#the problem is that i could talk about japanese literally all day and not get tired

[abyssalzones]

What's your comic writing process like? I'm starting to get into making my own comics and I really admire your work!!! Any advice?

Ah, intrepid traveler, you've done well to journey to this secluded mountaintop spire, in search of the answers you seek. I indeed can provide such forbidden comicmancy knowledge... at the cost of your mortal soul...

coughs. anyway, I'm going to warn you immediately that what works for me does not work for everyone else, and in my experience the way I do things can prove very slow and discouraging for anyone who is more interested in the actual "drawing the damn comic" part of the process. I only do it this way because I enjoy weaving a narrative web that feels not only fully contained but re-readable, but my projects are often so long and my memory so shitty that I can't just keep all of it in my head! It would spill all over the place and make a really embarrassing mess of brain-juice. Not ideal.

but as for my own process, uhh... I suppose a comic would be fitting, right?

a little choppy but you get the idea.

as for turning words into art, I've been experimenting with figuring out the best way to do that for a little while now. Originally what I was doing for something like Ad Astra Per Aspera was to take my "script" and sketch it out on paper very loosely, before transposing that onto my canvas and working from there:

...but, I've found that can make it kind of difficult to space everything around on your standard page-size, and the thing I'm having the most problems with currently seems to be finding the sweet spot of panel-size proportions. So, I've taken to printing out standard thumbnail templates (you can just find these on google) and sketching very tiny panels in those, which seems to give me a slightly better sense of scale... (mild chapter 5 spoilers, sorry ad astra fans)

but I have yet to totally pull through on this, so who knows, maybe I'll try something else in the future!

As for advice, this is probably most applicable to me, but as a disabled artist I have a very hard time managing my workload without literally working myself into injury. I don't think I talked about this publicly but when I was working on that ten year anniversary comic I was literally drawing every single day for 3 solid months. Sometimes, in my case, I really can't bring myself to stop once I've latched onto an idea, and sometimes I find the most rewarding thing I can do with my time is to draw- but I seriously cannot overstate: Do not fucking do this.

You will fuck up your wrist, your back, your neck, your eyes, and probably your mental health. It's a well-known fact that mangaka have a lower life expectancy than the average japanese person due to the intense workload imposed on them by deadlines and personal expectations. Comics are a very demanding artform, and even though I'm not on any sort of mandated schedule there are times where I've toiled away at something when I likely should have been exercising or taking vision-breaks. Therefore the best advice I can give you is to chill the hell out.

Namely, find parts of the process you can be lazy about, and embrace the laziness! You don't like digitally sketching? Don't do it! Skip it, or maybe find a way to traditionally sketch things out in advance like I do. Hate lineart? Don't fucking do it. You really don't feel like wasting your time writing 72k words of comic scripts? ...then, don't be like me. skip that part. I'm a flawed human being and what works for me might not work for you.

The second most important piece of advice I could give is to read comics. Of all kinds. The reason for this is pretty self explanatory: In order to figure out your own comic-making style, you should first pick out bits and pieces from the artist's buffet to add to your plate. Manga, graphic novels, american comics, european comics, weird niche little webcomics, funny papers, anything and everything. This advice rings true of pretty much any art form, but I find it to be essential to honing comic-making skills because so many things you feel will just come intuitively often don't. and that's okay! nobody is born knowing how to leave space for speech bubbles or shape their panels in a way that imitates stretches of time. The best way to figure out stuff like this, in my experience, is to study the "masters", and then after becoming well accustomed to the basics, figure out what rules you want to bend or break to create your own style.

I consider myself to be in equal parts a writer and an artist, which lends itself well to making narrative comics, but maybe you're a bit more of an artist and want to focus on panel-by-panel visual storytelling. Or, conversely, maybe your talents lean closer towards writing, and the art itself is more of a secondary skill. Regardless of your unique blend of talents you can and should make a comic, you should just also be aware of your strengths and try to hone in on those- there will always be opportunities to build up skills you lack, but focusing on what you do best will always lead you in the right direction.

Anyway, that being said, here are some recommendations in no particular order:

Monster, Naoki Urasawa (!!)

Bone, Jeff Smith

Witch Hat Atelier, Kamome Shirahama

The first IDW run of Transformers comics (namely More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light)

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (!!)

Through the Woods, Emily Carroll (really any Emily Carroll comics)

Kill Six Billion Demons (webcomic) (!!)

Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo

The Third Person, Emma Grove

Tintin, Hergé (can be super racist please be wary)

Dungeon Meshi, Ryoko Kui

Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson

Maus, Art Spiegelman

Cucumber Quest (webcomic)

Jellyfish Princess, Akiko Higashimura

Golden Kamuy, Satoru Noda (!!)

Note that I did not grow up with manga so I am seriously behind on a lot of extremely influential japanese comics such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, basically any of the original Shonen Jump comics, but they're widely considered building blocks of the genre so if you love the artform I think you should give them a try! Same goes for classic non-shonen manga genres like various Shoujo, Josei, Yuri, Gekiga, ETC.

same as above applies to a lot of classic DC and Marvel works, I unfortunately am just not a big fan of superhero comics... but I'm sure there's good stuff in there. a couple of my mutuals talk about booster gold and the blue beetle all the time so I'm assuming there has to be something worthwhile.

...and many, many, many more that I'm forgetting! I noticed as I made this list that, to my knowledge, hardly any of these are made by black or just non-japanese-mangaka BIPOC artists, which makes me sad about the gaps in my own comic collection. Therefore, anyone is welcome to add their own recommendations in the replies!

now go forth, and combine images with text!!!!!!!!!!!

[winonaparadise]

short story 💯

wrote a very quick story about a class i took in college. if you like my writing in my videos you may like this

Five years ago today I was clawing through state university. I had switched majors in an effort to come away with something more material from my college experience – but I was also trying to earn as many credits with as few courses to keep my schooling short and cheap.

I took a heavy weighted class in “media law.” A subject notoriously as intricate as it is absolutely fucking stupid. Anything you could learn, Disney will change tommorrow. The professor was an adjunct, splitting his time between the humble basement where boys with Pulp Fiction posters in their dorms fiddled with cameras and the actual law school where he was employed some miles down the road. I have never seen Pulp Fiction, but I’ve fiddled with enough cameras and enough of the boys who own them to have reviewed it twice. This is not a problem to me now.

Then I was stupid. Twenty. And basically friendless. I spent all my time trying to make something the same way the universe spent billions of years pouring hot soup into holes and hoping life would bubble out. I studied Japanese during quiet matches of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. I never got a win, and I never got an “A” in Japanese.

Weeks of school went by as I skimmed textbooks, got high, and thought about talking to literally anyone. Academic words danced around the edges of my brain like sand. I wrote essays on the same autopilot I write today. Feverish. Flowing. Fantasizing about what it would be like to go out with someone instead of texting a girl who now lived in Japan and making ramen noodles while listening for footsteps in a digital warzone.

I did all my work. I submitted it on something called “canvas” that the muscle memory in my fingers still types in search bars to this day. I never checked my grades. I knew they were bad.

Classes dragged me through the week on a bungee cord. I lived a block away from the bulk of them and found myself drifting in halls of buildings I’d never attended just to keep myself from meandering back home to draw a bad comic about a girl who lived in hell. 

I knew nobody. I went nowhere. I struggled to do classwork alone on outdoor benches dreaming of someone speaking to me. I needed to live in hell instead.

My media law professor was late the weekend after our first term essays were due. I don’t know what mode of transportation he took to get from one school to the other but today the Carolina sun had drenched him sweaty. We were chilly waiting for him to begin.

“Just about every single one of you failed.” He spat and chugged coffee through the entire period. “While I first was grading I thought I was the one who failed.”

He didn’t let the moment of respite last. “But I also did something I’ve never done before.” He paced like my father did when a restaurant was closed early. “I gave out my first perfect score. Which prevents me from grading on a curve.”

He huffed, he assigned a new reading, and he rushed out like he had lit dynamite. “Do better!” “What an asshole.” The girl who sat next to me in every class spoke as if she had been holding her breath. “Fuck him and fuck whoever got that hundred.”

“I know right!” I launched in on her anger, feeling it too. Back and forth we complained. We walked off campus together. She had long blonde hair and towered over me. I had felt ugly and mousey next to her, but today I felt like her equal. It felt good to bitch.

“I got a fucking 50. What about you?”

“It wasn’t pretty.” I recalled how I stayed up the night before the assignment was due. I milked bullshit into a puree. I got a rush of adrenaline from killing someone with a shotgun through a door in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Pochinki. I was probably close to being expelled. “This class is too fucking hard,” she smoked and shook her head by a bus stop on Tate Street. “I’m not about to lose my freetime over it.”

“Right.” I imagined her at parties. Black silhouettes against colored lights and deafening music. Like The Social Network. “We should be partners for the next assignment,” she got out her phone and passed it to me for my number. I typed it in. I waved her off on the bus. We did the assignment together. We texted each other about our studies. We joked about finding the guy who got the perfect score and beating him senseless. I thought about talking to her about my art or what we were making in other classes, but never did.

Towards the end of the semester I had to plan the next. A whirlpool churned in my stomach as I clicked on “grades” on my campus’ online portal. I had an A+ in a single course. 

Media Law.

My friend from class texted me that she was dreading the final. I texted her that if we failed I would kill Mr. Perfect Score. She texted “lol.”

She passed the course. I got my degree so I assume I did too. We stopped texting.

That professor emailed me asking me to take a course at the law school down the road. He said he would let me sit in and see if I wanted to change majors a third time. I never replied.

A law degree would just make Mr. Perfect Score a hundred times more punchable.

[sweetbottletops]

"Alone? Will you be okay?" Koga is a delicate soft marshmallow on the best of days and Aya knows it.

What could go wrong?

Ch. 93

When you're not used to being part of the main plot lines in school it can be easy to just not concern yourself with them at all. You get a non-combatant label and can slip in and out without too much worry.

"Yahaha" "Stop that!" Perhaps not everyone in the room agrees with what is going on? Tabling that until later.

Accidental MC arrives at the scene of the crime.

Of course it was the Maths book. The most untrustworthy of subjects.

"You must be pretty smart writing a whole song in English."

"I bet she used machine translation though. Just look!"

Scanlator later changed that to: "I ran it through a translator. Just look!"

I've seen some people speculate Koga isn't the most reliable with her reactions. So I attempted to look at these lines from at least a more neutral toned angle.

At the most generous that first comment might be neutral in tone (setting aside the whole violation of privacy part...the guy is literally waving her property around) but the MTL line is meant to put her down.

I'm going with negative for both regardless of Koga being potentially unreliable in some of her reactions. And tbh once you've been violated like this any reaction outweighs intent to me. And the intent is sus.

"Hey, is this a love song!?" (They have rewritten the lyrics out in Japanese on the blackboard... not sure why it wasn't translated by the scanlator because Japanese readers were meat to get hints from it, but there are legible phrases there if you use google translate...keeping in mind the kids might have done a bad translation from English to Japanese themselves....)

"You should just give it up." (Was that towards Koga's music or a third party towards the guy waving her stuff around? Unclear.) Scanlator changed it to "Hey man, stop it!" which made it clearer they were talking about the instigator.

"You mean the one in that video was really Koga-san?"

"She gives off a totally different vibe though."

When someone (strangers even) question your abilities, appearance, personality, and motivations like that it can only be negative. And putting it up on the chalkboard and waving it in her face makes it a whole classroom problem.

I'm not convinced there are 100% shitheads in the room, but unless someone steps up next chapter then you all get to be in the shithead bin as well. That's how it works. The Gyaru + Pretty Boy alliance wouldn't be silent for this so let's see if anyone else separates themselves from the mob.

Last week I had been thinking the worst that would come from this was maybe her being volunteered for some school event against her will or having someone find out about her muse since it was likely a love song, but this is exponentially worse.

And I'm not sure I like her side of the relationship getting exposed via poorly translated lyrics on the blackboard. Sure, it's going to advance things quicker, but at what cost?

Kind, green Aya-eyes cutting through all of the black ink that took over the last three pages.

I'm not sure if someone already in the room will come to their senses and put a stop to things, if Koga will finally have her say to those mean faces that's been lurking through her entire school career, if Aya will come back in time to show the extent of her own gap, or if Aya will come back and Koga will just be missing... and force her to realize some things from the evidence left behind.

We know that Aya didn't understand the English lyrics to the song Koga wrote and sang for her earlier. It's been a comment from her lurking in the background the whole time.

Koga might have technically already confessed then. If this is the same song and it's a love song then the translation on the blackboard should be enough to clue Aya in.

As an aside... Are we in the final stretch? I feel like volume 3 should end around chapter 110-ish right? If that's the case and it's the end (no inside info here, just speculation) there isn't a ton of time for relationship and wrapping up the Joe/Kanna/America/Family mystery. But it's also a little hard for me to anticipate a volume 4 since they are almost finished with their final year in school which should be a natural resolution point for most of the drama.

We will see how it is paced next week I guess.

[desultory-novice]

I recently found out that “weekend Susie” is a mistranslation and it’s actually called “susie on vacation” in jpn. I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be Susie in the future like Manager Magolor..any ideas on why shes missing her hairclip and the “Secretary” title she always has in jpn? Susie is so hard to figure out..like how she only smiles three times in the entirety of robobot (once when she takes the program controller and twice when singing the noble haltmann but ONLY when saying the words father in jpn) so I’m curious on what your thoughts are on her (and unfortunately has the worst localization ever…i had to look at the robobot translations from @/kaialone on tumblr) sorry for rambling but shes so interesting to me and it’s a bit sad seeing how a lot of the details she has in characterization never get talked about

Anon...Did you somehow know I've been replaying Robobot in Japanese?! And it's basically strengthened my confirmation that some people - though less than before - are a bit too harsh and/or restrictive in their takes on both Susie and her father. 

That said, I do I try to give people room to "safely hate" these fictional characters as, for a lot of people, it may be one of their only ways of processing a gross problem that affects the real world/so much of history that they can't do much about.

But I love the silly/tragic Haltmann family. I'm sympathetic and even semi-defensive towards 'em. Which is why I'm happy to answer any good faith Haltmann asks.

Ahem! Also, before I get into it, I wanted to say that technically "Weekend Susie" vs "Susie on Vacation" is not a mistranslation per se.

What it IS is a localization.

休日 can mean "vacation," yes. When you break down the kanji, literally it is made up of the words "rest day." So it can also be just about any day when you're not working/not at school/not busy.

For most of western civilization (not me because I'm a contractor XD ) the weekends are people's "rest days." To read 休日 as "weekend" might not even be that much of a stretch/localization!

Probably explains the lack of "secretary" title. She's literally not on the clock! As for the hairclip, who can say...? Similar reasons? I know in Susie's case, it's sentimental, though hairpins in Japan often have this association with studiousness/"time to get serious" so removing it is an easy indicator "She's allowing herself time to be silly!"

I do like to imagine that this is a post-canon Susie though. That girl deserves something nice after her trauma...

Anyway, reminder that post-FL, the localizers have been working more closely with the Japanese team to create a more accurate translation for us. I know the wounds from PR's rough translation (and SA's fast-and-loose in weird places one) still hurt, oof, but the Kirby series is getting better about its translations!!

Actually... you know... there's not THAT many cutscenes...

Maybe I will make my own "If they'd hired Dess to translate Planet Robobot" translation of the game? I've already threatened several times to do a full translation of "The Noble Haltmann" with all references/metaphors intact...

But yes! Speaking of how Susie uses her emotions, I was so moved by something in her first meeting with Kirby, I actually wrote about it! And I'm going to share it here, because you might find it interesting~

-

So, I had my eyes peeled for any interesting bits of characterization left behind on the cutting room floor. Immediately, I was amused by how politely Susie talks to Kirby in the beginning. She doesn't really "talk down to him" or insult his intelligence in the slightest. (One could argue that it's a false business politeness, of course. Although she only breaks that in like, the second to last cutscene) Any dismissal of him feels very "company-mandated." (And the company is run by a murderous computer but leaving that aside...)

She gently praises how beautiful the water and the air on this planet is and that's when something... starts to change in her...

Susie gets impossibly sad. And her attitude changes COMPLETELY.

I stopped for a second reading this. "Hold on. What? Why does she lose her cool HERE? Is this some indication that the place she and her dad used to live on was a really poor planet without clean air and drinking water?" And heck, maybe that is the case!

But something else struck me about her line:

"...You don't even know the value of what you have..."

It's not the snooty we-know-better-than-you "misappropriation of resources" that is triggering her. It is having something precious right next to you and you don't even recognize it.

It's about her dad. Right from the beginning.

She can't NOT talk about it. It affects all her actions. Maybe another reason while I feel like it's better to judge Susie on a whole than any one individual action she takes, because (like Magolor, oops oops oops) she is masking her intentions alllll the time.

Also, omg, I know some people are still sensitive about the Mechaknight thing but that is PEAK grim humor in Japanese! It is treated way too cold and business-like in English, imo.

In Japanese, she starts to describe him exactly like she's telling her bestie that she just met the man of her dreams and then the WHAM line: "So, I gave him a full-body modification!"

Yes, it's unhinged. But it's also wonderful. (She's so Eggman-core.)

[cookinguptales]

frank discussion of gynecological issues and frustrations with OBGYNs (especially re: chronic illness) under the cut, but I guess also potentially useful information for people who want to hear about it

so... some of you might remember when I was going to OGBYNs a little while ago. I have endometriosis and PMDD diagnoses, so going to OBGYNs isn't exactly unusual for me, but I ended up going to see more than I usually do.

this was largely because the hormonal therapy that I was taking for those disorders was starting to fail and I was bleeding a lot. like... for weeks at a time over a period of months. I had to deal with some... frustrating OBGYN advice in this time (such as the rage-inducing "well, women have to bleed") but I also discovered that like... I mean, I think I always knew that I had more vaginal pain than other people I know, but a lot of things hurt me so I just kind of... ignored it?

but they tried to put me on the nuva ring for a little while during this period and my body just... straight-up rejected it. it hurt like a bitch to put in, it kept coming out, I could feel it in there and it hurt, etc.

I ended up comparing notes with some other people I know and realized that my problems with insertion were probably more severe than I'd thought. like, it is not unusual for me to cry during pap smears and have cramping for days afterward. I cannot use tampons without massive pain. your body is not really supposed to physically expel something like a nuva ring several times a day. tmi I guess but I have not found penetration of any kind pleasant.

so I talked to... I want to say four or five different OBGYNs in this period, and none of them gave me a real reason for this. the prevailing attitude was mostly "oh yeah, that happens sometimes. lmao."

the best I could get was a diagnosis of "vaginismus" on my chart, and when I pressed for more information, they basically told me it was a psychological thing where your body is afraid of penetration so it clenches up and won't unclench. they literally grilled me on my history of sexual abuse to see if they could find the source of my dick phobia.

now... not to get too into it, but I do have a history of CSA -- but my pain problems predate it. I got my period relatively early and I've never been able to use tampons or anything like them. every time I've tried has ended in literal tears. again, cramping pain for days, even after the period itself has stopped.

so I get the dick phobia diagnosis from two different doctors, but one of them says she can do a transvaginal ultrasound if I'm really worried. we do this and it is uh. excruciating, honestly. thank god it was in California and they let me get high as a kite.

in the end, they can't find anything "physically" wrong with why I'm in pain and they send me on my way, dick phobia dx in hand.

today. today. YEARS later. I am googling tips on how to try a menstrual cup if you have vaginismus (prep for the trip abroad; I don't like Japanese pads) and I see someone saying "oh, I'm glad that treatment worked for you, my problems are because of ehlers-danlos syndrome."

you know, one of the chronic illnesses I have and one that I divulged to every OBGYN I saw.

what.

paging Dr. Google!!!

I come to find out that folks that have EDS, because of their connective tissue issues and extremely brittle skin, sometimes deal with extreme gynecological pain. it's partially pelvic floor issues, partially the fact that the skin in your vagina is breaking.

so all those times that I said "it feels like it's cutting me" or "it feels like knives" were probably because it was fucking cutting me. all those times I said I felt scraped raw for days was probably because abrasions take a long time to heal when you have EDS.

I cannot believe. I cannot believe. that I went into so many different OBGYNs who told me that my pain issues were because I had a psychological fear of dicks and when I told them I was a lesbian were like "oh well then problem solved" when actually my body was physically tearing. I had even seen blood sometimes and it had always been dismissed as spotting.

the anger I feel rn is indescribable, tbh. I never bought that my problems were all in my head (probably because doctors used that line on me so often when I was a kid and getting other chronic illnesses diagnosed) but the fact that gynecological health science is still so fucking awful that we shrug off pain that is the symptom of dangerous chronic illnesses as "well that happens sometimes" or "have you considered that maybe you're afraid of sex?"

I JUST

this reminds me of when I had to find out from a fucking tumblr post that vaginal secretions are made from blood rather than glands, so if you have bad blood pressure/flow it'll often cause itchiness/dryness/pain. bad blood flow like... idk... maybe POTS.

so again, it was actually one of my known chronic illnesses causing gynecological issues, not any of the other bullshit reasons doctors were giving me, like age or stress.

I hate that I'm fucking 33 years old and I still have to learn stuff like this from google searches. I still don't know how my shitty body works, and it's largely because of stuff like this. what the fuck. I'm so mad. why do doctors still treat vaginas like a fucking scary mystery?

I'm well aware that Dr. Google doesn't always know what the fuck it's talking about, but apparently neither do my doctors! which is why, yet again, I'm up all night reading medical journals in the vain attempt to figure out how to actually live my life!

ugh!!!

[lackuraphi]

Weasel story)Act Four: Weasel's Outing

Nobori's first outing

(⚠️Caution⚠️)

I used a translator

This is the Fan fiction

It’s different from the original

It’s unrealistic

The characters are Japanese names

Content Warning:confinement

—————————————

These days, the relationship between Kudari and his friends has become a little further than before, to the extent that the friendship bracelet tailored to Matsuri last year is overshadowed.

At school, the four of them are close as usual, Other than that, Kudari was spending time with Noㅠori, so he rarely met his friends separately.

"Kudari seems to be a little distant from us these days."

Kamitsure, Huuro and Arty were at a hamburger shop near school after school, talking about Kudari becoming awkward with them.

"But we're still close to him at school." "It's not like that outside of school at all, so it's a problem! Have we been somewhere with Kudari recently?" "Oh! And every time we made an appointment with Kudari, I think he always said he was busy at home and couldn't go with us." "Also, we haven't even been able to visit Kudari's house these days. Not long ago, we often visited his house to do homework…"

Kamitsure took a big sip of her diet coke and then stood up.

"I think Kudari is hiding something from us!" "Whaat?!" "What do you mean?!" "There must be another secret that Kudari is clearly hiding, like the room where he told us not to go in!"

Huuro and Arty said, putting Kamitsure back in her seat.

"But Kamitsure! Kudari's family is very busy!" "Yes, that's right, and his house also functions as a Shrine in our village!" "And Kudari is no longer a child, but an adolescent, so he's probably getting ready to take over in his family!" "But Kudari told us that the high-rank people in the house allowed him to prepare the Depot Agent." "Maybe the family needed a hand!" "But..!"

They each showed her a friendship bracelet on one wrist.

"And if Kudari had really fallen out with us, he wouldn't be wearing friendship bracelet!" "Kudari still wears that friendship bracelet" "G..guys…"

Kamitsure saw a friendship bracelet on one of her wrists.

"Yes.. Kudari is our dear friend as always.. He was just so busy these days that he didn't have enough time to be with us.. I'm sorry… I think I got it wrong…"

Nevertheless, Kudari's friendship with his friends remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, Kudari was running as fast as he could to his house with a look of more excitement than usual.

With a still precious friendship bracelet on one of his wrists..

Arriving home, Kudari ran to Nobori's room, literally "full speed ahead." (Luckily there were no adults in the house.)

"Welcome! Kuda.." "Nobori! NOBORI!!! NOBORI-!!!!" "KUDARI?!" "Huff..! Huff..! Nobori..! Huff..! Huff..!" 'Hey! You're so excited right now! You just need to calm down first!' "Huff..Huff..! sorry..! I can't calm down…!" "What's going on. Kudari?" "Huff..! Wait a minute…!"

Kudari pulled out his smartphone and fiddled with it for a while, then showed Nobori and Ohnyula the smartphone screen

'Huh? Train?' "It's a train I've never seen before. Is it a new type?" "Yup! That's right! It's a new train to be introduced!" "Bravo! That's so cool! The design of the train is sophisticated!" "Yup! Yup! Does it?" 'Well, well.. What he likes is completely similar to Kudari~' "And don't be surprised and listen, this train is passing through our village from today!" "Is that true Kudari?!" "Yup! And so..let's go see this train!!!" "…Whaaat???" '…What!?'

Nobori and Ohnyula were startled by Kudari's unexpected words and lost words for a moment.

Soon after, those who came to their senses again spoke to Kudari.

'Hey, I know you're excited, but don't you already know that? Nobori is still confined to this room because of Priests.' "Lady Ohnyula is right. Kudari, if I had the freedom to go out, I would have grown up to be a normal boy like you. And as soon as I heard the story you told me, I would have prepared to go out." "But please listen to me!" 'Yes, we'll listen to it once.' "What are you trying to say?"

Kudari started persuading Nobori and Ohnyula.

"After hearing the story of your Matsuri outing before, I started thinking that Nobori must go out. And I came up with a way. It was surprisingly simple! I'm going to use Lady Ohnyula's whirlwind teleportation!" "Do you mean to use the whirlwind that you use to send back to your room?' "Yup! That's how we sneak out of the family high-rank people! And the surveillance… we'll have Nyulas do it!" 'Using my whirlwind… That's a good idea. But Kudari. My whirlwind has its limits.' "The limit?"

Ohnyula explained her whirlwind.

'My whirlwind can move myself and others to places they've visited once. But now I am stuck in Nobori and can't go anywhere, and I have to say that there is virtually no place where Nobori can go because he has been confined to this room until now. ..And I cannot agree with you because I am not sure that the place you are talking about is the place you have visited.'

Kudari told Ohnyula with a rather imposing smile.

"Don't worry about that!" 'Hmm?' "That's a place I already know! It's a railroad crossing of an alleyway in village! I searched it and found that it was a place I've been to before!" 'Oh! That's good news!'

Ohnyula smiled and told him the good news

'Just in time, Priests are away for business at the foot of the village, and the foot of the mountain is a long way from here, so it will take a long time for them to return home!' "And my parents are coming home late today, too! They told me to eat dinner on my own!" 'Maybe we can eat out today! No wonder the wind was flowing well today! It was all for this!'

When Kudari and Ohnyula were enjoying the thought of going out, Nobori asked them carefully

"But… how do I get there? I don't even know where that place is…" 'You just need to hold Kudari's hand. Then you can move with Kudari.' "Rreally…?"

Nobori's eyes began to twinkle like Kudari's

"Yup! This is Novori's first real outing!" "..BRAVO! EXCELLENT!!!" "Wow! It's Nobori's amazing shouting again!" "I can't believe it's my first real outing! I'm looking forward to it!" "Then what are you procrastinating about! Let's go now! We'll miss the train passing!" 'Before that, wait a minute.' "Huh?"

As Ohnyula bounces lightly with her claws, clothes fly from somewhere in the wind and quickly change Nobori's outfit from the black yukata he was wearing.

Nobori wore his father's black baseball cap on his head, Kudari's white hoodie and blue long pants, above which he wore his father's black jacket, and Nobori's hands held Kudari's black and white striped slippers.

'Honestly, that black yukata stands out too much..' "Wow! Nobori! you are so cool!" "I've never worn anything other than that yukata…" "Hey. Nobori. How do you feel?" "It's not Yukata's cloth, but the different fabrics of other fabrics that touch my body give a new feeling! In particular, these pants make my legs warm…" "Oh, those slippers are worn as soon as you go outside." "Hoo hoo.. Kudari. I already know that." "But you've always been barefoot for 14 years since you were born." "Oh.. you're right.. I went barefoot during Matsuri, too.." We have no time to procrastinate! The train will soon pass!" 'Then let's go now! Nobori! Kudari! Are you ready?' "Right!" "Let's ring the departure signal!" 'Okay! Let's go!'

Ohnyula wields her claws vigorously and raises a whirlwind, and Nobori and Kudari, holding each other's hands, disappeared somewhere with the wind.

A railroad crossing in front of an alleyway located in a village where people don't come to visit very well, Nobori was amazed at everything he felt for the first time in his life.

A blue sky with bright sun light and white clouds, sparrows and crows flying over it, a gentle breeze, plants blooming everywhere, alley walls made of gray bricks, a long electric pole, and structures related to the train that he saw only in pictures…

Nobori was slowly walking around, seeing, hearing, touching, feeling everything he could feel with his senses, and feeling his first outing with his whole body.

The place became the first place Nobori visited in his life.

Kudari, watching Nobori in silence, asked Ohnyula carefully.

Come to think of it, Nobori has Lady Ohnyula, and I think the high-rank people in the house will do everything Nobori wants, but why has he never been able to go out?" 'Priests do everything Nobori wants, but sometimes they interpret it as they want to hear it.' "What? What do you mean?" 'This is a very troubling story to tell you…'

Ohnyula started the story to Kudari.

By the time Nobori began to speak as a child, Ohnyula taught Nobori the language all day long, doing her best to help his speak completely. Her plan was for Nobori to personally ask Priests to go outside, send Nobori to the hospital, then get treated, get well again and return to his parents and Kudari. 'I'll make Nobori free as soon as possible by opening up his words completely…!' And when Ohnyula's unrelenting efforts opened up Nobori's speech as completely as possible, Nobori told Priests for the first time. "I want to go out." But contrary to Ohnyula's expectations, Priests interpreted Nobori's words strangely. "Lady Ohnyula's first revelation is 'I want to go out'…!" "Well, when she say 'out', she mean other villages, right?" "It would mean to let other villages know Lady Ohnyula!" 'Huh..?' "Oh! Lady Ohnyula…! That was such a deep meaning..!" 'Huh?!' "We will promote Lady Ohnyula to other villages!" "Don't worry, Lady Ohnyula. We won't cause inconvenience to other villages." 'Something's wrong…' Ohnyula and Nobori were taken aback by such Priests, but they thought this was not an accurate representation of his thoughts, so Nobori said when the priests came back to him. "I have to go to the hospital as soon as possible." But Priests interpreted Nobori's words strangely again. "By the way… I heard that village hospitals are getting free flu vaccinations these days." "This is Lady Ohnyula's revelation to send Kudari to the hospital!" 'Oh Dear.. Sorry Kudari..' And this time, Kudari got caught up in it. "..Kudari..?" "Why? Mom?" "Do you want to go eat Pork Cutlet with me?" "Yup! Yup!" Nobori told Priests in more detail this time. "I don't have time. I have to go to the hospital and get treatment as soon as possible." "Come to think of it… Kudari has been putting his hands on one cheek a lot these days…" "It's Lady Ohnyula's revelation to send Kudari to the dentist!" '…Even if you hate us, we'll understand you all… Kudari…' But even if Nobori told Priests in detail like this, it was Kudari, not Nobori, who was going to the hospital. "Kudari..?" "yes mom?" "Do you want to go eat ramen with me?" "Ramen? Yup! Yup! I am Kudari! I want ramen!" Nobori then became disillusioned with Priests, who interpreted his words as they liked, so he stopped talking to Priests. Other than formal conversations with them, he rarely spoke first. (If Priests were waiting for a revelation from him, Ohnyula's flow of wind was passed on to Priests on her behalf.)

When Ohnyula's story ended, Kudari was shaking slightly.

"Then… the reason why I was forced to go to the hospital when I was young..Ahhhhh…!" 'I'm sorry… You can hate us for the rest of your life…' "Oh, no, this is all the fault of the high-rank people in the family.. I..I am..Okay..Ha..haha..really..haha..ha…" 'Kudari….'

Ohnyula changed the topic of conversation to lighten Kudari's mood.

'Hmm… By the way Kudari. Have you decided where you're going to eat out today?' "Well, while I was listening to the story, the story of ramen passed by briefly, but I couldn't eat ramen and forced myself to go to the dentist, so I wanted to eat ramen because I had a little regret." 'Ramen… Wouldn't it be too stimulating for Nobori?' 'If it's miso ramen made from soft miso(Japanese soybean paste), it's probably no problem for Nobori to eat." 'I see. Then go ahead and tell Nobori.' "Okay! Lady Ohnyula!"

Kudari shouted at Novori, who was gently caressing weeds with his hands growing between asphalt roads.

"Nobori~!" "Why~?" "Today's dinner is ramen! Let's eat ramen together at a nearby ramen restaurant!" "Really? I'm looking forward to it! Kudari! It's my first time eating ramen in my life! But what if it's too stimulating for me?" "I'll prepare a soft ramen for you!" "Thank you for being considerate of me! Kudari!" "You're welcome!"

A little time passed and the time that I've been waiting for has come.

"Soon the new train will be passing through here for the first time! ..Oh! This is your first time to see the subway in person, right?" "Yes! That's right! I'm really excited about Bravo excelent! I can't believe the day will come when I see the subway moving in front of my eyes…!"

Soon the red lights flashed, and there was a loud 'deng deng-' sound around, and the railroad crossing blockers slowly descended before the twins.

"Finally..! Finally..!! Finally..!!! Finally…!!!!" "It's coming..! It's coming..!! It's coming..!!! It's coming…!!!! It's coming…!!!!!"

And finally, in front of their eyes, the new train they were waiting for passed by with a loud sound of wheels and wind.

"WOW!!!!!!!"

After the new train passed completely before his eyes, Kudari turned to Nobori.

"Wow! Nobori! The train was incredible…Nobori?"

But Novori was not there.

"Nobori..? Nobori? Nobori???"

As Kudari looked around with a restless look and anxiously searched for Nobori, who suddenly disappeared, Ohnyula's voice came from Kudari's head.

'Kudari, I'm sorry. Just before the train passed by, I was informed by Nyulas that Priests had already reached the Torii threshold by finishing the schedule too soon than I expected, so I had no choice but to rush Nobori back to our room.' "Oh no..!"

Nobori had no choice but to go back to his room before seeing the real train for the first time in his life

'I think Nobori's outing is over.. …and I think you'll have to eat the ramen alone…' "….."

Kudari was not in the mood for ramen at all, but he was hungry, Kudari walked 'alone' to the nearby ramen restaurant where he had originally planned to go with Nobori

"Welcome!" "Miso ramen and shoyu(soy sauce) ramen… No, one miso ramen, please…" "Yes Sir! one miso ramen!"

After a while, the miso ramen he ordered came out and Kudari started eating miso ramen.

"…Thank you for the meal…."

Sadly, the taste of miso ramen was delicious as written on the black flag in front of the restaurant.

"………."

While Kudari was eating ramen, something began to wriggle strongly in Kudari's heart.

[scarskelly]

To be Expected - David Finlay Op-ed

I'm not too sure what to call this: a Op-ed, intelligent rant, infodump, sort of an Essay, retrospective?

I'm not going to make this intro too long but basically: I have written a thing on David Finlay inspired by rambles on a discord server and the recent developments with him and Jay and Bullet Club. I have liked David for a while now and I have a lot of thoughts on his character arc and possible reasoning as to why he did what he did.

If that sounds interesting but you don't have time to read 1400 words on that, here's a quick summary.

TL;DR: David Finlay's character arc in NJPW involved him trying to deal with the two chips on his shoulder: his heritage and his temper. He went from 'desperate to be different' to 'able to coexist healthily' before regressing into what we see now. I also talk about what led to this regression and all of the factors involved (continual failure, words hurt Ospreay). I discuss David's relationship with Jay and how his finale in Japan was the last straw for David, leading him to attack at Battle in the Valley.

Look under the cut for the whole thing!

First things first: David Finlay did not start out in NJPW as a Young Lion. He actually came into the promotion as an already fully trained wrestler, having been trained by his father Fit. He gave up all of that knowledge and started again after a match against Jushin Thunder Liger who Fit had wrestled in New Japan back in '91.

David's heritage is something that has bothered him for years. Especially during his young lion and early post-graduation days, it was the big chip on his shoulder. Of course there was the element of everyone already having pre-conceptions and expectations of you but that wasn't the problem for David. His main problem was that he couldn't just be 'David', commentary would always mention (both English and Japanese) his father, grandfather, great-grandfather before him. So, when David graduated he tried to make himself as distinct as possible.

How did he do this without dropping the Finlay name?

He didn't wrestle like Fit (specifically the brawler part which we'll get to) and aesthetically he kept himself separate through different gear, hair, facial hair and even the inclusion of eyeliner for a short period of time.

The other chip on his shoulder was related to his heritage: his temper. Finlay's are quick to anger and like to brawl, Fit's nickname was literally the Belfast Bruiser. However as a young lion and later a babyface hanging out with Taguchi, you cannot be a bruiser. So, David wasn't and that was another thing he had to tussle with.

Over the years, David did make progress in these areas.

When it came to his heritage there is of course the Shillelagh but an item that he introduced earlier was the spiked leather jacket. His first one from 2018 he has passed onto Brogan (his younger brother) and he's had versions of a spiked leather jacket since then. This style of jacket being a reference to something that Fit wore during his WCW run. Speaking of Brogan, you could see his increased interaction with his brother including on some NJoA shows as a acceptance of the Finlay dynasty (even if that included Brogan getting squished by Jonah, whoops).

So what about his temper? well for this I have 2 matches to compare.

Jay White vs David Finlay, Road to the New Beginning, 5th of Feb 2018, US Championship match.

We will focus on David's relationship with Jay later but for now I want to look at the end of this match. David snaps, Jay's treatment of him from reappearance as the Switchblade until now takes its toll. While Jay is downed David grabs a chair from under the ring, bringing it in even in the presence of Red Shoes. He very nearly almost hits Jay over the head with it but ends up stopping himself. This gives Jay the opportunity to win the match.

2. Juice Robinson vs David Finlay, G1 Climax 32, 26th of Jul 2022.

In this match David is certainly much more willing to be violent and less concerned about being a pure babyface but only because of Juice's provocation. Juice starts it by targeting David's shoulder and he's the one who tries to hit David with the US title first. David even breaks his pin on Juice after hitting him with the Shillelagh to actually hit a move before picking up the win.

I like this comparison because both of these matches are ones where David is facing someone who was once very close to him shortly after they turned heel. Both times Jay and Juice try to convince David not to follow through on his violence (Jay just looks at him, possibly saying something, Juice verbally begs him).

We can see how David has grown and progressed, accepting his heritage and his short fuse as just who he is and even managing to use them to his advantage. 2022 was a good year for David. He had a successful G1 debut and very nearly almost won in a US title match. But, after being around in NJPW since 2015, 'good' and 'very nearly' had become insufficient for David.

There are so many possibilities as to why David is like how he is now. I wouldn't be surprised if it is all of them coming together to finally break the guy. Maybe the things Ospreay said to him during that press conference weighed on his mind. His absent father, his championship wins being dictated by other people and in turn the absence in actual singles glory to his name. Maybe those big wins he experienced in the G1 started an addiction for David, and with his loss to Ospreay came a desperation to experience that big win feeling again. Maybe David came to the realisation after the Ospreay match that he needed to change. This David Finlay was a loser and that would never change, so why stick with it?

Enter Jay White.

Quick Jay and David history lesson: David, Jay and Juice were in the same young lion class. They were a close knit trio but Jay and David were in particular quite close which is obvious enough from the various pictures, gifs and twitter exchanges floating around on this site. When Jay returned from excursion, both David and Juice mentioned that Jay never told them anything about his debut and attack on Tanahashi. Jay found David and Juice beneath him now, having gone off on excursion and now getting to face Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom. David and Juice didn't even get excursions.

David has an unfortunate trend associated with him which is 'his best friend indirectly turns heel on him by attacking Tanahashi' as Juice also did the same as Jay last year. This certainly left David with a bad taste in his mouth, he was so insignificant to these two, two of the guys he was closest in NJPW with, that they won't even directly turn heel on him? What does that say about him? or the friendships he's tried to create with fellow members of Hontai and other face groups?

Whenever he saw fit, Jay would bully David. He would lord his sheer number of wins against David over him (even when most of them were from the young lion days). When David finally did get a win over Jay he made it sound like the world was ending ("I just lost to David Finlay? Is this real right now?"). Even in Impact, Jay busied himself with continuing to bully David. Jay was also very likely the one who convinced Juice to dump David and join the Bullet Club.

In short: Jay was an annoying dickhead who nobody outside of the Bullet Club liked.

Then after losing the IWGP Championship in a situation where all of the odds were against him, Jay finds a scapegoat in Hikuleo. He lashes out and seriously threatens the career of an up and coming star in New Japan basically because the guy embarrassed him. He in turn also sabotages his own career because he's stopped caring about wrestling in Japan as he's done everything there is to do. He doesn't care about the fans or his fellow wrestlers including his own faction mates who would be leaderless. He loses and...everyone forgets everything that Jay did up to that point? Hikuleo doesn't care, Tanahashi doesn't care, the crowd doesn't care, Gedo doesn't even care.

Imagine how David felt watching this go down. Hoping to see the man he once could call a best friend who became a dastardly person, made David's life a living hell for years and stole his best friend get his just deserts. But instead he's allowed to leave unscathed and everyone is all of a sudden going to miss him so much?

Whether David was contacted by Gedo beforehand or not, he witnesses the same thing happen at Battle in the Valley and does not let Jay get his moment in the sun.

Now we're at present day. David has regressed when it comes to the relationship with his heritage, having said that all of the generations before him were losers and now he will be the Finlay to make this dynasty something to be proud of. As mentioned after attacking Jay, David has never felt truly at home anywhere and I believe he partially blames his father for that one. He's accepted his short temper and penchant for violence completely and utterly. Now he's very quick to anger in many situations not yet seen before (lashing out at fans and their signs, young lion attacks and hostile tags).

As David begins to become a more important character in New Japan, I think it is important to look back on his arc in this promotion so far as to understand what is happening now and what may happen in the future. I hope this was helpful for someone out there, or at least was an interesting read!

Thank you coming to my TED Talk.

[just-orbiting-you]

on twitter tae solos and even tkkers are literally spiraling and going crazy about the fact that jikook were setting boundaries and telling him that ays is THEIR show and they let him come. it’s kind of insane to see all these tweets but really goes to show how much they coddle tae. how did you interpret the way jikook said it was their show at the japanese restaurant? did u think it was a joke? i honestly took it as a joke when i first watched the ep but rewatching it still obviously feels like they were joking but now i feel like there was some hard truth to what they were saying, we all know jikook have a bluntness in their sarcasm that to eachother can be funny but everytime they joked about him being a guest i can feel the animosity. it honestly made me feel bad for them cause i get hes a close friend and band mate but imagine all of the sudden the plans u had for two changed to three because of a group schedule chat, they didn’t even tell him or the other members themselves lol. anyways this ep felt more light and fun with jikook. i know tae was tired and a little sick but the way he stepped back multiple times to let them be showed he also saw how his presence caused a bit of tension. sorry for the long ask, don’t know if ur tired of talking about this situation lol but i wanted to hear ur thoughts!

hey! thanks for your ask! no worries about the length!! i apologize this ended up being so long 💀💀.

this ties into a larger issue with fans of bts these days, where finding slight issue with a member’s behavior, etc. or in this case, stating literal fact opens the door for defensive stans. you’re right, it is coddling and they were coddling him a month ago with his instagram post. tae stans to me are some of the loudest, most defensive, and will never really see the fault in their rhetoric. that thread someone made saying “tae being the ‘uninvited’ guest” and it was all the ways they deliberately accommodated him and deliberately gave him the spotlight. people are coping hard.

i’d like to compare this situation to jungkook’s second suchwita episode, which was shot around the same time and has a very similar vibe. in this episode, taehyung randomly shows up to their shoot after seeing that jungkook was filming that day from the infamous group chat. jungkook’s immediate reaction was “we are doing a shoot, could you please leave?” which ended in a fit of giggles. yoongi and jungkook make a few comments about how he showed up to just eat their prepared meal and when asked to address army in the video, tae just does a thumbs up. jungkook goes “that wasn’t a sentence,” and tae ends up saying the generic 2025 stuff. he makes small reactionary comments, talks over the other two, but basically just sits, listens to their conversation, and mindlessly eats. where i feel like jimin and hobi were integrated as a part of the larger conversation in taemin and jin’s episodes respectively, (probably because they were planned appearances) tae presents as a slightly awkward presence in the video.

i bring this up to say, while the stakes weren’t as high as are you sure, jungkook said a similar comment which while serious in tone as their omakase comments, ended up being in jest. jungkook nor yoongi stopped the shoot to kick him out. i also think there’s a “well he’s our bandmate…” at play here. like they’re not going to kick out taehyung, it’s taehyung, you know. while his presence may have been slightly distracting, yoongi and jungkook still were able to have their conversation and finish the shoot.

i personally think are you sure was bigger offense, purely because this was a trip with preparation, flights, planning and crews involved. and while many have been saying “jimin and jungkook were seemingly happy to have them there and let it happen,” yes they did. again, it’s taehyung, how could they refuse him, especially if he played a pity card of “why am i being left out of this?”

i haven’t seen this problem with any other member’s behavior during chapter 2, where that member overstays his welcome during another member’s schedule. but tae has a unique way of making me say “why is he here, what purpose does his presence serve?” and i think to him, everything is silly and informal, since these are his members. but he doesn’t have the foresight or awareness to think “well what am i intruding into? why do i feel entitled to be here?” it’s a matter of respect.

hence why i think they made the comments that they did. they accommodated him, made arrangements with the crew to change the plan in 48 hours, yet he turns around to say “i shouldn’t have come here” or “why didn’t another member show up” as if their efforts for him were worthless and he was now running the show to invite whoever. everyone of these conversations ends in a lighthearted tone, just like jungkook’s suchwita comment. but i think they effectively put their foot down with the omakase conversation and they had to. while “i shouldn’t have come here” ends in laughs and jokes, i don’t think jikook particularly liked that comment if they both were saying “go home then!”

if tae didn’t get the memo with that reaction, he got it from jikook at the omakase restaurant, he should at least be grateful instead of making flippant comments. i don’t know what the circumstances were on why he wasn’t debriefed or had any assumption about why this shoot was taking place, because he really does not have the awareness on that first day. jikook did something nice for him but they know how tae is. he expressed feeling left out initially, then they poke fun at him being the “guest looking for attention.”

so tldr, i think we can chock the comments up to playful ribbing with a touch of passive aggression, especially from jungkook. even if they felt like they had to, jikook still let him come and seemingly had fun with him, so i don’t think they have it in them to be outright angry or upset on camera. but their persistent small comments throughout the ep do tell me that there might be a touch of exasperation with him working his way into their plans.

[forourtomorrows]

okay so i heard a lot of people talk about edgeworth's line on marriage in aa-6's dlc but what about phoenix ??? here is the lines mentioned by the way

Phoenix: W-Wait. You're not thinking about finally settling down and getting married, are you?

Edgeworth: Why do you always have to jump to such extreme conclusions? For your information, I have no intention of doing such a thing... What about you, Wright?

Phoenix: No plans here for now, even if I wanted to... (Well, at least I found out how Edgeworth feels about marriage. Not that it has anything to do with the case...)

"even if i wanted to" ??? like i know those are 5 words but if they wanted phoenix to say "haha i'm single so not gonna happen" they could've just made him say "no plans here for now, and not for a long time" or just end it at "no plans here for now" because it's like saying " i don't plan on getting married and even if i wanted to it's not like i can" (that's how i read it anyway)

and because i am completely not normal about this line since the day i read it and i mulled over it for way too much time (i have no life) i'm going to give some answers to why can't phoenix get married even if he wanted to ? why can't he ???

because he's single: the most simple answer and i guess the one the game wanted us to think about. basically he's saying "i have no plans for now, and even if i wanted to because well... you can't get married if you're alone" (i think people marrying themselves is a thing though). but again, if that was the intended meaning, they could've stopped at "no plans here for now" and call it a day, it's short and effective and people (like me) wouldn't be breaking their brains thinking about it.

because he's a father: OKAY before you come at me listen. trucy is amazing and everything (i love her. really) BUT that wouldn't stop phoenix from worrying if 1) his partner would accept getting married with someone with a child 2) if trucy would accept said partner and 3) if the two of them would get along. defo not the meaning intended but it's one of the first thing i thought about (because it made some kind of sense to me)

because the one he loves isn't interested in him/available: he has "no plan" on getting married because his love is one-sided. even if he wanted to get married it's not like he can if he's the only one in love, thus the "even if i wanted to". the "even if i wanted to" is meant here as a possibility "if in a near future i want to get married well i can't" which would make sense if he has a some non-requited feelings. seems rough buddy.

because he's gay/bi: the game is japanese and it was originally set in japan (even though the translation changed the localization of the game, i'm not teaching you anything) , and in japan, same-sex marriage is not legally recognized. so he doesn't plan on getting married, and even if he wanted to he can't because it's simply not legal. i don't really think it was meant that way but if they wrote it that vague it's not my problem if i pick the meaning i want :)

he's in a relationship with someone who doesn't want to get married: well, if his partner doesn't want to get married, it would make sense that he has no plans for it, even if he would've liked too, even if he would've wanted to, because well, you gotta respect your partner's wishes (there is literally no problem with not wanting to get married btw). so he's basically saying "i'm not getting married even if i wanted to because i'm with someone who doesn't want to get married". and that's okay !

anyway this is all i could think about concerning these 5 words(he is in a more financially and life stable position than in the 7 years gap so money wouldn't be the problem here), so if you have suggestions please put them in ! and if you have any questions please ask ! this sentence was so vague and could imply so many things and its contrary it's making me crazy. anyway i should stop rambling now haha.

[kafus]

oh hey ive been meaning to ask is there an easy or preferred way to get into kamitsubaki lore esp for vwp. ive tried to skim the website like 3 separate times & only picked up the very very basics

ok so the problem with kamitsubaki lore is that literally like Most of it that is direct and not just implied thru music videos/twitter posts happened in a fuckign ARG that is... kind of lost media kind of not. the kamitsubaki city ARG took place on a website where players were given new... riddles and tasks called Qs every day for the month of october in 2021 and that website is now inaccessible but people i know archived and translated all the content they could so it's still viewable in some fashion. a couple of my friends practically singlehandedly edit the kamitsubaki fandom wiki and you can find all the "story fragments" (cutscenes from the ARG with direct story) translated here (oh and there's also lost media from before the ARG from kaf's old fanbox page that is now inactive/lost media... i have all of the images from that but they aren't all typeset yet so i'd have to get back to you on that one. it's dubious whether all that stuff is still canon anyways, a lot of it seemed conceptual before kamicity was properly outlined. one day i'll compile all this shit somewhere for everyone to have easy access since the wiki is kinda eh for it)

when you said "skim the website" i assume you're talking about the website for the narrative TTRPG stuff? perhaps? sorry kamitsubaki has websites all over the place it's kind of a disaster. i can't give too much information on this one honestly, my japanese isn't good enough and i'm a little bit behind, but afaik other than the tutorial after you sign up which walks you through a scenario with one of the girls as TTRPG practice, the rest is just... TTRPG stuff. like you making up stories with other players within the setting and whatnot. you'd have to browse through it. (eventually there's going to be some sort of small video game related to all of this. exciting. who knows when that'll happen)

there is also some stuff to do with the cr/ypto project that's loosely correlated with kamitsubaki city i guess but not really you can ignore that. and i would ignore it. i do

otherwise it's kind of like vocaloid song series where the VWP music videos contain hints to lore/metaphorically show what's happening. occasionally art is posted to the hashtag # STORY_VWP on twitter too which contains art correlated with the actual story of kamicity.

if you want my basic breakdown and understanding, tldr the girls r summoned from elsewhere by a mysterious organization called the Restoration Foundation to use magic singing powers to restore life to a city, but the city is doomed to end in apocalypse from fishlike creatures called Tessaracters every single time and they're like. in a time loop with varying amounts of memory retrieval trying to save kamitsubaki city and go home. there seems to be a lot of significance with what clothes the girls are wearing in different media and etc etc

Sorry i'm sleepy and this is probably too long and also a mess. the reason it's a mess though is because VWP lore is a mess and that's part of the fun for me. if you have more specific questions about specific parts i probably can help with an answer though! i'm not as into it as some other people but the lore is still fun to theorize on and i like seeing symbolism in the music videos.

this isn't even touching on like. how there's the kaf membership manga canon which is just an official comic where vwp is in high school together. or otogibanashi which was a series of... spoken skits? that kaf put on at her concerts for a while and has yet to be concluded and is a completely different universe from the rest of the vwp lore. Truly an enigma

by the way look at this video of one of my fandom friends posting a shitpost gif we made into the japanese kamicity ARG discord chat during a livestream. we made kaf laugh. the joke is that parrot was so annoying you don't want to know. i am so proud of this communityjsfdksdf

[silverbladexyz]

Hi hope you don’t mind me joining the match ups ^^

1. I’m an infj, I’m hyperactive, awkward, creative and personally I get along with most people but I don’t get along with people who are rude

2. I am caught up in the manga but not the light novels

3. I draw a lot, I love video games and cosplay^^

4. Any one but mori^^

5. I have tomboyish twin tails

Purple hair, 5’6, gothic style and pale with freckles ^^

6. Idk what to add ummm

I suck at social stuff 😎

______________________________________________________________

Hiiii ghost! It’s nice seeing you here again ^-^ and enjoy :)

The images are not mine. They belong to their original owners.

Calculating…

Your sibling figure is… TANIZAKI JUNICHIROU!!!

-Tanizaki doesn’t really mind your hyper-activeness; he thinks it’s kind of refreshing after a long day at work

-Your creativeness is something he admires; whether it be art, problem-solving, or music, he always looks forward to your unique work

-He wouldn’t mind doing all the talking for you if you’re afraid to make the situation awkward

-Also, being his younger sibling means that Naomi’s your big sister as well. She adores you (platonically) and always likes to hang out with you

-If you haven’t learnt it yet, Tanizaki would teach you how to cook! He’s patient and attentive, and he doesn’t let you handle the hard stuff just yet. He’ll be your taste-tester and he gives amazing feedback

-Sometimes, Tanizaki would make a few illusions for you. You can ask him to make anything, because I don’t think his ability has limits to what he can create. One time, he pranked you by making you think that your book had gone missing. (It was on the table all along, he just cast an illusion to make it look like it wasn’t there)

-Tanizaki would probably be interested in dying his hair too! I reckon he would look great with a few streaks of purple here or there, and he’ll trust you to dye it for him (Naomi might dye her hair as well lol)

-Video games? He doesn’t play a lot, but he would be down to playing with you. He’s a fast learner, and many times he actually has beaten you in games. However, he wouldn’t tease you or anything, he’ll just say ‘I got lucky’

-Cosplaying? Now Tanizaki is interested. He can’t wait to see your next cosplay, whether it be bought or handmade, and every time you cosplay he would take a lot of pictures with you. He would be down to cosplaying as well. Your favourite cosplay with him is Tanjiro and Nezuko ^-^

-If anybody was to harm or threaten you, Tanizaki would not hesitate to teach them a lesson. And you know how intimidating he can get when he’s mad

-Overall, he’s a nice and chill older sibling figure ^-^

And your parent figure is… FUKUZAWA YUKICHI!!!

-He’s legit the chillest dad ever

-Your energetic personality is also somewhat refreshing for him; afterall, he was friends with Fukuchi, who was also quite the talker

-I feel like he would appreciate creative people as well. He strikes me as the type to like art, especially ancient Japanese paintings, so he actually secretly looks forward to your end products too

-You can literally talk to him about anything, and he would never judge. He would never spill your secrets, and he actually gives quite good advice!

-Fukuzawa also likes spending quality time with you. He might pour some tea for you, listen to some music, do some paperwork, anything really. He might give you some books to read, but those books are normally quite hard to read and understand lol

-He would teach you martial arts if you asked him to. Being in the Armed Detective Agency is also a dangerous job, and he would like it if you were able to defend yourself

-Fukuzawa wouldn’t mind if you taught him how to play video games, but he prefers to watch you play instead. He doesn’t really get how video games work, and he’s more interested in other stuff like cats and tea, but he could play with you if you wanted

-If anybody tried to hurt you, he most likely would teach them a lesson with his martial arts skills. Fukuzawa can also be very intimidating when he wants to be, and with his combat knowledge, nobody would ever bully you again

-Hopes to adopt a cat with you someday

-Overall, he’s a chill and mature father figure. The rest of the ADA treat you like family as well

And last but not least, your mentor is… KUNIKIDA DOPPO!!!

-Kunikida expects 100% from you. Which means that you would be working and training a lot, and you rarely have any breaks. But don’t worry, he’ll ensure that you take enough to maintain healthy and that you rest up enough

-He does teach you his ideals and expects you to grow with them, however, he wouldn’t entirely force them down onto you, meaning that you can choose if you’ll adopt some of his ideals or not

-He’ll mostly teach you self-defence and how to solve cases. Kunikida wants to see you grow into a strong and intelligent detective, who would have good morals and know what the right thing to do was

-Kunikida prefers solving cases traditionally and in a more down-to-earth way, but that doesn’t mean he discourages your creativeness. A lot of times, creativeness was the key to solving a case, and Kunikida definitely wants you to keep that trait. However, he will teach you some old methods used by detectives for case-solving

-He is strict, but fair. Kunikida would also want you to overcome your limits, but he won’t overdo it. He’ll take it step by step, and he’s even got the entire plan written down in his notebook

-That being said, you actually grow and improve quite quickly under his tutelage. Kunikida is actually quite efficient while teaching you, and he teaches you in a way that you’ll actually remember

-Kunikida would ask some of the other members to train you as well. Afterall, you wouldn’t be able to grow too much if he was the only one training you. That isn’t to say that Kunikida wouldn’t keep an eye on what the other members taught you (*cough* Dazai)

-Despite his personality and strictness, Kunikida actually cares about you! He isn’t afraid to lecture anyone who wrongs or hurts you, and afterwards he’ll actually ask if you were alright. He’ll also help you on your math homework if you asked him to, but prepare yourself for the lesson that he’s going to turn it into lol

-Overall, Kunikida is a strict and hardworking mentor that would like to see you grow into a good and responsible person. Please don’t pick up some strange habits from Dazai, or Kunikida will literally have a meltdown

Sorry that this was short ;-;

@ghost-rattan

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #328 - "Shogun"

Originally posted on January 12th, 2009

Story, Art - Iván Mas

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: A Bludgeon-focused strip set in an alternate version of IDW's continuity—sort of along the lines of Evolutions. Mas offered his own commentary on the strip on his deviantART; I’ve mirrored it and some behind-the-scenes material below, along with an entirely separate strip in a similar vein written by Enric Farguell that was apparently rejected by the Mosaic editors on the basis that it wasn’t “sequential art”. I decided to reach out to my friend Sam to get an independent view on the strip’s cultural background:

Sam sez: So Sekigahara was one of the last big battles of the warring states period. The narrator is a Toyotomi loyalist, while the Tokugawa he is talking about is Ieyasu Tokugawa, who will win the battle, establish the Tokugawa shogunate and his territory of Edo will become capital and eventually modern day Tokyo. It’s basically standard tonal samurai stuff, all “my death brings honour to my family” and that. A bit orientalist in tone here for sure, but there’s an element of truth to be had. The thing is there’s an official Transformers thing from Japan that is exactly this—not exactly, in that Bludgeon isn’t there, but there was a Warring States/Transformers crossover thing during the Age of Extinction windup. [wada sez: Sam was thinking of a collaboration between TakaraTomy and a company that made actual armor/swords inspired by Sengoku period factions, and also wanted to mention that one time the protagonist of Sengoku Basara showed up on Q-Transformers.] The thing about Japan is that this is all happening 500 years ago so it’s about far out enough for this to be easily mined for fantasy stories. Lots of fiction about what if there were literally demons on both sides and such.

Well, I think it's one of the mosaics I've made that I like the most.

I think it is quite complete in many aspects, we have on the one hand a small historical study of documentation.

It is one of the most famous battles in the history of Japan, Sekigahara, which ended up deciding the Tokugawa Shogunate with Oda Nobunaga, for the next 300 years and which was one of the bloodiest in memory.

So... somehow I link what is the IDW transformers universe with real facts, as we know, in the IDW universe some important politicians or military leaders are under decepticon influence, in Infiltration, but... because they couldn't start said infiltration from Japan?

It could have been, and that is what I wanted to propose, so whoever was Shogun won this battle thanks to some decepticons infiltrating their ranks, commanded by a Bludgeon, something that seems obvious to me since its samurai-style design always amazes me. It seemed a bit unjustifiable.

However, the story is told by a general in the ranks of Toyotomi. Trying to follow the samurai spirit a bit, it follows that this samurai is going to die. I took this image from a statue in Japan and it served me very well both for its pose and its shape to convey what I wanted, also, we can say that... it is another nod to something existing.

I know that maybe it is a bit complicated to read, but I was interested, since the story is told by a guy, that the typography was more calligraphic, so to speak.

The last balloon surely costs more, the one in Bludgeon, but it is intentional, as you can see, its appearance is very unpleasant, and I wanted the test globe to convey the same thing, that it be dirty, illegible, aesthetically ugly, unpleasant, in order to help give the personality of Bludgeon, who by the way, already gives a clue about the Infiltration that we said before.

Even so, I think that on the mosaics page there are problems with the resolution, a pity.

If you look closely, my signature appears with Japanese characters at the bottom left, and the whole frame has a great job, the blood stains are evident why I have put them, and if we look at the page as it progresses, it acquires that reddish tone, giving to understand that the battle hardens.

Another detail is the Mosaic logo, which... if we look closely, I decided to put a "What if..." implying that it was a kind of separate universe. In addition, in the header, we have the signs of the two banners, if you search a bit, as a curiosity you will see that the one on the left is the Tokugawa sign, mixed with the decep symbol.

And a little more.... I did the page in pencil with gradients, it is a very grateful technique but somewhat slow and tiring, however, it turned out well.

[notjusthespongenextdoor]

I find it sort of funny how ff14 is constantly lowkey incorporating anarchist ideology into its storyline in a way that seems to me to be completely on accident. Like, i don't think any of the writers are huge on anarchy and think about it a lot, they've just stumbled upon this idea that is shared with anarchy.....though God i would love to be proven wrong here because that would rule (and wonder how much of this might be a common thing in Japanese society that I'm just unfamiliar with?)

The idea itself that particularly strikes me as anarchist is the constant way the scions operate as a, usually, completely leaderless operation, often in direct opposition to strictly hierarchical operations (i mean, the empire is a pretty obvious one here). And a second idea that is different but highly related to this is that they are always working within the broader community and trying to do best by the communities they find themselves in (though sometimes by seizing power tbf, it's not 100% analogous). Like a huuuuge running theme through the whole game so far is just... Hey look what ordinary people can do if we gather together. Look at all these awful structures we can collapse just by teaming up. And like, yeah the WoL is always sort of the linchpin and finisher of everything because it is a JRPG after all, but they stress time and time again how much everyone around you is completely vital to that effort. Like Ultima Thule does this hugely literally.

And i find this to be an especially stark contrast in comparison to Most media i interact with these days, which tends to completely unquestioningly perpetuate the idea that the Common Man is an idiot brute and we need the special strong/wise/civilized people to be in charge because we can't leave these nasty people in charge of themselves oh no! Like, 14 does fall into this sometimes (i think particularly of the crowd calling for fordolas execution and needing to be calmed by the merciful and wise scions) but for the most part 14 says again and again just like.... Oh yeah the people that live here know what they're doing and we need to work with them and respect them and avail ourselves of their knowledge if we're ever going to get anywhere (barring the whole "beast tribes" thing, though they very clearly have done a lot of walking back on that angle). Which is so incredibly different from almost anything i see these days (as someone who mostly interacts which American media which is probably a huge part of the problem here) where the Average Person TM is way more likely to be a part of an uncivilized mob that the smart kind wise Main Character needs to bring to their senses. Because only a Great Man can save us. We can't possibly save ourselves.

I think once i actually listened to an anarchist talk more about her ideology and what it means to her and i realized that anarchy doesn't mean *no* organizing at all, it just means fluid and loosely structured organizations for and by the people in them, and the very core belief in the competency and worth of the individual, i was just really struck by how often it all comes up in 14 and i really wish i could talk to any of the main writers to hear what they have to say about it

[headphonemouse]

I just read a certain isekai manga in which lack of acquired immunity to magical particles was used as a papaplot device but the way that they're handling the situation is actually pretty alright? Anyways I came here to poke holes in the plot device

Also I just realized that "papaplot" could be read as "papa plot" which like. Is not entirely inaccurate. I guess. If you were to follow the story line a couple years further. Just in general. It's not relevant to this manga though

I put the name in the replies so it doesn't show up in the body of this post. Spoilers ahead

So in this manga there are magical particles in the air and food and everything right it's like bacteria and native residents to the world grow a resistance to it as they age. But the protagonist who was summoned in has no acquired immunity and it causes him to have a weakened constitution and dietary restrictions. Consuming too much of it endangered his life, so the love interest cast healing magic on him and in doing so basically blasted him with MORE magic particles and nearly killed him AGAIN. But it's fine because the magic particles this time are unique to the caster and can be accepted into the patient's body if the patient's body has been acclimated to the caster's energy. How's that done? By giving the patient the caster's body fluids of course! Which body fluids? Any. Literally any. Skin contact works too, but it's less effective. But our main characters have a preference that for some reason does not lean towards blood or sweat or any other fluid you might think is acceptable to give to someone who is basically a stranger.

It's a plot device, so whatever. There's even what you might call 'the closest thing you can get to explicit consent in a fuck-or-die situation.' That's not what I'm here to talk about. The problem isn't suddenly cured after the first time and that's what got me thinking, because there came a situation where the MC was severely injured and taken to a medical hall. If the director there wasn't familiar with his condition, then healing magic would have been cast on him by a stranger and he would have died. In this kind of situation, it would have been useful to introduce the main character to a healer and have him drink some of their blood (or sweat or tears- would bathwater work? It's like person-broth. Maybe it's not concentrated enough) over time. Then he would be able to be healed with magic without relying on the love interest all the time. It would put less strain on their relationship too! Since all their physical contact is made under the pretense of treatment even when feelings got involved.

There isn't even any smut! It's a tasteful fade-out! None of this is necessary! Strictly speaking. It DOES add interesting layers to their interactions, and it's entertaining to learn more about these characters. But just considering the situation on its own, there are easier, less invasive options here that I think would help their relationship grow.

And I do want to see their relationship grow because it's a pretty interesting story. The main pair butt heads over ideologies, work ethics, morals, they go on dinner dates every day and the love interest is slowly but surely getting the main character to live a healthier lifestyle instead of the nutrition-pack-guzzling-30-year-old-corporate-slave life he's been living until now. There are criticisms brought up about the hard-core Japanese work ethic, but it's framed from the angle of "failing to take care of yourself brings more harm than good, and also hurts those close to you" and "the work you do brings tangible good into the world and is valuable. But don't do it at your own expense or else no one will be able to continue this work if it kills you."

Also I like how the main character stays in contact with the girl he got isekai'd with. I always get so disappointed when stories like this have the main character isolated from the other otherworlders. The girl stays somewhat relevant, but there's a reasonable distance between them since the only thing they have in common is their home world. She is somewhat annoying and shallow. Somewhat. I am holding out hope for her. I hope you can pass this off as the behavior of a self righteous 16-year-old. Author, you're doing so well writing the main character, spare some depth for his friend from the same home town? Don't just use her to cause jealousy and possessiveness between the main pair please pretty please come on don't blow this

[akitoscorpio]

I want to talk about a game I like.

So it's 2023, were in year 456 of the Covid pandemic, I'm feeling nostalgic for my old days of Tabletop gaming, and I just found my Crown Royal bag of dice I thought I lost like five years ago.

So I want to talk about a tabletop RPG game, the last one I was able to actually play for a bit. a game about...

A not to distant future where a unknown viral pandemic infects 80% of humanity and either.

A.) Does fuck all

B.) Gives you superpowers and a ticking timebomb to insanity

C.) Drives you insane and gives you super powers.

Yes.. Yes I am.

The game Double Cross came out in the states in 2014, published by a small indie game company called Ver Blue. Who... doesn't exist anymore? The released the first two books of the original Japanese game in a single 500 page core rule book, and then later published three of the games supplements before disappearing into the void due to heath problems. Which is fine, but there is like... 22 other supplements in Japan we'll never get.

Mechanically, it's a very, very, simple game of rolling a pool of D10's based on one of four stats in the game, keeping the highest and then adding your skill rating to it. 10's "Explode" meaning you reroll any 10's you get and adding them until you stop rolling 10's.

Which is why it's possible to get like, a 54 on a d10 die, also holy shit you can break this game over your knee with shockingly ease with the right setup.

(The Art is also very very good, where there is some)

The setting is, for me the selling point, because, it's special kind anime nonsense and crazy shit that you could just park your ass on and raise a family in.

In the setting, The Virus didn't just infect people, it infected "everything" It infected rocks, trees, buildings, *Concepts*. and it can turn itself into a living personification of said thing. It's very possible that your investigation gets interrupted because a Viral infected *rock* got up and decided in it's newly found sentience and insanity to throw hands. Also one of your characters could either literally be a moth that was infected and turned into a human form. Or you can have someone literally be just idealized version of the concept of your favorite anime character.

(This is just another Tuesday in Japan aparently)

Now how the hell are you supposed to survive the super power psycho pandemic, by also having superpowers of course!. You get your choice of 13 syndromes, strains of the virus that gives you different super power sets (12 in the core book and a 13th in the last American released supplement).

You can choose to pick up to three of them. The more you take, the weaker each strain is overall, Single strain characters can make the individual powers stronger, and you get exclusive powers, but you lack diversity. Taking two is the "default" and you miss out on some "Pure strain only powers" but you don't lose out otherwise. Taking three means you have a large swath of power picks, but the maximum strength of each power is weaker.

Each Strain can also determine your starting stats, picking one means you look at what stats it gives you, and then you double it, picking two means adding the two strains together, having three means you only get stats from two of them.

Each strain is, very different and often builds off of each other and really fun ways, one strain lets you shoot lasers and bend light to cloak yourself. One strain lets you affect heat, meaning you can either set shit on fire, or remove heat to create ice weapons and attacks. One of them lets you create drugs in your body. one of them lets you affect electricity and allows yourself to become a cyborg. One lets you be a god damn lycanthrope.

It's very very fun to just think of combos of power sets in this setting.

For me though, the most interesting part of this game is the way you can create your backstory. You see the super powers, are slowly driving you insane, the more you use them the more likely the virus is going to take you over and turn you into the next Charles Manson. in fact, every "scenario" has your encroachment, aka the amount the virus is gripping your mind. Normally start off in the 30ish percent range. If you end a scenario over 100%, your character goes insane off screen and you loose the character. But the closer to this line you go, the more dice you get. hell even going past the line can turn you into an absolute beast. But your pretty much screwed if you push to far past it.

So how do you keep from losing a character if your riding over 100% at the end of the session?

You see, as part of character creation, you roll, on several different tables to get what the game calls "Loises" Aka things or people that are important enough to you for you to grab on to so you don't go insane. You can collect more of these in a given scenario if it the GM allows it, but by default, you only have three permanent Loises. This could be something mundane like your parents, or your lover. Or you could be holding on to sanity by the sheer burning hatred of that asshole at work that's constantly fucking you over and taking credit for your hard work (Fuck you STEVE!)

Point is, at the end of the scenario, each of these becomes a D10 roll that you can roll to reduce your end game encroachment and hope you can get it under 100, you actually do get more Experience at the end for riding the line, so your encouraged to use those damn powers. Gm's are also encourged to really push at you to use your abilities to the fullest so you don't die in the process.

I also hope you like tables because there is a *metric shit-ton* of them for determining these things.

So yeah, there's a lot to love about this but this is already an insanely long post so I might add more to it later in another post, but this was just me wanting to write off some of that built up very Neurodivergent "Damn I miss playing this" game energy that I started building up in the last day or so for this crazy ass game.

(I didn't even get into the fact it's possible to play the literal personification of Facebook as a character concept..)

[kentuckycaverats]

Is it possible that you could share anything about Del? Anything at all, really. She both looks and sounds like an interesting character

absolutely it's possible, i love her with all my heart and want to talk about her literally all the time. del my beloved...

our chronicle is set in modern day edinburgh, scotland. del is japanese-american and has been in edinburgh about 7ish years at the start of the chronicle. she lives in the basement of a nighttime book shop owned by an old caitiff anarch and helps him run the place. she also co-owns a bar slash tea lounge with the rest of the coterie; a ravnos courier, lasombra nun, and brujah hacker.

her sire was her girlfriend first, then regnant--a camarilla toreador named sabina callister. she ghouled del against her will when del was 16 and grew more possessive and controlling over the span of about three years, eventually culminating in forcing del to watch as sabina drained del's mortal sister in front of her. del tried to take her own life in a desperate grab at freedom and that's when sabina embraced her. del diablerized her in return and had to flee the states to (1) protect her mortal parents and (2) not get blood hunted. it had always been her sister's dream to visit edinburgh so that's where del goes; she doesn't know she's a thinblood until she meets the old caitiff who helps her figure it out. he's the only one who knows the truth of what happened in the states and he helps her figure out who to make contact with in elysium, how to present herself to the prince, etc. he's the only person she wholly trusts.

the prince is herself a toreador and a little too fond of digging around in people's heads, so coming clean about del's sire isn't an option. she got out of the states before being branded as a thinblood so she has that going for her, and her temperment is very much the stereotypical brujah vibe, so she passes herself off as cam brujah. she's entirely motivated by grief and vengeance and is determined to undermine the camarilla however she can; so while her ideology is more aligned with the anarchs she masquerades as cam brujah for the insider access.

her murdered sister seems to be attached to her as a wraith, tethered to del in an unfinished attempt to protect her. del can't hear or see her, but both a hecata rep and del's hot tremere friend (who's definitely just a friend and totally not a romantic interest) confirmed that it's her. we've also recently learned that sabina was not in fact cam but a sabbat infiltrator, and through a sabbat ritual intended to preserve diablerized operatives she's still anchored to del too. sabina's handler is in town causing problems and was able to draw her consciousness forward, blocking del out in the process.

the coterie doesnt know any of this yet, but she's backed into a corner right now in terms of needing their help and not being able to get around telling them why. she's telling them next session and it's gonna be messyyyy.

overall she presents as very detached, aloof, and emotionally unavailable. she cares about the caitiff, the coterie, her tremere friend, and her mortal adoptive parents: end of list. her moral code is really just "as long as it doesn't affect me and mine i don't give a shit." she's very open about her distaste for cam politics and loathes every moment she has to spend in elysium; she's gotten this far by playing herself off as a low-ranking brujah with no real political ambition. she's blunt, abrasive, manipulative, and just generally kind of a little shit. she's also barely 5'4" and looks to be about 19-20 in age, so the contrast between How Threatening I Look vs Degree of Violence I Am Capable Of Unleashing is, uh. stark.