#// this is not Halloween related they're just this way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mostlysignssomeportents · 4 months

Text

I assure you, an AI didn’t write a terrible “George Carlin” routine

There are only TWO MORE DAYS left in the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

On Hallowe'en 1974, Ronald Clark O'Bryan murdered his son with poisoned candy. He needed the insurance money, and he knew that Halloween poisonings were rampant, so he figured he'd get away with it. He was wrong:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O%27Bryan

The stories of Hallowe'en poisonings were just that – stories. No one was poisoning kids on Hallowe'en – except this monstrous murderer, who mistook rampant scare stories for truth and assumed (incorrectly) that his murder would blend in with the crowd.

Last week, the dudes behind the "comedy" podcast Dudesy released a "George Carlin" comedy special that they claimed had been created, holus bolus, by an AI trained on the comedian's routines. This was a lie. After the Carlin estate sued, the dudes admitted that they had written the (remarkably unfunny) "comedy" special:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/01/george-carlins-heirs-sue-comedy-podcast-over-ai-generated-impression/

As I've written, we're nowhere near the point where an AI can do your job, but we're well past the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week

AI systems can do some remarkable party tricks, but there's a huge difference between producing a plausible sentence and a good one. After the initial rush of astonishment, the stench of botshit becomes unmistakable:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/03/botshit-generative-ai-imminent-threat-democracy

Some of this botshit comes from people who are sold a bill of goods: they're convinced that they can make a George Carlin special without any human intervention and when the bot fails, they manufacture their own botshit, assuming they must be bad at prompting the AI.

This is an old technology story: I had a friend who was contracted to livestream a Canadian awards show in the earliest days of the web. They booked in multiple ISDN lines from Bell Canada and set up an impressive Mbone encoding station on the wings of the stage. Only one problem: the ISDNs flaked (this was a common problem with ISDNs!). There was no way to livecast the show.

Nevertheless, my friend's boss's ordered him to go on pretending to livestream the show. They made a big deal of it, with all kinds of cool visualizers showing the progress of this futuristic marvel, which the cameras frequently lingered on, accompanied by overheated narration from the show's hosts.

The weirdest part? The next day, my friend – and many others – heard from satisfied viewers who boasted about how amazing it had been to watch this show on their computers, rather than their TVs. Remember: there had been no stream. These people had just assumed that the problem was on their end – that they had failed to correctly install and configure the multiple browser plugins required. Not wanting to admit their technical incompetence, they instead boasted about how great the show had been. It was the Emperor's New Livestream.

Perhaps that's what happened to the Dudesy bros. But there's another possibility: maybe they were captured by their own imaginations. In "Genesis," an essay in the 2007 collection The Creationists, EL Doctorow (no relation) describes how the ancient Babylonians were so poleaxed by the strange wonder of the story they made up about the origin of the universe that they assumed that it must be true. They themselves weren't nearly imaginative enough to have come up with this super-cool tale, so God must have put it in their minds:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/29/gedankenexperimentwahn/#high-on-your-own-supply

That seems to have been what happened to the Air Force colonel who falsely claimed that a "rogue AI-powered drone" had spontaneously evolved the strategy of killing its operator as a way of clearing the obstacle to its main objective, which was killing the enemy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/ayyyyyy-eyeeeee/

This never happened. It was – in the chagrined colonel's words – a "thought experiment." In other words, this guy – who is the USAF's Chief of AI Test and Operations – was so excited about his own made up story that he forgot it wasn't true and told a whole conference-room full of people that it had actually happened.

Maybe that's what happened with the George Carlinbot 3000: the Dudesy dudes fell in love with their own vision for a fully automated luxury Carlinbot and forgot that they had made it up, so they just cheated, assuming they would eventually be able to make a fully operational Battle Carlinbot.

That's basically the Theranos story: a teenaged "entrepreneur" was convinced that she was just about to produce a seemingly impossible, revolutionary diagnostic machine, so she faked its results, abetted by investors, customers and others who wanted to believe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos

The thing about stories of AI miracles is that they are peddled by both AI's boosters and its critics. For boosters, the value of these tall tales is obvious: if normies can be convinced that AI is capable of performing miracles, they'll invest in it. They'll even integrate it into their product offerings and then quietly hire legions of humans to pick up the botshit it leaves behind. These abettors can be relied upon to keep the defects in these products a secret, because they'll assume that they've committed an operator error. After all, everyone knows that AI can do anything, so if it's not performing for them, the problem must exist between the keyboard and the chair.

But this would only take AI so far. It's one thing to hear implausible stories of AI's triumph from the people invested in it – but what about when AI's critics repeat those stories? If your boss thinks an AI can do your job, and AI critics are all running around with their hair on fire, shouting about the coming AI jobpocalypse, then maybe the AI really can do your job?

https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

There's a name for this kind of criticism: "criti-hype," coined by Lee Vinsel, who points to many reasons for its persistence, including the fact that it constitutes an "academic business-model":

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

That's four reasons for AI hype:

to win investors and customers;

to cover customers' and users' embarrassment when the AI doesn't perform;

AI dreamers so high on their own supply that they can't tell truth from fantasy;

A business-model for doomsayers who form an unholy alliance with AI companies by parroting their silliest hype in warning form.

But there's a fifth motivation for criti-hype: to simplify otherwise tedious and complex situations. As Jamie Zawinski writes, this is the motivation behind the obvious lie that the "autonomous cars" on the streets of San Francisco have no driver:

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/01/driverless-cars-always-have-a-driver/

GM's Cruise division was forced to shutter its SF operations after one of its "self-driving" cars dragged an injured pedestrian for 20 feet:

https://www.wired.com/story/cruise-robotaxi-self-driving-permit-revoked-california/

One of the widely discussed revelations in the wake of the incident was that Cruise employed 1.5 skilled technical remote overseers for every one of its "self-driving" cars. In other words, they had replaced a single low-waged cab driver with 1.5 higher-paid remote operators.

As Zawinski writes, SFPD is well aware that there's a human being (or more than one human being) responsible for every one of these cars – someone who is formally at fault when the cars injure people or damage property. Nevertheless, SFPD and SFMTA maintain that these cars can't be cited for moving violations because "no one is driving them."

But figuring out who which person is responsible for a moving violation is "complicated and annoying to deal with," so the fiction persists.

(Zawinski notes that even when these people are held responsible, they're a "moral crumple zone" for the company that decided to enroll whole cities in nonconsensual murderbot experiments.)

Automation hype has always involved hidden humans. The most famous of these was the "mechanical Turk" hoax: a supposed chess-playing robot that was just a puppet operated by a concealed human operator wedged awkwardly into its carapace.

This pattern repeats itself through the ages. Thomas Jefferson "replaced his slaves" with dumbwaiters – but of course, dumbwaiters don't replace slaves, they hide slaves:

https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/behind-the-dumbwaiter/

The modern Mechanical Turk – a division of Amazon that employs low-waged "clickworkers," many of them overseas – modernizes the dumbwaiter by hiding low-waged workforces behind a veneer of automation. The MTurk is an abstract "cloud" of human intelligence (the tasks MTurks perform are called "HITs," which stands for "Human Intelligence Tasks").

This is such a truism that techies in India joke that "AI" stands for "absent Indians." Or, to use Jathan Sadowski's wonderful term: "Potemkin AI":

https://reallifemag.com/potemkin-ai/

This Potemkin AI is everywhere you look. When Tesla unveiled its humanoid robot Optimus, they made a big flashy show of it, promising a $20,000 automaton was just on the horizon. They failed to mention that Optimus was just a person in a robot suit:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/elon-musk-tesla-robot-optimus-ai

Likewise with the famous demo of a "full self-driving" Tesla, which turned out to be a canned fake:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/

The most shocking and terrifying and enraging AI demos keep turning out to be "Just A Guy" (in Molly White's excellent parlance):

https://twitter.com/molly0xFFF/status/1751670561606971895

And yet, we keep falling for it. It's no wonder, really: criti-hype rewards so many different people in so many different ways that it truly offers something for everyone.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

Image:

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Ross Breadmore (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/rossbreadmore/5169298162/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

#pluralistic #ai #absent indians #mechanical turks #scams #george carlin #comedy #body-snatchers #fraud #theranos #guys in robot suits #criti-hype #machine learning #fake it til you make it #too good to fact-check #mturk #deepfakes

2K notes · View notes

voidpacifist · 9 months

Text

I have a new brainworm about steve harrington that I need (NEED!!) to share

imagine this for me: it's 1983. nothing eventful happens, at least in the supernatural sense. steve and nancy still date, he still drops his terrible friends when he realizes they're not gonna support him if it doesn't fit their agenda, he still accidentally becomes close to a bunch of seventh graders when nance asks him if he can babysit--

(not that he'd ever say no to her, but it's not what he envisioned the summer of '84 to be like, okay?)

--and overall, things are relatively normal for him. his parents continue to be absent, but they still get excited for him when they learn he has a girlfriend or won a new award at the end of the school year for something sporty or what have you. they're not bad people, they just don't know how to be good parents. and they're always, always away.

but the thing about 1983, is that his final interaction with tommy before he "broke up" their friendship by dating someone kind and sweet and "perfect" like nancy, was him getting absolutely wailed on. enough that he went to the hospital with a severe concussion and some damage to his optic nerve. the doctors told him he already has something going on with his vision to begin with, probably a genetic disease passed down from one of his folks, that increase his chances of going blind earlier in life. meaning, if push came to shove, his vision could go entirely if he got into any more scruples with ex-friends or people who just generally disliked him.

and then lucas sinclair asks him for dating advice, because he likes max mayfield, the new girl in his class, and ultimately it lands steve being the chauffeur for their first date just days after halloween in 1984. by now, he and nancy have broken up — they weren't emotionally available in the ways they needed to be with one another, and steve knows his dream of the future is different from her own. this time, there's no speech about bullshit or faking it. they simply both know that their expiration is upon them and call it quits.

(it still hurts, but he told lucas to shoot his shot, because if there's anything he's learned by dating nancy wheeler, it's that projecting his heartbreak and hurt onto others is a gateway to toxicity in the water; and by god he is not sabotaging this kids emotional maturity, okay? okay)

so he takes the kids to bennys burgers, because lucas insists it's "cool enough" for this girl, and he doesn't want to overdo it by going somewhere too fancy. but when steve returns to pick them up, there's a hiccup in the plan.

billy, maxs step-brother and steve's most recent bother at school, is there, gearing up to try and scare lucas off, or do something worse. steve, anointed babysitter and generally protective friend, steps in without hesitation. the fight that results makes the local news. steve lands in the hospital again.

his vision doesn't go completely, but it goes enough. enough that he can't drive, enough that he'll have to find large print books or simply relearn to read altogether in braille. enough that he's advised to get a cane or a guide dog. enough that, when all is said and done, his old life has been completely upended.

jonathan--

(the same jonathan who has now swept nancy off her feet the way steve used to)

--surprisingly, is the one who ends up getting close to steve after this. he tells steve about what it was like when will was found after being missing for a week, about how he knows it isn't the same, but that he relates to the feeling of oh god, everythings different and nothing I used to have is coming back. he doesn't divulge on the details, but steve knows he's serious about understanding the feeling.

even more surprising is nancy, who commands him every day that god dammit steve, your life is not coming back unless you take it back yourself and then reassures him in the same breath that he's not weak for needing help doing so.

and then the kids join in too. and steve harrington isnt a king anymore of anything, but he's the king of his own life, he's the king of himself. he starts going back to school even when he feels embarrassed to be there, like he's an imposter or ill equipped. he starts going to public places just to meet poorly concealed whispers with something friendly and witty in return. he starts taking his power back in a way that never needs to hurt anyone, that never needs to hurt himself.

he also discovers he loves bright colors — neons and pinks and reds especially. he takes a trip with nancy and barb one day to indy on some sort of girls trip (they've long since made up since the first house party, and barb latches onto steve as a best friend shockingly fast in the wake of his and tommy's split), and it's there that he meets someone punk for the first time. he develops a fixation on the colored hair, the leather and spikes and denim with safety pins in it. he badgers the girls about teaching him how to wear eyeliner.

it's his gateway into punk style, which is then a further path into the subculture itself, into colored laces and battle vests and the politics and social aspects. steve takes to it like a fish to water.

the name steve harrington used to mean something entirely different. even though he calls his parents every day since the incident, even though they've been back to see him multiple times, even though they've tried to be present in their strange, semi-absent way, they still haven't seen him since his transformation from local jock to local punk.

needless to say, he spends a lot more time educating them about his "waywardness" and a lot less time actually excitedly telling them about the next color of his hair. but the harringtons aren't unaware — they can see how while this may be a creative way for steve to begin expressing and discovering himself, it's also an armor. no one really wants to fuck with someone who will trip you with his cane if you're being an asshole, someone who wears a lot of spikes and other sharp objects on their body for fun.

so they let it be. and they stay a little longer, this time.

this shift doesn't go unnoticed by the local gossips, but it also doesn't go unnoticed by the "freaks and geeks" at school. he develops, quite by accident, a reputation that rivals that of the king of freaks at hawkins. eddie munson wears the title proudly, clings to it with every antic and every quip that feeds into the rumors about him. but he respects what it took for steve to get here.

so he invites him along to a hellfire session. which turns into two. which turns into steve becoming a party member, which turns into him excitedly telling the kids he babysits that he gets it now, that yes, they can absolutely host their games at his house as long as they have rides back home.

but as he and eddie get closer as friends, eddie notices that as well as steve has done accepting himself as he is, he still misses the things he used to do without thinking much about needing sight to do it. contact sports and movies and other very visually inclined things. and listen, eddie's happy that steve has renounced the toxic social scene of jockdom, he really is, but he also recognizes a guy who misses pieces of his old life.

(he finds himself missing his old life, the life before wayne, all the time, just for the parts that didn't hurt him)

so eddie, much to steves surprise, suggests he try joining the swim team for the final quarter of his senior year. and hey, fuck it, what can it hurt? he's already a nerd now as well as a punk as well as disabled — he can go for one more oddball, not-quite-jock occupation. the coach has several stipulations, all of which steve takes in stride.

he's granted a tryout. he doesn't make it on.

eddie, in his wildest nightmares, doesn't touch sports. he's already athletic in other regards, naturally good at sprinting and lifting heavy things from taking equipment to and from band practice. he doesn't think he actually needs sports, but he's willing to go with steve to lake jordan to keep practicing. he's seen how stubborn harrington is, and he's not about to stop it.

eventually, they do these laps across the lake and back (it's a pretty small lake) just to get high once they're done. and fuck, if steve can swim the length of the lake, he can get a job at the new starcourt mall. and he does. he's there at scoops ahoy the bare minimum of hours they're required to give him to technically say he's employed, but at least he has work. his friends visit him there after their own jobs are done for the day, and eddie consistently shows up just to bug him.

robin, his coworker, is impressed and startled by this version of steve. she'd say she doesn't trust it, but there's nothing to trust really, about the shock of bright green hair or the way his eyes aren't actually that focused looking, or about the way he casually tells stories about getting high and swimming the length of lake jordan. not to mention, the chemistry he can't physically or metaphorically see between him and eddie is laughable to her, and entirely too obvious.

she ends up with one bad trip from the wrong dealer, and steve stays with her through the comedown, and she realizes she would probably die for him, because he sits there and listens to her buzzed ramble about tammy thompson and his bagel crumbs and other dumb shit from when he was still in high school. he's the first person she's ever come out to, and she's the first person he's ever thought could be a soulmate, the kind he'd never give his body but would marry in a heartbeat if she asked him.

he tells her about billy. she tells him about her mother. they tell each other a lot of secrets, more than he's ever told jonathan and nancy, or barb, or even eddie.

and then their workplace gets set on fire from a gas leak after hours. they pack up and go to family video, because they're a package deal. it's barb being on the crew that convinces keith to let steve take the job, and he has a new shtick joking about being a blind guy who likes movies.

then eddie probably takes him to one or two or maybe five. then they maybe make out after one of their swims. then steve starts going to eddies shows at the hideout, starts going with him damn near everywhere, and this was the kind of companionship he needed from the get go but didn't have. the kind where they support each other's interests without changing themselves for it, the kind where there is love born from fierce and unwavering friendship, the kind where loyalty is unquestionable but agreeing all the time is optional. and god.

steve harrington has been blind for a year. and he wears metal in his face and color in his hair. and he and his friends gather for movies just for the enjoyment of it. and he swims the lakes of hawkins with his boyfriend. and he plays dungeons and dragons with the kids who haven't let go of him just yet. and his parents aren't who he needs them to be yet, but they're trying. everyones trying. and eveyrone is enough.

and he's enough, at the end of the day.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #stranger things #blind steve harrington #steddie ficlet #steve harrington brainworm #drabble #sort of

653 notes · View notes

rayroseu · 10 months

Text

💚Mallevan/Levanoa Headcanons (2/?)

PART 01 PART 02⬇️

you guys dont know how often i brainrot about these couple who never even talked in game yet KDJAKSK

Am glad to see that Levan's receiving the "Yuusona treatment" because of the various ways that twst artists draws him lolol

• • • Headcanon 2.

Malenoa is the strongest of the trio. Because she is a royalty, she is much more knowledgeable about magic— particularly if its related to dragons. Naturally, she became kind of like a magical tutor to both Levan and Lilia when they were children.

i really like the thought of eastern dragons in TWST🥰 its a nice foreshadow that Levan is a Long bcs thats Malleus' Halloween costume✨

(if its really like that,,,, im going to cry bcs that means Malleus dressed up like his papa who he never knew 💔😭)

(also I'm praying with all my heart he's not some plot twist jerk in game like King Stefan from Maleficent 1 😭)

I think dragons are rare on TWST not only because they're really particular on their mates but also because raising one is extremely high maintainance.

Its 1: life threatening to the caretaker, 2: needs constant attention and love, 3: once it grows up, you even need to withstand its tantrums and emotions (who are btw magically powered) 😭💥

That's why I think ??? there's limited knowledge about mediating their power (so they just get stuck in this cycle of being the strongest but that very strength can bring disaster bcs its uncontrollable)

Thus, I thought of Malenoa being Levan's friend who teaches him about controlling his draconic powers because Levan doesn't really want to accidentally harm others because of his uncontrollable strength--✨✨✨

I like to think its because of Levan's pacifist nature that Land of Briar chose to have war treatiest first instead of just crushing the Silver Owls through Malenoa's military strength. He's aware that killing off humans would just make them more hostile to faes in general, and I don't think both Malenoa and Levan wants Malleus to grow up in war once he hatches-

—

Levan's fire is purple because I remember getting surprised when Overblot Malleus used that on his attack despite Land of Briar/Malenoa (?) being "mainly green colored" all this time...

So, I think that's one magic he got from his father??? because most of his features already derives from Malenoa (horns, tail, magic (i think his green fire is from Malenoa), straight hair, etc)

The purple fire might've originate from Malleus' mastery of void magic (I hc their dorm spells' element are their forte magic and Dorm Malleus is double void card) but we've never seen void magic used like a fire... its usually like an energy beam right? I think it was so exciting when he attacked like that💜👆‼️✨ (I literally squealed lol its so pretty?? but I know I'll die from that lol)

I love the thought that Lilia is the "mom friend"/"sensible friend" of this trio... 😂 because he says hes the one constantly working for these couple... mostly to deal with their antics lol

plus Lilia is literally the sole person working for Levan and Malenoa to meet together right now---

since Levan's missing and Malenoa can’t really leave the castle since she’s guarding unhatched Malleus--- and its just a bad move to send the best queen on the frontlines when they can just send Lilia yk 😆

i hope we get more dragon egg lore and also specifically egg malleus reveal🙌🙌 like how do THEY take care of a dragon egg anyway.... do they put it on cradles as well like human babies??? or their parents will hold them since they require vast amount of love-

i'd used to think malleus backstory would be his child self being lonely (which in the future might??? but for now?? his backstory is literally just him being an egg and all of us are crying over an egg JDHJWJD 😭😭😭

619 notes · View notes

steddieas-shegoes · 7 months

Text

sometimes it's too real

for the @steddieholidaydrabbles warm up round 3 (prompt: Halloween) rated: T wc: 577 cw: some blood mentions (fake and real) tags: mention of Upside Down related trauma, hurt/comfort

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

Eddie thought it was a funny joke, and it was.

Like, to all of the others, it was hilarious.

But to Steve, it was a reminder of how close they came to losing Eddie, how close they were to his heart actually stopping, his skin going pale.

He knew it was ridiculous, so he choked out a laugh and found a way to keep busy.

Snacks were mostly prepped, drinks already on ice, decorations hung with the help of Eddie and Robin.

But he could always find something to clean, and tonight's victim was the kitchen sink. Anything to avoid seeing the fake blood dripping from Eddie's mouth and neck.

He should have known it would only work for a few minutes, Eddie being basically attached to his hip ever since they made the whole boyfriend thing official.

Eddie's arms wrapped around his waist, his hands settled on Steve's stomach.

"I vant to suck your blooooood," Eddie said in a silly accent, nipping at Steve's neck.

Any other time, Steve would giggle and let him do it, let it lead to a kiss on the lips or more.

But he couldn't erase the image of Eddie coughing up blood as he tried to hold onto Steve as he was carried out of the Upside Down. He couldn't erase the way Dustin was sobbing next to him, how Robin was trying to hold it together so that Dustin didn't sense her panic.

He knew if he turned to see Eddie now, he wouldn't see his costume, he'd see him dying.

"You okay, sweetheart? Need any help?" Eddie asked, slowly pulling away when he sensed that Steve wasn't in the mood to be silly with him.

"Fine. You can go back out there."

"I will if you tell me what's bothering you," Steve could hear the crossed arms in his tone.

"Nothing, Eds. Just want everything to be perfect for the kids."

That was true, and he knew Eddie believed that, but he also knew it wasn't everything and Eddie would absolutely know that, too.

"Is it something I did?" Eddie asked.

Steve turned to him, finally looking at him and resisting the urge to flinch.

He must not have succeeded because Eddie was pulling away quickly.

"It's just. It's the blood. I know it's fake and I know it's stupid and this is supposed to be fun and a joke, but just seeing you with blood is a lot," Steve explained, hating himself more by the second for ruining Eddie's fun.

"Stevie, why didn't you say something before? I can wash it off," Eddie turned towards the sink to do just that when Steve reached his hand out to stop him.

"No, I-"

"Stevie, I am not letting you suffer your way through trauma if I can do something to help."

Steve didn't have any response to that, so Eddie continued to run the water until it was warm, and started splashing some onto his face and scrubbing the evidence of fake blood away.

"The kids..."

"I'll just tell them some got in my mouth when I took a drink and it tasted gross and didn't wanna risk it happening again. They won't care, they're on sugar highs already."

Steve still felt stupid for letting this bother him, but when Eddie wrapped his arms around him and leaned in to kiss him softly, reassuringly, he knew it was fine.

Maybe next Halloween it would be a little easier.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #steddieholidaydrabbles #warmup round #halloween

372 notes · View notes

raven-at-the-writing-desk · 8 months

Note

I just want to say I'm very impressed on the theming of the SSRs between the masquerade and puppet halloween events like we've had Azul, Idia, and Malleus stand as Rollo's greatest enemies since they're reps of the three mythical great seven members. Now we have Ace, Kalim, and Ortho, the most childish characters in the main cast, going to a shady amusement park like in Pinocchio.

[You can view the new Halloween animation here!]

I very much enjoy how much more “deliberate” the SSR choices have been for last year’s Halloween event and this upcoming one. The first two Halloweens didn’t showcase their SSRs to a very prominent degree (other than some lines about how they’re in the leading committee) compared to the rest of the cast, whom they had to share screen time with. Maybe the exception is Cater, who exposited information about the Magicam Monsters to everyone. I think it definitely helps to help the SSR trio stand out when the cast is divided in half like this.

In Glorious Masquerade, Azul, Idia, and Malleus were very good picks to square off against and to challenge Rollo’s beliefs. As you’ve pointed out, those 3 represent the “magical beings” of the Great 7. (the Queen of Hearts, the Beautiful Queen, and the Sorcerer of the Sands were normal humans, whereas Scar is an animal; the Sea Witch, the Thorn Fairy, and the Lord of the Underworld are beyond your typical human or animal.) They’re great foils for Rollo, someone who stands in opposition to magic and anything that deviates from what he considers the norm.

Additionally, Azul, Idia, and Malleus’s personalities, backgrounds, and skillsets contrast well with Rollo’s. Azul and Rollo are both schemers, Idia has suffered the loss of a younger brother like Rollo has but coped in the aftermath very differently… and then there’s Malleus, a being of mighty magic and the embodiment of everything Rollo despises. It’s so fitting that it’s these 3 that take Rollo down.

I imagine that there is, similarly, a deeper and more intentional meaning behind the “most childish” of the main cast being picked for Stage in Playful Land. Maybe that trait will actually be to their advantage in the theme park… The way the event synopsis is worded + the story of Pinocchio itself makes me suspicious that there will be some kind of loss of conscience and/or brainwashing (via the ribbons/puppet strings) involved 🤔 and maybe those 3 are the ones to be targeted and/or to break out of it?? Either way, I do think Ace, Kalim, and Ortho are ultimately going to relate to Ferro Honest and Gidel in some meaningful ways—and they’re probably also going to save everyone from the duo!

#twisted wonderland #twst #Azul Ashengrotto #Idia Shroud #Malleus Draconia #spoilers #Rollo Flamme #Ace Trappola #Kalim Al-Asim #Ortho Shroud #disney twisted wonderland #Gideru #notes from the writing raven #Cater Diamond #Ferro Honest #Gidel #Fellow Honest

370 notes · View notes

astyrial · 7 months

Text

old souls meet spencer reid x fem!reader (fluff) synopsis: fbi's annual halloween party word count: 840 warnings: mention of alcohol, a day late because i forgot i wrote this masterlist | requests are open

"i hate company part-"

"yes, we all know you hate company parties. but today they're also naming williamson as head of department so we're going to make the most of it, miss astronaut," your coworker, sarah, gives you a smile while grabbing ahold of your hand to pull you into the party.

you walk behind her slowly, your lips curled into a disappointing frown. the whole party is lit with green lighting and a punch that is likely spiked and spilling with dry ice. you free your hand from sarah's and quickly tell her over the noise that you'll be getting a drink.

that drink becomes water as you smell the alcohol coming from the punch, not wanting to get drunk with your coworkers. you open a plastic water bottle and take a quick drink while you wait for your supervisor to receive his raise so that you can leave. your hope is that it'll start in less than ten minutes and then end in five. however, most things don't go to your liking.

however, it's a little better as you notice a fellow agent lingering by the water bottles with you. his slender hands grab one of the bottles near you and he stands a couple of feet away. you would be stupid to say he isn't handsome, in an awkwardly adorable kind of way.

"sally ride, right?"

"excuse me, what did you say?"

"your costume, you're dressed as sally ride, right? first american woman to travel to space? i loved the physics work that she did for the university of california," he mentions, taking a step towards you.

you give him a wide smile, nodding your head, "yes, you're the first one to get it! i love her and almost became an astronaut because of her, so i had to," you look at his outfit and determine it to be one of the doctors from doctor who.

compared to most fans, you weren't the most knowledgeable, but you did know a couple of things. "and you must be david tennant's doctor for the show doctor who! the sideburns and the sonic screwdriver circa the tenth period give it away a little," you look down at the scarily accurate sonic screwdriver before meeting his eyes again.

"quite right! the name is spencer reid, i'm part of the behavioral analysis unit. gosh, great to see someone here who knows what costume this is. which you seemingly relate to," spencer holds out his hand, letting you shake it as his eyes search yours.

his brown, hazelish, eyes can't seem to take themselves off of as you bring your hand to your side once more. you nod, shrugging your shoulders a little before taking another drink from your water. "right? i only really came to watch williamson's announcement, and i had this from a past halloween, so.."

spencer nods, understanding your need to escape the place and find somewhere quiet to be. "yeah, i agree. my coworkers are probably watching us over here and will hound me for details later, especially derek. it was great meeting you..."

"y/n, i work in vicap, violent criminal apprehension.. which you already know and i probably don't need to spell it out for you," you sigh and wrinkle your nose, realizing that you were treating him like he wasn't a part of the fbi.

"it's fine, i spell bau out for a lot of people too, i get it. now, i will probably need to head back and tell them that you're a great person so that they'll get off my back," spencer shrugs, his hand raising and scratching the back of his neck as his smile falters a little.

normally, you're not a hand out your number kind of person. especially not to someone who works nearly side by side with you at work. however, his knowledge, his humor, they're just undeniably worth the risk. you nod, "okay.. if you'd like my number, i'm open to sharing it. we could continue this conversation sometime."

"um- your number?"

"that was way too forward, wasn't it?"

"not at all! i was just surprised that someone like you would give me their number. i mean you're funny and clearly know your history. sure, i'd love your number, which i will also need to tell my coworkers," spencer grabs the small paper from your hand and stuffs it into his pocket.

your cheeks begin to warm up as you listen to him give you simple compliments that warm the heart. “of course, just as i need to tell sarah,” you say as he walks off towards his friends, one of them, presumably derek, pats him on the back as he pulls out your number.

when you look back towards the stage, you see sarah walking over with a drink in her hands somehow. she ushers you over, saying that he'll be announcing soon and all of you can leave soon after that. you take one look back at spencer and his friends and take in a deep breath. your mind races with when you’ll talk to him next.

#criminal minds x reader #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds #spencer reid x reader #dr spencer reid #spencer reid #x fem!reader #spencer reid x fem!reader

144 notes · View notes

witchofthesouls · 3 months

Note

I just read your seeker bird kiddo (Jack) and Truck dad Optimus adventures and I beg for more content, I adore it all and the spOoky cryptic parts are 👌

👁️👄👁️

Jack accidentally triggers mechs’ protective instincts because he makes baby bird noises to mimic the local corvids. It doesn't help that Jack parks himself at the entrance to the Ark and plays games with the more playful blackbirds. Dadimus is very much used to Jack’s imitations, the rest of the Autobots (and his counterpart) are most definitely not.

The chirping and screes are reminiscent of newsparks’ calls for attention and care, and it drives the resident Seekerkin up the wall because he is the only sparkling in the vicinity and Jack punches the Seekerkin-coding into activity after four million years of dormancy.

There have been a few jokes to take a recording of the sparkling’s noises and play it to the Decepticon Seekers after the Autobots had seen their own Seekerkin with the kid. TFP Optimus is immediately No. Stop. Control, Alt, and Delete that terrible plan. He will take Jack and run into the most remote environments he can find.

No one knows how Jack did it, but the blackbirds got into gambling, and everyone blames Smokescreen.

He's partly to blame with the cards, but the dice is Bluestreak's fault.

Jack is a polite menace. The kid knows his manners, but that doesn't stop him from skipping up the walls, hanging on the ceiling, and popping into places that he shouldn't have access to. At all.

Mechs were confused why Dadimus pinged out so often but then realized that's the most reliable way to actually tag Jack as he's a slippery little thing. Sometimes the sparkling responds, but usually he doesn't.

Red Alert is on the verge of having an aneurysm since Jack can bypass all the security measures. Mechs have taken to looking up to see if Jack is trapezing on the panels or checking under the tables and desks because of near unfortunate incidents of almost shooting the kid or shock-related delays with time-sensitive chemical reactions that nearly turned the ship into a massive crater.

Dadimus was highly disappointed and upset by the last part as Jack knows better as he had done similar stunts when they were upon research vessels. Not only Jack had to apologize to Skyfire, Wheeljack, and Perceptor, but he wasn't allowed to stray from Dadimus' field for a month. ("Curiosity cannot override safety protocols.")

On one camera, Jack would be at a corner by the entrance with organic birds, and between blinks he would then disappear and reappear across the ship, talking excitedly to a random corner with a different group of birds.

(If anyone catches them at the right second, at the right angle, at the right frame... the raven/crow/jackdaw/jay will ripple. Feathers dripping and flowing like an inky waterfall and eyes splitting into multiple, countless pairs as Jack's shadow expands- And then, the watcher will blink because they have to, and the footage will reset. Devoid of Jack and blackbirds.)

There's talk about new cryptids going around. It's silly Halloween and superstitious nonsense… until it isn't.

Due to Smokescreen, Bluestreak, and the Aerialbots constantly monitoring the perimeter or setting traps that are becoming more elaborate each week, it's becoming a new running joke. It's the Autobot snipe-hunting. All because of Jack's devoted drawings of strange, contorted creatures.

They're adamant that something is outside.

(They’re right).

An eerie thing begins to appear at the nearby dunes by the Ark’s entrance. It’s vaguely canine and its size is constantly changing. They can smell a wildfire in the air and taste ash upon their tongues as it beckons them to follow with a heavy, burning gaze.

Before anyone follows, a racket of shrieking blackbirds breaks them out of the trance. When the piercing noise fails, then a nasty peck to some skin or exposed protoform is enough to bring them back to their senses.

“It’s looking for something that can’t be regained,” Jack speaks with a keenness beyond his age and a lilting cadence. A flurry of pictures of the same dark canine by a campfire with multiple individuals and groups sitting by it. It remains unchanged, despite the others’ fashions and vehicles it managed to beckon to it. “Don’t be taken by its ancient sorrow. You won’t escape its grasp.”

Between the space of desert and forest, there’s an old barbwire fence and a seemingly endless dusty dirt road that has never been updated to proper asphalt, despite its existence for over a century and all the grumbles and complaints by humans and Cybertronians.

When it rains, a phantom of a massive stag appears. Dark and regal, it gently trods along the path, always towards the forest, never in the opposite direction. Perched upon its twisted antlers is an owl with multiple wings, spread out and spotted with many painted eyes, a feathered and watchful halo with a cry that echoes in everyone’s ears and audials. It leaves no tracks, just deep puddles with flickering shapes in its vast depths that immediately dry when people look away.

The mechs start to understand that the local humans’ grumblings and complaints are half-hearted, and when it starts to drizzle, everyone stays inside.

“It’s older than all those that vaguely remember its beginnings,” Jack murmurs to a window full of drawings in the condensation, sleepy in the colder weather as he curls in a heated seat. “Dreaming and wandering, yet always returning to the place that crowned it King.”

81 notes · View notes

junimo-hexed · 5 months

Text

The Batfam goes to see Barbie/Oppenheimer

Bruce: Damian refused to see Barbie and Bruce did not like the idea of him going to the theater on his own. He eventually saw Barbie and wasn’t impressed.

Babs: she didn’t originally want to see Barbie because she felt it redundant and that it wasn’t going to offer much, she felt herself pretty much right, but something kept nagging at her. Something about it seemed familiar… Oh shit Batman is Barbie and we’re all the Kens. She explained her wild idea to Dick who responded “but, your my Barbie… oh shit you’re right.”

Dick: he and Babs fought about the order that they saw them in. Eventually he gave into seeing Barbie first and he's glad because he could not get Cillian Murphy's stare out of his mind. Something about it just scared him. He rooted for Ken to become a better person and is hoping that Ken finds happiness. He also adored every Barbie's outfit and dances to all of the songs regularly. He and Babs are going as Barbie and Barbie for next Halloween.

Jason: movie about a bomb? No thanks, he’d rather get glammed up for a movie that he thinks is going to be just a fun time only to leave with an existential crisis.

Tim: he debated with himself for hours over the order before pirating both and watching them at the same time. This was not the best decision.

Damian: he’s not ready to watch Barbie. Very film snobby about Oppenheimer.

Steph: *cough* so that Ken, am i right?

Cass: she didn’t have much interest in either. In the end she didn’t quite understand Barbie and thought Oppenheimer was alright. Cass isn't the most media literate and that's alright.

Jean-Paul: he didn’t originally plan to watch Barbie, but Babs called him and told him he NEEDED to watch Barbie. Like a good little brother he did. He related to Ken on a very deep level and by the end of the movie was balling his eyes out. He felt very called out by Ken in a good way.

Alfred: read two history books instead. And watched them during family movie nights by occasionally checking in on the screening room.

Jason, Jean-Paul, and Steph all related to Ken on a spiritual level, he’s just like me for real. They all feel like they're on the sidelines and like they pay the consequences of Batman's "righteousness". Dick, Babs, and Tim all related as well feeling like they're stuck in Bruce's shadow. Babs was there to help them all cope bought everyone Kenough sweatshirts.

106 notes · View notes

tealfloyd · 2 years

Text

A COSTUME-SHIFTING HALLOWEEN

"MC's first Halloween ended up being disastrous a marvelous one~!"

SUMMARY: During the last day of Halloween, MC encounters a singular ghost who drags her to a confusing situation... (Everyone x Fem!Reader)

WARNINGS: Death mentions at the end, jealousy (?)

CONTENT: I didn't have any ideas for Ortho :( The ghost has a sad backstory, and, uh— That's it, I think. WORDS: 7K+

A/N: Okay, I know Halloween has already passed, but I got an excuse since this is a repost, so bear with me here :)

Some costumes were hard to describe, but I think they're not that bad. They're acceptable tier, I guess.

After this fic, everything else published will be the requests I've saved, so I ask for some time before starting to work on the new ones!

Now onto the fic~

Halloween was just around the corner, and you’re still trying to figure out what is happening.

It was a strange surprise when Grim and you returned to your dorm, not expecting to see it covered with paper and cloth; somehow looking a lot like a Ghost Festival entrance.

Lilia was on charge of the decoration placements, and while you were okay with it (it actually made the Ramshackle dorm look good), Grim was demanding an explanation for this.

After he got it, you wondered if everyone was doing the same thing, and now that you think about it, you haven’t seen any of the first years after class during the recent days; most likely preparing everything for the arrival of the spooky season.

It wasn’t till the next day that you got a more detailed explanation of how Halloween was celebrated here; your troublemaker friends being overly excited for this event, and you had to admit that the joy was contagious.

And you may be wondering: “will this finally be the event where the only requisite is to enjoy it and not engage in any unusual thing?”

And to answer that question, I must ask: “MC, are you really attending NRC if not?”

8 DAYS FOR HALLOWEEN

A week before Halloween arrived, a steering committee session was scheduled so everyone could show the work they’ve done so far, talking about the venue decoration and the costume related to it.

Since a stamp rally was going to be held, everything had to be in perfect condition for when the guests would come to visit.

You got to see every dorm’s venue location and costume, amazed by the amount of work and effort they’ve put into it.

Vil tried to make you a costume, but you declined, stating that you were okay without a one. He really wanted you to have one, fuming slightly when you refused again, the response being that you didn’t want to take advantage of him. At the end, he reluctantly agreed to it, understanding your position.

However, that idea changed (non-voluntary) when the last day of the Halloween week started.

THE LAST DAY OF THE HALLOWEEN WEEK

Before I narrate the occurrences that happened the last day, first I must narrate what happened through the entire celebration.

You visited every dorm’s venue periodically, just wanting to have a fun time with your friends and talking about how cool their costumes were, along with some compliments of your own costume, the one that the ghosts gifted you in spirit of Halloween.

Everyone was trying to beat everyone, non-literally, of course (well, most of them). More like they were trying to show off in front of you, looking to gain your attention and appreciation.

It didn’t work at the end because they were all your friends, and you genuinely appreciated every performance they’ve put since that meant they were trying their hardest, and as much as they love your thoughtfulness, they wished you could have chosen their dorm.

Overall, everything went great. You were surprised at the way some of them interacted with children, finding it cute as you continued to stroll with Grim, the little creature receiving a lot of attention because of the viral picture the ghosts posted some days ago, leaving you to wait aside. This, shockingly enough, made you feel at ease, since now you weren’t the only girl roaming in the campus, which was now filled with children and their parents and/or brothers.

However, you weren’t invisible to a certain ghost, who decided to approach after seeing you for some time.

“Why are we here again? We’re missing all the fun!” Whined Grim, his little paws making it difficult for him to catch up with your fast pace.

“We won’t be here for long, but if you really don’t want to be with me then I guess you can go and—“ He didn’t let you finish as he ran away, excited to be once again the centre of attention. “—Leave me alone… Just when you think they’re going to listen."

You shocked your head in disbelief, returning your gaze to the pond, looking for something.

“Hey, little fishes~ Where are you~?” You called, gaze tracing the water to see if they were hiding. “It’s me, so there’s no need to hide—"

“I see you’ve grown quite fond of these creatures."

The unknown voice startled you, and you backed away in surprise, almost falling into the water.

“Oh, thank the Sevens…” Exhaling in relief, you exclaimed. “You scared me!"

“Isn’t that the purpose of this event?”

It didn’t come off as a surprise to be spooked by a ghost; you’ve grown accustomed to it since it was Halloween, yet it did seem weird that this one was the one spooking you, thinking that it took advantage of your unawareness.

“Can I help you with something? I don’t have candy right now but if you wait, I can bring you some," you said, hoping that your words convinced her.

“Oh dear, I’m not looking for candy," you turned your head, furrowing your brows. “I was looking for you”.

Baffled, you pointed at yourself. “Me?”

“Indeed, I’ve noticed that you are the only female student here," she floated closer to you. “I wonder why~”

You sighed. “It’s a large story, but that doesn’t explain why you’re looking for me."

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”.

“If I’m being honest ma’am, I’m more scared of Lilia’s cooking than your presence."

“Well, that works for me~," she chuckled at your response, seemingly thinking about something. “Where did you get that Halloween costume?”

“This?” You signalled the costume. “My ghost friends made it for me, since Grim and I were the only ones without one."

“I see~” She inspected it, humming in disapproval as she checked every detail. “Some of the seams are incomplete, and the colour palette can be better…”

“Hey, what are you doing—"

“I’ve decided!” The abrupt yell caught you by surprise, looking at her in shock. “You’re going to be my new muse, and your friend’s designs are the perfect way to start!”

Now you’re confused, completely and utterly confused, because you can’t comprehend what this ghost is talking about.

“Muse? I… I’m afraid I don’t understand…" You said, tone hesitant. “You shall not worry, dear! You will get it pretty soon!”

And with that final note, you seemed to have no other option than to let this ghost drag you outside the outings of the campus, floating towards Diasomnia’s location.

FIRST PARADE, DIASOMNIA: RAMSHACKLE DORM – A MIGHTY “LOONG”

The costume didn’t have any major changes on it; most of the original design was kept untouched, but what differentiated Diasomnia’s costume from this one is that it had a golden necklace, and in the centre of it was a shiny chrome diopside, the green gem contrasting with the solid colours of the entire outfit. But what did change was the head accessory, the hat being replaced by a golden crown, vaguely resembling a dragon.

“What are we doing here…?” You asked, seeing how everyone was walking around the intricate decorations.

“Now, stay still…” And just like she was using a magic wand, she started swinging her hand with grace and after some seconds and several sparks, she proudly smiled. “Done! Now tell me what you think!”

You looked down, surprised to see that your old costume was replaced with Diasomnia’s one, feeling somewhat conflicted. “I… I don’t know what to say…”

She took this as a good sign, happily exclaiming that she did an excelling job, attracting the attention of the visitors.

“Woah, look! It’s a ghost!”

“Is that girl part of the presentation? Her costume is so elegant~”

“She’s so pretty! Is she supposed to be an empress? The head ornament is really cool~!”

And with that, the people who were previously taking photos of the decorations now are asking to take photos with you.

The commotion being heard by the Diasomnia students, who approached to confirm everything was right.

Malleus is baffled. At first, he doesn’t know why you have a Diasomnia costume, but that thought is quickly forgotten as he steps closer to you, complimenting you in his unique way, accidentally making the visitors think that you were a couple. He doesn’t do anything to deny those claims, sighing sadly when you explain that you’re not, feeling slightly betrayed at that. He knows that you’re beautiful, and he understands the people who think the same, but he can’t help but apart you from anyone even the ghost that he thinks is too close, hiding you behind his intimidating form, leading you to calm him down so he wouldn’t scare the customers off. Sometimes, he wishes he could keep you safe in a tower. Just sometimes.

Lilia is enjoying the whole situation. He notices the female ghost that’s part of the “main show," and he guesses that maybe she could be the reason why you’re using his dorm’s costume he likes to play detective. He’s delighted with the design, saying some strange compliments that only Lilia would say, expressing his endearing feelings for you in a… Complicated manner, one that rivals Rook. He’s the first one that poses with you, happy to see your cute attempts as your fingers try to adopt a scary pose. He had to restrain Malleus at some point from hissing at a customer because he tried to flirt with you. He gets it, but he can’t let him hiss at anyone that tries to flirt with you!

Silver is the only normal person here, but in everyone’s defence, he’s the only person there. He compliments you too, yet it ends up sounding a bit… Frigid? He doesn’t mean it that way, you caught him, the normally collected Silver, off guard showing up with his dorm’s costume. His mind wanders from helping Lilia control Malleus, to you. He knows he shouldn’t be glancing at you; his priority is the sovereign of Briar Valley, but he supposes he can let himself be distracted when the life of his master is not in danger.

Sebek is yelling at you because “you didn’t get permission to use and change Diasomnia’s costume!” Shutting up after some seconds of this because of his master’s ominous glare. He doesn’t mean to appear so rude and the fact that he made Malleus angry is something that he would never forget, but how do you expect him to react after seeing you so… Empress-like? The royal aura you’re emanating makes him want to bow down before you and patiently wait for your orders, so that’s another bodyguard for you. He also sets aside anyone that is near you, accidentally blurting a: “haven’t you learn that royalty doesn’t interact with commoners!?” and now he’s a blushing mess, screaming: “I was talking about Lord Malleus, not you, human!”

Thanks to their unrequited actions, everyone mistook the scene as a comedy skit, fortunately helping their image because right now they’re a disaster.

They didn’t really ask about the ghost beside you, maybe a ‘why?’ and ‘what?’, but they’re pretty chill about it. Yes, even Sebek.

Lilia suggested that you all should take a selfie, and since Lilia’s the shortest he took it while floating, sending it to the group chat, most likely to annoy the other students.

As you were about to be engaged in another exhausting photoshoot with the visitors, the ghost decided that it was enough for you… In this costume.

She holds your hand, and you bid your Diasomnia friends goodbye as she leads you to the next location.

SECOND PARADE, HEARTSLABYUL: BOTANICAL GARDEN – A SKELETON GOTH LADY

The top was tight, the laces on it being identical as the original ones, while the cuffs were a bit more open. The pants were changed for a torn-up skirt, a little bit higher than the knee. Black stockings covered your legs, having a bone pattern so it would match with the skeleton concept. You didn’t had gloves, some white chains replacing them as they attached themselves to rings on every finger. Instead of a hat, you wore a skull pin on the side of your hair, a bit of black tulle added to it.

“The botanical garden, great… Why’re we here again?” You asked, a bit nervous because of the attention your costume was getting.

“My, haven’t you noticed? To change your costume, of course!” That easy going attitude wasn’t wearing off, and much less now that she’s got to see you as a source of “inspiration."

“My costume? Why? I thought it looked nice…”.

“It does! But my creativity has reached levels that I cannot ignore, so we will be changing your attire a few times today~," you couldn’t even have time to protest as she started doing the magic wand trick again, sighing at the lack of communication.

Once the magic was over, you looked down, seeing the new costume that resembled Heartslabyul’s skeleton idea.

“And…? What do you think~?” She asked, impatient for your answer.

“It’s—"

“Woah, look there! They’re holding a magic demonstration!”

“That’s such a cute costume! But I thought the students were the only ones using them?”

“I’ve heard that there’s a girl studying here, and to top it off she’s very pretty~”

“Oh no…” Indeed, here comes the photoshoot session again.

Riddle doesn’t even know where to start. He wants to scold everyone that it’s crossing your boundaries, and then he realises why it’s that. His face becomes redder than his hair, and he’s conflicted with his feelings because on one side, you look beautiful (he doesn’t understand why you’re using a Heartslabyul’s costume, but he guesses he can set it aside for now), and on the other side, some teenagers are getting too close to you, much to his and your like. He steps in, trying to be a good friend that helps another friend romantic interest, but he’s mistaken as a, and I quote, “loyal skeleton husband," Don’t worry MC, Cater’s been recording since the start of the interaction so you wouldn’t miss his flushed face. He ends up getting collared for that.

Trey chuckles, and you can’t help but think that Jade’s mannerisms had finally stuck to him. In reality, he’s doing it as a way to cover up his bashfulness, thankful of the veil covering his face. But that doesn’t mean he won’t tease you about it, saying some funny compliments in order to hide his flushed state. He’s the calmest out of the five when it comes to people approaching you, asking them to not invade your personal boundaries, his high figure making it easier for them to listen to him. He hears a comment that has him coughing out of the shock, stating that they wished they had such a gentle partner. You pat his back, completely worried because, Trey? Why’s your face so red?

Cater doesn’t know where to start; by the fact that you’re slaying in that costume or the fact that you’re using his dorm’s costume in the first place. He decides that is not important because the only relevant thing here is that you are using his dorm’s costume. He feels so proud as he announces that he was the one that came up with the original idea; not exactly this, but you know what he means. He’s the one that teaches you how to pose for photos with the visitors, snapping some quick selfies of you both and the rest of the students because it’s necessary, and no, he’s not taking any criticism. He posts it immediately, adding some fun captions and hashtags as he continues the photoshoot.

Ace remains quiet for five seconds, and you’re scared because you think he may mock you for using this. So, imagine your surprise when he muttered that you looked good in an unusual shy tone. The Ace Trappola complimenting you directly and with no teasing involved? It seems too good to be true, and it was as soon as you were about to say something nice too, he reverted to his normal personality and stated that it was because the costume itself made everyone look good. As some say, all good things must come to an end, so prepare yourself, because he’s going to tease you non-stop during your entire stance in the venue.

Deuce stays still, mind trying to elaborate the sentence he’s been meaning to say to you since some minutes ago. He’s so nervous that he ends up saying: “you look MC, beautiful." You laughed so hard that your stomach started to hurt, and the same thing happened to everyone else; even the visitors let out a chuckle at his innocent comment. He quickly tries to retract himself, blabbering that he didn’t mean it that way. He knows he just made the situation worse for him as you continue to laugh your ass off. Once you recover from the accidental joke, you tell him that’s fine, you understand what he meant by that. He’s relieved, but also concerned because he knows that Ace and his upperclassman are going to use this against him.

The whole scene seemed like a stand-up comedy show, the unintended funny comments made everyone think that it was a special performance since it was the last day.

Too bad for Deuce, now he’ll never hear the end of it because everything was recorded from start to finish. Don’t let him know that people are posting this, he’s not prepared.

Contrary to Diasomnia, they did ask about why you had a ghost accompanying you. You tried to explain them the situation, confusing them further. At the end you gave up because you didn’t understand it either, so you just dropped the topic.

After a few more photos, Cater took a surprise selfie, posing while everyone else was distracted. He also sent it to the group chat, with the captions: “Look who decided to join us~!”.

Not for long though, the ghost lady dragging you off to the following place while they were attending some customer, making them sad skeleton boys upon realisation.

THIRD PARADE, OCTAVINELLE: LABORATORY – A MUMMIFIED YOUNG RULER

Instead of the black shirt underneath the white button-up one, it had a crop top; a black harness belts covering it. An oversized white dress shirt was tucked into the skirt, some loose bandages wrapped around your waist, along with some leather belts to secure it. Your nails were painted black, and a boater hat was placed on top of your head, slightly tilted to one side.

“Are we visiting every venue because of your inspiration stroke?” You said, already getting tired of being dragged off.

“Now you’re getting the hang of it!” She exclaimed, stopping in front of the laboratory. “It’s time to change, aren’t you curious about my next work?”

“I would be lying if I said that I’m not."

She did her magic, and in a couple of seconds your costume had drastically changed; Octavinelle’s concept, you guessed.

“Do you feel comfortable in it? I don’t know if you like the top…”

“It’s fine, it’s not usually what I would wear but it’s comfy." Relieved, she exhaled, as if she could breathe for starters.

You were wondering if nobody saw you, and that thought vanished as you heard the now expected comments of the customers.

“Is that a ghost? She looks so cool!”

“And that girl over there, is she using a mummy costume?”

“Maybe she’s the female student everyone’s talking about!”

Both of you entered the laboratory, and that did nothing to soothe the stares and whispers; if something, it enhanced them.

Azul mind’s is multitasking. One part is processing the fact that you showed up, out of the blue, with a ghost and an Octavinelle costume; this is not something he can ignore, although he can’t ignore anything that has to do with you. And the other part is thinking of possible promotions for the Mostro Lounge with you on the cover; a businessman never stops being a businessman after all. He salutes you as always, cordially asking what brings you and your ghost companion there. Azul can be a great actor when the time requires it, and this is the time that really requires it; if he embarrasses himself in front of these amount of people, the tweels and you… Be certain he isn’t leaving his octopot anytime soon.

Jade knows that when something involves you, there’s always a twist, and what a charming twist you’ve made today. He’s entertained by this scene, softly chuckling as he puts on his best smile, greeting you with his gentlemanly demeanour. He’s checking your reactions at his planned compliments, finding all of them utterly adorable. The laboratory had a fair amount of people before you arrived, but since you showed up the visitors have been doing the same; and for this situation he has a subtle way to make the customers apart from you, and by subtle I mean scaring them off with “discreet” threats and a sinister close-lipped smile.

Floyd’s mood is constantly changing from happy to hostile. Happy because of you appearing with his dorm’s costume on and with a ghost; just when he thought his Shrimpy wouldn’t get more interesting! He’s stuck to you like a koala to a bamboo tree, happily talking until someone asks for a picture, and that’s when the hostile mood comes; he can’t stand anyone that comes near you in a ‘flirtatious’ manner, ominously looking down at them. You have to distract him with funny comments so he wouldn’t squeeze anyone, but there’s definitely an unspoken condition there: he’s going to appear in every picture taken, no complaints.

They’re lucky you visited two dorms before theirs, because if not people would start to suspect that maybe anything of this wasn’t planned at all.

At this point, everyone saw the two videos that went viral on Magicam, Lilia and Cater’s courtesy, which had the only female student at NRC magically changing her costumes with the help of a friendly ghost.

The three of them had seen the photos sent to the group chat, but Floyd was the one that spoke out loud, placing the phone real high, kind of not giving time for you to pose appropriately.

He sent it immediately, bragging off about the fact that they had the coolest selfie, creating a discussion under his message, giving start to a selfie war,

The ghost lady noticed the behaviour of the sly students, and so she took the advantage when they were distracted to drag you off there to continue her inspiration spree.

Less to say that they weren’t very happy about this.

FOURTH PARADE, SCARABIA: SAM’S SHOP – AN ARABIAN WEREWOLF PRINCESS

The main thing that differentiated this costume from the original is the top, which was red with some golden patterns on it, a translucent material covering your belly, same thing with the long sleeves. The pants were still baggy and white, a golden chain wrapped around your waist. You had a water drop head chain, making it easier for you to wear the wolf ears, while the clawed gloves were replaced with long, black nails.

“We shouldn’t have done that, now they’re going to look for us," you sighed, already thinking about the outcome.

“Don’t be silly, it would take a while for them to find us in this crowd," she seemed accustomed to it, and you don’t know if you should feel relieved or scared.

“I got lost in the mall once while shopping with Jade and Floyd, and they found me two minutes later. Two!"

“I know a thing or two when it comes to escaping~" Scared, that’s how you feel right now.

“I—" You thought for a second before re-doing your sentence. “What do you have planned for Scarabia?”

“I’m sure you would love this one!” She spoke with so much confidence that you were getting excited about this, staying still for the transformation.

Once it occurred, you were happy with the outcome, speaking your thoughts of it before she even asked. “This one’s great! How do you make these costumes?”

“You can say it’s my speciality~”

“Did they invite a princess?”

“I think she’s the female student of the videos; her werewolf costume is so cute!”

“MC!”

Oh, that was a different one.

Kalim acts like a puppy every time he sees you, all giddy and if he had a tail, it would be wagging. He was surprised to see you appearing in a different costume, and he happily complimented you, not realising at first that it was based off his dorm’s costume and not one of your ideas. You present him to your fashion ghost, who instantly loved his carefree personality, stretching hands with big smiles on their faces. It was cute, and that was a common sentiment as everyone asked for a photo; the supposedly ‘scary’ expressions only gained more attention, making Jamil act as a guardian for you both.

Speaking of Jamil, you thought he was mad at you for something since he didn’t say anything from the moment you arrived. He’s perceptive, so he probably knew this from the concerned look you unconsciously sent at him, muttering a small: ‘It suits you’ after. You don’t get to see his face since he’s hiding it, but you don’t mind, glad that you didn’t make him mad. As if you could make him mad in the first place; if anything, your presence makes him feel at ease, and he would’ve said something else if it weren’t because of the fact that you were dressed like an Arabian werewolf princess and the amount of people surrounding you right now.

Kalim already attracted the people, his cuteness being the cause of it. So, add to the formula you, the dress-shifter with a stylish ghost, and that equals: More people.

Jamil literally acted like a bodyguard, trying to control the crowd as you both posed for more pictures.

At some point, Kalim gave his phone to a girl and kindly asked her if she could take a picture of you three. She complied, shuttering a few photos until she was satisfied with the last one.

It was the typical best friend group photo; the lively Kalim, the annoyed Jamil and the one that’s in the middle, you.

Everything was fine until you heard a loud yell, which screamed: “Shrimpy~!” And that was the moment the ghost knew it was time to go.

FIFTH PARADE, SAVANACLAW: COLOSSEUM – A SOPHISTICATED CAPTAIN

The coat was larger than the original one, almost touching the floor; the ends were a bit thorn, but it was considered more elegant than the boy's version. You wore a fancy shirt, which was under a leather, black vest; you also wore the same pants, just a little higher and tighter. You wore several silver rings, and high leather boots. You didn't have an eyepatch though; what you did have was a pirate hat, with golden feathers neatly placed on it.

“Hey— Wait! You’ll make them angry!” You could barely stand by how fast she was floating, and you swore you were floating too because you couldn’t feel the ground.

“We are short on time; we don’t have time to worry about them!”

“But they’re 6’2! And Floyd can do parkour. It’s a matter of time before they find us!” Without context, it would seem like you both were escaping from the mafia; and with context… It’s the same, but for different reasons.

“You’re right!” She abruptly stopped, leaving you to fall face first on the sand of the colosseum. “This is the perfect situation for the next costume!”

“That’s what you’re thinking about? My personal space's on the line here!” You yelled, spitting the sand that got in your mouth.

“Shhh!” Shushing you, she helped you get up, doing once again the costume transformation. “There! Aren’t you the prettiest pirate here~”

“It does fit the context, though—”

“I didn’t know the Savanaclaw dorm had pretty girls~”

“I don’t think they do, maybe she’s the student from the videos.”

“She’s such a cool pirate~ I’m going to ask for a picture!”

“When will this end…?“

Leona was napping inside the boat in a secluded place, but he got up after hearing the commotion outside. He tried to sleep again, but the noise was too much for his sensitive audition, so he went to investigate the source of it. Less to say that he froze in place after seeing you; ‘why are you using a pirate costume’ and ‘what is a ghost doing beside you’ are some of his questions. He walked up to you, asking why you are wearing that, an unconscious smirk travelling up his features. He didn’t mean it in a bad way, it’s just his way to express interest, and you seem to get it because you thanked him. You drop the topic and explain the situation, and he’s baffled because he doesn’t get how you understand his actions yet don’t realise he’s in love with you, like, how does that even work?

Ruggie chokes. He was drinking water since his throat was starting to get dry after so much talking, and that’s when he saw you. He makes enough noise for you to notice, so you try to help him, unintentionally making it worse. Once he’s done with the coughing, he asks why you’re using his dorm’s costume; he didn’t understand the explanation, maybe because he was busy staring at you. He knows he has to say something, so he compliments you; not directly though, saying that the costume looked good. You agreed, toying with the golden buttons of the coat, failing to see his flushed face. Good, because if you did, he would have to lie, and his mind can’t elaborate a lie right now.

Jack was absent for the majority of your stay, returning from Sam’s because Ruggie asked him to bring some snacks. He did hear something about a female student changing costumes, but he didn’t imagine it was you at first, thinking that maybe a girl was taking advantage of the rumours. Now he knows that he was wrong. You spoke to him first, even retrieving his bags so you can place them aside, all while people still ask you for pictures. He only begins to move when they start to cross the line, hiding you behind him so you could take a breath from the sudden fame like a good friend would do, and not a boyfriend like the customers think- Wait, a boyfriend, your boyfriend? All the efforts he made to not blush go out of the window as his tail wags and his cheeks become red.

The visitors in Savanaclaw were more controlled than those in the other dorms since you had three scary beastmen by your side Ruggie can be scary, I’m sure of it, literally, and that reduced their shoving and overall craziness.

The idea of taking the photo was from your ghost companion, seeing that none of them brought it up.

It ended up being a pretty funny photo. A boy snuck behind you all, and before he could even pose, Leona grabbed him by the collar. Jack tried to set free the poor teenager, Ruggie was laughing, and you still stood there in the middle, smiling to the camera.

There wasn’t a second chance, she liked it too much to delete it, instead sending it to the group chat.

She decided it was enough fun for this venue and continued to the next one.

SIXTH PARADE, IGNIYHDE: LIBRARY – A MYSTERIOUS PUMPKIN DAME

Ignihyde's costume wasn’t changes in the slightest, it was the same black and neon blue armour, just that yours was adjusted so it would fit you. But instead of the greenish pumpkin head that Idia had, you had an orange one. The face in this one also changed, with mischievous eyes and sharp teeth forming a terrifying smile.

“Can I ask you a question?” You said, tilting your head to look at her.

“But of course, dear! What do you want to know?”

“Why me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not really an interesting person, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who are more befitting of these clothes than me."

“I see… Well, that is a topic I would discuss later, when I depart, but you were my only option for this, and I sincerely mean it," instead of the cheerful tone she always spoke with, she had a nostalgic one replacing it.

“Okay…” You both didn’t talk for a few minutes, only conversing again when you arrived to the library, a crowd of people inspecting the place. “Are you going to turn me into a knight?��

“Not a knight, dear. A dame!” She made her magic, and soon enough you had a new, shiny armour and a pumpkin helmet, unaware of how scary it looked. “How does it feel? Replicating that boy’s technology is extremely difficult, so I tried to make it as light as possible”

“It’s not too heavy, but this thing surely is suffocating me," removing it from your head, you organized your hair, a bit squashed because of the sudden pressure.

That movement was enough to get you a whole fan club.

“Kyah! Who’s she? She’s so cool~!”

“Right? She must be the girl that’s trending on Magicam, she’s prettier in person~”

“Who needs a prince? I want this girl to rescue me.”

“Wow, they’re getting more creative."

Idia first thought that a devoted fan of “Pumpkin Hollow” appreciated his work and decided to show up as the character to show his respect. He didn’t expect to see you out of all people but consider him a part of your fan club with that hair movement. His hair becomes pink, and he tries to deviate the conversation from your costume to the movie. To be honest, he felt betrayed when he knew that you didn’t watch the movie at first, yet he knows he can’t blame you because you were isekai’d into this world, so he asked you if you wanted to watch it. He thinks you loved the movie just as much as him, but when you told him that your new ghost friend made it for you he deflated a little. Not for long when you told him that you did like the movie, already planning a marathon for you and Ortho to watch.

Going to Ignihyde was fun from the start. I mean, sure, some of the people were annoying, but it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

At some point, you acted a bit, reciting a few lines of the movie that you remembered, making the visitors intrigued about the movie, muttering that they were definitely going to watch it Idia thinks he’s in love with you.

For the selfie, you took two: one with the helmet and one without the helmet. Idia wanted to delete the helmet-less one, but you pressed send before he could finish the sentence plead.

It was getting late, and you knew that the next location was going to be the last one, so you took the initiative and told the ghost (that suddenly became more thoughtful) that it was time to move, and so you both exited the library.

SEVENTH PARADE, POMEFIORE: MIRROR CHAMBER – AN ENCHANTING VAMPIRE COUNTESS

The Pomefiore costume really had major changes; you wore a Victorian dress, which had the same pattern and colours as the original, a black sash covering your waist. The cape had the same design, a bit larger so it could embellish the shape of the dress. You didn't have any accessories besides your black gloves. Your makeup was also done; a dark eyeshadow and lipstick complimenting your skin.

She did the transformation with no funny puns and old-styled jokes, and you thought something was… Off.

“Are you okay?” You said, calmly walking towards the mirror chamber.

“Of course, I’m okay. Why the sudden question, dear?” She replied, a forced smile making her way past her lips.

“You seem a bit… Sad." She widened her eyes at this, lips forming a gentle smile after a couple of seconds.

“It’s nothing to worry about, dear. This will be over soon."

“Huh—?”.

The usual three comments you got used to were replaced by the voices of your distressed (except Rook) friends, looking for an explanation as soon as you arrived.

“Potato! What’s the meaning of this?”

“Ma chérie, I’m glad you’re finally here!”

“I can’t believe we were your last choice…”

Vil felt offended and outraged. How can you decline him making you a costume, but you so gladly accept the same offer from an unknown ghost? He does realise he shouldn’t be mad at you; he doesn’t know if you gladly accepted after all, but he can’t help but feel betrayed. And you didn’t come visit them first; you know he’s a beauty guru, why would you hide this from him? He found out when checking his Magicam, the trending topic being: “NRC female student magically changes costumes with the help of a friendly ghost!” He calms down, not wanting to get a pimple out of stress; he does think the costume is great, sure, there are a few errors here and there, but nothing he cannot fix.

Rook is delighted. This man would praise you if you used a trash bag as a dress, so imagine the amount of compliments you’re getting from him using his magnifique dorm’s costume! He found out too when he was asking Vil something, strangely zoned out, so he decided to see whatever had him so mesmerized; but if isn’t his belle prefect! Of course Roi du Poison would be enchanted by this! He patiently waits for you to come visit, hopefully with a new costume based off his dorm, and he sure wasn’t disappointed! He even thanks the ghost at some point for enhancing your effortless beauty, and then he just straight up starts confessing in French. He knows you don’t know French, but he enjoys seeing you so confused as you try to decipher what the hell he just said.

Epel is also offended. MC! You’re one of his best friends and romantic interest and you decide to visit him last? How could you? He starts lightly scolding you, and in the middle of it, he shuts up, noting that you were indeed using your own version of his dorm’s costume. He becomes so red that he’s not a vampire anymore, he’s a tomato. Because of this, he lets you be, uttering a small compliment while looking away, not wanting you to see his blushing face. You get distracted by Rook, and he silently thanks him as he organises the stand; the gratefulness doesn’t last long because, well, it’s Rook, and Vil also added himself to the conversation, fixing a few details of your costume. He groans, discreetly commenting something so you would talk to him too.

The Mirror Chamber didn’t have any customer, and you felt a sense of relief washing over you. People would start calling you names if they noticed that you were friends with Vil, and you didn’t need that right now.

Since this was the last venue, you stayed with them until they finished cleaning, helping a little as you couldn’t really move freely in the dress.

You all went out, taking a break before returning to their respective dorms to prepare for the upcoming party, clearly taking a selfie before it which ended up winning the contest because Vil was the one who took it.

You were almost spotted by the tweels, but manage to hide before they saw you, carefully running with your friend towards your dorm.

Once you got there, she made her magic again, transforming the dress into a simpler one, white with some flowers on it, all while a heavy sigh leaving her mouth.

“What’s wrong?” You asked, now concerned because of this.

“MC, you know why I chose you for being my muse?” The sudden question caught you off guard, and you shook your head in response. “I had a daughter, just like you: young, beautiful, and had this charisma that made every head in the room turn into her direction. Truly a charm."

You stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. “I was a fashion designer when I was alive; I rarely saw my daughter, maybe once or twice in the week, and that if I had time."

“She got sick one day. I thought it was sudden, but the doctor said that it had been going for months, and that she had only a few ones to live. It turned out, it wasn’t like that."

“One week later I was rushing to the hospital, carrying her in my arms because she collapsed."

You guessed the end, but that didn’t stop the feeling of dread. “She died that day, and I couldn’t even tell her that I loved her…”

“I’m sorry…" You muttered, not knowing what else to say.

“When I saw you, I saw her; smiling and living contently with no worries, as if she was fine and healthy," she stopped to look at you in the eyes, and asked one more question. “Do you know why I’m a ghost?”

Your eyes widened in shock, and you shook your head again. “I promised her I would dress her with beautiful clothes; I promised her that I would be there …”

“Do… Do you mean that—"

“I think that this day may have given me the chance to encounter her again… That you gave me the chance to encounter her again."

“I…” You stopped for a brief moment, a warm smile forming on your lips. “Thanks for today. I really hope you can meet your daughter again."

She chuckled, slowly vanishing as she stroked your hair affectionately. “You’re such a kind girl. Those boys are lucky to have you."

And with that, she disappeared completely, white sparks fading as silence invaded the room.

You felt something wet on your cheek, only realising after touching it that you were crying.

“Henchman! Ace told me the party’s already starting! We better get there before they run out of food!“ Grim said, abruptly yelling as he passed the opened door.

“Yeah, sure, just, uh— Give me a minute…" Hurriedly wiping your tears, he stood there dumbfounded and concerned.

“Are you crying?” He asked, frowning in confusion.

“I’m okay, it’s just that… I remembered something” You smiled in order to ease him up, knowing that down deep his egoistic façade, he was worried about you.

And it worked, since he scoffed, quickly changing the topic as you two walked towards the location of the party.

There was one thing that she was right about, they were very lucky to have you, but you were just as lucky as them.

THE END~

DON'T REPOST.

EVERY CHARACTER BELONGS TO DISNEY AND YANA TOBOSO AND I DON'T TAKE CREDIT FOR THEM.

919 notes · View notes

bsd-bibliophile · 5 months

Text

Survey Dates: 11/15/2023 - 12/15/2023

Number of Participants: 326

Tumblr will not allow me to post pictures of all the survey results, so only part of them are included in this post. You can download and view the complete results here or view them in the BSD-Bibliophile Online Library.

Thank you to everyone who participated! If you are interested in viewing the results from past surveys, here are the results from 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

View the complete survey results here or on the BSD-Bibliophile Online Library.

Comments:

(⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

All my favs are the ones who aren't from Japan💀

As a huge bsd fan, I admire how commited you are to the blog. Have a good day, as well as a happy new year!!!!! I´ve been filling out your annual surveys since 2020, and I´m glad that you still carry them every year. Thanks!!

BSD Bibliophile is generally such a cool and useful resource, I’ve used it both for fun as well as for school work (I didn’t have my physical copy of Akutagawa’s works with me and needed to cite “Spinning Gears”/“Cogwheels”). Thank y’all for everything you do!

BSD-Bibliophile, the website and the Tumblr posts have been invaluable to me in my literary journey. I thank you so much for your service to the community, I can't express how happy I am that the lesser known or completely unknown authors are getting more western attention. Thank you so much!!

comments on my answers: I used to own more books but when I emigrated I could bring only one. The book I brought here from Russia is Dazai’s stories collection. Since many of the books are available in Japanese for free, I also read them on aozora app.

Finding Japanese literature from these authors is actually pretty difficult in Scotland. Also, Dazai and Nakahara are such fangirl answers, but I actually adore both of their works

First of all, sorry for my horrendous English 💀 I love this page so much! I was absolutely lost as to where to read the translations of the LN, wan! And others, it had been so helpful for me when it comes to my time enjoying BSD. Also, I enjoyed a lot that one section of like fun facts of the real authors and I was so happy when I found the bunch of English translation of the real authors, it really made my day.Now when I want to read a book of the real authors, or read something BSD related I know where ti search for first! I absolutely adored all the work you put into this (or the team (?) I don't know how mane people is running the page:(), thank you for all of it, keep going! 💗

for the images included on posts; the only thing i don't like about them is that they're a bit too tall (making the post look too long as well). i think images would still be nice if they were longer width than height! also, thank you for all of the work you do running bsd bibliophile! you've put together such an amazing and invaluable resource for bsd fans and non-fans alike.

Great work!

Have a nice day!!

Hello! - princy :3

Honestly, I would read stuff by the authors but I just don't have that kind of money

hope you are having a great day!

I absolutely love BSD it made me get into japness literature, as well did Bungo To Alchemist. ALSO BSD LIGHT NOVEL ON TOP!!

I appreciate the work you do! It has really expanded my taste in literature, and for that I am very grateful <3

I appreciate your work🥰😘❤

I believe that having more of a separation from the BSD characters and the real life authors in the bibliophile’s posts would be highly appreciated from a lot of other people; and not just myself

I bought Summer of the Ubume by Kyougoku Natsuhiko when it still was in print in English. I took it with me when rereading and lost my copy. I’m kicking myself years later for not buying a used copy for $50. Earlier this year I was able to borrow a copy from a library and took a picture of every page so I can keep it with me that way. I was delighted to find a scan PDF of the novel when your tumblr linked stories to read for Halloween. Thank you for sharing and thank you whomever made that scan. The BSD Gaiden novel is my favorite thing from BSD and I’m deeply thankful to the person who shared their amazing fan translation. It’s led me to buying all of the English translations of Ayatsuji’s works, plus the two volumes of the manga. I’m a newer follower of your tumblr, but have enjoyed reading each new quote and seeing ones I’ve recognized. Thank you for your work, it’ll definitely be inspiration when I want to read more Japanese literature.

I enjoy the BSD-Bibliophile page on tumblr! I like reading parts (?) of the authors' works and i've become more interested in their works. Thanks for all that you do!! :D

I have the page bookmarked in my browser so that I can check it out from time to time. Also I love Chuuya

I honestly love this website like literally. This bibliophile has helped me Soo much like finding the authors I want to read and learning more about the authors featured. Honestly, words can't describe how grateful I am that this site being created to help accessing literature more easier

I just want you to know that i adore all the effort that goes into this page and that its (In my opinion) a staple of the fandom

I look forward to the survey every year to see how far I’ve come in interacting with Japanese literature. Thanks for running the blog and library, it’s an amazing resource. Best, Comical tuber

I love BSD bibliophile so damn much, whatever BSD related author work and BSD manga (both wan and anthologies) weren't possible for me to find this easily. This website is the work of art. My favourite place

I love BSD-Bibliophile Online Library! Thank you for managing it!

I love the 'recently published' section!

I love your blog and what you do for the fandom! It really scratches the itch which is my obsession with BSD and classic/20th C literature <3

I love your site so much, it's made it so easy to get more info about Japanese authors and figure out what else I want to read. Thank you so much!i love your work!!

I personally believe that using advertisement through mangas and animes specially bsd connects me to the world of books one more time Also I’m grateful for free online websites for putting pdfs of books that I can’t easily have access in my country

I really appreciate all the information you have online here. I have learned a lot and I admire you and your passion. This might sound weird but I truly hope I can collect and read Japanese Literature and organise information as you do when I am older.

I really like your blog, keep it up :3

I really want to read Q's Dogra Magra but I think it's only been translated completely in french so far. Thank you so much for your database! It makes it so much easier to access learning.

I think it's so cool that you're doing these surveys! I think this bibliophile project is just awesome in general tho :) (also dang its hard to choose a fave char) lots of <3 <3 <3

I want to read many more books of the real authors so i cannot yet judge who my favorite will be. Dazai's works are the easiest to get access to in my country and I got Chuuya's poems as a gift so I am still hunting for more :)

I want to read some of their books but i'm to scared of telling my mom this fact ┻━┻︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

I wasn't sure if that question about reading Japanese lit was about reading it in Japanese or not

I will try to get more into this Library ! It's really good and good job for the the tumblr blog, i love it !

I would like if the quotes didn't repeat a lot– Like finding more than 4 posts of the same quote is weird to me at least... instead of doing the same authors in repetition, do more characters that have been published a few times in the blog 🙌🏻

I’m a BSD anime fan who would like to try some of the works by the authors the characters are based on but hasn’t gotten around to figuring out a good entry point for people who don’t usually read literature

I'm new to the fandom, but I'm looking forward to check out any translation that are available (I plan to read at least the work the ability is referring to for a start)

I'm so thankful for your website making Japanese literature available, as I live in a somewhat rural area. Keep up the good work!

I'm very grateful for the resources that had been accumulated by bsd bibliophile, really, I've only been able to nurture my interest in Japanese literature and grow to be passionate about it because I had such easy access to the translated works so thanks a lot for the work you do!

I've just decided to make use of the online library and I'm very excited! I'll check of Oda and Nikolai first because they are most interesting to me :)

i've remembered about the bibliophile purely by chance. in a span of a single night, i've read another media that draws heavy inspiration from japanese literature – ""hashihime of the old book town"". i say ""finished"", yet i'm only done with a single route of this novel. i plan on seeing it through the end. i am enamoured by this script. it's as If i've found true literature again. i truly do not know why im saying this. forgive me If my words are unclear in my ramblings. i am simply here to pick up some kyusaku. maybe then i will be able to fully unravel the fabric of this novel, thread by thread.

I've used this blog to help open myself up to more Japanese literature for years now, ever since I first got into bad, and I can't thank you enough for running this!

Just followed a little while ago so my answers probably aren't that helpful, sorry! I'm looking forward to going through your blog though! Hope you have a nice day/night! :)

Just started following the blog recently tbh, but I’m excited to check out the online library!

Keep up the good work!! :)

Keep up with the good work! I'm always happy to see your content

Love your blog and everything you do!!!

My 1st fav character is Atsushi, but Chuuya's also on top :))

My book count is prolly squewed as I had to go off of memory (since I left many behind in the US at my parents house). I counted Japanese fiction from non BSD authors but not manga and light novels. Also I used to watch & read BSD but no longer do so, but still enjoy Japanese literature.

sorry i took this for fun and wanna read a lot of multiple authors works but uh i havent come around to it yet (also money 😭)

Thank you :)

Thank you <3

Thank you for all the posts you have posted! I can find it hard at times to have the motivation to sit down and READ lol but you inspire me to read more with all the quotes you have shared with us on your blog. <3 Take care!

Thank you for all you do

Thank you for all you do <3

thank you for creating and running this beautiful blog anne♡✨.

Thank you for creating this amazing website ! :D through this website i can learn more about the authors and im happy because of it thank you once again !! <3

thank you for everything you do!

Thank you for letting me know of the library! I've been wanting to read the authors' works but couldn't find them along with money issues

Thank you for providing information that I could not find in anywhere else on the internet in English!

Thank you for the hardwork!! <3

thank you for you blog! literally my go to anytime i need any bsd related! it is literally invaluable and im so so grateful to you!

thank you for your hard work <3 i'm currently studying japanese, because i really want to read japanese literature in its original language and translate it, but until then i will continue relying on english translations - most of which i was only able to find on your site. again, i thank you and the translators from the bottom of my heart for providing us with such amazing resources and translations for free <3

Thank you for your hard work and efforts to share and compile the legally available works of the BSD authors! Your site has allowed me to appreciate BSD as well as Japanese literature itself a lot more.

Thank you for your hard work o7

Thank you for your hard work! Have a nice day:)

Thank you for your hard work! Was it not BSD-Bibliophile I'd be completely lost with researching irl authors and their art of writing. You helped me lots of times.

thank you for your hardwork! i appreciate what you do <3

Thank you for your work and your posts! :D

Thank you for your work at BSD-Bibliophile. For the research that I am conducting and for leisure purposes, the curated library is immensely helpful. I am happy to see that interest has grown in Japanese literature alongside the depth of available resources.

Thank you for your work! It’s always a bright spot in my day to see these quotes :)

Thank you for your work! Your blog has been a great source of information for me for a few years now. Sending love and hugs 🌸

Thank you for your work!!

Thank you so much for all you've done for the community!!!

Thank you!

Thanks :D

Thanks for all the work you do

Thanks for all your work! It's because of you guys that I've been able to read as much as I have (and will continue to do)!!!

Thanks for this resource, it's helpful as a Universal Literature student

the online library has really helped in finding japanese literature

The online library helped me so much in getting to know more about japanese literature thanks a lot for you ♥️

The website has been of great help to find my way around the literature! Truly a godsend! Keep up the great work

The world of literature is a big one & some of it aren't really that accessible. It's great that there are more people translating these previously untranslated works so we can see just how unique each author's style is

There were questions asking for "favorite Japanese BSD author", but those questions were very misleading. First of all, the characters in BSD aren't authors; they don't do or haven't done writing for living or anything along the lines. Secondly, said questions made it sound more like you were asking for whether I like Asagiri, Harukawa, Kanai, Hoshikawa or some other creators who are credited as authors of BSD. They are BSD authors, not the characters like you made it sound like in your questions. If you are asking about real-life authors who happen to have characters based on them in BSD, leave out BSD from the questions, or specify them with something like "Which Japanese author do you like the most, who has a character based on them in BSD?". Last I would like to suggest adding option to the question regarding BSD media, where people who are ex-BSD fans could specify that they've been previously fans, but don't consume or follow the series anymore. The option could be literally just "Previously have been BSD fan, but don't consume any of the official content anymore". I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people like me who have enjoyed BSD in the past, but now just enjoy Japanese literature alone or through some other medias that have nothing to do with BSD. Thanks for the annual survey as always. It's been interesting to see how much the fandom reads and who are the authors who people read in the first place. I wish more people would pay attention to some less popular authors, as there are plenty of hidden gems and your favorite author doesn't have to be the same as your favorite BSD character.

there's a redditor in r/templeofes who's working on translating dogra magra and they're working very hard :D

This blog is a national treasure, thank you all <3

This initiative is so beautiful, thank you for all the hard work.

This website is amazing!!!!!! It’s hard to find Japanese classics in America but this list has them all ❤️

Tumblr doesn't show me many of your posts, so I will try to interact more to see them ^.^

Very cool survey! Thanks

Well have have read many of Fyodor dostoevsky books but not any Japanese novels or poems

When I first got into bsd your online library was an invaluable resource and the only reason I have read works by bsd Japanese authors. I use it less now because my hyperfixation has waned but I still really appreciate all that you do and the resources made available to fans. Thank you!

will check the BDS-Bibliophile website <3 hope u have a nice day

yooo!! thanks for this super awesome survey!! happy easter <33 -a migrating tumblrer

You’re one of the best resources I have for BSD and JP literature. I’m eternally grateful for all the work you do

#bsd-bibliophile #survey #results #survey results #2023 #japanese literature #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd

97 notes · View notes