#this post was a silly joke that went too far ultimately leading to me fucking up my sleep schedule

[zipstick-art]

working late at the hoover building

reference image under the cut

[bastardrobocop]

not being funny, not being melodramatic i hope, but i feel like the last year has broken me in a lot of ways. 2023 i mean. i watched a long term relationship disintegrate in my hands until the ultimate betrayal of my trust and safety. i was so stressed and so fucked up all the time.

and now like, i can feel im withdrawing from my friends, im engaging in unhealthy behaviors i will not specify here, despite it all im more lonely than ive ever been, my hobbies are starting to feel like dust in my mouth, and while i'm not actively suicidal, the thought isnt far from my mind in that nasty intrusive thought sort of way.

there are nice things. i have the place to myself. the bed to myself. its quiet. but i feel like ive exhausted the amount of patience people have with me talking about what ive gone through. and as is the nature of things i dont feel as though ive built character or come through hardened. i feel mad. hurt. i want to hurt xer back somehow. take something back because something was taken from me. i feel like i have no recourse. god knows if xe'll hurt someone like xe hurt me again. but thats not even my primary motivation. i just hate feeling like theres nothing. no justice. no satisfaction. nothing that makes being raped a more tolerable experience, which is a silly thing to say. but you understand, right? like, sure i could post somewhere highly visible "In December of 2023 well known SCP Wiki author UraniumEmpire sexually assaulted me" but like what would that accomplish? it sure would put me under a microscope. its a surreal sentence too. hard to explain why. maybe its ultraminor celebrity combined with knowledge that inevitably it can just be denied and nobody will listen.

you know before now i never really noticed how much people fetishize sexual assault? "CNC" and the like. i dont care for it. i dont think they know. its frustrating as an adult online trying to navigate adult spaces. i know its an odd topic, but im fully stream of consciousness right now. i'll see something and it hits me in the gut and so i block the user or close the thing or leave the discord call. yet another addition to the list of things that make my tastes so exacting.

i feel like i should come to some overall point but the only thing coming to mind right now is just 'i hate this'. and i do. i hate this so much. i'm crying a lot more. at stupid things. weird things. memories. dreams. this post. the funny thing is that despite it all, despite the content, despite everything, i hope people read it. i like feeling like i exist. i like feeling real to other people. reminding folks that im not just a joke machine. i have an internal world. i have had a life that's lead me here and despite advantages it has not been good.

did i ever talk about how my high school graduation went? odd digression, bear with me. i feel like its emblematic of how things typically go for me. it's the day i graduate high school. i come downstairs to find my mother on skype with my kansas family. my grandfather is dying. they put him on skype. i watch him die over skype. after sitting alone for some time, i tell my parents i do not want to go through with high school graduation. i am forced to regardless. it is the most miserable day of my life. nobody listens to what i need in the moment. i go through with it, and then we are all shepherded to some kind of entertainment center. for reasons i cannot fathom, we are not allowed to leave for a couple hours. enforced fun time. they bring a stage hypnotist. i sit in silence and watch his antics. i get up and ask one of the people supervising us if i can leave now. they finally say yes. my mother takes me home. she asks if i have a nice time. i say of course i didnt. we drive home in silence.

i have have very rarely felt understood. very rarely felt like i was built to exist in the world. i feel as though i have an expiration date beyond the obvious one. i have grown older and watched people i know operate normally in the world and wondered how they do it. it never clicked for me. autism, transness, otherings. experts looked at me, told me i needed accommodations. never really got them, or they didnt help.

this is getting too long. i asked myself partway through if this was a suicide note but concluded that it wasn't. this is primarily because im scared if i die, they'll separate my cats. adopt them to different homes. they're best friends, they should not be kept apart. i love my cats, even when they're breaking shit and tearing open trash bags.

final paragraph. this whole post thing is probably going to sound embarrassing to me when i have hindsight on it. oh well. i am going to hit the post button now.

[pansyaparkinson]

Under the cut is a formatted version of Pansy’s application, since Tumblr has decided to be mean (once again): 

OOC

Name: Karli

Age: 29

Pronouns: She/Her

Timezone: CST 

Writing Sample: Please provide a link to some writing. This does not have to be from a roleplay specifically, though it is preferred.

Ships: Pansy/Chemistry is ultimately the most important thing to me. I have this weird soft spot for Pansy/Goyle after some chemistry I had with a Goyle when I played Pansy in another rpg and I’ve shipped them ever since! But it’s not something I would need to have. Mostly, I’m excited to play her coming back to Britain and reconnecting with all the folks from her past! 

Anything else?: Pansy’s favorite color is red (despite the - ugh - Gryffindor colors!) and she often sports a crisp, pristine red lip that almost looks like blood. 

IC - Overview

Full name: Pansy Auria Parkinson (Delvaux) - Pansy managed to keep her surname under the pretenses of her career, having been known within her line as a Parkinson. She uses Parkinson for her professional and personal life - but will call herself a Delvaux if it helps her get ahead or in polite French company.

Age: 40 (31 December 1979) - Yes, she throws the most extravagant New Year’s Eve parties in celebration of her birthday. 

Gender: Cis-female (she/her)

Sexuality: Heterosexual. Pansy will be the first one to tell you that she likes cock. But only when that cock does whatever she wants. She’s not necessarily homophobic in the “normal” sense where she really cares who is fucking who - but she definitely makes homophobic jokes sometimes and, even if she loves you (looking at you, Draco!), you can’t escape her rolling her eyes a bit whenever the topic of sexuality comes up. She’s definitely going to hit you where it hurts if she’s angry. 

Blood status: Pureblood

Former Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Occupation: Designer for Twilfitt and Tatting's

The shoppe, Twilfiit and Tatting’s, has been owned by the Parkinsons for generations. The oldest son, Malcolm, Pansy’s father, had inherited the business from his father. Malcolm, however, had plans far greater than his father could have dreamed. While Twilfitt and Tatting’s location in Diagon Alley brought enough money in to sustain the family fortune, Malcolm wanted to expand.

Throughout Pansy’s childhood, he was in constant discussion with other businessmen to open new locations throughout various places in Europe. It took a lot of time away from his family, but tripled their income and made Twilfitt and Tatting’s the place to get high end robes, clothing, and accessories.

Pansy started scribbling designs for new outfits when she was young, but her father would not take them seriously until after graduation, when he finally allowed her visions to become a reality. The Auria line (named for Pansy’s middle name) became the fastest-selling line Twilfitt had ever seen.

But it wasn’t enough. While her father was never a Death Eater - much too busy being successful to follow a man with no fashion sense at all! - he did a lot of his business with people who were. As those wizards and witches were caught and sent to Azkaban for Voldemort-supporting acts after the war, Malcolm’s businesses began to fail.

The Parkinson’s were losing money fast at that time - something they’d mainly been able to keep from the public eye - and Pansy had to step up and find a rich man to marry in order to help the business stay afloat. Pansy’s mother, Cordelia, did not want to fall from grace like those Malfoy’s, after all.

Pansy did manage to do just that - find a man, save the company, and is now the leading designer within the multiple Twilfitt establishments. Her line is sleek and expensive, mainly geared towards fashionable and rich witches. (Link to some of the clothing will be posted below within the “extra” section). She’s very happy with her career… but it came at what costs?

Marital Status: Widowed.

Pansy met Armand Delvaux when she was just twenty-three years old on a trip to the shoppe in Paris, which had been doing rather well until the fall of Voldemort. On their last bit of finances, the ability to keep the fact that the Parkinsons were actually broke was becoming harder and harder to manage. Meeting Armand had been a gift from Merlin itself, it seemed. Rich he was, though not so handsome, he was forty-two years Pansy’s senior and had lost his original wife in an unfortunate potions accident when the woman was rather young.

Pansy had gotten to work quickly, making herself known as available (though not too available) and Armand had fallen for her even before her knees hit the ground. Honestly, those Gryffindors complaining about torture under the Carrows know nothing until they’ve stuck a wrinkly penis in their mouth to save the family. 

They were married within just four months of meeting one another, something his grown children (there are three of them, two daughters and a son - the middle one the same age as Pansy herself) were very vocal about not being in agreement with. While Pansy lived her life with her husband without loving him, she did love what he had to offer her. The funding for Twilfitt went back up - the Paris shoppe suddenly bloomed - and they were able to expand farther than even her father had expected.

The shoppe is now the leading brand for expensive, designer clothing with Pansy at its helm. When Armand died two years ago - rather young for wizards, but Armand had always been known to experiment with the tobacco he put in that pipe of his and his poor heart suffered - she inherited 85% of his money (despite more protests from her stepchildren, really they’ve been such a pain!). With that money, she purchased a rather loftily flat in England with a direct connection via floo to her estate in Paris. The last two years, she’s split her time between the two, but the excitement of France has recently died down and she’s been spending much more time with old friends in England.

Faceclaim: Katie McGrath (1st choice), Eva Green (2nd choice), Lucy Hale (younger) - I would prefer the Katie/Lucy match, as I feel like they have more similarities and also Katie’s supergirl resources and a few others are TOTALLY Pansy-esque 

Summary: A lot of Pansy’s life shortly after the war had been defined by that one moment in the Great Hall - and, really, how unfair was that! She’d only wanted to have her school stay undestroyed and her friends kept safe, after all. The Parkinsons had never chosen a side in the war, safe from any harm regardless of what happened given their pureblooded status. Pansy herself hardly thought about the war at all - and yet, she was being punished publicly for it. While there was no trial or prison for her - the backlash her old classmates gave her for trying to give Potter up to the Dark Lord was enough to make her bristle. That, combined with the Parkinson fortune dwindling, made Pansy run away to Paris to find a rich husband and start a new life. She settled with a man forty-two years older named Armand Delvaux and the failing business her family owned - Twilfitt and Tatting’s - began to thrive again with his money. Pansy herself found passion in fashion designing and her Auria brand is known as one of the leading brands in high-fashion clothing sales. While she spent most of her life after school travelling between Paris and London, she has decided to plant herself anew in the country of old friends and enemies again, now that her dear old husband has died. Many still think of her as that bitch from school and they aren’t wrong… but, cut her some slack, she’s grown up… a little bit. 

IC - In Depth

Discussion

I included a lot of this discussion above in places I felt they made most sense, but below is a discussion of various things I have yet to add:

-Pansy is not ashamed of what she did during the war because, quite honestly, she hardly did a thing. She was no Death Eater - there was no Azkaban for her. As far as anyone knows, Pansy is the same person as she always was… but maybe just a bit nicer. Of course, that’s a laugh! She’s playing nice because it’s what this new wobbly feelings world wants her to be. She’s still not going to hold hands with Weasley or tell Granger she’s pretty or something insane like that! She’s got standards. She just might not spike your drink with laxative potion for a laugh anymore… well, not much potion anyway. Potter can miss one day of work for her entertainment. 

-Pansy is ambitious. She’s a Slytherin for a reason, after all. She’s a designer (not a shoppe keeper, to anyone who may ask, thank you very much!) and values her work. She spends hours working on new pieces for her Auria line and won’t stop until it’s perfected. Some people think fashion is silly - but Pansy knows the truth. It’s an art form. Some wizards have just yet to discover it.

-Pansy is not nice. While she can play at it with a smile when she has to, she’s not above backhanded compliments and manipulation. She’s such a gossip and shouldn’t be trusted with any secret. Who’s dating who (or who’s fucking who, more like it) will be spread like Fiendfyre… whoops, don’t mention that word in front of poor Draco and Gregory… they get a bit sensitive. Pansy “forgot.” 

-Perhaps the most curious thing about Pansy is that she both cares and doesn’t care about what other people think about her. It’s why she’s so mean - it’s easier to be the one on top putting everyone else down than have it possibly happen to her. When someone brings up her betrayal of Potter before the final battle, Pansy pretends to easily shrug it off with a perfectly presented insult and a roll of the eyes. But, the truth is, there’s a reason she uses make up potions and wears nice clothes and keeps all the flyaways out of her hair… the better she looks, the less fodder everyone else has for the fire. 

-While there was no actual punishment for Pansy after the war, given she never fought for any side, the way those old classmates of hers viewed her after the stunt in the Great Hall was punishment enough. They looked down on her, something that brought up a whole lot of insecurity for her in a way she hated. It was enough to push her to France, agreeing to look after the shoppe there, and allowed her to settle into security with a husband she didn’t love.

-In fact, she did not love Armand at all - even for a second. While Armand was kind to her in some respects, he also very much underestimated her. Kept her out of the discussions when Twilfitt went into business with the Delvaux Company. She could play at her “little designs”, but could not truly take over the business, despite the fact that her line made the business the most money out of anything else they sold. In Armand’s mind, business was no place for a woman, something Pansy was unabashedly in disagreement with.

-Pureblood families - particularly families from higher society - have always stressed reproduction. While marriages are ideally full of love and children, creating an heir has always been the higher standard within the society that Pansy grew up in. She was supposed to get pregnant - supposed to have children and carry on the bloodline, despite any children she may have had not taking on the name Parkinson. That didn’t happen. In the end, it was discovered after trips to several different healers that Pansy could not, in fact, have biological children. Armand was alright with it, as he had three other children to carry on his name, including a son. Pansy could’ve considered adoption - she could’ve considered surrogacy. Instead, she decided that her life would be devoted to her career. She never truly liked children, anyway - just thought becoming a mother was what was expected of a young woman like her. In the end, she has found she feels very fulfilled. She’s usually very happy with her choice, but that doesn’t stop from the occasional pang of resentment and sadness whenever she sees old friends and acquaintances with their growing families. 

-Despite what many believe, Pansy does love her friends. Draco is an actual treasure! Even if she is mortified by the way she threw herself at a gay man once upon a time. She very much values his friendship and has spent many visits to England with him. Daphne, too, is practically her soulmate. Pansy adores the woman who has been friends with her since Hogwarts. While Daphne’s status from Spindrift Lane meant she was more easily manipulated, Pansy loves that in a friend. She’s always been Queen Bee, after all.

-But just because she loves you doesn’t mean you’re safe. She’s mean whenever she wants to be - nice whenever it serves her. She might order her friends around sometimes and give backhanded compliments (Oh, your skin finally doesn’t look washed out today in that outfit!), but if anyone else tried to do that to someone she cared for, they’d be in for a rude awakening. Just because she can be a bitch doesn’t mean just anyone can talk to her friends like that! Even her own attitude has died down in recent years, as she grew older and things didn’t matter nearly as much. But she’ll still pull out the claws whenever she has to.

-Pansy is mostly in disagreement with Hermione’s Cerberus program. While she agrees that magical people shouldn’t be just going off with Muggles and therefore the Statute of Secrecy is important, she definitely doesn’t like the idea of people trying to watch her all the time. In her eyes, it’s a very prejudiced program. Who are considered the “suspicious ones?” The Slytherins from the war. Even though Pansy herself did not fight in the battle or even pick a side, she knows how people view her. Just because she was a Slytherin doesn’t mean that she’s off experimenting with Dark Magic and absolutely despises how this program will make her and others like her look.

- Pansy isn’t surprised more shit has arrived on that doorstep, but just like in the last war - she has no interest in playing a part (yet).

Plots

-Pansy is back in England now, almost permanently. While she does still visit France periodically, this is the first time she’s been in her home country more often than the other since she was twenty three. Yes, she’s stayed in close contact with her friends… but how will everyone else handle the Ice Bitch being back? She may have grown a bit throughout her time, but would they know it?

-Party on NYE? Pansy’ll throw it, so long as you bring her a gift!

-We have a plethora of Gryffindors and Weasleys and other do-gooders from the war (I play one of them, after all!) on the dash and I wanted to bring in someone who is opposite of Harry and who will give me The fog hardly interests her. Where there’s Hogwarts, there’s trouble. Where there are Weasleys and Potters and all the Gryffindors, there’s trouble.various plots. I’m not against the tension and definitely don’t expect people to just be happy with Pansy, who is rather mean about 70% of the time. I’m all for those interpersonal tension-filled plots.

-While I say Pansy doesn’t want to be part of the war, what I mean is that she’s not ready for it. If this fog business becomes worse - what happens then? She’s an adult now and likely can’t just hide behind not choosing a side. I would love it if she gets sucked into helping, rather than hurting, and is forced to work alongside all these people who probably hate her. If the Order is reestablished, perhaps she can join and be an actual asset. She’s got money - but she also has intel. Just because her husband thought business was no place for a woman didn’t mean Pansy abided by it. She knows more about the people her dad used to do business with than anyone thinks she does. She can be useful to the Order. She doesn’t want Lord Voldemort to come back, after all. He really fucked things up last time! 

Extras

The link to Pansy’ pinterest is located below. It includes pictures of the faceclaims and her designs for Twilfitt. 

https://www.pinterest.ca/karliandtaylor/pansy-parkinson/

[casualarsonist]

Until Dawn review (PS4)

David Cage: Frenchman, Legion of Honour recipient, and a video game visionary, he would consider himself a storyteller first and foremost and ostensibly popularised the ‘interactive drama’ genre with the narrative-heavy ‘Fahrenheit’, ‘Heavy Rain’, and ‘Beyond: Two Souls’. However, as well-known as he is for his artistic vision, his other claim to dubious fame is the fact that his abilities can never quite match his ambition. Make no mistake, Cage is no Peter Molyneux and doesn’t exactly misrepresent his games beyond overstating their importance, but they are as synonymous with their clunky gameplay as they are with powerful drama – an important discord in a genre in which the whole point is to tell a story with depth and resonance that players can immerse themselves in when the technical side of these products works against this very goal. However, a good interactive drama game can, like a good film, stand the test of time as a whole work, even if one of its component parts doesn’t. And this too is important because as players we expect older games to be ungainly and less refined than modern releases, so I suppose that if games like this were to have a flaw, clunky gameplay would be a far better one to have than an unengaging story or poor acting.

And thus we come to 2015’s ‘Until Dawn’ - not a David Cage game (and probably better for it), but one that draws from his work in the genre. A pastiche of teen-horror films, Until Dawn follows eight teenagers – the so-called ‘friends’ of twin sisters Hannah and Beth (Ella Lentini) who vanished into the woods surrounding their father’s isolated cabin after a cruel prank played on them the year before. On the first anniversary of their disappearance, the remaining gang are urged by the twins’ brother Josh (Rami Malek) to return to the cabin, ostensibly to commemorate the lives of the missing sisters with ‘the party of a lifetime’. But not all is what it seems, and on top of the creepy and desolate location, the teens will come face-to-face with everything in the encyclopaedia of horror-tropes but the cursed kitchen sink as they try to make it to dawn the next day.

Until Dawn is, for all intents and purposes, a straight-forward success when it comes to achieving its mission statement, which is to say that it’s a faithful recreation of a tried-and-true horror formula with enough twists and turns to keep you engaged in the unfolding story, characters with enough depth and likability to largely transcend the archetypes within which they are cast, and a conceit that makes the best use of the simplistic gameplay. It is possibly the only game I’ve ever played in which I’ve enjoyed and seen as appropriate the inclusion of QTEs – so long has the mechanic been a refuge for lazy designers that I forgot that testing the players reflexes under threat of permadeath can actually be a tense and thrilling experience. It’s also, despite the shoulders upon which it so clearly stands, a unique enough experience that I find myself thinking about it long after it’s over (which is months ago now). You will find yourself becoming attached to the people you’re playing as along the way, feeling appropriately horrified should they fall prey to the many traps the game has to offer. You may also find yourself despising some of them, at which point the full potential of the genre comes to bear as you coax them into a brutal and cathartic death.

But I suspect that my assessment above will divide an audience that has played this game, for as solid as I feel the core of Until Dawn is it cannot escape the fact that, like the genre of film it tries to emulate, the game is a constant balancing act between engaging the audience and repelling them with silliness. Some may indeed find the characters vapid and hollow and I would understand that, because despite the effort to reinforce the importance of player choice in the unfolding narrative there are plenty of times in which you can feel the game take the reins and steer the characters toward a different path from which you took them simply to manufacture drama and keep the story moving. Likewise, I could understand it if you found the constant sexual innuendo unbearable, or the fact that the characters will simply wander around in their underwear during a Rocky Mountain winter, or that for the entirety of the night not once does anyone seek to turn the fucking lights on.

And while I think it was a wise thing to pair this genre of film with this type of game, it’s simply a fact that a good part of the enjoyment of teen horror comes from laughing at a film’s loose ends and frayed seams. The idea that a group of people should come together to commemorate the presumed death of two of their friends with a fucking party in the exact same location from which they went missing is retarded, as is the idea that anyone would crack a joke mere minutes after seeing a friend get minced in front of them, or that you’d prance around in their undies in an unlit, unheated wooden cabin buried in the deep, dark forest. Teen horror films are ridiculous by nature, the choices their characters make are borderline braindead, and so to attempt to recreate this experience for better and worse whilst simultaneously asking a player to engage and invest in the fate of the people making these dumb-ass decisions is a simply an irreconcilable goal. More than once I found myself groaning in genuine annoyance as characters did and said things that were deeply at odds with the things I had asked them to do and say up until that point, in a transparent effort to artificially extend the playtime. The most infuriating moment came with the only character death I experienced, which occurred not as a direct result of my choices but through an incidental and unpredictable series of events that the game told me related to a decision I had made 10 minutes before – a dialogue choice, to be specific, in which I agreed with another character’s plan of action, a plan that takes place regardless of your response. So the choice that kicked off the series of events that lead to the character’s death wasn’t actually a choice at all, it was simply an inconsequential piece of dialogue that the game decided to make a pivotal moment.

These moments of unfortunate incongruity do occur more than once throughout, although they’re rarely as egregious as this. Other missteps include bizarre, truncated conclusions for a couple of the eight characters, who disappear for almost the entire game with only a small epilogue of sorts in which the end of their stories are sorted out, as well as more than one Big Bad revealing itself to be a red herring. In any case, I wasn’t dissatisfied with the narrative overall, but it’s quite clear just how much the writers struggled to balance the need to provide content with the need to keep the player invested in the story.

That said, Until Dawn is easily the highest quality interactive drama I’ve ever played: the cast, led by Hayden Panettiere, perform superbly and manage to tease far more depth out of the characters than one might otherwise expect. Their performances single-handedly elevate the game as a whole, and form one of the crucial pillars upon which Until Dawn manages to stand above its flaws. The story is, for all my momentary criticisms, quite fun and interesting - the sheer amount of clichés within the horror genre offers a deep well from which Until Dawn can and does draw. From the moment you get your hands on the controls you’re left with a sense of dread and foreboding that doesn’t abate, and although your evolving understanding of the circumstances that haunt the characters does result in diminishing returns for the scares as the game winds on, there are still new and interesting plot elements revealed right up until the very final moments of play. An overabundance of jump-scares is mitigated by the fact that, despite how cheap they are, they do still manage to keep you on edge, and there are plenty of moments of genuine suspense provided equally by unsettlingly quiet moments, as well as the terrifying sequences in which you are chased by an unstoppable threat.

And it’s primarily through this quality and its single-minded dedication to providing a genre experience that Until Dawn comes out on top. Like all games of its ilk, it isn’t perfect, and ultimately one could reasonably accuse the ‘interactive drama’ genre of being one giant, coalescent gimmick, but the truly inspired decision here that separates Until Dawn from the others is that the creators chose a wonderfully gimmicky type of film to marry to this type of game. And while two gimmicks together don’t necessarily cancel each other out, in this case they certainly compliment each other to provide what is, in the end, a rather singular and unforgettable experience. 

Good

7/10 P.S.

It has taken me fucking months to write this review. I got a new job and lost a lot of writing time, and thus lost my mojo, so please excuse the gap and any perceived dip in quality. I’ve played a lot of games lately, so I hope to post something for Titanfall 2, the Uncharted series, Far Cry Primal, Horizon: Zero Dawn, as well as a few films. Hopefully it shouldn’t take me quite as long to get around to that as it has this. Love, peace, and chicken grease. 

[crispwiz]

Rewriting Muja and Mida to be a little less... weird

I love these two characters a lot actually, but I understand where everyone comes from when they are accused of being pedo/ creepy and yeah I think it’s a bit weird too tbh. It is just a game so I’d be fine if they stayed the way the are right now, but since a lot of people seem to not like it i have some ideas for rewrites.

Muja

Pink mom, smart, just a bit clumsy, forgetful, super caring. First of all let me say she’s not an idiot. Ditsy doesn’t mean dumb, I’m the most clumsy person I know yet I still do well in school. That’s how Muja is. Super smart (even a bit nerdy) academically, frightfully out of it everywhere else. She’s never been very social and tends to stay quiet in a group. Although she is very kind and loves to help people any way possible. That includes being a good listener and comforting. Muja likes herbal tea and meditating. In the future she would like to work in a nursing home.

When Taro/Taeko come in with a cold to Muja at the beginning of her week, she immediately rushes to give them top care. They look very sickly, and although they do have a small cold they are suffering mostly mentally based on the events of the past weeks. If Ayano eliminated past rivals peacefully Senpai is just very worn out from being rejected/ rejecting so many girls in their first weeks of school. If she eliminated them violently, Senpai will be extremely paranoid, anxious, and depressed. If they witnessed any of the deaths or found any bodies/blood they might even have some post trauma symptoms. Muja act as a mother and therapist to Senpai. They get over the cold in the first two days but muja requires them to keep visiting her for mental help. Muja doesn’t like Senpai romantically, yet she grows close to them. She worries about this child greatly, and due to her antisocial nature she also feels like she has a close friend for the first time in awhile. Senpai, on the other hand, falls hard for Muja. Sure, it’s wrong, Senpai knows that very well, but the poor kid has gone through so much emotional turmoil it feels good to finally have someone to fall on and talk to. 

Muja doesn’t leave a note for Senpai ( that is a bit silly, a grown woman leaving a love note in a locker like a schoolgirl) Senpai leaves a note in her office to meet at the tree after school. Senpai confesses to her, but she shuts them done quickly and gently. She feels awful doing it after this kid has been through so much, so she promises they can still visit her on weekends for herbal tea after she leaves the school. She also explains they might need some therapy and says that on Monday she will arrange a meeting with the guidance counselor and their family to get them the help they need. Senpai is disappointed, though they realize maybe they don’t really like her romantically, rather just grow an emotional dependence after so much emotional damage. Ultimately, both Muja and Senpai end on good terms and perhaps Senpai can finally get the help they need. 

 Despite there being no returned romance, Muja is still a rival to Ayano. Romance on either side is still a threat for Ayano and Senpai’s “love”. Even though Muja turns down Senpai they are still going to stay friends. That isn’t allowed. Friends to Ayano means there is still the possibility of romance in the future if Senpai continues to pine for Muja. Muja absolutely needs to be out of the picture, no exceptions. Ayano is characterized as being extremely possessive after all. 

 If eliminated by matchmaking, Muja will still make an effort to talk to Senpai, but Senpai will ignore her and stop coming to meetings because they are jealous asf and feels betrayed since Muja was the only person who understood them. If eliminated by befriending, Muja will explain she didn’t know Senpai had feelings towards her. To make sure the feelings don’t get encouraged, she redirects Senpai to the guidance counselor and makes Ayano promise to take good care of him if they get together. Feeling betrayed once again, Senpai fakes being perfectly fine to the guidance counselor to isolate themself, starving them of the help they need.

 Mida 

*cracks knuckles and breaks them* ok time to fix this problem child. Mida is a wild card party girl, she’s a good spunky leader which is why she went into teaching but she lacks in the responsibility part of the job, her loud voice and nature scares her students into behaving though, she wears revealing clothing because she thinks it’s funny to push the dress code as far as possible and see the look on her student faces ( she probably started doing it as a dare ), she a Muja are lunch buddies who can eat everything on the menu, she parties a lot and does all the drinking and one night stands a young woman can do, she talks quick and skips small details and get to the point. She is NOT into students though, yes she likes attention and yes she wears revealing clothes as a joke and is used to students crushing on her but would never seriously date a student. 

When Senpai comes to her for after school help she finds it funny how nervous they are because they of course find her attractive, so she jokes around a bit to get them to lighten up and puts on a coat to cover up. Senpai loves her charismatic attitude and her demeanor. Remember, Senpai has recently gone under a lot of stress and isn’t thinking clearly and clinging onto whoever shows them the least bit of promise. And come on guys, Senpai is a teenager after all ( they get a new crush every week for gods sake). Mida quickly befriends Senpai as she finds them an interesting and smart kid. On the Wednesday of her week she will ask Senpai why they are falling behind in school if they are such a good student. Senpai mentions the past weeks and Mida starts to see the big picture. On Thursday Senpai passes a test in Mida’s class and after school she turns them away saying they don’t need tutoring anymore and just need to study more. Senpai panics and in desperation claims they need help in other subjects. Mida had a hunch that Senpai had feelings for her, but decides to help them anyway because she does care for the kid and wants to help if they are telling the truth. Friday, Senpai comes by again for help but Mida talked to his other teachers who said hes been doing better in their classes after her tutoring and confronts him on his lie. Senpai goes silent. “Ok Yamada, do you want to know what I think? I think you need help. You’ve seen some fucked up shit the past few weeks (did I mention she has a sailor mouth) and you want someone to cling onto for comfort. You never needed help for school, you need some real help. So tell me kid, what is really up? What do you REALLY need help with?”. Senpai stays quiet, and finally asks her to follow them outside to the cherry tree.

When they get there Senpai starts a long tangent about their deep feelings for Mida : “just want you to give me a chance, I may be a student but I can mature for you. I can be a good boy/girlfriend. And-” Mida stops them and lays hard facts on them.“ No, you’re not mature, this is extremely childish of you. No you wouldn’t be a good partner for me, you’re a child and I’m an adult. No, you don’t need me or love me, you are dependent on me and need mental help.” Mida goes against her irresponsible and childish nature to grow up for a few minutes, it’s what Senpai needs. Yes she is harsh but Senpai needs to be turned down hard to keep them from pining after her hopelessly. Senpai doesn’t need a lover like her, that wouldn’t be healthy. They need an adult. Senpai does cry, and Mida keeps her adult/motherly attitude but goes in more gently now. She tells them she will stick around the school for a bit to help them keep their grades and like Muja arrange a meeting to get Senpai further mental help. Senpai admits to them self they didn’t really like Mida that much, it was more emotional dependence mixed with initial attraction. Also Senpai looked up to Mida as a role model, admiring her leadership, social qualities, and don’t care attitude. Mida tells Senpai “Aw come on kid, give me a smile.” Senpai gives Mida a teary smile and Mida slaps their back “That’s the spirit!” and walks Senpai back to the entrance with her hand on their back. She gives them a ride home and comes in to talk in private to Senpai’s parents about their behavior over the past week (while Hanako pulls them upstairs for hot cocoa and cartoons).

This is still a game over for Ayano for similar reasons as Muja, plus she misinterprets Midas hand on their back as a romantic gesture. If befriended Ayano will tell her about Senpai's feelings. Mida will be pretty cold and switch Senpai to a male teacher for tutoring. She doesn’t want to lead him on anymore ( and she doesn’t want to deal with the drama either. Hey, she’s not perfect). Dev has said that if Mida was matchmade, she would date another student. Maybe instead of dating another student, Ayano gets a student who has a lusty crush on their teacher to flunk Midas class. Mida decides since Senpai is a good student who is just failing due to stress to give the other student tutoring since they might actually have more problems than Senpai, and then gets too distracted with the super flirty and annoying student to even talk to Senpai anymore. Of course she wouldn’t date the student, just give them more attention. Similar to Muja, Senpai would feel incredibly betrayed. 

Those are some ideas I had for revising Mida and Muja to be less unnerving. Again, idc if they stay the way the are but if the dev wanted to fix the characters like he suggested with Kokona or Ayano this would be one way to do it. Sorry this was super long just wanted to get all the ideas down. Also I did emphasize Senpai s mental problems, but I think that their behavior will still depend on how bad the past weeks were. If the past rivals were eliminated peacefully Senpai wouldn't cry during Midas confession or act quite as dramatic, And Senpai wouldn't need serious therapy. If rivals are eliminated peacefully Senpai might just need someone to rant to.

[the-master-cylinder]

SUMMARY This film is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout. As a result, the government places a high priority on those that can still breed. Shortly before the movie opens, a group of mutant amphibians (who have been exiled to the desert by humans) capture a group of fertile women and are using them as sex slaves.

Sam Hell (Piper) is a nomadic traveler who wanders the countryside. He is eventually captured by an organization of warrior-nurses, the closest thing to a government in his region of the world, who reveal that they located him by tracking the trail of pregnant women left in his wake. Their original plan was to use him as breeding stock with their collection of fertile women, but this was the group captured by the mutants. With their own attempts to capture the women failing, the group presses Hell into service as a mercenary; he is to infiltrate the mutant city (derogatorily referred to as “Frogtown”) and rescue the women. To make sure that the rebellious Hell follows his orders, he is forced to wear an electronic protective codpiece that will explode if he disobeys or tries to abort his mission. Having already taken numerous samples of reproductive material from him, he is now deemed far more expendable than the women themselves. To aid him in his mission (and make sure he follows the plan), he is paired with one of the nurses, Spangle (Bergman), and an aggressive guard named Centinella (Verrell).

During their journey to Frogtown, Hell tries numerous times to escape but quickly learns that a device Spangle carries will shock his genitals if used or if he gets too far away from it. Despite their rocky start and Spangle’s initial cold demeanor, the pair grow closer during the journey and eventually fall in love. When they reach Frogtown, everyone involved is captured. The frogs’ second-in-command, Bull (Nicholas Worth), tortures Hell and attempts to remove the codpiece for its technology. Meanwhile, a slightly drugged Spangle is forced to work as a slave and dance for the frogs’ Commander Toty (Brian Frank) in the notable “Dance of the Three Snakes” sequence. Proving more successful than she had wished, the nurse soon finds herself at the mercy of the aroused commander. However, with the codpiece now removed (Bull finally removed it with a chainsaw, but it blew up and killed him), the escaped Hell rescues her along with the group of fertile women (Ellen Crocker, Kim Hewson, Ilana Ishaki, Annie McKinon and Janie Thorson) held captive.

DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION Donald G. Jackson had directed a $70,000 16mm direct-to-video feature for New World’s video division: ROLLERBLADE, a tale of “futuristic rebel nuns on skates with knives, “according to Jackson. On the strength of that project’s overseas sales, New World asked him to pitch ideas for another low-budget, direct-to-video feature. Jackson pitched HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN, a tongue in-cheek post-apocalypse action-adventure story, which he described as “ROAD WARRIOR meets PLANET OF THE APES, except they’re frogs.”

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New World loved the script by Randall Frakes, who was supposed to co-produce the film with Jackson, and agreed to finance the project, which was to be shot 16mm, non-union, for $150,000. It was then that the project began to balloon. New World wanted a name in the cast and suggested Sybil Danning for a role intended for Suzanne Solari, who had appeared in ROLLERBLADE. As a bone, Solari was given the small part of a nomad girl in the film. Jackson did not think Danning was right for the part, so New World offered it to Sandahl Bergman, who was finishing up a two-picture contract with them. Unfortunately, the casting of Bergman meant that the whole film had to be cast SAG, which immediately raised the budget to $500,000. New World’s video division could not afford that price tag, so the film was moved over to the feature division where executives questioned whether the script’s extensive action and stunt requirements could be achieved for half a million dollars. They rebudgeted the film somewhere between $750,000 to $1,000,000.

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“Then I got the phone call,” said Jackson. “They basically said, ‘We’re not going to trust you with a million dollars, but here’s what we’d like to do, because we like the project: we’ll give you a million, but we want you and R. J. Kizer to co-direct.” Kizer was the editor New World brought in to direct scenes of Raymond Burr for GODZILLA: 1985. Jackson was not pleased to lose control, but ultimately he decided it was a better career move to go for a bigger-budget theatrical release than another low budget video. New World brought on line producer Bill Edwards, who did not think the script could be shot for $1,000,000. He and executive in charge of production Neal Nordlinger raised the budget to $1.5 million. While at Alan Lansburg Productions, Nordinger had co-produced JAWS 3-D.

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Said Jackson, “We had five accountants, two directors, three producers, one executive in charge of production and two executives in charge of the executive in charge of production-so everybody had his finger in the pie, getting their friends jobs instead of spending money on the film. They wouldn’t hire the lighting guy I wanted, so I had to pay additional money out of my pocket to get the right guy.”

The first and only time I ever saw the movie with an audience—prior to a couple of months ago—was on the old MGM lot in Culver City. The Cary Grant screening room. The audience was made up of the crew and some of the cast, and the movie dropped like a 10-ton stone into mud. I hated the movie. Hated it. Looking at it was like staring at a wrecked career. My friend William Wisher—who I mentioned earlier, and who was amazed my dopey script even got made—came up to me afterward and said, “I’m sorry they screwed up your movie, Randy.” That was the nail in the coffin. But I must also say that a few months ago, when the Cinefamily Theater here in L.A. did a one-night Rowdy Roddy Piper memorial screening of They Live and Hell Comes to Frogtown, the audience seemed to get all the jokes as intended. They were extremely appreciative and enthusiastic in their response. So, despite all the ruinous stuff that happened to compromise Frogtown, it evidently still hits the mark well enough for some people who like weird and funny stuff to enjoy. For that, I am grateful. And producing that movie was a huge learning experience, an on-the-job training that has helped me navigate this silly business and the people who presume to run it. – Randall Frakes (Producer/Writer)

The film went into production with former wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper in the lead role of Sam Hellmond and frog masks by 21 year-old Steve Wang. Unfortunately, despite the rising budget, Wang’s budget was never increased, limiting what he could accomplish, so most of the mutant frog people are rather inexpressive. However, the radio-controlled mask for Commander Toty, the chief villain, features an impressive range of expressions, including bulging eyes, flaring nostrils, and flickering eyelids.

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The production soon ran into trouble. Despite early agreements on a cinematic style inspired by samurai films and Italian westerns, Kizer and Jackson were just too different in their approach. “I knew it wouldn’t work I’m sure he didn’t like being in that position any more than I,” said Jackson. “R. J. in my opinion never liked the project. He wanted the money and the directing credit.”

Another major source of friction arose regarding the film’s photographic look. Jackson, who according to his usual practice was photographing as well as directing the film, clashed with the movie’s art director. “The executive in charge of production had a friend of a friend who had never been an art director – he was an architectural draftsman. I never liked the way he dressed the sets, and I kept changing them around to make them look good for the camera which really upset him and the executive in charge. All my sets looked better after being redressed. He was building them like for a stage play, not for a movie. He didn’t age it-everything was too new. I kept taking cans of flat black paint and aging everything down.

“After doing this for ten days, the final blow-up was in the bar scene. They had blow-up sex dolls, I found that really offensive. They had naked mannequins, I found that offensive. They had this big poster of Reagan as Max Headroom, which the guy had swiped from a Doonesbury cartoon. So I wanted that all torn down. I got in a violent argument with the art director, who said he was gonna quit. I wish he had. He didn’t.

“The next day, when I came to work, they said, “There’s a new cinematographer, and he’s not gonna fuck with the art director.’ And I was told to watch they didn’t want me to talk to R. J. on the set, only in the trailer, so he was happy.

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“So I watched. I got tired of watching after six hours, so I grabbed a camera, went outside, and put together my own 2nd unit crew and started shooting a lot of insert shots. We shot two cameras on the pyrotechnics and fights and shot a lot of closeups of fingers pulling triggers and so on.”

By this time, Jackson’s co-producer Randall Frakes had already been fired for insisting the film be shot as written. Said Jackson, “The script was cut so drastically by Neal Nordinger and R. J. Kizer it no longer resembled the action script we wrote. New World said we couldn’t afford it, but I’d just shot a whole movie for hardly any money so I know it can be done.

“When I was shooting I was going as fast as anybody could go and everybody was complaining it wasn’t fast enough. As soon as they put on another d.p., the pace slowed down to one-half. The original schedule was twenty days. They shot twenty-two days principal, plus five more days of pickups because they didn’t cover the action properly-it wouldn’t cut together.”

The final product pleased neither Jackson nor New World, who, ironically enough, now plan to release it directly to video rather than theatrically.

Donald G. Jackson Interview Tell us about the genesis of Hell Comes to Frogtown ? Where did you find the inspiration for frog mutants ? What kind of deal New World proposed to you ? And how do you feel about that afterward ? Donald G. Jackson: There is a section of Los Angeles known as Frogtown. The story goes, that back in the 1940s this area was overwhelmed by a large invasion of Frogs — which is why it got its name. I had a friend Sam Mann, who was one of the actors in Roller Blade and lived in this area. We were driving along one day and he came up with the title, Hell Comes to Frogtown. From there, I ran with the idea and that is how the movie developed.

New World had made so much money on Roller Blade they offered to finance Hell Comes to Frogtown. My original plan was to shoot the movie with Sam Mann and Suzanne Solari (both from Roller Blade) as the leads. I was going to shoot it on 16 mm, with my Bolex — as I had done with Roller Blade. But then, New World decided they wanted to “Up” the budget. The problem is, the minute you let the devil in the door, the devil is going to take control over you. And, that is what happened with New World and Hell Comes to Frogtown. They decided that they wanted to cast name talent and take over the production of the film. So, the movie evolved from being a 16 mm art film, to a relatively high budget 35 mm cult movie. Sadly, my friend Sam didn’t get to play Sam Hell and Suzanne was only given a small part in the film.

Were Roddy Piper and Sandahl Bergman your firsts choices for the roles of Spangle and Sam Hell ? What were they like on the set ? Donald G. Jackson: No, as stated, my original plan was to shoot the movie with Sam Mann and Suzanne Solari as the leads. But, New World wanted to use Roddy Piper as he was a very famous wrestler at the time — and this was going to be his first movie.

As a fan of wrestling, I was happy to have him. But, as you can understand, what occurred was not fair to my friend Sam. I think I may have made the wrong choice by not standing by my friend Sam, who actually came up with the title and the idea for the movie. But, I spoke with him and he seemed Okay with what was happening. Though Hell Comes to Frogtown is, no doubt, my most famous feature, by my accepting New World’s offer, I believe it did set a lot of bad karma in motion.

Regarding Sandahl Bergman: She had just finished Conan: The Barbarian, and they wanted to use her for her name power, as well. I had very little to do with any of the casting of the film. Again, this is the problem when a large production company becomes involved in a project — the actual filmmaker is allowed very little creative control. Which is why I have never again worked with a large production company. But, Piper and Bergan were both very nice people to work with.

Anything to say on Cec Verrell (Centinella)? Donald G. Jackson: No, just somebody cast by New World. Also, very nice

The “Dance of the Three snakes” scene didn’t really stand its promises ? Did Sandahl Bergman have something to do with that ? Donald G. Jackson: In the script, Bergman’s character was to be naked in this scene. On the set, she would have nothing to do with nudity, however. So, it was one of those power struggle things happening between the actor and the director. Due to New World’s influence and decision, the actor won.

William Smith is one of my favorite actors. How did you get in touch with him ? He would have made a perfect Sam Hell too, don’t you think ? Are you still in touch with him ? Donald G. Jackson: Yes, Bill is a great actor and a great friend. He has been around the film industry forever. And, I have known him for a lot of years. I put him in my films whenever I can.

Nicolas Worth is also brilliant, even under his heavy make-up. A very talented actor. Did you notice him from his creepy performance in Don’t Answer the Phone (1980) ? Donald G. Jackson: No, he was cast by New World.

The makeup of the Frogmen are excellent, could you tell us about that ? Donald G. Jackson: Steve Wang who went on to direct films like Kung Fu Rascals, The Guyver, and Drive was the main force behind the frog masks and make-up. He is a great guy and has gone on to do a lot of special effects work for a number of very big feature films.

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There’s always comedy coupled with eroticism and sexual content in your movies that remind me of the films of Russ Meyer. Do his films form part of your influence ? Donald G. Jackson: Some of Russ’s stuff is great. Particularly when you think that he made them without the help of any of the big studios. But, he has never been an influence to me. It was more the avant-garde films from the 1960s like Dr. Chicago and Chinese Fire Drill that really inspired me as a filmmaker.

I think you’re also a car lover and “Hell Comes to Frogtown” showcases two amazing cars, were they part of your own collection ? Donald G. Jackson: Yes, I am a big fan of classic cars. I love the cars made in Detroit from the 1950s and early 1960s. One of the cars in Frogtown is a 1962 Plymouth Belvedere. I found and purchased two at the same time. One, we customized for the film and the other one I customized to my own specification and have driven ever since.

R.J. Kizer, the guy guilty to have shot the useless and ugly new scenes of the American version of The Return of Godzilla is often credited as the co-director of Hell Comes to Frogtown. Why ? Was it imposed to you by New World ? Why ? What was your relations with him on the set ? Of which part is it exactly responsible in the final cut of the movie ? Donald G. Jackson: Like a lot of people in the film industry, I sometimes say things, trying to soften the reality of what actually occurred in a particular situation and trying to make it more understandable for those who have never made a film. But, now is the time for me to spell out the truth.

Hell Comes to Frogtown was my baby. Though I have been the one to get the most press from the film, regarding Kizer, again, New World took over the project and said that was part of the deal — Kizer was going to be the co-director of the movie. Even though I was the creator, my complete creative control was taken away. New World became angry at my desire to maintain control over the project and I was eventually removed as the director and banned from the sets. There was never any collaboration.

Regarding the final cut of the film, New World handled it. Though I watched some of the editing — they didn’t like my flaring temper, when I didn’t like something I didn’t like. Again, this is why I have never worked with another big production company. Because it just takes all of the creativity away from the filmmaker.

CAST/CREW Directed Donald G. Jackson J. Kizer

Produced Donald G. Jackson Randall Frakes

Written Donald G. Jackson and Randall Frakes (story and screenplay)

Roddy Piper as Sam Hell Sandahl Bergman as Spangle Cec Verrell as Centinella William Smith as Captain Devlin/Count Sodom Rory Calhoun as Looney Tunes Nicholas Worth as Bull Brian Frank as Commander Toty Julius LeFlore as Squidlips Eyde Byrde as Patton Lee Garlington as Briefing Officer

Special Effects by Grant Arndt  … creature effects Wayne Beauchamp  … pyrotechnician Makio Kida   … creature effects Crit Killen  … creature effects David Kindlon    … creature animatronics (as Dave Kindlon) Steve Patino … creature effects Matt Rose    … creature effects Johnnie Saiko    … creature effects Steve Wang   … creature effects Ed Yang  … creature effects

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Scottshaw.com slashfilm.com Cinefantastique v18n05 Imagi-Movies v01n04

Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) Retrospective SUMMARY This film is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout.