#repeat advs

[koushirouizumi]

Digimon Adventure+02/tri./Kizuna/(+Adventure:) {2020 Reboot} + Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning (+minimal Kizuna) A.M.V x “Apologize” {David Archuleta} Live Concert Version Featuring Characters/Duos/Ships: + {+2020!}/{Kizuna!}KOUTAI, {02!}KENSUKE, (Implied/Former?/Un-requited??) YamaSoraTai/Yamachi, {briefly/+also from Yamato's end); Adventures Chosen; (Overall 02 Chosen-Leaning +Side KouxTai)

“I’m hearing 'what' you say…”

“Take a Fall {?}”–

“I Need you like a heart 'needs' a BEAT– … BUT that’s Nothing {N E W…}”

“{’XXXXX’} like the A N G E L…"

“IT’S TOO– (???)”

"...Ten feet..."

Comment: If you think I'M not in this CROWD somewhere, {despite the fact my voice is really soft 'irl'} you might just be Mistaken,,,,, (Also - This is my overall personal 'final thesis' on The Beginning.) {If you watch, please genuinely try to FOLLOW the themes presented.}

{Note: Tri Pt. #6 Bokura no Mirai/"Our Future" Spoilers, Major The Beginning Spoilers, (select scenes from opening, final battle, FINAL Post-credits scene at very end clip) + middle part Big spoiler (Rui’s eye & Ukkomon) {Notes: Eye Trauma/Injury; Blood}

Original Song © O.n.e.R.e.p.u.b.l.i.c Archuleta cover from AUGUST 1st 2009’s Sunrise, Florida Concert {“Hey O.P., can you explain that GAP in your blogs' hISTORY of this fANDOM—???”} [Do you hear 'THEM' here???]

*Edited in about 5 hrs 10~ min overall (Preparing for this however took at least four days of off-and-on out-lining) {Any final fix's will come in the future...!!}

{*Slightly LOUD/Low quality audio at points!!} (*Contains cheering, as its LIVE Ver.)

by Me/Hikari M. Productions @hikari-m/@koushirouizumi/@izzyizumi {DO NOT Repost} {DO NOT Copy} {DO NOT Reproduce my Work/Video Edits Without my Permission Under any Circumstances}

[izzyizumi]

{D.I.G.I.M.O.N} Adventure/02/tri./Kizuna/2020 A.M.V: “Home” from D I S N E Ys {B e a u t y & the B e a s t} M U S I C A L Sung by: Susan Egan {as Belle} ~ KouTai {Koushiro Izumi x Taichi Yagami} {+Inquisitive Heartless!Koushiro} (from Adventure #24); & vs. Vade{r}mon {+2020 Datamon on side} + Izumis {Mrs. Izumi} & {Mr. Masami Izumi}; & Tentomon {Friendship} (as Support to Koushiro) {In the Japanese version, it's "Inquistive Heart" that Koushiro loses, as in Koushiro's literal implied Heart, also referred to as "Koushiro{u}'s Heart that Wants to Know" in side and spin-off profile+interviews material}

Summary: "Is this H O M E?

Am I {"here"} for A DAY or 'FOREVER'?"

"Oh, but then, as my life HAS been altered ONCE, it CAN CHANGE AGAIN...!!"

"...What I'd GIVE to {RETURN} to {the life} that I knew LATELY..."

"...But I know that I CAN'T {'SOLVE' MY 'Problems'} 'Going B A C K'..."

A.M.V Preview By @izzyizumi / @koushirouizumi / @hikari-m / Hikari Motomiya Productions

{This is currently a 1st draft preview!} Time spent so far: 1~ hour or so on 1st section; On lyric "Forever" until end took 2 and 1/2 or so hours, {but multiple hours of work in-between too}

This embed may not display at times. If that happens, please watch at direct link here!

Note: Though this work can be read as semi canon-compliant {+A.U. Spinoffs} for both main canon and Adventure: [2020 reboot/spinoff]; This work also connects to my KouTai ficverse, REPEAT?_Verse, specifically telling part of the story of "Original {Adventure} Koushiro" spinning off from various "Canon points", {+Ep #24}, though it was written before "Bokura no Mirai" {Tri #6} had fully released to theater! It is essentially a Timelines AU {Alternate Universe} so please note all notes/warnings on fic if you read! (*There is minimal R18 in the fic but not this AMV!) {Psuedo [non-permanent] Character death is lightly implied, but nothing major happens in the animation itself.} NO $$$ Is being made off this FAN-Work! Digimon (C) Toei Animation & Bandai.

{Do Not Repost} {Do Not Copy} {Do Not reproduce [+for @.I Use] Without my Permission Under ANY circumstances!}

This work was technically made for February 14th; as it's the 4th anniversary of the airing of "Operation: Satellite Sniper", 2020 Episode 36 which heavily featured Koushiro & Taichi interaction! {and aired February 14th, 2021 in Japan time!} (It can also be considered a late "02 Day" {0202} work, as 02 Chosen are spotted {if very} briefly/Included here!) [Regardless, their presence is extremely Important to my wider ficverse including my 02 Ficverse!]

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Why Spell Check (and some grammar check) isn't AI

So I've seen in the wake of Nanowrimo some people claim that spell check is AI and thus is like Gen AI, and I saw the claim originator on Twitter, but when I pressed them, they basically tried to say they had a degree in computer science, so when I pressed into them if they knew what they were talking about, they couldn't answer because obviously don't know about AI.

For some background I've done some light programming (If you look at the Korean name generator, that's all me). And I also have relatives that did programming.

Here, I can lay out how spell check works without AI or a fancy algorithm.

The oldest spellchecks didn't use AI or Gen AI, they used what is your basic corresponding tables.

If you use something like google sheets (database), you can do this pretty quickly yourself though with a lot of manpower.

Here is a list of commonly misspelled words.

Add that with another table with how they are commonly misspelled.

Then you need a table with "common typos"

Then you need one more table for "Words the user adds."

The algorithm is basically this: Set up a loop. A loop is a mechanism that has an algorithm (or set of instructions in it) which repeats until a certain instruction is met. This loop with this algorithm will check for words. In this case, anything with letters, usually encompassing ' and - (though some programs ignore dashes).

So[,][ ]it[ ]will[ ]look[ ]at[ ]letters[ ]in[ ]this[ ]sentence[ ]and[ ]figure[ ]out[ ]if[ ]it[ ]is[ ]spelled[ ]correctly.

The first loop in the previous sentence will look at the word "so" by selecting everything it knows to be a letter in English. Tada "S, o" Then correspond that to the dictionary. So shows up in the dictionary listing it has of English words. Thanks Webster. (If you're British, the OED)

The Algorithm concludes the word is spelled correctly. No more work needs to be done on So. The next word is it "i, t" correspond that to the dictionary and so on.

If you have a "bad word" for example "alot" then the work is, word is spelled incorrectly. Next "work to be done" is to find out if this word is in the "commonly misspelled" words list. If yes, then underline the word in red to get it corrected.

AKA run Algorithm to underline word (usually a few lines of code if you're doing it the old way).

Then the algorithm moves on. The function of right click/Cntrl click is saying, OK, this word, "alot" is it commonly misspelled? Here are a list of corrections according to this other table. This is the work that needs to be done: We need a popup table. We need to pull from the database this misspelling, and then we need to pull from this other database and pull corresponding correct spellings based on this. Then you set up an if-then If the user clicks on this word, change highlighted word.

This is your basic spelling algorithm. You do not need gen AI for this or AI.

Grammar works similarly. You need a table, the type of speech it is (n, v, adv, adj) and then to load in "rules" one should use. You do not need AI. You need some basic programming skills. On the table of somewhere between "Hello, world" (1) and "OMG, I created artificial intelligence like Data " (10) My "Korean name generator" is like 2.5? in difficulty (minus all of the language and cultural knowledge). Haha. Still mocking myself. But a Spellcheck is not far from that. it is like 3. You could build one fairly easily with PHP and database access to a dictionary and misspelled words with corrections.

But Google pulled from the Enron Emails.

In this case, you can sorta fuzzy logic it and create bigger algorithms, mostly to sort out the *grammar* and *New words* that were used that aren't already in the database, which basically is another loop, but with an add to database function. (i.e. table). Then you would correspond this with another loop to look at "odd grammar" and flag it.

You can use AI to sort it faster than a basic algorithm, but nope, you do not need AI to correspond it. A basic algorithm would do. You can also use AI for "words that look similar to this one" and "Words commonly used in place of this one"

But overall, You do not need AI for a grammar check. You only need a dictionary, a set of commonly held rules of English and exceptions (maybe some Noam Chomsky, though he's controversial), and then some programming skill to get past the hurdle.

But Grammar check could use AI

AI as it stands is basically a large algorithm to match large datasets to the words you use. But the problem is that the datasets are taken from users who did not volunteer to put in that information.

It is not Data on Enterprise have novel experiences of every day and learning how to function in the human world by processing it through a matrix of quantum computing.

So WHEN grammar check does use AI, the AI is mostly doing the crunching of the corresponding the information into a more neat table option, as I understand it. It is not the same thing as Gen AI or your average spell check and Microsoft algorithm from say 2000.

Those are not equal things. Instead, adding Gen AI to say, Microsoft Word, is more like stealing your words for the machine (which BTW, Microsoft absolutely did and you need to transfer out to Anti-AI programs/Apps.) and corresponding them for Gen AI future use for people who can't write worth a damn, and then "averaging" it out. Elew. Who wants to write to the average? That's anti-Creative.

And just because it uses an Algorithm, doesn't automatically use AI.

Look, I can write a algorithm now:

Loop: If you want to be strong...

Go outside.

Do cardio.

Go lift weights.

Make sure you eat a healthy diet and balanced which includes reducing refined sugars and do not eat bad fats.

That equally is a set of instructions, but that's not automatically AI.

I programmed my calculator to spit out the quadratic formula. And this isn't even officially programming, this is a script. Dudes, if you're going to call that AI, then you need help with learning computer programming.

The threshold for making AI v spellcheck is a lot, lot higher programming than a set of simple tables and a loop that looks for letters and spaces corresponding it to an existing dictionary. If that's you're threshold for AI, then when you type words, you are caught in an algorithm. Ooooooo... OMG, when you pull up a dictionary to spellcheck yourself, that's AI. C'mon. The threshold is a might higher to make AI or "victim of algorithm" as in Twitter.

So anytime someone says, "All Spellcheck uses genAI/AI" Laugh in their faces and say no. 'cause like, I'm a terrible programmer, and even I'm like, Meh, not that hard to set up spell check, give me a solid dictionary database and I'll do ya.

That said, A human will beat AI on grammar anytime and will be able to sort weird spellings faster and A-OK, or not.

[mydearneteyam]

THE ANSWER IS YES ;; NETEYAM

summary ;; maybe he reacted a little late.

pairing ;; neteyam x fem!na'vi!reader

warnings ;; none ¡!

word count ;; 0.4k

word of the day ;; nì’eyng [nɪ.ˈʔɛjŋ] adv. back, in response, in answer

"I think I like you" you murmured quietly. Your arms resting behind your head as you and your best friends brother were looking at the sky at night. You could tell how he held his breath for a few seconds, maybe because he couldn't believe it until his voice that sounded like a simple sigh questioned.

"Excuse me?" he sat up softly, looking at you intently. Without meeting his eyes you spoke again. Maybe it was the silence so comfortable, maybe that you couldn't hold something in your chest for so long anymore or it was just on impulse, but you repeated it, no matter what he said.

"I think I like you, Neteyam." he was silent again, thinking, you could conclude, but you didn't care much… or so you wanted to pretend. "Well, it was a lovely night," you admitted, standing up and picking up your bow with your remaining arrows at your side, with an impassivity that made Neteyam entertain the idea that you were lying. "I have to go back to my clan. I'll see you tomorrow."

He wanted to say something, he wanted you to stop and really explain to him how you felt, he wanted to know how you found out, for Eywa, he wanted you to answer so many questions, but his voice could only come out when your footsteps had already stopped being heard the moment you stepped into the forest to go back to your home. Then it dawned on you the most obvious thing, but which he overlooked given the growing feeling of warm in his chest.

He didn't give you an answer. That thought, that idea itself was in his head all night.

"I didn't answer." but you didn't seem sad, you didn't seem afraid of rejection, although you didn't seem excited about reciprocated feelings either.

Since you were little you both had certain ways of expressing affection, but he always took it as something normal. He liked to show affection physically to his beloved ones and just assumed that you did too, despite any differences you might have, he assumed it was all platonic.

His heart beat when he remembered what the stars looked like reflected in your eyes and he laughed to himself, ashamed of his ideas.

The words couldn't even leave his lips to himself because of how embarrassed he felt, his face now heating up as he covered himself with his hands.

"I like her too. Ugh, what an idiot I am." he thought, squirming in his hammock.

a/n ;; i had a series idea for neteyam but mmmm still thinking about it-

[nordicfiord]

Do you have any other dynamics between the voices that you like,besides Cold and Contrarian?

Love your art,by the way,especially Contrarian!I love how soft and puffy he looks!

Ohhh, thanks for the question! And thanks for the kind words!! Have another Contrarian – he is pretty sure his friendship with anyone would be good!

it also would consist of bullying half the time but if everyone is content that it can lead to some of the best friendships out there!

And now… IT’S RUMBLING TIME!!

tldr: I am semi-interested in most dynamics, but am currently obsessed with just one. Crossovers and AUs make dynamics more fun for me to think about because of backgrounds.

So! Voices, huh? What a wild bunch.

I love those little guys. I love that mostly here at the stp fandom we are just interpreting them through our own lenses of understanding – through our own perspectives. It is very fitting, and it allows all of us to view these dynamics in many, many different situations.

Honestly, my brain is a mess. It is a giant cauldron, where everything at once is boiling and twisting and turning. That’s why everything is mixing up into lots of crossovers and weird ideas. 

Can I say that I like voices dynamics in canon? Sure! I like that one Adv-Fury route with Stubborn and Contrarian having the “I may not have a brain, gentlemen, but I have an idea” moment. I like that Hero tried to stand up for us in Cage and Paranoid helped Skeptic to insist on his solution by “physically” restraining him?? What a power move. Pretty much every interaction between voices is something interesting to think about, honestly.

But, uhh…

My brain just chose two random clowns and said “Them. I wanna rotate them.”

Honestly I don’t even know why he (my brain) did it. Maybe he just projected my favourite dynamic (clown and clown enabler). But I like other dynamics too??? Why not them???

Genuinely don’t know.

BUT!

Remember I talked about AUs, crossovers and stuff? Those are bigger dollhouses for my brain. There he can assign some dynamics to characters and watch them unfold.

Examples? Sure!

Skeptic being “the mom friend”. Originally it went from the need to have anyone that could control ContraColdChaos. But when I thought about putting voices in my old Steven Universe AU (I will talk about it here I swear it is just too much to unpack….), it all just made so much more sense. Because there Skeptic was the one responsible for revolution and leaving their home world, ended up on an unknown planet with some very troubled teammates (traumatised disabled leader, “I-died-so-many-times-I-can’t-be-stable” general, repeated killer of said general, army refugee and a high-quality spy) and he HAD to take responsibility and make sure nobody dies. Also that created a very interesting dynamic with Hero, because Hero is basically a young abused ruler who doesn’t believe he has any autonomy… and here Skeptic is, his subordinate, who literally is making all the decisions. Like, it’s clear that Skeptic cares and wants the best for Hero… but he is pretty much adding to a family emotional neglect.

And there’s more. Opportunist feeling like he owes Smitten for saving his life. Cold and Skeptic trying to process that they’ve killed and revived the very same person. Smitten being this person and trying to live a normal life with his murderer and resurrector in the same home.

I guess I just… Can’t operate inside of the canon universe with the little outside influence there is?

Maybe in my head-universe, when TLQ left, he left the voices a big fun playground, where they can put various masks and play many, many different stories. They need something to occupy their “forever” too, after all.

Anyway thanks if you’ve read this far!! I appreciate it, really. Sorry if it’s not uhh… organized? Like I said, my mind really is a mess, haha.

Have a nice day everyday!~

[eiraeths]

small list of words i’m feeling particularly insane about today:

vis-à-vis - (pre) in relation to; as compared with; face to face with. (n) one that is face to face with another. (adv) together

leitmotif (n) - dominant recurring theme; something (such as a melody, an idea, or a phrase) repeated many times throughouta book, story, opera, etc

magnanimity (n) - the fact or condition of being magnanimous; generosity

troth (n) - faith or loyalty when pledged in a solemn agreement or undertaking; truth

repertoire (n) - a stock of plays, dances, or pieces that a company or a performer knows or is prepared to perform

anathema (n) - something or someone that one vehemently dislikes; a curse

bathos (n) - (especially in a work of literature) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous

à gogo (adv) - as much as you like; to your heart’s content

dogmatic (adj) - inclined to lay down principals as incontrovertibly true

aleatory (adj) - unplanned or dependent on chance

slapdash (adj) - done too hurriedly and carelessly

riotous (adj) - marked by or involving public disorder

vitiate (v) - to damage or destroy the value of something

cozen (v) - to deceive by coaxing or trickery

kowtow (v) - act in an excessively subservient manner

cicatrize (v) - (with reference to a wound) heal by scar formation

hegemonize (v) - subject a population, region, process, etc, to a dominant political or social power

[sheepiemc]

your touch (a craving)

part 4: shoulder (first | prev)

Keep the Devildom in order. 

That is my job.  

This mantra had been repeating in Diavolo’s head ever since the Lotan hallway incident where he almost lost himself in your touch. The safety and security of the Devildom was - and always will be - his top priority. Imagine the chaos that would inevitably arise should the population catch wind that their prince held especially fond feelings for a participant of his exchange program, and a powerless human, no less! 

Of course, he didn’t think of you as powerless. You held the leashes of 6 out of 7 of the Avatars of Sin, with the final one all but within your grasp. Hell, you didn’t even know how much power you wielded over him, the actual prince and acting ruler of the Devildom. That’s what made this whole situation so dangerous. 

Diavolo could read your truth; he knew there were no ill intentions in your heart towards him or his people. But demons were an untrusting and suspicious lot. There was no way they would believe any human, with or without innate magical abilities, wasn’t trying to wield absolute power in the Devildom to sow discord and bring destruction to their way of life. Having pacts with the Avatars of Sin already put a target on your back; Diavolo didn’t want to make things worse by adding more fuel to the fire. 

More than that, however, Diavolo knew you deserved someone who would be devoted to you and only you. As the future king of the Devildom, should something happen and there be a choice between you and his kingdom, he would have to pick his kingdom. 

Every time. 

He never wanted to make that decision. So he would keep it all inside. No one had to know his true feelings. He could keep pretending the attraction he felt towards you was because you were a novelty, and as soon as you went back to the human world - where you belonged - he would forget all about you. 

He thought about all this, sitting at the big desk in his office, while he was supposed to be going over and signing all the plans for the Winter Formal - which had somehow ballooned into two separate events, The Winter Festival and Ball. The festival got the student body involved with booths from students and clubs, with extra snow-themed activities like ice skating, skiing, and a snowball fight tournament. The ball was still a traditional ball with a winter theme, but the increased workload from preparing for the festival made things a little strained for the prince, as most of the changes were his idea (even after he told Lucifer to handle everything). 

He’d been in the office for hours already, and the light outside was shifting from perpetual twilight to perpetual dusk. His jacket was hung on the back of his chair and his tie was loosened, with the first two buttons on his shirt unbuttoned. How many hours had it been? He blinked, trying to focus on the paperwork in front of him. He had been at it so long, his hand was starting to cramp up. Diavolo put the pen down and sighed. He needed to get his mind off you AND this paperwork. 

And he knew exactly what he needed to distract himself. 

He looked around the empty room once before taking a key out from under a fake bottom in a drawer in his desk. Looking around again, he ducked beneath the big desk and used the key to unlock a secret compartment where he pulled out his latest guilty pleasure, Tempted by Forbidden Royal Desire by Amy Lovejoy. It’s not that Diavolo felt ashamed to read such a title, after all, what does a prince have to be ashamed of? No, Diavolo was being cautious so as not to incur the wrath of his loyal butler. Many a time previously had Barbados caught Diavolo reading something like Tempted by Forbidden Royal Desire when a deadline on some important business was approaching, so Barbados had banned the books from the office indefinitely. 

But when his world got to be too much, Diavolo loved to get lost in the world of romantic fiction, where the heroines could overcome any adversity, and every ending was a happy one. Some heroines felt trapped by their station or duty, some heroines felt they couldn't be with their love interests because it was wrong or they were fundamentally incompatible, but true love always prevailed. Even when all seemed lost, a miraculous conflict resolution was just around the corner. He flipped to the last page he left off and continued reading: 

He kissed her with all the passion of a thousand dying suns. She wanted to get lost in the sensations of him, his warmth, his strength, all that passion roiling underneath his taut skin. When his tongue slid into her mouth she felt like she was on fire. His strong, manly tongue dominated her smaller, weaker one. She wanted to be consumed by him. She knew she shouldn’t, of course. It wasn’t proper for a princess to desire so strongly but she couldn’t help how she felt. It had been so long since she had felt the touch of another, and never had she been graced by the touch of one from the opposite sex. Many nights she spent wondering if she would ever get out of this dungeon, if she would know happiness again.  She knew she should push him away, try to fight, but his large hands held her delicate, feminine body so firmly in his grasp. Their mouths molded together perfectly. She whimpered into the kiss, helpless against the unyielding pressure building up within her, his hardness pressing into her softness. His mouth slid from hers, his lips caressing her cheek, her jaw, her neck. She couldn’t contain the wanton moan that escaped her lips when his mouth traveled further south to her heaving bosom spilling out of her now ripped bodice.  “We have to stop, Faeby’o,” she said when some sense finally returned to her head. “This is wrong.” They didn’t belong together. She was a princess and he was a poor, simple commoner, from a rival kingdom, of all things.  “If this is wrong, Stelleia,” he said gruffly, his deep voice dripping with hunger, “I don’t want to be right.” The way he said her name made her inner goddess quiver. At that, she finally allowed herself to be consumed by the flames of passion. She dragged her hands down the hard planes of his chest, making her way down to his throbbing-

“That doesn’t look like this quarter’s fiscal budgetary expenditures.”

He felt the warmth of your body hovering beside him before he heard your voice, startlingly close to his ear. 

His heartbeat kicked up when he realized you were leaning into him, reading over his shoulder. Despite being surprised by your sudden appearance, Diavolo subdued his physical reaction. He turned his head calmly to look at you, your face only inches from his, your eyes focused on the book in his hands. 

What he couldn’t control was his sharp inhalation of breath when he realized what exactly you were reading over his shoulder. He couldn’t even revel in the feel of your touch and your warmth so close to him before the panic set in. He leaned back and away, giving you as much distance as he could without getting up and out of his seat. 

“Do you even know if what you said means anything?” he said amusedly, not a hint of wavering in his voice to betray how nervous you really made him. 

“Isn’t that your job?” You hopped onto his desk, crossing your legs and leaning back defiantly, like you were challenging him to come closer. Your boldness knew no bounds, never ceasing to impress the Demon Prince. “What’s that you're reading, anyway? A dirty book?” You wiggled your eyebrows, and Diavolo could feel heat bloom across his face and neck. 

There was no point in hiding it from you, not after you plainly saw what he was reading. He closed the book and examined the cover, holding it at an angle so you could look at it with him. The two main characters were locked in a passionate embrace, nearly disrobed. If the title didn’t give it away, the cover illustration certainly confirmed your suspicions. 

You gasped. “Diavolo, I am positively scandalized,” you held a hand to your chest, playfully chiding the prince. “And while you should be working. Tsk, tsk.” 

“And what,” he said, getting up from his chair, feeling emboldened by your boldness, “are you doing in my office when I am supposed to be working, hmm?” He leaned heavily into your space, one hand dangerously close to your thigh on the desk, the other propped up on his hip. You were like a magnet, he was helpless against the pull he felt toward you. He was warm, so close you swear you could feel the deep hum resonating in his chest. 

You held the stack of papers you brought with you up to your chest, almost like a barrier between you and the prince. You blinked up at him, mouth suddenly dry, senses muddled by the spicy scent of him now consuming your thoughts. 

“Barbados,” you cleared your throat when you heard your voice crack, “wanted me to bring you more of these forms to sign.” 

Not so brave when the tables were turned, Diavolo noted. He chuckled as he pulled them out of your hands and put them on the desk without looking at them. His hand landed on the other side of your hip, effectively trapping you between him and the desk. No parts of you were actually touching him, but you felt like you were on fire just the same.

“So he asked you to be the messenger?” It was a question but he already knew the answer: Barbados, loyal butler that he was, knew he wouldn't be able to ignore you, no matter what boring paperwork you were handling.

“I- I was,” you stuttered, heart hammering in your chest, “in the hallway when he caught me. I figured I had time before my next class anyway…” Your eyes flickered to his mouth for only half a second, but Diavolo caught it. He inhaled sharply, knowing he was teetering precariously on the edge. 

Keep the Devildom in order. 

That is my job.

He hummed, pushing himself off the desk and stepping away to give you space. “I appreciate your generosity, MC. Thank you for bringing these forms to me.” 

Neither of you moved for a beat, afraid of shattering something precious. He looked away first. You understood. You hopped off his desk and slowly headed towards the door. 

“I should,” you said as you stood at the door, “probably get to class now.” 

He looked at you again and nodded, unable to read the uncertain expression on your face. You lingered a moment longer, like you were waiting for him to say something. 

He couldn't. 

When you closed the door behind you, Diavolo rubbed his hand across his face and sighed. 

He had to get back to work.

(next)

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

Febuwhump day 8 -- "Why Won't it Stop?"

“Why won’t it stop?”

The tearful declaration shouldn’t have surprised Time, but yet it did. The group’s veteran had been plagued by nightmares for what seemed to be weeks now, the cause of this affliction completely unknown and its solution just as elusive. At first, he’d hidden it from the group of heroes—then, when the bags under his eyes became too prominent to explain away, he’d taken the other’s worry in stride, joking with Warrior about how he liked coffee as black as his soul, waking Wind up early so that he too could suffer the curse of watching the sun rise over the trees. Then that occasional sleepless night stretched into two, and three, and four in a row. Now, he was exhausted, too exhausted to even be bitter about the situation, and some of those snarky walls came down with him.

The heroes had a watch, set up so that two people were up at all hours of the night, switching out so that everyone got a decent amount of sleep while the camp remained safe and guarded. Recently, that duty had expanded to accompanying Legend in his nightly vigils by the campfire, where he was always found to have drawn from his bedroll after that first hour of rest was interrupted by nightmares. Legend hadn’t even noticed their silent system concerning his care, which worried Time all the more.

He wondered what kind of nightmares could be making their prickly, battle-hardened veteran awake from his dreams gasping and trembling like a child, hour after hour, night after night. The rest of the heroes didn’t know what to think of it, either. They averted their eyes and squeezed his shoulder or pressed hot chocolate into his hands before they retreated, giving him his space to sort himself out. Pride was a tricky thing, and Legend was nothing if not fiercely prideful—to see him this way put them all on the wrong foot, and they were all afraid of making the wrong move and pushing the veteran to decide he’d make them share in his suffering with his harsh tongue.

“I… I just… why won’t it stop?” Legend nearly whimpered the words. He pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. “I want it to stop.”

“I know, I know,” Time soothed, carded a gentle hand through his damp, greasy hair. Another thing that Time was surprised about, but knew that he shouldn’t have been. Just a few minutes earlier, Legend had shot up in his bedroll with a strangled gasp—as he did every night—in the wake of one of his nightmares. He’d stolen over to the fire, trailing a blanket behind him like a ghost, and just stood there and blinked down at Time as if trying to determine if he was real or not. Time, on instinct, had lifted an arm to invite Legend to sit next to him—and before he knew it, the kid slammed into his chest like a cannonball, curling up in his lap. Time took it in stride well enough, though he could already imagine Malon’s delighted squeal when he relayed the scenario to her in some letter later, when all of this was over. Because this spell would end, and their vet would be alright again, eventually. “Just close your eyes for a little bit, you have to get some rest. Even if you can’t get back to sleep, it’s okay to just relax for a bit.” 

The long rehearsed and repeated words fell empty off of his tongue. Legend’s little disbelieving scoff was enough of an answer to that advice. Gee, Time, don’t you think he’d already thought of that? Sleeping and resting and relaxing? But Legend didn’t voice that snarky comment, and Time wished he would have, if only to imitate a reminder of their normal, sassy veteran, only for a moment. Instead, he rubbed at his eyes, sniffling, and curled tighter around himself.

“I just… how did you manage it, Time?” Legend said, his shoulders raising. His blond bangs, tipped with that odd pink that he seemed to favor, obscured his eyes. Still, one of his hands clenched in the fabric of Time’s tunic, and the lines of his shoulders were tense. “You… you got married… you got out of… of this life of adventuring and fighting monsters and… and all of that stuff. Got yourself a house, a family, a… a life, outside of… adventure, or whatever.” He turned his face away, his tone hesitant, like he was worried about angering Time with his next words: “Malon… don’t you worry she’ll be… taken?”

“What do you mean?” asked Time, keeping his tone light. His heart sank nevertheless, because he knew exactly what the kid meant.

“Well, just like… you’ll get too comfortable, and then something’ll happen, and you won’t be ready because you let your guard down and you hurt those you love because you got too close?” Legend sat up with a start then, scrubbing at his face. He turned away from Time, hugging his arms around himself as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I’m sure I’m not making any sense.”

“No, no, I understand you. Are you thinking of someone in particular? Perhaps that ‘roommate’ of yours?” Time asked, his tone teasing. “I’ve met him before, that little bunny hood of his was always so goofy.”

“Yeah… so goofy…” Legend said dreamily, and wasn’t that a sign of his mental state. “And my family and this one girl I used to know and just… everyone. I… I’m sorry, Time, I don’t mean to be putting this all on you.” Suddenly, Legend seemed to come back to himself, and a slight blushed tinged his cheeks. He swiped a hand up through his bangs and pushed himself to standing, averting his eyes. “I’m really sorry, Time, being tired just makes me blab. I think I’ll go back to bed, see if I can’t get another few hours.”

“Stay.” Time caught his elbow. “Just for a second, please.”

Legend allowed him to pull him back down to sitting, though he looked like he wanted to die about the whole thing. Time shifted on the log, gathering himself up with a steadying breath. Then he spoke.

“I do worry about Malon. And I worry about the farm, and Zelda, and all of Hyrule. Now I worry about all of you boys, too, that I’ve gotten to know each and every one of you.. I worry that something will happen while I’m gone, or I’ll die off in some corner of the timeline and she’ll never know, or that something will happen to one of you boys and I’ll be left to live with it. And I… the only way I’ve gotten through it is being able to talk to Malon,” Time confessed. “She’s my rock, fiery woman that she is.”

Legend took this all in silently. Time rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling awkward all of the sudden.

“Do… do you think that you’d be able to talk about any of it, Leg’?” he ventured. “I’m not one to press about secrets, but something’s clearly bothering you. Maybe if you got some of that off of your chest, you’d be able to sleep?”

Time braced for some acidic retort when Legend opened his mouth, an apology for overstepping already sitting on the tip of his tongue. Instead, the kid let out a choked little sob, and it all came tumbling out. Another surprising show of trust, another surprise that shouldn’t quite have been one. Out came disjointed tales of a fish, and a dream, and sitting with his uncle in the tunnels underneath his castle. Tales of how, every time he tried to help people—every time he even got close to them—he somehow made everything worse, and death followed after. Time didn’t have any advice for him, but he listened, and eventually, Legend had worn himself out enough that he managed to doze off in his lap.

Morning found them in the same position. Time stared at the sun as it began to rise in the eastern portion of the sky, and he begged it to rise a little slower, so that the vet could get just a few more precious minutes before it woke him and reset this awful cycle.

But Hylia had never been very kind to her heroes. And the sun rose, Legend awoke, and another restless day started.

[dedederedeconstructivist]

Food and Nurture 3: Ersatz Food for an Ersatz Family

Its time for another instalment of Evangelion's motif of Food and Nurture. As with the last two, this is a bit rushed and raw due to Life Circumstances, but I wanted to get it out now since the next week or two will be even more hectic. This week on Food and Nurture: Why we can tell from Episode 2 on that Misato's attempt to make a family with Asuka and Shinji is doomed from the start, and why it all hinges on instant curry...

So far we’ve looked at Kaji’s Melons and the rebuild’s Fucked Up Dinner, but neither are the most prominent food motifs in Evangelion. There’s three that share that first place ranking: Misato’s love of junk food (and alcohol!), Shinji’s cooking (and the Unforgettable Luncheon), and the bentos – and it’s not a coincidence that they’re tied together so closely. Bentos and Shinji's cooking - along with that important Ramen scene - will come later in seperate posts, as will a consideration of substance abuse. For now, we're sticking to Misato's inability to cook.

One of the earliest things we learn about Misato is that she can’t cook to save her life – that’s made explicit dialogue in Episode 3, but our first glimpse is when she takes Shinji shopping for the little ‘welcoming party’:

Our first sign something is wrong right there, and its reinforced in the iconic ‘what’s in Misato’s fridge’ sequence: ice, shelf stable convenience store snacks, and an amount of beer that would make Nero Wolfe nod approvingly.

Her first meal with Shinji isn’t a particularly great spread, though at convenience store prices it probably wasn’t cheap either:*

The dialogue that accompanies it is important:

“[Generalized Drunk Misato Noise] Life doesn’t get any better than this! Don’t you want to eat? It’s pretty good, even if it is instant!’ [The first line has a big difference in the ADV dub versus the NF and the NF subs, but not a significant one for this reading.]

This is, of course, a lie. Life gets a great deal better than eating microwaved food, prepared on a mass scale without love or tailoring for individual preference. It’ll taste fine, probably, but it won’t be good good. And that’s the point of Misato’s diet as a motif: She’s lying to herself, again and again, because the alternative would mean confronting things about herself that are too painful.

Let’s consider this exchange in a broader light for a moment. Misato’s made the sudden decision to bring Shinji into her home, and will repeat it with Asuka later. She’s using them to create a family, in part because she sees their loneliness and is (rightly) horrified at the thought of leaving them in it, but also because she doesn’t have… well, really, anything at all in her own life. She has the drive for revenge. She's got PenPen. She has alcohol and her car. She has her weird and toxic friendship with Ritsuko, and… That seems to be it, really: a pet, a drinking problem, severe trauma, and a friend who is actively conspiring to commit omnicide and lies to her constantly. Because of this, Misato, from the moment we meet her, is herself profoundly and deeply alone. Then when she sees a lonely teenager (who’s only slightly less emotionally mature than she is) she takes him into her home, lightly grooms him, and tries to make a family with him as a combination son and, to a limited extent, love object. She sees another, and goes ‘fuck it, move in too!’ She sees people that are as lonely as she is and thinks 'maybe we can be lonely together, and that means we won't be lonely at all, so fuck it, let's give it a try.'

Is that healthy? Fuck no! Is it why we love Misato? Fuck yes! She’s a hot mess with a capital H and capital M! But to return to the symbolism dimension for a moment: Misato’s family isn’t real, and never actually gels together as a proper unit. She and Asuka never bridge their gap, which has a whole Generational Electra Complex vibe tied into it to complicate things even further. She and Shinji create exciting new gaps between them as the series goes on, where the weirdness of their dynamic steadily gets weirder and weirder. Asuka and Shinji’s whole thing is… A Whole Thing that culminates in explicit violence. Her created family can never be real (here, real meaning the loving family she wants to create) – it can only an ersatz family, an inferior substitute that fills the gap of a real thing when it is inaccessible. It can provide an illusion of having that real thing, of enjoying that precious luxury, that can for a few moments take some of the sorrow and longing away. She lacks the skills to transform it from illusion into reality - to make those moments of playing pretend transform into a lifetime of true, human connection.

Our first signs that this is what’s happening are with the food - they signpost it right from the start, kicking off in Episode 2 and solidifying the warning in Episode 5. Evangelion takes great pains to establish food and cooking for others as a method of nurture in both rebuilds and anime. The big post on that’ll be about Shinji, but we also see it with Hikari (and a step removed, in Kaji, via gardening), and we see its absence in certain key characters like Gendo during the Fucked Up Dinner. Cooking for another (at least voluntarily) is a way of reaching out to them and creating a connection by satisfying one of the most basic needs, from which the possibility of satisfying other needs flows. It’s a primal kind of connection rather than an intellectual one, however much art goes into the meal: it’s a fundamental way of saying ‘I value you and want to keep you alive’ because food literally does that. But Misato can’t cook. It is, very literally, nourishing another person in the most basic possible way... and she can’t do it, because she doesn’t know how.

We can excuse that first night because, hey, it’s short notice! Fridge is empty because she works a hellish schedule (which we also see in Episode 3), she doesn’t have/make time to cook, etc. That’s a valid reason, but it extends only so far, and even when they’ve had time to settle in… Misato still can’t cook. In the all-important Episode 5, there’s a little dinner party with Ritsuko, and her terrible cooking is played for comedy. Ritsuko emphasises this point for us:

“You mean you’re still eating this instant stuff?”

Misato’s idea of cooking for both family and guests is borderline inedible and comes from a packet. If we trust the text, she’s talented enough to somehow fuck up instant curry to the point its inedible, which seems like a pretty remarkable achievement since they’re designed to be pretty basic ‘add water, heat, it will be edible’ things.** This is, just like many of the ‘quirky’ bits about Rei, actually part of the Tragedy of Eva – it’s a slightly comic approach to something that’s actually a sign of a deep, deep trauma hiding in plain sight. Obviously, Misato missed some important development when she was a borderline catatonic teenager, so on the one hand, we can’t really judge her for not magically turning into Martha Stewart the moment she decided to start an ersatz family – but on the other, that’s kind of the point of these scenes, that she can’t provide a domestic environment of stability because she lacks the skills.***

She can function, but not particularly well in the areas she’s undeveloped in… and in the course of the show, we see plenty, but most aren’t that serious and pair off with areas she’s functional enough in that it compensates. For instance:

She’s an alcoholic, but she’s a functional one and she seems to be good at her job and capable of managing to be where she needs to be without too much difficulty, Episode 1 not withstanding.

She can’t manage money, but her job is to try and prevent the literal apocalypse that could come any week so its hard to fault her for not sensibly investing (or trying to preserve her liver) rather than buying that kick-ass new jacket or getting her car detailed. If she wins, she can worry about debt management - if she loses... well, might as well have looked real good doing it.

She doesn’t like to be alone with her thoughts, but she still managed to live alone – not particularly well – and to hold herself together enough to become very, very good at her job while she was doing so.

But then there are two areas of her uneven development that don’t fit this pattern of not being harmful – of moving from what we could call subpar functioning to active dysfunction: Her inability to connect in a healthy way to her charges even as she treats them as adopted children and would, quite literally, die for at least one of them; and her exposed inability to pursue healthy adult relationships and find a partner. This ties in with Misato's whole vibe around her inappropriate sexual interactions with Shinji and, potentially, Asuka - that's for another day, though IIRC qmisato has some great posts on it.

In any event, and setting aside those interactions, these two areas of dysfunction cause harm to her and others. They make her life actively less enjoyable and prevent her from moving forward. Her monologue to Kaji in 15 is effectively an announcement that she is scared to love not just him, but anyone, in a healthy adult way – she doesn’t know how, and figuring it out is too scary, followed up immediately by a massive wave of guilt at her failure. Her treatment of Asuka and Shinji exposes that she’s also not really sure how to go about being a mother, but we already knew that because she can’t cook – she can’t nourish them.

Not being able to cook means she can’t engage in the centerpiece of domesticity**** and familial nourishing. All she can do is offer a substitute for it: encapsulated perfectly in a badly prepared instant curry. Something that’s ‘pretty good’ if you can’t imagine going beyond the ersatz – something that’ll do in a pinch. She said it herself: ‘life doesn’t get any better than this’, but that’s a lie to disguise the knowledge it both could and should be better, but that she lacks the tools to make it better, whether it’s the food or the emotional connections she’s trying to create with it. She can wish for better things, and instinctively reach for it, but then she’s hit with a brick wall of lacking the skills to actually attain it coupled with a finishing move of not having time to do so and experiencing all that self-loathing and hatred over failing. And there's the irony of her statement: As much as its a lie in that better things are both possible and wanted, for Misato, life doesn’t get better than the substitute during her life – not because she really loves instant ramen with badly made instant curry slopped on, but because, again in her own words:

No. That wasn’t a decision… I was just running away. … I’m just like Shinji. I’m a coward. … I’m such a child.

It doesn't get better than that because the pain of reaching for the real thing is too much. The substitute will have to do, however inadequate it truly is. She will substitute for Shinji and Asuka's mother - badly. She will substitute them for her children - badly. She will substitute revenge for happiness - badly.

This theme of substitution is constant in Evangelion – Rei for Yui as the obvious example, but through the series and rebuilds we witness other ones, big and small. Shinji cooks using ersatz artificial meat. Seele substitute their monoliths for their physical presence. Gendo substitutes Ritsuko for Rei during the Interrogation Sequence. Kaji substitutes apparent womanizing for his actual pain. Unit-13 stands in for Unit-1. Shinji is referred to – rather misleadingly, given his vital role – as a substitute, an alternative, and a backup pilot to Rei. Misato substitutes alcohol for emotional satisfaction, and in the electra complex way, Kaji for her father. Maya subs out romantic fulfilment for professional growth. Rei substitutes herself for herself. The Dummy Plugs substitute real pilots. Jet Alone substitutes the Eva – or tries to. The artificial Lances substitute the real ones. On a metanarrative level, Mari subs in for Rei, Asuka, and Kaji at different points. Over and over again, Eva hits us with this theme of substitution, of the ersatz solution to an absence, and how its never quite like the real thing. Sometimes it’s so different – Rei in particular – that it barely resembles the real thing (hell, maybe it’s better); sometimes, like Misato’s cooking, its an inferior thing that, by its reflection of that real thing, only heightens the sense of its absence.

To close this out, I mentioned Rei above - and how Misato's inability to cook is like many of Rei's little moments of oddness, in how it at once seems merely quirky but masks an underlying tragedy. Rei’s cooking arc in the rebuilds - which I'll do a proper post on someday - acts as a bit of a mirror to Misato's inability to cook, but she comes with a strange advantage.

Misato, presumably, feels the crushing weight of the norms she cannot satisfy bearing down on her: she knows she should be able to make a family, just not how to do it, and every time something goes wrong, it hurts her deeply – we can see that during her monologue to Kaji in Episode 15, where all that pain, guilt, and grief at unattainability of the idealized self-that-is-impossible pour out of her. This is her tragedy: she probably could learn to be a great mother and a perfectly serviceable cook, but the pain and fear of that pain around how unevenly developed she is, around the things she missed and the things no one was there to teach her, is too great. That's her mirror to Shinji - not cowardice per se, but fear of a pain and grief so intense that to confront it is to risk everything; a pain that keeps both of them from ever truly connecting to one another.

Rei, on the other hand, is also unevenly developed - but she exists in a state of induced anomie: she doesn’t have all the inculcated lessons telling her she’s bad and she’s a failure when she can’t do these things. So, when she realizes that ‘cooking for others creates nurturing connections’, she doesn’t break up under the knowledge of her own failure to be who she was meant to be, she just buys a bigger fridge, gets a knife set and a pot, and starts trying to learn how to do the thing that’s important that she should know how to do. In this one, specific sense, the dehumanization and lack of nurture she’s experienced lets her be (at least potentially) more functional as a person than almost anyone else in the series. She may be traumatized and autistic-adjacent,***** but she’s emotionally free to pick and choose which social norms – beyond the ‘obey Gendo’ that’s been drilled into her – she’d like to adopt once she starts to recognize them around her, without the guilt and shame everyone else has been conditioned to feel. She has fears of her own, but they aren't of the discomfort of learning something she 'should' already know. There's a power in that, and it's not a bad lesson to try and internalize - if you can't do something you think you should be able to do, you might as well fight the shame down and learn how, because otherwise you'll never get there.

Also someone showed me this and I expect to use it a lot. Just pretend its Rei confronting a social norm that tells her she should feel bad about lacking a basic life skill:

*:We know Misato has money problems, and I think this is part of it. Not only does she have a drinking problem to steadily erode the bank balance (and it’s not just cheap beer – the shot of empty bottles in her apartment is full of a wide variety of liquor and liqueurs, and there's plenty of further shots of different wines and liquors tied to her) but if her trip to the convenience store isn’t a ‘shit, no time to go shopping’ decision but her norm – as it appears to be – then she’s been paying the conbini tax on everything she eats! This again ties into the sense that she can't really do 'domestic' right: she doesn't grocery shop; she doesn't cook; she doesn't clean; she didn't change the carpets. Is she a slob? No, despite appearances - she's someone who desperately needs someone to help her become who she'd actually like to be. There's a difference, and its between one who is happy, and one who isn't.

**: It's also interesting that she doesn't eat her curry with rice like Ritsuko and Shinji. She's prepared a completely different meal for herself, devoid of what's probably the one thing she's cooked right herself - devoid of a fundamental staple of everyone's diet. She's got her food preferences, which is fine, but the symbolism is clear: she doesn't eat from the same pot as her 'best friend' and her ersatz son. The sauce on top may look the same, but the substance is fundamentally different!

***: Which would be fine, if she could pair it with healthy emotional support, but… Alas, no.

****: A very gendered one, but I think we can set that aside for the time being. The substitution symbolism isn’t divorced from the gender norms involved, but it stands off to the side – referencing them, but without being wholly subsumed within them.

*****: Is she? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. Is she adjacent? Absolutely. Is it trauma or is it autism? Yes. She could also have a schizotypal disorder, if we wanted to do diagnoses, or both, or all three. Rei’s… Rei. For a girl who fits neatly into weird tubes, she really doesn't neatly fit into boxes.

[koushirouizumi]

Meanwhile with Steve and Frigimon {Digimon Adventure 02}

Steve: ...Hey, Rui-kun? Rui: Yeah?... Steve: I understand "a lot" happened with Ukkomon, but why couldn't your birthday just be celebrated in {rambles Hebrew calender dates/months}??.... Rui: RUI: R U I: WHAT STEVE: STEVE: ( What ? ) Frigimon: (Rui didn't know this was an option.)

[izzyizumi]

Digimon Adventure ~ Taichi Yagami & Koromon Digimon Partners Official Twitter, (dm_partners on Twitter) is beginning a countdown for 0801's Adventure PV!

Today, Taichi and Koromon's animation are previewed! {This art originally revealed/shown Jul. 24th, 2k24 for 080124}

[taichi-x-koushiro]

"My name is Izumi Koushirou and I just recently turned thirty. I'm studying science related material at Keio University, though I've technically already graduated, I am always trying to further my education and my career goal in the field of relevant scientific research fields. My family... consists of my parents. My favorite drink is ... Oolong. My favorite food ... I lately really enjoy Chinese takeout, and dishes in general, but I also enjoy Japanese home cooked dishes. Omurice is also a favorite. I like my eggs with some ponzu. The food I hate ... there are 'some' things that I mostly just try to avoid, but I do well with that. People usually listen and try to be accomodating if I make a polite request to not be served the food. If they didn't, I would have already left. Strength: I try to maintain an open mind about the world and reality around me. Weakness: I'm actually quite obstinate. My hobbies are researching things that Interest me, including by using my computer, observing nature, and visiting museums for both educational purposes and personal enjoyment. I am an Adoptee. Because I am, my family is what could be considered by society to be a 'Non-normative family'. My parents are, I know now, without a doubt, my real parents, but my late relatives are also important. I visit the cemetary to see the family grave every Ohigan I get, even if the trip from home takes hours to reach there. And... the person that I both consider a dear friend, and love, is Yagami Taichi."

Izumi Koushiro, Probably (A.U. Concept or Not)

"...Did Yamato-san say something unusual?" "Well, it's just... Yamato was wondering, 'things' like, 'how much' I 'knew' about you, if we're 'really' 'friends'--"

[killsformarigold]

INTRO - LACKADAISY ROLEPLAY

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀“ The important thing is

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀that no one was hurt.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀… No one who counts. ”

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

Hello, and welcome to my blog. This is a roleplaying account for the fandom of Lackadaisy Cats. I will be portraying Mordecai Heller.

- A few things to note:

• I was born in ‘06.

• I roleplay ONLY adv lit - novella. Grammar and correct spelling is extremely important to me.

• Due to Mordecai’s asexual personality, NSFW is not permitted to give respect to his character.

• You ghost me, I block you.

• I DO NOT ROLEPLAY WITH OCS. I REPEAT. I DO NOT ROLEPLAY WITH OCS. ONLY CANON CHARACTERS.

• I only ship Zibcai, Nico x Mordecai, and (platonic) Ivycai.

• I don’t exactly know how tumblr works, but I have an instagram account under killformarigold as well as a discord account under cappecat. Let me know if you friended me on discord and your username so I am aware and don’t delete it right away.

• My favorite genres are psychological horror, romance, and dystopia.

———————

Please interact with me !! I will post some writing samples I have as well as other things. But this is just an intro for now. Thank you!!

[mirorbdangamachine]

Games that I finished in 2024

One of my favorite things every year is when everyone posts their top ten favorite games that came out lists and the typical end-of-year awards discussions. It’s exciting watching everyone have these analytical talks and detailing why they’ve enjoyed what that year had to offer. Something I don’t see as commonly though are people reflecting on games they’ve played that hadn’t come out that year, which I think is an incredible disservice. There are tons of gems hidden away in yesteryear that are just waiting to be discovered, and I think they deserve the time to shine.

It will be January 31 when this post goes out, so I’m running out of time for this topic to still be relevant, but I wanted to go over every game I finished in 2024, be it on my own or with my friends. To clarify, this won’t be about every game that I played, else I would be here forever, but rather ones that I had completed the main stories of. This is going to be written mostly in the order of how I completed them, at least as best as I can remember. I’ll be keeping better track of that in 2025, but for now, let’s get this show on the road.

Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion

So this game will hold a special place in my heart as being the first game my now girlfriend and I played together after first speaking to each other two weeks prior. The Nancy Drew games were ones I hadn’t really played when I was younger, and so it was fun getting to experience some of them last year with him as he took me on a trip through memory lane. This one had a very good sense of atmosphere in its short runtime, feeling very genuinely spooky at times. The puzzles were all solid, we had a blast messing around in the maze segment, and aside from one touchy tile puzzle, the game held up pretty well. Out of all the Nancy Drews we played last year, this one is probably my favorite of the bunch. I even surprised my girlfriend with a tapestry of the poem in the game when we met, so it will be near and dear to me.

Famicom Detective: The Girl Who Stands Behind

I am almost ashamed as to how long it took me to actually finish this game. I’m fairly certain it took me… Two years, roughly. As a murder mystery lover, I always felt guilty about having never picked it back up again, but now that I have finished it, I am so glad I finally did. The reason I put it down the first time was because of the command prompt system that the game utilizes to do actions. It was simple enough, but there were some points in the early and mid game that made me frustrated due to not understanding the typical workings of this style of ADV gameplay which would require me to have to repeat options or do them in particular sequences to trigger. I was much more used to how the Ace Attorney games handle it where your options are more free flowing and clearly labeled on what you hadn’t done yet, so to go to a game where that wasn’t the case, I became frustrated and took time away from it. Once I finally let myself give it another chance, I remembered why I kept trying to throw myself at a wall to try and get through it in the first place, and that was because this game was a very solid mystery, but more importantly, had an excellent grasp on making you feel for the characters within it. With this being the prequel between the original two games, this one centered on the backstory of Ayumi, and I cannot express to you enough how seeing her try and do everything she can to solve the mystery of her best friend’s death made me feel so many things for her. I didn’t want to stop because I would have felt bad about not seeing her story through, and once we finally got to the end, it was all well worth it. This game doesn’t lean that far into the horror elements that you might think it would based on the premise of everyone thinking a ghost haunting the school killed a student, but when it does choose to go that route? Oh buddy, it hits. While I prefer The Missing Heir’s actual overarching mystery more, I think this one handles its character development better. If you have the chance to play this game, please do give it a shot, and don’t feel bad about having to pull up a guide at times if you feel lost.

Return to Mysterious Island

Another one of the old computer games that my girlfriend has shown me this year, I can confidently say that upon starting Return to Mysterious Island, I couldn't have have guessed where it was going to lead. I don’t want to elaborate because it is definitely best experienced going in blind. Exploring every nook and cranny of Mysterious Island was a joy, and it definitely puts your brain to the test in trying to think of ways to use your inventory. If you’re looking for a short and fun adventure game, this would be a good one to have a romp through with some friends.

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel

Nancy Drew winds up at an amusement park to investigate a haunted carousel and somehow causes massive property damage along the way. Sounds like an average Tuesday for Nancy! When it comes to the Nancy Drew games, the actual gameplay is the same for all these ones that came out in the 2000s, so nothing is different there. I feel like this one didn’t hit the atmosphere quite like Message in a Haunted Mansion, though there’s were some fun set pieces to go throughout it. It was another cute one to play through with my girlfriend while we were with each other in person, so grab a friend or a loved one and just have a laugh at some Nancy shenanigans.

Murders on the Yangtze River

If you were to ask any of my friends how I was when I talked about this game, they would probably say I was extremely annoying because I constantly kept recommending it to them all every chance I had. Murders on the Yangtze River is easily in my top three games I finished last year, all of which I am still juggling as to where they sit in that said ranking. As previously mentioned, being an Ace Attorney fan, any game that has a similar feeling in its investigation system is probably going to get a thumbs up from me. Playing as the very well traveled detective Shen alongside his silly yet ingenious inventor sidekick Afu made every investigation a joy to experience. The two have very fun back and forths reminiscent of the Edgeworth and Kay from the Investigations games, with Shen being more socially adjusted than Edgeworth. When it comes to any mystery story that is from the perspective of a detective who is stated to be known in-universe as extremely competent and knowledgable, you always run the risk of not meeting those expectations due to trying to stop the player from trying to get ahead of the character’s current logic, and thus making the detective seem dumber than intended. Thankfully this is not the case here, as each chapter is handled with diligent care to ensure that the player feels right next to Shen each step of the way, with neither you nor him having their intelligence downplayed. All of the crimes were very well thought out, and the cast of characters in each were all thoroughly enjoyable form beginning to end. The game also has one of the most unique systems to solving one of the overarching mysteries near the end of the game that I have seen, and for that alone I think this game would be worth experiencing. There is only one part of the game that I could mark as a negative, that being a very small horror detour that we take in the latter third, but it is not big enough of a section to make me lose any overall enjoyment. Going throughout the story, you wouldn’t think the experience of each chapter could ramp up as much as it does when all of them are as solid as they are. And if you were curious, I’ll even say that this game doesn’t suffer from “Case 3 Syndrome”, so that’s all the more reason to play it. All in all, I absolutely think this is worth every penny, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did if you try it! There is going to be a DLC case released for it sometime this year, so when that drops, you will find me right there playing immediately.

Unicorn Overlord

Something very funny occurred as I was writing this out. Before I began on the entries, I had written down all the games in as close to chronological order as I could remember, so I could go about them in the same order and try and remember details of each one better. The only game I I had forgotten to put down was Unicorn Overlord. This was not because of it being a forgettable experience, far from it. In fact, this is another one of my top three games of the year as I had mentioned in the previous entry. The reason I hadn’t listed it is because I had somehow convinced myself that this was Fire Emblem Awakening, my favorite game of all time, which I had once again replayed this year as well. The reason I confused it for that game is not just because it features a blue haired swordsman as the protagonist in a medieval fantasy setting, but rather because just as I had done with Awakening, I 100% completed Unicorn Overlord. I played every level, I recruited every character, I saw all the endings, I had unlocked every single rapport conversation available between all units, and I had even gone and watched every Rite of the Covenant scene at the end of the game with every character on my save file. For those who have played this game, you know that there are over 60 playable characters to unlock, and all but roughly five of them have rapports to view (this game’s version of Fire Emblem’s supports). Once I had started this game, I had become obsessed with it, not putting it down until I saw literally everything that there was on offer. All of this is being said before I even have mentioned the gameplay! A lovable cast will get you very far in my books, but this game also backs it up with a modern version of the Ogre Battle team combat system mixed with real time strategy in the overworld. You get to comprise multiple units for your band of merrymen to go ride into combat together, and with a bevvy of classes that all have unique properties, there are seemingly infinite combinations you can make. Sure, there will be those layouts you can create that will just utterly run through the game, but if you are someone who loves experimentation, then you are going to fall in love with this combat system. The game incentives you to watch battles play out so you can make adjustments between each one on the map so you can better tackle it and try to retain your members. This game does does have varying degrees of difficulty available, all of which have since been fine tuned by the developers in patches to make it as fitting and fair as possible, and while there is no permadeath mode to begin with, you unlock one to play on after you finish your first playthrough of the game. There is so much to love about Unicorn Overlord that it even made me log into my old Tumblr to go reblog fanart of it and actually make posts in the subreddit for the game, which I have never done on Reddit before. If you are a strategy RPG fan of any sort, or you are wanting to try and jump into the genre, then I would say this is a wonderful game to do that with if you were wanting to look beyond the usual recommendations of the Fire Emblem series.

Death Come True

This is an FMV mystery game that was the first released project by Too Kyo Games, the studio that Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the creators of Danganronpa and Zero Escape respectively, founded. Centered around our protagonist waking up in a strange hotel with an unconscious woman tied up in the bathroom with no memory of how he got there, this is a wonderful and short game that you can finish in a day. The portrayal of the main character by Kanata Hongo was the highlight of the game, he really made this story come to life. As it becomes evident that this is a timeloop story, he does a great job at showing off the growing agony of the perpetual infinity. Due to this game being so short, I don’t want to go much further beyond that so as to avoid spoilers. It is well worth checking out, and I am sure if you got some friends together to go through it, you all would have a fun time. The game also comes with behind the scenes commentary and interviews, so if seeing the production of an FMV game is something that interests you, it is all there to see as well.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Stray Gods was crafted in a basement by a Professor Plutonium-like figure who was searching for the best form of addiction possible to hook either queer folk who were theater kids in high school, Percy Jackson fans, or the most likely scenario: Both. As you can imagine, I fall into the “both” category. The songs all were wonderful, and the fact that they change depending on how you choose to behave leading up to that point makes for a great way to encourage replayability. I do think that maybe the games leaned a bit too hard into its dating sim aspects, but then again, it never really tried to act like it wasn’t going to also be that on top of the story being told. Surprise surprise that it is rooted in another murder mystery, so if the idea of using magic and fantasy elements in mysteries is something that excites you, I think you would have a fun time with this. The worldbuilding is very solid, the idea of the gods now living among us out of sight is one you can see being real and they take some fun liberties with the concept. The cast, while not feeling particularly faithful to their original mythological counterparts, is still fun to see go about the world they find themselves in. It goes on sale on Steam somewhat often, so if you find it for 20% off or more, then I would recommend getting ahold of it yourself to go through it. 

Famicom Detective: The Missing Heir

In the last Famicom Detective section I had mentioned that it was the prequel, so now we are onto the original title that spawned the series. You can definitely tell as much as this story is more focused on the protagonist rather than Ayumi, to the point that she barely features in it for the most part. You will be conducting an investigation into the Ayashiro family, whose matriarch has just passed away, though her butler seems to think that there was foul play afoot. As you look further into each member of the Ayashiros, you will come to find that all of these people are thoroughly unpleasant people to be around with the ownership of the family business at the core of the story. It is a very classic setup that finds ways to surprise the player, even if they have experienced something like this before. Like I said before, I enjoy the actual mystery that was occurring in The Missing Heir more than I did in The Girl Who Stands Behind, it is a good and meaty taler to read through with twists and turns you wouldn’t expect. If you are going to play these remakes, then I highly suggest to play them in the order of The Girl Who Stands Behind and then move into The Missing Heir, as it is going to provide some more characterization to the main character that makes this story more enjoyable to consume. I am very happy that I finally got through these, and I am currently in the middle of the new entry in the series that just came out last year, Emio: The Smiling Man. If this series continues beyond this third game, then I think these two games have established two very solid leads in the main character and Ayumi to guide us through.

Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake

Fun fact, this is the only Nancy Drew game that I played a part of when I was a child. I didn’t finish it back then, and frankly after going through it last year, I am not surprised that I didn’t as there were some puzzles that even as an adult had me a bit stumped. You know when you and your friends have to bust out a guide for a Nancy Drew game that this game maybe was a bit above the mental capabilities of a five year old, hahaha. Nancy has once again found herself at the behest of a friend calling in a favor, this time investigating a seemingly haunted house on a park lake that gets attacked by - you guessed it - ghost dogs at night. Winding through the history of a gangster who once lived there and the untold riches left behind, it comes as no surprise that someone wants their grubby mitts on a piece of the pie. This was another fun adventure with Nancy, and it had a very unsettling atmosphere to it that had me freaked out as the night approached each day. I would recommend giving this one a shot, but do not feel bad by any means if you have to bust out a walkthrough.

No Case Should Remain Unsolved

This might be one of the most emotional two hours I have ever spent playing something. This is such a beautiful short story in game form that I truly think everyone should go and play. It is centered around unraveling the timeline surrounding a missing girl and her family to figure out what must have happened. The gameplay itself is relatively simple in connecting keywords across the bits of conversation with each family member to unlock new pieces of information, with the occasional question asking if you know enough to unlock a new answer. With that said, please, go take the time to experience this. 

Dokapon Kingdom Connect

Have you ever seen those videos talking about “the most rare/expensive Wii games”? If you have, then you have probably Dokapon Kingdom included in a few of those. Thankfully, the game has since been rereleased on Steam as Dokapon Kingdom Connect, meaning you and your friends can all… Suffer. Suffer, forever… Okay, that’s an exaggeration. The game is genuinely an extremely fun time, as if you made a Dungeons and Dragons campaign into a board game featuring rock-paper-scissors combat. The game is heavily luck based, to the point that even if you try and plan accordingly for maximum profit in gaining the most money and towns, you can still very lose everything at the drop of a hat. Over the five months it took us to play through this game, all four of us at various points were either vastly far ahead of the rest or way behind everybody on the weekly scoreboard, and then after one chapter event, everything would be scrambled. If you go into it with no expectations and just are wanting to have a good time, you will enjoy yourself. You can sabotage the other players and steal the lead from them, constantly threatening your friendship as if this was Mario Party cranked up to eleven. The problems arise however when you get to the final three chapters of the game, where the enemies become exceedingly difficult, and the game begins to cheat against all of you. This is not an exaggeration either, as the final four boss fighters of the game do actively read what inputs you are doing to try and counter them, and it caused my friends and I to have to grind seemingly forever to stand a chance, only to then still lose all of our progress. When we finally got to the end it was pure catharsis, however, I would never want to wish going through all that nonsense on my worst enemy. Thankfully, we have since discovered that you can just have a set umber of turns to play through, so you can have much more fun and take far less time to get through it all. For anyone wishing to go through a full campaign, I wish thee luck, and may you have either the greatest friends in the world, or not mind having a bunch of computers to just try and zip through it as fast as possible. 

Find Love or Die Trying

This was a tale of two halves if I have ever seen one. The first half of the game is akin to The Bachelor, where you take on the role of the lead love interest, except the twist here is if you aren’t entertaining enough and the show ratings go down, you get killed by the production crew. I thought that was a very unique premise as it is what the game is sold upon, and while it has its moments, the week that you play through is almost excruciatingly unbearable when it comes to cliche and over the top writing. The executive producer is comically evil to the point of annoyance, and outside of the outlandish date events you get, the only really interesting part is the underlying plot with the director after each day of filming. However, once you get through the week, that is when the real game truly begins, as you realize you have found yourself in a timeloop story, forced to repeat this cycle again. Normally I wouldn’t spoil that, though I found the first part of the game to potentially be painful enough for some people to put it down. Once the pretenses of the situation are dropped, the writing actually becomes very good as you and the girls you are taking go on a thriller adventure trying to uncover what is going on behind this show, all while trying to act like you are none the wiser. Beyond the first week, I thought the whole cast was really fleshed out and I found myself attached to each of them and wanting the best for them, and I am happy that I pushed myself to continue after that initial hurdle. I know everyone hates the whole “I promise it gets good after a certain amount of hours” argument, but thsi is a case where I think it is warranted. It also helps that the initial week isn’t that long to play through, perhaps two to three hours at most depending on how fast you read, so everything beyond that point is smoothing sailing.

Mindcop

By now you should expect this list to continue with the trend of mystery games. Adorably drawn and animated with a charming detective duo, Mindcop is what I would call the puzzler’s murder mystery. Combining match three and detective gameplay together worked much better than I really thought it would, with the mind surfing mechanic giving us detailed mental examinations of those we are interviewing. The set up has a Twin Peaks feeling to it, where an extremely small town faces its biggest challenge yet in one of their own having been murdered, just replace Twin Peaks with Merrilyn Crater Camp and Laura Palmer with Rebecca Goodman. Not to say that this story will eventually devolve into the paranormal, though it does share the idea of the further you, the titular Mindcop and your partner Linda, go, the more of the dark secrets of this town will be uncovered. Coupling this with the fact that the game features a time mechanic where each action takes a certain amount of time and you only have five days to catch the killer, I felt like I was racing against the clock all the way until the end to try and confirm whether my suspicions were correct. You can end the game whenever you like by arresting who you think the culprit is, but I think the fact that I got down to the final two in game hours left before I was able to make my decision with enough confidence to feel good about it is a testament to how well done this game handled its core mystery. The fact that this is a nonlinear investigation game as well greatly serves this purpose, so one playthrough is very unlikely to be like another. Even when I had finished my first run, I wanted to go back and explore so much more that I didn’t have a chance to before. Thankfully there was a free play mode after that gave me the chance to do so. While it isn’t in my top three games I played this year, I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of either match three or mystery games.

Loco Motive

Speaking of my top three, Loco Motive is the last of those titles. As someone who hadn’t ever played point and click adventure games growing up, this to me felt like I was watching a Hanna-Barbera cartoon play out on a Saturday morning, except it was based around a murder mystery on a train. Once again another very classical scenario to the mystery genre, you are playing as Arthur A. Ackerman, the estate attorney to Lady Unterwald, the head of a major railway company. With her not getting any younger, she keeps making adjustments to her will, but tonight, on the Reuss Express, she is going to finally announce who she will be granting the business to once she retires. Right when the moment of truth comes however, after passing through a dark tunnel, tragedy strikes, and Lady Unterwald is found dead! Now it is up to you and your extreme lack of qualifications to try and figure out who did it! With a very beautiful pixel art style and fully voiced dialogue, this game oozes with charm. To those who are more familiar with point and click games than me, I am sure you will find some similarities between it and popular ones of the genre like the Monkey Island series. For anyone who hasn’t experienced games like that and have wanted to try it out, then I say look no further than Loco Motive. I found myself laughing about the whole way through this title, and I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything. 

Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg

One of my friends who I had played through Dokapon with gifted this to me for Christmas and I decided to play it that evening after he had told me it was a good short game, to which he was correct! This falls into the “walking sim” genre, and is a very metaphysical expression of living as a gay man and trying to navigate how the world acts around you while you try to make the best of your situation. That is just one potential explanation of many, as the creators intentionally left it ambiguous as to what it was all supposed to mean. If you want a game where you walk through what looks like a synthwave music video and then eventually starts pulling out The End of Evangelion references, then this is a game for you. It is another game that can be done in just under two hours, so it a fun think piece to sit with.

The Case of the Golden Idol

This was the last game I had managed to squeeze in right before New Years as the player alongside my friends. Upon opening this game up, you have a very minimalistic tutorial given to you on how to open menus and then you are off to the races and have to piece together how to proceed on your own. Normally, I would say that is a horrendous approach to the beginning of a game, however, this time the developers made it work. The Case of the Golden Idol felt like what an advanced version of an ISpy book, where you are given a scene of a tragedy and from there you are meant to fill in the blanks as to what is actually happening. You get to examine the people and environment to add keywords to your bank, where from there you try to slot them into the spaces they are meant to go in and see whether or not you were right. This process with each scene was always very entertaining and felt like a good puzzle to try and solve each time. Watching the overarching narrative unfold all centered around the aforementioned golden idol was fascinating, and my friends and I always felt like we deserved pats on the back for being able to get through some levels with how minimal the information you are given is. There is a sequel to this called The Rise of the Golden Idol, alongside two DLC stories, and us three have already said that we will definitely be checking them out sometime this year. If you are looking for a fun puzzle game to play with friends, then this is definitely the one I would recommend to you!

Games that I have watched to completion

This is going to be a much smaller section, but I wanted to still shout out these games that I watched my friends play all the way through. Seeing as I wasn’t the one holding the controller I can’t really speak for how these feel to manuver, but still experienced the entire story.

First off is a slice of life visual novel called Twofold, but to call it just that would be doing the game a huge disservice. You play as Olive Penn, a college student on the verge of failing out, who is looking for a club to join in hopes of trying to get study partners before they get given the boot. They eventually find themselves stuck between the Literature Club and the Art Club, ran by our two main love interests in Millie and Caprice respectively. Depending on whose club you choose to join will determine which path you will be on, but the two are much more intertwined than just being a route split. Navigating through Olive’s life and seeing them try to connect with the various members of the club and seeing how they are all going through their own struggles, it is a game that really pulls at your heart strings. I very rarely cry when it comes to games, but learning more and more about both Millie and Caprice really did bring me to tears on numerous occasions. For a game to be able to do that to me makes it very special in my book, and I think this is a story that you should seek out and experience all the way through on both sides. I don’t want to say too much, so please go and play it yourself, or watch a playthrough of it. You can find my friend Don’s stream VODs of it on YouTube, linked here!

Next up is a game you have probably seen floating around by now due to the explosion of popularity it receieved in Mouthwashing. It is a psychological horror game that while being light on the jumpscares, makes up for it in rich storytelling and making you reconcile with everything that you are witnessing on screen. This is truthfully a game that I would not watch a content creator go through, as the topics within it are very serious, dark, and deserve to be treated with sincerity, rather than being played through with someone trying to be entertaining. My friends and I were aware of this when we went through and it was a harrowing experience, though one that I would say is more than worth experiencing. This is another game I would try to go into as spoiler-free as you can, though again with the popularity and level of fandom it has achieved, I understand that it can be hard to avoid. I normally am someone who is not a fan of horror games due to being easily scared and not finding the adrenaline rush enjoyable, but this is a game where you will not have to worry about that. There is a segment in it that does behave like a traditional horror game that I think overstays its welcome in the maze section, but beyond that, I think this is a fantastic game.

Finally, another horror game, albeit one that doesn’t quite feel like it due to its aesthetics: MiSide. I think the premise is a fun one, where the trope of the yandere girl is subverted in how Mita doesn’t actually care about you romantically, but rather she just wants to keep you trapped for her own amusement. Going through and meeting the various Mitas was a fun concept too, and you could feel the looming presence of Crazy Mita and how she has affected all of them. Perhaps calling this a horror game isn’t quite right, as it is more of a thriller with the occasional jumpscare and spooky setdressing. All in all, it was a fun thing to go through with friends, but it wasn’t something I would have personally found interesting had I been on my own. At the time of writing, the development team is still working on the “Peaceful Mode”, which I assume will just be the continuation of the romance slice of life activities at the beginning of the game. However, with the team currently leaning into the posts that go “Oh I can fix her”, I don’t foresee it coming out and being in the spirit of the rest of the game. Maybe I will be proven wrong, time will tell.

With that, those are all the games that I had experienced last year! Looking back on it, I really didn’t imagine that my top three games of the year would actually be from 2024, let alone the fact that I would say they all rank amongst my top ten favorite games of all time. Last year was a wonderful year of gaming for me, and I hope 2025 gets to be the same! I am going to be smart about this for next time and write these entries as I actually complete them instead of all at once. At the very least, I accomplished my goal of getting this out before February, though in the spirit of me, it was at the last minute. Hopefully this article will have given you some good suggestions for games to check out, and if you do, tell me what you thought of them!

[digitalgate02]

One thing i’ve been discussing after i had a friend watching 02TB in my country was that the movie does not feel afraid to show the imperfections of every character and how they being like that is what makes them and their relationship with their digimon stronger.

02TB is about communication, but also about imperfection. Rui had a bad life before Ukkomon stepped in, and then Rui’s life changed for the better, except it was not perfect at all. Rui claims his relationship with Ukkomon was perfect, but then later the group points out it wasn’t. Because neither Rui or Ukkomon knew each other like they believed they did.

But the whole discussion was that this friend who watched the movie criticized Hikari standing on Ukkomon’s side, making her get this heavy criticism from a few Japanese fans (yes, said friend speak Japanese and also showed me the tweets too), about how Hikari was invalidating how Rui felt and such.

My other friend, who had watched the movie before me and during her trip in Japan (who also speak Japanese), had a different view of that scene – That Hikari was actually calling Ukkomon pathetic for all those things he was trying to do, not pitying him as some sort of “victim”. And this is where we started discussing the movie’s themes.

If you know Yagami Hikari and her popularity status, you will notice people would rather pin her as “Waifu” or “perfect girl” (even in-universe, I suppose) – And not many people tend to know her real bad side or her inner problems (which you can read Shiha’s overview of the character in her meta blog), and no, it’s not the “brocon” thing (this never was part of Hikari’s entire character, it was only brought by two guests in Adv’99 and 02 respectively, NOT by the entire staff) – it’s the part of Hikari being manipulative, sly and even troll-ish kind of girl.

But in this movie we see she can also be insensitive sometimes, just like her brother is (look, i love Taichi, but let’s be real: most of his issues with Sora in Adv’99/OWG were because he was way more tactless than being Sora being too sensitive) – and i think it adds a new layer to the character, breaking the idea she’s “perfect”.

And according to the friend who i was talking with, Hikari’s line is what leads Daisuke to reverse Rui’s words and questions into making the new and mysterious boy realize his life and relationship with Ukkomon were not perfect as he imagined it were. 

Speaking of Ukkomon, he’s also the embodiment of this theme: When Rui tells the group that Ukkomon can realize wishes, the flashbacks puts into question another view: If Ukkomon is that powerful, then why would he have to use his tentacles to control the corpses of Rui’s parents? Why didn’t he just cure Rui’s dad instead? And so do other things Rui claimed and were debunked by the flashbacks.

Ukkomon might be related to something bigger, yes, that i have no doubt of it (considering that him getting defeated resulted in the digivices not being needed anymore!) but i don’t think he’s some sort of god-tier digimon. He might be related to the same entity (entities?) connected to Homeostasis (which is not the Digital World's god, it’s more likely a “Security system”) and the Holy Beasts, who were the ones we know to have been selecting children in both Adv’99 and 02.

I loved this movie for showing that it’s okay to be imperfect and that communication is essential in our lives. So this is why it ends with Rui and Ukkomon finally having a talk and discovering more about themselves, about things Rui likes and dislikes. And this is also why Rui gets the egg back and in the post-credits the egg shakes as if it was about to hatch: They were already to start from zero, again.

So, are Hikari's and everyone else’s portrayals supposed to be PERFECT in this movie? Nope, that’s the thing. The movie is, I repeat, about communication and imperfection.

Thanks for coming to my Digi-Talk ✌

[jackhkeynes]

rediveu "second-hand"

rediveu /ˌre.diˈvaw/ [ˌʀe.dɪˈvaw]

second-hand, used, (of goods) previously owned by someone else;

clichéd, hackneyed, unoriginal, repeated often enough to become tiresome;

trite, cheesy, tropey, (of writing) unreflectively and unskillfully reproducing common narrative elements

Etymology: borrowing from Latin redivīvus "resurrected, second-hand" modelled on vīvus > Middle Borlish veu "living" (now obsolete). Metaphorical extension is seen from the late eighteenth century.

Jo stim y lasc rediveu cos outr. /ʒo stɪm i lax ˌre.diˈvaw kɔz ˈutr̩/ [ʝo stɪm i lax ˌʀe.dɪˈvaw kʊˈzu.tɐ] 1s deem df film clichéd adv complete I find the film totally unoriginal.