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biolizardboils · 3 years ago

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Crumpled Up Pages: Old Captain Underpants WIPs #1-4

The First Epic Movie turned 5 earlier this month, and I dug through some old folders to write this post about it. In the process, I found some fanfic ideas I’d written down, fleshed out a little, and then forgot about for years. So while hyperfixation still has its grip on me (and while there’s still some extra activity in the tag), I figured I’d finally set these dust bunnies free!

A few ground rules before this deep dive descends:

When I say “fleshed out a little,” I’m putting major emphasis on the “little.” Some of these docs contain detailed notes and snippets of dialogue, but others are just a title and a vague one-sentence summary. I’ll be transparent about what each one contains, and try to fill in the bigger gaps by memory.

If you were around for the CU Fandom Renaissance of 2017, some of the ideas here might sound familiar, ‘cus I refitted them into fanart and headcanon dumps that actually got posted. I’ll link to those where they’re relevant.

These were all written and abandoned months before a CU show was even announced, so there’s no Epic Tales content or characters in here. Sorry if you were expecting any!

I’m splitting this into two posts cus it was getting and taking too long. This first part will cover the 4 simplest, fluffiest WIPs; the second one will tackle the 6 sadder, more character-heavy ones. And with character-heavy stuff comes spoilers for the movie and books — especially the books. If you haven’t read all 12, you’re probably wondering why anyone would care about Captain Underpants spoilers. First off, your loss; second off, BEWARE!

And finally: if you write fanfiction and feel inspired to use any of these ideas? You have my permission to do so! Seriously, steal anything here and put your own spin on them! I don’t care much for credit, but if these old things help fuel someone else’s creativity, I’d love to know!

That’s enough prep, probably. Plug your nose!

WIP #1: Inspiration

It can come from even the worst of places. ...And people, in this case. [Book!Verse, pre-Book 1.]

This document contains a long script, but no context; I can remember the gist though, so I’ll insert that in-between dialogue. Basically it’s third grade, and George and Harold are in detention again. They cheat to fill up the blackboards like usual, but they’re too bummed out to start a comic afterwards. George sits around stewing in his frustration while Harold angry-scribbles Mr. Krupp yelling.

“...Why does he hate us so much, George?”

“I dunno. Maybe ‘cause he can’t handle our coolness? …Nice drawing, by the way.”

“Thanks. …It’s making me sad just lookin’ at it, though.”

“Yeah, me too. …I wonder what he’d look like if he smiled.”

“...?”

“...I mean, like, a real smile, not an I’ve-got-you-now smile.”

“Oh. Hmmm…”

Harold erases Krupp’s wide yelling mouth and draws a goofy smile in its place.

“Aw, man, now it’s just creepy.”

“Darn.”

The boys keep editing the drawing until it stops being creepy and starts being funny. George erases Krupp’s toupee, remembering the time they stole it and the teachers couldn’t take him seriously without it. Harold draws one of his office curtains around his neck, adding more color and kinetic energy. Soon they’re struggling not to laugh out loud, but they manage to calm down… until George gets an idea that takes the sketch from great to legendary.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. Remember what my pop said about Superman yesterday?”

“That he looks like… DUDE. Duuuuuude.”

Harold redraws Krupp’s entire lower body so he’s only wearing underwear. Then with a flourish, he adds the finishing touch – two dots on his chest – and they both lose it. All their laughter finally prompts the real Krupp to check on them, and predictably, he rips up the drawing. It upsets the boys in the moment, but they’re still in much higher spirits than before, and brainstorm a new comic about their new creation as they skateboard home.

“You think we should make his origin issue first?”

“Naw, let’s get right to the action! His outfit’s already the perfect hook – finally, a superhero who actually does fly around in his underwear!”

“Yeah, and he could fight with Wedgie Power!”

God, rediscovering this gave me the most uncontrollable grin. From the date it was last opened, I think this fic was meant for September 1st, 2017 (Book 1’s 20th anniversary), and I gave up after missing it. For shame, 2017!me. For shame.

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WIP #2: Untitled Boomer One-shot

Harold won’t admit it, but he’d slay a dragon for his little sister. [Book!Verse but only cus this scene was deleted and is thus dubiously canon]

This doc’s nothing but notes, so I’ll paraphrase the plot: Ms. Hutchins takes Heidi and Harold to Boomer the Purple Dragon: Live! Harold was gonna stay with the Beards but they cancelled last minute, and he’s grumpy about it the whole time. When the show ends, kids gather in front of the stage to meet Boomer; Ms. Hutchins suddenly gets an important call, and makes Harold walk Heidi up there.

But the dragon’s mascot suit is big up close for a 6-year-old, and Heidi gets so scared she starts crying. She’s rooted to the spot and waves her arms in panic, but “Boomer” thinks she wants a hug and waddles closer and closer... until Harold kicks him in the groin. Their mom understandably grounds him for it, but Heidi is grateful and calls him her hero :)

This one was based on the classic “kid hits mascot in the weak spot” genre of AFV, but also on an early memory of mine! My sister and I loved Arthur as babies, so our mom took us to see this thing. The characters suddenly being real (and huge) was so upsetting that we scream-cried until she took us home early. (Speaking of Arthur, it’s a shame Heidi’s never really done anything in canon, I can see her having big DW energy.)

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WIP #3: When Worlds Collide

It was less “love at first sight” and more “love at first squawk.” [Book!Verse, Book 7.]

A quick refresher: George told Harold to take Crackers back to dinosaur times, but he left her in the treehouse with Sulu instead. Later in the book, they’re shown snuggling in their sleep 🥺🥺 Anyway, this fic was about what they got up to in between! It’s actually the most complete of the lot, but only because it’s so short and simple.

It opens with Harold introducing them to each other, leaving out some treats for them (hamster food for Sulu, crackers for Crackers), then telling them to play nice until he comes back. They do not. Crackers pulls a Thunderclap the moment Harold leaves, Sulu karate-chops her throat until she spits him out, and they wreck half the treehouse in the ensuing chase.

Eventually they settle for standing in opposite corners and hissing at each other. Then Sulu… *squints* …records Crackers’ hisses with his bionic ears and plays them back so they can communicate? …Yeah, okay, why not. The outline ends after this sudden development; I’m guessing they talk things out and start to catch feels, before settling in to sleep. Anyway here’s the few sentences I actually wrote out:

Harold opened the door, Sulu got on the floor, and in walked the curious dinosaur.

[…] As predator and prey faced off, a little boy and his mother happened to be walking down Vine Street. “Mommy,” said the little boy, “I can hear a bionic hamster and a pterodactyl fighting in that treehouse!”

“Oh, please,” his mother scoffed. “How do you even know what that would sound like?”

The boy considered pointing out the CHOMPs, SQUEAKs, and SQUAAAWKs emanating from the tree in big blocky letters, but decided it wasn’t quite worth the trouble.

The doc ends with a reminder to not refer to Crackers with any pronouns until the two pets can understand each other. Also I was gonna title this after a Tony Orlando and Dawn song as foreshadowing, but I couldn’t choose one, so instead I went with this Spongebob song lol.

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WIP #4: Untitled Tommy One-shot

The school’s been near bully-free ever since Treehouse Comix Inc. was formed. Tommy reflects on this from the safety of his locker. [Movie!Verse with a hint of Book 9. CW: discussion of bullying.]

A Kid I Never Named knocks on Tommy’s locker and offers to trade Pilkeymon. They have to be sneaky, because it’s the 90′s and they have to slip a Link Cable through the locker vents without being spotted.

As they trade, the other kid asks Tommy why he hides all the time. He explains that it’s a habit from when Kipper Krupp terrorized the halls. But Kipper left four years ago, and the legend of Wedgie Magee has kept other bullies at bay ever since; the other kid points this out and asks why he still hides. This led into “a somber discussion on adverse school experiences and the long-lasting coping mechanisms they cause” (exact words from the doc). Unfortunately 2017!me never wrote any dialogue, and I’m mad at her for that.

Trivia drop! I used the Pilkeymon joke a few times at @treehouseblogsinc, but it’s way older than that, and also not mine: Pilkey.com used to have a coloring game named Pilkeymon’s Paintbox. It even had art of Dav’s old spiky-haired avatar with Pikachu ears! There’s no trace of it on the Internet anymore, but I swear I’m not making this up.

I left a note here to add that Tommy has glow-in-the-dark stickers in his locker, which ended up in this headcanon dump. There’s also a list of last names I came up with for him but never chose between: Chambers, Lakatos (which I shared once here), and Lockenspiel. Right now I’m leaning towards the last one, it rolls nicely off the tongue.

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That’s it for now! Not gonna lie, I’m still nervous about posting the other 6 WIPs. Most of them deal with Book 12, and all the tough subjects that that entails. But hey, I made this bed, and by God am I gonna lie in it. Thanks for reading so far!

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nyxxon · 4 years ago

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I'm Glad You're Okay (Bakugou Katsuki)

» Minor Manga spoilers (Ch.285 and Ch. 298). It's kind of vague, but probably still spoil-worthy given it's somewhat the scenario—if you aren't caught up (at least with those chapters), I still recommend skipping it unless you don't mind some summary.

It had been a few days since you had been at the hospital—surprisingly being excused to stay for such an extended period—as you waited for Bakugou to wake up from his injuries.

Todoroki had given you a small rundown of what happened when you had gone by his room to check on him along with some of the news outlets that had covered the big fight that had happened involving Endeavor, Todoroki, Midoriya, Bakugou, and many others as they had gone head-on against Shigaraki and the other League of Villains or now more commonly known as the "Paranormal Liberation Front."

No one had come out unscathed. Everyone involved, even the villains so you heard, had a small injury or another; however, only Midoriya and Bakugou had yet to awaken from the fight among the hero side of it—the ones you cared for anyway.

With that said, Midoriya was by far hurt the worse out of the three males, the doctors were unsure when or even if he would even wake up given his state. Visitation with him was also off-limits besides a handful of people.

Todoroki was fine in general though he was still knocked up pretty badly, having bandages all around his body in almost every area. He had been the only one you were allowed to see when you first arrived since the other two males had been in extensive care at the time.

Lastly and second-worst off between the three: Bakugou.

According to Todoroki, Bakugou had jumped in front of Midoriya—taking a hit originally meant for him. He had been horribly injured . . . pierced through the stomach to be more exact.

But even so, he had eventually been removed from the extensive care unit and brought into a room that you were able to visit freely since it seemed he had shown signs of high recovery which you were heavily thankful for.

With that said, the doctors had said he should at least wake up sooner or later though they were unsure when exactly. So here you were, currently patiently waiting for him—your boyfriend—to do just that . . .

You hadn't left his side since given free access to his room.

Nor had you eaten—not that you were hungry given the situation.

You hadn't even slept either!

Your eyes were growing heavier and heavier as the days passed by. You were even getting noticeable dark bags underneath them.

But you couldn't sleep . . .

You had to be there when he woke up—you just had to.

You tiredly glanced up at Bakugou, his face covered with an oxygen mask, his chest rising and falling at steady intervals. Similar to Todoroki, he was also covered in bandages—mainly his arms and you were sure his stomach.

Your hand subconsciously squeezing his own as you saw the pitiful state he was in albeit he looked just a tad bit better than the first time you had seen him.

Maybe a few minutes wouldn't hurt though . . . you'd just close your eyes for a little while and be right back up to resume your waiting.

Yeah . . . that sounded like a good plan.

With that in mind, you leaned over and laid your head down on the edge of the hospital bed—your hand still gripping his own—before slowly shut your eyes, instantly being grasped by the much-needed sleep you should have been getting the past few days.

However, the few minutes planned had soon turned into a few hours. And within the few hours, you still had yet to wake up while continuing to snooze away—deeply one might add. But because of this, you failed to notice or be alarmed by the slight stirring beside you . . .

Slowly opening his eyes, it took Bakugou a minute to adjust to the glaring white bright light. His eyes soon widened as he jolted up, a searing pain shooting through his abdomen as he removed the mask from his face with his free hand—his other one still clasped with yours though he had yet to take notice of you yet.

"Ouch!" He began to look around, taking notice of him being in the hospital, "What the–" But he stopped his words once his eyes landed on your sleeping form.

His eyes widened slightly as he finally took notice of your hand clasping his bandaged one. He could tell you were asleep. He wondered how long you had been waiting. With that said, he wondered how long he had been here. But from the dark circles under your eyes still that he could see, he didn't doubt it had been a bit.

But why the hell was he here?

With that in mind, he looked down at his stomach for a moment before placing his free hand over it. He instantly winced and hissed before quickly moving his hand away as he furrowed his brows and narrowed his eyes.

That was right . . .

Slowly, the events that took place began to flood his mind:

Him, Endeavor, Todoroki, Deku, and other heroes had been facing that head of the original "League of Villains," Shigaraki. It had been a long and grueling one, too. Every single one of them had gotten pretty knocked about through the entire fight.

The majority of the meat of the fight was a bit foggy in his mind still, though he had the gist of it. It had been a struggle, that was for certain if the short memories that passed through his mind had anything to say about it.

He looked back down at his stomach. But the events that had led him to his current situation . . .

His . . . his body had acted on its own. It was like he had zero control when he had jumped up and pushed Deku out of the way when the tendrils had originally meant to course through his form—not him.

His brows twitched before he glanced back over where you were still asleep, having not even moved an inch and just stared over at you. It was obvious you had most likely been here the whole time he had, not that he expected any less of you.

"Hey." He slowly released his hand from your own—which wasn't hard to do—while he soon ran it through your (hair color) locks.

The action caused you to stir as you clenched your eyes tighter before they reluctantly began to open, the world around you a bit blurry as you didn't fully open them right away because of the light. But you managed to catch a slightly unfocused and blurry image of a person sitting up in the bed in front of you.

"Katsuki . . ." You sleepily muttered as you lifted your head up a bit, squinting your eyes still—it seemed you were still a bit groggy.

He kept his hand on top of your head, "Hey, idiot . . ."

You just stared at him for a moment, still trying to process your surroundings. But it didn't take much longer as your eyes began to widen and you instantly stood straight up causing him to instinctively retreat his hand.

"Katsuki, you're awake!" Out of instinct, you flung yourself at him—your eyes squeezing shut as tears pricked the corner of your eyes.

His eyes widened, having not expected you to get so excited, "W-Wai–"

But his words came too late as you soon made it on the bed with him and wrapped your arms tightly around him. He instantly groaned in pain from the force and tightness of your hold.

"Oh!" Your eyes widened, having forgotten about what Todoroki had said to you about what happened to him, before letting go of him and moving a bit back though you stayed on the bed beside him, "I-I'm sorry!"

He narrowed his eyes at you though there was pain evident on his face, "B-Be more fucking careful!"

You bit your bottom lip as you looked down, "Sorry, I forgot. B-But . . ." You looked back up at him, your lips forming into a quivering smile, "I'm . . . I'm just so happy to see that you're awake."

As much as Bakugou would like to be mad at you, he just fucking couldn't. You were his girlfriend after all. So you got a bit of leeway with some of your actions.

He sighed before straightening himself back up, "How . . . fucking long?"

You frowned as you answered, "Two days."

"Two days . . ." He repeated your words lowly as he looked to the side and narrowed his eyes, "Where..?" It wasn't that he didn't know where, but he wanted to know the specifics.

"Central Hospital."

He turned his gaze back to you, "What about Deku, Todoroki, Endeavor, and Aizawa..? What happened to everyone?"

"W-Well . . ." You knitted your brows as you swallowed.

With that, you began to explain everyone's current conditions from what you had managed to get from Todoroki. Bakugou listened intently to every word so he could fill in some of the missing points of his memories and the after-effects he had no possible way of knowing.

"Tch. So they're unsure if Deku will wake up . . ." Bakugou squeezed the sheet of the bed.

"That's what I heard."

"That idiot better not fucking die or I'll fucking ki–!" But he didn't manage to finish his sentence as he winced from the pain shooting through him.

"I-I'm sure Midoriya will be fine . . . but y-you need to calm down!" You placed your hand on his arm as you leaned closer to him, "You should be getting rest."

"I already fucking have, for two days!" He argued.

"It's not enough, you're still hurt!"

"You're the one who should be getting some fucking rest, idiot."

You blinked as a bead of sweat appeared on your cheek, "Huh..? What do yo–" You soon let out a yelp as Bakugou gripped your arm and pulled you down with and against him as he laid down. Your face started to warm at the closeness, "Katsuki, w-wha–"

"You've probably been here the whole fucking time."

"W-Well, yes . . ." You grasped his hand and encased it with both of yours—feeling the warmness that naturally radiated from them because of his quirk, "But I just wanted to be here when you . . . when you woke up. I-I was so worried about you." Your grip tightened on his hand.

Bakugou clicked his tongue, "Why do you always get so damn mushy?" He groaned though his hand squeezed yours back, signaling he acknowledged and appreciated your worry.

"Because I love you."

"Tch." His cheeks warmed at your words, "Just get some damn rest, idiot."

You hummed as you pondered his words before pressing a bit closer to him, "I am a bit tired." You admitted.

"That's what I fucking thought."

"Also . . ."

"What?" He raised a brow.

"Were you about to say if Midoriya died, you'd kill him?"

"Yeah?"

"Well . . . I don't think that'd work."

"Huh?" He blinked a few times until he realized what you meant and narrowed his eyes at the ceiling before clicking his tongue, "Just shut up and go to fucking sleep."

You gave a small and weak smile even though he couldn't see it as you snuggled even closer to him while closing your eyes, "I'm glad you're okay . . ." You mumbled against him before sleep overtook you—the room becoming silent aside from the sound of your soft breathing.

Bakugou looked down at the top of your head, a frown gracing his features. He knew you had been fucking exhausted. But he only hoped you'd get some much-needed sleep before the class 1-A calvary—that was destined to soon come—popped up.

With that said, he was—as much as he hated to admit it—worried for Deku for the fact that the doctors were unsure he'd even wake up from the injuries he had sustained from the fight.

But for now, he'd stop worrying about the things he couldn't fully control and spend this temporarily quiet moment with you in his arms . . .

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trashmancer · 4 years ago

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Again, been reading a lot recently, and here's some recent reads and my thoughts. (All very spoiler-free)

Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

I'd heard about this series for a while, but had always kept putting off reading it, and finally I was in the mood for some comedic (yet dark) shenanigans--and a villain protagonist as charming as Johannes Cabal really hit me just right. I really enjoyed the first of this series and the introduction to this 1920's-ish universe similar-yet-different to our own that Howard's created. His writing is crisp and clever--and Johannes is a villain protagonist worth cheering for. He's duplicitous, arrogant, and cold, yet sharp-witted and competent enough to be engaging, and even though he's amoral (driven predominately with an "ends do justify the means" mentality) there are glimmers of a conscious buried in there.

The basic gist of the first book is that Johannes Cabal is a necromancer dead-set (ba-dum-sh) on thwarting the biggest plague affecting mankind: Death. As such, he's willing to go to extreme lengths to hone and perfect his necromantic abilities. In the pursuit of this knowledge, Cabal sold his soul to Satan, but he comes to realize he actually needs his soul for his necromancy to work more properly (apparently without a soul it gets very unpredictable). In order to win his soul back, he strikes a wager with Satan: he will accumulate 100 souls for Satan in return for his own. Satan, ever the fair player (not), gifts Cabal with an infernal carnival to help Cabal reach his goal within the year. Shenanigans ensue.

While I read some books in-between this one and the next in the series, I'll write about the other here--

Johannes Cabal: The Detective by Jonathan L. Howard

So clearly I enjoyed the first installment enough to keep going, and I am glad, because I enjoyed the second one even more than the first. It feels like Howard got more comfortable with the characters and world than before, and in this one he expands his universe with some made-up countries that are similar-to-yet-different than countries on our Earth. In this one, Cabal does less fantastic tricks, as he dons the role of investigator (there's been a murder--on an airship!), but the plot was very fun. I will say this is one of the first books in a long while to genuinely make my world-weary ass laugh out loud in public. Howard truly does know how to turn a phrase and comes off with some great witticisms.

Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky has been on my radar for a while because I have had Children of Time on my reading list for what feels like an age (and I still haven't gotten around to reading it, but I will soon). To prime myself, I looked up other works by Tchaikovsky. This was around the time I was look for good "stand-alone" Adult Fantasy novels as well, so the two linked up and I had this on my TBR for a while and got around to finally cracking it open.

I really loved this book. If I could describe it in any way, it would be sort of like Pride & Prejudice if Elizabeth Bennet got drafted into a war. Seriously. That's how it reads--and Tchaikovsky made the allusions to Austen's work very clear. The setting is very English-inspired, and the time period mimics Napoleonic times. Definitely the first "Flintlock Fantasy" I've had the pleasure of reading.

The themes of the book are about the caustic nature of nationalism, the blurring of truth during war, and what is true patriotism in the face of falsehood and horror. Definitely my kind of questions--and I love watching characters thrown into completely unfamiliar environments. A genteel woman (Emily Marshwic) being tossed headfirst into grisly, mosquito-infested swamps armed with a musket? It's a fascinating journey she undergoes.

Plus the novel featured a romantic subplot that hits my enemies-to-lovers buttons hard. (It's not at all like one of those tired YA enemies-to-lovers stories, but something more grown-up and messy, which I approve of, because I love drama.) But this is more of a personal note. It's definitely not going to be for everyone.

Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay #1) by Chris Wooding

After Johannes Cabal, I got into the mood for some steampunk, and I hadn't actually read much in the way of steampunk, so I looked up some recs and the Tales of the Ketty Jay series seemed to appear on a lot of lists for this kinda thing. The basic gist of this one is... imagine steampunk Firefly. That kinda gives you the whole vibe and feel. It's about a crew of disparate and colorful characters all running from something who meet on the ship the Ketty Jay and have to learn to work together to survive.

Overall, it was a fast-paced read (I read this 400 page sucker in a single day--while doing other stuff) and Wooding knows how to write action and interesting character interactions. The world had some glimmers of brilliance (the wizard analogs in their world--daemonist--were the most intriguing part), but otherwise it was very typical steampunk. I had no real quibbles with any of that (aside from the fact some of it read as very cliche and Wooding's inspirations seemed a little obvious--Fullmetal Alchemist and Firefly being the two big ones that kept hammering me over the head), but my main complaint was with the writing and treatment of female characters. First, there is only one main female character in the Ketty Jay's crew--Jez. I had no real issues with Jez's character or writing (in fact she's refreshing in some ways), but she's completely isolated from any other female characters (and is also the only crew member who isn't really allowed to be a complete screw up--she's somewhat sanitized, which, I guess the heroic women characters aren't allowed to be fuck ups like the men?). Second, the other predominate female characters, of whom there are only three, are mute/dehumanized (Bess), characterized as stupid and unhinged (Amalicia), and have rape-as-a-backstory-written-TERRIBLY (Trinica). All that said, as much as it was cringe, this was written in 2009, and I am sure Wooding has had some growth as a writer since then.

I liked this one enough to decide to check out the next in the series (even knowing the writing for the female characters leaves much to be desired).

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

A Fantasy taking place in an Americas-inspired world? Absolutely refreshing (and more please). The main gist of this one is that a cult sets out to resurrect a dead god (seriously that's the main plot crux) while political machinations are going on in the central city of this country where the resurrection is going to take place. As the novel progresses, it's like a countdown clock to game time. There's four POV characters we follow: Xiala (a Teek sea captain who is kind of an outcast from her native people and has a love for beautiful people), Serapio (the man who has been groomed since birth to be the vessel for the resurrected god, part of this process has included blinding him), Naranpa (the Sun Priest of the capital city who is trying to garner back control the priesthood has lost), and Okoa (who really doesn't even appear until way later into the book; he's been separated from his family to train to be a warrior). For the most part, I was primarily engaged (re: 90% engaged) with Xiala and Serapio's story. They were the most interesting characters, and the journey of them on the sea trying to get to the city before the ceremony was exciting and emotional. The political dealings in Naranpa's segments kind of bogged down the action--and I didn't feel anything for that. Overall though, definitely a thrilling read with a beautifully constructed world. If I had one big criticism, it's that it ended incredibly abruptly without any resolution. I knew going in this was a part of a greater whole, but I still felt the ends could've been knotted a little tighter. I'm left dangling! But I'll be sure to pick up the next one (if anything just to find out what happens to Xiala and Serapio).

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

As an unapologetic villainfucker, I had to read this one, right? It's about not just one, but two villains! How could I lose? And they're in an intense rivalry? Revenge? Betrayal? Superpowers? Gah! Be still my heart!

I'll say I enjoyed this book (fun characters, solid writing), but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would (I wish I could love yooouuuu!). Definitely worth a recommendation to anyone who loves villains and fast-paced narratives, but... there were a few things that tarnished what could've been sparkling. The biggest for me was the jumping around in the first half. For a length of time, the novel leaps between three different points of time, sometimes 2-3 pages at a time, and it was jarring (not confusing, mind you, but it was a jolt each time). I get it was done to create an air of mystique and intrigue, but it felt like I was getting dragged around by the ear. Along with this, the plot just seemed... very convenient? As various moments kept happening, it all felt too tidy and paint-by-numbers. The characters were certainly messy and fun (and I love messy and fun), but the action itself seemed to glide on well-oiled rails with no hiccups. This did lead to the magnetic pacing of the book (which I also read in a day), but it didn't do the drama any favors. Never once did it feel like the characters were caught with their pants down--and I think that's part of the point, but it kind of dampened the tension.

I liked it enough I am definitely going to check out the sequel Vengeful though. If anything I am reading for Sydney, Mitch, and Victor. I gotta know what happens to them!

Right now I am reading some fluffy fluff to cleanse my palette because I've been reading so much moodiness. I'm mid-way through the light and breezy Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater (and it's super cute so far) and then I am finally going to crack open Andy Weir's The Martian (because I have put off reading it for far too long).

#recent reads #book review #just jotting my thoughts down somewhere #seriously though i am itching to read the next johannes cabal but i gotta pace myself #i don't want to burn through those like i did murderbot lol

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dismas-dumbass · 5 years ago

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Mom says that a house is like a body. And every house has eyes and bones and skin. A face. This room is like the heart of the house. No, not a heart, a stomach.

-The Haunting of Hill House

Hackett Siblings wanted for some absolutely chaotic drama!

CW: suicide, ptsd, mental trauma, death, substance abuse

henlo, welcome to the ad where i lose my shit cause i’ve lost control of my life. anyway! i have the idea for a rather messed up group of siblings slightly based off the Haunting of Hill House show. The basics are that there’s a large house, there’s a large family, something reaaaallyy rreeaally bad happens to the family when the kids are young that have fucked them up for the rest of their lives, fun stuff like that! obviously the situation is more subtle/personal rather than what goes on in the show [i’ll try to be vague due to spoilers] but i think it’s still something that can be rather creepy~ pretty much 95% of the info presented in this version of the ad is rather flexible and flimsy and i definitely don’t mind working with y’all to make it something amazing!! also, no knowledge of the show is needed whatsoever but just be a tiny bit careful if you do wanna see it/don’t like being spoiled mostly just due to the fact that with the themes that will be in the ad the show will probably be discussed as well!

a loooootttt of the details aren’t set in stone btw! i’m pretty much outlining my thoughts and the general concept but things may/will change and things will be added/subtracted as more people contribute to the idea!

if you have any questions or even if this strikes your fancy you can contact me on discord [mine’s dismas#9766]! if there’s more than one of ya then we can get a group chat going so that way we can see what ideas we all have for this! i can’t wait to write with y’all! <3

Backstory

alright, so the gist is that the Hackett family used to live in a rather big and fancy house. why they were there is up in the air so here’s a few suggestions: A. like the show, their parents were fixing it up. now, whether that means they’re going to sell it right after or live in it is open since both angles are rather interesting! B. they inherited it. from who? who knows! could be a relative that one of the parents knew, could have been random. it’s just a harmless house right? it might be good for the family! C. they just moved there. weird house for a good price? why not! it might be fun!

whatever the reason, the siblings were in the house for some time. whether they’re natives to Dyrne or outsiders is open since all of the concepts can cover those possibilities easily! there’s no strict timeline yet as to how old they were when they were in that house but more than likely the youngest [twin] siblings were no younger than 6 so make of that what you will with the age ranges~ i would say that they were in that house for about a year or so? technically not too long in their lives but enough to cause lifelong damage?

their parents were good people. they had their flaws obviously and raising literally seven kids was an undertaking but they managed fine enough. mostly through the power of having the older siblings taking care of the younger. but even then they were loving parents. their father was a bit of a mess but well-meaning [think: one of the little siblings learned a swear word from an older one and their father tries to track them down, shouting throughout the house ‘get your ass in here now or else you’re grounded!’] and their mother was more organized yet didn’t hesitate to create a tiny bit of harmless chaos every once in a while. they loved each other, they loved their kids.

now, obviously, there’s the subject of the house itself. what’s the history behind it? that’s definitely left open due to the very reason why they’re there. but there’s probably something wrong with the house. physically? spiritually? mentally? whoever walks those halls won’t exactly be coming back out the same, that’s for sure. And that’s sort of what happened. the official story was that the Hackett family lived in the house for year, doing whatever, and then a fire broke out which caused the death of their mother. the rest of the family was able to escape and the father gave the testimony that it was an electrical fire -when investigated, he was proven innocent of any wrongdoing.

so what’s the actual story? It’s a bit of a mish mash of weird memories, mostly. it’s not really known whether the house is actually alive alive or if its history is just a horrible set of coincidences of bad stuff happening to people. the actual night was a blur to the siblings, all of them being ushered out of the house by their frantic father and herded into the car. when they asked where their mother was their father didn’t answer so they were just left crying after their missing mother. they didn’t even know that there was a fire even though maybe one of them said that they smelled smoke. they didn’t find out until one of the officers at the scene talked about it. for whatever reason, each and every one of them were silent on why they were brought out of the house by their father.

it’s still something they don’t know about.

to be fair, it was almost a partial relief to be out of the house. as i mentioned with the family they were held together well enough and were loving but things started to change when they moved to that house. slowly, surely, they started to encounter strange happenings, feel strange things, and started to view each other differently. what exactly happened to each family member is left open since they mostly don’t speak of their experiences except for the youngest. even their father, who may have experienced quite a lot, was tight-lipped about what happened to him, especially on the night of the fire. the experiences changed them, messed with them, and caused them to splinter and falter and break. after the death of their mother there was obviously quite a few years before everyone split up but they eventually did, going off to do their own things with their own scars hidden beneath their lies. some moved away, some stayed, but they still stayed in touch in some fashion. just not enough to be considered personal anymore.

what brought them all back together was the death of their father not too long ago. The poor man must have been consumed by guilt of some sort and took his own life, leaving his children behind to deal with the aftermath. they still never got any secrets from him nor any answers so all that’s there are feelings of confusion and loss. where the story begins is the revealed news that all the siblings are going to be living under one roof -in that house. the youngest daughter, for whatever reason, decided to purchase their childhood home back and has been in the process of restoring it. the reason why each sibling decides to go along with this is up in the air but the end result is the same: all seven siblings, plus any other family they may have, are now living in that house again.

Siblings

all the siblings except the one i’ll be playing are not set in stone! i’m going for a redheaded family sort of feel so the face claims i’ve put for each of them are something that i prefer but! tbh i’m super flexible and and at the end of the day it’s not a dealbreaker to choose someone else~ since i don’t wanna restrict folk’s fun over a fc choice! overall the sibling's interactions between each other are not that amicable -some may try to cooperate but old wounds come up and oftentimes a fight arises. they still have their weird traditions such as drawing straws if they need to do something and nobody wants to or they all fall silent at the same time [not often, obv., since they're mostly shouting over each other] that cause people on the outside to look at them strangely. at the end of the day, they can't escape the fact that they are siblings and are from the same disturbed family.

beliefs as well are varied and open! none say that they believe their youngest brother whenever he tries to convince them of what happened at the house though whether or not they believe that inside their heads is another matter entirely~

also! don’t feel as though you have to base your characters off any from the show! it’s just a nice start-off point and if you’re inspired but it’s definitely not a requirement whatsoever!

tbh a lot of the siblings aren’t fleshed out a lot & what happened to them in the house is also open so feel free to go wild!! i mean it; you can add as much as you want so that you can create a character that you’ll love to write for!

Eldest Son- 51. Toby Stephens.

being the eldest, he was the one to usually look after the younger children if their parents needed to do something. he built up a sort of protector complex where he has to make sure that he knows where all the other siblings are at all times. he fails constantly, of course, since he can’t even manage to have one of them listen to him. still, he feels responsible for all of his other siblings and takes it personally when he can’t get something done for them. he has his flaws, obviously, in that he tries to say that his way is the right way and can be as stubborn as an ox so despite his best intentions he clashes with some of the other siblings. this may be why none of them tend to listen to him.

Second Son- 50. Tony Curran.

He is one of the quieter siblings, preferring to be by himself when not needed. It isn’t that he dislikes his siblings; he just likes to be alone rather than among them. he’s kind and thoughtful so whenever one of the others needs help he’ll try to be there but besides that don’t count on him being somewhere on his own. Actually, it may be difficult to count on him in general because he loses track of time often and before he knows it he’s two hours late to moving some furniture for someone. this is probably the reason why he tends to be by himself -he doesn’t seem to grasp the passage of time as others have.

Eldest Daughter- 47. Sarah Rafferty.

she’s cruel. not absolutely cruel but cruel enough. she likes to poke and prod her siblings and see what sets them off. she thinks it’s funny and likes to observe the aftermath of her machinations. she likes to claim that she’s just bored but in reality she’s absolutely insecure herself and wants to bring others down to feel better about herself. don’t tell this to her face because she will absolutely try to turn it back on you and make you out to be the bad guy while she is the victim. also, don’t try to get revenge -she’ll just be more inclined to do something worse to you.

Second Daughter- 46. Amy Adams.

she’s neutral towards, well, everything. she kind of just exists and she doesn’t like that. not a lot of passion, not a lot of purpose. maybe she tries something daring once in a while to feel something but comes up short. it’s difficult for her to emotionally connect with others in a deep way and oftentimes she finds herself alone. she doesn’t like being alone, though, since being alone means she’ll be alone with her thoughts and she hates that. If she can even feel that properly, anyway. she’s not emotionless in the sense that she is sociopathic but her difficulty feeling things has caused her to have a sarcastic and thorny exterior towards anyone she meets, fueling her involuntary self-isolation.

Third Daughter- 43. Jessica Chastain. Reserved for spooky spice

she's the face of the family. the most energetic. the most chaotic. the one to threaten to break someone's kneecaps if they dare harm her siblings. she'll give a show-stopping smile and then tell you to eat shit afterwards. due to the minimal age difference she always had to watch the twins and therefore she is close to them, especially Thomas. some joke that she's actually Thomas' twin -she can sort of just sense whenever the youngest Hackett is in trouble. she's not happy about anything seeming messy, of course, so she spares no second to chastise anyone [including Thomas] about what they have done wrong. her status among stardom cannot afford any blemishes so catch her changing the subject whenever an interviewer brings up the fact that her younger brother is a drug addict. trust her, she knows. she knows all too well. and maybe her motivation for buying up the Hackett siblings' childhood house was to try to get Thomas some actual help after he failed out of rehab for the umpteenth time. their father's suicide may have just reinforced her decision to go forward with this.

Twin One- 42. Michael Fassbender.

maybe he’s one of the most normal. maybe’s he’s the most normal. maybe he has to be -his twin is an absolute trainwreck of a human being and his family is an equal amount of mess. maybe he’s just good at saving face and hiding the damage caused by the house [and maybe by his siblings]. some days, he sort of forgets that he’s a twin and that said twin is a drug addict. when they were young they were close though he would often play kind of cruel tricks on his younger twin such as locking the door to the basement after daring Thomas to go down the stairs, leaving him in a room alone with the lights off, and things like that. he grew out of it, matured, and tries to ignore the fact that he may or may not have been part of the reason why Thomas is the way he is now. he's too focused on being a professor at the college to fully see the cries of help his younger twin is showing.

Twin Two Thomas Hackett- 42. Michael Fassbender. Taken by Dismas.

so you’re asking me if i have a problem. i probably do. the youngest of the Hackett family; he’s probably one of the most heavily affected by the events at the house. for those familiar with the show think a combination of inspiration between Luke and Eleanor Crain, but also with even more issues maybe as well as none of the siblings being on his side whatsoever on anything. he had quite a few strange encounters ranging anywhere from encountering something in the basement when he was locked in one time by his twin to being trapped in a room with so much noise that he passed out for hours. now, figure, he’s a young kid when all of this happened [probably around 6 or so, could be a tiny bit older] so he doesn’t know how to deal with any of this. this really fucks him up. on top of that, whenever he told his family, none of them ever believed, further fueling the feeling of being unwanted. he was probably the closest one to their mother, being the youngest and the most vulnerable of the children, so he was absolutely devastated when she perished in the fire that fateful night. he blamed his father, thinking that he did something to her and tried to hide it with said fire. he never stopped believing in that, nor in the experiences he had in the house, and it pretty much ate at his soul. not only that but nobody still believed him so he always felt useless. he developed a bitter and angry attitude to try to hide this but the wounds were never able to be covered for long and so he eventually turned to drugs to soothe his pain. obviously, it never fully did so he just fell deeper into the rabbit hole. he dropped out of high school and started to do all sorts of jobs and favors in order to get his next fix, oftentimes winding up being arrested for petty crimes. he earned a bad reputation around town and the only reason why he didn’t face too much jail time is due to one of his siblings always bailing him out. wash, rinse, and repeat.

nowadays he goes between being sort of okay and having his own place to being absolutely drugged out of his mind and having to crash at a sibling’s place if they’re local -mostly his twin or the youngest daughter of the family. he’s failed out of rehab recently which may have been one of the reasons why the youngest daughter decided to purchase and fix up their childhood home; so that he can have a stable over his head for once and maybe recover from his habits. little does she know, or maybe care, that the house was the reason for his down spiral in the first place so he is not thrilled whatsoever to be stuck in the same building with all the same people who did not believe him. he hates it here.

Other Ideas

this is pretty much going to be only the possible family of the siblings woops but with the house being rather large there’s a ton of room for more than just the siblings themselves and more than likely some of the other siblings are going to be in some sort of relationship unlike Thomas. now, of course, maybe not all of the spouses/partners/children live in the house after all but then again they might! i have a few small ideas:

the loyal partner- this partner is loyal to the sibling they’re married to/with, always making sure they’re alright and making sure the sibling is well taken care of. maybe even spoil/indulge a little too much the whims of the sibling. they may seem a little more oblivious to the chaotic dynamics of the siblings and the strangeness of the house. they just think that everyone needs to get along and everything will be okay! except it’s never that easy and they probably just look foolish for suggesting that.

the angry partner- they hate it in the house. all the fighting and the tension and the drama; they think it’s a bunch of bullshit. they especially think all the spooky~ stuff that apparently happened in the house is all bullshit too and won’t hesitate to call anyone out if the supernatural is even entertained. they just want to live their life in relative peace with the sibling they’re with

the mediator partner- they may not necessarily believe in the unbelievable -in fact, their career hinges on finding out why people process stuff the way they do [ex. a therapist or psychologist]- but they still try to see all angles. they’re typically the one trying to quell the arguments between siblings and trying to see why the siblings feel the way they do about things (and about each other). they’re curious, however, about the house itself and may start poking around in the wrong places to try to discover the truth.

[one tiny suggestion! perhaps the mediator partner is married to Thomas’ twin brother and they have a kid with the face claim of Reece King? ;^; he has slightly similar facial features to Michael Fassbender + i think it’d be sweet if the partner tries to see why Thomas is fucked up the way he is and maybe even begins to sympathize/believe him after they start to figure stuff out?]

Plots

alright! so the obvious plots are going to be the interactions between siblings~ their personalities may give a hint to who they do or don’t get along with but in all honesty they all have bad enough blood with each other to have issues one way or another. so! drama! one of those ‘if you leave them in a room for long enough they’ll find something to fight about’ type of things! they do love each other -really, they do- but their experiences in the house changed them forever and there’s no gaining that back. they can only move forward.

they’re already living in the house for a short period of time [maaaybbe a month? a few weeks?] so they’re all settled in and dealing with the presence of each other and it’s not going exactly swimmingly for obvious reasons. maybe some try to cooperate with each other? others not so much. there’s plenty of fighting and slamming doors and shouting and leaving the area/the house to cool off. on more than one occasion Thomas has already stated that he’s leaving for good and going out on his own. he never follows through with the threat -he can’t. he’s as tied to the house as everyone else is and now he can’t escape. but you get the gist. it’s going to take a while for them to see eye to eye with each other. if they ever do, anyway.

future plots to explore are, of course, up in the air but they can deal with the siblings learning more about each other, learning more about their parents, and learning more about the house. and, of course, learning more about their town as well! Whether things start to get better or if they down spiral even further is going to be rather interesting to see~

for initial threads it could be fun [in a morbid sense] to do a past one where they’re attending their father’s funeral since that was kind of actually a shitshow. imagine all the siblings, with their awful traits, having to deal with the death of their parent and just in terrible pain. so, what else to do than to cause issues with each other and create quite a few commotions? obv. when the sibling’s personalities are solidified we can discuss this further! overall the first types of posts will be their interactions with the site plots, the town itself, and between them when they’re at the house so there’s plenty of room for drama!

#thirdeyerp #wanted ad~#wanted to do this before the dev stuff woops #have an absolute disaster of a family #pls love them kthxbaaaiii

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jujutsu-headcanons · 5 years ago

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Adult Chucky ohmygod that's exactly what he is too! With Mahito I just- I get WHY he's like that but it doesn't stop me from wanting to punch him in the nose. Which I acknowledge means he's a well written character but- I. Just. Can't. Stand. Him. 🙃🙃🙃

Ok with those hints- and this is just my gut feeling- I'm gonna say it's Geto....is it Geto??? If not that's my only guess ._.

Nanami Kento is a tsundere?!? You heard it here folks Nanami is #1 tsundere and we stan a good dad who protects his children even though he denies it! Though I'm not like into Nanami that way, I'd still die for him to make him happy? If that makes sense? So I'm excited for those relationship headcannons because I feel hes over looked!

And someone else who reads too fast for their own good! Join the party! I don't hate spoilers so I gobble everything up and skim through everything so I've got a gist of the storyline and extra characters. But now I'm like sitting down and dissecting each chapter as I go so I can be super familiar with it for when I decide to write fanfics oops nerd alert

Throw me in that bin of anti Toji...he hurt my baby and I just- My heart and soul belongs to Megumi and if he hates him then I gotta hate him. I don't make the rules ¯\_( ツ)_/¯ Mai is another one I'm having a hard time warming up to. I've warmed up to Todo asdfghjkl him and Yuji bro fighting to best friends is perfect but besides that really everyone else I like bc the story is just THAT good. But I'm only on the exchange arc that I'm like in detail reading. But as I gobble up 5 or more chapters every time I have down time it won't take me long 👁👄👁

💛anon

I'll stand by and cheer while you beat the shit out of Mahito. I promise. I too want to see this sewer rat dissected. He's taken away two possibly three of my favorite characters and shows no sign of stopping so I hope Yuji slams his face in the concrete a couple times soon.

Nope! Although, Getou was on my shit list for a while. I kinda automatically didn't like him at first because he was a "bad guy", but that was short lived. I went from hating him to trying to force myself to hate him. It was all because of the Hidden Inventory arc (which, may I add is officially called Gojo's Past arc? I just refer to is as the flashback arc 👀) and I realized I just.... Can't hate him. For a while I was neutral toward him and then episode 7 happened and now it's game over he's pretty okay

I mean; am I in it totally for the looks?

.... No but maybe.

The person I don't like is Mai! I can't stand her. I think it's ONLY because she reminds me of Lisa from Fire Force (if you haven't watched it, ignore that reference) because I get so pissy towards people who hurt my comfort characters oh my god

I don't like what Mai does to Nobara, and how she treats Maki.

HOWEVER. I do feel like in the current arc she might show up and do something good that will get her off of my shit list. I'm not holding my breath but maybe.

Nanami Kento is the best dad and that's on GOD. Pfffft I was gonna say "what no don't die I need you 💛" but also I would die for Nanami so... I can't say shit xD ahhhh I miss Nanami. Honestly I was a Gojofucker when I started (I mean... Who wasn't?) But I'm attracted to Nanami. Gojo is kinda just a cool character, don't get me wrong like I wanna be his best friend, but I rlly do wanna get Nanamin my heart and my body if he asked politely, which he would do btw he asks before he even so much as kisses you

👀 oop- fanfics? Wanna... Drop a few links in my inbox? I haven't been reading fics lately (ahaha brain go brrrr)

Well! I am 100% not spoiler free. If you ask I'll tell you anything, unless it's something I want you to experience the way I did. I made my friend watch Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious without telling him anything just because I wanted him to be as distraught as I was. It worked.

I do be upset at Toji for what he did to Megs but also? Some events take place in this arc and 👀 I'm kinda hoping Megumi changes his standpoint. It'll be great for his character development, because he's been growing since the first chapter and it's cute. I can't see him completely forgiving his dad, however, we haven't gotten Megs' thought process on What The Fuck ™ happened in the current arc, and he might connect the dots and go "... Huh. So that happened."

... it could also go the wrong way and make him more of a gloomy piece of shit

I rlly just wanna give Megumi a hug I stg. Like. I want to be thrown into the jjk universe, not to live out my own story, but just give everyone a damn hug and just tell them it's gonna be okay l, especially Yuji, Megumi and Gojo bc the first two are having difficult times with their emotions and the second because uhhh. I had this scenario pop in my head and idk why I thought of this, but I guess Gojo and I were fighting about something? And for some reason I was beating the shit out of him. And he was letting the blows land. Like he didn't have infinity activated. He must have done something shitty to allow himself to get beat up and somehow I ended up straddling him and I was yelling shit like "oh, now you won't talk? You won't even look at me in the fucking eye, get this shit off-" and I ripped his blindfold off and I was met with the absolute heart wrenching sight of Gojo Satoru's baby blue eyes swollen with tears. And all he did was smile and say "gomen ne" in his cute little voice (kinda childish, like how he dragged out Yuji's name in the first ep. 'Itadori yuuuuuji') and this scene rlly got me thinking what if the happy go lucky attitude is just a facade he uses to hide how broken he is-

But that's its own separate post lmao

I think I answered everything, have fun reading this shit show

#.ask #long post #💛 anon

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defectivenancydrew · 6 years ago

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MID Review (finally)

Now that I’ve had a while to reflect on MID, I feel like I can give an honest, spoiler-free review. This turned out to be a much more in-depth review than I had planned on doing, but you can just read the italics at the end of each section if you just want the gist.

Controls: Okay, so for like the first fifteen minutes (or however long it takes you to adjust), the controls are frustrating. Once you get used to how to move (and it is still point-and-click), you’ll be fine. The only thing that I still didn’t have a solid grasp of by the end of the game was moving Nancy’s head around with the right mouse button--it might have helped to slow the mouse down for this function. That being said, the controls offer a lot to the game. The environments and navigation feel more realistic, and instead of jumping from scene to scene, Nancy slides through the space. It’s weird at first, but it’s ultimately superior. (Just for kicks, I went back and played a bit of LIE as a comparison, and the jumpy movement felt so weird after the smoothness of MID). Controls get a 8/10 for the steep learning curve and the more realistic movement.

Graphics: They’re not that bad, okay? On high render, the environments actually look really good and the characters are decent (low render is an understandably different story). Given the technical reasons behind the graphics looking as the do (full 3D render here versus painstakingly painted video files before), I don’t think that they’re really that bad. Puzzle renders and zoomed-in items/POIs really shine, appearing arguably better than previous games. It’s also important to consider what SCK/STFD look like compared to SEA--MID obviously looks better than SCK/STFD, but it has room for improvement. Just like the development team refined the graphics on their proprietary engine, they will refine the graphics on Unity over time. Again, looking back to the first three games, there is a huge jump in graphics quality between each game, indicating their ability to improve quickly. I’m willing to best that the next game (yes, I believe there will be a ‘next game’) will look much better than MID, and so on from there. Character renders are not as great, but this, too, is likely to improve and is probably also due to the fact that it’s 3D and not a painted video file. Their movements may be awkward, but the fact that they are mo-cap means that they may improve in future games. The only real gripe I have about the characters is the lack of facial expressions. Graphics get a 7/10 for up-close realism and room for improvement.

Performance: If you have a gaming PC or a relatively new device, you should be golden. The game runs smoothly at high render on my 2018/i7/SSD PC, but has some lagging issues at high render on my 2014/i5/HDD PC (issues that all but disappear by adjusting to low render). For those with older PCs or PCs with less processing-power, you may have to deal with way-off lip-syncs and choppy cut scenes if you also want to see the best possible graphics. The game only crashed once on my older PC (and it was more likely due to unrelated background processes I was running), but the autosave feature prevents crashes from being anything more than a brief annoyance. Performance gets a 6/10 for high requirements and the Sophie’s Choice of graphics or speed.

UI: I love the sleek, full-screen appearance and minimalist inventory/phone bar. If I had to ask for any improvements here, I might suggest that the inventory collapse into a bag icon when it’s not in use. UI gets 10/10 for maximizing space and minimizing distractions.

Environment (independent of graphics): HeR definitely stepped up their game (heh) on this front. While there are arguably no more locations to explore than in SEA, the environment is far more expansive and cohesive. You feel like you are in a small town (Salem), and you have the freedom to explore all the relevant places without jumping around or magically transporting. There’s only one location that is distant from the town center, and Nancy travels via car to get back and forth, which adds a dose of realism. We have our usual forest navigation (though it is mercifully straight-forward, unlike DOG or CAP), with the added bonus of looking around and using it to get from one place to another. The game makes good use of each space, though it’d be nice if there was more to do in certain lesser-used locations. Some of the locations really only seemed to be present to flesh out the whole environment--which is fine--but it’d be nice to utilize those locations a bit more. And when graphics are set high, the environments are quite stunning. The lighting and weather also do a good job of reinforcing the current atmosphere in-game. Environment gets a 9/10 for cohesion and light usage.

Characters (independent of graphics, story): This is probably one of the spots where MID won me over. Not only do we have eleven (11!) official characters, we have background characters that make the setting real! I didn’t count, but there were probably 10+ background characters that were present for minor commentary and realistic liveliness. For the first time in a Nancy Drew game, I wasn’t questioning where the rest of the world was. Yes, their movements were awkward and if your computer couldn’t handle the graphics, then their lips were flapping in mysterious ways, but they moved around and interacted with each other in semi-human ways. It is absolutely baffling to me that there are people who think there were too many characters. For one thing, we as fans asked HeR for more characters and that’s what they gave us. For another, the game never felt crowded. There were seven characters that were considered “main” that you interacted with often, three side characters that you interacted with occasionally, and one character that you only interacted with once. If they hadn’t been fully-formed characters with solid backstories, I might be persuaded that the number was an issue, but almost all of the characters were fully- or mostly-developed. Characters gets a 10/10 for quantity and quality.

Puzzles: This is probably the one facet of the game where it is most clear that HeR listened to fans’ requests. We asked for more realistic puzzles that were integrated into the game play and not totally irrelevant. That’s what we got. For some people, I think this made it seem like there were fewer puzzles, but I think there were just as many as before, it just wasn’t always super obvious that you were solving a puzzle (and they all but eliminated chore-type puzzles). The cooking mini game and serving mini game were both fun, nostalgic time-wasters in the best of ways. Another nice thing about the puzzles was that they weren’t super difficult as long as you were paying attention, so there wasn’t any need to google solutions or get frustrated. Puzzles get a 9/10 for fan service and perception (after all, perception is reality).

Story: MID really shines when it comes to the story line. The game delves into the full history of Salem, rightfully choosing to discuss topics that were always skirted in earlier games (prejudice, discrimination, slavery, torture, etc.). My only issue regarding the presentation of history is that a lot of the learning is optional, and can be easily ignored or missed. The actual story line of the game is well-established and doesn’t have any gaping plot holes (at least that I noticed on my first play through). There are multiple crimes to solve, multiple items to recover, and thus multiple endings/outcomes to achieve. I can’t go into too much more detail without spoiling parts of the game, but suffice it to say that the story has depth and gravity that might even place it ahead of previous games. Story gets a 10/10 for more mature themes and multiple, successfully interweaving story lines.

Dialogue: While the content of the dialogue is great and forms the foundation for much of the story, it loses me in presentation. First, the line-by-line captioning system is awkward at best, and a monologue behind at worst. I see no reason not to present the player with sentences or paragraphs at a time as before. Second, dialogue options are not so much options as dialogue tasks. You have questions you can ask, but there is no choice of how to ask them or how to respond to an answer. For the most part, you are just choosing the order in which to ask things. This, in my opinion, is a step backward from the previous games, where Nancy could be optimistic, pessimistic, direct, or passive-aggressive. Lastly, there is a strange lack of subject in Nancy’s sentence structure at times. She says “should do xyz” instead of “I should do xyz,” or “wanted to ask about abc” instead of “I wanted to ask you about abc.” While this isn’t really too weird in the context of modern speech patterns, it is still a little awkward. There are examples of this in previous games when Nancy speaks to herself, but never in dialogue with other characters. Again, this isn’t a big deal, but it crops up enough to make it noticeably strange. Dialogue gets a 6/10 for solid content and poor presentation.

Music: At first, the music seems to be nothing special; the main theme is quiet, unassuming, and a bit repetitive at times. But much like the rest of the game, it gets better as you progress. The music in Luminous Infusions and at the end of the game really stick out as great pieces, although the rest of the tracks are also very well-composed. There is thematic continuity between tracks and the tracks also reflect the game’s current atmosphere well. The music, while from a new composer, is still reminiscent of the old games, particularly the mystical tracks in CUR. I’m hoping HeR releases a soundtrack for MID in the future, but I do know there are no current plans for an official soundtrack (though you can find unofficial ones on YouTube pretty easily). Music gets a 10/10 for quality and cohesion.

Nancy: Nancy finally sounds like the late teen that she is meant to be! Nancy is witty and assertive, no longer speaking with the voice of a thirty-year-old and expressing the thoughts of a thirteen-year-old. The new voice actress is just what Nancy’s voice needed, in my opinion, though I have admittedly been a supporter of replacing Lani since about DED/GTH (don’t get me wrong, I love Lani and she will always be the classic voice of Nancy in my head, but I could also admit that her voice was losing its spark and pep). It takes a little while to get used to the new voice, but once it stops sounding different, it’s easy to fall in love with. Another great aspect of Nancy 2.0 is that she’s willing to get into it with other characters, even if they are in a position of authority. Nancy has always been an assertive character who stands up for what is right, even if it’s not easy to do. We see the return of this kind of Nancy in MID, and I hope we don’t lose her in future games. The only thing that I found a tad bit odd was how sugar-sweet Nancy was toward Deirdre. I like how their relationship was updated in order to model more appropriate/healthy female friendships, but it is a little weird considering the canon interaction model set forth by ASH and DED. Nancy’s other relationships have also matured and improved. Nancy gets a 10/10 for assertiveness and expressiveness.

Physical Copy: Well, almost two weeks after the release date, I finally got my physical copy of MID. This is unprecedented, as I always received physical pre-orders the day of or even the day before release. The long wait drove me to buy the digital download, which I didn’t mind doing, but this could be very frustrating for those not willing to pay for the game twice. I was disappointed to find that the disc art is just a copy of the cover art (which is minimalist at best), and not a characteristic color like the other games. The box art seems like it was put together at the last minute, not unlike the cover art. If it weren’t for my compulsive need to own all of the physical copies, I probably would have skipped it. Physical copy gets a 1/10 for slow delivery and lackluster appearance.

Weird Things to Complain About: Yes, there is one background character whose voice sounds like it was recorded on a Motorola Razr, but she says one sentence that you don’t even have to listen to. Yes, some of the background characters are overt clones, but we’ve never even had background characters to complain about before. Should there have been more to do in the Hathorne House or other one-off locations? Yeah, probably, but we were given a ton of locales to visit. The characters were always bobbing around and breathing, but--surprise!--this is something that real humans do. Did their feet/hands occasionally meld with other objects or the environment? Sure, but why were you looking at their feet during a conversation? Admittedly, Teegan sometimes looked like she was trying to scare off a bear or prepare for flight, even I can’t argue that that wasn’t odd. But for the most part, these are minor, petty issues. There weren’t gaping plot holes, there was actually a mystery to solve (looking at you, MED), and we got a lot of the things that we asked for over the years. There is always room for improvement, and this game is certainly no exception. I expect that the next game will make refinements based on our feedback and be even better. HeR completely changed the Nancy Drew game formula, but they used our input as a guide. They’ll take what we say about MID into consideration with the next game, and hopefully over time we will see the same level of improvement we saw from SCK to SEA. They started from scratch, and even though they had five years to work on it, the first time you try something new is almost always the worst. I don’t condone the way they treated us over the hiatus or how they treated their own staff, but I don’t think it’s time to abandon ship yet. If you play this game with nostalgia goggles on and a closed mind, you’re going to hate it, you’re going to ask for a refund. If you go into it with an open mind and excitement for something new, you might just find that you like MID more than you’d care to admit. Weird things to complain about gets an 8/10 for minor oddities that should be expected in a pilot endeavor.

Conclusion: Change is inevitable. If you were around when TMB came out, you might remember the absolute uproar that came with the UI change. People threatened to walk away from the series because of the new menu screen and bulkier interface. If you’ve played the original SCK and STFD, then you know how drastically the games improved over the span of a single year. And compare those games to SEA and it’s clear that the games are always improving. But you have to start (or in this case, restart) somewhere, and MID is our new starting point. The games will get better, and we’ll still find things to complain about (like we always do), because there is always room for improvement. There’s no point in lamenting about how good the game would have looked on the old engine, because that misses the point. The old engine could not deliver what we as fans desired. It could not handle more than six characters or more than eight hours (this is being generous) of game play. It couldn’t give us more expansive environments or smoother navigation. The new engine gave us all of these things, but sacrificed a bit of graphics. Big whoop. I’m willing to bet that none of us got into the games for their graphics, especially those of use who became fans early on in the games’ history. Bottom line? HeR gave us a good game. Not their best game, maybe not even one of their better games, but it’s certainly better than MED or SCKR. And hey, at least we finally got the game. Midnight in Salem gets an 80%, an admirable B-, because the effort and progress is there, but there are definitely things that they could have done better.

#nancy drew #clue crew #midnight in salem #mid #review #open to feedback #wow this was way longer than i intended it to be

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danganronpedits-archived · 5 years ago

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same anon from before, tumblr ate my ask im so sorry!! i would like a kin match up please, im an INFP and my friends tell me im a pushover and too nice to people who dont deserve it/too trusting,, i usually never open up to people and i use humor to cope,,, i like being alone and i rly prefer animals over people. im told to stop apologizing a lot, ee here are some sources!!:mysticmessenger,danganronpa, camp camp,n anything else i luv a lot of sources!!

don’t feel too bad, anon!!! i totally get it, tumblr’s got weird restrictions on asks,,,, another anon i did a matchup for had the same problem! it’s not your fault at all!!! um, but i can definitely get the matchup done for you! i am kind of uncomfortable with camp camp as a source, so the major matchups will be based around mysmes and danganronpa!! i’m sorry!!! your matchup is under the cut, since i realise these kinds of posts can get pretty long ,,,!

-mod tsu (placeholder mikan shift icons!! i’m working on better ones!!!)

first off, from mystic messenger, i match you with...

yoosung kim!

this section will contain spoilers for yoosung’s route, and mystic mesenger as a whole! please proceed with caution! i think that yoosung, at times, can be a pushover or too trusting- a strong example that comes to my mind is when seven tells him that... well, that you can die from drinking chocolate milk. as in, that yoosung has a disease yoosung completely believes it, and believes that he has accidentally poisoned himself, only to be taken off guard whenever the truth is revealed. i don’t mean to assume you’re gullible or anything!!! but i think that you could also relate to the embarrassment/shame that comes with being duped like this. um,, and i also don’t want to call you insecure,, but i think that something that comes with being anxious like how you seem is... like, blaming yourself for your mistakes !! i totally get that, but,, sometimes it’s not your fault, you know ?,,, um, but whenever yoosung finds out that seven was just joking around, while he is angry with the latter, he seems more disappointed in himself that he didn’t catch on. plus, the others do tease him a bit- that probably didn’t help. i could see the both of you not wanting to go on the defensive, and just more... crying. i would say that he is a bit less of a ‘real puppy', as the RFA members describe him, around V. however, i think that the two of you definitely have your limits with your kindness- rika was a person who was very important to yoosung, and V, to his knowledge, is someone who didn’t take her ‘death’ seriously. i think that if someone really hurt you personally, then you would maybe be less forgiving or kind towards them... but that’s just my own guessing!! i don’t want to be presumptuous!! um, i do think that of your mbti type, yoosung is at the very least an introvert. i think that someone more extroverted would find comfort in other people,,, while yoosung finds comfort in video games. um, this also ties into him not really opening up a lot of the time...

while yoosung does admit personal facts about himself ingame(such as him not having a girlfriend, or his distrust of V) i’d still argue that he doesn’t open up much, at least not at first. this is a strong part of yoosung that i think you can relate to- for both of you, the people you associate with have a general gist of what you’re like, but they may not be able to fully get into your mind and work out the reasoning behind your thought process. that’s not their fault or anything,,! it’s just that... i think it’s hard to know how to. but the point is, yoosung is severely depressed after rika’s death, and while it’s implied, we don’t properly learn that he copes with it through video games(and also loses his motivation to perform well in school, even though he knows it’s disappointing his parents) until later on in the story. i think that you may be able to relate to this, being aware of your responsibilities, but not being able to handle them for one reason or another. ah, but that’s just a shot in the dark!! i’m sorry if that’s completely wrong,, um, but yoosung is kind of comic relief for the first part of the game. while he may not mean for this to be intentional, i just... seeing that ketchup smiley face on the omelette... it’s the funniest picture on earth. i wish i was in the meeting where cheritz decided to make that a thing, and saw the art process... sorry that’s off topic!! he does like to be alone, though, i think!! that’s to an extent of course,, but two of his biggest hobbies are video games and cooking- both of which can be done with others, but are typically things done in solace. even volunteering, another one of his hobbies, doesn’t inherently mean working with other people... at least, not all the time. lastly, while i do think he’s fine with people, he may be able to find more comfort in animals. an example of this is how he dotes on rika’s dog, versus how he kind of struggles to get along with people like jumin and jaehee.

second off, from danganronpa, i match you with...

chihiro fujisaki!

i’ll be using she/her for chihiro on this post!! to start, for your MBTI type, chihiro is absolutely an introvert. her career is in programming, and considering that she tends to not work on a team for this, i’d say that programming is one of the most do-it-yourself activites out there. to quote the description of infp’s,,, “While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy, Mediators have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine.” this is just... a short, but encompassing description of chihiro. for starters, chihiro is definitely someone who i’d describe as a bit of a pushover,, while she is working on getting stronger and bettering herself(see the “flame and passion” in the INFP description), she is also kind to a remarkable, ‘pushover’-ish extent. even towards people like byakuya and hifumi(who isn’t inherently a bad person, but many are made... uncomfortable by his presence), chihiro tends to back off or take blame instead of fighting back against their... iffy remarks. with hifumi specifically, there are times when he’ll rave about his fanfiction career, and chihiro will respond with trying to make him happy, taking it in stride. i think that other people may find his demeanor as a reason to be uncomfortable by him- but she doesn’t see him in that way. she even tries to help him grow closer to the media he loves, saying “ I'm going to work hard to create something that can make people happy... And when I do complete it, I want you to try talking to it.” to him. chihiro also tends to not fully open up to people- like yoosung, you can get a general grip on her personality. however, with her gender-related issues, she only opens up to mondo whenever her identity will be revealed regardless, and that’s after at least ten years of keeping it all to herself. maybe you’re not that reserved, but it’s not something that most people would pick up on at first !! maybe you have tendencies that are in that similar “most people don’t really notice them” way at first,,!!

next up, while chihiro tends to take things from others rather seriously, she can be a little joking at times! particularly as someone’s straight man, chihiro tends to be good at deciphering gundham’s statements (Gundham: “Offerings such as birds grilled in hellfire and ensorcelled confections. [...] Go and eat.” Chihiro: “So you want to share the food and cake from the party with me?”), which aren’t exactly things to laugh openly at, but i smiled at it. she does seem to like to be alone- like yoosung, i don’t think she dislikes people per say, but a lot of others can make her feel standoffish or out of place ingame. i think you can relate to that, feeling like you don’t exactly belong when talking to others... so you just don’t because it’s draining, having all that nervousness. also, she’s said ingame that she really likes rabbits and hamsters, and that she’d like to have one as a pet. she’s not told to stop apologising too much, though her habit of saying sorry is pointed out several times ingame. plus, characters like kaede and makoto are quick to say that she doesn’t need to or that things are okay, so... maybe you can also understand that side of it! i’m realising that i didn’t expand on chihiro’s niceness enough,, i may not need to, but chihiro is described as “one of the kindest and softest characters in Danganronpa”. she literally wouldn’t hurt a fly(or, mosquito) because it might have a family, and if you give her something she strongly dislikes in free time, she’ll say “Um...well... I'm sure someone else will appreciate having that more than me. Maybe you should find someone to give it to who can make better use of it...”. she’s very gentle with the feelings of... well, everyone and everything around her, and i think that you could maybe feel that way too!! i definitely get being hesitant when talking with other people, and not wanting to hurt them,, i hope that you’ll be able to grow more confident, anon!!

and lastly, from danganronpa, i match you with...

mikan tsumiki!

maybe you saw this coming ;!! i think that mikan can definitely be described as a pushover, she’s been severely bullied her whole life and her default state is freaking out. in terms of INFP, i think that while she wants people to like her(and is borderline attention-seeking), she is an introvert to an extent. like with chihiro, the anxiety that comes with talking to others can be exhausting- her ‘energy’ around others is more fueled by that adrenaline. however, i’m sure that she regenerates by being alone, even if it gives her paranoia. maybe you relate to that, but not on such a high scale- like, you could be by yourself for a while, and that could make you worried that you’ve been away from other people for too long. with the F part of INFP(feeling), i think that this is a key part of mikan’s personality, actually. while some may see her reliance on medical knowledge as her leaning towards T(thinking), i think that for most of the problems in her life, she just goes with her gut. a lot of her reactions to other people are based on her own emotions, and i’d say that you can relate to that too. i get being a more emotional than logical thinker, anon, so don’t feel stupid or bad about it, haha... i wouldn’t be surprised if you’re easily made nervous just in general, and if part of you apologising is because... you feel like you messed up in a conversation, or that you might have upset someone. i’m sure that you’re not as bad as you may think you are, anon ,,, um, i think that mikan can definitely be too trusting/nice towards people that don’t deserve it. she’s very kind to hiyoko despite the dancer’s mistreatment of her(despite having an underlying resentment towards her), and even in the face of people like junko and kokichi, she doesn’t take their misleading tactics as... lies or manipulation, despite it being a little obvious, instead trusting that they have good intentions. even in kokichi’s case, when he admits that he was faking sick, she apologises for figuring out his lie. even if he is taking it easy on her, i think both you and her are good at finding out reasons that... well, you’ve done something wrong.

like chihiro, while i think many can get a general grip on mikan’s personality, neither of you really open up and let people get into the... like, inner workings of your head. for example, mikan does hold anger towards her ab-sers, deep, deep down, of course. i’m sure that she’d never admit it, and feels borderline ashamed of these feelings. in fact, she only admits it whenever she’s... literally inflicted with a disorder meant to cause her despair/unhappiness. i don’t know you personally, or anything, but i wouldn’t be surprised if there are people you hold resentment for. i also think that maybe with your timidity and apology streak, you would never voice this anger out loud. um, i don’t want to assume though!!! so if that’s wrong,, disregard it,, i don’t want you to have a worse perception of yourself ,,, um, i don’t think she exactly uses humor to cope? but a lot of her... um, offerings as apologies, can be seen as humorous. if your sense of humour is... strange. and i think that she can also enjoy being alone, even if she does like attention- whenever the spotlight is on her i think she wouldn’t know what to do, and she’s probably more comfortable whenever there aren’t expectations being placed on her. i think that she can prefer animals over people... to an extent. plenty of them would remind her of the bullying she faced, yes. but i think that there’s a lot of comfort in just... something small being there by your side. dogs have been described as a very forgiving animal(though they don’t exactly have the emotional capabilities to forgive in the way we define forgiving... still.), and i think that she’d like that. she also might be good at taking care of animals, as part of her nursing knowledge. plus, it’s a small detail, but in the anime she references jurrasic park in response to nekomaru’s enormous shouting. lastly, mikan is noted to apologise very excessively. while she’s not exactly told to stop apologising, she can be a little exasperating to even her more polite/patient classmates, like mahiru and hajime.

minor matchups time! from danganronpa, you also remind me strongly of makoto naegi, monomi/usami, and seiko kimura, as well as somewhat of tsumugi shirogane, chiaki nanami, and gonta gokuhara! from mystic messenger, you also remind me somewhat of jaehee kang. from other sources, you remind me strongly of fluttershy from my little pony, as well as strongly of macarona from the grey garden, and dolphi from watgbs! from 1bitheart, you also remind me strongly of rocca rion and haruya nasuki, and somewhat of kotora yatano. from bang dream, you also remind me of shirokane rinko. from alice mare, you remind me of chelsy and allen. lastly, from pokemon reborn, you also remind me strongly of shelly citra!

hope this was helpful anon!! i didn’t really get to finish yoosung’s route,, so my description of yoosung is based off of a transcript and the wiki, mostly ;; it may not be too accurate, so please remember that you know best!!! thank you very much for requesting!!

#danganronpa kin #mystic messenger kin #mysmes kin #kin matchup #dr kin #yall remember when i thought it was funny when my kin matchups would hit 1k words #yeah. shoutout to this one for being over 2k #ask #request finished #anon

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saixy · 6 years ago

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data battles are real AU

Lea, in his search for Isa, winds up in the Garden of Assemblage. There he fights the data Organization members, including the very one he is looking for. Set between DDD and kh3. Canon-compliant, spoiler-free. 2700 words.

- - - - -

It was a morbid sort of curiosity that drew Lea back to the Garden of Assemblage.

He had scoured all the worlds within his range, but to no avail. Isa was nowhere to be found. Braig’s mysterious absence upon awakening in the lab paired with Saix appearing alongside the vessels of Xehanort led him to believe that Isa had been taken by force after being reborn. Lea refused to believe that he would have gone willingly. The ruins of Radiant Garden were a primary target in his search efforts, and it had taken him nearly a month to comb through the entire city. He had already gone through the Cavern of Remembrance and this was one place he had yet to check. He didn’t expect to find anything here, but no matter how small the chance he had to take it. Lea didn’t have a choice, at this point. He would find him, no matter what. Isa needed to get out before it was too late. Before Xehanort dominated his mind completely. Before he was met with an opponent who assumed he was too far gone and showed no mercy. Before his piece was sacrificed so the king could survive. He wanted nothing more than to fight alongside Isa and destroy the man who had uprooted their lives and trapped them in hell. Lea knew it was possible. Isa had despised their situation as much as he did. All he needed was a chance to talk to him. One more chance to get through and he knew he could fix things. Time was of the essence and the resulting stress was driving Lea up the wall. Between rigorous training sessions and the frenzied search that consumed his downtime, he was stretched to the limit. The dawn of every uneventful day added to the crushing weight that hung low in his chest. As usual he tried to pass it off with sharp words and a smile, but it was a weak facade. Acting had always been one of his natural talents, so he was caught off guard by how severely this whole ordeal had been affecting him. He supposed this was only to be expected, considering a decade’s worth of repressed emotions were now hitting him full force. The floodgates had been opened, and it was all he could do to try and stay afloat.

“Hey, you’ll be fine.” The sympathy in Sora’s voice was clear, and though he appreciated the sentiment Lea couldn’t help but feel sick at the forced positivity.

“You know it. I’ve gotten pretty mean with a blade, remember?” He waved his arm and felt the now familiar weight settle in his palm. Lea had long since grown used to burns, but nonetheless he was grateful for the padded gloves he had retained from his time in the Organization.

Sora appeared unconvinced. “I know you can fight, it’s just--” Now he wasn’t even trying to hide his worried frown. “You don’t have to. If you’re not up for it. I already cleared the room when I first found it so I know I can--”

“Jeez, did Kairi tell you to baby me?” Lea cut him off with a step towards the awaiting portals.

“No. But she cares about you too. We all do.”

Lea paused, shooting a glance at Sora trailing behind him. Truthfully, being treated with so much consideration after years of coldness still came as a shock. “Thanks. But I..need to do this, I think.” He cringed at his own lack of confidence.

“Got it,” Sora grinned, taking a seat on the stairway. He seemed oblivious to Lea’s wavering tone. “I’ll be out here if you need backup.” Lea had always hated to see him sad, so the shift in mood was a relief. It felt uncharacteristic for a kid normally so joyful. Besides, that slight frown struck him with a familiar feeling of loss. He had quickly grown fond of Sora, but he couldn’t help seeing Roxas reflected in many of his actions. Empathetic as always, Sora had been quite understanding of the situation. He had always considered Roxas a separate person in his own right, and had said that if Lea felt the same there would be no issues. He knew all too well how it felt to lose a friend, after all.

Lea made his way across the room in a clockwise fashion, hopping from portal to portal and occasionally taking a few moments to chat with Sora and recuperate. The fights against Xemnas and Xigbar were particularly cathartic, albeit challenging. The Garden of Assemblage had been constructed during early years of the Organization, back when their operations were still confined to the labs within Hollow Bastion castle. This room was the result of experiments regarding the manipulation of data into physical form. Lea was never too interested in magic tech jargon, but he gathered the gist of it from his recollection of the time. Vexen had put a strange tracking spell on Axel and instructed him to go about missions as usual for a few days. The data collected from his fighting habits would be used to craft an AI version of himself. Due to the limited knowledge and resources of the time these models were confined to their respective dimensions, rendering them useless in ordinary combat. So they were repurposed as training dummies. In retrospect, there was definitely something unsettling about routinely slicing through your supposed comrades for target practice. Fighting a past version of himself was even more odd. He could not only feel but see the ways his movements had shifted to accommodate the new weapon. Switching from dual wielding to a single blade had resulted in a pretty drastic change in form, though his overall style was still the same. Winning against his clone brought him an overwhelming rush of pride. He had changed and perhaps that was for the best. Self-improvement was a never-ending process, one that Lea would continue to strive for.

Twelve fights passed by far more quickly than one would expect. For Lea, at least. He was sure Sora was bored out of his mind sitting in the same room with infrequent company for hours on end. Lea had told him he could go back at any time, but Sora was determined to stay. He was still concerned, no doubt. Sora and everyone else on the team knew the basic details of the past between him and Isa. He had felt obligated to explain after they assisted in his initial panicked search efforts without question. Recounting how they had lost their hearts and gradually grown apart during the decade spent under the Organization was somewhat humiliating at first, but of course everyone had been supportive. Lea discovered a newfound sense of strength in having such an open reason for fighting. He wanted to shout it to the world: he would always be there to bring his friends back. Roxas was safe within Sora’s heart, so Isa was the one who needed him now. It was with this determination in mind that he stepped through the one portal he had skipped over in his initial sweep across the room.

Even back then he had avoided Saix’s door. There had been no need to use it, as they were still close for those first few years. Whenever he wanted to spar he need only ask. Despite this, Axel had set foot in there once before. Shortly before everything fell apart. He was blinded by anger, and didn’t realize the true significance of his actions until he was already in the room and fighting for his life.

Look at me, he had screamed, desperate for any sort of acknowledgement. He was sick of everything and wanted answers. Real ones, not deflections or echoes of what had been beaten into their heads for years. He wanted to know why Saix was pushing him away, how much of himself was left behind that piercing amber. He needed an explanation for how this could hurt so much when he shouldn’t be feeling it in the first place. But of course, the data figure only snarled in response. A mechanical reply, one that stung more than the humiliation of defeat ever could.

It was in this moment, with cold steel resting flat against his throat, that Axel realized he had been played for a fool all these years.

‘Don’t go easy on me!’

‘You know it.’

Lies. Saix had never fought with the intention to truly hurt him. Even when he wanted Axel to believe it.

‘Why do you never fucking talk to me!?’

‘You think any of this can be fixed with simple conversation?’

‘No, you’re right. That only works when there’s effort on both sides.’

‘My presence before you is a testament to the effort I have put into this plan.’

‘Selling what’s left of your soul was for the plan? Bullshit. Get your damn priorities straight.’

‘As if I had a choice. Had I not agreed, you would be bleeding out on the castle floor.’

‘Anything’s better than this.’

‘..I’ll make you regret those words.’

‘Go ahead and try.’

Taunts, denial, blows exchanged, they had all been carefully curbed to sting rather than kill. For Axel had never once been considered a foe. He was Saix’s inexplicable weakness, as Saix was his. He had known this, and yet he was unprepared for the data copy’s attacks of ruthless abandon. This was his true strength. This was the Saix known to those unfortunate enough to wind up on the opposite side of the battlefield.

And this was the Saix that Lea needed to destroy. This soulless apparition before him was a nightmare that would never come to pass. He had already accepted the reality of facing Saix during the war against Xehanort, but Lea refused to believe that Isa was gone entirely. The recent encounter in the Round Room was proof enough. Saix had leaped for him and immediately locked their weapons in a silent struggle. He made no move to attack further, even though Lea was clearly caught off guard. Saix was holding back, as always. Isa was still in there. He always had been. And right now he needed Lea more than ever.

While Lea’s fighting style was structured around rushing the opponent and ending things as soon as possible, Saix had always found strength in stamina. The longer the fight lasted, the more power was channeled to his berserker state. Which took a greater toll on Saix after the fact, but Lea doubted the data clone suffered from such adverse effects. There was no ‘after the battle’ for a simple reconstruction of combat data. An imitation, that’s all he was. Lea ignored the tightness in his chest as he narrowly avoided a flurry of slashes raining down from above.

The fight stretched on for far longer than Lea would have preferred. Saix’s style won out here, as the data figure fought with simultaneous aggression and restraint to target Lea’s lack of stamina. With every second the sense of nauseating regret grew stronger. He had expected this fight to be challenging both physically and mentally, but this was a level beyond what he had prepared for. No matter how many times he told himself otherwise, this was Isa, in a sense. It was impossible to entirely separate the two. As Saix was Isa with emotions purged and a parasite eroding his free will, the data clone was Isa’s repressed fury granted physical form. Lea had always speculated this was the truth behind berserking, but Saix refused to hear it. With this in mind there was a strange temptation to stand his ground and let the barrage of strikes land true. Anger was completely justified here. After their slow spiral downwards ending with Lea quite literally crashing and burning, Isa had the right to be mad. It would hurt, but Lea could accept the pain of being pushed away again if that was his decision. It was his choice to make, and his alone. But this wasn’t Isa. This was a fragment of a greater whole, one that Lea was never supposed to see.

As the finishing blow struck home, the opposing claymore raised in a parry too late glanced off Lea’s upper arm. He stood firm despite the pain, throwing his body weight forwards to bury the keyblade with a final shout. Held up by the weapon protruding from his chest, the data clone dropped his sword with a deafening clatter. The figure crumpled to the ground when Lea’s own weapon dematerialized.

‘Wait, Lea-- stop. You’re bleeding.’

‘Huh, really?’

‘Your knuckles don’t hurt at all?’

‘Well yeah, I did block with my hand..’

‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

‘But I told you not to go easy on me!’

‘Stop trying to hit me, dumbass. I don’t want blood on my jacket.’

‘You’re no fun.’

‘One of us has to keep you safe.’

Suddenly it was all too hard to breathe. Lea willed himself to move, but he stood frozen to the spot as the figure collapsed with a strangled gasp. To his abject horror, these models had been created with realism in mind. Blood seeped through the gash in the figure’s cloak and pooled at Lea’s feet. His vision blurred with tears as he forced himself to look away from the carnage. Then it was over, the figure and his sword reduced to a cloud of pixels that rose through the ceiling towards the reflection of a heart-shaped moon. The bloodstains took longer to fade, but soon they were gone as well. And for the first time since Lea had entered the room, there was silence.

‘...I’m sorry.’

‘You don’t mean that.’

‘That’s not for you to decide.’

‘Now who’s the one regretting things?’

‘Shut your damn mouth, Lea.’

‘At least you didn’t hold back this time. Saix.’

‘Stop trying to move--’

‘You-- you act like you gave up everything to save me. And yet here I am, bleeding on the ground by your own hand.’

‘You’re being overdramatic. The wounds from last week’s mission were worse than this.’

‘And that’s not a problem to you?’

‘We no longer have the luxury of blade guards. Or calling off the fight when injured.’

‘Name one reason that prevented you from walking away here.’

‘You didn’t want me to stop.’

…

‘I’m right. And that’s the issue. You know damn well I don’t like this any more than you do, but throwing your life away won’t get your heart back.’

‘Are you serious? This--whatever it is-- can hardly be considered living.’

‘It’s better than nonexistence.’

‘You really believe that?’

‘...Don’t.’

‘..Sorry.’

A sob tore through the air as Lea sank to his knees. “I’m sorry,” He was already at the breaking point, and this had been the last straw. “Isa, I’m so fucking sorry.” He slammed his bloodied fists to the ground as the grief and despair he had been shoving away for months took hold of him. “I-- I just want to be with you. I love you.” Casting aside any sort of dignity he had left, Lea simply allowed himself ride the wave of emotion for the first time since he had awoken. In fact, this had been the first time he had really been alone since then. It was only now that he realized the true extent of how his new friends had worried for him. This just made him sob harder. Here there was no need to put on a brave face. He could cry without judgement, without causing worry, without those awful looks of pity.

“I..can’t do this without you.” He had never felt more alone as those words echoed through the empty hall.

Eventually he managed to haul himself to his feet, taking a few shaky steps towards the window towering overhead. “Please, Isa. Let me help you. Let me give you the strength to help yourself,” He pleaded to the moon, a false idol. And as he wiped his tears and turned to the exit, he gave a grin as triumphant as he could muster. For victory. For Sora. For Isa.

Somewhere far away, a man gazed up at a nearly identical moon shining above. It was not the one he had grown up with, and not the one he had bet his soul on. Why was he fighting for this moon, exactly? He was not sure. He was uncertain of a lot of things, these days. But when he smiled, he knew exactly why.

#kh #kingdom hearts #lea #axel #isa #saix #leaisa #akusai #artistic pursuits #i think this is the first time ive posted writing here in like 2 years? feels wild man #i hope the format is ok idk what im doing #also this was collectively written during 2 all-nighters so if it's incoherent thats why #i can never write during normal business hours 5am or not at all #sorry if the end is too sudden writing sad lea also makes me sad

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tacosandtomcos · 7 years ago

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Spoiler Review for The Book Of Spells! pt 3!

Glad to see people are really enjoying these overviews of the past queens!

Sorry this one took longer, i have other things to take care of and it gets in the way sometimes.

but now that we’re back let’s get started-

So we’re actually at the midpoint of the book, and before we get to rhina, gloss has a section in here about mewberty and the mewberty form.

the midpoint of the book also points to where the queen sections are with comments from gloss about all of them. Though let’s do a overview of this section on the mewberty form before we get to rhina

We already get the gist with it in the show, that it’s a powerful form that gives you helpful tools for you as a magic user, but here’s some bonus info that’s new to us.

The book is meant, according to daron, to allude to some future events, so we should be on the lookout for anything important.

Mewberty and dipping down

You tend to pop into this form when feeling strong emotion

Mewberty wings only show when needed

keeping your wings clean is important, don’t machine wash them.

Those sparkly eyes are called omatidia eyes, they let you see more then one dimension at a time. Soupina got stuck in this state and she never came back, she went mad. So don’t let yourself get lost with this power.

these eyes also let you read every language.

your emotions can increase and decrease your density, helping you fly. Dirhhennia might never have gone through mewberty, but she had many accounts of waking up on the ceiling and crashing on her bed.

the arms also only pop out when needed, sometimes they can be hard to make go away though.

your voice may change in this form, explaining star’s weird voice when killing toffee. It’s a multidimensional voice, just like with the eyes.

Each queens always has some unique signifiers in their mewberty form. Cres grew a big eyebrow each time she dipped down for example. Then it turned into a caterpiller and ran into the forest.

Negative emotions like envy and anger make for bad dipping down, making your form messed up and your magic unpredictable. while love and protection of another help you do fantastic and make your magic at it’s most powerful.

Tbh, alot of queens don’t manage to dip down, and it’s not exactly a bad thing considering the radiation it lets off. So it’s not frowned upon if you can’t do it.

Gloss then has a checklist of all kinds of silly things for him to do.

Here are my favs on here though

“Say nothing but globgor for a whole year” ( I can’t BELIEVE he wrote that down as one)

“Do nothing for five days”

“Change my voice” (Lol)

“Be a bridesmaid”

“Throw away all pants”

“die and be reborn” (Which he gave 4 checkmarks to, so uh..how much has gloss died?)

Also he has ones he crossed out, which means he never intends to do them.

He crossed out things like “Learn how to apologize” and apologies to a number of characters.

it’s a funny page that you should see for yourself.

Then he has a page on all his bug pets and their names. He has six bug pets, three silkworms, a centipede, a beetle and an earwig.

He seems to love them like kids more then his OWN kids (The mhc), he even has pet names for them.

Gloss also has a bedroom in here, it’s weird and clearly a bit meta since there’s concept art in it on a drawing board.

Rhina

Rhina’s queen poem is basically alluding to this very same book getting destroyed when it gets to star.

Her crystal is unique, a nubrikian spinning cube, there’s only 7 in existence in all the universes. she has to rearrange the cubes before every spell. Also they’re hypnotic and staring at them is a bad idea.

she writes notes to herself.

She rhymes alot in her chapter..

The hear on her wand is rare and perfect for riddle craft.

her book is full of riddles to solve for fun.

The edge of her wand can cut glass.

Some text are written upsidedown or in weird positions.

She has a pet turtle she likes having by her side, she was only allowed to keep it in her chambers after she was queen. Her best friend got him from the cats with human faces dimension, because he belonged to a cat prince and her friend won him. He was a present to rhina when her friend first came to the caslte.

She actually has 5 millhorses inside her wand, one being her mother’s.

She has steps on doing riddles. You have to collect them, find a subject, size doesn’t matter, know the answer first, draft ,metaphors, alliteration, let the answer speak about itself, share with friends.

Didn’t like Reynaldo the bald plate (That rando mch member) cause her made meetings riddle-free. She asked her mom to get rid of him, but that wasn’t possible, they kinda do what they want. Her mom still had her hand in alot of decisions through her daughter, rhina likes the help.

She was kinda hoping her mom would be queen a longer time and would not mind it it were forever, but she would rather spend a ton of time organizing her many spellbooks.

Finds gloss messy and bossy but at least he likes her riddles.

Friends with someone named lady gyoza, she came to stay with the family when rhina was age five and they’ve been friends since. They like to go on walks and braid daises in their hair. Gyoza looks like an owl because she’s 1/4th owl, she even sleeps late like one.

her turtle likes top-hats. also he has a mustache.

Skywynne knew lady gyoza’a grandpa, so that’s why she joined their family, for family friendship.

She made national riddle day on her birthday, which made every loyal subject give her a riddle. It wasn’t a success in the end.

was really bored about her meeting with the mch on the monster conflict.

uses riddle magic to make her spells, making the spells work is the hard part though. The trick of course is the spinning of the wand’s cubes and she only set gloss’s beard on fire five times anyway.

uses some cleaner to help make her wand spin right, it makes it look shiny too. It also smells like flowers from septarias, which gloss may be allergic to.

Has exercises for using objects with your arms, recommends asking a witch doctor or doctor before doing them. They’re weird ones with a book and a crystal ball. (Make sure if anyone lives in the book you tell them first before you do the exercise.)

Changed from doing “Entries” to just posting her thoughts.

She and Gyoza went to a demon ball wearing black cat masks, and no one knew who they were. She liked not being seen, would want to wear masks more often, watch the sunrise from castle namparts.

Has an ideal perfect morning, and wrote it down.

Rhina kinda seems asexual and aromatic, she dislikes her mom encouraging her to find a king and her friend talking about love, rhina just finds it all boring.

has a page on special cube forms for her spells.

bit her nails and sometimes had to use her toes to move her cube.

has been to earth since one cube form is based on a chihuahua., it makes her wand bark after each spin.

Used a spell on Reynaldo to make him like riddles, but he ended up only speaking in riddles from then on. She and gloss could not find a counterspell. So they made him retire.

Her friend eventually left and had a going away party.

in the beginning of her chapter she reminded herself about this red ribbon as a reminded for something about the cats with human faces dimension and it becomes a running gag in this book that she forgot why she has it.

has a spell to disarm monsters with your attitude or inner beauty. This spell made some flower monsters in the forest cry.

She forced herself to fall in love using a spell, despite how much she didn’t want to and dated a second cousin of the lucitors named John Roachly who was very talented and they ended up married. (And i hate to bring this up again but for those of you about to pull the incest card on tomstar, if you do the math tom and star would be 6th cousins based on this, which would not be considered related, nor would tom and star share any dna between them. They’re distantly related due to rhina’s marriage, but they’re so distant it would not make them related nor should affect their relationship. I feel i HAVE to say this because lord knows this fandom will use anything it can against a ship regardless if it’s actually true or not.).

Rhina wanted to basically break John’s heart after this was over with, apparently he was a cruel person too, and get them separated. But she ended up KILLING him. Making her a window while she was still pregnant with celena. Cresenta is also apparently dead by this point but rhina thinks she’d be happy to know the queen line is still continuing.

She was really upset about killing john despite him being a jerk, her friend and turtle comforted her.

Rhina and Gyoza loved the great book of fashion, they liked to make fashion of their own from it.

She met with king ponyhead and his oldest daughter to discuss what happened with john. The demons were furious about the incident and they wanted to speak with them and try to make clean between them. Her bestie was not convinced this was gonna work.

her turtle passed away.

as she got older her wrists made it harder to do magic, but she didn’t need to do much anyway. She just wanted some to help make peace with the demons.

Gyoza doesn’t trust the demons.

She wanted to bring celena with her to the meeting but she just hid in the drapes, and she got the book as her mom left to see what she could do to make it up to the demons.

So that’s rhina, not my fav in the book, as sometimes i can’t read her writing and turning the book in so many different angles was a little annoying. But her focus on riddles is unique and i like seeing different types of magic explored. For spells based on riddles they became far too literal and had bad effects in the process. When it came to her inner beauty spell, it made the monsters feel as bad as her, making them cry.

Also no, where she came from is never explained.

it’s kinda a shame that i feel the most people will take away from this chapter is the fact tom and star are distantly related (Despite the distance making them NOT related). But it’s interesting to see more on demons considering there so far isn’t too much on the lucitors in here. We haven’t even seen a single pic of a lucitor ancestor yet.

I have been made aware though, the lucitor and butterfly tensions because of this never fully resolved itself...until star and tom’s time.

Poor rhina though, pressured into kids and being married from her mom and it only led to problems with their allies.

Celena

Oh yay, another queen whose handwriting is hard to read

we don’t really get to learn much on celena’s wand...since she covers it with her fan, people who try to look with be cursed with painful shyness.

New millhorse, i think this millhorse if my fav so far, it’s so eerie and cool looking. He’s even shy like her, and he’s actually a ghost. He was also one of the five in her mom’s wand.

she also rhymes alot, i think she gets it from her mom. She writes poems more then riddles though for her spells.

she mostly looks at the ground, rather then people. She even says sorry to toadstools and fences if she bumps into them (they have feelings too). She also never speaks in public. Rhina though, doesn't like her saying sorry to non-living things...unless it’s in a riddle.

Gloss thinks she’s adorable.

Her spells are rather odd, there’s one dealing with love, but it’s it’s meant to make you fall in love or fall out of love is hard to tell.

has potions on attracting spirits and to make you a spirit, she was a potions master after all.

her chapter has all the Aureole signs, which are basically mewman zodiac signs. I can’t really explain all of them but if you need a pic just ask. Star even put the earth months and days here since mewni had their own months for this before.

She has a spell on mending a broken friendship. Something i feel is much more likely to be in s4 then some of the other things in this book.

Shyness is a gift to her, she only has to talk to who she wants to talk to, also she likes gloss, she thinks he’s small and silly.

There’s a protection charm in here.

Celena and her methods of magic rely more on herbs and such, it’s interesting. She just never seems to actually use her wand for any of her spells.

She has a cute little song about a pumpkin she grew.

She has a whole page on tarot cards, some familiar faces are on some of these cards. As in, the other queens, Skywynne is represented as the queen, jushtin is represented as the king, Cresenta is true love, and solaria is battle strength and that’s only some of them. These cards are made to cut out as well.

And that’s it, i’m honestly not kidding.

Celena has very little to say on her chapter and there’s nothing in terms of her family, her rules, the conflicts, or anything.

we aren’t even made aware who she married.

star in the beginning of this chapter is disappointed in the lack of secrets. But i wonder if celena had really any secrets at all, maybe her biggest secret...is everyone just thought she had one?

that or, if she had any secrets, she kept them out of this book.

She’s an adorable queen though, strange case.

Estrella

Estrella actually hated writing, she actually didn’t write anything in her chapter. Instead GLOSSARYCK actually is the ones talking and explaining about her in most of her section as we browse through her art. She says a few things but even still her chapter is very short.

Her wand was a pen, if it had magic powers, she never used them, she just used it to draw. She ended up devoting her life to art.

Same millhorse as her mom, the ghost one.

extrella was quiet, she didn’t talk much, and as queen she did very little. But this is what made mewmans love her, because there was no real change and they hated change She just spent all her time sketching all alone and finding cool plants that eventually comet made into food.

apparently the avarius’s at the time sank their fortunes in the scratch and sniff trade. Which does explain ludo’s folks a bit...

Red Solanacese was celena’s favorite.

Game of flags with the johansens was a thing by this point.

named a smelly plant “Crying dirt pile”.

found some sand to eat on her potato salad , calls it “Frown sand” and it tastes really good, she brought some back to the caslte.

Estrella drew during her MCH meetings, it was the only way she stood awake during them. Omni thought it was rude.

Seth is still alive by this point, has a group of rebels, apparently omni thought best they wait it out rather then go to war again.

Estrella’s last page is a sketch of her mom, alot older, her husband Azul Saint, who was a bard, and her baby comet. She calls them, “All of her loves”.

So yes, that’s two queens in a row with small chapters and not a lot to talk about.

it’s kind’ve a shame to me some of these other queens got so cut, i just feel like we could’ve had more on them, or other things happening during their time. But we didn’t.

They end up feeling like placeholders just there to fill book space and that might bother me a bit.

Estrella wasn’t much of a talker, but i feel like more could’ve been done with her.

There’s not much i can say because well....there’s not much to say in the fist place, that honestly about covers it.

We’ll continue with he last 3 queens soon enough.

thanks for reading, and i’ll see you soon!

#star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #svstfoe #spoiler alert

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policy-wire · 9 days ago

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#news #breaking news #world news #usa #uk #reuters #Policy Wire

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maiji · 8 years ago

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Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs

You can read the pages for part 1 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post whenever it’s done.)

Every so often I get questions about how I work, and I also enjoy reading about how other creators make things, so perhaps this might be interesting and useful to somebody out there too. I’ve talked about my process before but never really documented and shared it WHILE working on a project, so here you can see some of my thinking and decision-making (and poor habits lol) a bit more immediately, alongside screenshots, photos and scans.

Very long, everything is below the cut, and apologies to people on mobile and anywhere else this goofs up.

One question I get a lot is “do you start with words or pictures when creating a comic?” I jump between both a lot. That said, I tend to lean more heavily on words when documenting ideas in the early stages of a project. This is because, for me:

Words pack a lot of punch in conveying detail quickly. They work better when I need to quickly communicate something extremely specific to future me. I’m a sloppy drawer, so my sketches tend to make future me squint and go, “What the hell was this supposed to be?!”

A great deal of my thinking and planning is done during crowded commutes. It’s more convenient to jot notes on my phone than to whip out my sketchbook and a pen.

(For a while I thought it’d be awesome to have some sort of app where I can type notes AND have an accompanying thumbnail sketch, and be able to drag them around or break them out into more or fewer pages. At one point years ago I thought about creating a custom app... but ultimately too lazy/busy and my current process works well enough. If anyone wants to take this idea and run with it, please feel free to do so and just let me know about it so I can try it haha.)

I usually start with a few lines summarizing the gist of the idea, enough that’s recognizable and I don’t forget the important things to build off from. From there, I start point-form outlining the stuff that needs to happen, structuring them into key scenes/parts. These scenes are not always fleshed out in order - I just add to them whenever I have ideas for that part.

Long Limbs, for example, had a progression like this:

Overall story idea: “horror story with rokurokubi, key plot point(s) happens, the end.” (There was a bit more detail than this, obviously, but we’re avoiding spoilers here.)

Initial description for Part 1 of the story: “Hokushin lured to go to somewhere. Separated from Raizen. HOW??????”

After letting it simmer for while, a solution: “Hokushin annoyed at Raizen. Opportunity for him to get away and go do his own thing.”

Gradually more detail: “Stranger invites him to go to this place to look into something/maybe has a paid job that needs to be done and Raizen is busy goofing off or whatever.”

Problem. I couldn’t resolve this chain of thought to my satisfaction. What kind of task/job can someone convince Hokushin to do on his own when he doesn’t know this person/it seems questionable? And how long will the conversation need to run to establish this as believable?

This was starting to get convoluted and I was getting annoyed because it was turning into a burden in being able to continue the story AND IT WASN’T EVEN THAT IMPORTANT. I decided to abandon this path of thinking, and left the entire story for a while.

Much later (like months?), I had an idea: “Mysterious person drops something, piques Hokushin’s curiosity.” Aha! Hokushin’s own initiative. Simple and plausible enough. HOORAY NO MORE THINKING. LET’S DRAW.

Then I realized, oh shoot, I need to figure out who this mysterious person is and what they dropped. More time passes. And so on… in between I’m always working on other things, so there’s no real creator’s block - at some point I start thinking about this comic again, and ideas work themselves out to some decent level of satisfaction and link together. Thanks subconscious!

Eventually, enough key scenes are fleshed out that I feel confident enough to turn this into a real thing. At present, for example, not all scenes in Long Limbs are totally worked out, but I’ve got enough that I ran ahead with Part 1.

Screenshot of the Google Docs notes/script for Part 1:

This is a close-to-final version. The === on top is just to separate this from notes on other stories or ideas. This is the beginning of the document, but this document actually includes many other notes and stories for North Bound. I delete them as I finish and post the pages. Every so often I wonder if I should bother keeping them, but they’ve been refined throughout the process and usually don’t bear much resemblance to the original jotted notes anymore. Long Limbs was originally planned to be a later story in North Bound, but I got especially excited about it and fleshed it out further than the others. When I reviewed the earlier stories, I didn’t think there’d be a big continuity or reader experience issue if this was finished and posted first. So I moved the messy notes for this story to the top of the document.

The page breakdown for the script is done by me generally picturing in my head how I might want the scene to go and how much action I might be able to fit on the page for good effect. I’ll sometimes start paginating without thumbnails, and sometimes will do both side by side (thumbnail and update pagination in tandem).

As you might imagine, pagination frequently changes. For example, you’ll see the script above is 9 pages instead of 10.

The original script for this section was broken up into maybe 4-6 pages, with 5-7 being more condensed.

When I started thumbnailing, I found it felt too cluttered and moved too fast.

So I stretched out the part of Hokushin and the mystery girl exchanging glances, and added pages to be able to create a (hopefully) more cinematic feel and really focus on the reason they catch each other’s eye - the bandages on their necks.

I then went back to the Google Doc and updated the script to line it up better.

I was also tweaking the dialogue at the same time and didn’t want to forget any key phrasing I liked. Dialogue is another thing I get really hung up over, often changing words up to the last second. (Sometimes this is because I messed up the size of the speech bubble, if I’m lettering on the computer...)

Thumbnails:

Pretty close to the final in this case - mainly because the sequence is pretty simple and straightforward and not many people are involved. I keep my thumbnails very crappy and rough so that I don’t get upset later when I can’t redraw something as good as the thumbnail. Bottom right was a quick attempt at designing the mystery girl.

Once I think the thumbnails are good enough - translation: I get impatient and just want to start drawing - I proceed to pencils for the actual page.

Throughout all this, I’m repeatedly reviewing script and thumbnail and playing sequences out in my head and then trying to figure out how to better direct the “camera” and the action. I may go back to the script and the thumbnails even as I’m finetuning the actual page if I encounter issues. You can see in both the script and the thumbnails that there are still deviations in the dialogue and the art from the final. Here are a few examples:

Page 3: The panels were originally 1) the setting, 2) Hokushin with his arms folded, 3) Raizen laughing, 4) we see that Hokushin is watching Raizen. After reviewing the thumbnail, I felt it’d be a better setup to flow into the scene if I switched panels 2 and 3. That’s closer to how you’d experience it in real life, or how it might be directed in a shot sequence: you enter an area/place, you hear the sound of some guy’s loud laughter filling the air, then the camera zooms up to the annoyed expression of this one particular dude and you see he’s staring at the laughing guy. Moving from bigger ambience to smaller details around the room.

Page 7: The girl was originally turning in the other direction (hard to tell because I redrew it right on top of the original sketch lol). However, this meant all the directional action would be pointing to the right - Hokushin is facing the right, and when he leaves the bar he’s angling towards the right side of the page. Facing the direction that readers will read in gives a sense of driving the action forward, while facing the opposite direction provides a bit of a mental stop. (This is something from Scott McCloud that always stuck with me.) So, I flipped the girl around.

Page 8: Script has Hokushin going “What’s this?”. When thumbnailing, I thought, “obviously it’s self-evident he’s wondering what this is when he picks it up”. It added nothing to the panel, and the speech or thought bubble would have interrupted the smooth action of him picking up the paper. So, axed.

The damn friggin’ bar and gambling: You’ll see the script mention this, and at one point I actually had the guy standing across from Raizen saying “Is this guy drunk?” I’m actually not sure if they’re in a bar or if Raizen is drinking, but neither were important to the actual story because I just needed Raizen and Hokushin to be in a place where Raizen could hang out with humans and be stupid. So I dropped these details. This is mainly because I ran into historical research problems about bars and alcohol during the Kamakura period (more on that near the end of this post), and this was the only way to stop myself from getting hung up on trying to make it “perfect” and “correct” and just get it done.

Drawing the actual pages. This part is fun!

Inking the actual pages. THIS PART IS NOT FUN :(

I don’t have very steady hands and I get very anxious about messing things up, so inking always takes me the longest. (I also get distracted easily, e.g., ink two lines and then surf tumblr for ten minutes lol). I’ve improved a lot since I started drawing comics much more frequently a couple years ago, and my choice of tools and style has helped a lot (I lean to variable lines and sketchy style, which is more forgiving than, say, a very precise art style with fixed-width pens) but I still get nervous at this stage.

I’m very lazy so I usually stick with one tool for inking. For Long Limbs I tried to effort more and actually used three. Right to left: Sailor fude de mannen for panel borders and text, Muji pen for artwork (0.4 because that was the only size available at the store when I went to get my refill), Pentel pocket brush for filling in blacks. I refill the fude de mannen and the pocket brush with fountain pen inks.

I usually ink panel borders first, then speech bubbles, then everything else. I hop all over the place and pages are generally in varying stages of completion. I also sometimes add in some more text lines because it seems like a good idea at the time - Hokushin’s complaint on page 3 about how he should have left Raizen when he got into a fight with a fish-seller in a previous story, for example. Sometimes these work, sometimes I regret it later and edit it on the computer.

Cover thumbnails and pencil sketch:

The one in the page thumbnails was the original idea, but then I thought, “seems kinda cliched. Can I get a more interesting angle where he’s not looking straight at the viewer?” (OK, his eyes are covered, but you know what I mean.) I quickly tried a few other angles and compositions, didn’t like them and ended up going with pretty much the original idea, but more zoomed in.

In the thumbnails, you can see all my little x’s indicating “ehhhh I don’t like this”. I wanted something with a particular mood/atmosphere especially with all the hands and arms, and I was conflicted between zooming out (for more environment and more arms, and the focus on the “long limbs” part of the title) or having a tighter, more close up shot. Ultimately I think the latter works better as it conveys a sense of claustrophobia, and it’s more intimate which supports the idea of psychological horror. ALSO IT’S SEXY (maybe???). The end.

Other random thoughts:

I took a lot of heart/inspiration/motivation from Togashi’s last few volumes of Yu Yu Hakusho to keep the backgrounds as lazy - I mean sparse - as possible and also speech bubbles over plain backgrounds lmao. I think it takes a lot of confidence (or maybe laziness) to be so minimalist and restrained, and it’s an impressive and economical way of working. I was always impressed that when reading those pages of his for the first time, the lack of detail never really bothered me - you had everything you needed for your brain to comfortably fill in the gaps and complete the sense of narrative and story progression, and there are still visual flourishes when the situation calls for it. So I’m trying to bring a bit of that tighter philosophy in.

Research. I struggle a LOT with not getting bogged down by details, especially when it’s something “just” for fun or “just” a fancomic. I have very lovely and helpful friends and family who every so often patiently allow me to whine and bounce things off of them, help me look things up, and/or tell me when I’m getting myopic about stuff. For all the North Bound comics, finding quick and useful historical references for the time period has been a challenge. There’s a ton about aristocracy and warriors but very little about the ordinary/common people, not surprisingly. I frequently question my instincts about what makes sense because I tend to automatically draw on similar/equivalent Chinese culture (there was certainly lots of cross-over, but not always appropriate/relevant) or Edo period references (wrong time frame! Too far in the future). I often end up losing a ton of time trying to find something with roundabout searches, and then give up and look at other comics I have close enough to the time period. And then referencing those and compounding whatever historical errors they have in them. (e.g., “Well if it was good enough for Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix it’s good enough for this rando fancomic!”) I just would like historical/subject matter experts to know I did try...

#yu yu hakusho #comics #hokushin #raizen #fanart #process #wip #art by Maiji/Mary Huang #sketches #art supplies #yyh north bound

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thevalorieclark · 8 years ago

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi, or OMFG Y’ALL *heart eyes emoji*

I am Poe and this movie is Finn. If you don’t read any further, that is an accurate summary of my feelings right now.

I know there is so much talk about The Last Jedi going around right now and I am just one drop in a very large lake of thoughts but I can’t stop thinking about this movie. I went to a 7 pm showing last night and the crowd was amazing--a lot of clapping, whoops and cheers during all the right moments. Everyone was excited to be there and excited to see this universe coming back to life. It added a level to the experience I didn’t see coming.

There’s a lot I want to say and examine and I know I’m not going to get around to all of it. Stuff like Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Holdo, for one. Luke and Leia’s relationship is another thing I want to write for pages and pages on. Adam Driver’s performance just in general because he is amazing in this. There’s a lot happening in this movie and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to go see it again to really sink my teeth into every moment. But here’s what I took away so far.

I was going to try to do this without spoilers, but it’s just not possible. So under the cut are more thoughts on this, GLORIOUS SPOILERS AND ALL.

First of all, there’s a lot of explosion-porn, which of course there is. It took about one scene for that to start. But the explosion-porn felt even more artistically prettier than it normally does. And the new worlds they encountered and created were just gorgeous. There’s an entire planet that seems to be made of crystals and salt, which for some reason turn red when walked on? I don’t know, but it’s really nice symbolism for spilling blood on a previously pristine white field. The same planet is home to tinkling crystal foxes, which were gorgeous and cute.

There’s a lot of cute/cool alien creatures in the film, ones which aren’t “characters” per say but interact with the characters. They don’t get in the way of the plot but serve to enhance it and make every world they enter seem more three-dimensional. There’s one creepy animal that Luke milks, and then the animal looks at Rey with some weirdly sexual implication which could have, should have, been edited out. One kind of space-horse animal in particular serves as a good plot device, but also serves as this amazing indictment of the super-wealthy arms dealers, and gives Kelly Marie Tran’s character Rose a well-rounded sort of heart without which Rose would have been at risk of just being a flat fangirl character.

Speaking of Kelly Marie Tran--We’ve got racial and ethnic diversity! Yay, I’m here for that. It’s not just white male fighter-alien-white male fighter-alien-white male fighter-woman/princess character-alien-etc etc etc. Kelly Marie Tran is an amazing earnest member of the Resistance in this! John Boyega is a wonderful nuanced man who can’t decide if he wants to be a hero or run very very very far away! Oscar Isaac is quickly climbing the ranks to be one of my favorite humans in any movie ever!

There are women who are just... you know, there. It’s not just a room full of white dudes with Carrie Fisher being addressed as princess and standing in the middle. Leia gets addressed as General! A woman helps in Poe’s side plot... that is ultimately weird and basically useless! But it tells us so much about his character! And there’s a woman in it! Who isn’t a princess!

But there’s still no queer characters. I mean, I hate to beat a dead horse here but I think yelling about this got us somewhere with race, so I’m going to keep talking about it. I understand there’s not a ton of room for romance in a war movie and I’m fine with that. After all, I didn’t pay for a movie called Star Wars to watch two people fall in love. That’s what’s always worked for the most successful Star Wars romantic plot lines--they never really took central stage and they always served a bigger purpose.

But you’re going to tell me that in this entire universe there isn’t one single character who isn’t heterosexual? Are you joking?

And all this with the Finn and Poe chemistry right there.

I mean, would that have been so hard to lean into? Fans wanted it, the actors seemed fine with it in interviews, and it’s about damn time there was some romantic chemistry between people who were facing just normal death instead of meant-to-save-the-universe levels of death like Leia. And it’s not like the romantic plot line they gave Finn with Rose was particularly good.

They’ve even talked in interview about doing this! JJ Abrams (in Express, so... you know) confirmed that there would be some homosexual characters in the films. So...where are they? Just like there are characters who are now incidentally not-white and incidentally not-male, give me some characters who are incidentally not-hetero. It’s time.

Are they trying to set up a love triangle in the film? Is BB-8 the space equivalent of Poe’s dog? Who knows, but General Organa looks great.

Finn and Rose were...I don’t know. They’re a cute couple, I guess. But Rose is framed as us, the audience. She is a normal person in the Star Wars world, and our heroes are her heroes. It’s amazing! I love this character and I can’t wait to see more of her. For her to fall in love with one of the heroes seemed both really obvious (as in, who wouldn’t fall in love with their hero?) and not earned literally at all.

The first time Rose meets Finn she fan girls over him...and then basically arrests him for being a coward. This should bring down her idea of him as a hero, right? Oh, he’s just like us, he gets scared sometimes. Nope, never see that happen.

The two come up with a plot together to save the Rebels. Great. So far so good. They go to Poe, who sends them out while he stays on the ship to protect the Rebels the best way he knows how while General Organa lies in a coma. Finn and Rose are off to the races--literally. They go to a place that is basically the Star Wars equivalent of Monaco, which is beautiful and fun on the outside but really disgusting and amoral and horrifying once you scratch the surface. They free a bunch of space-horses who are adorable and get Finn and Rose out of harm’s way for a minute or two. Rose is in control and Finn is mostly just along for the ride.

They get on a ship, head toward the First Order ship to commit some sabotage, they’re betrayed by Benicio del Toro playing Benicio del Toro, they get arrested by the bad guys who recognize Finn from his stormtrooper days, and barely make it out alive when BB-8 comes to the rescue for the fifth time or so. Seriously, this droid is the real MVP here.

They meet up with the rebels on aforementioned gorgeous ice planet, Poe is wildly excited to see BB-8 and they have this adorable human/dog moment, and then back to fighting. In this, the odds are of course against them, and they look like they’re going to lose but Finn gets really stubborn and goes on a one-man suicide mission even though Poe and Rose are telling him to bail out.

Rose decides to save Finn’s life, almost getting herself killed in the process. She delivers what could have been a great line: “That’s how we win. Not by killing those we hate, but by saving those we love.”* Except it’s punctuated by her kissing him, which he doesn’t even see coming, and then she faints.

*Something to this extent. I can’t find the quote online yet, but that’s the gist.

It’s just... frustrating. Because of course the young star-eyed girl falls in love with the hero guy, who barely notices her. They make a good team but there’s no hint that he sees her that way. It’s debatable that maybe he does right at the end when he puts a blanket over her, except she’s unconscious. Plus, that moment seems to be more focused on underscoring Rey’s feelings about missing Finn and trying to figure out what his relationship is with Rose.

You know what would have been a better outcome? Rose realizing she’s equal to the other heroes of the Resistance. Maybe she’s not Leia Organa or Rey or Finn, but her contribution matters. She knows Finn is just another human (he got scared! he tried to run!) and now she’s a hero herself. And maybe soon people will know her name. What a wonderful arc for this character! And what an inspiring arc for young girls (and young people in general) seeing their heroes and watching a “nobody” become a hero too. Anyone can become a hero, there is no such things as nobodies, you don’t have to be strong in the Force like Rey or Luke to be a hero. Strong in the Force is something Rey doesn’t have much of a choice with. Rose gets to make choices and those choices lead her to be a hero.

The kiss and declaration of love felt shoe-horned in. It cheapened the character growth both of those characters went through. And it felt like a forced way to amp up the tension between Rey and Finn.

They also seem to be setting up Rey to have several potential love interests? She asks after Finn repeatedly throughout the movie. There’s some feeling of flirtation when she finally meets Poe. The chemistry between Rey and Kylo Ren seems mostly about being on opposing sides and trying to convert the other, but there also seemed to be a bit of attraction confused into it. They both need saving and want to save the other, and importantly they also both see the other as a potential savior. There’s a draw there, an attraction. They need each other.

And I get it--all of these (Rose/Finn, Rey/anyone, even Finn/Poe) are “Thank God we’re alive” romance. It’s “we don’t actually have much in common but we’re both here and going through this intense thing” emotion. Emotions are heightened, and so what could have just been curiosity becomes attraction and lust. I get it. That’s a very human thing. But please, fight it. Lean into romantic storylines that build up the story and character arcs overall, not undermine it.

Okay. Goodness. And I haven’t even talked much about the main characters or plot lines yet. Y’all, this movie just has so much to chew on.

So, Rey and Kylo Ren, or Ben as she calls him (his given name from his parents Leia and Han Solo). Their best performances are mostly with each other. A lot of the movie, plot and pacing, hinges on this chemistry and it delivers. God Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are good together. For the first half of the movie Rey and Kylo are talking despite being in different parts of the universe because their minds are connected by the Force. It creates this intimacy that allows us to see Kylo Ren’s conflicted emotions, to get to know them both as they start to grapple with making difficult decisions in a difficult world. They finally end up in a room together, and Kylo is made to kill his “true enemy.” It’s dramatic. Finally, he chooses to save Rey and they team up to kill high ranking members of the First Order.

There’s a moment after this bloodbath where Ben reaches out and asks Rey to be on his team; they could create some kind of new world together. Ben doesn’t want to be part of the First Order anymore, but when he asks Rey to come with him, no one really knows where that leads. Could it be a more peaceful world? We have no idea. Maybe. And I think Rey’s decision to leave and stay with the Resistance and the “old way” instead of finding a way to build a new world with Ben is going to end up giving rise to Kylo Ren being a greater power with less internal conflict. He destroyed his helmet to get away from the Darth Vader relationship, but his attempts to reach out--to Rey, even to Luke--have failed. There’s a very poignant moment when he holds Han Solo’s dice from the Millennium Falcon in his hands, but they fade away and he is alone.

There’s some moral questioning here. There’s grey area. There’s more of a chance for change, there’s room in people for complication, difficulty, decision. Luke wears black instead of white and Kylo Ren seriously considers abandoning the path he has been on. Rey even struggles, hoping the Dark Side can show her her parents, but pulls back to do what what’s right. It makes the main characters seem more believable. It would have been nice to see more of that from the First Order side (Kylo seems to be the only one there considering things could be different), but I liked what I saw and it seemed believable.

This movie could so easily be really political. It’s hard to ignore that the #resist movement in the US started up right as Rogue One came out and Carrie Fisher died last year, and that the movement is mainly about a fight against fascism in the same way that the whole Star Wars series is a metaphor for fighting the Nazis. In a way, the whole movie is political because it’s about a political rebellion, but there’s not a lot of politics talk in it, certainly not the way there was in the prequels. I mean, this is Episode VIII, so theoretically everyone watching knows what the war is about, but it would have been so easy for a character to give a rousing speech about making everyone equal in an unequal and unjust society. There are inspiring speeches after heavy losses, but there’s less of the First Order talking about making a more perfect society than I expected, and less rebels enumerating their cause than I expected.

The most political moment is more subtle, and it could pass you by if you’re too invested in the explosions. It’s in space-Monaco, which has a name I can’t remember, where the ultra-wealthy of all colors and races, including alien, go to drink and gamble and drip with diamonds and generally throw their money around. It’s revealed that most of them get their money from selling weapons to the First Order. Rose reveals that her family is from this planet, and when the wealthy took over, they slaughtered her native people by testing their weapons on them. It’s a pretty on-the-nose metaphor for the way settlers treated the First Nations people they encountered in North America, and for the way the Nazis experimented on non-Aryan people in WWII, and basically for every single way humans in power have ever treated humans that were not in power. Naturally, they also treat the poor and the animals (space-horses!) horribly, beating them and whipping them. In the basement underneath the floors of glamour and excess, young boys live in the stables with the space-horses, and are treated by their owners exactly like Luke was in Episode IV. (Do you already see where this is going? Good, me too.)

The whole city becomes a powerful indictment of being an amoral person in an unjust world. In a wonderful move, Rose has to teach Finn about it. Finn, a hero of the Resistance who defected from the First Order, has no idea what this place is or where it’s wealth comes from. It’s interesting because of the way it subverts our expectations in the US (who knows more about oppression and violence than black men in America?) and also because it changes what Finn originally saw as beautiful to representing everything he was already fighting. He had forgotten that their war doesn’t stop at the front lines, but extends to every (in this scene very literal) level society. He gets to destroy some of it, which is cathartic but ultimately doesn’t do anything because they can always rebuild; he has to return to the front line to fix this part too. Finn was scared before when he forgot what the fight meant, but we know he’s not scared now that he’s seen this. It leads directly into his suicide mission and Rose’s line about saving people we love.

The closing of the movie sees one of the stable boys with Rose’s old resistance ring. He’s sweeping and looking out at the stars, either waiting to be saved or waiting to start fighting. He is the next in the line of Lukes and Reys.

In some ways, I think that is what this movie is about--handing over the reigns of the previous leaders to the new. By the end, Kylo Ren leads the First Order. Luke Skywalker has died. Leia is still alive but is clearly grooming members of the Resistance to lead soon. There’s a wonderfully funny moment when we clearly see this: Poe says, “Follow me!” to save everyone, but they all look to General Organa. She looks behind herself and says, “What are you looking at me for? Follow him!” We know (not just because Carrie Fisher has died but because of what the movie is telling us) that General Organa is going to step down soon, and we’re going to be looking at a fight led by Rey and Poe and Finn and Rose. I for one, can’t wait.

#star wars #the last jedi #Star Wars: The Last Jedi #John Boyega #Kelly Marie Tran #Daisey Ridley #Carrie Fisher #General Leia Organa #Kylo Ren #Rey #Luke Skywalker #Jedi #Adam Driver

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openlockswhoeverknocks · 8 years ago

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Sleep No More Shanghai Highlights and Impressions

It’s been a week since I flew back from a whirlwind 5 and a half days and 6 shows in Shanghai. Having had the time to process and let it all rest, I’ve decided it’s time for one of my highlight posts. So... below are my thoughts from my mini adventure. I’m not going to praise individual performances in roles or I’d be here forever but let me say the cast is INCREDIBLE. I’ll try and keep it as spoiler free as possible but you’ve been warned. Also, this is longer than I planned, sorry!

- The entry maze is LONG! I genuinely thought I’d done a U-turn at some point and that I would end up back at the start. Brilliant!

- I loved not being able to understand any of the pre-lift and lift speeches yet obviously knowing what the gist was. - Meeting some lovely fans that I am sure will read this :) - The ballroom is so much smaller than the one in New York. It made the whole room seem much less grand and intimidating. - I had some very strong feelings about the 5th floor after my first show and they weren’t good feelings at all but it did eventually grow on me. - Loved that Matron has a lot more to do in the show but I missed the quiet, the sadness and the intricacies of Matron in NYC. - Big yes to the bamboo forest and big no to the hut/pagoda. - 1:1s being surprising again even though you know what it’s going to be like.

- No to recycled 1:1s for some characters.

- Missed all of the Paisley witch references that the New York show has and this show lacked. - Danvers’ loop is great! True to me fashion, she’s the very first character I spent time with in the show - My feels were all over the place about the show for a couple of days. I hated one of the new big scenes (it did grow on me eventually) and loved one of the other big new scenes. - I followed male characters! SAY WHAT?!

- Cunning Man: great loop but couldn’t figure the character out. -It’s taken a trip to Shanghai for me to finally do a proper full Banquo loop rather than the equivalent of a loop in fragments. I love the dance in the ballroom and did enjoy the scene with Bald Witch. However, the crypt scene in NYC wins the contest. -Duncan: SO weird!

- Bald Witch spitting at religious icons and licking religious statues.

- Bald Witch going all spidery after the rave in the apothecary. Now that was brilliant.

- The lead up to the rave: Boy Witch lifting sexy witch on his shoulders in the corridor to the rep bar and Sexy whispering and beckoning the audience over.

- I’m always a big fan of Bald Witch’s ballroom solo but the couple I saw in Shanghai blew my mind.

- Losing Nurse because of Cunning Man’s kindness or maybe cunningness and therefore spending a good 20 minutes trying to figure out where she was. -Bride dancing in the trees was so beautiful. - The wedding scene is also gorgeous.

- One of the nurse’s walkouts and how the show was still going up until that moment where the mask came off. - The tea spoons are so cool! - Matron doing unexpected yet familiar things. - Massively missed the mirror dance. -Dancing with Bald Witch and getting really bad giggles. - Donating some of my hair to Bald Witch’s cause. - Lady Macduff’s giddy giggles whenever she seemes to remember she was pregnant and was going to have that baby soon. That made the end of the loop so much more heartbreaking. - My inner monologue going something like this: “Ok, start moving to the left because that where she’s going to... Oh nope ok let’s go right instead that’s fine too!” That happened a lot and I loved the fact that this show wasn’t in my muscle memory.

- The cabaret song: NOPE! - Sexy and Bald’s costumes are spot on. - Missed the three witches being more related to each other. They somehow felt a lot more detached and individual from each other in Shanghai.

- I finally learned to accept the 5th floor by my last show and though I missed a lot of the dances and moments that Nurse has in NYC, I loved spending time with her. So much so that she was the last loop of my trip. Anyone who knows me knows how big of a deal that is. -Finally figuring out which staircase goes where. That’s a big feat people!

- Seeing Porter do what porters do. That was odd. - Seeing Bride learn how to human. I loved that so much.

- Some weird stuff goes on on the third floor between two characters that really didn’t make much sense to me. Cryptic I know, but I don’t want to spoil. - Spending so much time with @pursuitofhappenstance and @atoddswithmorning I love you guys THIIIIIIIS much! -Ending the adventure wanting to see more and discover more. Now THAT’S the sign of a good trip. -Hearing Lady Macbeth’s shouts across the building.

- Finding the Speakeasy accidentally and thinking “So that’s where it is!” It’s kind of well hidden! So you’ve read my ramblings and may want to know where I stand in the Shanghai vs NYC battle and I will say I stand firmly in the middle but with my heart in New York. I find it so hard to compare them! For every bad thing I found, there was something amazing to see too. Would I go back though? Yes, for sure! Please do feel free to comment with questions, inputs and opinions.

#sleep no more shanghai #Punchdrunk

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