#theres some character design tests or whatever

[thespiffiestone]

throwing a buncha doodles of my silly guys into a post because i can :)

[gohannygo]

Emerie lore speculation post?!! :O

Okay guys this is my little gift to myself for finishing my school work on time. Also like low key regardless if you agree or not, drop your Emerie predictions/thoughts in the comments— because for whatever reason my brain has attached itself to her, but she has like 5 mins of screen time and vary little discourse surrounding her :D

Okay guys I’m get real with you, I don’t think Emerie was created as an enhanced clone, or with some kind of special ability. I think she was made to be as plain and reg-like as possible.

Based on Nala Se’s reaction to Omega’s blood being sampled and tested, we can assume she knew and maybe even was responsible for Omegas ability to support an M-count. What I think happened was, Nala se was like “Oh oops it appears I have gotten emotionally attached to this child so I’m keeping her as my own, but I dont wanting any snoopers out there to trying to figure out whats so special about her,” so she created Emerie as a decoy of sorts. Essentially a female version of a reg to send out to the world to prove that theres no reason for anyone to inquire about Omega because look how regular female clones are. Like in a super heartbreaking way, my theory is that Emerie was essentially made to have no identity. To be an obedient little placeholder to take attention away from Omega’s existence.

Wow thats cool but why does it matter?

OKAY so throughout the premiere we saw that maybe there was some trouble in Tantiss paradise for Emerie. Shes been content(?) with complying and doing what is asked of her up until this point, but we saw her be willing to break rules for Omega’s sake, and we also saw how shaken she looked when Hemlock was like “Return to the lab, Dr. Karr”. She also looked like she was really pondering things at the end of episode three when she discovered Omega’s ability to support an M count transfer.

I think maybe during the rest of the season we’ll see her start to grapple with what she really wants to do here, as (I believe, in her own little way), she now has a sister she cares about and wants to protect. I think Omega, through her doll making and Batcher taming, has shown Emerie a little bit of light. That clones can have their own wants, and makes choices based off of them. But really, I don’t think a person who has presumably grown up being conditioned to follow rules and see herself as property would be able to quickly break out of that rigid structure shes used to and make a personal choice to try and keep Omega safe in a significant way.

What? Okay please just bear with me. Wording things is not my forte.

I think Nala Se will see an opportunity to further get in the head of an already torn Emerie. I think she might reveal her original purpose of essentially being made to protect omega. And emerie, who already sort of sees herself as a tool to being used for some greater purpose, will then feel almost like shes been given “permission” to disobey. Sort of like “Oh damn, not only is this something I want to do, but more importantly it was the purpose I was designed for yassssss”. I think she will continue acting as normal but will basically be a shooter on the inside for Omega and it will build up to her sabotaging further experimentation done on Omega if shes captured.

Idk if this makes sense or is dumb. But I just think it could be a cool avenue. Because we’ve seen clones grapple with what theyve done under imperial command and have seen some of them change their ways which is awesome. And, I think it could also be cool to see a character whos been so shaped by her upbrining, and doesnt have that soldier-ly sheer force of will to just defect. I think it could be cool to see someone go about a change of allegiance in a more roundabout way where they basically have to reason themselves through it because they arent equipped to do it any other way. But yeah its 2 AM now so goodnight.

Bonus: Here is an educational diagram I made of Emerie being “sent elsewhere” circa twentysomething BBY

[johanthefriskiestofbits]

oooooo please tell me (who knows nothing on the subject) about orv swap au

hehehe. hehehehehehe. hehehehehehehhehehehhheheheh <- guy who is so normal

the premise of orv swap au (name has yet to be finalized) is this: what if kdj and yjh swapped narrative positions (reader <-> character) but very little else? what if a video game player enters a time loop to save his favorite character from dying over and over again and also to end the apocalypse?

admittedly it's not super fleshed out yet (a lot of the changes this premise would introduce are still not hammered out yet) but here are some points under the cut (novel spoilers ahead!)

orv swap au starts with pro gamer yjh who feels :/ abt his job, but hey, it pays the bills. despite (or maybe because of) his relative popularity as a pro gamer and networking with the agency/sponsors/people to impress, he's kind of isolated in a way that's detrimental, a facade of someone he's not whenever he's on camera

something to play around with is the idea of agency? maybe this yjh doesn't feel like he has any and has his hands tied between the lifestyle and being under public scrutiny and not having enough of a support system to leave everything behind. maybe he doesn't know what else he would even do. maybe he's aimless and drifting with nothing to hold on to.

his favorite video game is what i've been thinking of as World's Hardest To Play Indie Game (not based on difficulty but just on the experience of consuming it) a boring, exposition heavy, player-hostile, poorly designed, slightly buggy mess of a barely-playable game: twsa, a game that was not finished upon release and experiences with sporadic updates every now and then.

the ending tree to this game is so convoluted its insane. also theres no save states so if you die (very likely) u restart babeyyy.

twsa (video game) does have multiple endings, all of which happen when kdj, your main character, dies. some are farther into the apocolypse than others, some paths require meta knowledge of future events or character actions or items or whatever. the "true ending" is either analogous to the original 1863: kdj makes it to the end at the cost of everyone he loves, or hsy's modified 1863: kdj makes himself enemy of the scenario to secure a way out for the kimcom remnants.

there's branches on the choices tree where everyone dies and everything sucks and is bad forever and theres choices to make where kdj gets to make a family and they don't really get to settle down but they can get pretty close to it among the ruins of the apocalypse. through all his testing, yjh finds that these endings are nice but peter out - to get to the end of the apocalypse yjh has to claw his way there inch by painful inch, through betrayal and sacrifice, and he still cant fully get past it

i originally wanted to finagle a yoohankim 3 way swap but i couldn't figure it out. swap aus are a lot easier to work with when they're even numbers, at least to me, so this au features a ysa who is a video game company employee by day and by night she really has become god this time (and also a terrible indie dev). and this is how jungdoksang can still win !!!!

also yjh's coworker from Real Life hsy :) i haven't decided if she's like an employee for the same agency, or if she's someone else in the gaming circles that yjh interacts with sometimes (in my heart theyre in like some sort of discord server together), or something like that but she's around. whatever she does she is twitter cancelled for something. to me.

the only other character swaps are lsk and yma. yma is yjh's estranged sister (in broad strokes there's a vague bad parent situation going on here) (they used to be close until they drifted apart and slowly started hating each other [there is an abyss between them that neither of them can bridge]) (he feels that she betrayed him and threw him under the bus so he left [maybe he gets kicked out]) (she feels that he abandoned her to whatever situation they have going on [he didn't even try to take her with him]) and he has to find her when the apocalypse starts. yjh older sibling to yma gives us a whole different little dynamic to explore from kdj ysk (there's different levels of responsibility and guilt and blame when you're talking siblings that are soooooo interesting to me. sorry that i see any set of siblings and immediately try to figure out how to make them worse)

lsk is kdj's mom who appeared into existence at some point with kdj and they were both just adults. that's weird isn't it. oh well. i guess she can become a transcendent later too for funsies

everyone else stays in the same configuration of Real Person vs Character to me this is a very important aspect

this point has no precedent with the swap, nothing particular that would change to cause this, but it would be so funny if lgy was a little gamer boy who is an avid yjh hater. hates that guy. shows up to competitions to boo him. tunes into yjh's silent no-mic speedrunning streams to mald in chat but yjh +mods don't ban him bc its kinda funny.

anyways the apocalypse starts when yjh and his coworker/fellow gamer hsy are on a train to twitchcon and lgy is also there (also headed to twitchcon) and he brings bugs because he likes them but also to sabotage yjh specifically. its just funny if this happened. you understand

instead of having reader-related skills and abilities, yjh's skills are video game player based! he gets flavor text insight on people, location, and items, things like that. notably, he has the ability to reset, to bring himself back to the beginning of the apocalypse

orv swap proper follows yjh as the Player of the Game (Consumer of the Narrative) who lives hundred of lifetimes in this ruined-world-become-reality "replaying" [read: time looping through] the game to reshape it to save his fave character from self implosion (kdj with no dissociation is very prone to dying. all the time.). to revisit the idea of playing with yjh and the idea of agency, of creation, the only way to get past the apocalypse is to go off the beaten path, to choose options that weren't even there in the game. when in space, at his darkest point, yjh becomes a writer. in this story, at his darkest point, he has to become a creator too

please do not ask me how the epilogues go i dont know how the epilogues go (i don't want to throw yjh back into a train for milennia after he Just went through a thousand resets so i'm sending kdj for that but i havent fully planned how or why)

anyways, hope that helps!!! :)

[wirtsroom]

a digital circus review but its kind of long and complainy lmfao

tldr: i wish it was good but i didnt like it, may hold hope for the future episodes

okay so. ive been semi following digital circus for a while cuz like. i like gooseworx' stuff! shes got a good flow, sense of style, yadda yadda. and same goes for kevins stuff too!! when they released the mini trailers i was intrigued!

but like. the pilot is. okay how do i start this

the plot: i know its just the pilot, but its really showing its cards way too early and completely unsubtle. its supposed to be all "ahhh ur in the pc scary!" but its so hamfisted in its existential delivery we cant even begin to immerse in the world. like. we have an interesting premise of being in an environment akin to early pc games for kids! theres a whole fun circus! but rarely in the episode do we go for a romp in those ideas, rather we are all just "oh no were all crazy here. mwahahahah" and thats BORINGGGGG. the pacing feels also way to fast for us to truly be unsettled. bam, youre here, the clowns evil, youre in the backrooms or whatever, done. it goes too fast and shows too many ideas at once to be honest.

the characters: theyre standard as far as 00s inspired characters go. they all fit a certain trope in modern psychological horror and nothing is left to the imagination really. jax is your bitchboy tumblr fave, pomni is the fish out of water, ragatha has to be the Nice One, zooble is. well she was there. the fucking chess piece guy was there to allude to viewers the horrors or whatevr and then the comedy face character is just for comic relief. while again this IS a pilot, i have no idea how these characters will be you know. interesting to the plot. like jax is going to just be the depressed self aware guy i can see that but is there anything else he can give? do we have interesting connections to these characters? will any of them have thematic pieces for their designs? I dont know i want them to hit but they feel kind of surface level with little allusion.

the aesthetic: sorry im kind of a cunt for this THEY ARE NOOOT USING THE SETTING TO ITS MAXIMUM POTENTIAL!!!!! THE WHOLE PC GAME THING IS JUST SET DRESSING AND LITTLE ELSE!!!! LIKE "OHHH ARENT YOU SCARED BC THIS IS THE HAPPY PLACE WHEN ITS EVIL?" LIKE COME ON!!! WHERES THE JANK! WHERES THE WEIRD PUZZLE GAMES! DOES NOBODY HERE ASIDE FROM THE RINGMASTER DO ANYTHING? WHY IS IT SO HUGE? and also the animation is. kind of now clashing witht the style. Like not really- obviously all the directors on the animation aspect ARE talented, have industry level experience, but its smooth and modern approach sort of makes the setting even less connected. and in some cases the intentional breakage can be really good!!! but it feels too polished, too clean for its chosen period.

an aside?: i dont know see cuz it has a good idea! horror set within my moms old pc, but it doesnt want to even test out a twist or anything. Everyone here is trapped, everyone is crazy, theres liminal spaces, its all stuff i come to expect with an analog themed horror series, and its horror is very minimal. it has no grip on anything, it just wnats to make you feel sad for pomni and go Oh no isnt it scary? Awww nooo scary void wahh! Like it feels almost on the nose, too empty and too big to really utilize it. also im salty theyre selling 40 dollar tshirts for a pilot like. come on

but yeah i didnt. i dont know as i try to remember it now i cant think of anything that stood out. sure it was pretty looking but nothing horrific is staying with me at all. and AGAIN it IS just a pilot!!!!! things can change!!! i might be wrong!!!! but i dont see any horror in the stuff they are providing me bc it feels too safe

[blookmallow]

recently been looking into poppy playtime (it’s…. ok) and its like. theres some good concepts in here and the designs are pretty good but i feel like the lore falls apart immediately if you look too closely at it and maybe im missing something since i havent actually played it (i watched markiplier play it and then dug through the internet for the rest of the information until i lost interest) but ok

i like the biological elements to the monsters - love something bleeding when it Should Not Have Blood. i really dont think you can fit that many organs in a little dinosaur toy though. the big ones sure but that one guy who got put in a toy size dinosaur? and why did they just leave him in with the other experiments if he was a staff person who Agreed to this

anyway my main question is What Is The Motive Here

- if they’re seeking immortality, that just. feels like a really bizarre plot for a toy company? unless the idea is that the toy company was a front for the real operation all along but if you’re really trying to make bodies for humans to inhabit why not focus on, y’know, humanoid things, rather than whatever the hell huggy wuggy is. nobody wants to be that guy forever. and the monster toys still can die anyway, so

- it seems more likely that the purpose was to build worker/slaves, productivity and marketing over ethics and employee well being (kind of an ironic message coming from a developer who puts so much emphasis on marketing and also, the whole NFT thing, but whatever) we know huggy is intended to be security and mommy is intended to be the host for the games, but if that’s the reason - is it really that beneficial to squish people into monster toys? they already have a foster care system providing them with children they’re using as test subjects. this company clearly doesn’t give a shit about ethics, so why not just take advantage of the child labor they have access to rather than spending ungodly amounts of time and money on all these testing procedures and mutilating children into toy slaves. extremely traumatized workers forced into fucked up toy bodies are not going to be as efficient. they can still be killed and still need to eat (evidently More than a child would normally anyway, ) so what exactly is the benefit here. and like. ok mommy has some clear advantages but huggy’s really floppy. we see kissy flop her noodly arm helplessly trying to pull one lever - as cute and funny as that moment was, its clear this creature would not be a great factory worker

- if the point is that they intend to sell the toy monsters, theres just no benefit there whatsoever, even if the ethics of shoving frightened orphans into toys doesn’t bother you, even if you do fix the extreme aggression problem, you’re still gonna get lawsuits from parents when their kids’ toys start wandering off and crying in the corner. also toys get broken, kids tear things open, modders take things apart, people are going to figure out real fast that there’s, y’know, organs in there

which brings me to my major question of WHY is there a commercial for poppy? it seems like the poppy we find in the case is The Only poppy, she’s the only experiment that worked properly, she’s the ideal “toy that can talk to you like a person! (because she is one)” but they’ve never been able to replicate that success - how were they able to sell these dolls with the promise of the Real Girl Intelligence if they only had one (which clearly wasn’t sold since she’s still there)? or did they film the commercial after their success intending to make more dolls and never released it when things went wrong? poppy’s on a lot of the advertisements and stuff so she seems to be a recognized character in the brand. did they at one time manage to recreate her and just sold a bunch of little orphan girls trapped in dolls? is that what I’m supposed to be taking from this?

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Sidequests are part of the story so it’s still my ballpark shut up it’s time for

Read Part 1 here!

Part 2 || Part 3

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

- - - - - - - - - - 

Side quests, side quests, side quests. What are they? And what are they doing here, on an Age of Calamity rewrite? I must admit, game design is not an inherent forte of mine, and I like to think that my only “expertise” would be on writing and storytelling. So what the fuck is a fool like me doing here

Well my dear ladies, lads, and gentlefolk, if your memory does serve, I did say that the format of Age of Calamity was one that served the major plot and story beats for it’s cutscenes, and its worldbuilding and good parts of it’s character development for its gameplay and side quests. It’s actually a concept that can be seen in shows and movies too, although obviously it’s origins are in TTRPGs and videogames. Definition wise, a side quest is any deviation from the main story and plot that serves to flesh out an optional/overseen aspect of the game. So there’s out perfect outlet for worldbuilding, characters, and even a bit of humour. Side quests, by definition, can’t simply be just XP grinders, because otherwise you could…..just make an XP grinder. It’s like saying you’re getting your kids a bike, but then you get them a stationary exercise one. Sure it’s functionally the same and gives the same benefits, but it could be so much more. 

Does Age of Calamity have good side quests? I’d actually argue, yes. I mean sure, it’s not exactly gonna hold a candle to Fallout or Witcher 3, but there are great memorable side quests that do serve their purposes in this game. 

A fan favourite is “The So-Called Knight,” in which Link spars Mipha, Teba, Sidon, and Revali, a conflict of the Sidon’s confidence and belief in Link, with Revali’s skepticism and grudge against him. Not only is it great fandom content, but it explores the carrying POVs of several characters in a fun way. We also have Hestu’s Dance Competition, and the Miss Vai Battle Pageant. What they lack in serious character tone, they make up for in humour and world building. Even the quests that have nothing to do with the main cast of characters, like the Questionable Escort Mission, still provide funny and interesting details about the world, like how the Yiga Clan is still ever persistent in trying to take down Link with monsters and Windcleavers alike. 

It’s not like those side quests were functionally useless either, all of them still provided great amounts of exp and materials. What specifically made them great and memorable was their small little stories and character/world details. Of course, that’s not to say you can’t have the occasional plotless boss rush every now and again, those are fun in their own right and it’s good to have variety. But just thinking about it...what were everyone’s least favourite sidequests? The timed Yiga Escape?  The ones where you sit around defending strongholds? The one hit death Hair-Width Trials? Ah...so all the least enjoyable side quests were the ones that were difficult, with no enjoyable character or worldbuilding to back it up….interesting interesting….interesting pattern indeed. 

So, let’s improve the game a bit further. I do need to pace out my future character arcs somehow. I tried to make use of the existing quests where I could, but it’s just eaaaasier to just not think about it and do it from scratch. Just shove these in place of all those quests whose only description is “monsters have been spotted here! Take Mipha and go to work!” and stuff like that. Alrighty then! Here’s my take on cool side quests for every single character thus far, along with their paired gambit attacks. Prepare for heists! Drama! Simping! And Bananas!

Link: Mastering Stasis

Ok I have no idea when this quest unlocks so just for my purposes assume this only becomes available after Link pulls the Master Sword. 

Engage the hordes of monsters that have been spotted in Hyrule Field. Now is a great time to master the use of the Stasis Rune. Impa and Zelda accompany you, but it seems stasised monsters aren’t the only thing coming to a tense standstill…

This isn’t anything that special, I just want to further highlight this tension that Zelda and Link have, as it’s something touched upon in Botw, but never really mentioned or used ever in Hwaoc. Now more than ever, Zelda has an excuse to have a rocky relationship with him because she could actively see just how far he’s coming in such a short amount of time. Classic “he probably hates me so I guess I’ll hate him” thing.

You play as Link, the game gives you your little prompts on how to use Stasis, you take out a few hordes of Bokoblins and blah blah blah. I wanted to use an earlier level to establish Zelda’s relationship sooner as obviously it’s gonna be important to the story. But of course like all side quests it won’t kill you to skip out. Text dialogue can be Zelda saying science shit like “This will be a good opportunity to test out the full limits of the Stasis rune” and then Impa’s all “Yep! We got your back, Princess! We’ll clear out these monsters in no time.”Then Link the little angsty shit that he is says nothing, and as you play you clear out more and more bokoblins Zelda just says “...” and then we can toss in a Moblin or two in there for gambit voice stuff.  

Gambit dialogue with Impa would be supportive, her usual spunky dialogue. I had two ideas for Gambit attacks with Link: One where Impa does that thing where she cuts a giant laser through the air, but it’s aimed towards Link and he parries it right in a monster’s FACE because I think it’s badass and also a good way to show trust and stuff. The second thing was Impa’s giant bomb barrels, but Link is the one to somehow ignite them, because he is an arsonist after all. He can even have a chaotic Sheikah blue glint in his eyes like blue flame, I can already picture it so clearly given how anime/dramatic Impa’s movements are. Impa sets bombs, Link *teleports behind Moblin* nothin personal, kid. 

Also right at the end of their gambit attacks, Impa and Link should try to fist bump or something (cause the whole “cool guys don’t look at explosions” thing that Impa usually does on her own) but are interrupted by eggbot jumping up to try and join in. And then Impa can be annoyed and try to punt it or something. That’s not just self-indulgent that’s in her character she totally would and I want to make use of the fact that eggbot travels around with Link. The success of her attempts to punt him can vary.

If Link does a gambit with Zelda, her dialogue can just be her usual monotone Princess stuff, “Thanks for lending your strength,” or “There is still much more to do!” just purely professional, we’re not at a stage yet where she’s buddy buddy with Link. Their gambit attacks can still be cool though. One idea I had was Zelda using stasis, and you know how when you use it in botw everything lights up with that sonar effect? So Link stands besides Zelda, and she activates stasis, the first “sonar” light wave reveals the stasised monster, and you see it from the view of the Sheikah Slate. Then with each additional flash of sonar you just see this silhouette of Link going absolute ham on a monster. And then when the stasis “ding ding ding ding ding” is done, everything’s just dead. Can you see my inspiration from Persona 5 yet? Second idea was Zelda using cryonis and makes an ice ramp for Link to shield surf on and ram into a monster. For entertainment purposes Zelda should also be putting frogs on said slide. (Also also the reason I’m putting Link as the main focus for those gambit attacks is because I want to juxtapose it with future gambits where Zelda may or may not be more powerful…)

Anyhow anyhow, so this side quest, you beat some bokoblins, theres a moblin or two. However as you progress Zelda’s dialogue because a bit more passive aggressive, maybe Zelda can be a bit irritated at how quickly Link is defeating everything before she can even contribute. Impa can comment on this like “She hasn’t exactly been warming up to you, has she…” and then the last point of the side quest, Zelda runs off, there’s a...let’s say a big horde of blue or black Moblins. Or a horde of Wizzrobes, I’m not too picky on it. Link can save her and do a gambit or whatever, but the point of importance is that Zelda leaves with the clear mindset off, “You don’t need to keep coddling me, I can handle my own” to Link, but is “Thank you, I’m glad you’re here,” to Impa. 

Now I stole was inspired to use this based on this comic by @novellanova, and you should check it out here. But basically, at the end when all the monsters are dead and the last few text boxes are rolling, Impa says something like “Gee, at this rate I might have to protect you from the princess! Hmm…. you know, maybe if you two had the opportunity to hang out more and get to know each other, she’d warm up to you! Ha! That’s it! I’ve made up my mind. Listen up Link, from now on I’m gonna let you man the wheel when it comes to protecting Zelda. So with me out of the picture you better take the opportunity to be the nicest, most helpful, and most effective body guard there is. I know you already are, but still, if I hear that one little Chuchu so much as splat in her direction I will take you down...got it?” And, that’s that.

Side quest done. Fun Link gambits with Impa and Zelda, some little character POVs on the situation, plus an explanation as to why Impa doesn’t accompany Zelda everywhere/nods to the cutscenes of Botw as to what happened to Impa. Alright, that was probably the most boring one so let’s move on to

Daruk: A Rumbling Stomach

Alright I’ll be honest...I have no idea what to do with Daruk. Especially when Yunobo’s not here, I got zip-zero to work with considering his character is non-existent. Further down the line I’ll certainly try to give him more nuances and the like, but I’m afraid the majority of my character efforts have been towards Astor, Revali, Zelda, and [REDACTED] so this is my apology ahead of time, rock fuckers.

This is my take on how to make those timed quests more fun. So basically, the premise of this stage is that Daruk was just happily hanging around trying to enjoy his rock roast, when a monster surprised him and he dropped it, and now it’s rolling down the hill. This is based on my real Breath of the Wild experience where I had to trek up that Volcano path to bring a rock roast for that shrine quest, but at the very top I dropped it and had to chase it down before it fell into the lava below. 

Daruk is eager to chow down on the finest rock roasts this year has to offer! It’s too bad things go downhill when monsters start to ambush. Defeat key enemies and rescue Daruk’s tumbling meal before this year’s wait goes to waste!

So, that’s what this is. The stage opens and Daruk says “NOOooOO! My rock roast! Damn monsters!” and you have to defeat baddies and catch up to the rock roast before the timer runs out and it falls into lava. And then when you finish and get back the rock roast that’s pretty much it….except SIKE no it’s not. Because a lot of these timed quests usually have a “surprise! There’s more!” thing at the end so I’ll do that here too. So Daruk has saved his rock roast and he’s talking about how he’s going to enjoy it in all its deliciousness, when he’s cut off by a random Goron’s scream. Turns out, Daruk’s yelling at the monsters about desperation to retrieve his lost lunch has attracted monsters to some traveling civilians, and now you gotta go beat a Talus, or a couple of Moblins, or something...Again I don’t really have level set or idea when these side quests unlock so just use your imagination. Once Daruk defeats the monster(s) the Gorons can thank him, and then one of the Goron kids can be like “Ooo! Is that a super special rock roast?!?” And Daruk is all:  “Ah! Well all the best Goron heroes eat plenty of rocks! This here is the gourmet stuff. You can only get it once a—” And the kid’s like “Woah! I’ve always wanted to have one, that’s why I’ve been training hard so I can explore more of the mountain. Where’d you get it??” And Daruk can sputter a bit, before finally sighing and giving into his instincts. “Ah….well, why don’t you have it? You’re probably really hungry after running around with those monsters…”

“Woah really?? Are you sure—”

“YEAH JUST TAKE IT ALREADY GO”

“Woah, thank you!” and then the Goron kid and co run off. Cue Daruk crying to himself in the background. Daruk may have an appetite, but I like to characterize him as the Goron Hero first and foremost.  

I’m sure that doesn’t stop him from mourning his rock though.

Mipha: Stronger Sentiments

Mipha and Daruk talked a whole bunch about training together so that Mipha can grow stronger, and Daruk was catching on to her crush on Link and it was a nice interaction in between them except for the fact that we never see them do the damn training so that’s what this is.

I think this is as good an opportunity as any to make this a Hair-Width quest, the ones where you can’t take one hit. The difficulty of a level is one of the most effective ways to put the players in the boots of a character to experience the same struggles they do. If the player works hard, then they automatically associate that with the character working hard. So, yeah, let’s have Mipha kicking ass and working to be strong enough to protect Link.

Mipha is determined to grow stronger. Daruk and the other Gorons are helping out with an intense training session by Gut Check Rock. Prove yourself by defeating all the enemies you encounter!

So Mipha is sparring with the Gorons, you fight through them and the captains and blah blah, the final boss is fighting Daruk without getting hit. 

“I promise not to hurt you more than I’m capable of reversing.”

“Ha! Give me all you’ve got, princess!”

You fight, cue the special music or whatever. I mentioned that gambit dialogue/attacks could also work to be custom for the character that you’re fighting, so I’m thinking something like this. Daruk slams the ground and rocks and magma sprout up around him like jagged pieces of glass, but Mipha is no where to be seen. Daruk’s kinda huffing and puffing, “Where’d you go Mipha…” and then FWOOSH, giant geyser right behind him. [yes I KNOW I overuse the *teleports behind you* “nothing personal, kid” thing but I think it’s COOL and you can’t stop me] So anyhow, you know that thing in Avatar where Pakku is just riding at the top of a whirlpool and destroying everything? That’s Mipha.

Daruk turns around and scratches the back of his head. “...huh….that’s not good.” Cue Mipha swooping down to deal the defeating blow. 

So Mipha wins, she can mention how wonderful it was and how much stronger she feels. And she can thank Daruk, and he’s all “No problem!” but he mutters something like “And I thought Gorons hit hard...now I know how Link feels.” End side quest….SIKE it’s another surprise boss at the end. A Goron captain suddenly reports that an Igneo Talus has appeared nearby. 

Mipha goes up to fight it, but wow! Link is already there. They both fight it, but it’s clear that Link didn’t need her help that much. You can defeat the Talus with a Mipha/Link gambit. It’s similar to Link’s usual “swing sword in a giant circle and become a death windmill” but Mipha kinda enhances it with water or something and it puts out the Talus. I wanted this ending with a focus on how strong Link is just to show that while Mipha is improving, she’s still not yet where she needs to be. 

Daruk: “Sorry I wasn’t much help at the end there, I was busy, uh, stretching.”

Mipha: “Oh it’s quite alright, Daruk. We were both quite tired from today’s training.”

Daruk: “Well I dunno about that...seems to me you were quite lively and active as you fought beside Link. *wink*”

Mipha: “Huh!?!? W-What is that supposed to mean??”

Cue laughter from Daruk. Mipha is flustered. And Link is just...confused, as always. 

Urbosa: Mighty Thunder of the Gerudo

So in the game this is just some normal outpost capturing, stronghold defending side quest, but we’re gonna spice it up just a bit. 

An important excavation site is being overrun by monsters, and Urbosa has set out to engage them. Defend and capture the outposts, in order to prevent this valuable place from falling into enemy hands…

So you fight as Urbosa, defeat some enemies and blah blah. When you first arrive there, I want one of the Gerudo Captains to be like “Lady Urbosa? Where did you come—What are you doing here? Aren’t there areas of greater importance for you to be at right now?” Urbosa says something like “Nevermind that now, let us focus on achieving victory over these rotten beasts.” 

As the battle goes through, it is revealed that this excavation site is where Zelda’s mother would often work and hang out with Urbosa. Urbosa says some stuff like “Her Majesty would not be happy to see all these monsters heading here!” *decapitates Moblin* and then she can say other dramatic stuff at the end like “We have fought well...for her memory” and other classic lesbian pining. Some guard at the end can say “Perhaps you should move on and help out somewhere else, Lady Urbosa. We can handle the clean up from here.” 

“Sure,” Urbosa replies, “Just another moment.” And then cue reminiscing. “She always did love these machines…”

And just other sentimental stuff like that. If you’re gonna be a coward and hold out on the Champion death angst, then you best be pumping that angst and emotion from somewhere, you know?

Also yay for worldbuilding! At least in my rewrite, the Guardian excavations and stuff were overseen by the Queen. Could be a reason Zelda hangs out with Sheikah tech so much...who knows who knows... who knows what other implications this has, it’s just a side quest after all.

Revali: Anti-Ice Training [get it??? Cause in this one, Revali’s gonna break the ice with some other characters?? I’m funny I swear]

Ok so for this one, I want to pull Revali’s character away from just “the birb that doesn’t like Link” and give him some other stuff to stand on. Obviously, there would be other side quests in a fully fleshed out game that did even more to characterize him, but for my rewrite I’m only dedicated this post and one other future post to sidequests, so I gotta really bring out what I can for the few side quest stories I have time to tell

Revali sets out alone to deal with some monsters by the Hebra trail. Although intended as an isolated moment to hone his skills, he finds himself with unexpected company. Defeat key enemies.

So you play as Revali and at first you’re alone, taking out Ice Lizalfos and the like. Revali’s text dialogue can say stuff like “Hmm...not fast enough” “My current needs to be stronger” “*mutters* Can’t compete with lightning and magma with aim like that.” Just stuff that establishes that he’s working hard to really prove himself as the best, but is still a bit insecure about his position. He thinks he’s better than Link, sure, and he certainly thinks that being a princess or a chief doesn’t automatically make you the best. However by this point, Revali has battled alongside the other Champions and seen their skill in battle, and has developed some respect for them. Afterall, Champions were chosen in some part for their skills, unlike Link or Zelda who destiny just thrust greatness upon. 

So Revali has this slight insecurity that compared to lightning, and magic healing, and magma, with chiefs and princesses and titles of heroes, he and his efforts will be overshadowed and forgotten, unfairly deemed the useless one. Thus, here he is, training in solitude, not wanting anyone to see the imperfections and mistakes until he is absolutely perfect.

Except for the fact that after you beat a Wizzrobe, the other three Champions show up. 

Revali: Wh—Huh?? What are you all doing here?

Urbosa: Well, we all have to travel with the princess to that Tower in a few hours, so I recommended we find you and hang out until then

Mipha: And a good thing too! Look how many monsters there are

Revali: I’m actually doing very well on my own right now. Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold or something, so why don’t you head on back and let me handle this.

Daruk: Aw, it’s not that we think you can’t do this. It’s that you’re hogging all the fun! Urbosa: And that it would be more efficient if all of us went to work

Daruk: That too

Revali: Look it’s not—you all can’t just—this is not just about—AUGH, look, I’m just trying to train myself at the moment, and I don’t need you all to mess with my drills

Urbosa: Training, hm? Well how about this...you let us continue helping you with these monsters, and after, I’ll let you in on a good Gerudo training technique

Revali: Hmph. Fine, whatever gets you out of my tail feathers faster

So Revali and the Champions clear out the monsters. Revali can have gambit attacks/dialogue with each of the other Champions. This is already incredibly long so perhaps I’ll save specifics for another time, feel free to use your imagination. Urbosa teasing Revali and they make a thunderstorm, Mipha and Revali swimming in the sky and kissing—wait that’s— 

When all the monsters are cleared, which honestly isn’t tooooo many, Revali speaks again.

Revali: So what’s this oh-so-holy technique you had in mind, then?

Urbosa: Ah yes, well really it’s quite simple. It’s called…

Urbosa: One-on-one combat

Now Revali fights Urbosa. It think it’d be really fun if your allies on a stage could swap to a boss, and I wish hwaoc had a bit more freedom with the interactions as a whole, but ah well, that’s what I’m here for I guess.

So when you/Revali defeat her, it’s a good accomplishment! Not only for you the player, as Urbosa would not be the easiest to beat, but also because match-up wise, Revali prevailing over Urbosa is a big feat as their styles are quite opposite, arguably with the strength in favour for Urbosa.

Revali might at first have the mindset that Urbosa is overconfident and thinks she’s got an easy win on Revali, but that mindset is quickly proven wrong when 1) the difficulty of the gameplay itself shows how they’re both doing their best and 2) Urbosa with her Gerudo qualities is probably shouting stuff like “give it your all!” and things.

And so, as you beat her...

Revali, kinda huffing and puffing, but just a bit:: ...you….held back

Urbosa: Come now, do you really think of me as someone who’d do that? I’m almost insulted.  

Revali: Hmm...perhaps not then....

Mipha: Wow! What a wonderful fight from both of you. 

And then insert some other dialogue from Daruk or something that shows the Champions acknowledging the training and hard work Revali must have put in to be so skilled. Perhaps it’s not so bad, when you train with others and your skill is fully appreciated by your frie—GAH. Perish the thought, they’re all just a bunch of royal fools who can’t hold a candle to the skill of a Rito Master….probably…

Revali: Well unlike you lax fools, I tend to take my job seriously. I don’t have time to longue and banter when the princess is still expecting me in an hour or two

Urbosa: Oh alright, let’s get to it then. What’s the expression? “The early bird gets the w—”

Revali: Gross. No. Don’t finish that sentence, I beg you. 

Urbosa: Oh? Well why don’t you fly off to escape my dreadful tones then?

Revali: ...Heh, don’t be absurd…

Revali: Without me, you’ll all probably get lost. So, I suppose I should stick around for that sake Great Fairies: Dress to Oppress 

The Great Fairies are holding a fashion competition and rating people’s outfits. Poorly judged outfits gives them the right to compensation combat. Defeat all your less than fashionable allies.

...

...yeah.

It seemed funny in my head, alright? cOme on, just imagine…

Revali, fully expecting to win: Well?

Great Fairies: Hm...I don’t know dear, all the colors are very clustered. Perhaps if you were taller—?

Revali: bWHAKT!? *other angry bird noises*

- - - 

Daruk: I brought my BEST out today! :D

Great Fairies: Is that a….chain?

Daruk: TWO chains, actually. :D

Great Fairies: Oh honey…

- - - 

Great Fairies: Ooo! Our little hero is about to come out! Wonder what he chose...a knight in shining armour? A handsome desert voe? Ooo!! And those Snowquill braids always made him look so cute…

Link: *comes out in the Tingle Outfit*

Great Fairies: …

Great Fairies: …………..hm…..

At the end of the side quest, after you beat everyone, the Great Fairy wins because of course they do. 

Great Fairies: Oh my! What an unexpected outcome...but it really couldn’t have gone any other way. I declare the judges the winner! I mean just look at me, I’m as dazzling as a jeweled desert flower, because I am! Ohohohoho…

This side quests unlocks the Tingle Outfit

Hestu: Forest Dance Festival

Alright this quest was already pretty perfect, BUT, I just want to use this opportunity to say that all of Hestu’s gambit attacks makes his allies and enemies do special dances. Absolutely abSURD that Hestu can only make the lesser smaller enemies dance on occasion, nonononono, my guy Hestu is making everyone dance. You can’t stop this. Nothing I say will ever top the imagination, so just take my word that this is a good thing. [Reluctant Revali doing the macarena against his will in sync with Hestu and they bash someone’s head in...ah the possibilities.] 

Maz Koshia: Links to the Past

Ok so before I get into this, a few things. This quest takes place well after the tower activations in Akkala. Age of Calamity leaves a whole lot of plots holes as to why a Monk is just...here, and what the point of the shrines are, and personally my first reaction to all this was just a five minute extended “huuhhhhhh???” 

So here is my headcanon, explanation, thing, canon to the world of the Kip Cut story. Ones all the Sheikah Towers were activated, that officially woke up all the Shrines, because we know that the Towers and Shrines are all connected to the same system. [See Great Plateau Tower activating all the Shrines and Towers, and Creating a Champion explanation on the system] But when all the monks were in their little altars and noticed how Link hadn’t dont a single one, they were like “what the fuck.” Monk Maz Koshia, who is kinda the head honcho of the monks and probably the only one powerful enough to go out in the world anyhow, sets out to see what the deal is, and after many a teleportation and telepathic communication, he figures out that Link is just running around with the Master Sword already. This kinda confuses him, because the whole point of the Shrines was to test Link and give him the spirit orbs so that he could grow strong enough to get the Master Sword, but he somehow already has it...so hmmmm something fishy is going on in this timeline. So Link technically hasn’t proven himself at all, Maz Koshia ambushes him, they do their little combat trial, Link passes, and Maz Koshia’s like “ok cool so you’re not useless.”

So now Monk Maz Koshia has cast aside his old monk duties of waiting around for a couple hundred years, in favour of just hanging out with Link and continuing to train him combat wise. Shrines are still explored by Zelda and co because they are important areas to establish teleportation pads, and whenever they’re there, Maz Koshia forces Link to get in a shrine to get a spirit orb, which is not only useful in general for health, but since Link already has the Master Sword, the other characters can get the spirit orb too. (So all those little heart upgrades that you see on the map, those are all just in the real Botw Shrine locations, rather than just scattered around randomly. Also I’m ignoring the stuff about talking to Hylia in order to exchange for stamina or heart containers because the game never talks about her, or stamina, and I’m not about to create an entirely new custom gameplay feature for this game, fuck you.)

I like to think that Maz Koshia is very selective about the Shrines he encourages people to try out. “Oh nonono, don’t bother with Qukah’s….lazy ass, only set up one little mountain that you have to blast through with lightning and that’s the entire puzzle! Disgraceful...Here, Kaam Ya’tak has set up a wonderful Trial of Power for you. I’m sure you’ll find the level design quite thrilling. They spent a lot of time on the critical thinking aspects so have fun!”

“I should warn you that this one was made by one of the millennials...yes, those youngins who were only initiated 1000 years of age. Honestly, they lack so much experience. Ms. Agana over here was experimenting with something called ‘motion controls?’ Pretty lazy if you ask me. Traditionally I would just stick to combat and block and switch stuff...but ah well, variety I suppose.”

Right, what was I talking about? Oh right! This is a sidequest. So Monk Maz Koshia doesn’t really have...a character??? Or a personality??? So I don’t really know what to do with him other than use him as an outlet for world building. Apologies to the Monk….fuckers? Stans? Feel free to leave me a comment about how I missed all the nuances of his character or something I’m all ears.

On an expedition to mark more Shrines and establish more teleports for the Kingdom, a large horde of monsters is spotted, seemingly with the intention to destroy these Ancient relics. Link and Maz Koshia use this opportunity to sharpen their combat skills. Protect the stronghold and defeat key enemies.

And then that quest would just kinda echo the stuff I said earlier about the world. (As Maz Koshia defends a Shrine, somewhere Qukah Nata is smugly shouting “Bet you wish ALL of them were protected with a giant mountain now, do ya?)

Also Link and Maz Koshia’s gambit attack involves the Master Cycle. I don’t have the specifics, but damn if I want some call backs to Botw while also having fun.

Impa: Steal Yourself [Yiga Clan Escape]

In an act of pure hatred and malice, the Yiga Clan has snuck into Kakariko Village in the dead of night…and stolen all the Swift Carrots! Impa sets out to get them back, as well as taking something else as a form of swift revenge...Escape before the time runs out.

Ok I can explain.

So you know how the Yiga and the Sheikah have kiiiiinda been murdering each other a bunch in Botw, going as far as to kill a deserter’s wife and threatening to murder his kids, and also people on both sides were sorta massacred for no reason? And alsoooo one of those people who literally lived during that time of the massacre is just kinda floating around now?  And you knooooooooww how the Yiga Clan just kinda joins Zelda’s side later on and we’re not supposed to think about the implications of that too hard because they’re the funny banana ninjas, haha? Yeah well neither Age of Calamity or I really have time to explore the moral grey areas of an alliance between two warring factions, one of which has a leader who doesn’t really seem to remember the reason why they hate Hyrule which brings into question whether the lackeys even know their clan’s history, and brings about the moral dilemma of criminalizing the ignorant, and also there’s the whole other dilemma of depicting the side that submitted to their oppression as being “in the right” and the topic of a race of people being pitted against their own by a higher power is really brushed over sO WE’RE JUST GONNA TOSS ALL THAT OUT THE WINDOW AND MAKE THEM ACT LIKE RIVALLING HIGH SCHOOLS, OKAY? OKAY! This is fine this is fine— 

So I have dubbed the High School mascot of the Sheikah, the Swift Carrot. And although there does seem to be some internal debate about whether the carrot should be replaced by the Fortified Pumpkin, the hero of Hyrule Link favours carrots so that’s that. Then of course, the mascot for the Yiga Clan is the Mighty Banana. The two sides hate each other and steal their food symbols to be petty. I’ll be covering the side quests of Kohga and the other later characters in another later post, but just know that Kohga will have his banana heist sidequest too. 

So anyhow, you play as Impa. Maybe she can say a piece of dialogue or two about how she has to uphold the image of her people as she has to lead them one day. And then, this side quest is just her retrieving the carrots and running off with the Yiga’s big banana supply before she’s caught. This is based on that “Escape the Yiga Clan” quest if you couldn’t tell.

Custom gambit defeat of Impa vs Kohga: On one hand I think it would be badass to see Impa’s Sheikah skills go up against the Yiga Clan tactics. Kohga summons a giant metal ball to throw, Impa teleports behind him “nothing personal, kid” nO fuck I’m doing it again away goes to swing a blade at his face. He blocks it with his little energy shield thing, but not before an entire conga line of Impa clones start slashing at him until he’s defeated by a giant explosion. So yeah, that’d be badass and cool. But on the other hand…

Kohga, stomping his feet and having a fit: I cARROT believe you would do something this terrible! Give us back those bananas right now! D: ….please? You can keep the gross orange sticks.

Sooga: He asked nicely. You wouldn’t deny the wishes of the most polite and charming Yiga Chief there is, would you?

Impa: No can do, Yiga scum! I’m afraid this cruel action wasn’t veggie nice of you so I must exact justice! Now it’s my time to split. *Impa clones gather and throw Kohga into a giant frog’s mouth. Impa runs off with a sack of fruit [fruit (derogatory) if you will] cackling into the horizon*

Zelda: The Path She Laid For You

The King has order Zelda to head to the Temple of Time, in order to see if anything there could help awaken her powers. Zelda sets off quietly, with minimal company, as not to attract too much attention lest the Town’s folk be hit with another attack. It seems, however, that these precautions won’t be enough...Defeat key enemies

So this is a pure Zelda sidequest, with no other characters except for eggbot because I said so. Starts out normal when SURPRISE! Bunch of monsters appear and Zelda has to whip out her iphone and fight them. 

Also!! Good time for the Hollows to show up, and you know, tell her what a failure she is and all that. Convince her that she's useless and gonna doom everyone. All that good stuff!! It’s just nice to catch up with the villains and see how they’re doing, you know? ‘Sup Hollow Urbosa, last I saw you were barely spitting words in the Lost Woods, and now you’re giving full hard-hitting insults to Zelda’s character and ability? Good for you, Queen, good for you.

So Zelda and a handful of guards are fighting off monsters, and Zelda has to beat the Hollows too. Her gambit dialogue when she defeats Hollows can be stuff like “You’re not the real ___” or something idk, I don’t have a lot of experience with the evil clone trope, I’ve never played Ocarina of Time. But one specific I DO want to highlight is that Zelda uses the nearby Sheikah Tech to defeat the enemies. I find it a bit weird how Zelda just knows how to use those random water canons in the Faron region in later chapters, so we’re just gonna at least set up a pattern so that it makes a bit more sense later. Plus! This is in front of the Great Plateau, AKA Gate Post Town/Garrisons AKA oh lOOK it’s that area where Link and Impa and eggbot first meet in that Impa introduction scene of my rewrite so we have already established that Sheikah Technology is being stored here and ready to use! Continuity in world building! Nice.

So Zelda uses her knowledge of Sheikah Tech to defeat the Hollows, when...dun dun dun! Astor appears. But you don’t fight him...

Astor: Have you listened to one word spoken to you today? Why are you still resisting? Let me help you.

Zelda: And what exactly is your plan? You wish to kill me, then?

Astor: Not quite. I mean, if you do die, there are ways I can manage, so if some stray Yiga blade happens to strike you I’m not completely doomed.

Astor: But no, the most optimal outcome for everyone is the one where you live yet. You must see the truth as I do, and let me fix this. I can undo this terrible knot destiny has thread for you. [and insert other fate sisters and sewing metaphors here]

Zelda: But how? What’s your game here, if you’re truly claiming to be in everyone’s best interest then why all this secrecy?

Astor: Ah...ever the one to look for the facts and logic, hmm? Can’t blame you, you get it straight from your mother.

Zelda: …!

Astor: But...I’m afraid even if I did tell you now, you’re in no state to truly grasp it. No...the only way this works is for you to truly understand the position you're in, and the stakes that hang in the path before you. 

Astor: And if I have to kill every King, Champion, or knight to get you to understand…

Astor: Then so be it. 

[dun dun dun]

Zelda: No! I won’t let you hurt anyone, I swear it!

Eggbot [just pretend eggbot can have dialogue boxes too]: *chirps* 

Astor, suddenly noticing eggbot: ...You…you’re one thing I still don’t—

Eggbot chirps again beside Zelda, both seeming to be angry at Astor’s words. Eggbot releases a glowing flash of light. Kinda like a...flash bang? [is that the right word idk]

Astor: Ah—! *and he teleports away to escape* Astor: Until next time then...Princess

And that’s pretty much the sidequest. Zelda can question what exactly eggbot did, but he’s not exactly the most verbal in responses. Finally it ends with Zelda going home, “He was still right though...I’m still sitting in failure, with not a hint of my powers awakening. All I have is some Sheikah tech, some exhausted shoulders….and well, you, I suppose, little one.”

“Come, it’d be a waste to continue forth in this condition. Let’s go back to the castle.”

Eggbot: *happy whistles and chirps*

= = = = = 

Tune in next time folks, as we dive back into the main event! Needless to say, Chapter 4 is where the shit starts to go down...

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression Ep 17 - Sharp selling masks on thier own website.

K: Hi, this is Dir en grey's Kaoru starting this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san! (*looks intentionally at J*)

J:Yep

K:Tasai san! (*looks intentionally at T*)

T: *nods*

J: Get it right this time, haha.

K: *laughs* Its started to go funny when I say it carelessly.

J: Well, you kinda zone out a bit, don't you, when you're wearing a mask.

T: Yeah.

K: Its slightly difficult to concentrate.

J: It is difficult.

K: ...with your awareness.

J: If we go on like this into the rainy season, it will feel pretty tough to keep wearing a mask.

T: Yeah.

K: Yeah, but there are those things that you can wrap round your face and neck. I've heard those feel a bit cooler.

J: Yeah, I do think wearing a mask in the rainy season will be tough. At the moment, what I am not sure about is whether or not, and to what extent masks are effective. There are different opinions everywhere you look. In the end, you don't know who to believe. Im at the point of thinking I should wear one to avoid any risk just in case, even if its a small risk.

K: Yeah, and what about your eyes?

J: Yeh, your eyes.

Kami: Yes, yes, yes, yes. 

K: Like, Trump wasn't wearing a mask, but he was covering his eyes, right?

J: Yeah, yeah. Oh! Kami? Are you coming in at this point?

Kami: Yes, yes.

J: Okay, go ahead.

Kami: Um, as for masks, when they were tested on mice, apparently they were effective. They had one side infected with corona next to one side that wasn't, and when they added a mask barrier inbewteen the cages, the infection rate reduced a lot.

T: Ehh?

J: Yeah, I've read about that too.

K: It seems like its better to just wear one.

T: Well, this is the news from Tokyo Sports today, but the home appliance company Sharp are making masks, and selling them at 2980yen for 50, with a delivery fee of 660yen. They are limited to one box per person, and you have to register as a member. So with even Sharp making masks, its like..won't Japan end up with a mask surpluss?

K: You see them a lot don't you? Well, you don't know where they come from though.

J: Well, Sharp is a home appliance maker that has been operating for many decades, but this year has apparently been their best year for sales and profits. They've made the leap over to masks as thier big money maker, instead the of home appliances, which they've sold up to now. Thats how much everyone has ???*1

T: Going from making home appliances to making masks is pretty impressive, right?

J: Yeah.Thats the great thing about Japanese technology. I think people are very reassured to see 'Made in Japan', they prefer Japanese made ones over foreign made ones, especially in terms of hygiene. But it must have been tough for them with their web server going down.

T: Yeah

J: I tried to have a look at thier site, but in the end I couldn't connect to it once ...

T: Were you thinking of buying some?

J: Yeh, I was! But while Im doing this, you can still see masks on sale all over town recently.

T: There are real estate agencies selling masks..

J: Yes, thats it! Even a tapioca drink stand was selling masks.

K: Yeah, but a friend of mine has been selling them too ...they come via a route, you can purchase them directly from the factory in China or somewhere, and then disperse them to people here, so you don't really know where they've been.*2

J: Right? They really are being sold by all sorts of people in all sorts of places. Its incredible.

T: Its a mask bubble.

J: Also, a lot of people are wearing hand made masks, or brand name masks...

K: Washable ones?

J: Yeah, washable ones.

K: Well, its not like they don't work.

J: Yeah.

T: Masks can be fashionable. Do you remember that chain, Dom Dom Burger?

J, K: Oh, nostalgic!

T: Dom Dom Burger have been selling masks with 'Dom Dom' on the side.

K: Thats cute.

T: They've also been really popular. They are cute.

K: That elephant logo?

J, T: Yeah, yeah.

K: I kinda want one of those.

J: Yeah, I want one!

T: So in this way, masks are no longer staying the usually white, but are turning into fashionable items.

J: Well, I usually like Yohji (Yamamoto), and Yohji is also putting out masks, black or white leather.

T: Yohji is doing a white mask?

J: A white one and a black one. Some people are saying this type of thing is cool, or this is want they want.. I want to buy one of his masks, but I can't. Leather is expensive.

K: There are a lot of overseas artists making them too, aren't there?

J: Is there a particular one you like?

K: Well, no, I just thought theres loads of places doing like a design or print on masks at the moment.

J: Will you make a mask with your characters (Krim and Zon)?

T: Ah, that would be good.

K: I wonder if they would sell?

J: Yeah, I think they would.

K: *laughs*

T: Should we (Tokyo Sports) make them?

K: *laughs*

J: Could Tokyo Sports make them?

T:???*3

K: We could have a little Tokyo Sports logo on the side.

J: It would look so fake!

K: *laughs a lot*

J: Like a counterfeit.

T:???*4

J: But that does happen, in this case.

K: I think it would be good. There is that monthly magazine 'Mu' isn't there? You see their logo on tshirts a lot. Tokyo Sports could do that type of thing.

T: Oh, right, yeah. But we did actually make a parker once.

K: Ehh, I want it!

T: And a kind of Idol person really wore it to lives and stuff, and it became a desirable item. Everyone was like, 'Eh?! A Tokyo Sports parker?!'

K: Its good, right?

J: It is good. If you wear something with 'Tokyo Sports' on it, it shows a kind of intelligence.

T: Really?! Im so happy *laughs*

J: It shows you've read around a bit. Its good. Although its a bit strange to say it. Its a bit different from something with an 'Asahi Shimbun' or 'Yomiuri Shinbun' logo. Its 'Tokyo Sports'!

T: Should we put our name on Dir's goods next time?*5 *everyone laughs*

J: Yes, start there.

K: It would be recognized, right?

J: Yeh, everyone would be like, 'Ah, its Tasai san!'. They might buy it. But, conversely, if Kaoru was to make masks, would Tokyo Sports be interested?

T: Of course.

K: But would those characters mean anything to the readers of Tokyo Sports?

T: We could put UFO on the side.

J: Ahh, UFO right?

K: ???*6

J: Well, it sounds strange, but just like how people send out a message with the print on their tshirt, you could do that with masks. For example, how you are feeling today or something...if you have a picture of beer on your mask, people might think, 'ah, that person wants to drink beer'.

T: Thats a good idea.

J: You could show if you are feeling good or bad, like include a message. You could send a message with your mask, send a message without talking.

T: Well, that type of think is developing, isn't it? That kind of fashion style.

K: Yeah, despite not being disposable, you can change your look everyday. Like, you could wear this one on Monday, or pair one with your glasses, or whatever you have that you want to wear.

J: Match it with your feelings, right?

K: ..with everything. 

J: But up to now you see them in white, black and kind of bluey colours, and maybe pink..with womens' masks. But what about more different..

K: More colourful ones?

J: Yeah, deep purple or such..

T: Deep purple?

J: The colours, or the design, like the shape can be..

K: Like this pattern? *gestures to his shirts*

J: Yes, like check or patterned...if they come like this, it will be more exciting to wear a mask. Aren't you looking forward to that a bit?

T: Well, yeah. I think white looks kinda bleak.

J: It does, yeah. You could also put stickers on your mask. It might be a bit difficult to stick them on if it gets fluffy though

K: You could put studs in it.

T: Ah, cool!

J: Should we put studs in?

K: Wasn't Yohji selling one like that?

J: Yeh, that was kind of printed on to it, but it looked like studs.

T: Its good putting different things on masks, right?

J: Well, if masks really are effective, we have to wear them.

K: Right.

J: I'd like some which are more creative. If there is scientific progress, you could have ones that open up when you try to eat.

T: Ah, that would be cool!

K: I think I've seen that kind of video! He looks like he's wearing a mask, but then it opens up when he eats.

J: How does it?

K: It just opens when he opened his mouth.

J: Really?

T: I see.

J: Ehh, there are lots of ways...Well, I don't know if I would wear it, but what about a mask you can kiss with..?

K: A mask you can kiss with? ...What are you talking about? *laughs*

J: Im sorry, at 52 years old, I've gone funny...

K: But, actually, it a good feeling to see normal life returning a little, some stores opening up again, isnt it? Starbucks, for example.

J: Yes, yes.

K: If it spreads more, we'll be in trouble though..

T: But there was that Spanish flu wasn' there?

J: Yeah, 100 years ago.

T: While it was spreading, they didn't know why, but they eventually realised it was spreading where people were gathered together, so maybe corona might be the same, and it might just return to normal after two or three years, I wonder?

K: It will.

J: Yes, we won't be social distancing forever.

Kami: I have something to say. Um, Didn't Dir en grey sell masks before?

K: We made them before, yeh.

Kami: So you sold them, and you also have a song called, 'Mask', right?

K: You know a lot, don't you?

Kami: Have you thought of using that?

T: I see.

Kami: I thought, since everyone needs masks, and you have a song called 'Mask', you could do something.

T: Kami has come in straight talking.

Kami: Thats right.

J: What do you think, Leader?

Kami: Yeh, if you did that..

K: I havn't really thought about it.

J: Hahaha.

K: I havn't thought about it at all.

T: Haha.

Kami: Its a laymans idea. You have a song called 'Mask', so do a mask campaign. But I wasn't sure whether it would fit with Dir en grey's image. But that was a shocking answer.

T: Hahaha.

J: Yeah, I saw Kaoru's expression and he really did answer honestly. But conversely, how about Kami's idea? You might want to try if you think about it a bit more?

K: Ahh, it didn't really resonate with me..

*Everyone laughs*.

K: Well, anyway, see you next week. Thank you very much.

J: Thank you

K: Please subscribe.

*1, 3, 4, 6 Couldn't make it out.

*2, 5 I think this is what he meant.

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

I brought up hanyang type 88 here and i said i’d explain, so here I am!!

okay so first off here’s a bunch of likely useful context about girls frontline. There is this feature in the game called digimind upgrade, or mod 3, where certain t-dolls can be upgraded past the normal maximum levels and stats, and at the same time gaining whole new abilities and also a new design. Basically a reinvention. There are like hundreds of playable characters in the game, and only a fraction will get mod 3s, typically the ‘main characters’ who are relevant to the major ongoing plot.

two things about getting a doll who has the ability to do digimind upgrade, to actually do that. One, is that it can be very costly in terms of in-game materials. like, maybe i just played the game wrong but I would have to grind for weeks in order to amass the materials to upgrade just one doll to mod 3. So even though by now there are dozens upon dozens of dolls who are capable of this feature, i’ve only actually done so with like, less than one dozen. A normal player probably has to be picky.

secondly, and this is the big one, every t-doll’s mod 3 comes with story cutscenes that become available for you to view upon upgrading them. Personally, i think most of the only worthwhile mod 3 stories are the ones that are associated with the actual major characters of the main story, especially since their upgrades actually happen in-canon and their mod 3 stories fill in blanks or otherwise expand upon the regular story chapters.

for the t-dolls who aren’t major characters that get digimind upgrades, their associated stories tend to follow a very basic pattern. They’re feeling like they are falling behind other T-Dolls in abilities or are otherwise experiencing a drop in confidence in their abilities, but then find the resolve in them to either change themselves or stand by an aspect of themselves, and this leads them to heading to the lab to get upgraded. obviously theres some nuances here and there depending on the character, but a lot of them, from what i saw, follow this basic pattern.

hanyang type 88 has a mod 3 but i certainly never wanted to see it. Firstly, using the feature at all takes up resources are kinda precious so i wasn’t just gonna use it on anyone. Secondly, she is just one of many one-off t-dolls that basically dont ever show up in any actual main story cutscenes or even funny events. Thirdly... you saw what she looked like in the linked post, i was in no rush to make use of her.

That being said, even if you don’t ever upgrade a t-doll, simply having them in your possession allows you to at least view the first of four parts of their mod 3 story, which nets you a small amount of those materials needed to see the rest (its a pretty fiendish system, huh o_O). I was lacking in some materials to upgrade a doll i cared about, so i just mucked around, eventually happened upon type88 again and decided that instead of just immediately feeding her to the furnace, I’d watch the first chapter of her mod 3 story. I watched it, it made me just curious enough to look further, and well. ...I got into it. Exactly what I got into, i shall now just elaborate and summarise the whole thing in my own way! Warning, it’s long!

(disclosure: my summary will bias towards my own preferred interpretation whenever any aspect is somewhat vague.)

The story starts with type 88, or as she is called by others in griffin base, Ai, working her shift in the base’s cafe, because what else would she be doing.

i hate looking at her! Anyway, its just a pleasant peaceful day and Ai is taking the logistic person, kalina’s order when suddenly in the middle of a conversation, Ai freezes in place and starts making worrying sounds.

kalina here and the t-dolls present in the cafe are concerned, and talk about how Type88 has actually been crashing like this more and more frequently lately, yet has not reported any of this to the maintenance crew despite the advice of her friends. They try rebooting her on the spot, but it has an even more concerning effect, because she starts erratically acting like she doesn’t recognise the others, and talks about how she is a maid in “Jiangcheng Cafe”. Afraid that her neural cloud (her mind) has been scrambled, they put her to sleep and bring her to the repair bay.

Its in the repair bay where they explain exactly what is wrong with type88. She is a fairly old doll, and her processing capacity has been severally clogged up for a long time. Her internal memory is overflowing because many large sections of her mind is filled with very large encrypted files (memories that she stored away). she is likely to keep crashing and possibly even cease functioning entirely one day if those encrypted files are not deleted, but nobody is really keen on just deleting parts of her mind without her consent. For now, kalina just opts to try and decrypt the files and see what they are.

And from here, we watch type88 memories from her perspective. Sort of. Kind of. It gets complicated later but for now, we view the first memory of her life, not as a combat t-doll type88, but...

...as 59898, a doll designed to be what is basically a ‘crash test dummy’ for testing artillery technology in a research station. With a purpose like this, 59898 has an (ostensibly) rudimentary AI. Her learning ability is intended to be used to better aid the results of their testing, but she also knows how to understand and even imitate specific human gestures in order to better respond to instructions or conversation, even though she herself has no voice module to speak with. She is assigned to assist one specific person.

first off, i was pretty shocked right off the bat that this story above so many others actually has unique assets to it. The above two sprites don’t show up anywhere else in the game, i don’t think. Secondly, this woman’s name is only ever spelled with those white squares, so I’m stuck with having to just calling her ‘the pilot’, as dry as that sounds... I just don’t want to type out weird characters every time, or call her ‘triple cube’...

Anyway, so 59898 is assigned to help this woman in testing artillery tech (stuff like mechs and tanks). I should mention really quick that in the game’s story, during this point of time is when world war iii is happening, but that’s just a backdrop for robots to eventually gain more prominence. Anyway, we move on to the second memory, where some time has already passed. At the beginning of this memory, the pilot is visibly depressed, which 59898 takes note of.

Her ‘comfort mode’ consists of patting the pilot on the head, who while surprised, actually is grateful. She feels comfortable enough to talk about her worries aloud to the doll, mentioning how she is a war refugee and has to make a living in the research base because she can’t go back to her home in china, at least not before making enough money for a very expensive and exclusive train ticket. She continues to talk at length to the doll...

...not that the test doll is capable of responding to anything she says. The pilot insists that she’s happy just to have someone listen to her though, since she feels like she can’t really express her feelings to any other person on the base. Despite that-

That aside, the pilot says that referring to 59898 by her serial number all the time feels a bit weird, so she decides to give the doll a name. (I sure wish the story would give this woman a name too, other than ‘three white squares’ but oh well...)

She talks more with Jiangcheng Ai, or just Ai, after that, asking her if she’d like a change of clothes sometime, like some casual clothes, or an old maid outfit from an old cafe job she used to have (I guess they had to throw in any explanation for that outfit somehow) Point is, more and more time passes.

As time passes though, and we go into the third memory, the pilot brings up complaints to her superiors about how the more recent testings, becoming more increasingly intense and frequent, are putting a great strain on Ai, and even repairs can only help maintain her chassis so much. She insists on wanting to take Ai’s place in the testing, but they refuse because, well, Ai’s entire purpose is to take the strain of these tests so that the human pilot doesn’t have to, and the doll is just a tool there to pave the way for the pilot to eventually take over the mech in action

The next time Ai wakes up from her most recent repairs, the pilot is there to greet her, and Ai can tell straight away that she’s unhappy and tries to comfort her again. The pilot is not surprised at this and talks about how this is how Ai has been since they first met. She goes on to say how all the other people on the base don’t know her half as well as Ai does. Ai tries to understand and determine what the pilot’s intentions with saying all this is, but she cannot do so and can only listen while offering ‘executing - affirmative nod’.

The pilot talks about how once the war is over, she’d like to take Ai back home with her, where they could go to all sorts of gatherings, and the pilot would introduce Ai to her friends.

Ai reviews her personal data, confirming that she has no owners or obligations other than the pilot, so she executes another affirmative nod, and the pilot says this:

As Ai tries and fails to further determine this, something bad happens! if you’ve read this far, i’m sure you’ve already guess what happens next...

At that exact moment, a warning goes out and the research base is being attacked by nebulous enemy forces. With no time to talk anymore, both the pilot and Ai head out into their first real fight.

They spend a good long while repelling enemy forces, working well together and apparently using all sorts of wacky anime weaponry like beam blades and whatever ‘retrograde evasion’ is!

obviously though, you already know this isn’t going to end well for them... When the pilot takes a breather, Ai moves to protect her, but at a critical moment, a sudden high-speed projectile comes her way. In the next instance there’s a crash, and we move onto another memory. Where its all fire and debris, and Ai can’t move.

^ this text box actually repeats several times, indicating that she is repeating her scan for life signs over and over. She gets an internal warning from her systems (differentiated with red text) that she has insufficient power and it warns her to immediately cease ineffective operations. [Unable to detect owner life signs] repeats again.

At this point, uuuuh, its a little stupid actually? because two humans show up, reusing generic ‘bad guy’ sprites from other events that don’t match the current environment and situation at all (one is in a suit and the other is in casual clothes). but the reason they’re here is to provide exposition out loud about what happened. It looked like the human’s mech took a hit for the doll and was blown to bits, though they talk about how that doesn’t make any sense.

Ai at this point tries to execute a bunch of different actions like hugging [target not found] and screaming [no relevant module] but they all fail, and her internal systems tell her that her power is running out and she will cease to function in 30 seconds.

So in those last 30 seconds, Ai decides to quickly review her internal files. the damage she took has corrupted her memories and she doesn’t have the time to properly go through them, so she executes a ‘simulated processed records’, which basically mean she’s just filling the blanks of those memories herself with simulations.

And I have to say. I was decently into and enjoying this little story so far, but its this part that’s the reason i became forced to make this stupid giant post. the first ‘memory’ loads up, and we see the pilot.

Different ‘memories’ of the days spent with the pilot are loaded back to back, each are very short and only last a few lines. Across these files, the two of them talk comfortably with each other, Ai is invited to go get coffee with her, the pilot talks about how going alone is boring and would rather spend time with Ai, Ai saying back with her own words that she always likes spending time with her, etc etc etc.

And then finally, she loads one last ‘memory’, from earlier that same day, before the explosion and the fighting.

and she shuts down.

i passed by this scene the first time all calm, but an hour or so later when I was in the bathroom replacing shampoo bottles, i started thinking about it and I literally started sobbing. And then again later that night when i was in bed. I hate this game!!

so that’s the ‘end’ of that, and the next scene opens, once again in griffin base’s cafe, except...

Ai is sporting a brand new (ugly) look. She says she’d like to take kalina’s order but she was just leaving on other business, as she likes keeping herself busy with all sorts of work around the base ever since she got upgraded into a gundam gajinka. and after she leaves, kalina talks with the other dolls about how Ai used to have some cache issues because her neutral cloud was too full, but upgrading into this new chassis easily fixed that and even allowed her to make use of her old locked away abilities.

Because of the way this scene in the cafe opens up exactly like the very first one at the beginning, it makes me believe that this final scene is also a simulated ‘memory’, that is, Ai filling in the blanks of her corrupted memories with what she wishes to be reality. And i feel confident in believing that because after the scene fades to black, we see more of her internal system monologue.

She (the system) says that the priority execution is to preserve those encrypted memory logs. She does so, and the neural cloud upgrade is complete with confirmation of no loss files. With no risk of deletion in this new form, she executes the command to unlock the encrypted memories. And finally...

[spiderbread dies]

i still wouldn’t use her in gameplay because i can’t stand looking at her design but  i told you all i eat up robot with feelings stuff and this is like prime example of exactly that... and if i didn’t make this post, i think my own neutral cloud’s cache would be at risk of overflowing x_X!

[prince-liest]

Hawks is interesting to me because of how he became a hero. Horikoshi could have just kept it entirely as him being a lucky talented kid. Specially chosen, straight road to success. Just born that way, into a fortunate heroes origin story. Because really, in today's world there are definitely those rich families. With a lot of connections, giving actual support to their children. Those kids having ways to get higher up the ladder in life. (1)

Heck, I hear about some opening their own companies in their freakin teens. All amazing prodigical feats when there's people without support who struggle and sometimes can't make the cut. They aren't lucky like that. But Hawks' story isn't entirely that. Sure getting to be the No.2 hero sounds privileged. He's getting recognized by the overseers of the heroic world, gets to be trained by them. Sounds like a great opportunity hard to come by. But that's not the truth at all. (2)

It wasn't a straight road to success. He started off in the bottom of society, in poverty. Alcoholic parents and a criminal. They aren't proud parent applauding him, this isn't some scholarship. It was totally other reasons. If U.A does background checks would they have accepted him as a student? I mean, in fics you always see so many issues about accepting Bakugo. Bc he was a middle school bully of all things. A kid related to a villain would be harder to accept no? (3)

Or do all Hero students come from safe family backgrounds. Not a mark on their record. Something so nice, simple and happy in their own character too. Easy progression, talks of inspirational heroic ideals. You can have people so idealistic, who adore heroism and are so loud and clear in what they strive for. Your classic shonen determination thing. Then theres Hawks, who does it out of necessity. Hes so quiet in it. Fast, getting the job done. Even kinda impatient and grumpy during patrols. (4)

It's such a stark contrast. Things weren't all shiny for him, but he works hard anyways. You'd think being a hero would just be a job, but he still cares so much. And for the students! For everyone to smile! Even with whatever caused his opinion on things to change so much through the years. He's doing good, saving lives. That what makes him an efficient hero, even if he can't put people at ease how he wanted originally. But he still thinks of that? When he accepted to be a spy? (5)

And things are about to get worse for him with the fallout of this raid. There's so much he has to shoulder by himself, really doesn't make the whole 'prodigy kid' story, sunshine and rainbows. Guess it's why I like All Might and Deku too, starting off at the bottom, having suffered, and worked hard to get to where they are. Their careers will and did make them suffer more, but they move forward anyways. And about being stuck in a system. Take the educational one for instance. (6)

Teachers can be compared to heroes. They gotta follow whatever the education department says, they even gotta attend some training sessions sometimes. I remember my teacher being absent for those. Regardless of what they like or think, they can't oppose 'the higher authority.' When it comes to what to do with the students, or teaching plans, the way tests are done. There are no exceptions of any sort. And the heroes in bnha are probably the same. (7)

They shouldn't really question anything or go against it. They can't run things as they like. But you see Hawks questioning and disliking the Hpsc's decisions a lot. He digs around for information he isn't privy to. He still ends up following them, (granted, when we were shown, it was another necessity.) so I hope one day he does what he believes in instead of what others do. There's no way of knowing whether Hawks liked heroes as kid. He didn't like All Might when everyone did. (8)

But he did like Endeavor after he saved him. Which then turned into liking his perseverance. And I'm very curious to know why he does. After all, that keep striving attitude to get out of being stuck in a certain place is also what students from less fortunate backgrounds need to do to reach a good place like say, Med school. Which Hawks doesn't need to do anymore since he's already the No.2, but looking at a guy who used to be No.2 trying to do that. (9)

When he's already so high up, what would have happened if little Keigo tried to strive for something, did his best in school to get out of the poverty-stricken situation he was in. Ah but he won't have that question answered, the HPSC intervened so soon. Sorry this is a whole mess and I think I shifted from what I actually wanted to say a lot. Bah, Hawks just had to get my mind walking in circles. I could talk more if I try, but I feel bad for sending ten asks T.T tried to keep them few. (10)

I hope you don’t mind me putting this under a cut, anon, it was a delight to read but I feel bad killing people’s dashes with it!

I think you make a really good point - we have plenty of characters in the manga that resent others for being born with opportunities, like Shinsou says to Midoriya or how the League sees heroes like Hawks. Ironically, in both cases, the accuser is speaking to someone whose backstory they are unaware of and in fact turns out has suffered similar injustices or hardships prior to getting to where they are now.

This isn’t to say that they haven’t been blessed with opportunity - getting All Might’s Power or having a powerful quirk like Hawks does are both extremely integral to their success - but it does serve to highlight how even the seemingly quite successful individuals in BNHA have suffered at the hands of their society. I feel like a lot of the discussion we see with regards to BNHA meta is very oriented around the heroes versus the villains, but I’ve always kind of seen the situation as a doomed, mutually destructive fight of the status quo hero society versus the villains’ vying for domination and destruction where the intended “side” to rise up at the end isn’t either of those but rather the newest generation of heroes represented by Deku and the other students.

They represent hope, not only for protecting people from the likes of All For one, but for creating a hero society that is more genuine and less selfish than the one designed by the Hero Public Safety Commission. Because the current state of things does rely on people to be lucky, both in what they’re born with and who decides they’re worth anything, and that hurts everyone involved, not just those on the villainous fringes of society.

[cryptocism]

So since pretty much everyone agrees that Tim needs a name change, and I think most people dislike the first two RR costumes (I dislike the pretty much Robin one too, because it seems like he hasn’t accept losing Robin, when I feel a lot of his comics right after Bruce W died was about that?) which leads me to: What do you think Tim’s costume would look like if he got a good outfit, and what name?

o yeah i was not a fan of the cowl. and the n52 design is just… so busy and excessively accessorised (excessorised???) - i drew it a couple times for this project im workin on and the whole process was me squinting at reference panels and whispering softly but passionately “what the fuck” - and i agree on the rebirth RR design, it looks more derivative of dick and jasons retconned robin costumes than inspired by tims og 80s design (however. the unternet costume - its simple and appealing and clearly nightwing-inspired and i am a fan, also the giant scythe/halberd/mace thing was so ridiculous i loved it)

which is why i thank pat gleason for my life bc tims new outfit is such a good modernisation of his original robin design. so i mean to answer ur question i think tim has a p good design right now (although not for long i guess since they announced hed get a new look/codename soon) BUT if i were in charge of debuting a new design and name… hm……….

whatever his new name is, it’d preferably have something to do with wherever his personal storyline is headed, which i dont know, and for all my complaining abt how red robin is a shit name i dont actually have great alternatives lol. i did see somewhere the suggestion for the name “Cardinal” which i dont hate, so ill use that as a placeholder for now (although “Halcyon” is an interesting option)

tangentially, my personal preference for his robin graduation would be a miniseries featuring tim and damian both as robin, begrudgingly having to work together to fight some greater enemy and becoming true brothers along the way. ending with tim giving damian his blessing to be robin (a post-mantle blessing but still) with the first amicable passing on of the robin title literally ever

as for Look: his new design should a) accurately reflect his character b) mesh well with whatever tone his personal storyline is going for c) be a natural progression of gleasons newest iteration while still d) able to stand as its own iconic look

i always thought tim would do really well in a more grounded noir-style detective story, both using and especially subverting the tropes of the genre (for instance tim befriends every femme fatale and romances absolutely zero of them. theyre pals and have weekly movie nights or smthn) obvs using some of the mystery elements to springboard into classic comic wild times etc etc. theres also a great opportunity to include some more cyberpunk aesthetics to the look and feel ofthe story

i.e. tim is part of the waynetech r&d teams, working with them to develop new technologies, and proceeding to test out some of the prototypes while doing vigilante work (bc terry had to get his rocket boots from somewhere ok). gotham is still gotham, but its starting to see some of that neo-futuristic/blade runner flavour from batman beyond.

so. cyberpunk detective story starring cha boy tim drake. im not gonna draw it rn but lemme just gather some ref elements here in case i ever do

first off - motorcycle, obviously. redbird is back babey and this time its a two-wheeler. all his gear would be modded the hell out of, but the motorcycle itself would be an approximate balance of 70% ducati and 30% tron lightcycle situation. a speedy bike with ample room for the edgy overkill batfam aesthetic, with maybe a little akira in there who knows

same goes for helmet; 70/30 on this modern/cyberpunk situation. heres a quickly photoshopped “cardinal” helmet lol 

although theres totally room for some daft-punk leds in there. serving as a heads up display AND a fun neon aesthetic. I really want to play into that John Wick neo-noir situation.

besides that… ive got a preference for street style over the superhero spandex, so… detective jacket. every detective has a good jacket. norm breyfogle made a comment on his early tim robin designs that itd be pretty either/or on jacket vs cape, merging the two looked a little silly. for robin they probably decided on cape to keep things classic, but for cardinal i can do what i want

and i want to bring back some of this popped collar.

which i basically did for that other tim design i drew, which i still like, so this one would probably be at least a lil borrowed from that. 

attempting to merge cape/jacket might end up smthn like these:

which admittedly i like. 

admittedly… i do also like the concept of wings introduced in tims n52 design, i just think they couldve been hidden/incorporated better

greig rapson had a sweet robin design that had a sort of flight-suit (which dove into the actual mechanics??? i love) and since id want to dive into tim testing out waynetech prototypes, its a pretty good natural progression from him to terrys glider thing

the whole ensemble would be fairly understated however - enough to semi blend in with any crowd, hero or civilian. after all the story focus would be just as much about solving the mystery as it is punching the bad guy

the various interchangeable gadgets would be both prototypes of terrys eventual batsuit, and also all the failed prototypes that never managed to get off the ground. just to add an element of tension/plot devices wherein tims gear could break or malfunction pretty much anytime.

im fixated on this rocket boot situation though so itd be a paired down version of terrys eventual seamless/invisible design. still noticable and clunky, but working with the sleek modernish style outlined by gleason

smthn almost similar to the prowler actually from spiderverse - as in: Clearly Rocketboots, and clearly diy’d the shit out of, but still working with that Aesthetic

(most of the screencaps of prowler are dark af so im taking this from jesus alonso iglesias concept art) 

im debating on the addition of more overtly birdlike/cyberpunk elements, so ill add this here cause its dope as fuck (from ahmet atil akar). 

and a lot of batclan capes tend to end with that concave spiked look, which works great for bats but not really for birds. a tailcoat might emulate the bird tail, but it also might evoke Penguin a lil too much idk.

also in the interest of keeping everything within the same sort of design language, i would Love to see some new villains emulating deconstructionist/architectural kawakubo fashion:

like could you imagine the supervillain potential

so uhhh yeah. budding cyberpunk detective story with a little noir and a little technological advancement progressing in fits and starts. taking from the gleason foundation with heavy black featuring brighter coloured accents and modern sleekness, made a little dorky via prototype technology, with some extra neon blade runner shit thrown in there.

depending on how much i love or hate the new codename/design reveal i might draw this via inspired motivation or spiteful motivation lol

[ladylyra]

hello! idk if this has already been answered or whatever but what rules do you usually use when doing new runs? ive been wanting to do a nuzlocke but i keep getting discouraged and well you’re a big inspiration of mine so i thought asking you would help me a bit lol. anyway i love your art and your characters, have a good day/night!!

nuzlockes can be discouraging comrade, but i am here to help!

im doing a randomizer now but the rules are generally the same

1. run doesnt “start” until you get pokeballs so if you lose a rival fight or first battle its okay (sasuke actually post against my rival’s corphish bc of a critical hit and this is what fuels his edgy spirit)

2. first pokemon in a route is what you catch. if u run out of pokeballs or kill whatever you’re fighting tough luck. if you run into a pokemon you have already caught then you can catch the next new mon you run into

3. pokemon faints? its dead. some people release them but i just put them in a special PC box

4. nickname pokemon i guess if you want

5. areas like the safari zone are somewhat of a grey area but generally if theres distinct areas within the safari zone i count them as separate ‘routes’ while other ppl consider the safari zone one big place. same rule as routes apply. if that pokemon runs from you then you get NOTHING. you LOSE.

6. not really relevant to the actual game but i always design gijinkas right away so i dont give a dead pokemon a bad design jsut because i know ill never have to draw them again for story material (rip to muramasa you were so sexy)

7. no soft resetting it defeats the point of the whole thing

8. if you’re a baby and this is your first nuzlocke and wanna get used to the rules, maybe be a bit lenient with yourself. allow pokemon a death each, maybe. i dont do this because thats gateway into being a BITCH but i wouldnt judge someone else for doing it to get into the swing of things

9. i’d say have fun but nuzlockes are never ending pain. its not even the deaths all the time. its being knocked down to 1 HP and suffering a hernia. killing a pokemon you were meant to catch.  critical hits. PURSUIT WHILE TRYING TO SWITCH OUT. its gonna test your will to live but we were never in this to be happy

[tfw-no-tennis]

hxh RESUME

back at it again w/the hxh, heres my recap of the last few eps 

ok so i totally forgot to recap that one ep at the end of the hunter exam arc lets see what i remember from like 3 wks ago lollll

i thiiiiink i left off in the middle of ep 21 lol. i really dont remember much tbh so im gonna skim the ep to refresh

exposition time! its so wild that if you lose ur hunter card That It like u cant get another or retake the exam hgabjdfuhasjf Ls 

also the fact that you can sell it is rlly interesting 

leorio & kurapika backing up gon as he confronts illumi again :’) good lil family 

illumi u fool. gon is a shounen protag. he can do anything he sets his mind to

the fact that gon thanks illumi for telling him where killua is....hes literally THAT polite like...what a perfect boy 

hisoka just fuckgin stepping out of the shadows....ok bitch 

the fact that gon fucked up illumis arm that bad with one hand....boi is STRONK 

AUGH AUGH AUGHHHH HISOKA IS SO CREEPY AUGHHH I HATE THIS BIIIITCH 

ok but like is illumi implying that hisoka is a fr p*do bc uhhhhh thats so nasty oh lord. pls stay away from gon, and killua, and like everyone as a matter of fact 

EWWWWWWWWWW I HATE HISOKA HES SO NASTY. PLS STOP MAKING P*RNO FACES IN RELATION TO 12 YR OLD BOYS. 

no but rlly what IS hisoka gonna do now. im assuming he’ll show up p soon (tho probs not in the zoldyc arc like i thought bc its shorter than i thought) 

ok the fact that they have the internet is hilariously wild to me for some reason....it just seems like this would be one of those fantasy shounen worlds with very little tech (a la one piece) but lol nope we can just google shit hvbhjdhjdfks

gon: it was fun when you beat me up for 3 hours and broke my arm! seeya dude!

i love gon he is so chill and doesnt seem to hold grudges except when it really matters (like hisoka and illumi) 

hanzo has.....ninja business cards....thats amazing hvbhsdjkujfnd

dont worry pokkle, leorio was basically carried thru the hunter exam by various people and also won by default. he still deserves his license tho

an exotic game hunter sounds pretty cool! i wonder if we’ll see pokkle again. kinda doubt it? that sounds pretty firmly non-combat based, and therefore probably pretty far from any plot lol

so gons dad is a bigshot huh.....whatever hed be a bigger deal if he didnt abandon his son tbh 

gon swinging his feet on the bench....sooo cute 

so ging could restore a bunch of ruins but he couldnt raise his son...ok

im just gonna be bitter at this guy for abandoning the most perfect boy vhbhjfbsjhdhbfsk sorry dude but being a good hunter doesnt make up for being a shit father 

gon is so precious ;_; 

WHAT WAS SATOTZ GONNA SAY TO GON???

why does it look like theyre googling things on MS paint 

ah yes, padokea, on the continent of Africa But Sideways 

idk if i talked abt it before but the world map is WILD lmao i love how its all the continents/landmasses scrambled around.....im super curious abt that weird island in the top center of the map, thats the only thing that immediately sticks out as not having a real life equivalent 

the music in this show is so charming :’) i love the main theme sm 

gon is sooo precious i literally cant get over it. and his hurry to rescue killua is so sweet....and i love how naturally charming/charismatic gon is....pretty much everyone he meets likes him, especially leorio and kurapika, who basically adopted him after knowing him for like a day, and continue to be completely taken by him

ok wtf is satotz & co talking abt......do they know something abt ging that they arent allowed to tell gon???? shouldnt gon have access to the same info now that hes a hunter? i need ANSWERS

i bet this whole thing abt the hunter exam not rlly being over is a metaphor abt the hunter exam NEVER truly ending bc youre always being tested, or st

ok the ED continues to be So Much like especially the last shot where the 4 main characters look like theyre posing for a JC Penny catalog while the singer goes FULL metal-screamo

ok ruth and i just rewatched the next two eps woohoo

i love that there are tourist busses that take people to the front gates so they can like pose for pics and stuff vhbhjafdsfkj and its like ‘ah yes here are where the local assassins live!’ thats so funny yet it makes so much sense

i love that leorio passed tf out during the bus ride. big big mood 

gon is so cute...hes like ok yes i understand that we’re not supposed to go in but i think they can make an exception for me bc im very polite. 

those 2 dudes r so ugly and so dead god bless

that bigass buster sword....sir please 

ruth and i rlly thot that the old guard guy was gonna turn out to be grandpa zoldyk or st lol

the fact that the dog managed to eat All their flesh but left some clothes....skill 

also the dog is named mike but it sounds like the guy is calling him miku hvbjdfssk

this cant be the first time some morons have been killed here likeeee 

i cant believe nobody has visited the zoldyk estate in 20 years damn they all rlly b havin no friends. depressing 

the whole gates thing is wild. also that part where gon gets the math wrong on the weight.....BIG mood kiddo 

ok the part where gons on the phone w/the butler is soooo good oh man. i love how gon just calmly dials the phone again after hes hung up on the first time and then YELLS....and leorio and kurapikas faces r so good 

also the butler guy unfortunately has a point, it isnt foolproof that gon is here Legit....but he IS let him see his tiny bf :( 

as ruth pointed out, the butler guy is reminiscent of kuro from one piece. same vibes 

maybe if leorio was jacked like he is in the manga/1999 anime he couldve opened the gate that first time around....Ls 

god i love this shows approach to Everything so far,....as ruth put it, half the time its like ‘oh wow they should do [x]/i wish theyd do [x] but ofc they wont cause its a shounen’ but then they DO do [x] and its like damn thats dope 

anyways i love how gon is increasingly approaching situations with his Plucky Shounen Protag Attitude in full swing, and he pretty much gets shot down every time. BUT his general determination to see killua bc killuas his FRIEND and hes gonna RESCUE HIM is still a good and pure motivating force 

like here, when hes climbing over the wall and hes like whatever i dont wanna have to deal w/being tested thats bullshit, i wanna see killua, my intentions are pure, im gonna try my luck with the dog....i was like ok yeah he’ll get over and like tame or defeat the dog and the guard will be suitably impressed bc nobodys ever done That before, and then gon will continue on to get killua 

but NOPE instead the guard calls him down and explains that gon Will Die if he tries that, and then the guard will die too for letting that happen. and gon is like oh shit my actions have consequences for people other than me, wow. 

and THEN the guard takes them in to meet the dog. and hot DAMN that is a scary creature. not even really a dog tbh. they did an excellent job making the dog Legit Scary and not just like, big and flashy looking....those eyes are so soulless, and the proportions are freaky 

and the guard says exactly what i was thinking - that gon would use his Country Boy Woodland Creature Skills to workaround the dog....but then the subversion - this creature is NOTHING like the woodland critters gon is probably used to dealing with. theres no way gon stood a chance here. the guard just saved him from a really unfortunate death 

i love all the Super Heavy Stuff in the servant house that seems so inconvenient vbhjdkfasjfld. also forgot to mention earlier but the guard guy being Absolutely Ripped was wild and kinda funny 

training montage! gon continues to be so cute. and i love so much how leorio and kurapika are like no, you rest, we’ll take care of this. good parents!!!!

and then!!!! they sync up and use the power of gay love to almost open the gate. but then gon uses the power of Improbable Shounen Protag Healing Speed to toss that arm sling off and help out

i feel like leorio was side-eyeing gon like w8 a sec u broke that arm like a few days ago that aint right.....

oh man i almost forgot abt that scene with the zoldyks torturing killua :( :( this poor kid he doesnt deserve that 

also mom zoldyck seems truly awful but i must say her aesthetic does fuck. the victorian-lookin outfit paired with the futuristic cyclops visor thing....excellent. also im betting this face bandages are from killua cutting her face 

this family is so fucked up hvbsjdhjfbakdfn

killua telling his mom that gon is definitely gonna make it there :’) hes got such unshakable faith in his bf thats so good.....

back w/the gang, and immediately they run into more trouble in the form of the young girl butler, whose name i dont know, but i love her....her design is SO good oh man. a non-caricature black person? who also isnt sexualized? in MY anime??????

 i love how gons approach to conflict is currently ‘let more powerful person beat me up for hours straight in hopes that they get tired or something idk bro’ like....i love him lol, is it in an effort to show how determined he is? he doesnt even try to dodge her blows or get around her....id be tryin to hop that fence lol 

oh shit the tiny zoldyk kid from earlier is spying on them....she was w/the mom so im sure thats not good

when he punches the rock part and it breaks....strong boiiii 

oh man that little flashback from when killua first came back and told her that he made a friend ;_; bruh 

i love butler girl :( she wants to let gon but knows it isnt allowed....and as soon as she starts to waver BAM here comes mom zoldyck JFC that was so sudden and jarring....im assuming butler girl isnt dead cause that would be lame and anticlimactic 

also IS THAT NEN??? NEN>>>??? NEN??? HM? NEN????????? 

im so annoying abt nen i need to make one of those ‘is this a pigeon?’ memes w/’is this nen?’ bc thats me anytime anything remotely weird happens lmao

i do think its rlly nen this time tho

anyways shit is wild, cant wait to meet the full zoldyck family 

PREDICTION CORNER: 

as i said above i doubt hisoka will show up now bc this arc is a lot shorter than i anticipated. also im doubting that illumis even gonna show up honestly 

i think we’re gonna have this OP for a while, as the part just at the end shows gon and hisoka fighting in what looks to be an arena, and ik the next arc is the heavens arena arc, which im assuming is the tournament arc....

also i have no idea what that weird building in the OP is but my guess is that its the building w/the heavens arena in it bc its tall and,,,,heaven 

i predict there wont be much fighting in this little arc bc how tf else is it so short. at this point i rlly think gon is just gonna grab killua and go lmao. im super curious abt how thats gonna go down, considering that killua is currently strung up just bc he wont apologize...so i cant imagine his family would just let him leave w/gon. i wonder if killua will fight them, or if gons determination will impress them and then theyll let killua go (doubt it)

thats basically it....we’ll see abt the next few eps holla

[snazzamazing]

Alright I guess it's time to finally get this off my chest and show you peeps. Introducing my OCs! I wanted to post reference sheets for each character but I dont have time at the moment to make that. Before I start rambling about my ocs, while many of the characters look like they're inspired by other REAL characters, trust me they weren't. I had these characters for years and before new shows and games came out so if anything, it's all a coincidence. The reason why I made these characters is because I want to make this my own cartoon someday.

First, let me explain the whole oc universe and stuff. A long time ago, there was this goddess like lady who had the power to give others powers for good things. She got into a fight with a friend and the friend spread evil all over the world. The lady has decided to make her own hero society or..whatever. she gives people super powers and at any time she wants and each power has a purpose for each person. There was so many super heroes that the lady decided to split all of them into groups all over the world. Let's just say that this "show" or OC thing is mainly focused on one group of heroes, my characters. Where does all of this take place?? Idk I'm still working on all of this. Anyway, this group of heroes live in a big house together, they have fun crazy adventures and inspire others to become heroes too. They're also the only group of heroes that has ever come close to the main villain, who is truly evil. Now moving on to the characters.

Valerie McGregor (the girl with the ax)

Valerie is a 20 year old girl who used to work at a cafe at the main hero headquarters (where the lady goddess person lives). She ways dreamed of becoming a hero but she just never had the confidence to do anything great. One day, she ran into the lady of powers when she wasn't supposed to meet her (no ones really aloud to visit the lady of powers unless you have permission). Valerie did get in trouble but the lady of powers got vibes and saw potential in valerie. She knew what valerie was cable of in the future and so, she gave valerie her first power and put her in her first hero group. As valerie got older, she became the leader of her group. Shes very strong, focused on battles and being a good leader, but shes a very sweet, innocent girl who loves her team and sees the good in people. Shes still learning on how to be a good leader, but there's something shes more focused on, and that's trying to control the powers she keeps getting. Valerie would randomly gain a new power which is weird because usually everyone gets one power.

Sam (the dragon thing)

Sam used to be a human and this rebellious trouble maker who doesn't listen to anybody. When she was a teen, she entered the gates of the dragon lands. Her friends dared her to go in, and do something stupid to the dragons. Like an idiot, she did as they told but boy was that a mistake. She disturbed the dragon lands and did some bad stuff, and that made the dragon queen furious. Since the dragon queen was so strict and angry, she put a curse on Sam which made her slowly turn into a dragon each day. Nobody saw what happened, but as things got worse for Sam (like growing scales n stuff) she just ran away from home and back to the dragon lands to beg for the queen to change her back. When Sam got there, she pretty much turned fully dragon and lost all her memory. So Sam pretty much thinks that she was born a dragon. Sam got older and decided to leave the dragon lands because she felt as if she was different than all the others. For example, she has no wings, shes always walking on two legs, and she does a lot of more human things rather than dragon things. She met valerie and became best friends with her and sooner or later, they both ended up on being on the same team. Sam is heat resistant, she breathes fire, and shes super strong and during battle she likes to goof off. Sam is wild, fun, and a little ditzy sometimes and has bad memory, buuut shes the one who's most likely to cheer anyone up.

Matthias (math-eye-as the guy guy in a white shirt)

Mathias was the scientist/mechanics in one of the hero headquarters. He's freaky smart and makes a lot of weapons for the heroes. He loves his job, but not his power that much. For some reason he has the power of speed, but he doesn't use it for running, he uses it for fast hands to create things in seconds. The lady of powers called him down, to join the group. So now, hes the nerdy scientist mechanics dude for the main hero group and he designs the heroes battle suits. Mathias is very geeky and socially awkward and hes the kind of guy who explains the joke for you and a bit of a smart Alic. He likes his team, but he doesn't like grayson. Hes constantly fighting with him because they both simply can't get a long.

Grayson (the guy who looks like he hasn't slept)

Grayson doesn't much of a backstory. He was always tested on dangerous stuff because his power is being immortal. Hes gone through so much pain and deaths that he got used to it. He would walk with a sword in his gut and he'd say "k". He got tired of being the test subject and the lady of powers let him go and be apart of the team. Grayson is careless,sarcastic,grumpy and is most likely to swear (but valerie doesn'tlet anyone swear). Hes not emo or anything like that, he just chill about anything and hes not ALWAYS moody like that. He gets moody when hes bossed around by Mathias or when you bug him with sunshines n rainbows.

Insomnia (the tall creepy guy)

Insomnia is just a side character who works at at their very own freakshow. Insomnia is a nightmare as a person and they know how to freak people out just right. They are very hard to trust, but valerie sees good in them and shes very good friends with them. Valerie is definitely insomnia's favorite but that's because the others dont trust them. I mean, who would trust a fellow who has a creepy smiley face that can split in half? Insomnia isnt a villian, the theres just a 50/50 chance they'll like you or they'll trick you and push you into the vortex of phobias :) oh! I forgot to mention, Insomnia has the power to shape shift and to just to weird stuff

Welp, that's all I got for now, all of this is still a WIP and I hope you enjoy my characters!

[plounce]

im like. not even into cr (i fell off the wagon and then was too upset about molly to catch up) but like. your spn au. is Incredible, like. the catholic guilt... the pining... molly as an angel, falling and still resplendent and charming and proud... beaus bde (big dyke energy). etc. i dont have any specific questions or anything please just use this ask as an excuse to continue going off.

THANK YOU YOU ARE TOO SWEET...that’s what happened with half my friends tbh you are valid. i still watch because i’m devoted to caduceus and beau, but that’s me. 

you have immediately caught my attention by mentioning “catholic guilt” which is a favorite character trait of mine to stick onto caleb. i imagine that trent was from the school of hunter who put a lot of stock into old christian remedies to things

[this got LONG so this is a READ MORE]

ok digression now that im thinking about this universe. i imagine there’s a few broad schools of thought within hunters, because theres a lot of methods that work but theres a lot of superstition among individuals/families about which ones work best, why they work, how they should be performed. there’s ones who have a more christian bent, there’s ones who are very no-nonsense silver-and-salt (just stick to the standard materials and don’t use a lot of bullshit), there’s ones who dip into witchcraft here and there, and those who use whatever they can and hope it works. some of these get passed on by families or mentors - some people fall into hunting from The Outside and use what they find.

beau was raised in a no-nonsense family. they’ve been hunters going back generations and generations, tough men who are strong and are capable of fighting evil and uphold family traditions. LOTS of hypermasculinity and patriotism etc. conservative. lots of military. beau being a girl was a disappointment to them because [misogyny], but when she got older it was more her disobedience. you listen to your father and uncles on hunts, but beau listens to her gut, and even if she saves the day she’d get punished.

she’s good at hunting, which infuriates her (she hates that she’s one of the family, but she also hates that her family keeps her from helping others to her fullest potential) - but mostly she just hated the control. she hated the stifling, how she could never be anything but a lionett. she ran away and lived in anonymity for two years before caleb found her and begged for her help. but even now, when it’s her and caleb and she’s with him and not with them - she still gets recognized by other hunters as the lionett girl. tell your uncle steve he owes me a beer, wontcha sweetheart?

she hates it. can’t stand it. it’s even worse when she runs into her family and they either get pissed about her huge dykey look or tell her glad you finally found a man to carry on the family line. sometimes caleb tries to stop her from punching out a cousin’s lights, but some nights he just quietly retires to the car to wait for her to need a quick getaway.

caleb, meanwhile, was brought into hunting by trent, who was never clear about how he got into hunting but he was so knowledgeable and wise that caleb never thought to ask. his family home was burned down by demons possessing his parents (they made deals with devils, trent tells him, brought that evil into your home. we must fight to protect the innocent from the weakness of the wicked.) (he is lying, but caleb doesn’t know that. he’s only ten years old. it’ll take 17 more years for him to learn the truth.)

trent rescued him and told him secrets, and caleb was born drinking down all the knowledge he could get his hands on. astrid and eodwulf were already with trent when he was picked up, and they were his little disciples, doing research and sweetly manipulating witnesses into spilling their hearts while trent did the dirtier work. that changed when caleb was 13, and he and astrid and eodwulf dug up a grave as trent fought a ghost, and caleb lit the match to set the corpse alight. trent was so proud of him, told him he could trust him, and started taking him on hunts after that. astrid and eodwulf were so jealous, but caleb was jealous when astrid got firearm training first and when eodwulf got to learn how to drive their van. it was his turn to be the favored student.

trent was very catholic. rosaries, latin, silver in shapes of crosses, holy water up each sleeve. a prayer muttered whenever there was a spare breath. stop in a church every sunday they can. confess your sins to your father, since we’re nowhere near an actual priest. (trent knows a lot about caleb.)

caleb starts the “show” at age 25. when he was 22, eodwulf disobeyed during a hunt, and he was tersely given supplies and sent off on a hunt on the other side of the state. caleb doesn’t know if eodwulf couldn’t find his way back to them or if he abandoned them, and trent told him not to think of him, but caleb kept graffitting the three of them’s secret codesymbol whenever the thought crossed his mind. i’m still here, wulf. i thought of you here in this rest stop. i hope you are okay.

when he was 23 and a half, trent sent astrid to represent him at a hunter gathering. find out what you can. report back to me when you are able. i picked you for this, do not fail me. you can be independent. go in strength. caleb was so achingly jealous that trent trusted her for this and not him, but then trent told him my loyalest student. my favorite. you are the one to stay by my side. i trust you will live up to this regard. and the sting soothed.

when he was 24 or so, trent sent him to investigate a disappearance in a neighboring county that might’ve been linked to their current hunt. when caleb came back, trent was gone. after a month of combing over their motel room and the surrounding area for any clues, caleb decided to himself that this was another test, and he must continue on as normal. be independent. a strong young man. a warrior for christ against evil. and he kept his chin up and did his best. until he couldn’t do it alone anymore (weak weak weak) and he dragged himself to beau’s doorstep.

(i do want to say here that when things finally shake out with astrid and eodwulf, it is eodwulf who is the treacherous trent supporter and astrid who is the one who is a little bit... uncomfortable with beau’s general dykery bc she is catholic but is all-around ok. she’s like it was good to see you again caleb, it is good to see that you’ve become a good, honest man, and that you have a better sister than i ever was to you. go in peace. it’s all very healing and good. it’s not perfect, but it’s some amount of closure. that trent and his manipulation and abuse and demon deals haven’t condemned caleb to being completely horrible.) (also there is NO astrid/caleb romance here obv)

when caleb finally gets comfortable around molly The Angel Of The Lord he starts tentatively peppering him with questions about the faith. a lot of the stuff he learned from trent was wrong. molly was never really a “faith enforcer” angel anyway, but he’s just so confused that caleb is so hung up on so much stuff, when the whole thing is about love? (it’s... different for humans than for angels, yasha eventually tells them. humans can get second tries. that is why i am often very jealous of you all, yasha says, looking somewhere far away.)

honestly caleb and molly are very “i love everybody because i love you” in this au which is extremely valid. finding love in others to find love in the world to find love in others etc etc - yes, this is my les mis past speaking, and it is smart and correct. “revolution is an act of love” etc etc.

also i hate having to draw beau’s super short hair because i have limitations but im SO pleased with that design, i think it really fits the vibe. beau with her crew cut and caleb with his hair he never bothers cutting and both of them in flannels. hell YES

[tumblunni]

MAN OKAY IM MAKING A SELF INDULGENT KINGDOM HEARTS SONA

Probably the only main reason i havent made another one since i was a kid is cos i never really wanted to be a keyblade master. Even as a kid i always hated "they are just all magically born evil because darkness energy" as a trope. Whenever an evil guy had minions who were all "mindless and evill" and you were supposed to mow them down in droves because of it, i always felt like they seemed LESS evil, yknow? Like youre canonically stating that theyre NOT evil! Theyre dangerous, yeah, but you just said that they dont have complex cognitive thought or ability to choose their own actions. Theyrr just being USED for evil, by the guy whos the real evil! Theyre like guard dogs who were abused into dangerness and if they cant be rehibilitated then its sad, yknow? Poor heartless!! And seriously how can they make them have such cute designs and not expect us to see them that way!!

So yeah i hate that canonically the heartless are all evil and canonically everyone good has to destroy the heartless, like its the entire damn point of a keyblade so i couldnt even touch one without being forced to slay the cutebabs! And KHDDD was great with the long awaited addition of CUTE BABS GOOD GUY MONSTERS YOU CAN HUG, although they were a whole new species of monster and its still canon that heartless are all evil and the equally as annoying canon that all good/remotely sentient Nobodies look like regular humans instead of the cute patoots they once was. THE CUTE PATOOT THAT NEVER WAS!!!! Srsly the low level Dusk is my fave design in the whole series its such a good squiggle boye

OKAY OKAY SO MY POINT IS

If i was gonna make a normal khsona itd have to be either specifically a Dream Eater trainer keyblade weilder whose entire story is about pet raising and none of the fightng evil, or an Organization member because theyre the only sympathetic monsters even if they dont look monstery anymore. Even though obviously rationally my self insert in anything would always be a good guy cos i am a very soft boyo who is too much of a wimp to do the slightest evil. But alas all the best characters are evil and the monsters look so cute aaaa!!

SO OKAY my ULTIMATE self indulgent khsona would be ME AM ANSEM NOW

Me as a heartless researcher who hugs all the heartless and becomes a heartless and then we heartlessly heartfully hug! Cos seriously it is a true fact that i would be a good guy but also if someone came up to me and was like "hey its totally possible to BECOME one of the cute monsters" id be like "oh noooo dammit i guess im evil now" *shrugs in heartless* But i wouldnt really do anything evil i'd just run like.. Old friends senior heartless sanctuary. Just make a big nice house for all my monsters and bake them cakes everyday. I WOULD LEARN TO COOK FOR THEM!!!! So if that makes me evil then i guess i am evil, dammit!! "Oh nooo we dont wanna get our souls stolen and turn into really fabulous cute designs with amazing supernatural powers" well you are WRONG okay. Just my most self indulgent everything idea is just *points at the evilest beastie* im gonna lovv and cherish that! *takes a running leap into a ballpit of Darkballs* SERIOUSLY DARKBALLS ARE SOME OF THE CUTEST AND ALL THEIR ANIMATIONS ARE SO CUTE WHY IS EVERY HEARTLESS SO CUTE AND SO ANIMATED WHY ARE THEY THE MOST DIDNEY THING IN DIDNEY WHY DID THE NEW GAME ADD A HEARTLESS WHOSE JUST A BIG PUDDING WITH A FACE HOW AM I MEANT TO NOT LOVE THAT hhhh

So yeah khsona bunni is some librarian mothafucker who does Deep Darkness Research but is also the nice goofy good guy sort of mad scientist, like the nutty professor or something. I'd probably be the comic relief on some team of actual villains, thats the only way id really be any threat to anyone. But i'd also totally be The Mom Friend and itd be like u guys are having some serious battle and then i call up Mr Big Villain mid battle like HEY YO COME JOIN KARAOKE WITH ME AND THE HEARTLESS and then hes like "damn man can we have a rain check on the whole end of the world thing?"

Like lol another self indulgent oc thing would be "power to be friends with all the fave villains and they are my friend and we hug". Like an all star teamup of just specifically all bunni's fave KH and didney villains and then also they never fight anyone and we just enjoy slice of life friendship antics. Like Kuja and Ursula would be so cool!! Cos theyre both similar personality yet Kuja had experience manipulating a more loser-y lady who looked a lot like ursula so i can expect he'd underestimate her and try his queen brahne plan again and maybe get outsmarted? And maybe theyd be locked in an eternal battle of two masterminds trying to manipulate each other and along the way they somehow end up accidentally forming a mentor student or mom and son relationship? Like ursula is the better version of garland and she helps kuja heal from his childhood trauma and also in the process maybe he helps her heal from whatever ambiguous backstory event led to her being ostracized from her royal family and such. THEY WOULDNT BE BAD IF THEY HAD HUGS OK let me believe this!! And also of course theyre both the big gay/trans coded dramatic fashion person from their respective stories, so srsly there could be so much awesomeness from the combination of The Two Most Stylish Of Two Worlds! Also i wonder how Kuja would even work in a khified version? Like maybe terra still exists as a separate world in kh world rules and it has a plan to destroy and take over gaia in the same way as the original ff9. Or maybe take some of kuja's other plot points and go from there? Like with how he disguised himself as a treno noble and how he eas created by garland to be an "angel of death", maybe in this world he's a shapeshifter Nobody assassin who infiltrates different worlds and corrupts important people to help garland destroy them? But since he's a very complex experiment and complex = humanoid in this universe, it could be an excuse for him becoming sentient over time and having a plot similar to repliku wanting to be a real human. And i dunno maybe zidane is his "brother" because he's the heartless made from the same original dead guy, who was discarded as a failed experiment? Like it could be interesting to see both of them as villains on the same side, and actually have a close relationship as loving brothers. And theres even already a monkey type heartless! And i dunno maybe the plot of garland creating the genomes infiltrator heartless and then kuja going on to create black mages still black mages? Like he still makes Vivi cos seriously its SO WEIRD that the heartless are based on black mages and then of all things they decided that Vivi would be the ONLY ff9 character allowed to appear in the whole kh series and itd just be in the role of "normal human kid". But they didnt even change his design!! He still looks like a heartless!! Why does nobody question why fredbob mcnormalson doesnt have a face!! So itd make much more sense if he was still a heartless and he's just a good one who wants to be a real boy BUT COS THE WORLD SAYS ALL HEARTLESS ARE EVIL I CANT HAVE THAT. Theyre all evil and only extra evil people get to be humanoid types! Boooo! So kuja doing Special Experiment Science could explain there being at least one special heartless thats not evil. And i dunno, kuja sends vivi out on his first test mission to infiltrate and destroy twilight town but whoops instead he becomes everyone's favourite baby brother! Like he's about to devour some dude's soul and then seifer and co come in and yell at the victim like DUDE ARE U BULLYING THIS POOR TINY CHILD and they drag off this poor very confused heartless in a hug and now he's Lost Forever I Guess. Kuja: damn he tasted icecream i'll never get him back!

Look ok i really like Villains Who Are Not Bad and i will constantly make Villains Who Are Not Bad and nothing will ever be better than Villains Who Are Not Bad

My khsona is Good Heartless who hugs Good Heartless in a team of Good Heartless and also brings in other cameo characters to become Good Heartless ok yes the end hell yea hugs n such

TYHE BEST OCS IS HUGS OCS OK

[chichorie]

what are your pre-game headcanons about the cast??

theres a LOT of characters to go through so ill try to keep this as short as possible but, its still probably gonna end up kinda long. so basically im gonna list some people who i think would be most important in a pregame setting and maybe then some.

ndrv3 spoilers!!!!

kaede akamatsu: 

“i’d be perfect for a killing game. i dont have any faith in humanity” says a lot about her, and i really like that she says this with a chipper tone and a smile on her face. she might have had a personality similar to ingame kokichi. 

kaede is also kind of mean to shuichi in the prologue, yelling at him to shut up while he’s panicking for very valid reasons (they just got fucking kidnapped). shes probably impatient, rude, and dislikes working together with others.

she also says that she thinks the world is very rotten so shes also rather cynical. like most of the pregame cast, i think she would have to have a very bad past to be willing to participate in a game as dangerous as dangaronpa and essentially throw away her life.

shuichi saihara:

in the audition, hes very timid, very nervous and stutters a lot. in the prologue, hes prone to panic easily and does not speak/carry himself in a confident way. much like ingame shuichi.

i do think he has some kind of survival experience, or knows how to escape easily in some kind of bad situation as he led kaede through the halls with the exisals without getting caught.

he’s very passionate about danganronpa, willing to do whatever it takes to participate. its basically his whole life. i think he mightve been sucked into it because of a bad homelife, watching it as a kind of escape. (”tings might be bad for me but there are people who have it worse”)

decides to participate because hes tired of living in the real world and wants something new and exciting. he doesnt really care if he dies in the killing game because its better than continuing to live the life he already is.

tsumugi shirogane:

i think she worked for danganronpa since she was kind of young, either making costumes or acting as junko during the final trial. i dont think she ever participated in a game until the very last season.

shes kind of a loner and doesnt view herself in a good way. she thinks shes boring and uses her fictional characters to give herself something to live for. her characters have more life than she does, in her eyes.

after being given full permission to go wild with season 53, i think she did most of the planning. she wrote the script, picked 14 students from the auditions, wrote their characters, designed outfits, etc. she really wanted to make sure she made her first season the very best one the world has ever seen.

she was the one who decided rantaro would have to participate in season 53, and also asked team danganronpa to create kiibo to serve as the audience’s proxy. she herself decided to join as the 16th student because she really wanted to be able to live in a fictional world that she created.

k1-b0:

doesnt really care about danganronpa. he just knows he has a job to do and has no say in being in the game or not.

likely in some kind of testing stage, making sure his ai can develop properly in the game setting and trying out different personalities for him to take on. teaching him basic things like speech and action.

is likely rather quiet. he doesnt say a word in the prologue and probably doesnt speak unless he is spoken to.

unlike ingame kiibo, he only views himself as a tool and doesnt think he is very humanlike at all.

rantaro amami:

this ones kind of hard because he was already in a past danganronpa, so his personality in the prologue is likely that of the ultimate adventurer from season 52, and not the rantaro amami who auditioned for that season.

hes cool and level headed, having been able to survive the past killing game. he can see things from all angles and doesnt let emotion or bias get in the way from his goals and his survival.

hes also selfless and willing to sacrifice his own freedom if it means someone else can escape the killing game. i think he’s ok with dying if it means he can help someone.

kaito momota:

a very scary guy. not friendly at all. you probably do not want to bump into him in any kind of situation.

very strong and can likely win any kind of fight. he probably likes fighting, too. he says hes willing to kill everyone if it means winning danganronpa.

greedy, didnt join the game for any reason other than the prize money. he chose the rold of ultimate astronaut because he wanted to be something flashy and cool.

miu iruma:

shes still rather brash and has thin patience, as seen from the prologue, but i dont think she’s a very sexual person. she doesnt like to make jokes or innuendos simply because she didnt have time for it.

she chose the role of ultimate inventor because she wanted to be recognized for something other than her beauty. she wanted to prove that she was more than a pretty face and had what it takes to win.

unfortunately, is often looked past due to her nice body, and has to use it to get people to pay attention to her, even if she doesnt like it. its likely the only reason she got into the game, much to her dismay.