Some Charon Head Cannons I Finally have the Balls to Share:

He was a US Green Beret captured in Anchorage by Chinese and Russian Special Forces in 2076, 11 months before the Great War and had many experiments done on him while a POW.

He was deployed at 28, one of the youngest in his squad. Charon was born in Pennsylvania and came from a military background, later joining the US Army at 19, soon after the USA announced war against the Republic of China.

In the end, he would be the only survivor from his squad, all others having been executed or dying from the Dachau-Level experiments.

As tensions around the world heightened, the US government burned all records of him and his squadron, considering them casualties of war.

As a POW (Prisoner of War) his physical stature, mental fortitude, and expert combat training made him a candidate for a “Reprograming Operation” by the Russian KGB where he was the only successful test subject.

After months of brainwashing he was finally assigned to a KGB Spy who was planted in the US government, where he was designed to assassinate and perform other reconnaissance operations.

However, the Great War broke out mere months after he was “assigned” and his contract made many unfortunate passes before reaching the Lone Wanderers.

Charon’s previous employers all had dark, ulterior motives that mainly used him as a deviant errand boy. When he becomes employed by the LW, he almost feels at peace. Though he will forever live with PTSD, he is able to put his guard down in certain circumstances, giving him small glimpses of joy and happiness again.

Until he becomes to care too much, and becomes over protective. The LW unknowingly reminds him of his pre-war life. When there was still hope and a dream of change. He doesn’t know why, but he clings to their selflessness. He watches people abuse the LW’s kindness, and then get stuck in a cycle of people pleasing because they are the Wastelands Last Hope.

Three Asks

It’s been a while since we answered some asks so today and maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, we’ll collect some and answer them since we’ve gotten while a few in the last two or three weeks.

In today’s post I picked out the three most recent asks we’ve received, two of which are ones I’d usually just delete because answering is pointless but one of them showcased a popular pattern so we decided to reply just this once. So this time around the questions are about Namjoon and Seokjin, next time we’ll do ones about Tae and Jimin (and vmin), and so on.

Ask 1 - Did Namjoon have to bring up the criticism he received in 2015/16 in the Juju Chang interview?

Ask 2 and 3 - questions from either diet solos (someone who isn’t quite a solo stan just yet but exhibits the same thought patterns as solos do) or full on solo stans.

From anon: So you must have seen their interview alongside the President right on a news show? Most of it was fine and I liked how involved they were especially JK, but a point Namjoon made is what I'm kinda dicey about. He addressed that they were called out for WoH lyrics but the thing is I'm not sure if it needed to be brought up. Especially in American media and the way they contextualize things..

Obviously he meant that they grew from it but not sure if that was the way to put it I guess?

I will admit, there aren’t many times when asks that get sent to us annoy me, but this one in conjunction with the absolute nonsense that took place about this on twt just made my blood boil. Let’s look at the question and answer so we have full context when it comes to the interview and then, after that, we’ll look at the greater context of why Namjoon saying what he did is significant and a big deal.

Juju Chang: You guys are an all male band and, let’s face it, Korea, historically, has been a very male dominated culture and yet here at the UN one of the core values in Sustainable Development is educating women and having gender equality. You have a lot of female fans. What would you say to them about gender equality and working towards that?

Namjoon: Personally, I received a lot fo criticism regarding misogyny in 2015 and 2016, which led me to get my lyrics reviewed by a women’s studies professor. That experience, in turn, was an opportunity for me to self-reflect and question whether I’d been insensitive toward gender equality. I want to do the best I can to take interest in the topic, learn and make improvements. That’s my perspective now. 

Namjoon used a personal story as framework to showcase that even someone like him, a man in a position of power/influence from a country which, as the interviewer explained, is very male dominated can learn, grow and, in the long run, contribute to change. It takes tremendous bravery to do something like this, to not only admit that you made such a mistake, but also to take it and grow from it, take the time to reflect and strive to better yourself to never repeat it again. And also talk about doing so not only during an international broadcast but also while your own president sits right there next to you.

Perhaps there are a relatively big number of countries in the west where equality is much closer to being a reality, where it is a core value to respect woman, one that you are raised with, but here the context was specifically BTS and their background, their country and their culture. From K-ARMY we know that things have taken a turn for the worse in Korea when it comes to women’s rights and the behavior of men toward them, how feminism is treated essentially as a dirty word and you will get hunted down for using it or for behaving in a feminist manner. Namjoon himself was placed on some list made by misogynists labeling him as a dirty, dirty feminist. The same men who even went after the military to get them to stop using a hand gesture which could, if you really want to, be used to make fun of a man for a small d*ck. In polls men in their 20s and 30s have voted being against feminism and I don’t mean just like 10 or 20% of voters, but rather 50-70%, even some presidential candidates have apparently been revealed as anti-feminists.

Circling back to Namjoon, having this context, do you now get why it was a big thing for him to say this, why it makes him a role model and why it was important to do so? Besides this isn’t just about the WoH lyrics which, to be frank, were never an actual issue but instead were made into one (the line I know that usually get’s brought up most is “The girls are equations, and us guys are solutions” which, if you think about it, actually means that boys and girls are equal since 2+5=7, the equation and the solution are the same, and also the song is satire about hormonal boys and their behavior which people have decided to ignore for the sake of sitting on their high horses instead). Namjoon wasn’t even the only member credited for the lyrics yet he took the blame upon himself, used this to better himself even though we know 2015 was an extremely dark time for him. But he is the leader, he took responsibility and he grew from it. He stands as example of how change is possible even in a country that is male dominated and misogynistic.

From anon: Reading your post about My universe I can’t but be heavy hearted. 

It’s such a beautiful song but Jin not having almost any lines ruined the experience for me. He deserves so much more than being a mere backup vocal. Same goes to Jimin but I’m not as effected as Jin, since we’ve all seen a pattern there. 

We know the boys decide collectively decide LD and how it fits their personalities and voices but I can’t but feel icky about Dynamite, not today, BS&T and now MY. 

I truly hope this doesn’t continue and BH decides to respect Jin more as an artist. He’s one of the biggest reasons the group is where it is now.

Though I can’t say with 100% certainty that this comes from someone that has consumed too much solo stan “content”, it does very much feel like it and the only reason why I’m even answering this is that I’d like to highlight something, a pattern we've seen a million times over for years now in regard to line distribution but that is even more glaring and flawed in this case, after we’ve seen how My Universe was recorded:

“We know the boys collectively decide” and yet “and BH decides to respect Jin more”, with this you’re basically saying that you know all the members, including Seokjin, are involved BUT since giving him and the others slack for it would make you look bad, you instead throw blame at BH, which in this case had no say in the line distribution. That choice was Christ Martin’s to make. If you already complain about line distribution, at least have the guts to direct your hate at the people you just said yourself make the choice--the members. Solos already belittle Seokjin’s efforts as it is, and constantly demand an acting debut of him which basically, to me, just comes across as them wanting him to act because they don’t value his singing and music, so would it be really that farfetched for them to also hate on him for, what, not speaking up and demanding more to satisfy you?

Seokjin was so happy and excited while recording My Universe, while meeting Chris Martin, someone he’s admired and been a fan of for so long. He gave his best while recording and sounded absolutely marvelously, and yet instead of celebrating him, his voice, and what we do hear of him, you just focus on the negatives.

BH isn’t perfect by any means, don’t even try to come into our asks calling me a company stan or whatever because I’m far from it, but in this case they had nothing to do with it. Coldplay and Chris Martin did. We saw all the members record the chorus, and we heard it, we saw and heard Seokjin sing absolutely beautifully and get praise for it, and we saw how happy this collab has made him. Why can’t you just let this be a happy time, why must you immediately search for things to be negative about?

Would I have liked so hear more of his voice on My Universe? Obviously, I even said as much in my post about the song. I love Seokjin and his voice a lot, he is my bias wrecker for a reason. But the song has already happened, been recorded, mastered, and released. What will a negativity parade change? What? Absolutely nothing except for make him feel bad because you can’t just say “Seokjin did amazingly, I love his voice”, no, you have to go around yelling “OMG he is being cut from the song because BH hates him”. What does that do for him? Like really, tell me, because I don’t get it.

And if my opinion isn’t valid enough for you, it is, after all, just an opinion, take Seokjin’s opinion about the collab instead:

Or asks such as this one:

From anon: I honestly can’t wait for Seokjin to go solo one day. Go where he’s appreciated for his talents and musicality, not cuz he’s just a “hyung” or “comic relief” or “WWH”.

Where, tell me, has he ever expressed an interest in going solo? No, I’m serious, where, because all I know is that he is happy with his members, with what he does, that he enjoys making music and getting more involved than he used to. Just the other day during the interview with Juju Chang he spoke about how he misses the old times where he could go for soju and food with Yoongi to spend some time together.

And just a few years before that Yoongi said that Seokjin has been good from the beginning, and there are tons of other examples of the members praising Seokjin in terms of his voice and musicality. When he was going through burnout last year, Bang PD encouraged him to channel his thoughts and feelings into music, recommended him a producer he thought work well with him, and Seokjin said it really did help him. And we got Abyss as result from it all, a gorgeous and raw song. 

Yes, he gets praise for being a good hyung, because guess what, he is a good hyung. Maybe for you that’s not good enough, but he’s proud of it, has always taken the fact that he’s the eldest seriously even when goofing around with his members. How is that a bad thing?

Seokjin loves his members and they love him. Seokjin loves ARMY and we love him back tenfold. Just because solos hate the members and aren’t satisfied with Seokjin, how is that my issue or even his? If you’re a genuine fan of his, support his hard work, support all his contributions to BTS’ music, their performances, their dancing, and everything else. Because he is part of BTS regardless if you like it or not, and as far as we are aware, he doesn’t plan on changing that any time soon, or at all. 

Some Meta on Murdock and mental illness

Generally speakig, The A-Team is a dumbass, light-hearted comedy with action on the same level as youtube poop videos. Obviously there isn’t alot of depth to be found here. The show had tons of different writers, all with their own take on Murdock and none of them offer any clear info or a proper backstory for the character. It’s basically up to the audience to fill in the blanks and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do by overanalyzing the mess that is the show’s canon.

The question of whether Murdock is ‘‘‘really crazy or just faking’‘’ has been around for over 30 years, but I’m gonna argue that he’s both.

When Kelly visits Murdock in the psychiatric hospital and confronts him about why he’s living there in the first place he gets instantly uncomfortable.

He really didn’t want her to ask, it’s why he’s been avoiding her. Joking about how you’re hashtag crazy™ is easy; having to admit that you’ve been institutionalized for over 10 years because you have legitimate problems is much harder. (Sure, the VA also gives him a convenient cover from the military police, but if that was the only reason for him to stay he wouldn’t react to Kelly’s question in this way). “It’s a long story”, is all he says. There are clearly some painful memories here that he’d rather not delve into.

He’d have to explain how he got committed in the first place. We know that after the gang was arrested for war crimes in ‘71, Murdock was still serving as a pilot in ‘72. They never clarified when and how Murdock was sent home, but i’m guessing without his only friends around and it being, you know...war, his mental health eventually deteriorated until he received a medical discharge straight into the VA hospital.

After Murdock gets wrongly released in season 1, instead of his friends being worried about his supposed cover getting blown they just shrug it off and go ‘Oh well!’ (This could all be due to the show’s inconsistent writing, but you know)

No longer being an inpatient would finally allow Murdock to be employed as a pilot again (his #1 passion), and yet he seems really disheartened about the situation. Even though the hospital gives him no privacy, the staff barely respects him and he spends most of his time there by himself, he still prefers to stay.

For a character who’s allegedly cheery comic relief, he sure gets his feelings hurt alot, mainly when dealing with other people’s ableism towards him. B.A. and Face are obviously just palling around, just guys bein’ dudes, they don’t want to hurt Murdock for real, they probably don’t realize how sensitive Murdock is about the subject. Usually he plays along or shrugs it off, but sometimes he gets genuinely upset. In the first half of In Plane Sight he’s so fed up with it he tries to ‘‘act normal’‘ until #Woke #Queen Hannibal reassures him that they love him the way he is.

PTSD was barely starting to become a diagnosis when the show first aired, but I think it’s fair to say he suffers from it. The pilot episode states that he has anxiety, paranoia and memory loss, so that checks out.

With PTSD you don’t just have to deal with flashbacks and nightmares, but also intrusive thoughts, images and memories about your trauma. Murdock copes with it by getting hyperfixated on a new activity or pretending he’s someone else. This is were alot of people will go ‘‘haha wow look how wacky and insane he is! He’s talking to his sock 😂’‘. But Murdock knows it’s all made up nonsense, he just needs his mind to focus on something else. What’s important here is that he never lets his coping mechanisms distract him when he’s flying, first of all he’s already focused and also he doesn’t wanna crash (lol). There’s a believability to his actions that’s missing in the 2010 reboot.

In the episode where the gang helps out the vietnamese cook from the POW camp where they’ve been tortured, Murdock tries to distract himself with some golfballs. He soon starts projecting his trauma on them however.

I think this is the only time in the show where Hannibal tears up, so this scene is kinda significant. As the leader, he probably blames himself for getting his team captured and tortured, and seeing that Murdock is still so strongly affected by it gotta hurt. 

Compared to the rest of the gang, Murdock’s alot more fucked up over the war. There are subtle changes in his voice whenever he talks about it. In the ep about their old war buddy Ray, Face was reminiscing about how cool of a guy Ray was for borrowing him his helmet, Murdock’s memories meanwhile are much less upbeat. ‘My bird was the only one left in the sky’ he remembers while we see an image of a field filled with shot down helicopters. His experiences are bound to be different from the other three as a huey medevac pilot. Murdock did have one off-screen breakdown in the present timeline, after collecting every newspaper article about the upcoming execution of the team in Firing Line. Apparently it was bad enough that he had to be restrained. It’s been 10 years, so he’s recovering and getting better, but he’s still not all there yet.

Everyone knows Murdock’s just messing around when he’s being interrogated by the military about his connections to the team, but like what about when the military isn’t there; or NO ONE is. He often talks to himself or just puts weird shit in his mouth for no reason while nobody’s paying attention to him (eating leaves, paint, an entire raw egg, a frozen sandwich). Sometimes he’s just unhinged like that.

Another thing that’s brought up a few times in the show is his anxiety. Murdock’s often seen being generally tense, sweaty, uncomfortable or reflective in the background of a scene. (I have no idea if this was a deliberate acting choice but Dwight does have anxiety irl so who knows if that had anything to do with it, I mean who knowsssssss, i’m just observing)

He’s got a habit of fidgeting with his hands or touching his neck when he’s stressed out. Murdock also does it when he’s telling his psychiatrist Dr. Richter about his dreams “If you were me, wouldn’t you be terrified to put your head down?” he asks him.

Richter isn’t really paying attention though, because he’s so used to Murdock’s non-stop clownery, he can’t exactly tell when his patient decides to be honest about his feelings for once. He just replies ‘Well only if it was a bad dream’. Which really irritates Murdock because what other dreams besides bad would he have? So he derails the session by rambling some made up bullshit on purpose.

Richter knows that Murdock uses humor and fantasy to cope, but he’s obviously tired of Murdock’s cringe antics, he just wants to help him. But Murdock doesn’t like to open up and be confronted with his traumas again, he just wants to avoid talking about it all together. There are still parts of reality that Murdock’s not ready to deal with, or he wouldn’t always retreat into his fantasies.

Before he can continue messing around a helicopter passes by and Murdock freezes for a second. Richter assures him that the helicopter is real; Murdock nods and starts fidgeting with his hands again, seemingly in deep thought. We know from the season 4 finale that he hears the sound of rotor blades when he dissociates. He was definitely being sincere here.

After getting drugged by some military goons he has a few brief flashbacks (feat. cheesy 80′s neon filters): seeing the chopper fly away, getting stuck in a potted plant as if he was walking through the jungle, being surrounded by heavy smoke and sparks from the burning carpet).

Despite being the 2nd highest ranked team member, Murdock dislikes being in charge and gets severly distressed when anything goes wrong that he might even be slightly responsible for. Most notably is the episode where the owners of the diner get kidnapped after Murdock got knocked out by evil cowboys or hill billies or whatever they were. Instead of telling anyone what happened, he’s just lying on the floor, repeatedly calling himself a failure until the others show up.

Seems like Murdock gets startled more easily than the rest of the crew as well. We often see him flinch when guns go off; one time he literally wore fluffy ear muffs to a backalley shootout.

This short moment from Family Reunion always stood out to me. Face opens the van door a little too quickly and it takes Murdock so off-guard he has to take deep breaths to calm down.

Murdock sounds exhausted when he has to remind Face not to sneak up on him. Face also realizes he messed up, he just wanted to check up on Murdock and not trigger him on accident.

When it comes to portrayals of mental illness in fiction there’s obviously better representation out there than Murdock. But sometimes you just wanna see a mentally ill character have a good time instead of being miserable 24/7. And Murdock’s already got the worst behind him, he’s had therapy for years and friends who love him. I just think that’s refreshing to see, especially with a character who’s so kind and openly affectionate.

F, K and X? :D

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Two of them, not just dialogue but the whole part..

- “First, it's on fire. - “well, no shit sherlock.” - Second, you don't know if Rollins is inside. - “I know he is. I feel it.” He kept quiet and knocked the door down easily. - third, if something happens to you for the sake of one man, who's gonna lead them?”

That was the only logical point Brock would agree with, in another moment.

“I've read stories of you storming a nazi base on your own for the sake of one man.”

“It wasn't--”

“Bullshit. It was one man. Everyone else was collateral.”

Steve almost cursed. Loudly. Very loudly and direct. No one he saved was collateral, he walked inside with the specific intention of saving each and every man prisoner.

“He's my one man.”

All right, maybe he did walk inside with one specific man in mind. The others weren't collateral, but they were strangers at the time. Before he could say anything else Brock already covered his face in a cloth and ran inside. For the sake of one man .

(that one, from "for the sake of one man". Because it descrive well Steve Rogers and his primary reason (bucky. It's always been bucky. It will always be bucky. 3 films and buck is the reason behind what he does. 😂), and at the same time shows the human, vulnerable side of rumlow, who in the films is a villain in the end. Willingly risking everything for one person of his team. I like to wrote about teams who are so loyal to each other to seem almost codependent, not in a creepy way but in a very basic "I have their backs because they have mine.", not questioning it and nothing. Just absolute loyalty. I especially like the "he's my one man." part. It's sweet, in his own way.

-"Migraine still here?"

Josh whimpered in response, leaning over the hand on his head.

"Sing something?" a whisper, tired, nothing more. Lawson looked at him like he grew a second head. Given the intensity of the pain he could as well grown one extra head, that would explain a lot.

"what? Josh I'm a terrible singer. Awful. Raise the dead kind of bad. I'll just make your head hurt more."

"nah... Sing for me? Please Laws."

In the end Lawson could tell him no.in the end he never learned to tell him no when he pleaded him. In the end he sat with one knee over the mattress and hummed the first song that came to his mind trying to be as quiet as he could.

"God, Laws... You're really as bad as I remembered." he chuckled making Lawson crack a smile in a "I told you so" manner. "I still like it, though."

"I know, you'd rather have Grace here instead of me. Bet she's a way better singer. She had to go pick up Micheal and Stell. Sorry, you're stuck with me mate."

Josh shook his head slowly, still smiling, eyes almost closed.

"it's good." he stretched a hand toward him, palm up, waiting for Lawson to take it, a gesture they got accustomed to, something they both found comfort in after years in that line of work and danger, grounding when one of them was low, or hurt or sick. "I like you here too, Laws."

("in your arms", the last words part. It holds everything. It's angsty (especially knowing what happens after), it's sweet, kinda funny if you imagine someone sing really badly and out of tune. I really like the last part (then why not posting just that? I liked everything else too, that's why), the hands touching, in a quite intimate way, described as intimate but not between lovers. It's in the safety of that touch, like when you're km a very crowded place with someone and you hold hands to stick together in the crowd, with some people you have a stronger bond that touch goes beyond not getting lost, it translates in safety and grounding, gives some... Fuzzy feels, but not in a romantic "I love you" way. I tried to put that to words.

(also, "I like you here too, Laws" will always and forever break my heart.)

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

Mmmh.... That's hard actually... Angstier idea...

"Et quand viendra la mort On s'aimera encore" counts as heavy angst, illness, miscommunication, fights, make up, death.

"Ninety messages" it has a happy ending but it's a collection of pain and some kinda suicidal thoughts.

The impaled chest prompt is quite angst too, and so will be Darkened Ice, and the lost Verona series, especially the rising tide.

Most angst is psychological, and that makes it worse. It's not for the one dying or getting hurt or sick, it's about everyone around.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

I can't choose... Every comfort character is good for angst. The stronger, the better, military background if the story fits that... (JueJue, colonel sebastian Moran, Josh... Any comfort character I have in the marvel universe...) most times morally gray characters, though Josh is very much set on doing things the right way (well, he's a cop after all. A cop who can throw punches at suspects of almost killing their children. A really soft cop with children and dogs 💖extremely soft. Give that man a kid and a dog. Fuck. And angst.)

R054 Ch. 1(?)

So, I wrote a thing. For lack of better terms, it’s a fanfic of a fanfic.  Ha.

All kidding aside, full props to the original AU this is based on, @lab-raised-steven . The person running it is a really awesome dude who helped out a lot with the lore and writing process as I wrote this.

The idea is that Jason Stross, a character of mine, waking up to find himself locked away in the Lab of Dr. Robert Wendell, at the mercy of said sadist.

This all stemmed from me reading how much of a bastard one of the scientist characters are and thought, “Hey, it’d be kinda cool of Jason met this guy.

So, without further ado,  I hope you find this piece entertaining, but most importantly, I hope you give @lab-raised-steven / @lab-raised-archive / @societyslostone (Main) a visit! 

Have a great day!

WARNING: Contains violence and mention of severed limbs.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

There were many times Jason had felt this way.

A splitting headache, drowsiness to the point he was unsure if he was conscious, his entire body was engulfed with pain, and pure confusion of where he was.

The last thing he remembered was the explosion he caused by destroying the Warp Pad he warped in through. Then falling into this planet’s ocean. He was sure that he was going to die.

 At least, he was unsure if he was still alive.

 When he did eventually wake up, everything from his environment to clothing was different.

He found himself in a dark and cold room. His prosthetic arm was taken as well as his regular clothes. He found himself in a sort of teal hospital scrubs. His organic arm was handcuffed to the metal chair he was sitting on, along with his feet.

He tried to stand, but the handcuffs and his weakened state proved that the effort was fruitless.

 It did however receive a reaction.

 Jason’s attention was pulled away from the chair as he saw a door open, flooding the room with a blinding white light. A humanoid being walked in. As soon as Jason’s eyes grew accustomed to the light, he was met with a man standing above him. A human male. He held with him a decently sized briefcase, to which he placed on his own size of the table.

The contact caused a short clanging sound as it hit the metal surface.

He was a paler man under his lab coat. He kept staring at Jason through his glasses, windows to an icy cold stare looking up and down Jason’s body. Examining him. Studying him.

Not saying a word, his gaze left Jason and looked over to the briefcase.

The man opened it, angled so that Jason could not see what was inside it.

The man pulled out a small plastic rectangle. A voice recorder.

 The man brought the voice recorder close to him as he looked over at Jason again.

“Doctor Wendell’s log. Ruby 19, Year 7019 After First Contact. Two nights ago, a life form was found off the shore of the Empire State. Unconscious and barely alive.” The Doctor spoke into the voice recorder. He was speaking as if Jason was not in the room, but it was clear that he was talking about him.

 “The life form is human-like.” The Doctor continued. “Same physicality. Similar DNA matches. However, it is clear that the life form, a human male of military age.” He looked up at Jason with his eyes. “His apparel and other equipment also suggest military background for whatever planet he hails from.”

 He looked back at the recorder. “Judging by the condition of his body, he did not arrive to this planet willingly. When stripped of his suit, bruises, cuts and signs of head trauma were found throughout his body. He now seems awake and conscious.”

He looked back at Jason, “I am going to now attempt to extract further information.” He kept his gaze on Jason, placing the recorder down. He rested his hands on the metallic table, ensuring distance between the two.

 There were a few seconds of silence before he spoke.

“You are not of this planet.” Doctor Wendell said, the sound of his voice bounced off the walls of the small and cramped room. “Is that correct?”

 “Who are you?” Jason asked hoarsely. “Where am I?”

 Wendell groaned, sighing in disappointment. “I am asking the questions.” He said, clearly forcing himself to remain calm as he eyed Jason with more intensity.

 “Where the hell am I?” Jason demanded. While his energy was still low, he was able to rise from too tired to a tired aggravation.

 Wendell did not answer. In a quick motion, he stood from the table, keeping his eyes on Jason.

He reached into the briefcase again, pulling out a baton of sorts.

 It was odd to Jason, for he recognized it, but did not at the same time.

It reminded him of the Destabilizers that were left by the Gems on the planet Kul-Baris, but it looked different. It looked far too primitive to be made by the Gems. It almost looked as if it was built by human hands. Humans of this planet.

 Wendell walked around the table with the baton in hand, growing more frustrated with each step.

By the time Jason processed the Doctors intentions, it was too late to defend himself. After two heavy and fast hits of the baton, the first to his head and the second onto his chest, Jason felt as the voltage violently traveled through his body. He yelled in pain as Wendell kicked at his chair, pushing him into falling to the ground.

 Jason could only watch as Wendell walked over the table and began to stomp on him rapidly over his body, his legs and even his head.

Once the Doctor decided it was enough, he hit Jason a final time as he pulled the chair to stand back up. Jason spat out a significant amount of blood.

 “I believe you are unaware of your situation.” Wendell said as his hand gripped Jason’s jaw tightly. “Whatever significant life you believed you lived before coming to this planet is over.  As far as anyone in this universe is concerned, you are dead.”

 He threw Jason’s jaw, causing his head to grow sore from the sudden jerk. “And on this planet, you do not exist.”

 Jason looked back up to Wendell.

 The Doctor looked back at Jason as he returned to his end of the chair. “You are my property. You belong to me now.”

 Wendell put the baton back into the briefcase. “Perhaps if you behave, I will eventually give you your arm back. Continue this aggression.” He looked at Jason’s organic arm. “I will take the other arm. I will ask again. You are not of this planet. Is that correct?”

 Jason could only look at Wendell. The echoing pain told him to comply, as if it was a survival instinct.

“That is correct.” He said, groaning from the pain Wendell presented him with.

 “What is your planet of origin?” Wendell moved to the second question.

 Jason was quiet for a few moments. “Requiem.” He spoke, unsure of the point of answering such a question.

 “Where is this planet?” Wendell asked Jason. “Where is Requiem.”

 Jason looked over to Wendell, his eyes grew more tired from the question. “I studied engineering.” He said to Wendell. “Not navigation.”

 Wendell held a deep sigh as he looked over his notes.

“Perhaps we can talk about something you do know about.” Wendell said as he flipped through some of his notes.

 “The device on the back of your head. Imbedded in your spinal cord. On this planet, we call it the Atlas Vertebra.”

Jason froze. The already cold temperature of the concrete room and metal chair he was handcuffed in felt as if it dropped a few more degrees.

 The Neurolink, a device most of the populace of the Requiem Republic use for better control of devices and communication.

His left arm shot up to try and reach the back of his neck to confirm but was painfully reminded of the four-inch handcuffs connecting him to the chair.

 “Handcuffs.” Wendell sarcastically reminded Jason. He went bac to flip through his notes. He pulled out a page and placed it on the table in front of Jason.

 “Surgical procedure.” Wendell said as he presented the page. The main one was of Jason, post procedure. It only showed the back of his head, a blood-soaked bandage where his Neurolink once was.

 Jason began to feel soreness in that area, now realizing the removal of the device.

 “We found bits and pieces of information.” Wendell said as he pulled the photo away. “Some audio. Some visual. Saved in such a small piece of technology. For lack of a better term; memories. Judging by the recorded brain waves, memories of significance.”

 “Huh? You went through my Neurolink?” Jason asked, finding the task to be near impossible, even by the standards of Requiem technology. “How- “

 “My organization specializes in studying and reverse engineering Alien technology.” Wendell interrupted Jason again. “Until your arrival, it was only Gem technology.”

 Wendell then pulled some more pages from his notes and placed them in front of Jason. “Activating your ’Neurolink’ took a dull afternoon.”

 Jason was silent as he looked down. They were more photos. However, they weren’t just any images. They were memories. His memories. Moments he remembered from his life.

By the looks of the photos, less than perfect memories.

 “We chose these particular memories.” Wendell said. “Of the few we managed to recover. Based on the heightened brain activity. Some of which are obvious why.” He pulled up a photo and placed it in front of Jason.

 The picture was from Jason’s perspective. Filtered through the HUD display of the helmet he wore that day. However, he was well aware of the event shown. It was such a long few years ago, but it felt so recent, as a pain began to grow on what remained of his right arm.

 He was lying on his back that day. Forced down onto the cold icy surface of the cavern in the photo. He remembered his entire body was in pain that day. Standing above him was a figure that clearly wasn’t human, but humanoid.

The figure looked as if they were encased in a full body suit of black armor, which had a purple glow coming off of it.

What made the memory as significant as it was, however, was the figure in question, now covered in Jason’s blood as it held his severed arm.

 “Such as this one.” Wendell said as he tapped on the arm in the picture. “I can only imagine losing an arm in anyway could be traumatic.”

He pulled another photo out, nowhere near as chaotic as the previous. “Let’s try something more recent.”

 Jason was not wearing a helmet in this memory, as the photo lacked a HUD display. It was a rather peaceful scene; the memory was of Jason was sitting on a couch in a rather nice home.

The majority of his vision held another face. It was a blue woman, silver hair ran down her head, down to her shoulders. Her blue eyes glistened as she smiled at Jason.

 “This one, and another, I found interesting.” Wendell said, jotting a few notes regarding Jason’s facial expression to the photo, which oddly seemed more distressed than fond of the seemingly peaceful memory.

Jason’s face grew pale, his eyes fixated on the photo.

 “Same amount of brain activity.” Wendell said. “Nearly identical to the rest. However, the chemical balance suggests happiness. That you are at peace.”

Almost immediately after the statement, another picture was placed on top. “Fifteen hours later. Or at least that was what was logged, this happens”

 The picture was once again of a blue woman. The same from the previous. Her face, however, was from happy. She looked in pain. Her eyes filled with despair. Sorrow.

 Betrayal.

 She was looking straight at Jason, even through the photo. Jason tensed up as he looked at the photo. He was silent, but visually distressed from the photos.

 “Who is she? Why is she so important to you?” Wendell asked Jason, detecting the distress. “The Blue Woman.”

 Jason exhaled uneasily. “Please.” He said in a defeated tone, desperate to get away from the photo. “No. Not this.” She softly said in nearly a begging manner.

 “You do not have a say in this R-054.” Wendell said as he reached for his baton, visually warning Jason. “Who is she? A Gem?”

 Jason remained silent, paying no attention to Wendell as he kept looking down at the photo.

 “Was she just some whore? Don’t remember her name?” Wendell asked. “Perhaps your planet allows that?”

 Jason violently tried to stand up from his chair to argue but was still confined to the handcuff. Such a thing did not matter however, as almost immediately, Jason was met with another attack by Wendell’s baton.

The force from the blow caused Jason to fall to the ground, his chair clattering on the floor.

 “You don’t want to behave?” Wendell asked as he walked around the table toward his fallen and handcuffed prisoner. His baton shot sparks out. “Fine.”

 Not waiting for a response, Wendell repeatedly struck at Jason, not seeming to show any signs of backing away anytime soon.

Chained to the chair, Jason had no way to defend himself. He could only look up to see Wendell repeatedly hit him until his vision began to black out as he lost conscious.

  Jason wasn’t sure how long he was out for, but when he woke back up, he found that he must have been out long enough to be moved.

He was no longer restrained, but he might as well have still been. He was now in a small room that was barely more lit. There were three concrete walls. One of which had a door, presumably locked.

The fourth wall, however, was made of a thick sheet of glass. The other side of the window held another room. The light was off, all Jason could see was utter blackness. As if he was looking out into the void of space.

 AS if on cue, a loud siren played off as the light turned on, showing the parallel room’s occupant.

The room was nothing more than another cell, identical to Jason’s. He found himself stunned as he found who or what was in the other cell’s bed.

 A child. A boy. Until the siren, he was sound asleep.

The boy had curly black hair, and he wore the same hospital gown as Jason, minus the bloodstains from beatings. What received the most attention from Jason, however, was the boy’s eye. His left eye remained closed, bearing only a scar down it.

Jason shuddered, as he couldn’t bare to consider if the scar was a cause to what the people behind this facility did to him.

Better yet, why was the boy here?

 Sure, Jason was from another planet. While he wasn’t fond of his stay in his current location, he did understand it.

 The boy awoke. Stepping out of the bed, he did not seem to notice Jason at first.

That was when Jason saw the Gem imbedded in the boy’s abdomen. A large pink Gem. Almost looking like a Quartz. He wasn’t sure what specific cut of Gem it was, but he knew it was a Gem. Such a thing only served to cause Jason more confusion. Was the boy a Gem? Could Gems even be organic?

 Jason was so wrapped up in his questions, he failed to notice the boy finally seeing him.

Understandably, as his sight was on a grown stranger with one arm, wearing a blood-soaked gown, he began to panic.

 The Boy backed into his bed, falling over as he looked at Jason.

 As Jason looked at the panicking Boy, he began to sit down on his own bed, slow and calm.

 “It’s ok…” Jason said to The Boy, unsure if he would even hear him. “I won’t hurt you…”

His arm was raised, almost like he was giving The Boy a lowered hand wave.

 The Boy began to calm down as he saw Jason was not a threat. He readjusted himself, sitting down on his own bed, studying Jason.

He raised his own hand, thinking they were waving at each other.

 Jason only responded with a weak and tired smile.

Recommendation of BL games everyone should play Part 2

Sorry this took a little longer but here is part 2~

These games don’t have an English release or an English translation, which means you have to play the Japanese version, but you can use a translator like me. If you are interested in a tutorial on how to play Japanese visual novels with a translator, send me a message.

And now to the games~

Warning: If you are under 18 please don’t play this

Nie no machi

Summary: Hisora lost his family when he was in his teens, and now as an adult he’s working several part-time jobs concurrently as a physical laborer. One day, during his workshift, he enters a dark alleyway and sees a man dressed in mourning clothes drop a bouquet of white flowers. Unable to leave it as is, he picks up the bouquet and chases after the man. However, he loses sight of the man after making his way through the dark alley, and finds himself standing at the entrance of another world…an inn. As Hisora stands there taken aback, the inn’s residents come out to greet him, and tell him: “This is a world distant [meinst du different? Oder far away?] from death.” In this world of slithering ghastly figures such as a child who uses its own severed head as a ball to play with, or a man who continues to talk even though his head has been smashed, Hisora must receive the assistance of the inn’s tenants, who have lost consciousness in the real world, while he searches for a way back home. But Hisora is a living human, and the smell of him invokes the town's residents adhesion to life and envy of the living, inviting danger upon him… (summary by vndb)

I LOVE this game so much even if the story is not that heavy, it’s really fun to play. With the soundtrack in the background, it kinda feels like a horror game but it’s really not. You can play 4 different routes, there are bad, normal and good endings for every character and some different endings which I thought were a good change from the typical “main character dating a boy”- ending. Some routes were stronger than others and more kinky, but there is an interesting story for all of the 4 guys I guess…one was not my cup of tea. And what makes it all the better is that none of them are like you think they are at first glance. The art of this game is beautiful, the character designs are pretty to look at, even with the whole gore thing going on of course there are tentacles cause why not?(which you will mostly see in the bad endings so don’t worry). I think the balance between the story, characters and art is what makes the game stand out the most. This is also a very good start for everyone who is new to BL games and wants to explore more of it. A good mix of not too heavy story, cute BL parts and a not too long gameplay makes this a perfect start for new and experienced players~

Taisho mebiusline

Summary: In the year 1923, during the last days of the Taishou Period, Hiiragi Kyouichirou leaves his home in the countryside to attend the Imperial University. As soon as he arrives in Tokyo, though, he runs right into a conflict between the all-powerful Imperial Army and the mysterious Gohongatana Clan. The Imperial Army wants him for his ability to see the spirits of the dead and he’ll have to figure out where his loyalties lie. Is it to his country? To the Emperor? To his fellow man? Or is there an even greater cause? (summary by vndb)

I only recommend this game for the ones who are experienced in playing games using a translator because this game is DIFFICULT and I’m not only talking about the plot. The game uses a lot of old languages and old kanji, so it’s difficult to understand even if you can read Japanese. Anyhow, this game is one of a kind. The story is interesting especially if you are into Taisho, military or history. There is also a lot about religion, gods and the dead. Four boys (aka four routes) and a true ending for one of the boys. Depending on the route the story will take a more religious or military-concentrated path. The main character Kyouichiro is not your typical main happy-kind-guy. He’s more on the cute bean side and really polite, using keigo (Japanese polite language) with everyone. I loved his relationship with the boys one especially, so romantic and cute destroy me with fluff please. The strongest and best part about this game THE ART. Get ready because this shit is animated. You get to see the background and the characters moving and it��s BEAUTIFUL. Not every image is animated but enough to satisfy you. If you are a art aesthetic loving b*tch, this is a must. And please play the fandisc after, this shit will get even more beautiful and the animation even better.

Hit Music 2005

No one expected Gorillaz to be so popular and people probably has forgotten Blur. Damon Albarn doesn’t seem to care though, he puts Blur aside and takes Jamie Hewlett to China for two whole weeks which he calls it “collecting folk songs”. They’ve been to Hunan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang. Not only did they travel Chinese attractions and taste all kinds of local cuisines in every streets and alleys, but they also promoted their new album while they were traveling. What a smart way to kill two birds with one stone.

Damon

Hit: Do you always wear a big sunglasses to look cool? Damon: Oh, no, it’s the light here, my eyes are sensitive to the light.(He said, taking off his glasses. Wow, what a typical handsome European, he has charming blue eyes.) Hit: What is your main purpose in coming to China? Damon: I was invited by a friend, but also was attracted by Chinese culture. I am interested in the culture and lifestyle of Chinese ethnic minorities, and their music in particular. We are so fascinated by it. On the other hand, we are promoting the new album Demon Days in here. In the past two weeks, we’ve been to Guiyang, Phoenix City, Changsha and Yiwu. But we are leaving today. Hit: That’s a shame, four more days and it’s the traditional Chinese autumn festival. You can have some delicious mooncakes on that day.(Damon seems to be interested in food.) Damon: Oh, yes. We have had some amazing food here. I found Chinese food really worthy of its reputation. I also bought a book of how to make dumplings. Hit: What’s the inspiration of making Gorillaz? Do you have any plans on touring? Damon: Each song is a story, and mostly happened on a dark night.It’s similar to the darkness that fell upon people after the 9 / 11 incident. For touring, as I have a very good impression of China, I will talk about it with my friends. We’re planning a world tour. I promise you, there will be a Chinese date. We’ll be back. (How’s the new video going? Damon: We are sampling in Africa right now, we have three videos done, now there’s one left. ) Hit: How did you and Jamie meet? Damon: We have many mutual friends, we’ve been knowing each others for 15 years.(Is it true that you guys live in the same building? Damon: Yeah, but that was a year ago, now we are living across the street.) Hit: What makes you want to form a HIP-HOP virtual band in the first place? Damon: Well, I still want to write pop music, but I don’t want to make ordinary music which is boring. And I’m interested in the idea of replacing actual people with cartoon characters. In fact, we can not be simply defined as hip hop band, because our music is very diverse, we got inspirations from everything. Gorillaz combines elements of Rock, reggae, hip-hop and lo-fi together. Hit: Would you like to talk about Oasis? They released a new album this year and it’s doing well. You guys were fighting a lot back in the old days. Damon: Well the battle between Blur and Oasis was some kinda promotion of the Britpop, isn’t it? As for our music, we better leave it to other people to judge. Hit: I also heard that you slammed the Live 8 concert, why is that? Damon: Because I think the concert lost its purpose. Assisting Africa is a formidable and complicated thing, and there are different ways to approach that. I think the reason to hold Live 8 concert is to help more people to understand Africa’s culture and its current situation. But live 8 failed to do that. For example, I used to think that I know about China, but it wasn’t until I actually came here and really got to know what people’s lives were like in here that I had a deeper feeling for China, a feeling that was different from the past. For the past two weeks, I’ve been fascinated by what’s going on here. I think Live 8 is a failure. It’s like if half the people in China were starving right now, and we organized a concert to help them, but not one Chinese was involved in the whole project, would you call that a success? Hit: Ok, let’s talk about something that’s less heavy. What other hobbies do you have besides music? Damon: Cooking, jogging, and playing with my baby daughter. I really like to cook, especially Chinese food. I had so many delicious food in China! I also bought a bunch of cooking books and I am going to try all of them when I get back. Hit: Can you make dumplings yet? Damon: We’ve got it covered. (Damon laughs, and I remind him that he needs more practice.) Oh, all I have to do is slice up the flour, chop up the vegetables and meat, then put in some mushrooms. And don’t forget about the chilli. (Damon windmills his hands while speaking, as if to prove that he can really cook. “Yeah, he loves chili, ” Jamie adds.) Hit: What’d you like to say to so many Chinese fans? Damon：谢谢(Thank you)！（He says these two words fluently in a strong British accent, somebody’s been practising obviously.）

Jamie

Hit: Can you introduce yourself first? Jamie: Introduce myself? (Jamie looks at me blankly. “Start from ‘I am —’ Ready, go!” Damon quips.) I’m Jamie (He thought for a while before blurting out. “I’m single. I’m looking for a girlfriend. ” — I made fun of him as Damon did.) I’m happy to be in China. I am the artist of the band, so I drew all of these arts. Hit: How did you come up with the idea of using cartoon characters as the band’s public image? Jamie: Because cartoon characters are so common, everyone has seen cartoons, and their characters can be more edgy. They can do a lot of things that actual people can’t in real life, they are the exaggeration of reality. And it’s easier to show artist’s intentions with cartoons. Hit: I noticed that in your paintings, characters’ eyes are specially designed. Why is that? Jamie: Well, because when you talk to someone, you look them in the eye, and through their eyes you can see what they’re thinking. Hit: Who is your favourite Gorillaz member? Jamie: I think it’s Murdoc, who’s formed the band and also is the heart of the band. Hit: When you were creating Gorillaz, did you ever think about making the band members’ appearances match the music? Jamie: Not Exactly. You know, the band members have their own personalities and backgrounds. So it’s more like… making cartoons. (Did you make their personalities more similar to the actual band members?) No, they are nothing like the people behind all this . Hit: Did anything hilarious happen during this trip? Jamie: We have a lot of funny stories, but it’s hard to explain. We spent most of the two weeks bouncing on the bus. Hit: What kind of person Damon is in your eyes? Jamie: He’s a lovely sunny boy.

Bonus

1. After Damon Albarn said his “thank you” to fans, I asked if he knew any other Chinese words, he immediately turned to Jamie, who was standing next to him, and asked, “How to say dumplings? ” And then he smiled and said, “饺子! ” which sounded way more precise than the “thank you”. 2. Damon talked a lot about the places he had visited, and he solemnly pointed to the green military rubber shoes on his feet, “Look! I bought them in PHOENIX CITY! ” Jamie, who was wearing the same shoes as Damon’s, also pointed to his feet and said, “Mine too! ” 3. Damon is apparently good at doodling, so he improvised on the magazine we brought with us… I just felt a little twitch at the corner of my mouth, I don’t know how to appreciate thta! Awkward!

for @damonalbarn​

​

Road to Graduation

Hi, so this is the first chapter of a new RWBY fic. I’m stuck in quarantine with time on my hands, an idea, and decided screw it, let’s write a RWBY fic. A very quick bit of background, this is canon-compliant until after the Volume 7 finale, then it goes its own way. The first two chapters are mostly setting the scene and giving some background for the following story, so apologies if they’re a bit long, and a little heavy on dialogue and exposition, but there’s a fair bit that needs to be explained.

(Also the title is currently temporary, I’m pretty bad at titles and this was the first idea that came into my head that sounds decent enough).

Anybody who wants to be like a beta reader or give any reviews or anything is REALLY welcome to do so! I don’t have one at the minute, so it might be a little rough around the edges. Any, click below for the actual chapter!

It’s been a month since they fought Salem. A month since Ozpin had taken over Oscar’s body and, with a little help from Ruby’s silver eyes, wounded Salem enough to force her into the Winter Vault, with Penny sealing it, and Salem, away. Tyrian had been recaptured and, whilst in a fury at Salem being sealed, was goading the Ace Ops with how many people he had killed in the fight, and accidentally let slip he’d also killed Clover. Robyn Hill had used her semblance on both Qrow and, under heavy restraints, Tyrian, proving Qrow’s innocence and his release. The CCT towers are slowly being set up again, and a message was sent to Vacuo to make sure they didn’t try to open the Summer Vault, along with a promise to Beacon that the Atlesian Military would send help to rid Vale and Beacon of the Grimm that were plaguing the city and old Academy grounds, including the Wyvern Grimm clinging to Beacon Tower. Once the two kingdoms worked together, and nearly the full might of the Atlesian military was brought to bear, the Grimm surrounding Beacon were forced back and Beacon returned to the way it was two years or so ago.

 Following that, a rather awkward conversation took place in Atlas tower, involving the now General Winter Schnee, Team RWBY and JNR, and with Professor Goodwitch on call from Beacon.

 “What do you mean our licenses were revoked?!” Yang slammed her hands down on the table.

 Winter sighed, “Former General Ironwood revoked your licenses when you declined to support his plan to save Atlas. I’ve…”

 “You mean when we refused to let him sacrifice the whole of Mantle and the people in it.” Blake retorted, glaring at Winter.

 Winter met Blake’s stare for a beat before continuing, “As I was saying, I’ve tried to reinstate the licenses, as well as issue you new permanent ones, however when he revoked the licenses he blocked all seven of you from being granted a license by anyone with Atlesian authority, including military and the council.”

 Ruby turned to the scroll with Professor Goodwitch on, “Professor? Is there anything you can do?”

 Professor Goodwitch’s voice came through the scroll, slightly crackly as the CCT system was not back up to its prior strength, “Atlas is the only country who can produce Huntsmen licenses without graduating at an academy. Without returning to an academy, completing your education, and then graduating, we cannot grant you your licenses.”

 At this nearly everyone looked crestfallen. “So, despite everything that’s happened, there’s nothing you can do? We helped to defeat Salem! Surely that should count for SOMETHING!” Jaune yelled.

 Professor Goodwitch sighed, “I appreciate your frustration Mr Arc, and the whole of Vytal is thankful for your assistance in defeating Salem…”

 “Not that they’ll ever know about it” muttered Blake.

 “Thank you for your comments Miss Belladonna, but considering the panic you all saw in Mantle and the amount of Grimm it brought, would you really wish that on the rest of Vytal when they learned of an immortal Queen of the Grimm that is trying to destroy humanity?” Professor Goodwitch replied sharply, “Even if she is sealed away, it would still bring panic and Grimm, leading to loss of life.”

 Blake looked down embarrassed and Yang glared at the scroll.

 “Back to your point Mr Arc, I’ve spoken to the council members in Vale, and informed them that your absence from all of the Academies was approved by Professor Ozpin before his death, and your recent efforts were part of an extended mission, watched over by Qrow Branwen. Fortunately, news of his mistaken arrest, which I WILL be speaking to you about General, did not reach Vale. I have convinced them that due to the success of your highly secret mission, your entire second year, for all of you, was passed.”

 “Is that really all you can do?” Ruby said quietly.

 “Yes Miss Rose. That is all I can do.” Even to most of the people in the room Professor Goodwitch sounded tired, and possibly even a little sad.

 Everyone looked at each other, slightly unsure of what to do or say until Ren spoke up “So what happens now?”

 “If you all still wish to graduate and become professional Huntsmen and Huntresses, you are welcome to return to Beacon to complete your training there, starting in your third year. I’ll give you until 5pm tomorrow to decide. Since the disaster of the last Vytal Festival the council is trying to keep a much closer eye on Beacon, so I have to tell them what is happening with you seven at their next meeting tomorrow.”

 Ruby looked back to the scroll “And if we refuse?”

 “Then you will not become legal Huntsmen and Huntresses.”

 There were a few moments of silence before Winter spoke up, “You can go back to your rooms now to discuss this. It’s the best option you have.”

 Taking her not so subtle hint to leave, the two teams left the room, but not before hearing Professor Goodwitch turn her attention to Winter, “Now, would you please be so kind as to explain not only why the hell you put out a warrant for Qrow’s arrest, but also why you then followed through with it?” Any further words were cut off by the doors sealing behind them. Ruby and Yang glanced at each other grinning slightly, they’d been on the receiving end of one of Professor Goodwitch’s scolding, more than once for Yang, and knew how bad it could be.

 It wasn’t long before they reached their rooms and split into their respective teams.

 Ruby and Blake sat on the beds, with Weiss and Yang taking chairs opposite their respective partners, Yang spinning hers round to sit backwards.

 “Well Ruby? What do we do?” Blake asked.

 Ruby looked to them all in turn, “What do you guys WANT to do? I know I’m the leader of our team, but I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to…”

 Weiss was the first to reply, “Personally, my vote is to graduate and become a Huntress. My only other option would be to take over the Schnee Dust Company, but I don’t want to do that, in fact I want nothing to do with it. I’m done with Atlas; Ironwood was the last straw.”

 Yang looked to Blake before facing Ruby “I don’t know Rubes, to be honest I’m not happy with the whole situation, if they do this to us now, what’s to say something else won’t happen again in the future? I’m not sure about returning to Beacon, but I want us to stay together as a team.”

 Blake looked at Yang directly whilst saying “I want to stay as a team, so I’ll follow you guys.” Yang smiled in response.

 Ruby looked down at the ground for a moment, “All I’ve ever wanted was to be a Huntress. To help people. If the only way to do that is to go back to Beacon and graduate, then I would do that. But being together as a team is more important. We got split up once before, that’s not happening again.” She looked at the time on her scroll “It’s getting late, we’ll sleep on it and see what we think tomorrow.”

 The others nodded their agreement and got ready for bed. Across the hall, JNR was having a similar discussion.

 “What happens now Jaune?” Nora looked to her team leader.

 “I don’t know Nora, I don’t know.” Jaune sat down on his bed heavily.

 “Me and Ren have nowhere else to go, we don’t have a family or home to return to, it’s just us three now. So, we’ll follow you where you go.” Nora looked to Ren for reassurance, slipping her hand into his, and he nodded.

 “Thanks you guys,” Jaune smiled at them both, “To be honest, returning to some kind of, I don’t know, normal life would be good you know? Finishing school and actually having something to show for everything we’ve done would be good. Plus, I could kinda do with a bit more training,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

 “Then back to school we go,” Ren said quietly.

  The next day they all met up in Winter’s office. Professor Goodwitch was on call from Beacon again, “Well, have you all come to a decision?”

 Ruby and Jaune looked at each other and nodded. The two teams had discussed it over breakfast that morning. “Looks like you’re going to have to put up with our team again Professor,” Ruby smiled.

 “And ours.” Jaune chimed in after Ruby.

 “Good. Pack your things, you’ll be on the next flight to Vale, it leaves tonight.” Winter nodded at them all.

 “Mr Arc? If you, Miss Valkyrie and Mr Ren could all remain for a moment, there is something we need to discuss with you three.” Professor Goodwitch said.

 Jaune looked at Ruby and said, “Go on, we’ll catch up to you.” Ruby looked a little confused but nodded and led her team out the door. “Yes Professor? What is it?” Jaune turned back to the scroll.

 Team RWBY reached their room and packed their things, Weiss double checking to make sure they’d left nothing behind, before heading to the landing platform, finding someone waiting for them. “Hey kiddo, looks like you’re hitching a ride back to Vale with me.”

 “Uncle Qrow!” Ruby sprinted to give Qrow a tight hug. “I was worried about you” Ruby whispered into his coat. Yang came up behind Ruby and gave her uncle a hug as well, whilst Weiss and Blake stood back a little, not sure what they should do.

 “I’m alright, just tired of this cold.” Qrow said, looking to the door as it slid open to reveal Winter standing in the doorway.

 “Weiss. Come here.”

 Weiss breathed out before turning to walk to her older sister. “Yes Winter?”

 They walked to one side of the doorway and Winter stood awkwardly for a moment before replying, “I’m glad you decided to continue your education.” They were silent for a moment before she continued “Now that Father is in custody, and will never touch our family again, I will…see what I can do to help Mother,” she motioned to Qrow with her head, “If that alcoholic idiot over there can drag himself to sobriety, I will see what I can do to help Mother achieve the same.”

 Weiss almost couldn’t believe what she was about say considering how he had treated her but… ”And Whitley.”

 Winter looked a little surprised at Weiss.

 “He was always closer to Father than us or Mother. He will need support as well. Especially as he is now the heir and will take over the company.” Weiss swallowed hard, wanting to say the words before she changed her mind.

 Winter looked solemn for a moment, “Yes, we all neglected him, and Father took him completely under his influence. I will try to help him as well, but I suspect Klein will be better able to help Whitley than me.”

 Weiss smiled at the memory of her friend and former butler and, seeing the members of Team JNR come out into the air said, “This will be goodbye then sister.”

 “Yes, it will be.” Winter nodded, before Weiss grabbed her in an impromptu hug. Winter hesitated for a moment before smiling slightly and returning it. “Try to write or call more often too.”

 “I will” Weiss smiled at her sister, before turning and walking back to her team.

 Qrow looked up at her arrival, nodded curtly to Winter, then turned, slipped his hands in his pockets and walked up the ramp onto the aircraft. Winter sighed, shook her head, then stood to attention as the others waved goodbye and followed Qrow up the ramp and back to Vale.

 Ruby lingered slightly before continuing into the aircraft, a little upset Penny hadn’t come to see them off, but the ever-energetic girl had left on a mission from Winter a week ago and wouldn’t return for a few more days. Sitting down with the rest of her team opposite Qrow and JNR she heard Weiss ask Jaune “What did Professor Goodwitch want to speak with you about?”

 Jaune looked slightly awkward and Nora a little cross, whilst Ren remained relatively impassive as always. “She said when we arrive, we need to go to her office and speak with her straight away, just the three of us. She didn’t say anything else.” Weiss and Blake suspected something wasn’t being said but decided that the others would tell them in time, and for now, all they wanted to do was lean back and rest. Just before closing her eyes to sleep Ruby noticed Qrow leaning back, eyes closed trying to sleep, but with a glimmer of green in his right hand.

   After arriving at Beacon, they all wearily climbed out the aircraft, Yang and Ruby giving long hugs to Qrow, before he walked off, raising a hand to say goodbye. The seven climbed up the steps to the main doors, not noticing there was someone standing next to Professor Goodwitch.

 “Salutations friends!”

Deca-Dence 4 | Maou-jou 2 | Fruits Basket 2 24 (49) | Magatsu 1 | IWGP 2 | Koi to Producer 11 - 12 (FINAL) | HypMic 3

Still chugging away at these summer and spring anime...sorry for the delay...(LOL, that rhymed without me meaning to.)

Also, I’ve been on the fence about whether to keep Golden Kamuy, since almost no one I read the reviews of follows it now and it’s a week’s wait (when accounting for my AniList challenge)...so I’m putting it on pause so I don’t have to suffer later.

Deca-Dence 4

“…who possesses the will to fight.”

…Great. Kurenai is absolutely tethered to Kaburagi in a one-sided love. Just when I thought Natsume had an independent role model to look up to.

Maou-jou 2

Oh, this is from Shonen Sunday? Didn’t know that until now.

“Demon Shroud: A demon with 99 clans. A cloth demon that puts on airs that it won’t be used before it’s finished off, due to its wonderful fabric. It is full of beautiful ghostly power, so its skin is smooth. However, the hero (who commonly uses things he finds in his surroundings) caught one, so now the princess has zeroed in on them. The princess doesn’t need the hands or the head of these demons, so it’s a cycle of killing and taking revenge for them. Their fighting style is squeezing the life out of things.”

Apparently, the teddy is acceptable, LOL.

I like how the window stopped displaying text at one point.

I saw someone with a huge plait in the ED. The queen, maybe…?

I noticed the laughs dropped off significantly in comparison to last time, but it’s still good. I can flex my translation skills even if I can’t laugh at one part.

Fruits Basket 2 24 (49)

…jumping to the 2nd-last episode in a season is pretty unprecendented, but I’m going to watch this for the sake of Jon’s Creator Showcase…then again, I need to finish this anime anyway, so it’s just cutting and changing the order for something I already know the outcomes of.

I used to lose myself in movies so much that I would lose all sense of who I was and would have to “regain the bearings of myself”, so to speak. I would have to reconstruct who I was, even though I technically hadn’t “been broken” and I knew once I did that, it felt different. Like I’d travelled through time and past me would never be the same as present me. That’s why I kind of get what Machi means.

Oh, I didn’t listen to this OP much…probably because I’m emphasising bingeing the spring and summer series I left behind and now that I can skip the ads on most of my anime, I’m leaving behind the anime I’ll be slower on.

The manga was written when there weren’t as many cell phones around, much less smartphones.

Rin’s on bad terms with everyone…

…if I remember the year of the dragon correctly, the last one was 2012, then the one before that is 2000…around the turn of the millennium, huh? Froob is showing its age here, albeit unintentionally.

Now that I’m closer to the Musketeers’ age, I can kind of empathise with their scenes a bit more.

“If I always blame someone or something, I’ll never change.” – True. I realised I’ve been a bit too haughty lately (what with the HypMic anime going on and it being the first thing I could research extensively before the anime’s debut, my feelings are of course reaching fever pitch – combine that with continued COVID lockdown and you get me being all defensive of HypMic, for better or for worse) and so I may have acted like a jerk to someone, but since I only know them online and generally when I try to apologise to people online they don’t see the things I apologise for as things in need of apology, I know the fault lies with me to rein myself in. I guess this means changing yourself is the only way to move forward.

I wonder how Hatori did his doctor training while avoiding hugs from girls who aren’t Sohmas…?

Shigure vs. Gentaro (of HypMic, of course)…a writing competition! That would be fun.

…Crow’s note here makes sense (<- this is why I changed the order). Shigure was clearly asking a question there.

Come to think of it, HypMic and Froob have some similar characters. The stoic doctor is Hatori/Jakurai, the energetic smol one is Momiji/Ramuda, the teasing author is Shigure/Gentaro…that could make for some good fanfic material, really.

Magatsu 1

…that title is an absolute killer, man. Anyways, I’m here for the director, who also worked on Hataraku Maou-sama.

Is this a no guns thing, like IWGP is a no drugs thing?

…this OP has lyrics?! I just hear strange squeaky noises, the kind you hear on some autotuned sogs to make them seem more ominous (I can’t remember if there’s a similar sound in G-Anthem of Y City or Yokohama Walker, but one of the MTC songs has similar noises).

I kinda guessed Leo’s package was the one Schaake and her partner were looking for. I was right.

That CGI (on the truck) is…kinda conspicuous.

These backgrounds are gorgeous.

“The definition of in dubio contra reum is "in doubt, against the accused", meaning that, where there is doubt, the accused in a trial is not given the benefit of that doubt; they are assumed guilty.”

I wonder: how many protagonists start out as absolute wimps, unwilling to fight because they either know or don’t know their own power? It’s a pretty standard introduction for things with fights.

This battle track is nice. I listened to some of the Magatsu music under Masaru Yokoyama’s name on Spotify and it’s pretty cool, but since it’s background music, there’s not a lot of demand to listen to it (from me or anyone else, I don’t think).

Why is there only a single shield if they know the enemy has heavy artillery?

…what the heck is a Zeits? Update: You can see a “Zeits” (or however it’s spelt) in the credits list, suggesting Zeits is a character in this.

I knew this was my last premiere and this might have made or broken my entire watching schedule, but this is just a pretty down-to-earth premiere for a fantasy mobile game. While that cliffhanger compelled me to continue, I don’t think it’s good enough to beat its competition in the long run.

IWGP 2

I know I said Magatsu was my last premiere, but just to be sure, I’m watching this one.

This dance scene is beautifully orchestrated. The fact there’s no music means you focus entirely on the motion.

The OP seems to trade more in colour and spectacle than actual “cool factor”.

…wow, $2.90…? That’s some cheap food.

You know I hate 1st person cam with a passion, right? So…uh…

Eyyyyyyyy…this is basically McDonald’s, curry style.

I think I can almost see Ichiro of HypMic in how the G-Boys seem to mostly be reformed delinquents or actual delinquents.

…yeah, but what’s your name, random messenger guy? Update: We find out later his name is Isogai.

“It’s because I suck at working and communicating.” – Yep, that me.

Ikebukuro licence plate. I still have no idea exactly what places get licence plates in Japan.

There are actually 2 characters before “Hospital”, but no one confirms the reading of those characters…which is probably why they’re omitted.

…oh gosh, if this were a BL, Mitsuki and Masaru would be star-crossed lovers…*sigh*

Maybe it’s an unrelated 3rd party??? (In mysteries, you can never dismiss the work of a 3rd party.)

You can tell exactly which group is which based on the colours they wear. Makoto isn’t affiliated with anyone, so he’s wearing black and had yellow earlier.

I think an anime is cowardly – or trying to save budget – if they deliberately choose an angle where they can’t show the moment of impact clearly.

E! News, LOL.

Archangel, huh? So like a 2nd in command?

I think IWGP is moving in the direction of pushing the gangs against each other in the way Makoto describes in ep. 2.

As for what I think of it now, it's decent if you want something down-to-earth, but it seems to be missing some kind of "wow factor". Like it's afraid to commit to deeper characterisation, even though it has Makoto as the ostensible lead/viewpoint character.

Koi to Producer 11

“Cognitive Science Association” - I thought it was the Cognitive Psychology Association…? (Psychology is shinrigaku, science is kagaku.)

My boy (Lucien)…why must you be so evil??? Why do I keep falling for the tall but mysterious doctor??? (<- guilty as charged re: Jakurai)

…that’s some funky seatbelts.

What’s that look in Victor’s eyes…? Fondness, or something more…?

…ah, so there is “Science” in the place’s name. It was just being less loosely translated then.

Oh dang. Stuff escalated really fast, huh?

You actually set this in 2020, huh, staff? What happens ten years from now and people watch it, only to realise 2020 and 2030 aren’t so different? That’s what happened when people had the Y2K bug.

That yellow sign on the side says “exit”. It’s not of any use.

That’s not a recoloured Kiro, is it? It’s not Shaw, either (who I think we saw somewhere in the previous episodes)…so then who is it?

…geesh, they even changed Helios to Ares. I guess it makes sense: Helios is the god of the sun, but Ares is the god of war.

Koi to Producer 12 (FINAL)

I read on the wiki Lucien’s power is copying powers. No wonder I couldn’t get a solid handle on it!

So that Helios wasn’t a mistake in the credits list in the previous episode???

Can we even hear what Helios says when Protag-chan is pulled away? Based on the lack of subs, probably no, but I wanted to ask anyway. (Or maybe he said “Watashi”, since that’s the pronoun Protag-chan goes by?)

…so that really is Kiro, huh?

Military…what? When did Protag-chan’s father have a military squad???

LOL, at the very end you can see Gavin gesturing at Greenie (the pot plant, presumably a succulent). I logged on to the game 7 days straight (they have a Discord channel!) and got a Gavin R card with Greenie on it, which is how I know about it.

Anyways, that was a fun show. Not the best, but still fun.

HypMic 3

*snickers* Just look at my boi! He’s so tall, he has to bend down for kids! (I don’t mean that teasingly, I mean that endearingly, but lately I’ve been no good at expressing myself…Must be the lockdown.)

If TsudaKen was a guest last time, then Degarashi and Irihatoma could be voiced by guest seiyuus too…

What is Jakurai, hmm? (A Transformer, LOL?...I’m kidding, of course.)

All I knew about this episode going in was that it was an MTR episode. Maybe they’ll cover the stalker story from the manga…?

More literally, Hifumi’s sign says “will you monopolise me until morning?”. This reminds me of the MTR truck one of the servers I was in was talking about…it looked like a giant billboard.

“The most notable thing about Doppo is that he has no notable characteristics.”…and yet, he’s still one of the most popular characters of the series.

Suddenly, HypMic becomes a mystery…? I’ll take it!

Yup, “Doppomine” is now confirmed as “Doppo-chin”.

If all the mysteries I’ve consumed say one thing, it’s “never forget there might be someone out there with a grudge against you willing to pin a crime on you”…or alternatively, “never forget there may be an unrelated 3rd party who would be willing to pin a crime on you”.

These guys (Tom etc.) are just food critics, I swear…(LOL)

Oddly enough(?), googling “Shinjuku waffles” reveals there are several waffle places in Shinjuku…you wouldn’t expect so many waffles away from the home of waffles (probably Belgium), but there you go.

All the results on Shinjuku French toast point to this Café Aaliya (give or take an H at the end). Apparently, it’s so popular, people line up for it on weekdays.

Oh, so Tom’s a (street) photographer…what are Iris and Rex then?

The CGI on that car looks really bad, man. It may be dark to disguise it, but it still looks bad.

Jakurai’s dad car strikes again!...Was it white? I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it was a lighter colour than this.

I was quite worried about how much swearing they were going to throw in the MTC episode, but then…they kicked it down a week. So…start worrying about next week, folks!

I…thought he would call Jyuto for some reason. (giggles) I’ve never seen Samatoki look so happy in relation to Jakurai, but maybe that’s because he’s just chilling. (Or maybe he was meant to have a neutral but slightly happy face and they messed up the angle. I know I do that sometimes in fanart.)

There’s Jyuto, right on cue…LOL, that kick to the guts was so random it became epic!

Uwabami…what sort of snake is that, again? *checks* Giant snake. That’s no help. (That host could have a guest seiyuu too.)

Ooh, I’m fairly sure that’s an automatic car.

Jakurai went Jitsu wa kyoumi bukai desu ne?. “Fascinating” isn’t a wrong translation, but they did forget “In fact…” or “Really…” from the start and possibly the “?” at the end (depending on interpretation). Update: It might actually be Jitsu ni, but same deal.

They struttin’ down Kabuki-cho all fancy-like…Doppo sure does get a lot of punchlines, though.

This random guy at the club could also have a guest seiyuu…

…what’s with the random Tahoma?

…oh, hey. If Hifumi’s jacket acts as a security blanket of sorts against women and he gave it to Doppo for extra warmth (presumably), then…he’s trying to protect Doppo, even in his own sort of unique way.

Mimimi vs Hifumi? This is gonna get confusing…(hey, did they actually make a flourish noise when Hifumi put on his jacket? Does the distinction need to be that clear…?)

…see, never forget the presence of an unrelated 3rd party.Wait, so we have motive…what’s the relationship of Mimimi and the dude she killed? Who is that dude? Update: We find out later.

Notice Mimimi says “Hifumi-kun” – she’s still on an outside layer compared to Doppo, who just uses Hifumi’s name. Also, I noticed Mimimi called herself Hifumi’s “onna” – “woman” – explicitly, as if she belonged to him. The subs reflect that, but it seems to have less meaning in English because they outright translated it as such.

Well, they got to demonstrate Doppo’s snapping. I’m more than happy with just that. Also, Hifumi calls Doppo with a -kun here.

LOL, this song is gonna be known as “catchy”, ain’t it? Anything with an easy-to-sing-along chorus like “nananana” is. Update: Or maybe not even a chorus, it’s just lyrics.

Hmm…I noticed the “use Mr with me” line isn’t actually reflected in the subs, but the lyrics are so fast, I don’t know how they are reflected.

Did you notice the da in the lyrics in romaji?

…and s*** goes ka-blooey, as you’ve come to expect by now.

Mimimi-kun…?

Oh, so the background from Hypnosis Mics can get caught in photos? I never thought of that.

It’s almost as if they’re nodding at the Doppo fans through the 4th wall regarding his appeal.

It seems they’re not switching out this Buster Bros track, which is…okay, but I was hoping for an MTR ED. (Tofubeats was on this track IIRC and the anime website didn’t list a future ED, so that’s why I’m okay with it.)

…Okay, so Irihatoma is Mutsumi Iwanaka, who’s a rookie in the seiyuu world. *goes to consult Anime News Network*

Oh! Mimimi Hibakari! I get it! (It means “me, me, me all day” when written differently to her name.)

Uwabami was Shugo Nakamura and Degarashi was Mitsuaki Hoshino. I’ve never heard of these guys – except for Nakamura’s role as Teru in Idolm@ster Side M – so it’s interesting they contrasted TsudaKen with them…eh? Heilong? Whossat? (Probably the guy whose…parts…almost got crushed by Jakurai with a billiards cue.) This Hiroya Eto is even more underground than those guys.

A-hah! Today’s new song is “WELCOME U” (that’s how it’s spelt, don’t diss me for it!) by Kohei from SIMONSAYZ.

Update: I thought that kid at the beginning was Yotsutsuji, so it scared me for a second.

On the subject of old fics 1

Allegedly, A Gentleman’s Tale (published 1-6-2012) was my first fanfic ever (again, allegedly - will explain after a bit). It only exists now as a private copy at least one person has saved and a capture on the WayBackMachine (which thankfully covered the whole ten chapters of it), because I have a habit of... deleting stories that embarrass me after the fact. It’s something I’m trying to break myself of, mostly because there are a number of people who do enjoy my work even if most of what I see in it are the flaws and I would feel bad about taking away something they enjoyed.

The ‘allegedly’ part comes in in that, based on my memories of my One Piece OCs and stories (along with more concrete evidence from my tumblr), I had a few OCs with snippets of story (with one who had at least a few chapters worth of story that I have memorized in broad strokes) attached that preceded that by at least one or two years, even though the description of ‘my first fic’ was in the synopsis of the fic as it was posted. Unfortunately, it’s hard to trace that information thanks to the ‘destroy all the evidence of me embarrassing myself’ habit (I completely deactivated my deviantart account on account of ‘cringe’, that’s how bad it got) and the passage of time making it unclear which mutuals might have been around at that time or if they even remember those things.

Now, I still have the computers that I typed up those stories on (they’re hanging out in my basement), but - they haven’t worked in quite a while. I’m not sure if they’re completely bricked or not, but I haven’t had anything to do with them for a while and I know that at least one of them was replaced because it refused to turn on anymore. Someday, I might get the chance to pull out their hard-drives and get a look at the data there, but that’s not a ‘now’ solution so...

Anyway - got a bit distracted there -, thanks to the power of the WayBackMachine, I was able to reread this specific fic in its entirety.

‘A Gentleman’s Tale’ was a little thing that was pretty much Brook backstory wrapped up in the framing device of Luffy wanting a story to help him get to sleep. I was 18, had maybe a year or two of creative writing experience/interest under my belt, and a whole lot of Soul King Stan energy to spend on my favorite character despite being at the tail end of my high school career.

Surprisingly, it was not entirely awful for an alleged ‘first attempt’. The formatting was a little eh, the pacing was borked, and a lot of characters were fairly flat (and a few leaned too hard on certain stereotypes while a lot had Western order names for some reason), but other than that, it was actually palatable. Ten chapters, about 8000 words, not a whole lot to write home about or find objectionable outside of the odd grammatical error and the fact that alcohol is mentioned in almost. every. single. chapter.

Seriously, I have no idea why that was a thing for me 2012-2013ish (it ended up in Witt and Witticism a little bit - more heavily on the rewrites that never took off back in the day but a little present in the original too). I was 18-19. I’d never had alcohol. I still haven’t had alcohol. I’d never really been around drinking at that age, socially or not, beyond like, enjoying brew fries and eating chicken tenders at a bar one time because my shit father wanted to have lunch there for some reason. I just guess that I woke up at the start of 2012 and thought Drink Mixing and Booze were interesting things.

The story wasn’t much to write home about, but the characters are the real area of interest here, so let’s cover them and a few of my plans for handling them in the rewrite.

Brook - Starts out his backstory being seasick, gets to have five decent minutes when he meets Yorki, and then is immediately shoved into the wall-to-wall shitshow that’s his life as the battle convoy captain and resident responsible adult, despite 70% of the convoy being at least ten to fifteen years older than him. Somehow that makes his interest in getting black out drunk almost every single night sound reasonable. Seriously, that’s what he was doing in that story, according to what happened almost every other chapter of the fic (because pacing is for writers on their third or fourth story). That’s one reason why the timeline is being stretched out in the rewrite plans - so we don’t kill the main character through alcohol poisoning (though with the kind of stress he was under in that original cut, I can’t blame him for trying - he got saddled with three weird + constantly fighting teenagers and a dying military organization, snubbed by the king, publicly embarrassed in front of 90% of the kingdom’s nobility, and so on in the course of two to three days max). Honestly, in retrospect, I’m not sure how well this plays with the framing device of Brook relating his backstory 62 years later, because he should have lost so many brain cells to this nonsense.

Yorki - Starts his introduction by saying ‘hey, my name’s Yorki, i’m close, bi, and willing to take you on a whirlwind adventure literally two seconds after meeting you’ which Brook immediately responds to as the best thing that’s happened to him in the last (and probably next) month. Probably the only person in Brook’s life as of the fic not stressing him out or enabling his self-destructive coping habits, though that doesn’t stop him from being one of the better things Brook woke up to after one of his blackout drinking nights. Also got an incredibly shitty nickname thanks to me not knowing how that sort of thing works from his mom. In the rewrite, he’s from Ohio (because I and my Middle-Ground lingering Self-Insert are from Michigan and the opportunity for a struggle between ‘hey we’ve both being isekai’d into this weird place and have similar backgrounds/music tastes so we’re going to hang together based on that’ and ‘200 year old inter-state hatred turned into over the top sports rivalry and disliking the other state on principle’ was too good to pass up).

Luchere Gregg (Gregg being her surname) - junior member of the battle convoy. Incredibly thorny and violent personality, with very little respect for authority (outside of her father, probably) and a generally superior attitude towards literally everyone except her father, especially when she perceived someone as being weak and ‘uppity’ at the same time - Maysure was the main target of this (as was intended at the time of the writing), but considering that Luchere was taking a similar tone with Brook (which was probably intended to be for different reasons, but honestly reads very similarly almost ten years on, given that Brook’s everything is very much not in line with her ideal anything) but not Hana (who was ‘weak’ but definitely not trying to mess with Luchere’s preferred social order), I think I can get more development out of her in that dimension. Her everything was probably was cool and badass back when I was 18, but now she just strikes me as petulant and unpleasant brat.

Minalee Hana - Generic smart guy of the junior team, complete with ‘shy’ personality and ‘harmless cute’ look... which, in retrospect, makes it really confusing why she’d join a military force in the first place and just raises suspicions on the fact that she did. Honestly she could be a Government plant and I wouldn’t be surprised. Another ‘problem’ with Hana is that she was based on someone I was friends with at the time I wrote the fic, which kinda ended up helping me dislike her a lot on more recent rereads, just because of the nature of that real world ‘friendship’ and the way it blew up in the end (with a whole lot of ugly reveals along the way that went back to pretty much when I first met that person).

Maysure Semenov Tara Su-all Evony Taebory Celeste - was originally a parody of the Mary Sue archetype, as you may have guessed from the name. Flashy, overeager, desperate for acknowledgement, and not quite managing to act in ways appropriate to her age (15, directly stated in text), either being too cutesy with her speech pattern and body language or dressing in ways that would be suited for a very different profession than soldier. I ended up liking her the most out of the junior trio out on my most recent rereads, just because she’s the only member of the group that’s actually making an effort at anything (well, beyond Luchere being hostile + trying to make Brook leave), doesn’t go out of her way to be hostile or destructive, and isn’t vaguely there in a way that makes me suspicious. Apparently was the only one of the junior trio ever stated to have weapons training (with Luchere being an unarmed fighter and Hana... just being there) and was apparently dedicated enough to it to have the schedule for the different training drills memorized.

Captain Gregg - the former captain of the battle convoy. He was never seen, only ever referenced in the fic. Based on the content, he was pretty much Luchere 1.0 - crass, unpleasant, violent, and without a lot of tolerance for those that couldn’t deal with or keep up with the unfortunate matter of his everything. The notes on rewrite so far have him becoming a lot more pleasant and lot less generally awful person, though still a bit of a roughneck and unpleasant to be around if you aren’t cut from the same cloth or a similar weave. Was not inspired by Captain Clegg until I started imbibing pop culture in preparation for the various parts of the project.

Jeevenine - quartermaster of the battle convoy, bartender, and carrier of heavy butler vibes, which feels like it might have been intentional. Said to be a master of ‘improvisation combat’ but honestly seems to be the person most likely to have taught Brook his style of fencing (based on his speed and precision being noted as something Brook had difficulty keeping up with in text) and his gentlemanly ways, considering every other character I wrote into the convoy is some flavor of hot mess and either a bruiser or a gunman. Still loses points for enabling Brook’s blackout drinking habits and being passive-aggressive instead of properly helpful.

Jack Rackum and John Delacroix - sniper-spotter pair, as indicated by their nicknames of ‘Windward’ and ‘Leeward’ respectively. Highly implied to be in a long-standing romantic relationship with each other or at least in a long-term holding pattern of pining. Delacroix’s tendency to sleep in the nude is used as half of a ‘my eyes’ joke that Brook is the victim of (the other half is Maysure’s chosen nightclothes being both stereotypical of a ‘Mary Sue’ and vastly age inappropriate, which is a running gag with her). Rackum gets the most description out of the set, with his brown leather hat and green-grey hair being mentioned, along with his taste for fruity cocktails (he might also be an alcoholic, which isn’t really all that remarkable in this fic).

Kurotora Ren - Big Guy McHugeBeef. Also the guy responsible for keeping the battle convoy awash in homebrew booze. Almost kills Brook by accident during his introduction by clapping him on the back at the exact wrong moment. Doesn’t have a lot more detail than that, mostly because he slides into the background after that brief focus moment, but I like him for being genuinely sorry about the near-death thing on top of being friendly for real and not being duplicitous about his wants + thoughts.

Zest - noble. Stupid. Probably the closest thing that Brook has to a friend in his actual age range at the start of the story, which is really fucking sad considering Zest’s everything and the fact that Brook doesn’t enjoy his company at all. Somehow when I was 18, the idea of a guy who spent most of his time in some state of wasted and trying to get his ‘friend’ (who doesn’t even like him that much but seems to tolerate him more than literally everyone else Zest ever interacted with who wasn’t being paid) into a similar condition because of unrequited love or something was tragi-cute-slash-funny instead of pathetic and faintly disturbing (though I guess I might end up writing him as tragic again anyway just because it probably takes Some Shit to make a person like that). Spent 90% of his screen time in the old story making Brook’s life inconvenient and the remaining 10% fully aware that his own life is going nowhere. His personality is oddly similar to Maysure’s, which is... interesting, implications-wise. Holy Shit, is this guy going to be a trip to work with as an adult.

The questions raised in MK11′s story mode:

So here's everything as it came up in order, in my mind just as I was thinking of things, SUPER heavy spoilers ahead, I just want the fan consensus, please help a confused fan get his bearings, why does everyone praise this story mode when I'm just seeing more holes than a cheese grater? 1. If Gods are immune to Kronika's time tampering, How does she stop Shinnok's blood, which was still pouring from his neck, from flowing on that table? I know this one may be a bit nitpicky but that's just a little one that sticks out and is very visually present. 2. Where do the Kollector's people come from? Probably Outworld but pulling yet another species from thin air for that realm is kinda cheap, okay? 3. Why does everyone from the past look so different from how they did in MK9? It's like jarringly different, especially when Kung Lao JUST supposedly beat down the deadly alliance, something that is only established to happen in the reboot timeline. So what happened there? (Other cosmetic changes would take too long to point out individually, so I won't.) 4. Follow up, there must be a pretty big time gap for Johnny, Sonya, and Jax, because Jax has his mech arms but in the MK2 ark of MK9, he had to be rushed out of Outworld because Ermac blew his real arms off. 5. Follow up 2, why does Jax seem to have deaged? In MK9 he looked to be about thirty+ Whereas here he looks like a really big Twenty-something, his arms are even different. So what happened there? 6. Why does Dark Raiden vanish? The game throws out the explanation that "Immortals" operate on a different timescale, more or less, but if he's unaffected by other time distortions, how was he pulled forward in the first place? 7. Why aren't more people from either side, including Smoke, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Reptile, Ermac, Goro, Mileena, and Kintaro, ALL OF WHOM (Save for Smoke) are Loyal to Shao Kahn, not also summoned into the arena? And "She can only summon people who are still alive" isn't a workable answer because of Baraka, Skarlet and Shao Kahn himself. She later says that she's finding people not happy with the course of history, but I doubt two of the most ambitious characters in the series (The Deadly alliance) would be all that happy about being dead. Nor, I'd wager, would Kintaro or Goro, form the prideful warrior race of dragon people? 8. Why is future Erron Black completely mute? Yeah. In every scene he's in (a few different ones in the coliseum) he never says anything but past Erron has loads of dialogue. 9. How does Raiden know about there being other Temporal nonsense going on elsewhere in not just the realm he's in, but Earthrealm? I know he's Earthrealm's protector but how in the high heaven does he know? 10.As a Little one: How is it that past Johnny is sitting on the other side of the room looking at his nails and then is immediately walking by Sonya and Jax with future Johnny? She was looking in kind of the same direction but how quickly did this guy get up to pull that off? 11.Raiden says he's been getting the premonitions for "MONTHS" But MK9 established pretty roundly that he only got them night one of the 10th tournament. Now, by the time of the MK2 ark in MK9, no more than a week or two could have passed, at least as presented, so how does that make any sense? (I will elaborate if asked but this is already long enough) 12. Why does past Jade have an English accent and why does Revenant Jade not? (Other voice inconsistencies from within this trilogy would take to long to point out, so again, this is just persistent for all of them.) 13. The Cyber Lin Kuei (Who I will call "Tekunin" from here on out because I just like that better) are still a thing, Kronika pulled Sektor into the present too, I can buy that. But why not also try and recruit another realm like Seido? Imagine having Hotaru and the help of his forces. It'd make for some cool scenes, especially at the end when all the Oni are fighting Raiden's army, it'd make things a lot more chaotic, which would look cooler. Why not Chaos realmers? Zaterrans? Vampires? Centaurs? Kytinn? She brought the Tarkatans back completely so how hard would any of these other virtually extinct armies be harder to bring back and sway to her side in comparison? What about the Red Dragon? 14. Raiden apparently knows some of the history of this altered timeline which just makes me wonder how much he could realistically be briefed on, especially when he reacts with shock when he finds out that Sub-zero is friends with Hanzo Hasashi. And yes, the Cyber Initiative was a thing in MK9 but Sektor wasn't the grandmaster when that was going on or when Raiden and co were pulled from time. So what does he know and not know? And why did no one think "That crazy fire ninja is on our side" Was worthwhile info? 15. Why isn't Noob just the past one? He straight up says that he survived the soulnado, not that he's a different version. He never showed up live in the comics so it makes zero sense for him to have full stop survived. 16. How does ripping out two bundles of wire "Reformat" anything? 17. Future Kano references the idea of the Black Dragon being on top of "Not just the black market, Every market." What does that even mean? Is there gonna be a black dragon funded super corporation? That'd be cool, TBH. Shame that's never elaborated on. 18. When Kronika freezes time, is it only local? Or does it hit an entire Realm? Because in the scene where she's talking with Future Jax, and come to think of it, the one with Shinnok's head, What the hell is her bubble of influence? 19. Jade mentions Sheeva "Respecting Kitana's opinion more than anyone else's." Where, At all, in either timeline was that ever represented? Because up to now, if memory serves, their only real interactions were Sheeva telling Kitana to suck it up and die with honor in MK9. 20. What up with Jade's Retcon into being Kotal's girl? It's just kinda weird. 21. When and how did Revenant jade learn to control giant bugs? 22. What is Cetrion even the god of? Raiden, and later Kitana, mention she's a god of Virtue but why then is she able to control the Earth? "Elder god" Maybe but Raiden in the OG timeline got that title at the end of MK 4, then stepped down and he was no more powerful for it but that seems to be what happened with Cetrion, IDK. 23. How far back did Kronika have to pull Past Kano and Kabal from? Because Kabal is still apparently working for the black dragon, whatever age she got him from, but he still has his post-burn super speed. 24. What was the point of blowing Sektor up other than to just lose a major power player for your own side? 25. (Ultimate nitpick on this one) Why is Skarlet and one line from Baraka speaking Tarkatan the only ones that get subtitles? Why not just either A. Say it in English, which they seem to understand enough of, or B. Just not add these translations if they aren't translating the rest of the Tarkatan speech we see? What is the point? "So we understand it." I think you're underestimating people's ability to get the concept of "They said a thing, they did a thing, that must be what was said." 26. In the fight with the Tarkatans, How did Liu Kang and Kung Lao have the time to change back into monk clothes? Where was Kung Lao keeping his hat? 27. What the hell was Shao's last name? at a time "Kahn" was probably just the answer until it became retconned to mean "Emperor of Outworld." But what was his full name? I'm honestly curious, less of a nitpick, more of a "Hm." 28. Why does Future Kano feel a hit to the gut? I understand Johnny's Scar in one way or another, but a hit to the gut, painful as it is, especially when he's showing no sign of feeling any of Past Kano's minor injuries, shouldn't feel like anything after 25ish years. 29. Why does Future Kano have a delayed reaction to "Death by Missing hunk of brain?" The wound instantly manifests but he stands and seems to try to talk for a few seconds before collapsing into sand. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to rot into nothing really fast? Then again, Time travel is always a nightmare in any media that attempts to talk about it. 30. How does Revenant Kabal mistake Past Jax for Future Jax? 31. When Scorpion saves Hanzo, why didn't he just split D'vorah's skull with one strike? Two in a pinch? If he's putting enough force behind it to cut her stabby limbs off, or just generally be a useful assassin, why not just go for the neck even? (This one was answered on a reddit post I made, so whatever) 32. Why doesn't Scorpion just surrender when he goes to the Fire Gardens? Wouldn't it be best to just sit down inoffensively and wait for people to show up? Even if Sub-Zero wants to fight, he could just put his hands up and start disarming himself, Not beat the Holy Snot out of Sub-Zero. 33. If Kronika can just appear out of thin air, freeze all the humans in a given location, and pluck one from the ground, why not just use one of her minions like Geras or Cetrion to help kill them all while they're frozen? 34. Kronika mentions "Playing out all possible Scenarios." How many resets have you done, lady? Millions, I'd wager. How has your utter defeat not come up at least one other time? 35. Where are revenant Nightwolf, Sindel, Smoke, and Stryker during all of this? I find it deathly strange that Kronika couldn't find a use for FOUR undead super warriors. At least three and a bloke with military and police backgrounds that make things like strategy a bit easier, probably. 36.Kronika just MAKES a massive battleship or two, so what was the point of Cetrion building the bridge or asking Kharon to help in the first place? Just make a boat. Barring that, D'vorah mentioned that all she had to do was render Kharon unable to help Raiden's forces during Kharon's introduction. Why not just kidnap him, load him onto a boat, tie him to an anchor, and then just drop him in the blood sea? Rather than this "Slowly torture" BS. 37. How does Future Jax yeet himself onto the upper deck of one of the ferries? 38. Frost says that Raiden "Ignored her, her entire life." Since when is she the Tsundere of the MK universe? Or more seriously: Is this a line that only makes sense when you read the comics? 39. Why would the Tekunin be rigged to Frost's brainwaves? One good conk upside the noggin, or stab, shot, what have you, and what? Do they all drop dead? 40. Why does Past Kang live through having his own soul stolen, something that is always instantly fatal throughout the series? 41. How does Revenant Liu Kang yeet himself off a small boat and onto one of the ferries full stop?

And that's everything, any answers are appreciated. Am I being nitpicky with a few of these? Probably, Do I care? Not so much. I’m just getting sick of people praising this story when THIS MANY holes are present. 

Hi there! I've got a question, what is Tony's threat level according to other intelligence agencies after all the snafu of TWIFFON? Like does CBI and FBI' opinion differ from Interpol or MI6? And what about SI legal? Do they have specific lawyers on threat watch and Pepper too? At this point I'm even wondering what does Bill Gates and other competitors think of SI legal? Are they crying in opposition? What was president' reaction over SHIELD' fall and Tony? What about FoxTV and Twitter?

Disclaimer: TWiFFON was created with accidental world domination as an end goal long before I posted the first chapter, as a spitefic in response to the fandom’s reaction to Civil War, and Tony’s treatment in particular. I am a very broke student who’s doing this for fun, as stress relief between classes and whenever I have the time. I am not a political science major, or economics, or business. I have absolutely no clue as to how a corporation’s run, or international law, this is just me derping around in the MCU and keeping my fingers crossed that comic book science covers for whatever I’ve missed and hoping for the best. [So if I screwed something up on the legal side, you’ll know why.]

Okay, now that that’s taken care of: the gist of what you’re asking can be found in a post I did a while back, on power dynamics behind the scenes. 

[more under the cut, because you guys know how I roll and RIP whoever’s on mobile otherwise. Because this turned into surprise SI meta.]

To sum up from that post: 

Tony and Co. are pretty damn formidable, but PR’s mostly on top of things to make them seem like they’re harmless. Whether or not it works depends a lot on a myriad of factors, including economics, political leanings, and location, and as I’ve said before the US has a different view on Tony than the rest of the world does. I’m not going to delve into specifics [this was supposed to be crack, dammit!], because of the above, but given that in real life the heavy pull that corporations have, I’d like to think that in terms of suspension of disbelief I’m not doing too badly. 

I mean, sure, there’s always going to be opposition, but a) Stark Industries used to be in the weapons manufacturing business, so they’re used to cutthroat politics even if they changed tracks a while back [and we’ve seen it happen, and will continue to do so in the fic], and b) I haven’t even touched on how comic book science influences things, like how Wakanda’s existence throws a wrench into International politics or Howard Stark’s infamous legacy [which is a story for another post].

I mean, in real life, the US really did a number on Latin America in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Now imagine what could’ve happened if SHIELD was also out there fucking shit up.

Or how Vietnam must’ve been like, because guess who probably got some of the contracts for supplying the military with munitions? Or just what might’ve led to a different sociopolitical landscape, because how would have Captain America’s image have influenced the Red Scare? Would Howard’s influence [via SHIELD, or otherwise] led to a different way of dealing with Iran? He was known to have participated in the Manhattan Project, so that’s already one change felt: how else did he make it into the history books?

Just…I could go on. I haven’t watched any of the tv shows, but…well. You get the idea. How influential was Howard, even before Tony was born? Bits and pieces’ll show up in TWiFFON, and some other things I write, but…well. You get the idea. 

Also: I have no clue how economics work in real life [again, broke student here, statistics’re more my speed at the moment], but…if NAFTA and the TPP can exist, in real life, and royally fuck up international economies because profits, then a fictional company that’s been kicking since before World War II and is currently headed by some of the sharpest minds in their generation is, again, not too far out in terms of suspension of disbelief. 

After all, Stark Industries is a family company. [Well…kinda.]

Sure, at the time it was also for weapons manufacturing, but still: Tony grew up knowing he’d inherit it someday. I cover this a bit in the PR interlude, and I think you guys might be able to see hints of it in the Legal interlude as well, but Tony grew up with Obadiah being a larger presence in his life than Howard was, and I forget if it got cut or not but in one draft the PR representative was also a known face. 

So, Stark Industries’ presence has been a constant in Tony’s life. Stemming from childhood, even, and we can see its influence early on, too: remember how he was 17 when he worked with PR to keep stock prices from plunging and thus avoid layoffs? 

Tony’s very possessive of what he has, when it comes to people. Add in a dash of spite and his issues, and you get a company that hasn’t changed its stance on vacation time in decades, or health insurance coverage for its employees since before the Reagan administration, and offered roughly a month of paternity leave shortly after Tony took over the company. [Daddy issues for the win.]

Sure, it cut into profits a little, but iit wasn’t like he was hurting for money. And Tony always had a patent or two ready to shut up the board whenever anyone tried to complain and the ‘hey our productivity’s way higher than the competition’ wasn’t enough of a reason to keep things as they were. 

Plus, remember how I said it part of it was out of spite? Tony’s mentally flipping his father off the whole time, but he’s also very smug about it because ha, that that, Hammer and your stupid budget cuts! 

And all the while, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal are all but gushing about how SI’s employee satisfaction rates are off the charts. Tony tries to make it background noise, because really, it should not be unusual to offer that much maternity leave, seriously, what is wrong with you people…and in doing, so kinda misses out on some things.

Like, for instance, just how diehard loyal Stark Industries is. 

There’s a reason everyone in SI’s so rabid about corporate espionage, and maybe money can’t buy everything but overtime pay sure goes a long way sometimes and turns out that on-site daycare is a smash hit, who knew? It’s not just the pay, really; it’s the company picnics with a line-item for property damage, it’s the rivalry Legal and R&D have that has the rest of the company eating popcorn, it’s in the top-of-the-line coffeemakers in the break rooms and free entertainment whenever Hammer Industries tries to do a thing and fails epically. 

Add in the way SI’s got some very strict policies on stuff like sexual harassment [because Tony may act like a playboy for the cameras but he respects women and won’t stand for it], and JARVIS’ assistance, plus Pepper being Pepper, and you’ve got a company full of highly motivated, hypercompetent people all united under the same banner and an employee satisfaction rate that makes the competition go equal parts ‘that sounds fake but okay’ and ‘just what the hell do these people even eat?!’ and that’s why, in the legal sense at least, Tony’s all but untouchable. Business-wise, SI’s feared and envied because Legal’s Seen Some Shit and PR’s handled two generations of Starks and good fucking luck getting a spy in. when JARVIS is in charge of background checks and all fellow coworkers are willing to go the extra mile if it means showing up Hammer. [And I haven’t even mentioned SWORD yet.] Again, SI used to be a weapons company. Sure, they’re doing more civilian-friendly stuff now, but that kind of legacy is really hard to erase even if you tried. You don’t get to the top by being kind, in that industry […I think; again, broke student here], and we’ll see that aspect crop up more as we go along in the fic, too.

Just…where other companies took a colder turn, went more for profits and took advantage of the tax cuts, Stark Industries didn’t change a thing. Jobs didn’t move offshore, and the international branches were chugging along well before NAFTA was put into effect. After all, unlike other sectors, they can afford to do so, because Tony takes pride in churning out top-of-the-line stuff [be it bomb, pre-Afghanistan, or the latest tablet or nanoprocessor], and, again, his genius means he can increase revenue without having to do it at the expense of SI’s employees if push ever came to shove.

Plus, I reiterate: this is meant to be self-indulgent stress relief. Suspension of disbelief’s a thing, this is the same universe where we have cryogenically-preserved supersoldiers running around and magic exists. 

To sum up: okay, now what you’ve got is a company of hypercompetent employees who’re diehard loyal and who knows how many resources at their disposal. So when things snowball…well. Really, it was a tiny bit of miscommunication, could’ve happened to anyone!

It’s just. Umm. Just a tiny case of world domination. 

[not going too much into specifics because guess what the fallout-from-AoU/buildup-to-CW arc’s even about, and I kinda went overboard with the meta enough as is.]

Finished chapter 3 and in the middle of chapter 4 (and things are getting spoilery) :

- found a few more heart to heart. It was quite funny to have Tora laments on feeling useless in battle after I benched him. Guess the game does expect you to bench him for the new character.

- I noticed how these scenes are voiced and involve several characters. In XB1, the scenes are silent and involves only two characters bonding. The voice acting is cool but I think they should have kept the two character bonding thing (group stuff is nice too… but so far, Tora has been starring in all of them… i’m afraid the game may push some characters forward more than others in these heart to heart).

- so, met Zeke (it’s Zek in french apparently) and his blade twice. He’s so over the top lol… i saw people comparing him with Bart from Xenogears, but Bart was down to earth next to him (then again, the over the top shonen humor in XB2 is quite new to Xeno… except maybe when it comes to mascot characters). Bart also had a heavy backstory and duty. That said, eye patch thing, trying to snatch your « weapon » upon the first meeting… I can see why comparaisons are made. I’m waiting to see who Zeke is beyond “comic relief guy” though.

- I don’t know if it’s just me but enemies feel quite spongey compared to previous XB games. In the first game, it was quicker and easier to beat a group of enemies. Not so much here (in fact, I’m dying a lot... and chapter 4 is pissing me off a bit because of this... too many enemies ganging up on you, all spongey... the most annoying thing is getting teleported way back and all enemies getting revived). In the first XB game, I was already going against uniques in the first 10 hours. I never bothered to beat a single one in this one and i’m past 30 hours in. Then again, I was battling uniques in XB1 because it was part of the quests and I knew they were giving capacity points too.

- I really like Uraya overall. The town gives me Skyrim (Solitude) vibe coupled with Baten Kaitos maybe (with a touch of Zora village from Breath of the Wild) ?

- speaking of this town… i’m still clueless where their king or queen even is… where’s the palace ?

- i’m starting to understand maybe why people feel frustrated when exploring in this game. It took me way too much time to understand how to get to Uraya’s main town (and I just quit yesterday playing chapter 4 because a piece of bridge fell while i was walking on it and the only path towards the next main story point I can see is blocked by blade skills i don’t have... that said, maybe this bridge will be whole again when I’ll return to the game... otherwise, that would be bullshit). I also understand why it can feel frustrating to have exploration blocked by requirements that are entirely linked to the blades you managed to get based on pure luck. But I can only encourage Monolith to explore player/environment interactions further. Maybe Zelda’s success will make their next Xeno/jrpg game a lot better on this front (I have lots of gripes about the new Zelda sure… but the way we could interact with the environment, using elements and all, wasn’t one of them).

- so far, town music is definitively more memorable/better than in XB1 (Mitsuda composed them, didn’t he ?).

- while I like towns better in this than XB1, i think it really was a mistake to take the social network thing away. It just makes townies a lot less endearing. It takes away the sense of communities the first two Xenoblade games had. It was really one of Xenoblade’s biggest strength imo.

- returning to Argentum made me realize how nice this place is. A callback to the Thames from Xenogears but with warm Ghibli aesthetics too (love the interior in the upper floors).

- the more I play Tiger Tiger, the more I like it... Dunno if it’s because I was craving for some actual mini games in the modern Xeno games (sick of the hunt/fetch routine) or because the mini game is legit nice. But locking Poppi’s entire upgrade system behind a single mini game probably sucks for anyone who hates playing it.

- I can send blades to expeditions now… between this and the pull to get blades system, the game feels very mobile gacha inspired (by the way, got a rainbow in FFBE the same day I got KOS-MOS). Not that the expedition system was invented by mobile games. It was in FF Tactics on PS1 after all. But the way the characters are sent to missions just remind me of FFBE.

- Also, people sure don’t mind giving command of their military force to a kid they just met lol (old person speaking uhuh).

- this theater thing was nice (and very Baten Kaitos looking).

- the last bosses were brutal… even being higher leveled than them… until I just switched Vandham for Tora (well see, perverted furball… you’re more useful than the big guy with the giant bird after all… crazy).

- speaking of them… I find them quite obnoxious. Maybe it’s the Nomura aesthetics… or the fact they kept wrecking my party… I did feel a bit sorry for Akhos (?) in the end though.

- Malos, or the Sephiroth school of villainy… wearing Gaignun Kukai’s face.

- Giant robot flashback… and a bonus Zohar with a pissy Mithra in it. I love how i’m trying to enjoy this game without comparing it too much to its heavy successors story wise… but the game won’t let me. Oh well…

- hi Mythra… it amused me how she went « fuck off ! I didn’t want to wake up ! I’m out ! » just after being introduced. Also, one of her lines was straight out of Xenosaga 3. As a Xenogears fan, her behavior also reminded me of the « coward ».

- Vandham’s death. I did like the character... but not enough to feel much during this scene apparently (losing the wind bird though... rude... but you get it back quickly anyway). People are not going to feel much when a character they just met dies (unless they’re known to have a close bond with the main character from the get go maybe... which is why killing Alice in Xenogears or Fiora in Xenoblade 1 felt more brutal despite happening very early... because they were introduced as the “childhood friend character/love interest/sister”). Especially if the character is a big bulky guy and the death quite cliché for this kind of character.

- also... did... did they bury him in a freaking concrete/stone ground ?

- I only just remembered Poppi broke at the end of the chapter. But she wasn’t that broken, it seems. They really didn’t make a big fuss about it.

- first time in forever since a character shared a bed with his obvious love interest in a Xeno game. But let’s not expect anything mature here. Mythra was just sleepwalking and happened to end up in Rex’s bed. So, yeah... the whole scene was an entire “you stupid pervert” joke you often see in harem animes (with “omg boobs in front of my face” reaction from Rex). That said, this darn hat that Dromach wears is a thing of glory. Highlight of the scene lol... Ah, and they also acknowledge Mythra/Pyra’s clothing being ridiculous in this scene.

- the whole “thievery” plotline was kind of filler. But still, I guess I’m glad those kids have a place to belong now. Guess I can see the Oliver Twist inspiration here (Takahashi said it was one of the works that made him want to make XB2). And now, the bird is back and Rex can have another 5 stars blade (though, I also managed to get Perceval for him, with a common core crystal).

- Speaking of new rare blade, I also got Boreas for Nia. But controlling Nia with him as her main blade kinda sucks. Boreas is so big that he almost takes the whole screen. But he’s a healer. That’s cool. That’s Nia’s main job.

- Muimui... I’m so glad you’re not the playable mascot character (really, even considering Tora). Seriously, this little guy is like... a nopon version of Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter (maybe it’s appriopriate, he seems shaddy). But higher pitched. And his name sounds kinda dumb, spoken out loud.

- I like Mor Ardain’s city. Reminds me of Nortune from Xenogears (too bad Mor Ardain’s Titan is a brown wasteland though... but hey, it is dying, after all).

- I really liked the cutscene introducing Mor Ardain’s “emperor”. The music was perfect, Morag and Brighid were there, I generally like child emperor/empress (like say, Larsa from FF12)... and I guess Morag is of royal blood now ?

- Tora’s background story unvealed... and I’m sure it was dramatic... but holy shit, I just wanted to laugh when seeing this small nopon holding a huge gun. Tora is like... Maria Balthasar as a male perverted Chuchu. It’s weird. Now, off to retrieve his giant rob... I mean, gothic lolita robot.

- Hot spring naked time... with convenient censor fog. I knew something like this was in ever since the first trailer. Some people managed to spot a keyword for a bath scene or something. Sigh... What should I say ? I like Persona and they did much worse with this kind of stuff. But it’s still pandering. I don’t even remember what the heck the girls were talking about (expect Poppi maybe... something about being waterproof ?).

- Second battle transition against Zeke was kind of funny. Rex gets bitchslapped by Mythra and the screen breaks, FF10 style.

a constructed bit of family dialogue from an abandoned history au writing project. I gave up on the thing but i love this

*Sigh *

Herman English: I know he’s gonna get better, but he just needs to keep nailing the truth deep into his consciousness; he has no­one to blame but himself.

Alphons Benedikt: * sniffles*

What’d you say to the audience?

Herman English: I…introduced my character to them.

Alphons Benedikt: What­? That I use you as a kind of coach and punching­-bag? Or how we never actually get along­?

Herman English: Yeah something like that.

* from the background*

Nora Benedikt: Dinner’s ready!

Alphons Benedikt: Okay!

* Herman and Alphons walk out of frame. *

Herman English: What’s for dinner?

Alphons Benedikt: Schnitzel!

* cuts to the family and Herman finishing their Schnitzel*

Hannah Benedikt: Damn dad that was some fucking good Schnitzel.

Alphons Bendikt: Yeah thanks for cooking dinner.

Ortwin Benedikt: No problem. *turns to Herman *

How did you like it?

Herman English: Scrumptious.

Alphons Benedikt: I can’t wait to have aunt Frieda make some that’ll be even better.

Ortwin Benedikt: She and Frederick got brand­-new, lightning-­fast oven. She said it’s a big oven so I hope you’re ready for a lot of Schnitzel.

Alphons Benedikt: I can’t fucking wait. And I’m thankful I’ll have Xander with me.

Ortwin Benedikt: Yeah he’s gonna eat a lot of Schnitzel too! I’m glad he’s with you. ‘Cause I don’t want you being stupid and getting all fucked.

Nora Benedikt: It’s his vacation he’ll do what he wants.

Alphons Benedikt: Gee, thanks mom.

Ortwin Benedikt: Well Germany’s getting fucked and I don’t want my son getting fucked with it.

Nora Benedikt: Alf could easily hold his own in Germany without us, for Pete’s sake he’s old enough.

Ortwin Benedikt: I’m just glad someone’s with him in that fucking place.

Alphons Benedikt: I’m just glad I’ll be going back to Iceland.

Herman English: Excuse me, who’s Xander?

Hannah Benedikt: Xander’s our cousin. He travels to the Empire a bunch. He’s very intelligent, cool and collected.

Alphons Benedikt: He first went with some of us a while back. He’s very good there. You’ve met him.

Herman English: Why does he go?

Nora Benedikt: Who knows­?; he likes to get away and our family is an easy trip to the Europe.

Alphons Benedikt: He’s also good friends with our other cousin Sören. The three of us can bullshit for hours.

Hannah Benedikt: He told me that you’d often leave the house so like, maybe they can bullshit for hours. Not you.

Herman English: *turns to Alphons *

When are you two leaving?

Alphons Benedikt: The day after tomorrow.

Hannah Benedikt: Are you packed?

Nora Benedikt: Did you remember to buy your plane ticket?

Herman English: Probably yes then no.

Alphons Benedikt: I’m not gonna lie, I’m a bit scared. I’m worried that I’m gonna be confronted by a bunch of yuppies and Kaisercucks willing to die for the Emperor and the Chancellor and that I’ll get fucked up.

Herman English: * laughs*

Ortwin Benedikt: What would they have against you?

Alphons Benedikt: I’m not particularly fond of being proud to be German. I want to see humans beyond artificial races and nationalities. I’ll try to keep my voice down, but I’m afraid I’ll anger the men trying to ‘save their crumbling, starved fatherland.’

Herman English: Hello German folks please engage with me about the lavishing nature of modern geopolitical affairs affecting your state!

Hannah Benedikt: Just keep your mouth shut.

Alphons Benedikt: How will I know they won’t keep theirs shut?

Hannah Benedikt: You don’t.

Herman English: So be smart and don’t be cringey.

Alphons Benedikt: I’ll fucking shoot them with Taylor’s crossbow.

Herman English: Or do that and die in prison.

Hannah Benedikt: Alf-

Herman English: That thing is so archaic, cumbersome and heavy that I prohibit you from wielding it.

Alphons Benedikt: Whatever, dude.

Nora Benedikt: Can we change the subject?

Alphons Benedikt: No! I want to have fun on my vacation but I don’t want to turn myself into an ignorant cyst!

Herman English: You are ignorant cyst.

Alphons Benedikt: Fucking Chancellor Roman Winter’s the ignorant cyst! He’s got the base of the entire National Libertarian party, the military, the courts, the judges, dangerous world leaders, did I mention a rabid loyal fanbase at his disposal? And those guys do bad shit.

Ortwin Benedikt: But he doesn’t have the emperor.

Alphons Benedikt: Kaiser Dietfried Hohenzollern almost certainly doesn’t like the Chancellor and his party, yeah, but he speaks so little publically that’s it’s obvious he’s complacent. He might not necessarily agree with what Winter might say one day, or he may comment on one of his deplorable followers; he even might support candidates who’ve spoken out against Winter, but he’s still an emperor. Winter is who was sworn in to protect Dietfried and every emperor knows to not bite the hand that feeds. He’s aware that he’s a figurehead who has a weak, loose, formal power so no matter what he actually thinks and believes, he will continue to condone Winter. Someone like him would never give up all of their power and join the people.

Ortwin Benedikt: He could give that up.

Alphons Benedikt: Ugh, of course he could give that up, but look at history. The rich and powerful always find ways to keep themselves and their kin rich and powerful; when people come along trying to systematically take away their gluttonous greed, those people get killed. There was only one Buddha and there’s a lot of dead Marxists. One should never expect the powerful to make actual progress with occaisional acts of charity, and one should never expect the rich to ever erode the systems that give them their power.

Herman English: Hey did you tell the audience about the communists?

Hannah Benedikt: Please don’t.

Alphons Benedikt: Not at the dinner table. I’ll need to be alone to have another world-building monologue where I can properly discuss capitalism.

Herman English: Then let’s just transition into the next scene.

Alphons Benedikt: No, asshole!

Nora Benedikt: Hey.

Alphons Benedikt: What?

Nora Benedikt: Are you packed?

Alphons Benedikt: E­verything but shirts; I’m having a hard time deciding what shirts to bring. Like, should they be formal or informal?

Herman English: Depending on the animation budget you might just wear the same clothes throughout the duration of the film.

Alphons Benedikt: Oh yeah I hadn’t thought of that. Actually, I might not even get clothes if the writer ends up not being able to fund this and have my clothes exist only as written text.

Hannah Benedikt: Well you should still pack considerately.

Herman English: Yeah, this could end up being live­-action.

Alphons Benedikt: Ah. Most of the time, when you go on vacation with a bunch of shit, you just end up leaving that shit in your suitcase; you bring it for the idea you have of it being brought with you to another country:­ You like the idea of having it more than actually having a desire to use it when there.

Hannah Benedikt: Yeah, that’s kinda what I meant.

Alphons Benedikt: Well there’s one thing I know I’m bringing:­

* cuts to Hannah*

Alphons Benedikt: Depression.

Ortwin Benedikt: If you think like that you’ll never have any fun! Don’t get stuck in the past; the future is so cool you have no idea.

Alphons Benedikt: You’re right, dad. I’m not gonna bog down Xander or any of y’all in my sadness, regardless of circumstance. Scheiße passiert. I won’t forget how to have a good time. * pauses*

Actually, back to talking about packing. I’m gonna wear my white flag pin the whole time.

Hannah Benedikt: As long as you don’t actually make a big deal out of it you’ll be fine. Herman English: I hope you have to go up to the Kaiser himself and tell him why you’re wearing that pin.

Alphons Benedikt: Oh, I’d do that and much more.

Hannah Benedikt: K well I’m gonna roll a blunt.

Alphons Benedikt: Smoke another one.

I don’t normally do this.  I rarely try to enter anything heavy online.  Some of you may have seen me do so once or twice, but it’s not often.  I don’t because this is my place to escape the real world and it’s stresses.  I don’t because I don’t need to congratulate myself for being a decent human being.  I don’t because I don’t need the attention, one way or the other.

That said, I have a lot weighing on my heart right now though, facing a lot of trials that I’m confident will make me stronger, but it’s causing a lot of sleepless nights.  I decided that if I could do something about one of the issues I’m fighting insomnia over every night...well, maybe I should.

So, without further ado, Charlottesville:

I believe I have a somewhat unique perspective on the insanity currently gripping our country and maybe even a solution.

Some insight on my background is necessary because I have insight in to ‘both sides’ of what shouldn’t be a debate.  Without too much of this devolving into a post about myself: By all appearances I’m ethnically ambiguous as anyone that’s seen me can tell you.  I’m really hard to identify or put in a box and it’s led to some interesting experiences.  But culturally I’m white, a southern white military family from Alabama.  (Trust me the military portion is significant and a culture all its own.)

While it rarely comes up in conversation, I have heard the terms ‘states rights’ when referencing the Civil War.  I’ve seen monuments to historical figures associated with it and understood the significance to history and so forth and so on.  But that’s all it was.  History and an understanding of it. 

I remember when I first learned that the Confederate flag (while never displayed in my home I was more than familiar seeing it) was uncomfortable to some.  Why?  It didn’t mean anything, right?  Oh, it could certainly, if you saw it brandished on the back of someone’s pickup truck, they were probably an asshole.  But waving in front of a federal building?  ...It’s just history, right?

But it wasn’t.  Not for everyone.

Many years ago I toured Europe, Germany included.  On a tour we were taken in passing to the place Hitler died.  I’m sure you’ve seen the photographs and it’s absolutely true.  It’s nothing but a parking lot.  This mystified me.  This was a part of their history.  They couldn’t erase it.  I said as much and the tour guide looked at me as though I were crazy. 

Do you see the cultural differences?  See how many of us were brought up to think?

Let me assure you, Germany has it right.

Let’s back up and talk about General Robert E Lee.  Why?  Because it’s the only figure ‘the other side’ has to back them up.  Those of you not in the know because you aren’t immersed in southern culture, he is a figure of pride.  There’s a picture of him hanging in my family home.  It was explained to me why this was different than a confederate flag. But how?! I’m not going to give you a huge history lesson because it doesn’t require all that for this explanation and I’m not an authority on the man anyway. But you’ll be told things like “He found slavery repugnant’, which he did, or ‘he freed all of his family’s slaves’, which yeah, he did that too.  Feels kinda hypocritical that he’d continue to fight for the institution but he was all about those ‘states rights’ I guess.  (PS - I’m well aware of other stances he had that were not at all kind.  You don’t need to tell me, thanks.  I’m trying to explain the argument ‘for’ and give you the tools you need to counter it.)

These people will compare him to the hypocrisy of people like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who we’re all too familiar with their history and slavery.  Those (including our own president of all people) will proclaim, “Are they next?”

Remember back when I said these memorials don’t mean the same thing to everyone?  Do you think these people were fighting to ‘preserve history’:

The answer, if it’s not obvious, is a resounding no!  No they were not!  This was a monument for them to rally behind.  So here’s our litmus test:

If your monument can be used as a symbol for an oppressive group to rallying around it’s time for it to go! Y’know, just so there isn’t any confusion. 

And that’s my solution:  If your memorial can and is being used as a symbol of oppression, take it down.  It comes to simple question:  What’s more important to you?  That people feel they’re safe in a country that is founded on freedom...or a statue?

Does that mean Thomas Jefferson is next?  I don’t know.  If Nazis are going to rally behind him, probably so.  Again, so there isn’t any confusion as to where our country stands.

Germany has it right.

And honestly, I don’t know what any of them are hoping to get out of this.  Stop worshipping Robert E. Lee.  I promise you, he does not care.  If he were here, he’d find you all to be absolute buffoons.  You want to follow in his footsteps?  He surrendered with some dignity.  Try doing the same.

Footnotes: 

- If you’re at all curious about my ethnic ambiguity, like most Americans I am a mismatch of all sorts of ethnics groups, mostly European.  What shines through the most on me though is the Italian and Cherokee.  This leads people to thinking I’m Hispanic or Indian or Middle Eastern (that last one is especially fun as you can imagine).

- I shared this with a friend before posting it and she recommended that I mentioned that Robert E Lee is a distant relation of mine and is a figure of great military significance and my family is military as well which is why he hangs in my family home.  I didn’t add this before because I didn’t want to make excuses or be all ‘but my family is cool alright’.  I understand if the thought makes you uncomfortable.  They also have a portrait of Washington and, of most prominence above the mantle, is a Union soldier saying farewell to his wife before going to serve.  It signifies the times my parents were separated due to my father’s deployments.  Take all of that for what it’s worth.  If you’re curious as to my parents stance on the statues being removed, I was told “I think it’s time” from them, so there’s that.  *shrug*  I hope this satisfies my dear friend who is most concerned that everyone is going to find my family to be monsters.  But that’s kinda the point.  Not everyone protesting was Nazis or the KKK.  They were simply taught to see things a different way and you need to know how to counter that thinking.

Shoukoku no Altair Liveblogging (Chapter 12)

Yeah, this took a while to get through for some reason.

It’s already the third volume! And yet Mahmut’s journey is just barely getting started...

Anyway, a lovely cover as always. The style is a little different here, definitely going for a much harsher look, though still elegant. (but how the hell do you draw such intricate patterns without getting dizzy). I like the crescent moons on his belt the most. Also, that’s an interesting sword. Can’t really tell if it’s his usual curved one. It doesn’t look like a straight blade though.

Aaanyways, looks like it’s back to the Balt-Rhein people. I am considerably less interested in them than others in the cast, but ok.

Chapter 12: The City by the Lighthouse

Ah yes, Louis. I haven’t really missed you. Interesting um, port town? Maybe. It’s well defended. Though there are some nasty whirlpool things in the upper right, and a little sea monster at the bottom.

OH, I see. The whole thing is supposed to look like a chess board, with the city surrounded. Haha that’s why the wall around the town looked a little weird.

Nice perspective here, it makes the ships look very tiny next to the imposing wall/barrier like structure with the heavy chains half submerged. Which makes sense, in context of the ocean, though we can’t see much of the water.

Helloooo Mahmut. Looking a lot better compared to last chapter. He has a much lighter expression here as he muses about the origin of the pyramis charm.

And once again, I like how the random townspeople all look different from each other. This time, the townspeople are clearly dressed differently from the other towns we’ve seen. Which makes sense, considering its real life counterpart.

rawr

It’s cute. In a weird way.

New character! I guess he’s a jewel merchant or something?

I wouldn’t really call this advice, but a little heads-up. That came a little too late. But, you live and you learn.

I wonder if Mahmut ever gets to travel without everyone finding out who he is the first day he steps into town. He’s not very good at staying low-profile (though a giant bird following him around doesn’t really help matters...).

When does Mahmut not get caught up in some kind of trouble? Helpful guy is not actually being very helpful.

It’s all part of the learning experience, I guess.

It’s clearly intentional, but I am nonetheless continually amazed by how tiny Mahmut looks next to, well, almost everyone he meets.

but lol “I see you are quite devoted to your worship. I have indeed heard of how faith in the water spirit is a national characteristic of Turkiye.”

The pyramis really is a clever way to contact fellow spies. But judging by this guy’s tone of voice and the cult people from the last chapter, I’m not sure it will hold up for that much longer.

He recovers his composure very quickly, for how easily he gets surprised in the first place, and I appreciate that.

Ohoho that play is going to haunt him for the rest of his life, probably. But lol at the intimidating “The Phoenician Magistros Constantinos wants to see you.” And then we get this smiley guy.

My thoughts exactly.

BUT AT LEAST WE GET FURNITURE I CAN MAKE SENSE OF. Kinda hard to see, but the little feast laid out is neat. Though those cups with tentacles hanging out are a little...

I’m dying.

Welp, that’s the ancient world for you. Poor Mahmut, getting interrogated.

It sort of doubles as a really weird table decoration, so...

Ah, but we get back to business in the next panel. Apparently the Balt-Rhein peoples are in the area.

DON’T JINX YOURSELF DUDE. Look at what you did. The city’s probably going to get attacked now.

Oh, but you are sort of hoping the Empire attacks...? Interesting.

And an interesting stance here. “With power comes responsibility” I suppose. So what is the Empire currently doing to those it has taken over? You’d think that any empire’s methods of expanding/gaining control over other lands would be quite similar no matter the times, but this guy implies that the Balt-Rhein Empire isn’t doing right by its own people not to mention trying to conquer its neighbors.

Interesting.

I was going to skip this panel, but Mahmut’s tiny mouth, lack of face, and the fact that Iskander is a ball with a vague beak-like dot on him is too good to pass up.

Is this Mr. Glorious Hair whose actual name escapes me at the moment.

Also, I love how everyone saunters while walking down a random street in town late at night with almost no one to see them.

Y’know, maybe you’d be more welcome if you stopped trying to invade your neighbors. Just a suggestion.

Once again loving the designs of the background and secondary characters. I guess this is a gathering of officials in the city? In any case, Apollo is the only one pleased by this turn of events.

Iskander does in fact sleep with him. :3 which is why he takes him up to the rooftop with him alll those chapters back when Shara was staying over his place. Iskander is also getting more and more poofy and round like a turkey or something lol.

Aww not a morning person, I see. I also wonder what he’s wearing? I think that shirt is just the one he wears normally under the red vest....thing (it’s not a vest but I don’t know what it’s called). The little buttons and bindings are a cute touch. (I do think we’ve seen him wear this to sleep before, I just forgot which chapter...)

lol why is Mahmut needed to sit in on the debate. In fact, his position and status is sort of in limbo now. Everyone is used to calling him Mahmut Pasha though.

I don’t really have anything to add to this conversation other than that both sides have realistic arguments.

I’m glad the Empire has at least one weakness, naval warfare, I hope this stays true for a while. It’s gotta have something it’s not good at.

OH NO, watch out Mahmut! They’re gonna come for you now. He was just minding his own business, listening, getting slightly concerned, and now he got dragged into the argument as proof that the Empire can be defeated.

Which, if you think about it, was actually quite important in the grand scheme of things. It seemed like a tiny event and Mahmut himself seems startled/shocked that they’re blowing the event way out of proportion. Except, it probably wasn’t as insignificant as he (or I) was thinking.

Hisar was an important town, and several of the Empire’s people weaseled their way in and made the locals help them take over. But Mahmut, through some quick-thinking, actually managed to thwart it. Considering the Empire’s military might, I can see how this guy would use it as evidence that they aren’t as omnipotent as they seem.

lol he was not anticipating this.

Ooh, and now he gets to tell his side of the story! I like how he tries so hard to clear misconceptions up every time people blow the events out of proportion, though.

I also like how he can sometimes be a great orator, even during some odd moments (like when he was going to sacrifice himself because he felt guilty for getting Suleyman hurt), and other times he wavers a bit like here. You can tell by his speech bubbles that he’s not 100% confident here. It’s awkward for him, since people keep building him up to be this amazing hero in stories.

Tough spot here.

On one hand, he’s urging them not to start a WAR on the basis of false information and misconception. On the other hand, lol, he’s basically urging them to give into the Empire because it’s hopeless to win against them.

These boatsssss. (or ships). Very nice details. So pretty. But menacing.

lol no one is infallible. 

NO THAT IS A VERY BAD IDEA.

Are there like. No military leaders in this place or. This guy is a tradesman, so him supporting a compromise that doesn’t end in war and all that messy business entails is sort of understandable. I forget how these debates and assemblies worked in that area of the world back then so.

lol be a little more self-aware, kid.

OH. That’s not your real hair.

yippee?

Probably not, but. The alternative wasn’t too good either.

I’m rooting for you guys, but the issue is that Phoenica probably hasn’t waged war against anyone for quite some time. The Empire certainly has been militaristic for a while now, while Phoenica seems to have become a place of mainly trade and commerce. That could be an issue.

He’s not going anywhere, but yeah, it would be wise to get out of there while you can.

Determined Mahmut makes his (re)appearance.!

And that’s a wrap! Sorry this took so long to get out. This was a fairly long chapter, and I’ve been really busy lately.

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