesn't hide his distaste at the pristine condition of the place (yes, Eddie has a cleaner). "Oh god. A beige carpet?" he scoffs and he sounds so bitchy Eddie decides he likes him already.

He likes him even more when Steve puts on reading glasses. Damn.

Over coffee, they discuss what Eddie wants. Except Steve doesn't just...tell him. He doesn't give him any hints. He just keeps asking about Eddie's favorite colors, what movies he likes, does he have hobbies apart from music? Can Steve see some of the items that bring him comfort?

And Eddie's surprised. "Shouldn't you, like...be telling me what I'm supposed to want?" he asks the gorgeous man who almost wails when he sees the vase with fresh flowers ("This is the third place in a row that has this fugly thing! Is it like a status symbol? Uh, tasteless.").

And Steve just stares at him. "Uh, Mr. Munson?"

"Eddie."

Steve nods. "Eddie. Why should I have any say in what you want? If you ask me what's practical, easy to clean, what bounces off light well, that's another thing. But in matters of taste...you're the boss. You live here, I don't. (Pity, Eddie thinks) Now, let's change this place into somewhere you actually like staying, hm?"

They spend the whole afternoon talking. Eddie opens up about what he loved before the touring and expectations from his agent took that from him. He talks about the Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy in general, and Steve listens, makes tons of notes and asks questions that make Eddie's heart bleed, such as "and who is your favorite Lord of the Rings character?" and "you mentioned elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards...so what is your favorite group?" and "which DnD class would you be then? I guess a bard? Is that too obvious?". Now, Steve doesn't know much about these things, but learns quickly and works with the info he has.

They walk through the house again, with Steve making notes and wincing at transgressions against humanity or at least against his taste in things ("Oh ew. EW. Glossy finish on a kitchen counter? What is this, a future crime scene?") and Eddie feeling equally amused and curious. Eddie orders dinner for them, it goes something like:

"I don't know what would be appropriate, any preferences?"

"Eddie, there's no time or space when pizza is not appropriate."

"What about a funeral?"

"It puts fun in a funeral."

"Touché."

They follow up on a bunch more things. Steve notices Eddie fidgeting and asks him like the mindreader he is if perhaps the place is too clean for him. "Minimalism is what everyone's trying to push," Steve says, not without sympathy, "but it's not for everyone. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you seem like a person who'd love a more....personal, cluttered space."

And god, Eddie feels so seen. He tells Steve about all his favorite books and trinkets that he lost during a horrible earthquake in Indiana, so when he moved to the city it was just some clothes and his two guitars. Steve makes so many notes. "I've seen quite a lot of collectibles for your beloved trilogy," he says with a hint of a smile. "Is that something you'd like in your home?" Eddie can't nod any faster.

They talk about the budget (Eddie just scoffs at that, for the first time in his life money is not an issue), Eddie's absolute no go things ("No more vases, please! PLEASE. Also maybe the one room that can stay as it is is the studio, there's no decor"), if he has issues touching any materials, if he wants to keep any areas in the house neutral for visitors (he doesn't). Then finally, he asks Eddie if he wants to be more consulted or surprised.

And Eddie, tired and surprisingly relaxed from talking to Steve, just grins and says: "Surprise me, big boy."

Steve just smirks and makes one more note. "Oh, I will, Eddie."

...

Eddie goes on yet another tour for a couple of months, which is the ideal time for Steve to start working on the house.

Steve sometimes texts Eddie random choices, such as "Rohan or Gondor or both?" or "what's the best pub in the Middle Earth?" and Eddie usually trips over his feet trying to get to his phone after concerts to see if maybe he has another message from Steve. He learns bits and pieces about the man as well - he has a younger brother, Dustin, who is into the same stuff that Eddie is. Sometimes it goes like this:

STEVE: What's the best battle in the LotR movies?

EDDIE: The Ride of the Rohirrim, duh!

STEVE: Dustin says you're wrong, it's the last stand at the gates of Mordor.

EDDIE: The disrespect to king Théoden!

And finally, the big day comes. Eddie meets with Steve at the door. From the outside, the house still looks boring, but that's what they agreed on. At least for now.

But there's one notable difference and Eddie gasps when he sees it.

"I know we said no changes on the outside," said Steve sheepishly, "but I took the liberty to make one slight change."

Where the door used to be bland and white, it is now carved with silver etchings. It replicates the Doors of Durin. Eddie loves it.

Steve smiles at him. "Speak friend and enter, right? Dustin told me. Anyways, are you ready?"

Turns out, Eddie wasn't ready. Steve took all of the shiny and sterile surfaces and turned them into something beautiful.

The kitchen is now in warmer colors, brown and green, imitating the Green Dragon inn, plaque included.

Guest rooms have been changed, each to represent a group or a nation of the Middle Earth. Eddie thinks his uncle will love the Rohirrim one.

No more vases are to be seen, but Steve got potted plants ("almost immortal, as long as your housekeeper waters them once a week or so").

Eddie howls in laughter when he sees that Steve somehow managed to disguise all his security cameras as tiny eyes of Sauron.

The bathroom is inspired by the Rivendell, with soft tones and nods to Elvish architecture.

Eddie's bedroom resembles the Shire, with round shapes and homely motifs.

But Eddie's absolute favorite is the living room.

The only things that remain there that he bought are the massive TV and his stereo system with records. The rest though...

Gone is the ugly and sharp couch that looked like a geometry exercise. The new one is large and comfortable, with a couple of armchairs to finish the cozy feel. The coffee table and TV stand are more rough looking, with decorative ironwork. And then, around the room and on the walls...

"Oh wow," whispers Eddie and Steve beams at him.

There are collectibles and figurines that young Eddie Munson would have killed for. A replica of the Narsil hangs over the TV. It's cluttered but tasteful, still easy to clean, but Eddie always has something to touch, to play with.

And then he spots the bookcase and actually sobs. "What the fuck, Steve?" he asks, but there's no anger, just awe. "How did you know?"

The bookcase is full of Eddie's most beloved books, all that he told Steve about and more, but it's not just that. These aren't just pristine new prints - Steve managed to get both those and well-loved used copies. Most of them are the same editions that Eddie had before the earthquake. He runs his trembling finger over the back of the Hobbit and it feels like home.

"That was the hardest part," says Steve and leaves Eddie to rummage through the books, the old DnD guides and used comic books. "But I assumed you're sick of new and shiny. In fact, most of the collectibles are already used as well. They have some history. As for the books, uh..." He scratches his neck, embarrassed. "I will be honest, I don't read much. Dyslexia and some issues with the eyes, although audio books are making it more possible for me now. So I had to ask Dustin for help. We looked for editions published before the earthquake. I hope we got some of them right?"

Eddie just mutters "Sorry, I'm about to do something really unprofessional now" and pulls Steve into a bear hug. And Steve reciprocates.

"Fuck, this...this is everything," says Eddie into his shoulder. "How did you do this? Are you magic. You must be magic."

Steve grins. "I take it the surprise was a success then?"

Eddie finally pulls back. He would have loved to keep embracing Steve for a bit longer, but boundaries. "A total one. Wow. I mean. It's a lot, but so good. SO GOOD. How can I repay you?"

"You already paid me, Eddie."

"You know what I mean!" Eddie points and the books and apparently also a DVD collection he now owns. "This must have been so much more work than you normally do, no? I doubt every client has you memorize the members of the Fellowship."

"Not just that, but also why Sam is the best," Steve smiles at him and fuck. Eddie might be in love. "It was more than usual, but I loved it, Eddie. That's why I like my job so much, helping people find themselves again. You don't owe me anything. Although, if you're offering..."

"I'm listening."

Steve runs his fingers through that majestic hair. "So, I didn't tell Dustin that I was decorating the house for you, but he's a huge fan of your music. Like, massive, has every album, has been following your career from the start. And feel free to tell me it's too much, you are my client after all, but...he'd love to meet you. Over a pizza, maybe? The plain ham and cheese one you like so it doesn't have too many flavors?"

And Eddie melts. Because Steve still remembers his pizza choice from months ago, even though this definitely wasn't in his notes. He decides there and then that Steven Harrington is a national treasure.

"Sure, big boy," he smiles at Steve, and hopes he didn't imagine Steve leaning into the touch. "How about you invite him over for a movie night or something? With pizza of course."

It looks like Steve could kiss him, but he doesn't. Not yet. That only happens a week later, when they bump into each other in Eddie's kitchen when they scramble to make more popcorn for Dustin.

Steve stays the next night. And maybe a few after that. Always in a different themed bedroom.

They travel for work a lot, but when they are both in Chicago, they always meet in the Green Dragon kitchen, cuddle in the bed that would be far too large for a hobbit, and in the night, Eddie wraps himself around Steve and whispers: "My preciousssss."

And Steve can't really complain, because it's his fault that his boyfriend has re-discovered his dorkiness, so why would he mind?

[ladykailitha]

Never Hold Back Your Step... Part 9

Yay!! Another chapter of this lovely chronicle. I really do recommend going back and re-reading a bit since it's been so long.

But in this we have Harrington Sr. being an ass, the most epic confrontation I've ever written, and Dustin being sweet and asshole at the same time. The kid has range.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

****

Late at night in the last days before the school ended, they would climb up on the roof of the trailer and talk about their hopes and dreams.

Eddie had told him that he was going to try third time lucky to graduate. And then if he didn’t make it next year, he’d take the GED and walk away, ready to join Steve wherever he was. Not that he wanted to leave Eddie behind or the kids. But if he was to go to college, he’d have to.

Steve walked across that stage to thunderous applause, all his friends, the kids, Eddie and Wayne all cheering for him. Even Nancy and Jonathan had been there to cheer him on. But there, in the stands frowning at the people Steve had surrounded himself with, were his parents.

Steve knew he should feel grateful that they came at all. But he knew it was more about image and appearing to be the perfect parents than any actual interest. He saw them clap politely and then his father pulled out a newspaper and his mother fussed with her hair and makeup the whole time.

They took pictures with him afterwards with fake smiles plastered on and took him out to dinner to talk about his future. Which was all about joining the company and getting his business degree. Two things that Steve had no interest in doing.

He had hoped to get scholarships for college based on his sports so that he wouldn’t have to rely on his dad’s money, but that fell through.

He had missed the early decision deadline, because he had had his head smashed in. So he had sent the applications off at the start of the new year. But by then his grades had slipped due to the concussion and the letters coming back weren’t a good sign.

He would just have to try and reason with his dad about college and keep his fingers crossed he’d get out of this town somehow.

****

“These are your grades?” Mr. Harrington bellowed. “How are you supposed to get into good colleges and universities with these?”

The first week of June was not a good week, ever, in Steve’s opinion. It was when grades were mailed out and he had to listen to the screaming for a full week.

“I had that concussion in the middle of the year, remember?” Steve asked. “That set my grades back a bit. But I thought I would take a year of community college and build my grades back up to get into the better schools.”

“No son of mine is going to a state school!” Mr. Harrington roared. “And you can forget about that summer internship at the company! I will not have tell others that you didn’t get into a proper school.”

Steve could feel his stomach sink to the base of spine. He didn’t like where this was going. At all.

“You will get a job,” Mr. Harrington continued to menace. “I don’t mean some cushy life guard bullshit where you sit in some high tower, looking pretty, either. A real job. Retail. Build character.”

“But I already told Mr. Jones at the community center that I would lifeguard again this summer,” Steve protested.

“You go back there and tell him you have better things to do with your time!” Mr. Harrington shouted. “That new mall opened up. Starcourt. You’ll find something there.” He leaned forward into Steve’s space. “Do I make myself clear?”

Steve gulped, but nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“Good.”

Mr. Harrington turned on his heel and stormed back into his office. Mrs. Harrington stood at the edge of the room, almost swaying on her feet as she would move forward to comfort Steve, but then would change her mind. Back and forth.

Steve pinched his nose and rubbed the end. He looked up at her with dead eyes. “He’ll keep moving the goal posts. You know he will.”

This time she did surge forward. “You know it’s not like that. He only wants what’s best for you.”

“Best for me?” Steve murmured, barely holding back the tears. “Or what will make him look the best? Because I’m tired, Mom.”

“It’s hard,” Mrs. Harrington said, rubbing his arm gently. “But come autumn he’ll see how well you did and maybe he’ll let you try for the state school.”

Steve knew it was a lie or whatever that she was telling herself more than she was tell him.

He pinched and rubbed his nose, forcing back the tears. He wasn’t going to cry in front of either of his parents. It only enraged his father and prompted mocking from his mother.

Oh, she hid it under the guise of ‘tough love’ but it was all tough and no love.

He thought of Wayne and Eddie. Of how they didn’t have a lot of material possessions but they had each other and their love for each shone brightly.

Steve held up his chin and nodded. Then he grabbed his keys and wallet, forcing on his shoes.

“Where are you going?” his mother huffed. “Storming off like that after a fight with your father is so childish, Steven.”

Steve turned to her slowly and blinked. “To talk to Mr. Jones about not being able to lifeguard this year and go job hunting at the mall like Dad wants?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re always so dramatic, Steven. I suppose that was why you took so well to it. Of course, if you had any real talent you would have gotten a more substantial role.”

He squeezed his hand around his keys, the ridges digging into his palm, as he fought down the bile that rose to his throat.

“I’ll be back for dinner,” Steve said through gritted teeth. He rushed out the door, careful not to slam it behind him.

He drove out to the community center and hit his steering wheel over and over as he cursed out his parents until he was exhausted.

He sighed and got out the car, making his way to front desk. “Hey, Janis, is Mr. Jones in today?”

Janis smiled at him. “Sure thing, sweetie. Just go on back.”

Steve caught Mr. Jones as he was coming back to his office.

“Hey, Steve!” Mr. Jones said cheerfully, coming up to him with a big smile. “You here for your schedule?”

Steve shook his head. “My dad didn’t like my grades and told me I had to get a real job. Sorry.”

“Shit, Steve, I’m sorry,” Mr. Jones said crumpling. “And there’s no chance he’ll let you do both?”

“No,” Steve said bitterly. “If he finds out I’m working here he’ll beat my ass. I wanted to come back, but I guess my dad had other plans.”

“Well, well,” a cruel voice said behind them, “it looks like you have an opening after all, Mr. Jones.”

Steve and Mr. Jones turned toward the voice slowly, knowing with complete dread who it was.

Billy Hargrove was leaning against the wall, arms folded and a giant smirk on his face.

“Looks like your loss is my gain, Harrington,” he said coolly.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Story of my life since you rolled into town, Hargrove. You stole my friends, the captain of the basketball team, hell you probably would have stolen my girl if she liked jocks instead of tortured artists or some shit. It ain’t new.”

“You’re just bitter that I’m the superior you in every way,” Billy said with a sneer. “The sooner you admit it, the less heartache you’ll have, pretty boy.”

Steve threw back his head and laughed. “I have other talents, asshole. I can draw, I can act, and I can fucking swim. While you were out there fucking anything with a pussy that would let your scaly ass, I was beating records and making it to nationals as part of our swim team. You are just some washed up surfer in desperate need a wave. I am a swimmer.”

He nodded to Mr. Jones who had a smug smile on his face.

Billy was taken aback. “So you do have a spine. Huh. I would have never guessed it. Not with Max and Munson doing your dirty work for you.”

Steve got right up in Billy’s face. “I didn’t go after you, dipshit,” his voice low and menacing. Quiet enough that only he could hear. “Because I just wanted to graduate. But now that I have that diploma, I’m more than ready throw hands with you. Plus we all know I had you against the ropes until you cheated by smashing a plate to my head.”

He patted Billy’s chest and waving goodbye to Mr. Jones, he walked out of there, chin held high.

****

Steve had gathered somewhere around a dozen or so applications to the stores that surrounded him and sat down in the food court to fill them out. His eyes were starting to go cross-eyed when Dustin came up to him and sat down across from him.

“Dude,” Dustin greeted. “What’s all this shit?”

Steve looked up at him and sighed. “Job applications. My dad wants me to get a summer job.”

“But you have a summer job,” Dustin replied with a frown. “The rec center. You’re a lifeguard.”

Steve sighed again and shook his head. “My dad was pissed that I only got into a couple of schools and not the good ones.”

Dustin frowned and tilted his head to the side. “Is that because of what happened with Billy?”

“That’s part of it,” Steve agreed. “But I was really counting on a sports scholarship and with how shitty everything got I didn’t get a single one.”

“But you went to nationals with your swimming though,” the gap-toothed kid grumbled.

Steve put down his pen and planted his hands on either side of his applications. “Look, bud, I get that you think you’re trying to help or whatever but my team came in last at nationals. In everything. No scout was going to give us so much as a passing glance. No sports scholarship plus missing the early acceptance deadline and having to wait for regular admissions means that I’m on a waiting list for most of the good schools, didn’t get in to the decent schools, and my dad won’t let me go to the community college. So here I am doing the best I can, okay?”

Dustin pouted but gave up on pushing the issue. He grabbed the applications and began looking through them.

“Hey!” Steve cried trying to get them back, but Dustin kept dodging him.

He set down three applications. “You can put in for all of if you want, but I’d focus on these three.” Scoops Ahoy, The Gap, and Shapiro’s.

Steve picked them and looked at them. “Why?”

“Those are going to be the ones that kids aren’t going to want to try for,” Dustin said. “And you have to get this job because of your dad. These are more likely to hire you.” He pointed to the ice cream shop. “That one is your best bet.”

Steve nodded. That was one he had been expecting to get too.

“So when are you leaving to nerd camp?” he asked, taking the applications from the kid.

“It’s called Camp Know Where,” Dustin scoffed. “Know as in k-n-o-w where. It’s really cool.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “That still doesn’t tell me when you’re going, dork.”

“Oh!” Dustin said, eyes wide. “Tomorrow. My mom is buying me the things I’ll need so I can leave bright and early.”

Steve’s expression softened. “I’m going to miss you, you know?”

Dustin nodded back. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

Someone called his name and he looked up. “It looks like my mom’s calling me. Good luck on the job search.”

Steve stood up and gave him a hug. “Have fun, okay?”

Dustin nodded and ran to catch up to his mom as Steve went back to his applications with a sigh. He really was going to miss that butthead.

****

Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

Tag List: ELEVEN SLOTS OPEN

1- @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @kultiras

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @blondie1006

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @angels-of-hades

7- @mugloversonly @y4r3luv @greeniebean911 @birbsauce @acingthecounts

8- @cryptid-system @counting-dollars-counting-stars @ravenfrog @dreamercec

[fullcoffeemoon-nem]

Timeline Theory

First update: 09-21-23

Second update: 11-14-23

Third update: 05-01-24 (+ S2 Theory link)

Last update: 06-03-24 (+ S2 Theory upload)

——————————————

Hi there!

After another re-watch and the head to pay attention to the small details, perhaps I have reconstructed a possible

Timeline of Helluva Boss

It would be better to define them as hypotheses. First of all, here is an outline of the episodes and their release dates.

I know, I also included the one whose title we know, just for the sake of general overview. The theory for the moment covers 2 seasons out of 4 announced.

Here the synthetic timeline. From the estimate version I have removed the year here, we'll get to the reason.

Here I also report some of my thoughts:

Already from the first episodes there's a strong focus on clocks and time, it is much more striking in Oops, where Asmodeus' clock marks the whole day.

I'm not sure about the year, but also from the analyzes carried out later, 2021 could be the year of the narrative arc that goes from Murder Family to Ozzie's.

(*) The Verosika's tour t-shirt was official and linked to the episode, at the moment I'm undecided on its validity at the year level, althought the date could be very possible.

However, my research started with Seeing Stars because it's the first episode to feature an almost specific date: the 20th of a 30-day month.

In my opinion it could be April chronologically and it's agreed with the information in the subsequent episodes.

The only problem is that the full moon would't coincide with what was marked by Blitz.

Noteworthy:

Blitz's calendar suggests that the full moon that month is the 14th.

Stolas wrote in the Western Energy chat that Blitz was supposed to come that evening and that therefore the full moon was the 20th.

We are certainly either in 2021 or beyond given Moxxie's coin in Seeing Stars.

From the chat we can understand that:

About a month passes between the trio Ozzie's - Queen Bee - The Circus (1 moon)

About 3 months (3 moons) pass between Seeing Stars and Western Energy

Western Energy is placed a week before Oops and among these the week told in Unhappy Campers

From Millie's flyer we know that her and Moxxie's mission ends on Friday July 17th. We know from Blitz that this lasted a week, so it started on Monday 13th July.

According to what Striker says to Crisom, Western Energy should be set around July 11th and Oops around July 18th.

We should be in 2022 though, but in that case July 17th was a Sunday.

In Mammon's magnificent concert Blitz says on the call with Ozzie that it's a weekend.

There are two options:

It could be set on the week parallel (July 21-22th or 28-29th) to the events of Western-Unhappy-Oops.

It could be set on the following month (August).

Here we come to the gap:

(*) The Mammon's official t-shirt is clearly linked to the episode, but the date (2023) and month (October) cause the information to conflict.

So, at this point we have this options:

The official t-shirts are tied exclusively to the release date of the episode.

They are official or at the date level, or at the year level.

They're official and we're actually 2 years removed from Murder Family.

I think it is more canonical to consider a connection with the month of July shown in the episode and maintain the hypothesis.

Seeing Stars -> April

Wester Energy to Oops -> July

Full Moon → September 29th

I'm pretty sure about the Apology Tour

A month of crisis for Blitz seems like the minimum to me and it's also enough for Stolas to enter a phase of rejection.

——————————————

With the LVL UP on April 29th we got a new trailer for the second part of the second season. In addition, we also have a preview of the Stolas and Blitz duet from the next episode.

I dedicated a post for analysis, opinions and spoilers here.

I'm going to integrate the episodes and data into the theory as they come out.

——————————————

In the end, I report here some of the most interesting posts from Blitz and Stolas' Sinstagrams, due to that they're the only two accounts that hide canonical information.

(Thanks @timkontheunsure for the source)

I underlined my opinion, they certainly respect real events but I don't think that in terms of dating they are canonical.

What a mess...

What do you think about it?

Have you noticed any other details that could clarify the mystery? Make me know it and let's solve the mystery together :}

Bye~

[nalyra-dreaming]

I've been pondering two things lately 🧐 1. What do you think about "I serve a God" phrase now that we got little bits and pieces of s2? I feel like any theory is left unsupported for now.

2. That scene with Armand's fire gift in the tunnel. I wonder how it will play out. Will it be romantic "let me show you magic"? Was he contemplating an attack and then changed his mind? I hope it's the first one cuz I just imagine them in that crumpled space playing with fireworks like total kids.

Hey!

Ahhhh difficult;))

By now I think that it’s probably a mix of Marius and the shrine (and Those Who Must be Kept) … and adjunct to that maybe Lestat in a coma. Maybe. I mean... s2 is obviously with the book imagery Louis conjures in the second half of the book, sooooo... But "just" Lestat feels too easy by now, if that makes sense? Especially since it was done in front of a Marius painting. I... I lean towards TWMBK by now. Gut-feeling-wise^^

But there is no conclusive answer to that yet, I think. There's too many things still in flux, and too many things only hinted at.

Maybe we will know more after the "Rolin Jones" trailer. I mean... given how much there was in 30 seconds? :))) Imagine what there'll be in 4 minutes :))

And re the fire gift: That is so difficult as well. Because the scene in the tunnel was confimed by Levan Akin as a hommage to "The Third Man".

Now, The Third Man (and that tunnel):

"The chase sequence in "The Third Man" is another joining of the right action with the right location. Harry escapes into the sewer system like a cornered rat, and Reed edits the pursuit into long, echoing, empty sewer vistas, and closeups of (Harry) Lime's sweaty face, his eyes darting for a way out. Presumably there would be no lights in the Vienna sewers, but there are strong light sources just out of sight behind every corner, throwing elongated shadows, backlighting Harry and his pursuers."

It's a chase.

Now, we do not know yet if the one with the fire gift is helping... or chasing. (And I know most people think it's Armand (and I agree it looks like him)). So if we take this as Armand...

he is either priming to send the fire at someone else to "free the way" as it were... or

he is conjuring the fire to send it at Louis

IF it is the former then Armand is escaping with Louis, and helping him. I still hope Louis might discover his own fire gift while torching the theater, but we'll see. Louis could see Armand conjure his fire there and then look out himself.

Now, it is (book) canon that Armand influences and subdues Louis. (Here are some quotes.)

IF it is the latter (not saying it necessarily is, but if) then they will go significantly darker than in the book, one might say.

Which... is something they might be hinting at with this scene:

Because, let's face it, THIS Louis won't stand by meekly. THIS Louis will fight. THIS Louis won't take the shit (as easily). This Louis will have to be subdued in a different manner.

I'm not sure what I would prefer, either approach has a lot of interesting aspects, and carries repercussions.

Here, too... the full trailer might make some things clearer when we see it^^. We'll have to wait still and see^^.

[satoshi-mochida]

Death end re;Quest: Code Z coming west in 2025 - Gematsu

Idea Factory International will release roguelike RPG Death end re;Quest: Code Z for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch in the west in 2025, the publisher announced. It will be available both physically and digitally.

Death end re;Quest: Code Z is due out on September 1 in Japan.

Here is an overview of the game, via Idea Factory International:

What is the Death end re;Quest series?

A thrilling RPG in which a group of young people traverse a world tainted by bugs, death threatening them at every turn as they confront mysteries and danger. It is packed with despair-inducing Death Ends written by Makoto Kedouin, acclaimed writer of Corpse Party. The first installment of the Death end re;Quest series launched on PlayStation 4 in 2018 (Japan) and 2019 (North America and Europe), and its sequel, Death end re;Quest 2, was released on PlayStation 4 in 2020 (Japan, North America, and Europe) With character designer, Kei Nanameda, and scenario supervisor, Makoto Kedouin—writer for Corpse Party—back for the third installment of the Death end re;Quest series, where a new protagonist, Sayaka Hiwatari, enters a story of parallel universes where she is unable to decipher who’s a friend or foe.

Story

Step into a tale of parallel universes… Iris was born in World DE-1, a world that mirrors Earth in the 2000s. With her birth, a series of tragic loops was set in motion, which were gradually unraveled by the efforts of Arata Mizunashi and his team. With her goodwill restored, Iris created a copy of World DE-1 named World DE-1.5. Here, feuds gave way to friendship, each person a perfect cog in a perfect world. But a new crisis threatens the peace… A mysterious man has entered the fray, and he leads a group of people who look identical to the world’s former heroes. Our new hero, Sayaka Hiwatari, confronts the rising chaos, where friends and foes seem impossible to distinguish. And so the battle with another world enters a new phase…

Watch a new trailer below. View a set of artwork and box shots at the gallery. Visit the official website here.

Western Announce Trailer

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Around 8:30 a.m. on May 13, 1949, a drum of carbon disulfide fell off a trailer truck when it was about one-third of the way through the Holland Tunnel. The highly flammable chemical leaked out onto the hot surface of the truck. The flames spewing out from the truck caused a chain reaction.  Four nearby trucks caught fire almost instantly, and as the fire grew, five more trucks burst into flames.

Minutes after the fire began, Port Authority Police officers began helping drivers out of the tunnel. They called in the New York Fire Department, which entered from the Manhattan side, and the Jersey City Fire Department, from the Jersey side. The firefighters had to work their way through heavy fumes and more than a hundred vehicles. It was estimated that the temperature from the flames was about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. By 10:15, all the vehicles not on fire had been removed from the Jersey entrance, which simplified the firefighting efforts. By 1:00 pm, the blaze was largely extinguished, but at 4:20 it re-flashed. Burning liquid flowed through the tunnel's gutters, causing explosions.

The fire destroyed 600 feet of ceiling and inner walls, as well as 10 large trucks. It took a crew 16 hours to remove their remains, as well as that of 13 other trucks that were partially damaged. More than 650 tons of debris were removed from the tunnel by a crew working around the clock. Total damage was estimated at $1 million, or $7.5 million in today's dollars. There were no fatalities, but 67 people were injured.

The fire also disrupted phone, telegraph, radio, and TV connections between New York and points south and west of the Hudson.

The fire should never have happened. Trucks were required to display decals indicating that they were carrying hazardous goods, but the truck that caused the fire had no such decals. If it had, police wouldn't have allowed it into the tunnel but redirected it to one of the bridges. Nevertheless, the driver received only a $50 fine and five days in jail. But the event did lead to the creation of new rules and harsher penalties for those who violated them.

The tunnel was back in operation in two days.

For more on the fire, see here.

Photos: top, Leon Hoffman via Corbis/Port Authority of NY & NJ; second & third, Port Authority of NY & NJ; bottom, Hoboken Historical Museum via FDNY

[felassan]

Some wonderings on Dragon Age: The Missing..

soo excited to see the tagline that it's a story which directly leads into Dreadwolf!! so it's a DA:D prologue or prequel story of sorts.. it made me think about the ME:A tie-in novels and comics. I hope there's also tie-in novels for DA:D. and with DA Day, Absolution and possibly TGA in December, and now The Missing in January, I (つ✧ω✧)つ the 22/23 holiday season. issue 1 also drops around my birthday aaa

reportedly it'll be 4 issues.

I'm, somehow, both surprised and not surprised by Varric returning, again ≧◡≦ this gives a bit of context to his DA:D trailer voiceover. I hope he'll be okay as my Hawke now has Varric Anxiety 2 electric boogaloo. and Harding!! her second comic appearance after Magekiller. Harding's chances of returning in DA:D potentially increased by this? and I'm excited for a dwarf-dwarf led story, hoping for some new dwarf lore and some new darkspawn lore.

who could the former friend be? presumably that's who is Missing? Solas, Bianca, Valta..? I feel like, for Varric to go back into the Deep Roads, which he hates, it must be serious..

Marnas Pell is a city located in Tevinter. it has a lot of interesting and very topical-feeling history.. it's seen blood magic acts, a slave uprising and a Qunari invasion, and was under heavy attack by darkspawn during both the Third and Fourth Blights, with the dwarves of Orzammar coming to its aid in the Fourth. and in Codex Entry: Par Vollen: The Occupied North it's stated that at Marnas Pell the Veil is permanently thin or sundered:

So many were slain at Marnas Pell, on both sides, that the Veil is said to be permanently sundered, the ruins still plagued by restless corpses. 

hmmm! (The beautiful Marnas Pell has it all! Invasions, uprisings, blood magic, darkspawn, a sundered Veil! book your dream holiday to Marnas Pell today!)

I wonder if there could be a link to the Inquisition Deep Roads expedition in Tevinter Nights (Genetivi Dies In The End)? the report from that expedition was sent to Varric... Or to the Deep Roads Ghil labs and the mutated darkspawn there? Ghil labs, mutated darkspawn and these images (two, three) are what came to mind when reading "the corruption of the blight has infected the walls, and the threat of darkspawn looms heavy in the air", along with the Children darkspawn plotline in Awakening and the 'two Archdemons' DA4 concept art, for some reason. a red lyrium ogre would be terrifying. House Tethras also funded the expedition the Amgarrak expedition of Jerrik Dace (The Golems of Amgarrak).

also I like the cover (hi-res version here). it has the DA:D purple color theme goin strong, while also giving me a retro nostalgic or callback-type feel to these classic DA:O arts with Morrigan and an ogre.

[rachelbethhines]

60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - Pertwee 13th Review

Third Doctor Recap

Stories Covered

Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death Trailer - Behind the Scenes

The Dæmons - novelization

U.N.I.T. On Call - mini episode

The Three Doctors - tv story

Doctor Who: Infinity (The Orphans of the Polyoptra)- video game

The Adventures of the Doctor and Rory the Roman - fan fic

Catastrophea - novel

Conspiracy in Space - audio

Countdown to TV Action - Short Story

The Disintegrator - comic

A True Gentleman - Short Audio

Auton 2: Sentinel - spin-off 

Companions represented

Liz (1 story)

The Brigadier ( 4 stories)

Benton (3 stories)

Yates (1 story)

Jo (7 stories)

Bessie (6 stories)

Yes, I count Bessie as a companion. She has more plot importance, screen time, and personality than Kamelion, and he counts.

In fact the only Third Doctor companion who doesn’t appear is Sarah Jane, but we already saw her in Downtime and there’s plenty of chances for her to turn up again.

Notable Appearances

As for important historical characters we re-met Marco Polo in The Adventures of the Doctor and Rory the Roman, which is nice.

We got the return of the Zarbi, and met with the Draconians twice. The Master made an appearance, and not to be out done, so did the Daleks late in the game. We met Omega for the first time, and the Autons got up to some shenanigans while the Doctor wasn’t looking.

Oh and those little plant aliens from the short story, Countdown to TV Action, the Kleptons? Turns out they’re from the comics.

In fact they’re from the very first Doctor Who comic that was ever published, and have a lot of reappearances in the expanded universe.

Ranking (from best to worse)   

A True Gentleman

The Dæmons

The Three Doctors

The Adventures of the Doctor and Rory the Roman 

Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death Trailer

The Disintegrator

Countdown to TV Action 

Doctor Who: Infinity (The Orphans of the Polyoptra)

Catastrophea

Conspiracy in Space

Auton 2: Sentinel

U.N.I.T. On Call

[destinyc1020]

I'm confused how can Zendaya film Euphoria & Spider-man 4 at the same time in 2024. I remember reading on deadline the show is suppose to be back 2025 unless one of those projects gets pushed back. Also, how is Tom going to shoot three films Spidey 4, FA biopic & Uncharted 2. I hope they both enjoy their vacation because next year seems super busy with promo and being on set for new projects. deadline(.)com/2023/11/euphoria-returning-third-season-2025-hbo-1235590967/

Re: Tom....

Wait.... Where are you hearing that "Uncharted 2" is going to be filming next year Anon? 🥴

Cuz everything I've been seeing has had 2026 as a projected release date, so I'm assuming they'd probably film in 2025. 🤷🏾‍♀️

FA is def supposed to be shooting in 2024. Not sure about SM4.

So far, there haven't really been any official announcements yet on when the films will be filmed. We don't even have a cast yet for SM4.

Re: Zendaya....

I can see them filming EU3 next year.

Even if they film SM4 next year as well, Sam will just make sure to schedule the work around her schedule, just like he always does? 🤷🏾‍♀️

[brokehorrorfan]

Silent Night, Deadly Night Collection will be released on December 13 via Lionsgate. The Blu-ray set includes the third, fourth, and fifth installments in the Christmas horror franchise. It’s the 28th installment in the Vestron Video Collector’s Series. 

1989's Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! is directed by Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop) and written by Rex Weiner. Richard Beymer, Bill Moseley, Samantha Scully, Eric Da Re, Laura Harring, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Robert Culp star.

1990's Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation is directed by Brian Yuzna (Society) and written by Zeph E. Daniel (Society). Maud Adams, Tommy Hinkley, Allyce Beasley, Clint Howard, and Neith Hunter star.

1991's Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker is directed by Martin Kitrosser (writer of Friday the 13th Parts III and V) from a script he co-wrote with Brian Yuzna (Society). William Thorne, Mickey Rooney, Jane Higginson, Tracy Fraim, and Brian Bremer star.

All three films are presented in high definition with English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. Devon Whitehead designed the cover art. Special features are detailed below.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out special features:

Audio commentary by film historian Jarret Gahan

Interview with actor Bill Moseley

Interview with creative consultant Steven Gaydos

Interview with executive producer Richard Gladstein

Trailer

Still gallery

It’s a very bloody Christmas after Ricky Caldwell, the notorious “Killer Santa Claus,” awakens from a six-year coma with one thing on his mind: murder.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation special features:

Audio commentary by director Brian Yuzna

Our Man Ricky with Clint Howard

Interview with writer Woody Keith

Interview with effects artist Screaming Mad George

Interview with executive producer Richard Gladstein

Trailer

Still Gallery

A reporter’s investigation into a mysterious death leads her into the clutches of a cult that’s chosen her as its new queen.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker special features:

 Audio commentary by director/co-writer Martin Kitrosser

Interview with producer/co-writer Brian Yuzna

Interview with actor Brian Bremer

Interview with effects artist Screaming Mad George

Interview with executive producer Richard Gladstein

Trailer

Still gallery

Mickey Rooney stars as a toy maker whose creations display some very human – and deadly – tendencies.

Pre-order Silent Night, Deadly Night Collection.

[boldlyvoid]

Come on Eileen | Part 7: they're back...

Summary: the undead army is awoken.

Warnings: season 4 re-write, canon typical violence, resurrection, zombies, mentions of past sexual assault, electrocution, fire setting, planning for the big fight

Word count: 5.7k

Masterlist

Hop goes off on Brenner and Owens just a little bit harder than Eileen did, rightfully so, as Eleven lay unconscious on the table. She used a lot of energy to keep everyone safe doing the earthquake. What they also learned was the feeling of another gate opening in Hawkins. 

However, how many Venca needed to crack open the earth and reign hellfire down upon Hawkins? They had no fucking clue. They just knew they opened where ever someone has died under Vecna’s curse and it looked like he was trying to spread them out with the distance between Chrissy and Fred. 

Priority 2 was to get Patrick to the lab before he could open the third gate, the main priority stayed keeping Max safe. 

Till then, everyone gathers in the Lab's cafeteria for pizza.

The parents have a million questions and the rest of the plan needs to be assembled, still. They can’t start planning fully till Callahan and Powell get back from their daily patrol, so they eat the most delicious dough in the whole world, topped with amazing choices all thanks to Argyle. 

She feels like she hasn’t eaten in a month as she stuffs slice after slice in her mouth to feed not only herself but their baby. It’s so good she could kiss argyle right on the mouth as a thank you. 

Nancy and Robin are back with Victor who’s reacquainted with his daughter after all these years. Mike meets him too, asking all sorts of questions to Henry for eleven's sake. Both she and Will sit on either side of mike as they talk to him, learning about the man they had to stop at all costs in a few days' time. It was difficult seeing the father of a monster feel so sad knowing his son had to be defeated, but it was the truth. He had to go, there was no question about it. 

At Eileen's table, however, she meets Susie and Eden, who also wants to kiss argyle but not just as a thank you for the pizza. She thinks he’s cute, she told Eddie so earlier when they were painting sigils all over the building. She came with a lot of witchy knowledge for a Mormon girl, it was interesting, to say the least. 

And Dustin was so smitten with Susie. Everyone was nervous to meet her, seeing as the two of them broke out into song all the time, but they were pretty quiet actually. Disgustingly cute, but quiet as they stayed in their own happy bubble together. 

The room is full of laughter and conversations, everyone has someone to talk to. It’s some of the strangest groups of people ever but it works. They all get along like a family, like this is the mess tent in mash, even on their worst days they’d still come together for the same cause. 

They’re all almost done with dinner when the police show back up. Powell and Callahan walk through the doors in a bit of a rush, scared looks on their faces, catching their breath and everyone's attention. “We have a bit of an issue.” 

“What?” Hopper stands up followed by Joyce, Steve and Nancy. They were the real leaders of this fight.

“So uh, we got a call that Jason and his buddies were staying at the Carver’s lake house, and when we got there we discovered Patrick all tied up and something that looked like Jason but wasn’t Jason was guarding him…” Callahan explains. 

“And theres bats in the trailer park,” Powell adds, scared and shaking, “they’re coming up out of the ground where some portal has opened up? There’s about 6 of them out there right now, they’ve killed all the cats and squirrels out there so far and dented the fuck out of our cars.” 

“Brenner said that would happen,” Hop sighs. “Fuck, okay, so we’re going to have to deal with the bats before we can use the gate.” 

“Use it?” Powell repeats, louder than before. “Are you fucking insane? Those bats out there aren’t just normal, they’re fucking huge and they can eat you in one bite!” 

“We’ll figure it out,” Hop raises his voice right back. “We always do. They hate fire, Will can torch shit with his mind now, we’re fine.” 

“Can I hear more about this Jason problem?” Steve wonders for the group, “what do you mean he wasn’t Jason? What was he acting like?” 

“He was shirtless it looked like his skin was peeling, he was trying the kid to a chair on a boat and talking to someone that wasn’t there. We watched from the window of his boat house, he didn’t see us, but it was horrific,” Callahan explains. “Have you seen that before?” 

“Yeah, unfortunately,” Nancy sighs, turning back towards the table of kids staring at her as they listened. 

They knew what was happening. 

Everyone that knows about Billy and Will’s possessions starts to stand and make their way over for a group planning session. “We need to lure Jason away from Patrick and then burn the mindflayer out of him before he finds us here and ruins our plans,” Lucas speaks for the group, scared for Max as much as Eileen is.

Eddie and Eileen get up together, heading over to join the conversation, worried for their own safety with Jason being the chosen one to be possessed. 

“It’s a hive mind right?” Eileen remembers from Nancy’s timeline. 

Nancy nods, “yeah, so the mindflayer, the upside down, the bats, everything feels the same pain, when we’re burning the shit out of Jason, the bats will be at their weakest point.” 

Wayne walks over then, too, “did you say you have to burn some kid?” 

They all nod along but it’s Steve who steps in to explain, “the mindflayer doesn’t like heat, we learned that when he possessed Will and used it to try and get it out of billy… well, the kids did, but they used a sauna and it didn’t work, they couldn't keep him in it long enough.” 

“When it was in Will,” Nancy adds, “he just wanted to keep Will’s powers at bay but mostly the mind flayer and Henry use the host as a spy, so we can’t let him see anything we’re doing. We need to get it out of him.” 

“Seriously?” Will asks, it all started making more sense to him. “They knew I could beat Henry so they tried to take me out first?” Will repeats it in his own words, amazed that everything had a purpose and it wasn’t because he was weak that he was taken. Quite the opposite actually. 

“And he has his powers now,” Eddie pats Will's back, rubbing it gently before his friends light up with excitement and pull him in for cheerful hugs. “So we can use him to—

“You just can’t light Jason on fire,” Wayne raises his hands and shakes his head. “But I can probably electrocute it out of him…” 

“Seriously?” Hopper asks, “how?” 

“At the plant, I have the keys and the security info— I’m the floor manager,” Wayne explains. “We just need a way to get Jason to the plant and secure him in a cage so he can’t escape.” 

“He followed eleven around last time like he could sense her presence,” Mike remembers, “when the mindflayer was in Billy, it wouldn’t let her get too far, he always found her.” 

“So we get eleven to the plant and Jason will follow,” Hopper agrees. “We have the bodies ready to go, we need to get them into the upside down at the same moment the bats are gone…” 

“Or,” Steve steps in, “and hear me out… we bring Will to the gate, and he burns the bats to give you an advantage with Jason? We burned the tunnels 2 years ago when you were getting it out of Will, and it distracted the dogs while you closed the gate… it will be easier to hold Jason down with the bats being attacked.” 

“Yeah,” Will likes that idea. “Hop can go with el, and mom can stay with me, we’re both able to use our powers for this one.” 

“You’re getting tattooed before you go,” Joyce puts her foot down as if that’s not the coolest compromise for a 14-year-old kid. “You’re not going out there unprotected. Any of you. Not after what happened with Max outside.” 

“How many kids are left to get tattooed?” Eddie asks, looking around at the handful of people already sporting his protection sigils. He started with the adults earlier that morning, and with the help from Eden this afternoon, he was mostly through them all. 

Most of them raise their hands, actually all of them except eleven, “okay, Will and Max first, let’s go get them done.” He kisses Eileen before he leaves, stealing an extra piece of pizza first before they’re all off. 

8:30 pm

The plan wasn’t as simple as they wished it would be. 

First, they needed to get Wayne to the plant and set up a cage in which they could trap Jason. 

Once he was ready, Eleven was to get Jason's attention at the lake and with her father's help, they’d drive to the plant with Flayer Jason in tow. 

With him out of the way, they would get Patrick back to the lab so another portal wouldn’t be opened as Team 2 heads to the trailer park. 

At the trailer park, they had the 2 recent dead bodies and a coffin belonging to the one and only, Billy Hargrove, already waiting for them. They just had to be placed in the upside down. However, depending on the bat situation, Will might need to go in there and handle all of the reincarnations sooner rather than later… like tonight, soon.

With the mindflayer leaving Jason’s body, it would be at his weakest and vulnerable to the undead army’s attacks. It was their best choice, but also the scariest.  

It wasn’t just Billy he had to bring back, it was Chrissy, Fred, Barb and the other hikers whose bodies were trapped down there in the upside down library. They never made it out with Will 4 years ago. 

7 people— well, not people, 7 bodies against the mindflayer. It would be the only way they could win, if they don’t have minds, there’s nothing for the mindflayer to consume, they’re just meat suits with a vengeance. 

Eileen still didn’t fully understand how they’d do it, it was still a bit of a mystery how this was all so similar to D&D and how the heck Eddie was always right and knew exactly what to do? 

Team 1 had two sides to it: The diversion and the cleanup team. 

The diversion for team 1 are Hop and Eleven, taking Jasons attention off Patrick and leading him to Wayne at the Power Plant.

Their cleanup consisted of: Callahan, Eddie, Dustin and Lucas. The 4 of them were to bring Patrick back to the lab— and heaven forbid they get there too late for him, plan b is to bring his body to the trailer park. 

Team 2, at the trailer park, is Joyce, Will, Powell, Steve, Jonathan, Nancy and Robin. 

Will had to destroy the bats, obviously, but also keep the coast clear. Nancy, Mike and Steve volunteered to go into the upside down first to gather the bodies of their dead peers as they were dropped onto the other side.

Jonathan, Joyce and Will would join them right after, their family has been through so much there was no way they weren’t sticking together through this one. 

Then there was the rescue team. 

Charles Sinclair, Susan Mayfield and Claudia Henderson, all with very different medical backgrounds, all willing to help keep everyone safe during all of this. 

9:15 pm

She paces the room, her whole body on fire with anxiety, she’s pale as a ghost and barely even there, mentally. Her mom tries to talk to her, asks her questions that fall on deaf ears. She’s too focused on Eddie and Billy and the fact they could meet again today with Eddie knowing the truth— because she knows that if he’s given the chance to be her hero he is going to take it. He’s going to be the man he’s always wanted to be and protect those kids and the people he loves and ultimately her. She knows how he thinks, she knows he’ll want to kill Vecna himself to save Max and ensure that his wife stays happy even if it means she has to raise their child alone. 

She wanted to run after him, she wanted to join him and keep him safe from his hero complex but she was too pregnant to do anything. 

She was at the stage where she was far along enough that she could go into labour and the baby would be born in very critical condition. It was more than just a miscarriage risk at this point, she was stressed enough to give birth and say goodbye to her baby if she made the wrong choices. 

She was terrified for herself, for Eddie, for Max, for her mom… her mom. Oh, her poor mom. 

Susan was scared for Wayne, her own little crush has bubbled over the months of getting to know each other, they’d be grandma and grandpa and they might as well bond… they bonded a bit too well, actually. She didn’t want to lose Wayne, she didn’t want Wayne to lose Eddie. Or Eileen to lose him, either. She didn’t want to lose a grandbaby or her own daughter. She couldn’t even think about the fact that Max was cursed, she was under a spell that has only ended in tragedy this far and it didn’t look good for her. 

Susan was dying inside just at the thought of it all. 

But she was also on duty. As the most medically qualified person on their team (outside Owens and Brenner who nobody trusted at this point) she was on call for emergencies. 

She fiddled with the ambulance keys in her hands, knees shaking as she waits for a call to eventually come through. 

“Hey, don’t pick at that,” Eileen glances at Max fiddling with her new tattoo on her upper arm. “If it gets itchy pat around it, don’t scratch or it won’t heal. Do you want more lotion?”

“No, I’m just uncomfortable,” Max whines. “And I’m bored. What if I listen to this tape so much I end up hating it and then it does nothing for me anymore?” 

“You need to just keep thinking about good memories,” Eileen reminds her. “You must have more we don’t know about, things that you’ve gone through here with your best friends that will go down as the best days of your life.” 

She smiles, “I do have some of those. I have more though since you got here.” 

Eileen finds it in herself to smile back, taking a seat between Max and her mom. “I’m really glad I moved here.” 

Her mom places a hand on her stomach and rubs gently. Max places her hand on her too, it’s a weird group hug full of 3 generations of redheads, “we’re going to all make it out okay, I know it.” 

“Yeah,” she agrees without really thinking the same thing. 

“Phase one complete, I repeat, phase one complete,” they hear Dustin’s voice over the radio. “Flayer is on the move, however, plan 2 is a go.” 

Patrick died. 

Max picked up the walkie again with a sigh, she holds down the button and speaks softly. “copy. Be safe. Over.” 

“We will, over,” Lucas answered that time, making max smile a bit. 

“Team two is in position,” Steve adds over the radio. 

“Cage is ready to go,” Wayne adds. “Any idea on Jason's ETA?” 

“He’s running after hops car, so I’d say 10 minutes? Over,” Eddie adds. 

Eileen sighs at the sound of his voice, “thank god.” 

“See?” Her mom manages to smile. “It’s all working out.” 

So far, at least. 

—

They carefully load Patrick's body into the back of Eddie’s van, he’s all contorted and broken and it’s truly horrific… but they do it. Dustin, Lucas and Eddie followed Callahan in his cop car, directly to the trailer park portal. 

Steve, Nancy and Robin wait in Nancy’s car, Will, his mom, brother and mike are in Powell's car, and the rest of the cop cars surround them in the tree lines of the trailer park's entrance. 

If the bats can’t see or smell them, they won’t attack. So they stay back, they wait with their doors unlocked and the plan beaten into their memory from overthinking. 

Eddie rolls up behind Nancy’s car, waving through the window, and they wave back. Eddie picks up the walkie, a little anxious from how long it felt like it was taking, “everybody okay?” 

“Keep the channel free,” Dustin scolds him but Eddie doesn’t care. 

“We’re good,” Max answers from the ambulance bay. 

“Great over here,” Susie answers from the lab with the parents. 

“Still waiting,” Wayne confirms. 

“Still running from this freak!” Hop screams down the line, “eta 2 minutes! Be ready!!” 

“Moving into the first position,” Powell says over the radio, driving his cop car into the trailer park and alerting the collection of bats around the portal. 

They start to fly and swarm around the car but they don’t attack, they just circle it, over and over, like the protection spell is keeping them at a distance. Nancy drives in next, followed by the car containing Will, and finally, Eddie’s van comes in. 

Will gets out alone, cautiously, and the bats swoop down to get him but they can't. Almost as if they’re hitting a forcefield that no one else can see. 

They can’t fly within 3 feet of him… So he stands there, feet planted firmly and his eyes closed, swarmed by bats as thunder cracks and lightning turns the sky a terrifying purple. 

He turns back to the cars, watching and waiting for the signal, and then it comes through. 

“Jason’s in the cage, I repeat, Jason is in the cage,” Hops voice comes through the radio, scattered and out of breath. “Go phase 2.” 

“WILL!” Joyce yells from the car, window rolled down mere millimetres. “NOW!” 

With his hands balled into fists, he recalls something painful, something sad… being kidnapped and having his childhood stolen from him is enough to light the air on fire and take the bats into his blaze of glory bright enough to make the park look like midday. Their wings disintegrate in the flames, and their bodies melt into goop and drop to the dirt like acid rain. By the time he opens his eyes again, the ground is covered in hot black tar, it stinks like burnt hair, but the sky is clear and dark again. 

Part of Eddie wishes he could see what’s happening at the plant, most of him wants to be there with Wayne to protect him, unfortunately, he’s here with all the dead bodies of people he used to know, waiting for the all-clear to put them in the ground… only not just 6 feet under. 

They were going completely upside down. 

Everyone rushes from their cars as the bats hit the ground, the cops gather the bodies, and they start up the excavator all while Wayne and Hopper are silent on the radio. 

Eddie watches from the sidelines, Steve and Nancy head down into the other dimension and each body is wrapped and prepped to be lowered down to them. Joyce has her arms wrapped around Will, reminding him how proud she is of him while Mike rambles about it being the coolest thing he’s ever seen. Completely unfazed by how much it sounds like love.

“We’re gonna need an ambulance at the plant,” Hopper calls over the radio. “it’s out of Jason but he’s not doing too hot.”

Eddie laughs, that was the worst word choice to make. He was probably chard to a crisp…  

“On it,” Susan answers, “Charles meet me down here at the bay, stat, I’m going to need help.” 

“He’s on his way,” Karen answers for the group, “good luck out there.” 

Eddie sighs, hoping to god Wayne was okay. 

“It’s all working out,” Dustin reminds him. “We just have one last phase to complete.” 

“I want to go down there,” Eddie announces to their group. “I want to be there with Will when he brings Billy back. I don’t trust Billy, especially without his brain.” 

“I can’t let you all go down there,” Powell tries to stop them. 

“You can’t control any of us, the upside down doesn’t fall under your jurisdiction,” Joyce fights back, taking Eddie’s side. “Me and Eddie are going with Will. So are Steve and Nancy.”

“And me!” Robin and Jonathan say at the same time, unable to sit this one out when the people they loved most were already down there. 

Nancy suddenly tugs on the emergency string, the rope moves from the middle and then she’s popping up through the portal just enough to scream, “HELP! THEY GOT STEVE! HE CUT HIS ARM AND HIS PROTECTION IS GONE!” 

They all rush the portal, dropping Will in first and then the rest of them jump down too. By the time Eddie’s down there, Will’s killed the few bats that had wrapped themself around Steve’s neck, strangling him slightly. 

He sits there on the ground, gasping for breath with his shirt covered in blood. Eddie runs to his trailer… well, the upside-down version of it at least, he pries open his old dresser drawer and finds a few shirts and a towel before running back to him. 

“Here,” he hands them to Nancy who rips the shirt up and wraps it tightly around Steve’s wounds. 

“It’s okay,” Dustin shushes him, “you’re okay.” 

Will watches the sky in the background, noticing there are more flying, “we need to go… Like 5 minutes ago!” 

“Help him up,” Nancy asks for help, Dustin and Robin lift Steve and carry him back towards Eddie’s trailer. Everyone follows, leaving the bodies out there in the open. 

“I need to bring them back,” Will worries. “I should do them first and then they can escort us to the library. The bats won’t go after any of us with them.” 

—

When Jason arrives at the lab, he’s still unconscious and burned up and barely alive. They strip him of his remaining clothes and treat all his electrical burns with water and bandages, and they hook him up to an IV to stay hydrated.

Eileen watches carefully as her mom works on him, “how do you know what to do?” 

“I’m treating it like he was struck by lightning,” she announces, “with that strong of a current, it’s the most likely outcome of injuries.” 

“What can I do?” 

“Stay out of here,” her mom orders. “He’s going to wake up soon and god knows what he’s going to react like when he sees you, I don’t want you here when he does.” 

“Right,” she remembers just how much Jason hates her and how unhinged people can get when coming back to life after being shocked. She didn’t want to be in his wake. 

—

Eddie’s never been so on edge in his entire life as they build the pire. 

A giant pile of wood was stacked up in the middle of the trailer park, the bodies wrapped in whatever blankets they could find in other homes on site, then they salted them and stacked them onto the wood. Returning back to Eddie’s upside down trailer once they were done, Will started to freak out about what was to come. 

It was his biggest, hardest part now. 

“I really hope the rules of reincarnation aren’t exactly the same,” Will worries, “cause then Billy won’t come back… you only have 10 days to bring a soul back to its body or else the energy becomes too unstable and the soul gets lost in the ether.”

“There’s nothing like Eleven in D&D, she’s a superhero and so are you now, I think the Phoenix power you possess is going to be able to bring anyone back, no matter what,” Eddie tries to assure him that it’ll be okay even though a part of him hoped that Billy didn’t ever come back.

He’s worried if he sees him there he’s going to swing at him. He wants to swing at him. He wants to kill him again himself.

“Phoenix powers?” Will laughs, “I thought I just had pyrokinesis?” 

“It’s the start of your abilities,” he explains. “Like how eleven’s telekinesis has now become the ability to create forcefields of protection… you have a much more potent gift which only manifests as pyrokinesis at first.”

Will just stares at him. 

He knew this was something he’d have to do, he never questioned the specifics and now here he was learning more about himself than he ever imagined. 

“The Phoenix dies in flames but is also reborn in them, the phoenix rises from the ashes and that’s precisely what is going to happen here. Like in D&D, the spirit of the passed individual heads to Limbo after death to wait 10 days before being transferred to their forever resting spot, unless they’re coaxed back into their bodies. With your powers, by burning them and having them be reborn in the ash, you’re ripping them straight from Limbo and shoving them into their bodies no questions asked. This also means we get to skip the 2-week waiting period for their bodies to even reappear, they should come back almost instantaneously.” 

“Holy shit,” Will can’t believe his ears. “So… will they have brains or not?” 

“Technically not, blood stopped flowing, they’re zombies,” Eddie confirms. “All you need to do is say a little spell, a chant that holds true to your intention here, and it should rhyme too…” Eddie adds for good measure.

“Okay, okay yeah, I can do that,” Will tries to hype himself up a bit more. “What do I say?” 

“You have a few minutes, go sit in my room and think,” Eddie finishes his little pep talk with a pat on the back. 

“You’re going to be a good dad,” Joyce can’t help but smile at him. 

He smiles right back, it was the weirdest place in the world to feel this happy but he was proud of his little family and the fact that people trusted him. It was so new to be so trusted. He could really get used to it. 

Will takes about 20 minutes in the bedroom and returns with a piece of paper that held his spell. “I’m ready.” 

“Let’s do this,” Eddie nodded, opening the trailer door and letting him out first, followed by everyone with a weapon of choice. 

They really had no idea how everyone was going to wake up from the dead. 

Will stands in front of the pire and reads his words back to himself while taking a few deep breaths. He folds the paper up and puts it in his front pocket, running his hands over his jeans to get the sweat off, he was so anxious but this was his job. His purpose. 

He raises his hands, palms facing out. He starts his chant. 

“Power of fire from within 

put blaze upon their cold, damp skin, 

cleanse each body, renew each soul, 

till nothing left but ash and coal. 

I call upon the phoenix power 

to help us in this mortal hour. 

Accept the vessel upon this hearth. 

Complete the cycle of rebirth.” 

In the flame they see a phoenix, landing on the pire as the bodies burn to nothing. The flame turns a deep, deep red and then there’s a flash. It’s so bright everyone shields their eyes and looks away, only to return to the sight of their 4 peers standing in the dwindling ash. 

They all react similar, touching their chest as life is breathed back into their lungs… but they don’t look the same. They’re pale grey from being dead, without blood in their veins, brainless. Yet they remember everything? 

“Harrington,” Billy notices first. “wheeler… Munson? When did you join the party.” 

He can’t help himself. He see’s red as soon as he speaks and then Steve’s holding him back. Jonathan and Mike too, but he’s stronger than all three of them as he shoves them to the ground and speed walks over to Billy. He punches him so hard he goes flying backward. 

Chrissy and Patrick hold him back, a lot stronger, but he puts up a good fights, “I swear to god I’m going to fucking kill you again once this is over you sick fuck! If we didn’t need you’re help you’d still be rotting in the fucking ground.” 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” He laughs as he stands up and dusts himself off. Dressed in a nice suit as thats what he was buried in. 

“You molested my wife.” 

“Who?” 

“Eileen,” Chrissy realizes what’s up and stops holding him back, letting Eddie go and Patrick does the same. But Eddie doesn’t lunge at him again. 

He just stares. “I know everything. You’re scum it's no wonder it picked you last year.” 

“Yeah,” billy agrees. “You know what, yeah I am evil but if it wasn’t for me her sister would be dead so.” 

“Doesn’t redeem you,” he spits back. “Once we’re done here you’re going right back to hell. I hope you like the heat.”

“Harrington,” he calls past Eddie, “care to tell me what the fuck the freak wants me to do before he kills me again.” 

Eddie wraps his arm around Chrissy and takes a few steps back, they form a circle in the middle of the park to discuss everything, with Nancy taking the lead, not Steve. He’s still a bit woozy from his attack. 

“How are we going to kill it?” Billy wonders once he’s been filled in. “That thing is insanely powerful and huge… have you seen the real thing?” 

“Isn’t it the same as it was in the mall?” Joyce asks, scared to know the answer. 

He shakes his head. “No… here it’s, it’s huge.” 

“It’s more like a shadow,” Will agrees. “You saw it in my drawings, it’s that black dust that left my body after my possession. But like, the size of the Brooklyn bridge.” 

“Oh fuck…” Nancy rubs her hand over her face, terrified on the inside. “Okay. Well, we need to get the rest of the dead back and then we’ll get back to that question.” 

“Others?” Chrissy asks. 

“Barb,” Nancy solemnly answers. “And a few hikers, their bodies are in the library down here.” 

“Which we’ve gotta get to before Vecna hears we’re down here,” Joyce reminds them. “It’s a 5-mile walk from here, let’s go.” 

—

March 23rd, 1986   

Powell came back alone around midnight saying everyone went down and sent him back with the message that they were on the way to the library and would be back later. The resurrection went well, Eddie got 1 punch in but it's relatively civil now which makes her shake her head in disbelief. 

Boys were so weird like that. One punch and they’re fine. 

They get their first transmission at 2 in the morning. “Team two is right-side up, making our way home. Everyone accounted for.” 

Everyone that was still awake makes their way down to the lobby of the lab, excited to hear how it went but more so needing to plan what happens next. 

The reunion is sweet… Eddie picks her up and twirls her around even though she feels so sick. She holds him tight and kisses his cheek. “You’re okay?” 

“Harringtons the only one who got hurt,” he points, causing Susan to get her med kit and rush to him. 

They disinfect him right there as the team goes over everything thats transpired in the last few hours. “So everyone is back?” Hop asks. 

Joyce nods, “yeah, they’re all on board and just waiting to learn how they can kill the mindflayer…” 

“I know how we can kill Henry… but not that,” Eleven adds. “The mindflayer is from the upside down, it’s not human… what if we just killed Henry and closed the gates and left it alone? It can’t do any damage without help.” 

“Are you sure about that?” Eileen wonders. 

“Pretty positive.” 

“As long as no one ever opens another gate and falls under its control, we should be fine, right?” Eddie asks, “and even then, we can take them down again.” 

“And with the undead in the upside down, they can rule over the mindflayer… they can become the main predator down there.” 

“Billy will take that role,” Eddie volunteers his new enemy. “What’s the difference between sexual and apex predator?” 

Eileen shoves him, “hey, you got a punch in, drop it.” 

“How can you kill Henry?” Nancy moves the conversation back to eleven. 

“Well,” Max and Eleven turn to each other like they’ve been talking it over. “I need to get into his mind when he’s at his weakest… and we think that’s when he’s got his hooks in someone.” 

“No,” Eileen, Steve and Joyce all point at her at the same time, their mom mode on blast. 

“It’s the only way!” They cry, “he needs to be vulnerable while I’m in his mind and then you guys need to get into the upside down again and find his lair and burn him.”

“And the pieces of his phylactery, remember?” Eddie brings up. “We already agreed it’s the clock from the visions which is at the creel house, it’s probably also where he is when he attacks. It’s the perfect place to build a lair.” 

“Tomorrow we’ll go there and we’ll get the clock,” Hopper assures them. “What’s the other piece?” 

“I think it’s the chess board,” Eleven adds. “It’s what he’d play with all of us in the rainbow room and that’s where he killed them all.” 

“We need to burn them too or he’ll come back.”

General Taglist 

@ncsls0515 @stevesmunsons @reidsbookclub @wroteclassicaly @sweetyyhippyy @manuosorioh @mrs-dr-reid @k-k0129 @eddiemunson-rp 

@fightingdragonswithwho @kyomito @reidselle @venomsvl @nomajdetective @girl-with-an-orange-cat @blairscott @princesseddie 

[theseventhoffrostfall]

I was looking through my Art of Fallout 4 book and it really got me thinking about industrial Fallout 4 feels like it was meant to be. I understand concept art is never meant to be the final product, the whole vibe of the book gives off this feeling that Fallout 4 was supposed to take place during a re-emergence period of heavy industry.

There's one spread in the book that really caught my attention. It was downtown Boston, filled with traders, mercenaries, travelers, and shops surrounding these massive rusted futuristic buildings. Another picture of an early Diamond City showed streets made of metal grating, pre-war trailers stacked on top of scaffolding, wires and cables everywhere. It doesn't look ramshackle or like it was built a few years ago. It looks like an actual crowded and populated city hub. It looks like an actual form of industry is going on, like someone is making metal, and things are being broken down and reused. There was even a much more refined farm and water system in the concept art of Diamond City than what we see in-game, where it's a few trees and a bald kid looking over a little tub of dirty mud water.

The emerging industry of metalworking and machinery would have made a lot more sense, considering no one really seems to do anything in Fallout 4. People supposedly farm and trade, but there's only two cities in the whole game, there's no real farms, and everyone plants the same thing. You hear a lot about the Triggermen having control of some massive chems trade and nothing ever really comes out of it. You can't even talk to the head boss in charge, who literally sits around as an NPC in a place that was supposedly once famous for its chem-fueled parties (again, something that you hear once and find no evidence to ever back up). I'll continue with my idea on the Triggermen but I'd like to hear your opinions first

You're completely on-point with the remark on industry. At the risk of beating a dead horse, while in-game new Vegas wasn't exactly bustling with life and activity, there's enough trade caravans, stores, and even in-dialogue reference to groups like the gun runners to show that trade and industry is meant to be happening. In 4 there are the absolute basics sometimes addressed (it generally avoids the Mad Max problem of "what are these people surviving on") but nobody seems to be making clothing or tools, everyone has shitty pipe pistols that only by miracle and removal of the weapon degradation system don't blow up after the third shot, and there's only one town, which it's entirely possible to miss in a regular playthrough, which we're told is a caravan hub (caravans are also still just a few dudes with guns and a pack mule, which New Vegas did for cowboy flavor but FO4 has them rambling on along casually through fucking warzones)

Some of this probably ties into the abortion of a settlement system, so workshops/ manufacturing centers, caravans, doctors and so forth don't develop outside the few major cities unless you build them, but, I mean, who wants to do that shit. Also it makes the world weaker by making everyone do nothing until you show up, which they've been doing for decades.

At a certain point we're just gonna keep butting into the answer "the devs were lazy, didn't think all these things through, and also thought you were so stupid you wouldn't believe an apocalypse happened if people weren't living in rusty shacks eating rats

[dynamoe]

on AO3 | Pro | Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 |Ch 4| Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 ...Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12

Billy describes his mother's passion for the 40th president of the United States. Pete floats a conspiratorial theory as they return to the hotel to face their enemy. save your eyes and read it on AO3.

Billy was staring into the middle distance, drifting off. He sighed, suddenly remembering this great pair of socks he used to have. Whatever happened to those? Lost, probably. 

Pete galumphed back into his seat with a clatter with frosting smeared on his face. As he dropped something in a bag under the table, Billy was jostled back to consciousness.

“You ok, fella?”

“Yeah, just remembering something that happened when I was a kid, I think,” Billy muttered, re-situating himself in waking life, “What the fuck were you doing over there?”

“Signing up for the poetry slam,” Pete pulled a stub of a maple long john wrapped in a napkin out of his pocket and stuffed it into his mouth.”

Billy looked around the room groggily, “Just twelve hours ago we were back in the trailer…”

“You, pal, could use another cup of coffee.”

“I just want a shower and to go to bed.  Just to take off this fucking horrible suit,” Billy groused, pulling down the short pants hem for the ten thousandth time that day.

Pete’s attention was wandering, he peered over Billy’s shoulder into the back room. “Wow, look at how they networked all the PCs back there. I wonder what kind of router they used”

“Don’t you wanna hear the rest of my story?”

Pete turned back with a patronizing grin, “Sure I do, pally. Absolutely.”

“Dr. Putnam was at our house every Sunday for dinner. He claimed these were “strategy sessions,” but I think he just wanted a free meal. Mom always tried to impress him with fancy food. She never made me Veal Piccata, but for fuckin' Peebo Putnam, we got Veal Piccata.”

On the apple box-sized stage at the back of the room, an MC got up with a mic in a stand. He muttered an announcement that the poetry slam was about to begin and exhorted wannabe poets to get their names in the bucket. Pete clucked his tongue at such inelegant host-craft.

Billy counted on his fingers, “Dinner.  Dessert.  Maybe one round of Scrabble and then I was sent to bed, but I could hear them laughing and talking for the next 5 hours. My room didn’t have a door. It was just a linen closet with a bed in it.”

“You had to sleep on a shelf with the towels?”

“No, the linens were somewhere else. It was entirely my room … it was just… it didn’t have a door. So I had to hear them… doing things.”

“Ew.”

“By the end of first grade though, Putnam had a rival for mom’s affections. Ronald. Wilson. Motherfucking. Reagan.”

Pete’s jaw dropped. “Talk about burying the lead! Your ma was BOINKING Ronnie Raygun?”

Billy looked stricken. “No, no, no. Nothing like that. She just really, really liked him as a candidate. She volunteered to get him elected. She canvased!”

Pete slumped, “Oh, that’s not even interesting.”

"It was to her. She met him once, I think, when he was governor of California or head of the Screen Actors' Guild or something and just... fell for it. The whole..." Billy gestured vaguely, "The whole ambience of that campaign was just her wheelhouse. That melodramatic emotional 'morning in America' ... standing up for righteous American values in the face of hippies and communists."

A buzz. Pete looked down at his pager.

“She never met a Satanic Panic she didn’t 100% buy into. It was exhausting," Billy said, "She thought rock n’ roll turned you gay. Trick-or-treating and playing Dungeons & Dragons was a gateway to Satanism. Smoking dope once made you into a serial murderer."

"That only happen, like, half... maybe a third the time," Pete smirked.

"She was a great organizer and volunteer. She was precinct captain for our region then our whole state. She worked her way up to be a big fucking deal, I guess," Billy said as he watched two girls with shaved heads decorate the poetry stage with strings of Christmas lights, "All I cared was it meant she was too busy to force me to do dumb pageants and Boy Genius contests for that whole election season. I was a latchkey kid because of Ronnie."

Pete poked the buttons of the pager and got a half-line of text, "It’s the airport beepin' me. Is there a payphone in here?"

Billy shrugged as Pete took off on a quest to check his messages. The MC was back on the stage making vague announcements about weekly events at Harsh Realm Internet Cafe. The first poets were queuing up along the wall with the community bulletin board— mostly squat, angry-faced white dudes in baseball caps. He sighed and looked at his watch. They really needed to get back to the hotel or he was going to fall asleep right at the table and he didn't favor the chances of dredging up his memories inspiring good dreams.

The MC held up his bucket full of names written on slips of paper, shook it up, and pulled one out. He said a name and one of the squat ballcaps slumped onto the stage. He delivered a rant about something that was irritating him, over-articulating certain words, repeating himself and pausing mid-sentence whenever he wanted to.  Billy didn't see how this was poetry— he'd more accurately describe it as a monologue with arbitrarily line breaks performed by a man in the midst of a stroke. 

White slid back to the table, "What I miss?"

"I figured it out," Billy said, bored, "Slam Poetry is really just an excuse for people who wish they could rap but have no rhythm to get on a stage and speak in incomplete sentences."

The man finished (or maybe just paused for slightly too long). The audience applauded and snapped as the MC ushered him off. He swirled his bucket again and called out "Chalky Snowdrift? Are you here?"

Pete fished the bag out from under the table, removed an oversized black turtleneck sweater, and approached the stage while slipping it on.

"Oh god," Billy moaned with his head propped in his hands, fearing the worst.

_

"Ode to An Internet Cafe," Pete announced his title into the mic before stepping back adopting a strange angular posture.

"Angle bracket. Aitch. Tee. Em. El. Close bracket.” 

White changed to another angular posture, his elbows bent at right angles.

"Angle bracket. Head. Close bracket. Angle bracket. Title. Close bracket.”

White leaned back and screamed at the ceiling, "THIS IS THE TITLE OF MY PAGE!”

He resumed his strange body position but with his arm position reversed.

"Angle bracket. Backslash. Title. Close bracket. Angle bracket. Backslash. Head. Close bracket."

He leaned in close to the mic:

“Angle bracket… Body... Close bracket... Angle bracket. P. Close bracket.”

He glanced left and right and then whispered, “This is where my content goes.”

He jumped back from the mic and rapidly rattled off, “Angle bracket. Backslash. P. Close bracket.  Angle bracket. Backslash. Body. Close bracket. Angle bracket. Backslash. H. T. M. L. Close bracket.”

“We ARE connecting. Dial up. Digital Handshake. Upload.”

Pete leaned back and screamed as loud as he could “Bweeeeeeeeeeeeee-GAAAAAA-Wwwhhhhrrrr Weeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh-waaa-WEEE  Bbbbbhhhhhhhhhh KEE bungk-uh-bungk!”

The crowd was baffled, but snapped supportively. Pete walked off the stage directly into the crowd and passed Billy’s table. 

“The airport found our luggage and sent it to the hotel. Let’s get out of here,” he said without stopping, heading for the exit. Billy hopped up and followed him out.

_

Trudging towards their hotel on the horizon, it was so late that the streets were entirely vacated.

“I didn’t talk politics with mom. I didn’t have any. I was a little kid, what the fuck did I know?” Billy continued.

“Yeah, sure,” Pete took a small foil packet out of his pocket and flipped it back and forth, only half listening.

“Whatever she did for the campaign impressed Reagan’s people enough that after inauguration, they offered her a job. Something worth moving us down to Washington, DC with no notice.”

Pete ripped the packet and tossed the tablets inside down his throat.

"What the fuck is that?"

"They were selling it in the coffee shop. I bought a couple," he showed the packet labeled "HERBAL ECSTACY (sic)" in a swoopy typeface over a futuristic glowing green grid, "Plant-based. It's a legal high. It's smart drugs."

"It's ephedrine," Billy said sourly, "It's trucker speed with added marketing."

“It’s a perfectly legal, proven, over-the-counter supplement for asthma and weight loss.”

“It’s working wonders for you, fatty," Billy rolled his eye, "You’re going to have a fucking heart attack.”

 

MOVING DAY

Rose taped up another moving box  and wrote across the cardboard with a Sharpie: “KITCHEN.”

She called out, “Water-baby, the movers are coming at 1 PM so we need all the boxes ready.”

“I’m done already,” Li'l Billy’s voice squeaked back.

His mother ducked her head into the closet she had converted into a bedroom for Billy. He pointed to nine boxes of his book collection, each labeled in his tiny juvenile scrawl with a full itemized list of its contents. 

Billy lay on his stripped mattress staring at the ceiling, stacking plastic Playmobil horses on his forehead. He had beaten his personal best of four horses, but didn’t look enthusiastic about his achievement. His Rusty Venture doll’s foot lodged in his mouth, he sucked contemplatively like it was a hookah. The plastic texture of the embossed shoelaces was comforting in his mouth.

In the middle of the floor sat an indifferent pile of trophies, framed award certificates and blue ribbons. “Awww. You forgot to pack your Genius prizes.”

“I don’t care about those,” Billy rolled over on his mattress, sending the vertical herd of plastic horses tumbling, “Throw them out.”

“Are you being a sour pickle about moving?” Rose asked, sitting on the mattress next to him and giving his tiny shoulder a shake.

Li'l Billy made a wheezy noise, neither confirming or denying anything.

He never went anywhere that wasn’t directed by his mother or Prof. Peebo. Whether they were in the suburbs of New York or the suburbs of Washington, D.C., his world wasn’t going to change significantly.

“We need to move for Mama’s new job. The President asked Mama to sort out some naughty bad guys in other countries. Mama can’t say no to the The President, right?”

“Do I still have to do the boy genius stuff,” Li'l Billy asked, ruefully.

“Of course, water-baby!" Mom said cheerfully, choosing not to hear the negative lean her son put on the question.

Li'l Billy huffed, this time with more irritation. A new thought occurred to him— Prof. Peebo lived in Manhattan so maybe moving away would mean they’d see less of him.

 

"We moved to a real house, like something out of a sitcom. I had a bedroom with a door. We had a real dinner table to sit at. I rode a yellow bus to school. She marked my height on the wall on my birthday," Billy outlined, "She wore a power skirt-suit with puffy white Reeboks when she took the Metro to her office. It was all totally normal."

"So what's not to like?"

"She went overseas maybe every month... every three weeks. Something like that. She'd be gone for a couple days," Billy explained, "I later found out she was flying out of Dulles in DC and back into LaGuardia to spend the weekend with Peebo. Then she took the train down to DC after to see me. Sometimes she'd have weird injuries, too. Broken arm. Scratches. "

“Billy, did your mom do Iran-Contra?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re too close to the story. Missing the forest for the trees, right. From where I'm standin' it's crystal f'ing clear she was a bagman for the CIA... Special Forces... Black Ops.... 

“Are you fucking high?” Billy shouted in shock, “How many of those herbal ecstasy packets did you eat?”

“Maybe more than bagman,” Pete blue-sky theorized, “A little wet work as Ronnie’s personal representative. Lead some interrogations. Sold some weapons. Cut off some thumbs…”

Billy’s jaw dropped. He shook his head to clear his mind before reasoning with his senior partner, “Ok, ok, ok. I get it. You never met her.  My mother is basically me minus a Y chromosome and plus a foot and half.  She’s a middle-aged suburbanite. She shops at Talbots. She laughs at Cathy cartoons. She’s like…   a mom. ”

“A perfect cover,” White said.

“She had no experience telling Contras how to burn down villages. She taught at the Y not at the School of the Americas.”

“She went overseas for her job, right? And brought you back souvenirs from every trip.”

Billy scrunched his face rolling back his claimed photographic memory as he listed off, “A cigar box from Nicaragua. A little pottery egg with a tiny person inside from El Salvador— they call them sorpresas there. A tiny rug from Iran. Hat from Panama. A stuffed penguin from the Falkland Islands—”

“Cross-reference with CIA activity 1981 to 1988.”

“I’m not the computer of the Enterprise, you chode. You can’t issue commands like that.”

“Tea. Earl Grey. Blow it up your ass,” Pete commanded in an awful imitation of Patrick Stewart.

“She was, like, some kind of government PR person. Maybe she coordinated stuff for the USO, entertaining the troops?”

“Not a lot of troops to entertain in Iran in 1981,” Pete said laconically, “If you think about it.”

“For a scientist you're way too quick buy into a conspiracy theory without any proof to support it. Correlation does not imply causation, fuckface.”

“Conspiracy Theory? When have I ever—”

“You were sure Kurt Cobain was a secret albino.”

“He was. And there’s loads of proof for it. He even admits it in chorus of Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

“He sang the word ‘albino’ in the lyrics. That’s not the same as being one.”

“You’re just pissy you’ll never be in a song because nothing rhymes with ‘hydrocephalic.'”

“ Teen Spirit doesn’t rhyme ‘albino’ with anything either. Unless you think “my libido” is a rhyme.”

Pete held his head at an angle, “Slant rhyme.” Billy shook his head in disgust.

“If Cobain wasn't an albino why do you think he titled the first Nirvana album Bleach, huh?”

“It was named after an anti-heroin campaign encouraging junkies to clean their rigs with bleach to stop spreading hepatitis,“ Billy quizboyed automatically.

“Cover story. Distraction,” White dismissed, “Loads of movie stars and rock musicians are secret albinos. They're all passing, but Kurt was sick of the deception. The CIA had Cobain killed because he was going to go public and bring the whole house of cards down.”

“And my mom was Ollie North’s handler. Riiiiiiiiight”

It wasn’t until they were within a block they noticed the commotion at the front door. Flashing ambulance lights and paramedics struggling to pull a stretcher through the automatic hotel doors that kept closing on them. 

They spotted their previously-unflappable science conference host Dr. Alonzo Superwash in the midst of the chaos. He and his young assistant consulted animatedly with a cluster of medical technicians.

Billy ran up to offer help (and maybe get some hands-on experience to go to his med school book-learning), “What happened, Dr. Superwash? Is anyone hurt?”

“Oh! Master Quizboy,” Dr. Alonzo greeted him as cordially as he could through the worry, “... and his assistant, as well.” He less enthusiastically noted White’s less-hurried arrival, “Ah, no. Nothing to be overly concerned about. One of our more elderly conference speakers had a slight transient ischemic attack. He’s being taken into hospital overnight for observation.”

As the stretcher was being shoved into the back of the ambulance, another paramedic rushed out of the hotel pushing an empty motorized wheelchair to be loaded in after the patient.

“Putnam!” White put two-and-two together.

“Yes, our Professor Peebo Putnam, “ Dr. Alonzo confirmed, “I have no doubt he’ll make a full recovery but at his advanced age any cardiac incident must be fully investigated.”

White eyed Billy suspiciously and muttered under his breath, “Did you do this?”

Billy watched the ambulance pull away, still gobsmacked.

“Well that’s convenient,” White said callously, “Always nice when a problem takes care of itself.”

“Don’t go on any physically-demanding vengeance quests when pushing 100,” Billy stated the lesson-learned, as he pushed through the revolving door of the hotel lobby.

"Master Quizboy," the front desk worker called out, "Mr. White, Master Quizboy!"

They approached the front desk, White picking up a lobby chair en route and sliding it in place for Billy to stand on.

"Two messages. The airport sent your found luggage and we placed it in your room an hour ago."

"Fantastic," White said.

"Master Quizboy, a message from the, uh, Boy Genius Consortium," the desk concierge tried to deliver with a straight face, "An invitation to a meeting in Room 506."

Billy took the note, from several hours earlier, "Shit. I probably missed it. Should I go anyway?"

White considered, "Show up anyway to give your regrets. I'll deal with the luggage."

Billy nodded.

THE CONCLAVE OF BOY GENII

“Ah, Master Quizboy. We had all but written you off,” remarked the host as he opened the door with heavy-eyed amusement. He was an older boy, maybe 14 or 15 with a British Public School accent and attitude—  exquisite politeness forced out by the weight of weary perpetual annoyance.

“I only just got your message,” Billy explained, “We were out all day and got caught up in an… ordeal.”

The host let his glance dip down and take in Billy’s fountain-soaked-then-awkwardly-dried, pho-stained suit and clumpy hair. Billy suddenly realized he should have made some attempt to clean up before coming but it was too late now.

“I see,” he whiffed judgmentally, “No matter. Viswanathan Suryanarayanan Semmangudi Chandrasekhar. Call me ‘Nigel.’” He held out a hand. Billy shook it, “Very chuffed to make your acquaintance,”

“The same, I …. Holy Shit, you’re V.S.S.Chandarasekhar @protonhouse.edu from the Alt.Rec.BoyGenius newsgroup!”

“I am. Do I know you?”

He did. Unfortunately. The two had been locked in two-man flame duels that went on for hundreds of posts. Nigel’s flippant cantankerousness, unsubtle marshaling of sock-puppets and lack of netiquette was a thorn in Billy’s side as the senior mod of the board, but as Billy’s online persona was openly a retired Boy Genius Emeritus of advanced age he couldn’t reveal his online persona there.The whole online community celebrated Billy’s birthday online with ASCII art and Monty Python quotations— his online persona was far from 11. 

“I read the newsgroup but I’m just a lurker,” Billy lied, “It’s a little intimidating to jump in.”

“Nonsense. They’re just 1s and 0s, emphasis on the ZEROES. As, a bunch of losers,” Nigel winked roguishly.

 An empty pizza box lay on the bed and the dregs of potato chips and a few sad M&Ms left in a bowl; the party had petered out long ago.

“Now we finally have the complete set,” Nigel announced to the room to no reaction.

“I’m really sorry I’m so late,” Billy apologized awkwardly to a continued lack of reaction, “I figured you all would have gone to bed.”

“Just taking advantage of all of our jet lag from different time zones. Let me introduce you around.”

Two boys crouched over a tiny magnetic chess set. A third looked on, holding the time clock.

“Oh no,” Billy thought, “Chess guys.”

“Jun-seok Byun,” Nigel indicated the black-haired boy moving his Queen to Rook 5.

“안녕하세요” Billy said with a slight bow.

Jun-seok didn’t even look up from the chessboard, “혀에 무슨 문제 있어? 당신은 바보 같은 소리.”

“Byun specializes in computer science,” Nigel said in an aside, “And Leonid Valeryevich Kitov of Moscow. Chess and Mathematics.”

«Здрасьте,» Billy said.

An unsmiling boy with sandy hair shot a glance over his shoulder, “Извините, ваше произношение звучит отвратительно.”

Billy frowned. Boy geniuses had a reputation for being direct to the point of rudeness, but two insults about his pronunciation in a row was too much for his ego. He made an effort, didn’t that count for anything?

Nigel finally indicated the clock-keeper, a tiny blond boy wearing a World War II-era full-face gas mask, “Nathaniel—” 

The blonde boy stamped his foot, “No, I’m “The Heretic.” You have to call me that. I’m ‘The Heretic.’”

“I won’t be doing that, Nathaniel,” Nigel said coldly, turning to Billy, “Specialty: rhetoric and oratory, Biblical prophecy.”

Billy waved meekly to the boy in the gas mask before asking Nigel, “The guestbook said there were six of us at the conference, isn’t there another boy genius here?”

Nigel looked even more sour, “Yes, unfortunately.”

The door to the second room of the suite opened and a jangling contraption rolled rapidly up to Billy. A six-month-old baby in a partially-roboticized highchair approached, bouncing and huffing excitedly.

“Billy Quizboy, may I introduce young Jayden Lee Brandon.”

Billy looked confused,  “But it’s a baby.”

“Just as I am the eldest of our number, Master Jayden is the most junior. I am assured that his IQ is so astronomical it puts all of us to shame.”

The baby squeaked and huffed as drool trickled out of his mouth. He kicked his feet in excitement.

“But it’s a baby,” Billy repeated, “How could they know—”

The baby smacked his wiggly hands on a series of dome shaped buttons on his high-chair tray. They reminded Billy of quiz show buzzers but each emitted a pre-recorded sound of a woman’s voice saying a single word: “Hello. Hello. Friend. Yes. Hello. Jayden. Jayden.”

Nigel explained, “I’m told he has a much more elaborate communication device in his home laboratory but is rather limited by technology on the road. Nonetheless, I believe one should wait to make their Super Science Conference debut until after the probability of shitting oneself is reduced to zero.”

Jayden’s puffy face curled into a furious pout. He smacked a button, “Mad.”

“Don’t get stroppy. It’s a medical fact.”

“Mad. Jayden. No. Friend.”

“Someone’s getting cranky. Is it bedtime for Jayden?”

“Mad.”

“Step out on the balcony with me, Quizboy,” Nigel said wearily, “This room smells too much like INFANTS.”

“No. Friend. Jayden. Mad. No. Friend. Diaper. Mad Mad.” Jayden kept pressing as he started to cry.

Billy followed Nigel through the French doors onto the balcony. Nigel sighed over-dramatically as he pulled a clove cigarette from his blazer pocket.

“You don’t mind?” he asked, the cigarette between his lips and lighting it before he got an answer.

Billy felt relieved and took a battered-looking cigarette from his pocket as well, “Can I bum a light?”

“It’ll stunt your growth, don’t you know,” Nigel mockingly warned.

Billy shrugged, “The hypopituitarism already does that.”

“You seem an alright chap, Quizboy. Someone I could talk to. Those other anoraks seem a bit wet.”

“They’re fine. They’re just kids.”

“So are you.”

Billy shrugged.

“I shouldn’t have come to the conference again. I’m definitely too old for this.”

Billy nodded, “Most of us retire at 14.”

“I just thought maybe I could make some connections. I’m finishing school this year.”

“Eton?”

Nigel looked offended, “Oxford. Reading PPE and Classics. Now I have to decide whether to stay on for Law School or go directly into politics.”

“The tabloids love a political wunderkind. You could be the William Hague of the '90s."

“You follow our politics? How amusing.”

Billy shrugged again, “Caught Prime Minister's Questions on CSPAN-2 a couple times. Honestly, I learn more from the Doctor Who/Blake’s 7/Red Dwarf late-night block on PBS.”

“The bigger conundrum, though, has come in the form of an invitation I received quite out of the blue.” 

Billy leaned in.

“I’m not sure if I should even mention it but I’m  considering turning evil.”

Billy was confused. ‘Evil? Like…intentionally, actually evil?”

“Not conventionally evil— amoral and greedy and corrupt. I could go into politics for that. I mean, to become villainous. Supra-villainous, even. Daring feats of crime and mass conquest. Chewing the scenery and swooping in from the rafters.”

“I didn’t know that was a career option,” Billy offered tentatively, not sure if this was that ‘dry British humor.’ 

“Nor did I until I received this note under my door this morning. It seems there are villainous recruiters among us, scouting for persuadable bright young thing,” Nigel said, showing Billy a short handwritten invitation on heavy charcoal gray paper with an embossed seal of a dragon in gold at the top, “Seems their side is also having a brain drain and age gap."

“Why would you even want to consider this?” Billy said, disgusted.

Nigel let a slight smile spread over his face, “Oh I don’t know. Seems like it could be a brilliant laugh.”

“There is a signing bonus for genuine British accents,” Billy remembered.

“So you know about it? The Guild?”

Billy cursed internally for letting his knowledge slip, but it wasn’t worth denying it, “There’s a similar bonus for candidates with deformities.” He fanned his mechanical hand towards his missing eye in demonstration, as if it wasn’t obvious.

“You must have made a big impression,” Nigel considered, “ Scouted for evil despite being so young.”

“I’m an old soul,” Billy scoffed, dropping his cigarette and scuffing it out with his shoe, “Sometimes I feel like I’m a million years old.”

“You’re an odd duck, Quizboy,” Nigel said, intrigued, “You’re hiding something, I can tell. I’m going to keep my eye on you.”

“Just don’t tie me to any railroad tracks when you’re a villain,” Billy said with his hands up, laughing it off as he strode casually back into the room.

The chess game must have ended, the players were gone. The baby was asleep in his chair, probably tuckered himself out with that tantrum.

“Are you going?” a small voice piped up from behind him. Billy startled, turned to see The Heretic behind him, watching scrambled pornography with his face pressed up against the TV screen.

“Yeah, this party’s kinda dead,” Billy said, trying to sound far cooler than he was.

“See you at the youth workshop tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, I dunno… maybe… I got a lotta stuff going on…” Billy shrugged as he walked out of the room cool as a cucumber. Out of the door and into the hallway, sure that he was out of sight, Billy bolted into a panicked run down the hall to the elevator. He clicked the button over and over.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Billy repeated to himself like an anxiety mantra, “He knows. Dammit. Lord Fucking Snooty figured it out.”

-

“I got rumbled,” Billy yelped in a panic, throwing the door to their room open, “Shit. He definitely suspects I’m lying about my age. That fucking kid’s gonna out me. Or blackmail me!”

Pete turned around dramatically, wearing a rose-pink taffeta prom dress with a cascading tiered ruffle skirt., 

Billy’s jaw dropped, “What the fuck are you wearing?”

“Got some bad news, pally,” Pete pointed to the bag, “This ain’t our luggage.”

____

on AO3 | Pro | Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 |Ch 4| Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 10| Ch 11| Ch 12

Today is my FIRSTAVERSARY of posting Boy Genius. One Year Old today. I'm filled with pride and shame in equal measure. Thank you to everyone for sticking with it, for reading, for discovering it, for sharing it and for commenting.

I write without a plan. I create set ups and then worry about them when I came to them. I decided White was going to do slam poetry (spread widely in the 90s, PBS even did a multi-part "United States of Poetry" special about it). Originally a person-of-color cultural phenomenon (at places like the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe in NY), it had spread out to boring white suburbanites and it really was, like, rap for people with no rhythm.

White's "poem" is just a simple HTML demo document read aloud ending with the sound of a dial-up model. Aka, the most 1990s thing I could think of.

--

There was a much longer flashback here which lead to the medical exam flashback posted in the previous chapter. I did it out of order because I have no plan!

The main idea to convey is his mom got recruited to some secret government program and now as a double life that Li'l Billy is not even aware of. Or cares about, because he's a little shitty self-absorbed asshole kid.

Still haven't written any of the confrontation with Prof. Peebo. Maybe I never will. The thread will just get dropped, like the real Venture Bros show always does.

--

Add Korean and Russian to the list of languages Billy can't pronounce but tries anyway. I tried to find phrases that would be mangled by a lisp, rendering them "zchdraschtche" and "annyeonghascheyo"

Nigel is a pretty badly written character. He needs another draft. I've written him more like a guy pretending to be British than an actual Public School posh git. have a life-long stupid love for British comedy AND British politics, which I have awkwardly injected here.

William Hague got famous for addressing the Tory party conference when he was 16. Baby face, old man voice. By 1997 he was bald and leading the Tory party opposition against Tony Blair.

Mentioning supervillainy and "The Guild" is my only engagement with the larger Venture Bros universe. A little forced.

Baby speaking with a soundboard entirely inspired by BilliSpeaks on youtube. (The name "Jayden" didn't exist before 1992 and it was in the top ten baby names by 1998)

--

End on Pete wearing a dress. Why not? Something for the fangirls

But what else is in that bag? And why?

Save your eyes and read this on AO3.

on AO3 | Pro | Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 |Ch 4| Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 ...Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12

on AO3 | Pro | Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 |Ch 4| Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 ...Ch 10 | Ch 11 | Ch 12

Only a bit more story to go before the big finish. I hope. Maybe only a chapter or two more?

[satoshi-mochida]

Metaphor: ReFantazio director, character designer, and composer discuss ATLUS’ large-scale fantasy RPG

Gematsu Source

Publisher ATLUS and developer Studio Zero have released a 15-minute “Creator’s Message” video featuring comments from director Katsura Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima, and music composer Shoji Meguro on the newly announced fantasy RPG.

The studio has also officially released the multiplatform announcement trailer for the game, following an early release from SEGA Korea last week.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is due out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store in 2024.

Get the full staff comments video and the multiplatform version of the announcement trailer below. A transcript and archive of today’s “Metaphor: ReFantazio Announce Celebration Live Stream: The Stalker Club Returns!” follow.

Multiplatform Announce Trailer

Japanese

Creator’s Message

English

Japanese

Message From Katsura Hashino

Katsura Hashino, Director: “Although it’s taken quite some time, we’re excited to share something tangible for PROJECT Re FANTASY, a project we announced a while back now. Following the worldwide success of Persona 5, I think many people think of either Shin Megami Tensei or Persona when they think of the two largest RPG franchises by ATLUS. With this game, we wanted to build a third pillar for the studio, by crafting a large-scale, epic fantasy RPG, something we’ve never done before.

“Actually, the reason ATLUS always focused on modern storytelling is because we always felt there were plenty of fantasy RPGs in the world, whereas contemporary RPGs always felt less common. At this time, that was our way of going against mainstream trends, and defining our unique perspective and voice as a studio. Given that, when we revisited the idea of a traditional high fantasy game, we had to rethink how we could make this different from other RPGs out there while still capturing fundamental—and this is the really difficulty part—about what fantasies really mean for all of us. Thinking about these questions and how we can capture them in a game is ultimately what drove the development of Metaphor: ReFantazio.”

What meaning does the word Metaphor signify?

Hashino: “So metaphors are obviously speculative in nature, and the word itself alludes to the hidden meaning of things. We’ve told many contemporary stories in our games until now. There’s plenty of fantasy franchises and RPGs around us, right? When I think about the themes explored in past Shin Megami Tensei or Persona games, the stories always a tie back to how people should live their lives, in the present day, and that was an idea we really wanted to capture here, too. So, rather unabashedly, we decided on Metaphor as the title for this game.”

What does a true fantasy world look like?

Hashino: “So, there was actually a time early on in development when we had to ask ourselves ‘what even are fantasy stories?’ Back then, I had read lots of books that explored these fundamental questions, but one explanation really stood out to me. It said, ‘Fantasy does more than immerse us in empty worlds of fiction. They exist because there’s something about our world we want to change, and they help us reimagine something new.’

“I was really moved by this explanation, and thought maybe with that angle, we can make a fantasy RPG that fits ATLUS’ style. That basic concept helped guide all our decisions, from story, to what characters should appear, what powers they should have, and how should they fight, even things like what the final climax should be. It gave us a lot of clarity, and we tried to capture all of it within the game, too.”

Tell us about the game’s world.

Hashino: “We originally developed the game in a more Western, medieval setting, but quickly realized it was turning into a rather conventional fantasy game. To give it a more unique twist, we thought about the modern world, and elements that we could bring into this fantasy setting, so that there’s an underlying feeling of connection between the two worlds. Whether it’s in the narrative structure, or some of the game’s gimmicks, we tried to incorporate this concept as a key essence and characteristic of the game’s universe.”

What message did you want to convey through this fantasy RPG?

Hashino: “Throughout my time at ATLUS making RPGs, we’ve always thought about the core themes of each game as the foundation of everything, but one key phrase for Metaphor: ReFantazio is ‘facing your fear.’ Ever since we were primates, humans have always grappled with fear as a fundamental part of our shared experience. Depending on the person, fear can either paralyze somebody or maybe even cause their decline, but it can also propel people forward at times, too. It’s a very fundamental emotion we experience as humans, and depending on how we view it, it can push us to somewhere outside of our comfort zones. That’s a key concept we try to explore in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

“‘Fear’ may sound like a simple theme, but because it’s so simple, we hope people don’t walk away thinking, ‘That was a fun, momentary escape. Now back to reality, where nothing has changed.’ Rather, we genuinely want people to feel something about their life, maybe even feel encouraged, or empowered, through playing this game. That way, the experience is rich and meaningful, even as entertainment, and we aren’t compromising ATLUS’ philosophy towards RPGs, and we’re still providing something new and enjoyable to our fans. That was really the end goal for us.”

Message From Shigenori Soejima

Shigenori Soejima, Character Designer: “With this protagonist, there was a feeling of wanting to depict somebody we haven’t been able to in our past games, because of their modern settings. Overall, we wanted an androgynous and heroic protagonist—someone who looks like they’re about to change the world—with a design that emphasizes their firm, resolute gaze.

“Another important character is Gallica, a fairy who accompanies the protagonist. Although she’s classically fantastical in many ways—and that was her core concept during development, too—in terms of actual character design, we gave her a more modern aesthetic. Once we figured out how Gallica looks, it actually informed how all the other characters should look and feel, too. Although we still had to do a lot of exploring, Gallica certainly gave us that initial creative momentum to smoothly continue the design process for all the other characters.”

Establishing a New ATLUS Style

Soejima: “Of course, when it comes to conventional fantasy elements, there was definitive a desire to incorporate as much of those as we can. But we also didn’t want to be beholden to existing design conventions, either. And we realized midway that doing so would only stifle our own creativity. So, during that ideation phase, we really had to reimagine the fantasy genre from the ground up. ‘What feels right and natural to us?’ ‘What has our creative style been in the past?’ Throughout those discussions, I regained a sense of where we wanted to go, and how we wanted to reflect those ideas into the game.

“Even when it comes to what a character is wearing, ‘Rather than recreating a traditional, medieval look, maybe we could incorporate modern elements?’ ‘Perhaps there are some fashion trends from the 60s that could actually blend well into this fantasy world, too?’ ‘And help give it its unique style?’ Those were some of the ideas we experimented with.

“One thing I think that immediately stands out about this game is how the background feels very painterly. The core reason we did this is because we wanted to really capture the fantastical nature of this world. But how do we balance that with these unconventional character designs? That was something we put a lot of thought into, and we hope it shines through in the final work.”

Do you have a message for ATLUS and RPG fans?

Soejima: “‘What core aspects of our games should we safeguard as our creative identity?’ ‘How do we balance that with newer expectations people might have towards us?’ This was a game where I had to think deeply about these questions. In terms of design, I actually feel that our creative identity as ATLUS has already been articulated by our fans, through the Persona series. Things like the stylishness of the user interface menus, as well as our character models—in our past games, our fans have thought highly of these elements, and we definitely wanted to live up to those expectations this time around, too.

“The things that excite our fans when they hear ‘fantasy’ excite us, too, so we’ve tried to incorporate as much of those as we can. As a result, we think the core ATLUS charm is still there, while still meeting any new expectations people might have, and we think all of these are coming together really well in the final game, so please look forward to finding out more!”

Message From Shoji Meguro

Shoji Meguro, Music Composer: “When I was first told about Metaphor: ReFantazio, I was told it would be an epic high fantasy RPG. Immediately, I heard the sound of grand orchestras playing, and thought this might be an opportunity to write songs I’ve never really written before. But there was a feeling of apprehension, too, because I knew simply throwing in an orchestra wouldn’t cut it for ATLUS. But in the end, I’d say my feeling of excitement still won over.”

How did you express this game’s world through music?

Meguro: “The core concept of the scoring is ‘music used in religion.’ How can we fuse that with a traditional RPG? And how can we give that a unique twist that people expect from ATLUS games? ‘A spiritual music style, that also evokes a classical, fantasy feel.’ That was the main concept we tried to experiment with.

“Following this concept of spiritual music, we’ve woven in scores inspired by hymns, as well as Buddhist prayers—not rap, by the way—and we feel all these elements help define ATLUS’ distinct interpretation of what a classic fantasy score could sound like. This was a key concept we tried to push to its limit.”

The Effect and Purpose of Game Music

Meguro: “I’ve always felt that game scores are something that exist somewhere between the player and the world they’re experiencing on the other side of the screen. Although the score has to capture the atmosphere of the story for the user, it’s worth reminding ourselves that this music is not actually playing directly within the world the characters are in. In that sense, I’ve always considered game scores to be similar to user interface elements, constructs that exist solely to service the player. However, speaking with Hashino-san, we thought about how the music playing in the background could also link back to the ‘music’ the characters are experiencing in their minds, within that world. I think some of these interesting thought experiments helped us approach the music composition through a different lens.”

Do you have a message for ATLUS and RPG fans?

Meguro: “Although the game is still in development, and we’re working hard to polish everything we need to, we think this RPG represents the best of ATLUS. We’re working very hard to live up to the faith our fans have in us. To everybody looking forward to experiencing this game, I hope you enjoy the amalgamation of my hard work.”

Closing Message From Hashino

Hashino: “Metaphor: ReFantazio is launching in 2024. As we continue to polish the game, we’ll continue to reveal new information. Please look forward to hearing more from us! Thank you for your time!”

“Metaphor: ReFantazio Announce Celebration Live Stream: The Stalker Club Returns!” Archive 

Metaphor: ReFantazio Announcement Special Live Stream

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #118 (Year 3/Week 14):

My 3rd re-watch of Lawrence of Arabia, David Lean’s magnificent, all-male epic and the movie that Steven Spielberg had seen more than any other film. It’s so grand that the nearly 4 hours spectacle opens with 4+ minutes of orchestral music prelude on a dark screen and includes an ‘intermission’.

It got me to realize that most all movies (maybe because of the economics of movie-financing) always show deference to authority; The influences they represent, whether government, military, religion, civil powers, or simply ‘the big man’, the rulers are always accepted as masters.

🍿  

The Garden of Words, my second anime ever, and coincidentally also my second by Makoto Shinkai (After ‘Your name’). A melancholy and poetic story about a 15-year-old aspiring shoe-maker student who keeps meeting a woman skipping work on a park bench at the beautiful Shinjuku Gyo-en gardens during the raining season. Gorgeous visuals of nature and rain.

The Wikipedia page for this film is nearly as long as the one for Obama!

🍿

3 more terrific debut films by young female directors:

🍿 For some unclear reasons, I’ve seen a large number of Parisian high school dramas recently. Spring blossom is one of the best. A gentle drama of a shy 16 year old girl who falls in love with a 35 man she sees outside a local theater.

And like Quinn Shephard’s ‘Blame’, it’s twice as impressive, because it was written by the talented Suzanne Lindon when she was only 15, and she directed it and starred in it before she was 20. Je l'adore! 8/10.

🍿 The Hive, my first film from Kosovo. Another on my growing list of “Debut films directed by female filmmakers”. The “first film in Sundance Festival history to win all three main awards – the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award – in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition”. Based on a true story, it tells simply but touchingly about a war widow who started a small business, making homemade Ajvar and empowering the women in her village. Highly recommended. 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And of course, reminiscent of the Macedonian documentary ‘Honeyland’. 8/10.

🍿 Rye Lane, a cute new rom-com about two young black South London strangers who meet at random and spend the day getting to know each other. Fresh and original.

🍿  

My 7th by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. Every time I watch another of his movies, I get elated. There is nobody who make movies like him, he’s one of a kind. The man without a past, the second of his “Losers” trilogy, opens with a cinematic gut pinch and doesn’t let go until the end. My favorite of all his films so far?...

The trailer. 9/10.

🍿    

The Hollywood Reporter Critics put out a new list of their ‘50 best films of the first 21 years of the 21st century’, and I decided to go through the ones I haven’t seen yet.

First was Far from Heaven, my 4th tragedy by Todd Haynes. A precursor to his masterful ‘Carol’, this is another Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama of oppression and unrequited desire in middle class America of the mid 50′s. Drenched in luminous colors over all (except of the scenes of illicit dangers, in the gay bar and black cafe), and accompanied by another expansive score, it’s a devastating tale of the price of conformity. The husband who can’t control his homosexual urges, and the wife who falls for a black gardener are doomed, and their lives will be shattered. The poor players had simply nowhere to go. 8/10.

🍿 

‘Today I learned’ about ‘Elite Panic’ describing the “behavior of members of the elite during disaster events, typically characterized by a fear of civil disorder” and the shifting of focus away from disaster relief towards implementing measures of "command and control".

New order, my third memorable film by Mexican auteur Michel Franco (after the terrific ‘Sundown’ and the disturbing ‘April’s daughter’) describes a society collapsing, the exact moment when the shit finally hits the fan, when the riots on the TV screen cross over and knock on your door. It’s a brutal and unforgiving story, ugly, violent and without any sentimental sympathy. Shocking anarchy escalates quickly when the pressure gets too much.

When the revolution comes down, it will bring some serious bloodshed. No wonder the greatest boogieman the ruling class warns us all about is “Class Warfare”. The most distressing film of the week - 9/10!

🍿  

To catch a thief, Hitchock’s romantic thriller. The Good: Grace Kelly on the French Riviera, the ultimate glamour of the lifestyles of the rich and famous at Cannes and Nice, Hitchcock’s first (?) use of helicopter shots and modern car chases. The Bad: The genre roles & sexual politics of the husband-seeking unmarried young woman would not fly today.

I watched it solely because of this clip.

🍿 

2 with Brigitte Fossey (of ‘Jeux interdits’):

🍿 “...The square is mine!...”

I forgot that she played the grown-up Elena in Cinema Paradiso, one of Ennio Morricone’s most popular movies. And yes, without his magnificent score, the 3-hour long nostalgic trip to the heart of cinema, would not be half as enjoyable.

The question that was not well-answered was: Why did he not bother to visit his mother for 30 year? (Re-watch).

🍿 The happy road, a mediocre 1957 children comedy about 10 year old American boy and French girl, who escape from a Swiss boarding school, and hitchhike to Paris. Directed by and starring Gene Kelly, falling for the girl’s mother. 3/10.

🍿    

Inside, the new Willem Defoe survival thriller. He’s an art thief who breaks into a hi-end NYC penthouse of a wealthy art collector, intending to steal 3 paintings by Egon Schiele. But the security system traps him inside, and he’s unable to escape for many months. Captivating hi-concept and one-trick film, but a bit too long. 6/10.

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...”Never forget how much he loved you, Kubo”...

After being seriously obsessed with everything ‘Coraline’ all of last year, Adora moved on to Laika Studio’s next stop-motion animated story Kubo and the two strings. A Japanese-inspired action story about a one-eyed Samurai son who creates magical origami figures from his 3-stringed shamisen. But it was as if all the pretty parts were combined by an AI-engine. 4/10.

I will introduce her next to ‘The Iron Giant’, and ‘Isle of dogs’.

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First watch: The green room, one of the last few François Truffaut films I haven’t seen yet. In it, he plays a somber 1920′s journalist obsessed with death who builds a shrine to everybody he had lost. I love his human directing style, but this was a confusing mess. 2/10

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RIP, Ryuichi Sakamoto X 2:

🍿 In remembrance of his passing I started re-watching Bertolucci’s ‘The Last Emperor’, but to be honest, I got bored after 30 minutes; I blame the less than HD version of my pirated copy. So maybe I’ll try it another time.

Instead, I went back to my of favorite ‘Black Mirror' episodes, and the only one he composed the score for, Smithereens. It was directed by the same man who did my other cherished story ‘Hated in the nation’, and was also about online media frenzy that spirals out of control. This ‘Tyranny of the Screens’ parable received mixed reviews, because it wasn’t futuristic enough, but for my money it is a tense thriller on par with the best of them. 10/10.

Sakamoto’s dark score is subtle and minimal. You have to strain to notice it. Perfect!

...”This is my last day!”...

🍿 Psychedelic Afternoon, a 2013 animated short, featuring David Byrne, and released to raise money for children who survived the 2011 tsunami.

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‘Mad men’ is one of the few TV-shows I've seen, and I’ve seen it 3 or 4 times (including once last year). “Hazel” of YouTube ‘Dream Dimension Productions’ analyzes one “Perfect Scene” from Season 3 finale “Shut the door, have a seat”.

A terrific breakdown, which got me to watch it again, together with a few more.

Extra: Her ‘Netflix has a content problem’, which I also agree with, as I was attempting to avoid 90% of all their content.  

🍿   Talk to her, my 3rd unsatisfying film by Pedro Almodóvar (after ‘All about my mother’ and ‘The human voice’). A twisted story about two unappealing men who befriend each other at a clinic where they both care for comatose women. His editing choices and scattered direction, constantly focusing on unrelated detail in every scene turned me off. Some artistic perversions (like a silent film clip of a tiny man entering a giant vagina) notwithstanding. I guess I’m not a fan. 4/10.

🍿   2 more by Noah Baumbach (both with Adam Driver):

🍿 The last film I saw this week was also the best one:

I started watching the new Adam Driver dinosaur fantasy ‘65′. but it felt so stupid the moment Adam Driver opened his mouth, that I had to switch it off within 5 minutes. Instead, I turn to Marriage Story again. An absolute masterpiece, so painful and so true, for all divorced couples and parents of children of divorce. (That 10 minutes long scene at the apartment was raw! - Screenshot Above). 10/10 deservedly and without any reservations. 

(And now I must see ‘Two for the road’!)

🍿 (Actually, I ended up with his uneven While we’re young, which didn’t measure up to that. The milieu of hipster millennial poseurs and Brooklyn wannabe documentary filmmakers was uninteresting, and I also can’t stand Ben Stiller.)

Still I will look for the rest of his movies I had missed.

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(My complete movie list is here)