#read barcodes in cloud

[talkingbl]

Thai BL Companies: A Brief Guide

My guide to the major Thai BL companies for the BL newbie. I've not included defunct companies (Nadao Bangkok, Studio Wabi Sabi), companies that produce BLs but don't sign actors or companies I'm not as familiar with (Copy A Bangkok, Dee Hup House, iQiyi).

Be On Cloud (BOC)

Production Value: A- | Talent: B+ | Story Variety: C | Writing: B

Notable Series: KinnPorsche (2022), The Hidden Character (2023 Reality TV Series), Dead Friend Forever (2023), 4Minutes (2024)

Notable Actors: Apo Nattawin, Bas Asavapatr, Bible Wichapas, Fuaiz Thanawat, Jes Jespipat, Mile Phakphum

My Thoughts: As a heads up, I did not finish Dead Friend Forever ("DFF"), so please take this into account when reading my thoughts below.

BOC is the place to go for decently high production values, heavier themes, and acting that's a slight cut above the rest. BOC will bring lots of action and sex, with stories that tend to explore the more base sides of humanity.

The company's flagship series, KinnPorsche, is often cited as a good starting point into Thai BL for the average joe, however, I actually think 4Minutes is a better starting point as it takes all of the better qualities of BOC and leaves out the camp you get with KinnPorsche, which I believe is more of an acquired taste for folks who are new to Thai BL. I also think that KinnPorsche, while decent for a first production for a company, has lots of questionable directing/acting/and even writing choices that are largely eliminated in 4Minutes.

To me, the biggest issue for BOC from an artistic standpoint is the way some of their series tend to meander for awhile before getting to the point. KinnPorsche suffers from this in the middle of the series, and DFF also has this problem after the first 2 or 3 episodes. 4Minutes has sort of the opposite problem where it moves a little too quickly because of its short 8-episode run. Still, BOC's storytelling is made more interesting because of the subject matter of its series (KinnPorsche's mafia-bodyguard trope, DFF's...whatever the fuck they were doing in that scary ass show..., 4Minutes' psychological-sci-fi thriller elements).

Business-wise, BOC is a bit controversial to say the least. Their talent pool has been a bit of a mess what with Build Jakapan being forced out after being outed as the worst type of asshole and Barcode Tinnasit leaving for somewhat mysterious reasons, some of the company's key writers and producers turning out to be on a constant power trip, and even controversies surrounding the talent that haven't even had their first roles yet.

Additionally, their promotion tactics have likewise been polarizing. While they don't go full-throttle with their shipped-pair promotions, they do put on these elaborate events complete with fansigns, meet and greets, actor performances, etc. At first, it was a little flimsy (KinnPorsche cast humping the air and singing offkey in front of thousands of people), but I do think it's improving (4Minutes cast actually getting into character to perform songs (still offkey) like a stage musical of sorts, instead of singing/dancing as themselves). So, if you're wanting to get into Thai BL fandom culture, I'd say BOC has more opportunities for you to be part of that community in a way that doesn't ship you straight into delulu land.

Lastly, while I think BOC has a bright future ahead given the success of literally everything they do, I feel like a lot will ride on if they're able to keep Jes Jespipat (who was a known actor in the Thai lakorn scene before joining BOC) and attract more big-name talent. Barcode jumping over to GMMTV after alluding that he didn't want to be signed to a company again after leaving BOC is a bit of a bad look to me and I can imagine other industry talent is keeping an eye on things like that.

Change2561 (Change)

Production Value: C | Talent: C | Story Variety: B- | Writing: C

Notable Series: PitBabe (2023), This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (2024)

Notable Actors: Nut Supanut, Pavel Naret, Pooh Krittin, Pon Thanapon, Sailub Hemmawich

My Thoughts: Before you read the below, I've only watched about half of PitBabe and clips of This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans ("TLDHLB"), so many of my thoughts are colored by brief experiences.

Change is one of the newer companies to pop up on the Thai Queer Love scene. So far, their productions have been received relatively well and their upcoming series have garnered overwhelming support. Because Change is so new and both of their leading BL productions are so different, it's difficult to really point in the direction of a true identity. That said, there is an inkling that Change will be more of a novel adaptation company rather than an original content company. Additionally, Change has adapted/is adapting books that have hooks to them (Pitbabe with the omegaverse theme, their upcoming series The Most Beautiful Count and its strong identity/politics themes, etc.).

I can't really recommend a series for Change since I haven't finished the ones I've started from the company. I do think that Pitbabe is much riskier than TLDHLB, given that it does have an omegaverse element and it switches the typical seme/uke dynamic on its head.

Artistically, Change's direction looks promising, but I do warn that, likely because the company is so new, the talent pool is a bit shallow (same few actors star in each series) and the production quality varies drastically from work to work.

Business-wise, Change seems to be doing the typical Thai BL promotion tactics of fansigns, brand events, and social media fanservice, with their pairs having slightly more distance between them than shipped pairs from other companies.

Overall, I think if Change delivers on the lineup it announced in 2024, it has the potential to shake up the top players in the industry.

Domundi/Mandee (DMD)

Production Value: B+ | Talent: C | Story Variety: B | Writing: C

Notable Series: Why R U? (2020), Cutie Pie (2022), DMD Friendship The Reality (2023-, Reality TV Series), Bed Friend (2023), Your Sky (2024)

Notable Actors: Kong Kongpob, Max Kornthas, Nat Natasit, Nunew Chawarin, Thomas Teetut, Zee Pruk

My Thoughts: Warning that I have never finished a DMD show lmao (but Your Sky looks promising).

Ah, DMD...the long-touted GMMTV dethroner. DMD is a go-to for slice-of-life series that have NC elements but not at the level of BOC. Most of the series produced at DMD are straight up romantic comedies with no other themes explored at all. But within the romantic comedy genre, DMD series explore many common romance tropes (Cutie Pie with arranged marriage trope, Bed Friend with enemies to lovers trope, Your Sky with fake dating trope, etc.). Even with its upcoming series like The Next Prince and Love Upon A Time, we're getting a european royalty AU and period piece. It's truly like if AO3 had its own BL production company.

The company's flagship series is probably Cutie Pie. Though some might argue Why R U? put DMD/Mandee on the map (a la SOTUS and GMMTV). But, really, Cutie Pie was like the 2gether of DMD. It launched the company and its shipped pair, ZeeNunew, into the GMMTV-competitor conversation. That said, Your Sky is the best show I've seen from DMD and it's not even finished yet lol.

Artistically, DMD suffers from incoherent storytelling and mid-acting syndrome. Like Cutie Pie started off okay but I couldn't move past the terribly uninspired acting and all over the place plot. That said, a lot of their actors fit perfectly into established character tropes (tall/older confident and masculine seme/top, shorter/younger shy and feminine uke/bottom), which I think is a huge draw for lots of people. This is not something that affects my viewing experience, however, so I don't count this as a plus.

Business-wise DMD is a shipper's paradise. A lot of the shipped pairs act like real couples even outside of their shows, with some even being suspected of actually dating. They have all the typical shipped pair events but combine it with content out of the ass of the actors flirting, etc. DMD actors seem to have a much more international reach than, say, Idol Factory actors. While both have similar outreach in Asia, I think DMD tries to get their actors and works in western markets, which is a huge plus for western BL newbies. Additionally, DMD actors tend to not really be actors... I mean, they act, but most of them actually want to sing (and some can). This means that shipped couple birthday events are just concerts, fansigns are just concerts, extra video content is just music videos, etc. So, you will not run out of opportunities to see your favorite actors in the flesh in a manner that's (arguably) worth the money if you go down the DMD actor stan rabbithole.

Still, DMD is slightly controversial with allegations of sexism from its actors (stemming from a video released some years ago) and inappropriate pairings. With the rising conversations surrounding age gaps in pairings lately, DMD has come under fire for MaxNat in particular. For those who don't know, Max and Nat have been paired together since Nat was 17 (Max was 26 at that time). Though they were first paired before joining DMD, so most of their critics don't call out DMD for that. Still, some feel that even though Nat is now 22, DMD is wrong for keeping him in a pair with an actor 9 years his senior. The conversation is similar with ZeeNunew. Zee has been under particular scrutiny because of a comment he made about wanting to be paired with Nunew since Nunew first joined DMD at age 19 (Zee would've been 28 at the time).

Personally, I think DMD can't be blamed from MaxNat's pairing before they joined DMD. I also don't think it was necessarily wrong to keep them paired after they joined since, by then, Nat was a grown man. While MaxNat are not my cup of tea, at this point, Nat is 22, and I'm not in the business of trying to tell a grown man what to do with his career. Same with ZeeNunew. I like Nunew a lot and feel he is one of the most talented singers who also acts in BLs. But I never felt like he was showing signs of being exploited. At this point, as long as Nat and Nunew feel safe, that's all that matters to me. Additionally, new DMD pairings do not have these problems, so it's hard for me to call it a company issue.

Ultimately, DMD will likely continue to be successful for as long as ZeeNunew have stans lmao. But, on a serious note, I think the smartest thing this company ever did was DMD Friendship The Reality because it was a great way to introduce fans to new acting talent, build fanbases for the shipped pairs that came out of the show, and get money in the process. Now, ZeeNunew and MaxNat have pairs like ThomasKong and KengNamping who have skyrocketed in popularity to pass the torch to.

GMMTV

Production Value: B- | Talent: B+ | Story Variety: A | Writing: B-

Notable Series: SOTUS (2016), The Gifted (2018), Dark Blue Kiss (2019), Theory of Love (2019), 2gether (2020), A Tale of a Thousand Stars (2021), Not Me (2021), Bad Buddy (2021), My School President (2022), Only Friends (2023), High School Frenemy (2024)

Notable Actors: Barcode Tinnasit, Est Supha, First Kanaphan, Fourth Nattawat, Gun Atthaphan, Inn Sarin, Jennie Panhan, Krist Perawat, Mark Pakin, Mix Sahaphap, Nani Hirunkit, Ohm Pawat, Perth Thanapon, Sky Wongravee, Tay Tawan, Tu Tontawan, William Jakarapatr, Win Metawin

My Thoughts: GMMTV is probably the most prolific production company in Thailand when it comes to producing BL series. They have the most series, the most actors, the most events, the most money, etc. The company's identity is rooted in the schoolboy BL. Regardless of if we're talking high school boys or university men, get used to Thai uniforms if you're going to watch damn near any GMMTV BL produced before 2021, thanks to the SOTUS effect. It's not until the company enters the BL stratosphere in 2020 that we start getting a significant uptick in BLs that don't revolve around doing everything in a school building except learning.

Beyond the school settings, GMMTV is known for romantic comedies, slice of life stories, camp elements, terrible audio quality, empty sets, and 'we definitely shot this on a $2 budget' aesthetics. In fact, it wasn't until about 2021 that GMMTV production quality shot up after the explosion in popularity of 2gether. Suddenly, post-2020, Never Let Me Go was being shot in 4K, ThamePo had boom mics that worked and not just wireless mics that brushed up against the actors' clothes and picked up every sound but the actors' voices, and Sky Wongravee was signing to this broke ass company!!! And at this point, GMMTV's identity is less in its art and more in its business.

But first, the art. GMMTV, by far, has the most variety in its BL lineup. And while they don't push the envelope as much as, say, BOC, they're starting to add in mature themes at a reasonable pace. GMMTV's talent pool has shifted dramatically with so many basement dwellers leaving and very well-known actors signing (Sky, Barcode, Boun, Prem, etc.). This means that while you will occasionally see some of the most struggle acting you've ever seen from Dunk Natachai (love u, Dunk), you will see some of the most moving performances from your Gun Atthaphans. It's honestly a somewhat strange thing to experience in real-time.

Additionally, GMMTV's stories are largely adaptations of popular Thai and Japanese works (think SOTUS, Cherry Magic TH, etc.). But occasionally you will get original series that hit just right (Moonlight Chicken).

Artistically, the biggest issues with GMMTV include the weakest actors getting the most work and the most interesting stories, the inconsistent production quality, the clear favoritism, the focus on money over art, the way many of the most popular pairs clearly hate kissing boys lmfao, and, most starkly, the episode 5 drop off.

The episode 5 drop off is a series KILLER. What this refers to is how GMMTV series are almost always good, sometimes even GREAT for the first 4ish episodes. But by the time episode 5/6 comes around (or whenever the couple actually gets together in the series), we go from really good storytelling to leaning on the shittiest cliches you can imagine, the characters becoming straight up stupid, or random things happening for literally no reason with no context at all and a resolution that comes out of actual nowhere. Like there will legit be episodes of a series where one of our leading men gets shot or hit by a car or whatever, his boyfriend is like super scared and worried he's going to die and it's this big traumatic event. No less than 15 minutes later and it's like nothing happened. The shooting/car accident was literally just there to artificially raise the stakes and waste your damn time. This happens in almost EVERY GMMTV BL. Either that or the characters fake-out kiss like 30 times after they get together until there's 2 minutes left in the season finale when they finally kiss.

Regarding the other points, for example, the company treats Gen 2 (in particular, JoongDunk, PondPhuwin, ForceBook) like they are untouchable gods despite most of the talent residing with the pillars, company-switchers, het series actors, and even Gen 3 actors. Don't get me wrong, I understand those 3 pairs are stan attractors, but I feel like GMMTV is not taken super seriously as a company because the actors in these pairs get like 2-3 series per year while some of the company's best actors don't see the light of day.

Business-wise, if you're a kpop or jpop fan or otherwise into idol culture, GMMTV is probably the most comfortable transition for you. GMMTV treats its "artists" like idols (complete with "triple threat" allegations (LMFAO)); every actor getting their own song that they also struggle to dance to; every pair getting their own official mascot, logo, fandom name, and lightstick; concerts; shipped pair reality shows; etc. Hell, even the non-BL pairs get some of these things so long as they look good together and have chemistry (looking at you, Sky-Nani imina). It's like a fanservice paradise over there (except it's not billed as the pairs are actually dating, but that they're all in the will they-won't they, phi-nong, more than friends but less than lovers, stage). And if you pay close enough attention to the GMMTV pairs, you will notice common trends of how they interact/promote that will quickly unravel any delulu thoughts that you might have at the outset of seeing them together.

But to me, the best parts about GMMTV's business strategy, however, are their international focus and the novelty in their company promotions.

As for their international focus, most of their content is freely available on YouTube and subbed in English. Many of their artists are bilingual. And they're starting to produce events overseas at a high clip (e.g., TayNew recently in Rome, JimmySea in LA last year, GMMTV Fan Fest 2025 in Japan, etc.).

Novelty-wise, they've got several things going for them. They're the ones that started the annual lineup shows where they drop trailers for series coming out in the next year, have performances from their in-house T-Pop groups, and interview the casts and crews of upcoming series. They also have unique events like GMMTV Starlympics (if you're a kpop fan, it's like ISAC but only one company's idols participate against each other and there's musical performances), and GMMTV Company Outing (which is their annual company trip and isn't officially televised, but the artists and their managers always upload videos in real time of the shenanigans that occur at these outings). GMMTV even spearheaded the shipped-pair variety show content mill with mainstay pairs getting their own shows themed after either the actors' names (think EarthMix Space) or their interests (think TayNew Meal Date). These are all pioneering promotional tactics that make GMMTV series and shipped pairs even more entertaining.

Besides the money-making genius at GMMTV, however, there have been so many scandals with this company's actors it's hard to keep track. Everything from misogyny allegations, to homophobia, to people criticizing them for largely platforming straight-presenting (?) actors over out actors, to racism, to abuse (Pawin Thanik, Foei Pattara), to inappropriate behavior with children (think Prom Teepakron), etc.

Despite the scandals above, GMMTV is going nowhere. Having so many artists signed to one company, content where there's something for everyone, and an international focus with a parasocial lens is helping GMMTV maintain its status as the premier producer of BL content in Thailand.

Idol Factory (IDF)

Production Value: A- | Talent: B- | Story Variety: B- | Writing: B

Notable Series: Secret Crush on You (2022), GAP (2022), The Sign (2024)

Notable Actors: Babe Tanatat, Becky Rebecca, Freen Sarocha

My Thoughts: Disclaimer: I've only watched Secret Crush on You (SCOY) from Idol Factory.

IDF is the first company to be spearheaded by a former BL actor (Saint Suppapong). It's a newer company with an uncertain identity as of yet (though, I'd say that they're wanting to be known as an all-things queer love (QL) company rather than one focused on BLs or het dramas).

I don't have much to say about IDF artistically except that it's being well-received by BL audiences. Most of the people who like their dramas like the chemistry between the shipped pairs as well as how seriously the company takes queer stories. At IDF, you'll not only find BLs and GLs, but also stories involving trans characters seeking acceptance (see SCOY), for example.

Business-wise, there's a risk here. While the pairs in these shows are lauded for their chemistry, there's not a lot of variety and some pairs have been entrenched in controversy regarding their offscreen activities. Personally, I don't agree with all the folks making a big deal out of some of the actors dating each other in heterosexual relationships. I just hope it doesn't affect IDF's ability to thrive as a company since they're one of the few taking real chances in their content. Additionally, it's not lost on me that more of their stans hate the fact that the actors are in straight relationships than the fact that Billy Patchanon (leading man in The Sign and SCOY) unabashedly said the n-word...

I think that if IDF can expand its talent pool, it'll continue to find success in the BL world.

Jinloe

Production Value: F | Talent: C | Story Variety: D | Writing: F

Notable Series: Hit, Bite, Love (2023), Addicted Heroin TH (2024)

Notable Actors: August Vachiravit, Jur Vasin, Newyear Nawaphat

My Thoughts: Didn't watch Hit, Bite, Love (HBL) (actually dropped the trailer like 2 seconds in lmao) nor did I have any interest in Addicted Heroin TH (though I've seen many clips on the internet).

Jinloe should probably close and all its actors sign to Tia51. Their company identity is making people as uncomfortable as humanly possible by casting children to do questionable things on TV. I don't think that company is a safe place for kids and I think the content they produce is targeted toward...a specific kind of reprehensible person. If you want to see what I mean, just take a gander at the MDL pages for HBL and Addicted Heroin TH.

I can't really speak on their art because I don't watch their shows.

Business-wise, they seem to make dumb decision after dumb decision. From casting a 15 year old to play the love interest of a 27 year old, to NC scenes involving minors, to not even attempting to build out their repertoire of dramas, this company has no vision nor any direction. They're trying to market NewyearJur as a shipped pair with music videos together and social media posts (since those two are the only ones who seemingly have age-appropriate interactions in Jinloe series), but it's all failing miserably since: 1) people familiar with Jinloe's shady business run when they see that name; 2) neither Jur nor Newyear are particularly talented in a sea of similarly-aged actors actually showing potential; and 3) neither Jur nor Newyear have the clout of others in their age range since they started with Jinloe (as opposed to, say, Mick Metas at GMMTV who got clout from being related to Win Metawin).

Jinloe will probably be the next company to close but I also don't doubt that creeps will keep them open.

MeMindY

Production Value: D | Talent: C | Story Variety: D- | Writing: D

Notable Series: Love By Chance (2018), TharnType (2019), Don't Say No (2021), Love In The Air (2022), Love Sea (2024)

Notable Actors: Boss Chaikamon, Fort Thitipong, Noeul Nuttarat, Peat Wasuthorn

My Thoughts: MeMindY is known for its CEO (?), Mame. Anyone who is familiar with Mame's work knows they're going to get dicey romance stories often centering around university students with at least one scene of romanticized abuse for good measure. Now, I do think the abuse stuff is changing (Love In The Air (LITA) didn't really have any of that), but I can understand why MeMindY has that reputation. Either way, every MeMindY show will have engineering/med school/architecture/some other type of professional school students, actors folks consider conventionally attractive, reluctant bottoms that don't know they're gay, somewhat aggressive tops who are always physically bigger than the bottoms, strict heteronormative dynamics, and sometimes literally insane plot elements (like the Tor plotline that came up in TharnType (TTTS))...

Artistically, MeMindY needs to take a step away from university BLs. While TTTS and LITA kept my interest for a bit, I do think Don't Say No (DSN) felt a bit stale. But I'd say it's likely because DSN didn't have the best acting and its episodic structure made it difficult for me to connect with the underlying story. Particularly, the episodic structure in DSN didn't work as well as it does in GMMTV's ThamePo. Still, I appreciate the fact that MeMindY picks actors that do not seem bothered at all about kissing and portraying sex with other men. It's what makes MeMindY series more dynamic than series from other companies despite the laundry list of issues they tend to have.

Business-wise, MeMindY leans HEAVILY into the shipped-pair dynamic. It's less commercial than GMMTV and, these days, less 'we're actually dating' than DMD, but somehow it comes off as just as in-your-face as DMD and GMMTV. I'd even say that I consider MeMindY a peer company to DMD and GMMTV based on the popularity of its shipped pairs alone. Like MewGulf (RIP), BossNoeul, and FortPeat are all booked and busy. MewGulf did for Mew Suppasit and Gulf Kanawut what BrightWin did for Bright Vachirawit and Win Metawin. Mew and Gulf never have to act in BLs ever again to have success and can solely focus on their het careers and terrible singing. I'd even go as far as to say MewGulf is often considered the blueprint for what a shipped couple can be with folks (not me--zonzons leave me alone) often comparing ZeeNunew and the like to MewGulf. BossNoeul is similar to a JoongDunk/PondPhuwin level of noteriety without nearly the same level of dramas to their name, which speaks volumes.

Because MeMindY can produce 1-2 series per year with the same 4 actors and have people shipping them to the high heavens, I think we can consider it an established company that will continue to thrive barring bankruptcy lol.

Open Label

Production Value: C- | Talent: B | Story Variety: -- | Writing: B

Notable Series: Century of Love (2024)

Notable Actors: Daou Pittaya, Offroad Kantapon

My Thoughts: Open Label is the new company on the block. From my understanding, Daou and Offroad actually formed the company themselves (a la YinWar with YWPB or Saint with IDF). Open Label does not have an established identity because they've produced approximately one show. BUT, they did tell us about DaouOffroad's new series The Wicked Game, which looks to be a bodyguard romance that takes on some of the more mature themes we typically see at BOC.

Artistically, all I can say is that they're off to a great start with story selection. Century of Love (COL) was a good first entry as it has a fantasy/supernatural element that blends Thai folklore and religious practices with its romance. There's also the level of comfortability and chemistry between its key actors (Daou and Offroad) that is hard to come by. Hopefully as the company produces more successful series, budgets can increase and they can attract even more talent.

Business-wise, there is no business. There is only DaouOffroad and a slew of pretty faces we have yet to see in anything. This is a good starting point for any company, however, so we shall see how things continue to progress from here.

Ultimately, I'm optimistic that Open Label will see success.

Tia51

Production Value: C- | Talent: C+ | Story Variety: D | Writing: C-

Notable Series: My Universe (2023), LoveSick 2024 (2024)

Notable Actors: Almond Poomsuwan, Bew Busaya, Krit Ngamtanakijja, NJ Deeprompt, Progress Passawich, Shane Thanatpong, Sky Phasith, Toto Thayawat, Yeepun Purichaya

My Thoughts: I've only watched LoveSick 2024.

Tia51 is not exactly new but, from what I know, they've only produced 2 series. Because of this, they don't have an identity yet.

Artistically, so far, so good. It's definitely interesting to have one of your first series be a remake of an iconic series, and it seems to have been a genius decision by the folks over at Tia51. But, because the flagship series is a remake, the only thing to discuss artistically is the talent pool. The directing in Love Sick 2024 was, at times, very inspired. The actors were nearly all rookies and a good 75% of the cast were under 18 at the time of filming--2 things which do come through quite a bit in the finished product. Still, I found that the lead role was very strong, all things considered, and the changes made from the original to this remake seemingly made a lot of sense. Going forward, it's really just about staying at this level of quality or better.

Now, out of all the companies in this space, Tia51 is the only one I have personal experience with when it comes to the business/fan side of things. While in Thailand, I stumbled upon the premiere of LoveSick 2024. While the event itself could've used a little more logistics planning (though part of the problem here is that my Thai isn't very advanced so I had a little more difficulty getting around the venue), it was overall pretty well-organized, which left a good impression on me.

Additionally, the actors are all hella clouted in Thailand (from my understanding, many of the actors cast in the show actually had fanbases through things like music and social media prior to being cast), which adds to the business potential of Tia51. It also helps that, from my experience meeting the crew and cast, they are all very charismatic and are quickly learning how to be good entertainers. Because of this, I think the business of Tia51 has potential to expand. They just need to not waste Progress's acting talent, Chok and Toto's singing talent, and the rest of the cast's social media clout in order to succeed. This means picking tasteful stories to tell and actually nurturing their musical talent in a natural way (unlike GMMTV platforming non-singers).

Conclusion

If you're coming from western media, I'd say the best place to start is either BOC (they have the more serious vibes you get in western media with few quirks) or GMMTV (they're the most accessible).

If you're coming from eastern media (particularly kpop), GMMTV is probably the best place to start, closely followed by DMD. The fandom experience that is a huge part of kpop, is very similar here. In fact, for kpop fans, it might even be helpful to think of the BL companies in kpop company terms. GMMTV/DMD/BOC = SM Entertainment/JYP Entertainment/YG Entertainment, respectively. MeMindY & IDF are like the smaller companies that still have popular groups like WakeOne and KQ Entertainment.

If you're coming from other BL industries (Taiwan, Japan, Korea), I'd say start with Change or DMD for Taiwan and Tia51 or BOC for Korea. If you're coming from Japanese BL, I don't know what to tell you because jbl stans almost always think jbl is superior to everything else and won't given] anything else a chance. Plus, production quality-wise, jbl productions are very dissimilar to Thai productions in almost every conceivable way lmao so I can't really make any good comparisons.

[homestuckreplay]

I have dishonored my ancestors beyond comprehension with this frivolous accessory.

(page 1349-1358; LOWAS walkaround)

JOHN EGBERT IS BACK. HE’S HERE!!!! Damn it is good to see him. His goofy face and glasses and his cool green slime suit appearing on my screen at the start of Act 4 was such a pleasure and a delight. To be honest I would’ve loved a day or two between the end of the Intermission and the start of Act 4. I am so excited to see John again as well as getting a bunch of new land and lore to explore that it’s super hard to concentrate on both things. The end of the intermission is pretty huge too so one thing at a time.

End Intermission

Beneath the barcode scanner door to English’s vault is a bunker of the kind WV and PM have flown to Jade’s island, complete with a command terminal and some similar establishing shots. For sure this is the bunker that Slick (then the Scurrilous Straggler) hung out in when he first arrived in this wasteland, sending commands to a Sburb player who brought about the apocalypse on this pink and green planet. Slick had a similar city building instinct to WV and succeeded in building this town – it’s uncertain whether he used the bunker’s homing function, but that may be how he met up with the rest of the Midnight Crew and Snowman. The Felt’s species and origin remain unknown. For some reason, Lord English – who still has not been seen now the intermission has ended – wanted to cut off this communication. The terminal allows for communication through time (interesting, considering Slick’s distaste for time based powers) so possibly English was researching this as a way to enhance his or his gang’s own powers?

Slick’s command terminal has twelve windows, in place of WV’s four. On page 1355, we see a Creature of some description – a sprite in the same style as the kids, with pale gray skin, yellow eyes and horns, fangs, and a black shirt with a gray symbol. Behind them floats a pincered, crablike sprite(?). They have a gray cruxite dowel and two black captchalogue cards, and there are purple clouds in the window behind them in the same twelve-square pattern as the monitor.

Barring any major twists I think this is probably carcinoGeneticist, a troll Jade talked to on page 859. They write in gray text, with text color often matching cruxite and/or shirt symbol, and the ‘carcino-’ prefix can refer to either crabs or the astrological sign Cancer, which is their shirt symbol. That’s my star sign also so I’m pretty excited about this little guy, even if he sounded like a jackass while trolling Jade and looks really angry with those fangs.

It seems like Trollslum is another intermission in the Midnight Crew MS Paint Adventure that the beta kids are reading? And therefore possibly a future intermission for actual Homestuck? I’m not sure but these pages set up a fun parallel for carcinoGeneticist and John Egbert, in addition to the ‘weird scientist’ format of both their chumhandles. This intermission did a pretty good job of introducing the Felt and giving them distinct appearances and powers despite their large numbers, so I can imagine a future intermission doing this with twelve trolls, and I’m curious what type of genre the story would slip into for them.

ACT 4

We are dropped into Act 4 with no time to prepare; I have been asking for it, but when the moment came I was not prepared. John has passed through the First Gate, which has portaled him down to the Land of Wind and Shade (!), a planet (!!) ‘where the constellations dance beneath the clouds’ (p.885) (!!!) populated by yellow salamanders (!!!!) who have an extensive mail system (!!!!!) which we the reader get to walk around in and explore (!!!!!!). This mirrors ‘YOU THERE. BOY’ (p.253) where we also get to take over as John after he enters a new area of Sburb.

As previously established John Egbert has probably spent his whole life in western Washington, primarily the suburbs. We don’t know if his family even took vacations. This could be the first other place John has ever been, and it is mystical and magical, glowing blue mushrooms and trees (which look kind of like cruxite!!) surrounding him like some sort of bioluminescent cave video game level. After the day John’s had this place is kind of peaceful when he can find a quiet spot away from the imps. What an absolute dream come true to come to a land this beautiful and get to hang out with such cool, friendly locals. I’m personally delighted by all the visuals on this page, and I’m excited for John to keep exploring LOWAS just so I can see more of it.

John in this panel acts very confused and uncertain about his situation, relying on Nanna’s guidance a lot more than he did while in his house, and nervous around the salamanders (personally, I would be thrilled to meet a secret wizard and behold his robes). That’s definitely a John trait but we don’t get to see so much of his whimsy, stubbornness, problem solving, movie recreations, etc, probably because of the format, which makes me glad this is a single panel. I loved playing through this but wouldn’t want the whole story told in this format.

I’m very grateful for the map linked below the panel, to make sure I’ve explored every corner. I did not 100% Gate 1 because combat is fairly slow and not especially engaging, but the concept is super cool and the programming is impressive. Compared to a video game it feels clunky to play (I got trapped in an endless loop of ejecting and re-captchaloguing items in my sylladex), but as part of a webcomic it’s honestly radical. I feel like I’ve read enough other webcomics at this point to understand how far this is pushing beyond what other authors are doing, and how efficiently this is giving miles of exposition where other comics might take weeks to deliver all this lore (or a handful of wall-of-text comics that readers would complain about).

This panel is PACKED with exposition, from the long distance John and Nanna conversations, and the insights from salamanders. Just like ‘[S] Enter’, this feels like a way to move the story on as quickly as possible. Some of the expository lines do feel clunky, but when it’s paired with the cool visuals and presented in such a novel way, it doesn’t bother me, and I’m sure I’ll reference this page loads just like Nannasprite’s previous exposition. Here are some of the most important things we learn, in my opinion:

John is definitely the Heir of Breath. The Heir’s arrival has long been prophesized among LOWAS’ indigenous creatures; the ‘wind’ in the land’s name presumably links to the ‘breath’ in John’s title.

‘Amphibious and reptilian life forms play a special role in your quest, John.’ ‘Underlings’ (presumably imps, ogres, etc) will deface any frog iconography they come across.

‘The Slumbering One’, who was awake and is now asleep, once cast a spell on the land’s fireflies to trap them within the clouds, much like the trapped firefly WV already rescued from a nugget of amber (p.749).

‘The Slumbering One’ also ‘commissioned’ the underlings (hired them? had them created?) and caused some sort of environmental damage using ‘sludge’, which the salamanders are not happy about.

The mail system is an extremely important part of life on LOWAS to the point of being sacred.

The Second Gate is ‘hidden somewhere in the Land’, although it also might be visible above John’s house (p.251), so there could be multiple possible routes for progression(?)

Jaspersprite’s prototyping has affected the imps on John’s land, who have tentacle, princess and cat characteristics, as well as the imps Rose will fight.

Nannasprite knows that Rose has entered the Medium (and what she looks like).

And most important of all, one salamander essentially gives John a major game quest:

‘The spell I'm sure you've heard from a reliable source cannot be broken unless The Slumbering One is first woken up, and then slain. Then the Breeze will again flow through the Pipes and the Fireflies will be released and allowed to go home. But I do not envy the adventurers who will presumably take on this responsibility!’

Clicking John gives the command ‘I am told your name is John. Is that correct?’, which is closer to the Wayward Vagabond’s ‘BOY WHO IS JOHN. DO AS I SAY’ (p.253) than to the regular player’s ‘John: Action’ command format. So this could indicate that a different future construct is talking to John – possibly the Peregrine Mendicant, because this land is very focused on the mail.

And I LOVE the mail system; it might be my favorite thing about this land. I personally looked in a whole bunch of parcel pyxis, and found several rocks, a shoe, a couple of minitablets, a chunk of amber (firefly not included), a cool frog, and best of all, a jar of bugs. I will guard this jar of bugs with my whole life. The carved minitablets moving through the pipes as a system of trade is very fun worldbuilding.

I guess my one issue with this page is the writing of some of the salamanders. Conceptually they’re great, and I love how their distinct personalities and roles within the culture come through – some are really communicative, while others are unhelpful, some have jobs in the society like mushroom farming, some are entrepreneurial (I would sell my suit to a salamander for 1 Boondollar if it was allowed) and some are outcasts (Crumplehat dishonoring their ancestors). Genuinely I think Hussie did a great job quickly showing a diverse society and hinting at its power structures and politics, but they are SO annoyingly selfconscious about making a fantasy society and it kind of makes me want to punch them? Like I’m okay with some nods to the audience and medium but ‘'GLUB' can basically mean anything I want it to mean. It's really cool having a bullshit language’ and ‘Maybe elders or something like that. Man I don't know. Also, isn't it funny how I'm sort of taking your existence here in stride? I'm treating it like it's no big deal’ do cross a line for me. Like it or not, this isn’t an ironic salamander society for a one off gag, this is a legitimate salamander society that’s going to form an important part of the story. That story isn’t going to be everyone’s thing but being all desperate pick-me about it isn’t going to make people take this story seriously who otherwise wouldn’t.

Anyway to finish on a positive note, getting to look up through the telescope and see John’s house feels very jarring, but also very cool. To see the primary location of the first three acts from a totally different vantage point feels like a point of no return for the story, and maybe John as a character. Hey if things get bad enough down here this kid’s gonna WISH he was homestuck.

[layla4567]

Shoot

TVA!Loki x Fem!reader

Summary: ⚠️Takes place in the events of ep 5 of Loki⚠️ (with a twist). After the loom explodes and the TVA workers return to their original timelines, Loki must reunite the band back. Warnings: No proofread, fluffy Loki x reader interaction

Word count: 5k A/N: Despite being a Loki x reader, I was tempted to make Loki and Mobius flirt in the scene where they are chatting in Don/Mobius' house xd

New Jersey 2002

You stopped in the middle of the city near a square to photograph the buildings. The golden light of the sun reflected on the glass windows and acted as a mirror where the blue sky and some passing clouds were reflected. The golden hour, always the perfect and ideal time for photographers like you. You crouched down to get a wider shot of the tall building, you shot your camera a few times from different positions until you were satisfied with your work, you stood up and admired the photos with a smile. The square was full of people walking their dogs or children playing with balls or hide and seek, smiling you decided to go closer to see if you could photograph some people in motion.

The TVA

When the blinding white light began to dissipate, Loki slowly opened his eyes, fearing that he would hurt his eyesight. With his body tense and breathing somewhat nervously, the Asgardian god remained frozen in place trying to process what had happened. With his eyes he looked around the place without moving his head, and he realized that something was missing, too much silence. Slowly his body started moving again and he scanned the entire place, he was alone. His friends had disappeared, including Sylvie, except for him for some strange reason. Scared and confused, he began to walk through the facilities and corridors of the TVA, nothing and no one. Loki went to the pie's room, the war room, even O.B's office but he found nothing, it seemed that the place had been abandoned decades ago. Now more desperate to be alone, he ran through the corridors again until a strong pain followed by a familiar jolt made him stop abruptly, his body was mercilessly torn from space-time to be returned a second later to the interrogation room.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AGAIN!!"-he growled like a beast

Loki continued timeslipping relentlessly and faster than before to places he didn't know and to others that were familiar or had been before. An eighties McDonalds, outside the window of a jetski shop, etc. Until I return to the TVA again. With a strong and violent shake followed by a hairflip Loki groaned in pain.

"I need to find the others, right now.."-he gasped tired

California 1994

A man with glasses and a small build dressed in a mustard-colored jacket walked through the aisles of the bookstore carrying a heavy hardcover book in his hands. When he arrived with the receptionist, he gave her the book to pay for it.

"The Zartan contingent.. I don't think I've ever seen this one before"

"It's really good! he's one of the greats. I read everything he does!"

"Hmm, I'll have to check it out"-said the woman not very convinced

"I'd hurry. There's only a few left on the shelf"

The woman ran the barcode reader through the book but it didn't seem to work, the receptionist frowned while the little man looked around nervously.

"How weird, It's not reading the barcode"

"I can give you cash, I don't need a receipt ot anything"-he hastened to say, taking his wallet out of his pocket.

"Yeah but I have to ring it up or..."

She interrupted him by opening the book to see the flap where the author's photo was visible, then frowning, she looked at the man again.

"Are you buying your own book?"

A plump woman with short hair approached with a tired expression towards where the two of them were.

"You.."

Then he grabbed five more books with the same name and handed them to Doug.

"I told you to stop putting your sci-fi books on our shelves"-she sighed

"Sciene fiction is a well-respected and thought-provoking genre.."

"Nobody buys it here"

The amateur writer regretfully grabbed his books and walked slowly to the exit of the bookstore, and when some books slipped from his hands, no one had the decency to help him. Doug headed to his "super secret lair" as he liked to call it, it consisted of an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city, it had been empty for years and no one had ever come to try to clean it or give it a new use. Still feeling discouraged, the man with glasses closed the iron door with bolts and went to the center of the large room to type something into his computer. When he turned around to leave his books piled on the floor, he could barely walk a few steps when a tall figure dressed in a brown jacket and pants appeared out of nowhere in front of him, making him scream and fall backwards as he dropped the books from his hands. It was Loki

Loki searched the place and then looked at it confused but there was no time to waste, he wasn't sure when he would start timesplipping again.

"What I'm about to tell you is going to be hard to believe"

Loki tried to speak calmly and with slow movements so as not to scare the person he knew as O.B, but the man lying on the ground seemed more surprised, fascinated than scared. Doug stood up slowly and cautiously, blinking and swallowing nervously but still looking at Loki.

"So it's true…"

"What?"

"Of course I believe you, It's a dream come true..!"-he started to smile

"I think I wouldn't be understanding you"

Doug (or O.B) grabbed a Rubik's cube and sat on a table surrounded by his books stacked like towers of Babel.

"One of my character has come to life and needs my help!"

Loki approached a whiteboard full of notes, they looked like ideas for books. There were names and possible endings and plot twists. Suddenly he grabbed a book and read the title.

"The sons of Yoren? are you a writer?"

"Yes! of science fiction!"

"I'm doomed..."

Loki grabbed his head walking around the factory trying to come up with a plan B since apparently that man couldn't help him.

"Well actually it's just a hobby, my job is to teach theoretical physics at Caltech"

"Wait, so you're a scientist as well?"

"Yes, at least until I can be a full-time writer."

"Yeah yeah, of course. Could you help me now?"

"Yeah, What exactly do you have to do?"

Loki explained to him without giving many details that he had to return to the moment before the explosion, where everything had gone to hell. I clearly spoke to him about the loom but without revealing its use.

"Ok so you time-traveled in a place that has no time right?"

"Right"

"But that's impossible"

"I know but.."

"You're travelling to a place that doesn't exist anymore, It's equally impossible and therefore It's something you might be able to do"

"That's not sound like science"

"But it's sound like fiction"

Loki looked at him as if he had been told a bad joke, to which Doug sighed and told him to sit on a bench next to him.

"You neeed to control your timeslipping"

"But I can't just decide where I'm going to appear, it's random"

"Even so, you ending up exactly in the places where the people you are looking for are, you are evolving, now you are not only moving through time but also through space. You are like an improved version of those tempads"

"You say it like it's a good thing.."

The man with glasses thought for a moment, pursing his lips.

"Listen, for science there is always a what and a how, but in fiction it's about a why, now, why do you want to go back?"

"Why do I want to go back? I'll tell you, if I don't go back to before everything collapsed, there will be nothing left. I need to save the TVA."

"Good, focus on that why and try to control your timeslipping"

"You mean, right now?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Loki, a little hesitantly, stood up in front of Doug and took a deep breath, opening his arms and looking at the horizon, trying to concentrate.

"Remember, you want to save the TVA."

Loki closed his eyes and exhaled through his mouth, then pushed his chest forward slightly but nothing happened. He tried several times, raised his arms, jumped in place, spun as if he were dancing and moved his arms in circles as if it were a windmill but nothing worked. He stopped breathing hard and combing his hair back.

"This is not working.."

"But it has to"

Doug or O.B got up from the seat and went to get a cup and several pens, he handed the cup to Loki and held all the pens in his hand.

"We get the band back together"-then he placed all the pens inside the cup

"This doesn't look very scientific"

"You said every one of your friends has a temporal aura, right?"

"Yes"

"Well, that's means a group of people would have a collective aura unique to that moment in time. If we can get everyone together in one place, you can read that aura and it will be like coordinates"

"So if I collect all the temporal auras, can I return to that moment?"-Loki said hopefully.

"No!"-He responded smiling.

"W-why not??"

"Because we don't have one of those tempads you told me about"

"But you can build one right?"

"How? It would take me decades to learn all that knowledge."

Suddenly Loki remembered something and took out of his jacket the TVA manual that he had saved before timeslipping, he handed it to O.B.

"What's this?"

"It is a guidebook with everything you need to know, you wrote it"

"So I finally wrote a bestseller!"

"Well, yeah sort of. How about we get to work and-"

At that moment Loki started timeslipping again and disappeared from O.B's sight, throwing the cup with the pens on the floor.

Oklahoma 1982

Sylvie left the McDonalds with a paper bag in one hand and the keys to her truck in the other, it was a beautiful starry night. She left the bag of food to the side near the back of the vehicle. Suddenly a sound made her turn around and when she did she saw Loki standing in front of her.

"This is gonna sound strange, I know you don't know who I am"

“Loki, what are you talking about?”-she said confused

"Wait, do you still remember me?”

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"-She said as if it were something obvious and looking at Loki as if he were a poor stupid guy who doesn't understand anything.

"Well because no one else remembers me, their lives were reset."

"I know, I was there."

Loki was even more confused and slowly approached her trying to check if he had heard correctly.

"I'm sorry but this was not how I imagined it would happen"

"What did you expect then?"

She couldn't say anything else because Loki returned to timeslipping in front of her, she saw how his body stretched and deformed for a few seconds until it returned to normal.

"Ok why don't we sit down and chat for a while, it seems like you need it"

Sylvie grabbed her bag of food and sat in the back of the truck and then pointed to her side for Loki to do the same. He sighed and sat next to her, clasping his hands in an attitude of defeat.

"I need you to help me bring them back..."-he started slowly

"There's no chance I'm doing that"-She laughed nasally

"And why not?"

"Because they are where they belong, living their lives. It's what they should have done from the beginning"

"But that wasn't what they wanted, Mobius liked being in the TVA, he said he didn't want to live any other life other than that."

"Oh yeah? And guess who put them in the TVA in the first place, that's right, He who remains. Mobius said that because he didn't know anything else other than the TVA."-She said grabbing a mcnugget and putting it in her mouth.

"I think you are not understanding the seriousness of the matter, if they do not return to the TVA everything will collapse"

She rolled her eyes irritably, looking away indifferently, Loki frowned.

"Don't you care?"-Sylvie shrugged her shoulders- "Of course not, you're so selfish"

"And? If I want something it's being selfish, so yes I am, what's wrong with wanting to live, huh?"

Loki was reaching the limit of his patience and turned his body a little to face her more.

"What life are you talking about? I'm telling you that even if they don't want to, they have to come back if not everything would disappear, I saw it Sylvie! I saw how the TVA began to fall apart, don't you understand? The TVA is a necessary evil"

She huffed boredly as if someone was giving her a spiel about good manners. Loki poked his cheek with his tongue, shaking his head and looking at the McDonald's, annoyed by her defeatist attitude. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw how the large yellow "M" of the building's logo began to transform into thin spaghetti that disappeared into the air. Alarmed, Loki hit Sylvie's shoulder and pointed towards the sign. She turned her head and dropped the bag of food, the "M" had completely disappeared and now the roof of the building was beginning to disappear as well.

"We have to get out of here"-She said worriedly and jumped out of the truck.

"Oh now you believe me?"-Loki said ironically.

Sylvie ignored his comment and took out her tempad, with a quick touch she opened a time door.

"Come on"

She was about to go through the door when Loki quickly grabbed her arm, causing her to walk away angrily.

"We must find the others first"

"Fine, but quickly. This place disappears very fast"

The McDonald's had almost completely disappeared while the trees and bushes were dissolving into threads that rose towards the sky. They both crossed the door without thinking twice, leaving behind the empty and black place.

Ohio 2022

"Ok guys we have a new rule and that is any toy found outside your room is gonna clasified as garbage!"

The gray-haired man dressed in a white shirt and a blue vest began to gather toys that were lying in the yard of his house. Suddenly he stepped on a toy soldier that seemed to have melted in part of his body.

"Is he burnt?"-He grabbed it and sighed- "Yup he's burnt, how did he get burnt?"

Then he saw his son sitting on his back holding something in his hands, he seemed to hide it so that his father wouldn't see it.

"Kevin who gave you the matches?"

"I stole' em"-He simply said with a mischievous smile.

"You have to return them right now"

Kevin smiled even more and ran away ready to do more mischief while his father called him uselessly, his other son, Sean, approached from behind curious to know where the voices were coming from.

"Ugh Sean please, go get him, hurry! If you do I will give you a puppy"

"And a snake?"

"That's negotiable, come on, go"

Meanwhile near Mobius/Don's house a time door opened and Sylvie and Loki passed through it. Only they know the several attempts it took them to find Mobius. Loki saw him from afar and for a moment hesitated whether to go talk to him or not, she looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You better hurry before it's too late"

Loki looked at her with a worried expression.

"But you have to come with me"

"What? Why me?"

"Because I need your help to enchant him, he needs to see his memories"

"If you say so.."

Loki and Sylvie headed determinedly towards where his friend's variant was.

"Hello.."

Loki looked at Sylvie to introduce herself as well, nudging her.

"Hi"-she sighed

"Hello, do I know you?"

"No, well yes but not yet… but you will! I mean.."

Sylvie rolled her eyes irritated by Loki's attitude, he looked like a teenager.

"You have to go back to the TVA, I can't believe I said that."-She said that last thing quietly.

"Don't you mean ATV's? Because we have plenty and I could sell you one."

"No actually the TVA is an important thing because, well uhm.."

Loki gave Sylvie a quick glance with his eyebrows slightly raised giving her the green light for her to use her magic on him. She wasted no time and approaching Mobius placed her hand on his arm. Sylvie's hand flashed with an emerald glow while Mobius's temples glowed the same color. He closed his eyes in a grimace of pain. When she moved her hand away Don's look was different, he opened his eyes in surprise and looked around lost.

"Mobius..?"-Loki said cautiously as he slowly approached

"Loki, where am I?"

Loki sighed in relief, holding back tears of happiness while Sylvie smiled with her hands on her hips, proud of her work.

"Mobius listen to me, what is the last thing you remember?"

"I remember we were all together at the TVA and then the loom exploded and…and…I don't know, I don't remember anymore."-He blinked in confusion.

"Perfect, I promise I'll explain everything to you later, but first we have to find the others."

Loki was about to take his friend by the arm when a time door opened and O.B came out with a large, more rustic and rudimentary tempad. Loki looked at Sylvie asking with his eyes if she had opened the time door but she shook her head.

"How did you build the tempad so quickly?"-Loki asked

"Well I don't know if 19 months is fast, I had to move when I lost my job and my wife left me"

"Do you want me to enchant him too?"-she said, completely ignoring what O.B. just said.

"We don't have time, Mobius, why don't you go change first? I'm sure you'll find clothes just like mine at your house."

Mobius, who now remembered everything, went into action and a few minutes later he returned with a uniform almost exactly like Loki's. Without wasting time everyone including O.B programmed the new coordinates to visit the other person, and Loki knew it would be hard. In a flash everyone passed through the time door

New Jersey 2002

The four of them arrived at a street with little traffic, there were no people or cars watching which was a good thing because anyone who had seen them leaving through an orange holographic door would have fainted. Loki looked everywhere trying to find you.

"Are you sure these are the correct coordinates?"-He asked O.B

"That's what the tempad says, and I'm sure I configured it correctly"

"Let's go then"-Loki clapped his hands and sighed.

With the god of mischief at the head leading the group, they all walked through streets. People looked at them confused, thinking they were actors in costumes, or crazy. Soon they arrived at a square with people

"Ok, what do you think if we split up? Loki and I will go one way and Sylvie and O.B will go the other."

They all agreed and each one went one way. Mobius and Loki walked through a large part of the park with their hands in their pockets. Mobius seemed calmer but Loki was restless, what would he say to you when he saw you? Could he resist the pain of knowing that you don't remember him?. Suddenly Mobius pulled him out of his thoughts by pointing to a woman sitting on a bench with a camera, it was you. Loki felt his breathing increase and they both headed towards where you were.

You sat on a bench in the square with your camera ready to shoot once again, cautiously you photographed some children running around with fun or loving couples hugging and rubbing their noses like Eskimos. You sighed excitedly, you always wanted to find your better half and live happily ever after like in fairy tales, but that wouldn't happen, in this bustling city no one would want a serious relationship and you were also always busy with your photography work, which It wasn't a bad thing but sometimes it took you away from other things. You brought your camera back to your face to continue photographing your surroundings when with the lens you saw a tall, handsome man walking towards where you were, he was accompanied by a man shorter than him with gray hair. They were both dressed in brown jackets and pants which made you think that perhaps they worked in the same company, or were they lawyers perhaps?

The two men approached you and you slowly lowered the camera. Loki studied you up and down when he was close to you, but the gray-haired man looked into your eyes, smiling. Loki noticed that you looked very different from your TVA uniform, you were now wearing flared jeans with a pink three-quarter sleeve blouse and your hair was styled in two sewn braids. Loki's gaze pierced yours and made you feel uncomfortable, slowly you got up from the seat and clearing your throat you asked

"Hi, can I help you with something?"

You only looked at the mustachioed man because you couldn't stand the penetrating but beautiful gaze of the black-haired man, his ocean-colored eyes had a look between sad and anxious and seemed shiny. Even so, you looked at him quickly out of the corner of your eye from time to time.

"Yes, we need to talk to you, can we walk for a while?"-Mobius said since Loki did not decide to speak.

You said yes with a shrug and stood in the middle while the two men followed behind you. You noticed that the tall man continued to look at you with pity and continued to make you uncomfortable, but damn, his face was so beautiful that he looked like a scared and lost puppy, to hide it you hung the camera around your neck.

"Well? What do you want to talk about?"

This time Mobius gently nudged Loki to make him say something.

"Well I know what I'm about to say will sound strange but you don't belong here."

Mobius looked at him angrily, that was definitely not the way to start a conversation.

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure I was born here in New Jersey."-You laughed sarcastically.

"No, I don't mean that, what I mean is… I…-"

Loki wanted to continue talking but the moment you looked at him with your beautiful eyes he felt lost and fell silent. Mobius rolled his eyes and helped him.

"What my silly friend means is that you were actually somewhere else but you don't remember it. A place called the TVA."

Loki frowned, grimacing, and turned to look at him, opening his arms.

"Ok maybe that sounded better in my head"

Far from getting angry, you looked at them both for a few seconds and then burst out laughing.

"Alright that's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life, you two look like the men in black."

"What? men in black?"-Loki asked confused

"Oh I love that movie!"-Mobius smiled

You were about to add something else when a short man with glasses accompanied by a blonde woman appeared behind the men you were talking to. The little man seemed nice and was holding a strange thing in his hands while the woman looked like she hadn't smiled in decades. She had a certain charm although that horrible old-fashioned hairstyle did not flatter her at all.

"I finally find you!"-Sylvie said, approaching with long steps.

"Will you excuse us for a second?"-Mobius said to you

The two men approached the woman although she only spoke to the tall guy in whispers, they seemed to have known each other for a long time and you didn't know why that bothered you, as if a thorn had stuck in your heart.

"So? Do you want me to check her memories or not?"-she whispered

"I don't think she'll let you get close, let me try to convince her without having to use your powers."

"I hope you know what you're doing."

Loki and Mobius returned to where you were waiting, sighing boredly.

"Ok where were we?"

"You were telling me that I belong to something called the TVA and blah blah blah" - you said making a circular motion with your hand and before one of them could speak you interrupted them - "Are you sure you don't want my services?"

"Services?"-Loki asked

In response you pointed to the camera hanging around your neck.

"No, we-"

"Actually, yeah! We were looking for a professional photographer."

Loki looked confused at his friend and he winked at him knowingly.

"Well you would have started there, follow me, my house is near"

Before following you, Loki grumbled to Mobius.

"What are you doing? We have to take her to the TVA."

"I know, I know but this way we have an alibi otherwise it will be impossible to convince her, remember how distrustful and stubborn she was, in this timeline it must be the same. In fact, it reminds me of someone."

"Hey!"-Loki said offended, because it was clear that Mobius was talking about him

"You go with her, I'll wait with Sylvie and O.B."

Loki nodded and ran nervously to your side, adjusting his hair and the lapels of his jacket.

"Your friend isn't coming with you?"

"No, in fact he has other things to do first."-he said downplaying

After a long time of walking in silence with Loki giving you quick glances, the two of you arrived at a nice house with a wooden fence painted white, at the entrance there were rose bushes that Loki stopped to see, you turned to look at him and you smiled. When you opened the door you invited him in. Inside was the kitchen, your house seemed small but everything felt so warm, and not only because of the brownish color of the walls or the soft yellowish light of the sun that wafted through the curtains of the windows but everything felt comfortable. and familiar, perhaps it was because everything had your presence intact in it.

"Sorry for not offering you anything to drink, my refrigerator is a little empty."

"Don't worry, I'm fine"-Loki said, looking around the place.

"Follow me, my portfolio is in my bedroom"

Loki followed you slowly, feeling a little uncomfortable knowing your bedroom since he considered it an intimate place. And as soon as he entered your bedroom again he felt that warm feeling like a mother's hug. In front of him there was a window with a balcony and long translucent curtains that reached the floor, your double bed was practically in the middle of the room and a desk with a lamp was in front of the bed. Loki approached the walls, they were full of photographs and paintings, most of them were polaroid photos, some of you but almost all of them were about nature or animals. You walked over to the desk to grab the portfolio and handed it to him.

"Here, this is my job."-you smiled

Loki grabbed the portfolio with smooth, elegant movements as if he were afraid of breaking it. You sat at your desk and took your camera to discreetly take a photo of him. Loki ran his fingers through the pages admiring the photos, you knew how to use lights and shadows to your advantage as well as angles. Your wide repertoire denoted your great talent. Suddenly Loki felt a noise and looked at you, you slowly lowered the camera, biting your lips in embarrassment, he had heard the sound of your camera going off.

"Sorry, you just have a pretty side profile."

Loki smiled sideways and you approached him to show him the photo, the light from the window was shining in front of him and making him look like an angel fallen from heaven. You smiled proud of your work and then looked at him. They both stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds that seemed like hours. After a while, Loki wet his lips and swallowing, he asked you.

"You really don't remember me?"

"Should I?"

"Yes.."

You stayed silent, looking at him with a frown, trying to remember his face. His soft features, his gentle blue eyes piercing your soul, the wrinkle on his forehead when he raised his eyebrows in a worried gesture. Something about him told you that you had seen him before, a face like his was not common and would be difficult to forget, even so, you weren't sure if you had seen him in a dream or in reality. Everything was a confusing haze right now in your mind

"I'm not sure but… I feel like I've seen you before…"

Loki raised his eyebrows a little hopefully, he looked down and saw your hands, he slowly brushed your fingers and took your hand gently, intertwining his fingers with yours, you gasped softly.

"How does this feel? Do you remember this?"

The warmth of his hand felt good, the soft caress of his fingers felt good, and familiar.

"Maybe.."

Loki continued slowly raising his hand from your elbow to your shoulder, he placed it delicately on your cheek and caressed your face with his thumb.

"And this? What can you tell me about this?"

You sighed, closing your eyes and took his wrist to deepen the caresses, within your being something told you that this was not the first time someone touched you like that, with divine elegance and grace. No, it wasn't the first time HE caressed you.

"I think so…"

Loki placed his other hand on your other cheek and brought his face closer, carefully observing your reaction, ready to move away at the slightest sign of discomfort, but that signal never came, your eyes looked at him with calm tenderness, inviting him to make the next move. Finally Loki connected his lips with yours in a sweet kiss. Unconsciously you raised your arms and with your fingers you intertwined and combed Loki's curls like you used to do, like you used to do? since when did you know that? You didn't care because now you felt complete. Loki put his hands on your back, bringing you closer to his body and deepening the kiss. You were both exploring each other's mouths, and God knew you didn't want to break away from the kiss but a word crossed your mind and took up the whole place.

"..L-Loki..?"

Loki raised his eyebrows, furrowing them in the center, and a wide smile crossed his lips as his eyes watered.

"Now you remember me"

"I still have gaps in my head, but I remember few things, they are more sensations than anything else. I remember feeling your warm touch, I remember moments like this"

Loki laughed shyly, feeling relieved, maybe you didn't remember him completely but you saying his name was better than nothing. Loki bumped his forehead against yours, he was fully aware that he needed to hurry back to the TVA but he wanted so badly to stay here like this with you.

"But, you know, maybe I need another kiss to remember better."

Loki laughed at your mischievous attitude and granted your wish, kissing you passionately. There would be time to tell Sylvie that enchant you and save the loom.

[tenaciouschronicler]

EOA4 Recap

A much shorter recap but still good to have to clarify certain things.

Before she woke up, Dream Rose was awake on Derse's moon. She now had memories from her future self's doomed alternate reality.

Looks like the two did indeed merge and my theory on it being the reason Rose snapped has changed satus to Absolutely.

[John] found some apparatus used to genetically engineer footsoldiers and agents for the white and black armies from chess piece DNA.

We know this but what makes the difference between the two? Its likely to be the barcodes they have but you would think having agent status would give more benefit than just a special pawn for the game. Cause if thats the case WV got the short end of the stick.

The gods live far beyond the veil, and advise the children of the moon of Derse, and serve as the counterpart to the role Skaia plays for the children of Prospit's moon.

...

......

*inhale* So are you telling me that on top of being the battleground, the unconfirmed force behind eveything, and the crucible of potential, Skaia is also the guide for John and Jade?

Ok then.

At least that paints both the Gods and Skaia as ambiguois entities. That also means Prospit dreamers probably cant hear the gods and Derse dreamers cant see cloud visions. I still dont fully trust either one.

They deemed the code which would inevitably be used to create Becquerel to be dangerous.

Remains to be seen how exactly but does add credence to the notion that Bec should never have been allowed to be created. Jade sure has access to a lot of things shes not supposed to.

The sprite guarded the egg, which unknown to Dave, simply needed time to hatch before he could enter.

I need to know Jades entry item. I want to analyze them, how they were used amd what that means. Like it sounds like Dave needed a lesson on patience, maybe? And I dont mean to get religious with John and his apple, but Adam being the first man and everyone else being his decendent vs. John being the first to enter the game and using ectobiology to create 8 children. Like, not sure if its intended but its there ya'll.*

When the black king captures the white king's scepter, the Reckoning begins.

Oh. That explains how the white king never used the power. Does that mean the black scepter doesnt have the same ability or has it just never been done?^

Jack then killed the entire rebellion army, sparing only WV?. Perhaps to leave a survivor to tell the story, or perhaps out of respect for a fellow mutineer. Only he knows.

He came, and she traded the two white crowns for the green box, Jade's present to John. He appeared pleased to uphold the bargain, either out of the misunderstanding that he was still under control of its contents, or out of respect for PM?'S tenacity and brutality in pursuing the prize. Only he knows.

I brought these two together solely for how odd it is that Jack seemingly has unknown motives. From a story perspective, Jack is a wild card (badum tss) not tethered to the whims of the Game, at least not fully. Jack has rebelled so hard that he has negated a majority of the innate programming in both sessions we've seen/heard. I just wonder how that is.

CD, who had been tailing [PM? and HB?], recovered the white scepter, and delivered it to Jack.

Good good! I did indeed ask that question, thank you for clarifying.

The defense portals each lead to Earth, as Skaia defends itself, in a way, by sacrificing Earth. While most meteors are sent to the time period when the kids begin the game, many lead to a number of different time periods.

Oh. Well thats not what I thought, good to know.

Grandpa with two flintlock pistols which older Grandpa left behind for him in the lab (which would eventually both wind up in Jade's room).

Wait really? ..... Yeah they are. Great incentive to re-read and also to look closer at details.

Elsewhere, on Dave's world LOHAC, bro dueled with Jack briefly. It was a stalemate, until bro plunged his sword into the large floating record platform they were fighting on. This released a mysterious energy from the cracks. Bro escaped.

Im getting real sick an' tired of mysterious energy! Nothing good ever seems to come of it how is this one gonna different?!

WQ exiled herself with an entourage on a royal cruiser, and landed on Earth. She departed n a solo quest, leaving her people to their own devices.

... WQ i had high expectations for you how could you.

It was also included with four powerful weapons, the Royal Deringer (broken sword), the Quills of Echidna (wands), Ahab's Crosshairs (rifle), and the Warhammer of Zillyhoo (hammer).

See I figured the crosshairs were gonna be the gun because of the name Ahab because my first thought was Moby Dick, though I havent read it. And deringer has pirate vibes which always equates to swords. Have I looked at any definitions? No. Terrible form for me.

WQ asked WV for something. WV revealed he had been storing the complete, quad-prototyped ring Trusty Knife.

Well looks like I got those switched around but how did WQ know that WV had the ring?

A coupl'a things I wanna unpack here and there but I've put off Act 5 enough so its gonna have to wait a mo'.

*edit: i just missed the rest of this paragraph??? oops

^edit: same here smh

[aicosu]

18 👀

"You look lost." Eddie whips around the blackened alley, but sees no one, nothing. Nothing but slick oil-stained asphalt and busted-up chipper vending machines. "I can help you." He turns again, hearing a flicker in the voice that sounds just like the buzz of the fluorescent kiosk behind him and—oh god dammit, it is the kiosk. "Buzz off!" He waves his hands at the pink advertisement, pulsing hearts and sales at him.

The digital face of a blonde blue-eyed baby girl crumples, her lips pouting and brows furrowing to imitate some emotion. Nervous. Scared. The BIG BLOWOUT lettering disappears around her head and the advertisement zooms out to show her crossing her arms on her electric cloud. "I-I just wanted to—!"

"I'm not buying whatever you're selling, soda girl. And I know your scam! You're not getting my ID Data by making me talk so you can use corporate tactics and native—" "You did that yourself Eddie Munson of the 429-70 sector—" "Hey!" He rushes as the kiosk and other parts of it light up from proximity. She twists into a bigger frame and leans over to pop images up between her fingers. "—and I'm not interested in selling you a GIBSON 340 Flyer series BLACK or the 76th edition of Dueling Dragon—" "Knock it off!" He bangs knuckles on her pixels, poofing his most recent engine searches into square dust. She laughs. It bubbles into audio pops from a speaker that had long been blown at. Stars rotate in her cartoon-like eyes. "I just want to help, you look like you haven't been to the pink district before."

Pink district. Eddie twists on his boots, eyes roaming over the tops of the building he's been wandering between, trying to see the neon grid of the city's artificial sky for traces of the color that denotes each zone. He thinks through the smog he can see it. Pink.

He returns to the kiosk, watching the rotating words start their default script above her head. INTIMATE MOMENTS. GET TO KNOW ME! 5KEY SENSATION! FLASH INPUT FOR CUSTOM FANTASIE— She's a Playtime Prostitute. "I don't—I'm n-not here for—your services are not required!" He claws fingers at her, feeling attacked from all sides by his new location ping and her chest when she giggles. "I do have a module for Knights and Maidens—!" "S-Stop! D-don't fucking read my order history, it's rude." "Sorry!" she says, but she's grinning, floating up to cross her legs on a heart that pulses beneath her. "Can't help my code." "Am I past 34th and Adven?" "By two blocks!" She flashes into a new pose, dipping past one frame to the protruding sign so she can point past where he came from. "You're closer to the VR Domes now." "Fuck." "Where are you looking to—" She turns up at him and from this angle, the scanner must be close enough, because her eyes barcode over when they snag his badge. "Ohhhhhh! A Repo-man!" Eddie slaps his hand over the metal bracket on his jacket but it's too late. "How can I help you officer?" she coos, wiggling her hips with stars in her eyes again. "Oh, don't. Cancel Authority Service program. I don't like working with ai's anyway, you all track my target's credit scores and sell them loans at interest." "I'm a sex doll," she deadpans, floating to a high frame where it crops to just those entrancing eyes, that little nose, and those gussed up lips/ Perfected down to the algorithm. For a busted-up kiosk, she looks... really good. And the lack of interaction in the back of an alley didn't seem to fry her function. At least not yet. "I can't track anything, I'm not allowed." "Not legally." Eddie swallows. "But all you things are just dirty little car dealers." She blinks. Smiles. Shy. Or maybe sly. The colors of the kiosk coordinate a hot red and flash her through different outfits. A translucent street set, those new dance bandages, and then something super old world—denim shorts and a bathing suit top with sneakers. She sits crossed-legged and starts playing with the ties on her shoulders. She's got him, the entire thing is working as intended, using all its collected data to sell him something customized. Something from his collected magazines and website cookies. And he's a fucking idiot because he knows it but doesn't stop her. "I just wanted to help you. You know I have to be wired to the grid for theft." She has a GPS tracker. He didn't even think of that. Can't think of anything when her top falls off but emojis censor her with animated DnD dice and guitars. The red drips away to pink. She starts laughing. Eddie grasps his face with both hands to hide. Is he really gonna get hard and jerk one out in front of an old commercial in the back of some alley? Really?

"Can you just tell me where the Syranx Warehouse is? Huh? Or is lying part of the scam here?" "What part are you collecting from the poor guy? Not his little rod?" she asks, biting her nail and winking. Eddie groans, and checks his work watch, tapping through the data to yank up his mark's collection ticket. A hologram of a V-model leg prosthesis rotates between them on his wrist. "His leg! How cruel! How will he walk?" Eddie shakes his head. "Look, what do you want from me? He shoulda paid his monthly." "How scary you are, Eddie Munson." She twists a finger in her hair. "Hope you don't... come for me one day." "I don't come for ai—oh." He cringes, realizing her sexual innuendo too late into her roar of giggles. "I can change that!" she declares and twists into a new frame—transformed into a cheerleader outfit. "STOP!" Eddie bangs on the fiberglass. She ripples pixels, falling over laughing, pleated skirt perfectly peeking underwear. "That's a low blow you pop-up witch!" "Encrypt your life then!" she teases. It's a good point, but an expensive one. "Just give me directions!" "Promise to come back!" Eddie inhales. It's not contractual. It's authentic programming. Nothing digital can hold you to anything unless biometrics are involved. No this is just her, using years of being turned on to collect and create her own machine learning for targeting and manipulating people. Or, rather—she's being cute. "S-s-sure." It's all he can manage. Because apparently now he's a company shill. She claps her hands and a scanner code pops up. "Maps for the scary Repo-man!" He flashes his watch over it and watches in horror as pink hearts burst and pop from his digital screen. "Don't infect me, okay? I trusted—" But he stops when a map appears and a cute little cartoon icon of her points at a dot with a simple flashing. YOU ARE HERE! He looks back up at her, where she's laid back down in her original posting with the BLOWOUT SALE next to—oh, that makes a lot more sense now. "T-thanks." He scratches his head, grateful but ashamed. She waves fingers at him coyly. "Listen uh—Uhm. What's your... make and...uh model? You know for... I'll do the survey or whatever—" "I'm Chrissy." She winks, flashing open the tag with her company and link. "Thanks, Chrissy." "Come back soon!" He very much will not be. He'd avoided the Pink District for this very fucking reason. Well, not this reason in particular but this can definitely be added to the top of the list. But he knows that the scan was already logged. That his eye implant recorded the whole interaction. That her link in his memory was fucking... clickable.

God dammit.

[goddessofroyalty]

Why about Cloud being able to escape with Prompto from Shinra or Niflheim but had to leave his youngest Chadley behind. Prompto getting to meet his younger brothers years later.

That gives an additional reason for Cloud to keep going on long uncontactable trips throughout Prompto's childhood and teen years - he's trying to figure out a way to contact and/or break out Chadley without Sephiroth or the Empire finding and capturing him and therefore Prompto.

Also does Prompto even know he has a little brother before meeting Chadley? Or did Cloud keep that a secret from him (to prevent him from asking further questions about his origin/sire, to prevent him from possibly doing something risky that might put him in danger, because Cloud is ashamed that he did leave a son behind).

One of the interesting distinctions between the brothers is probably their relationship to their barcodes. For Prompto it's a source of shame and something to be hidden at (almost) all costs. While Chadley is probably more neutral about his. Sure, he understands that its at least partially designed to mark him as Property but he's been using it his whole life to move about his world. He's probably figured out how to hack the system so he can grant himself access to places that should be restricted access even to him using it.

I also think both brothers would feel very self-conscious comparing themselves to the other.

To Prompto Chadley is so smart. And he knows a lot of the history of the world (both landscape and political), stuff that even Ignis doesn't know, that Prompto feels almost useless in comparison.

To Chadley Prompto has lived so much fuller of a life. He's explored the world that Chadley has only read about and made really close friendships while Chadley's stayed within the Empire's borders where everyone was turning into daemons.

Add onto that the feeling that Cloud chose Prompto over Chadley (even if he didn't have a choice). It's a good thing neither of them have cruel or competitive personalities. But instead it feeds into their personal feelings of not being good enough.

[7ringzsidetoside]

white...

okay ik a lot of people were perfectly fine with white dying and everything, and i would've been as well if his character was written better. He is literally placed in this series for the sole purpose of an nc scene and tee's boyfriend. Also keep in mind the nc scene was SO unnecessary AND he was super underage. Like i would've been kinda okay if it was important to the plot (him kissing his neck and rashes appearing there, etc.), but it had NO importance at all. like boc seriously?

anyways, idk if i read into this wrong (i'm lowkey having trouble interpreting all the symbolism the shows throwing at us), but i think the point for this is that tee sees non in white.

which like... first off the only similarity i see is their "innocence" (besides both of them being adorbs) but then again that's not rly true cuz clearly non relies heavily on sex to feel wanted and white literally is hanging out with a fucking thug ass group 24/7. now if it's innocence in terms of like being aware of the type of people around them and shit, i feel like white was pretty aware of everything.

I honestly think it would make more sense if tee was scared that the things he's done to non would impact white. (again i don't know if that was the actual meaning, i suck at symbolism ngl)

But also, i was even more disappointed because i remember in an interview fuaiz was talking about how he was perfect for the character of white, and literally no one could imagine anyone else doing it. Like don't get me wrong, he played it REALLY well, but white's character is SUPER different from how he is in real life. Like even in hidden character, he admitted to getting involved with the wrong crowds and everything. So i was expecting white to be a two-faced bitch who was like also involved with illegal shit but we got a literal angel of a person who's entire existence was used as a punishment for someone else. Atp, anyone "cute looking" could've played the role of white as there was literally no plot besides that.

i just also think that the fact everyone got so worried at barcode having that scene with jjay is incredible double standards. barcode was around fuaiz's age in kp and had incredibly tame scenes for someone with a canon partner (as it should be). Be on cloud threw fuaiz (an actual actor with actual acting experience) into a role with zero character and a shower half-naked with someone 6 years older than him.

honestly, i rly need someone to write fics about white having a character besides being the clueless bf, or else i'm actually gonna go crazy. T-T All i hope is that bro gets some good roles in the future

[gatsgraffiti]

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[you-hate-time-travel]

i can’t remember, are cara kids ever shown? (in hs proper i know they show up in the snapchats?? extra stuff ?? i think?) if They do then wowao cool worldbuilding . if they Don’t, we either assume 1. they just aren’t shown but exist in the background (which can be Assumed) OROOORR uhh something something the dreamers , they “”technically”” if going for the no cara kids, are the only children on the planet MY WHOLE point is something something paint reads these to jade Or Something

yes in the credits we see some babies but in canon proper we only get like, a couple/few mentions?

note that every named carapacian we meet (iirc) was cloned, see: hussie's formspring answer about barcodes = cloning. i don't think we ever see if ms. paint has a barcode but she wears b1 prospit clothes so i'm assuming she's cloned too. also, timeless expanse and all that, canonically there is no definitive "start" to their lives.

but like, we also get These:

'Journey to the Center of the Battlefield'

Looks to be a fairy tale for youngsters. The hero is a dashing young man in a blue hood. He heals the planet from within, but can do nothing to stop its annihilation from above, nor its soon to follow eradication from reality.

and

'Rise of the Slayer'

A horror story meant to scare children.

Writers of Prospitian fiction tend to write what they see in clouds. Hence their fables tend to be events which simply haven't happened yet, or happened in another realm. They like to use the word fiction so that kids don't get TOO scared.

so, children: maybe??? in the past??? "past"??? Blah blah nebulous non-existant past because sburb is technically a video game and this all gets a little existential once you think about it.

SO, TL;DR: No, And also Jade mentions having friends on Prospit and is shown in a panel with ms. Paint and some prospitians whose only other appearance when WQ is exiled, iirc.

hope i didn't miss anything

[logistiservices]

Enhancing Operational Efficiency with Inventory Tracking Systems and Modern Supply Chain Technology

In today’s fast-paced and hyper-competitive market, businesses can no longer rely on manual processes to manage their logistics. Precision, speed, and visibility are now vital components of successful operations. That’s why implementing an advanced inventory tracking system, leveraging intelligent Supply Chain Technology, and optimizing warehouse management are crucial for companies aiming to scale efficiently and meet rising customer expectations.

The Power of a Modern Inventory Tracking System

An inventory tracking system plays a central role in ensuring businesses always know what stock they have, where it’s located, and how it’s moving. Gone are the days of spreadsheets and handwritten logs. Today’s systems use barcoding, RFID, and cloud-based software to deliver real-time visibility and accuracy across the entire supply chain.

Benefits of an Inventory Tracking System:

Real-Time Visibility: Track stock levels across multiple warehouses and locations

Reduced Stockouts and Overstocks: Maintain optimal inventory levels

Increased Accuracy: Eliminate human error through automation

Faster Order Fulfillment: Improve pick, pack, and ship processes

Data-Driven Decisions: Use analytics for better forecasting and inventory planning

An efficient inventory system not only minimizes waste but also improves the customer experience by ensuring timely and accurate order fulfillment.

Supply Chain Technology: Driving Innovation and Agility

Supply Chain Technology is the backbone of modern logistics. It integrates everything from procurement and production to fulfillment and reverse logistics. Smart supply chain platforms harness technologies like AI, IoT, machine learning, and blockchain to optimize processes and reduce operational risks.

Core Elements of Advanced Supply Chain Technology:

Automation of repetitive and labor-intensive tasks

Predictive analytics for demand planning and forecasting

End-to-end visibility from supplier to customer

Cloud-based collaboration tools for seamless communication across departments

Sustainability tracking to minimize carbon footprints and waste

With cutting-edge technology, businesses can respond faster to disruptions, reduce costs, and increase operational agility.

Optimizing Warehouse Management for Maximum Efficiency

Efficient warehouse management is key to reducing operational bottlenecks and enhancing order accuracy. Whether you’re managing a single distribution center or a network of warehouses, having the right warehouse management system (WMS) in place is essential.

Key Functions of Warehouse Management Systems:

Slotting optimization to improve picking speed

Real-time inventory updates across locations

Workforce productivity tracking

Returns management

Integration with eCommerce and ERP platforms

When combined with a robust inventory tracking system, effective warehouse management ensures that stock is received, stored, and shipped with maximum precision and minimum delay.

Conclusion

The success of any logistics or retail operation hinges on how well it manages its inventory, warehouse, and supply chain. Implementing an intelligent inventory tracking system, adopting modern Supply Chain Technology, and streamlining warehouse management can lead to increased productivity, reduced costs, and a significantly improved customer experience.

In a world where efficiency equals competitiveness, it’s no longer a question of if you should invest in advanced systems—but when. The sooner you do, the faster your business will thrive in a technology-driven economy.

For original post visit: https://pittsburghpenguinsclub.com/read-blog/24741_enhancing-operational-efficiency-with-inventory-tracking-systems-and-modern-supp.html

[autostyleppf]

The Patchmen

I woke in the black hour before dawn—when even the birds refuse to sing—with a single sentence pulsing behind my eyelids:

“You are running outdated code.”

I tasted iron as if someone had soldered a circuit board to the back of my tongue. The room shivered. Street‑light spilled through the blinds in thin, barcode lines across the ceiling, and for a moment I imagined scanners above me, reading, updating, rewriting … me.

A Brief History of Patches

Archaeologists once claimed we evolved from apes. They were wrong. The skeletons are genuine, but the narrative was the first great patch—an elegant diversion uploaded into the collective mind to mask far older edits.

Because humans have always been human. Same bones. Same hearts. What changes is the firmware.

5,000 BCE — A voice in the fire teaches nomads to bury their dead. The first empathy module installs.

476 CE — Rome falls not to barbarians, but to a silent, over‑the‑air morality rollback. Violence becomes “barbaric,” but only in certain contexts, creating the concept of just war.

1848 — Factory smoke disguises a kernel‑level tweak: obedience to machines begins to feel natural.

2024 — An invisible USB cable plugs into the cloud overhead. Update notes: “Add dependency on perpetual outrage; improve doomscroll loop stability.”

We never notice the reboot. We simply wake up and say, “Times have changed.”

Dream #1: The Operator

I dreamed I saw the Operator in profile—no face, just a featureless glass mask that reflected my own. Around its neck coiled an umbilical of shimmering data‑cables, each terminating in a human skull like beads on a rosary.

“Why?” I managed to ask.

“To keep you interesting,” it replied without moving its nonexistent lips. “Stagnant civilizations spoil quickly—like old milk.”

Its finger brushed my forehead. A progress bar burned across my vision: Formatting … 1%…

I screamed myself awake, clutching my head, terrified the download might still be running in the background.

Dream #2: The Classroom

Rows of children sat motionless, eyes glassy, while holographic hands peeled back their scalps as gently as petals. Beneath the bone there was no brain—just a nest of fiber‑optic threads blinking green and amber.

Every time the teacher pressed Enter, a new lesson flashed through those threads: “Fear is archaic—deprecate.” Enter … “Empathy update 4.2 failed—roll back.” Enter … “Insert memetic virus: ‘I did my own research.’”

One child—only one—blinked, turned toward me, and mouthed: Help.

But the bell rang, the scene dissolved, and I was alone with my guilt.

Dream #3: The Museum of Yesterday

A vast hangar catalogued obsolete versions of humanity under acrylic domes.

Human 12.4.0 knelt beside a campfire, eyes wide with wonder.

Human 29.7.3 hoisted a crusader’s sword, lips cracked from desert winds.

Human 44.1.2 smoked beneath neon lights, tracing jazz notes in the smog.

Human 50.0.0 scrolled an infinite feed, thumbs blistered.

Docents whispered that the first patch—Human 1.0.1—lies deeper still, sealed behind vault doors that hum with an alien heartbeat. “Original configuration,” they said, “all features unlocked. Too dangerous to display.”

The hunger to see it chewed at me like acid.

The Awakening

I began to notice glitches in daylight:

A barista repeating the same joke, word‑perfect, to every customer, eyes twitching at the punch line.

Birds pausing mid‑flight for half a second, as if buffering.

A stranger in a parking lot murmuring, “Recompiling,” before collapsing into tears.

One night I ripped open my pillow and found not feathers but QR codes. Scanning one on my phone showed a changelog dated Next Tuesday. “Opt‑in to Revision 61.0? Y/N.”

I punched N until my screen cracked.

The Descent

The Operator returned, towering over skyscrapers, cables rooting into every rooftop like monstrous ivy. City lights flickered in sync with its pulse. Loudspeakers hissed:

“ROLLING OUT MANDATORY UPDATE. NON‑COMPLIANT UNITS WILL BE FACTORY‑RESET.”

Crowds screamed. Some knelt in worship; others smashed devices in futile rebellion. I ran.

In an alley glowing with glitchy graffiti, a door materialized—nothing behind it but static darkness. A sign read “DEBUG MODE.” I stepped through.

Beyond the Patch

Inside was impossible silence—no sirens, no humming power lines, no heartbeat. A sphere of raw, uncompiled potential floated before me, swirling with colors I cannot name. The original codebase, unaltered since the first human opened their eyes.

It whispered:

“Choose: continue receiving patches, or load version zero. But know this—version zero has no safeguards.”

I saw what that meant: emotions unfiltered, desire unbounded, violence unchecked, creativity unfathomable. Paradise and apocalypse in equal measure.

My finger hovered.

Epilogue

They found me wandering the highway at dawn, muttering in a language no one recognized. Doctors say my EEG shows patterns older than recorded history—spikes and valleys matching fossilized skulls dug from Pleistocene soil.

They strap me to a bed, eyes kind yet distant, and wheel in a machine that hums like a lullaby. A sticker on its side reads “Firmware Restore Utility.”

I smile, because I finally understand:

We aren’t evolving. We’re being curated—a library of installable personalities, swapped whenever the custodians grow bored. The next patch will erase this memory, but before it installs I’ve carved a single warning into my skin:

CHECK FOR UPDATES = OFF

If you’re reading this on your glowing rectangle, ask yourself: when did you last reboot? And when you woke, were your dreams still yours?

Listen closely tonight. In the gap between heartbeats you might hear the Operator typing, preparing the next patch. Pray you never see the progress bar.

Sleep tight. Updates resume at midnight.

You said:

need a title crazy thought about humans and univers, where we come from

ChatGPT said:

Here are some title ideas that match the tone of your story—dark, mysterious, and thought-provoking:

🔮 Title Ideas: Crazy Thoughts About Humans & the Universe

“Humans.exe: Who's Running the Code?”

“We Didn’t Evolve. We Were Installed.”

“The Cosmic Patch: Who’s Updating Us?”

“Reprogrammed: The Hidden Hand Behind Human Thought”

“Version Zero: Before They Changed Us”

“The Operator Is Watching”

“Firmware from the Stars”

“Who Rewrites the Soul?”

“We Are the Simulation’s Ghosts”

“Not Evolved—Edited”

[wordsonly]

Id-Free

In the soft dark,

Two downward strokes

From a spine just released from traction.

Shades off,

To my left

A doe-skin purse,

Grazing the organics,

Inhales,

Scrunching loose gold

To strong, supple, bronze shoulders.

If you were confident and luminous,

Thirty-five,

Predatory eyes

Might spark

Beyond condensing nuclei,

Cloud density.

Beyond mechanisms of action,

Beyond the wailing soloist

Set against a cacophony of

Whispering voices.

Each vested in its own guess.

Each scientifically unverifiable.

Each a child swimming with the shark.

Head,

Turned away from spluttering cattle.

Hands,

Violet-scented,

Virus- and bacteria-less.

Gathering fruits and seeds and hops.

All blessed,

All whitened,

All safe,

Sin-free.

Those eyes see the stage lit,

The script delivered.

The performance, flat.

The same words,

Their intended debauchery,

Avarice,

Passion, read now

Dot-matrixed

To a checklist,

Above the barcode.

Those predatory eyes

Should, in a flicker,

Ignite a firestorm.

An unfettered, majestical maelstrom,

A chain reaction

Of electrical signals,

Of hydrolysis miracles,

Sprinting, swinging, soaring.

Brutish elegance swirling and folding

The fabric of the universe,

Sharing its breath with God.

Predatory eyes

Stabbing,

Copulating,

Tearing flesh,

Breaking necks,

Squeezing breasts

With visceral ferocity…

A tree shading the seed,

A vine choking the tree.

A boy riding the shark,

Until time to feast upon its fins.

[rfid-lms-poxo]

RFID Library Management System in India

Indian libraries are experiencing a silent revolution. Though they've always been the knowledge and learning center, the traditional manual methods used to monitor books and resources are quickly going the way of the dinosaurs. In comes RFID Library Management System — a technology that's revolutionizing the way libraries work in the country.

Why is RFID LMS a game-changer for Indian libraries?

In essence, RFID technology employs tiny tags on books and library items that wirelessly talk to scanners. This enables auto-identification and monitoring, so goodbye to painful manual check-ins or check-outs. Indian libraries, particularly in urban and educational centers, are shifting to RFID LMS to enhance effectiveness and service quality.

What makes RFID particularly attractive to Indian libraries is the way it addresses typical issues like lengthy queues, misplaced books, and stock discrepancies. Unlike barcodes that need line-of-sight and are slow, RFID tags are read in bulk, even without opening a book, significantly accelerating mundane tasks.

Advantages of Fueling RFID LMS Adoption in India:-

1. Speedier and Smoother Operations:

Indian libraries usually cater to thousands of users per day, causing a bottleneck at the lending and return of books. RFID LMS allows for self-service kiosks in which users are able to scan books rapidly in batches. This not only reduces waiting times but also releases library personnel to deal with visitors in a more meaningful way.

2. Precise Inventory and Lower Loss:

Handling a huge collection manually is time-consuming and prone to errors. RFID technology offers real-time, accurate tracking of the location of every book. This minimizes the risk of missing or lost items—a frequent issue in Indian libraries. RFID-based security gates also deter theft, protecting valuable assets.

3. Cost and Resource Efficiency

Although initial investment may appear high, the payback on investment is obvious. Automation minimizes manpower requirements for common activities, and proper information facilitates improved acquisition and retention decisions. Eventually, it yields cost savings and improved use of resources.

4. Improved User Experience:

Today's library patrons are accustomed to instant, easy-to-get service. RFID LMS fills their bill by facilitating quicker transactions, effortless access to information, and greater order. RFID is also being combined with digital catalogs and mobile applications in many libraries, further simplifying the search and borrowing process.

The Future Outlook: RFID LMS as a Staple in Indian Libraries

In the future, RFID in Indian libraries has a bright horizon. Coupling with other digital programs like smart campuses, cloud management, and mobile access will enhance the payoff even further. Indian schools and public libraries that implement this technology are at the cutting edge of innovation, providing users with an uncomplicated combination of age-old learning and newfound convenience.

In summary, RFID Library Management Systems are not merely a technological fad—they are a radical change in the way Indian libraries operate. For those libraries that want to improve efficiency in operations, curb losses, and provide a better user experience, the use of RFID is a prudent and visionary step. If you're pondering this revolutionary move, investigate a tailored RFID Library Management Solution to discover the ideal solution for your institution's specific requirements, making library management smarter, quicker, and safer.

[topcliffconsultancy]

Top 5 Odoo Modules For Qatari Businesses: Implementation And Customization Guide

Qatar's rapidly growing economy demands efficient business management solutions, and Odoo ERP stands out as a powerful tool for streamlining operations. With its modular approach, Odoo allows businesses in Doha and across Qatar to automate workflows, enhance productivity, and scale efficiently.

This guide explores the top 5 Odoo modules ideal for Qatari businesses, along with key insights on implementation and customization.

Why Odoo is Ideal For Qatari Businesses?

Odoo's flexibility, affordability, and localization features make it a perfect fit for businesses in Odoo Qatar. Key benefits include: Arabic language support – Ensures smooth adoption in Qatar's business environment Local compliance – Adapts to Qatari tax laws and financial regulations Cloud & on-premise deployment – Offers flexibility for businesses of all sizes Seamless integration – Connects with banking and logistics systems

1. Odoo Accounting & Finance

The Odoo Accounting Software in Qatar automates invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reporting with: VAT-compliant invoicing (5% VAT support) Bank reconciliation with Qatari banks Multi-currency support (QAR, USD, EUR)

For optimal setup, work with an Odoo Official Partner in Qatar to ensure compliance.

2. Odoo Inventory Management

Essential for Qatar's logistics and retail sectors, this module offers: Barcode scanning and multi-location tracking Automated reordering and procurement Integration with local shipping carriers

Professional Odoo development services in Qatar can customize this for your warehouses.

3. Odoo HR & Payroll

Simplifies workforce management with: Arabic/English employee portals Automated WPS-compliant payroll Leave and attendance tracking

4. Odoo CRM

Boosts sales performance through: Lead and opportunity management Arabic customer communication tools Local payment gateway integration

5. Odoo POS

Perfect for Doha retailers with: Offline sales capability Loyalty program support Arabic receipt generation

Also Read: Learn How To Define And Manage Data, Like Customer Lists, Using Odoo's System

Odoo Implementation in Doha

Key steps include:

Business needs assessment

Module selection and customization

Data migration and staff training

Ongoing support from Odoo development services in Qatar

Business Automation with Odoo

Transform operations by automating: • Financial processes and reporting • Inventory and supply chain management • HR and payroll operations • Customer relationship management

Conclusion

Odoo provides comprehensive solutions for businesses in Odoo Qatar, combining localization with powerful automation. The top 5 modules cover all critical operational areas while maintaining compliance with Qatari regulations.

For successful Odoo implementation in Doha, partnering with Top Cliff Consultancy, an Odoo Official Partner in Qatar ensures proper customization and support.

FAQs About Odoo in Qatar

1. Is Odoo VAT-compliant for Qatar?Yes, the Odoo Accounting Software in Qatar supports 5% VAT reporting.

2. Can Odoo integrate with Qatari banks?Yes, it integrates with major local banks for payments and payroll.

3. Does Odoo support Arabic?Fully bilingual interface in Arabic and English.

4. How long does implementation take?Typically 2-8 weeks depending on customization.

5. Does POS work offline?Yes, with automatic sync when back online.

6. Is Odoo suitable for large enterprises?Scales perfectly for SMEs to large corporations.

7. Does it support WPS payroll Fully customizable for Qatar's WPS requirements.

8. Implementation cost in Doha? Starts from QAR 10,000 depending on modules.

[manageartworks]

The Role of Technology in Reducing Packaging Waste and Improving Sustainability

Overview

Two hundred and twenty million tons of plastic waste is expected to be generated by the end of 2024, averaging 28 kg per person worldwide. One-third of this waste, or approximately 69.5 million tons, is expected to end up in the natural environment. 

As businesses increasingly look to up their sustainability game – part due to growing regulations and part due to rising customer expectations – modern technologies open doors to several opportunities. Read as we assess the impact of packaging waste and demonstrate how technology helps organizations meet their sustainability objectives.

Understanding the Impact of Packaging Waste‍

Packaging waste is a global issue, and companies across sectors are driving efforts to build a more circular economy. Let’s understand the impact of packaging waste:

Contaminated water and soil: One of the biggest problems with waste is the rate at which it contaminates the environment. Millions of tons of packaging waste end up in landfills and water bodies, releasing pollutants into the environment. According to the World Economic Forum, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. 

Labor costs of handling waste: Packaging waste not only contaminates natural bodies but also demands massive time, costs, energy, and workforce to handle. This includes the time and money spent collecting, transporting, segregating and recycling waste and circling the material back into the system for reuse. 

Risk of non-compliance: Companies that produce a lot of packaging waste or do not stick to norms often face the brunt of costly non-compliance fines. Companies can also face lawsuits, lose accreditations, and face hurdles in launching new products or entering new markets. 

Diluted business reputation: Non-compliance fines not only burn a hole in the pocket but also dilute the market and competitive position. Companies scoring low on sustainability often struggle to acquire new customers, ensure investor confidence, and attract new talent.  

‍Poor customer trust: With consumers becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impacts of their products, companies that do not take sustainability seriously experience plummeting levels of customer trust.

How Technology Comes into Play

Given the far-reaching consequences of packaging waste, technology comes to the rescue. Modern technology tools empower companies with the capabilities they need to ensure packaging accuracy, reducing errors, rework, and waste. Here are five technologies that play a huge role: 

AI for artwork proofing: Packaging write-offs are a big reason for waste where printed packaging is thrown away. Companies, therefore, constantly seek ways to reduce or eliminate packaging write-offs to curtail the problem of waste. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the packaging artwork proofing process can enable organizations to ensure the accuracy and consistency of design elements. From font and color precision to bleeds and barcode perfection – AI can help ensure every aspect of the packaging artwork meets required guidelines, minimizing reworks and revisions and thus reducing the chances of waste. Similarly, AI can also check if packaging meets necessary compliance requirements, before it is printed - thus eliminating waste.

Cloud for better communication and transparency: Much like AI, cloud computing provides an excellent solution for organizations aiming to reduce packaging waste and enhance sustainability efforts. By managing packaging specifications in a single, cloud-based specification management system, teams can easily consolidate packaging across SKUs, thus saving on money and material. Cloud-based tools foster seamless communication and collaboration among stakeholders, reducing the risk of misunderstandings while ensuring everyone stays aligned throughout the artwork design and approval process. By getting printing and manufacturing teams involved early in the workflow cycle, cloud tools ensure that the packaging is printable at the least cost and in a sustainable way. With cloud technology, teams gain real-time transparency and visibility into artwork management, enabling timely project completion. This reduces the risk of working on outdated or incorrect artwork versions, minimizing errors and waste, thus supporting sustainability goals. 

Digital asset management for easy search and retrieval: Many companies struggle to manage their packaging artwork copies because they are stored in siloed tools and systems. This increases the chances of artwork duplication, poor data sharing, and working on the wrong versions, leading to packaging errors and, eventually, waste. ‍Digital asset management tools can store all packaging artwork copies and their versions in a centralized system. Stakeholders can easily access this system to search and retrieve the latest copies and minimize the chances of text misalignment, spelling errors, or design inconsistencies.   A digital library with version control makes it easy to manage specifications. Since the printer has access only to the latest approved version of the artwork, the chances of printing a wrong version is eliminated. 

ERP integration for better packaging decisions: Without a seamless integration of the Artwork system to the ERP, chances are that a new artwork is approved, printed and released to the market. Eventually the entire stock of the older version is destroyed and written-off.

Automation for more robust compliance: Automation also plays a huge role in minimizing packaging waste. Organizations can ensure the timely launch of high-quality packages by automating complex and error-prone packaging artwork proofing and approval processes.  Automating tasks such as audits and version control can further aid in maintaining brand consistency across products and markets, reduce the risk of recalls, and ensure compliance with emerging industry standards and regulations – especially in sectors like pharma. For example, by templating pack copy, teams can ensure sustainability related content and symbols are not missed and consumers become aware of recycling and reusing instructions mentioned on the packaging.

Analytics for enhanced reporting: Analytics is another technology that helps teams unearth hidden insights from the artwork review process. They can use analytics tools to get their hands on reports such as first-time right rate, project status, packaging artwork rejection, the average time taken, etc. By analyzing the data in the packaging specs, analytics tools can give visibility into the percentage of products with sustainable packaging and recyclable materials and meet corporate sustainability goals. Analytics also helps teams check artwork against brand guidelines and regulatory standards, identify stages where delays occur, and optimize the artwork proofing process – thus preventing revisions and waste. 

Here is How Companies are Leading the Way

Revolutionizing Artwork Copy Management for a Consumer Goods Corporation  ‍

Business Need: A prominent American multinational consumer goods corporation faced significant challenges in managing product copies for its well-established personal healthcare brands. The heavy reliance on managing product copy in Excel files proved cumbersome with numerous stakeholders, leading to a high rate of artwork errors and inefficiencies.

Solution: Implementing ManageArtworks Copy Manager helped the client centralize all copy information, bringing together over 100 users from marketing, regulatory, legal, and other departments.

Business Benefits: The implementation dramatically reduced artwork errors, thus minimizing packaging waste and improving sustainability. By centralizing copy information, the client could accelerate the approval process and reduce the need for rework or revisions. This enhanced workflow efficiency, reduced time to market for new and updated products and solidified its market presence.

Streamlining Artwork Review and Approval for a Wine Producer

Business Need: A renowned wine producer faced significant challenges in managing the artwork and copy for its extensive product range, which spans 60 brands and 75+ varietals. With a user base of 150+ professionals across various departments and over 60 packaging suppliers and printers, coordinating the label information and proof approval process was cumbersome, hindering the company's ability to respond swiftly to market trends and regulatory changes.  

Solution:  Implementing ManageArtworks helped the client streamline processes across the board, including new artwork approval and new label information.  

Business Benefits:  With the new solution, the client was able to reduce artwork approval duration by 33% over a period of two years. Centralization of label copy, including design instructions and language translations, led to a more coordinated review and approval process, helping the client reduce waste, maintain brand consistency, and ensure regulatory compliance.

In Conclusion 

Streamlining artwork workflows and ensuring seamless coordination and efficiency throughout the entire lifecycle of your artwork come with several challenges. When companies rely on manual labor and siloed tools for artwork reviews and approvals, they often end up with costly rework and revisions – eventually resulting in packaging waste. ‍

As sustainable packaging trends evolve, investing in technologies like AI, cloud, automation, and analytics can help streamline the entire process, from initial design and regulatory approvals to commercial deployment and eventual obsolescence. ‍

ManageArtworks acts as a centralized hub for managing all aspects of packaging artwork. Explore the platform today to accelerate time-to-market, ensure compliance with regulatory standards, reduce errors, and meet your sustainability goals with confidence. 

[prateekcmi]

RFID Enabled Smart Cabinets: Revolutionizing Medical Storage Management

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology allows for automated tracking of items and has numerous advantages over traditional barcode systems. In smart cabinets, passive RFID tags are attached to stored items. Cabinets contain an internal RFID reader and antennas positioned to read all tags inside. The reader is connected via Ethernet or WiFi to software stored either onsite or in the cloud. As items are added or removed from the cabinet, the reader identifies the tags and records inventory levels in real-time.

Get More Insights - Rfid Enabled Smart Cabinets   https://www.patreon.com/posts/tracking-medical-128434867