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demiesworld · 1 year

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hantengu quad squad (brothers!headcanon)

characters: sekido, karaku, aizetsu, and urogi

synopsis: my headcanons on the clones if they were born in modern times and were quadruplets. a little bit of a character analysis as well if you squint.

note: purely fictional. i do not own the rights to these characters etc.

credits to the original artist of the photo.

in my pov, i see sekido as the oldest ofc. karaku is the second born, then aizetsu as the third, and lastly urogi.

i know what most of you are thinking, aizetsu should be the youngest he screams that sort of energy. you are right, but technically you're wrong. in s3 ep4, i noticed how sekido was telling aizetsu to cut genya in half and to hurry it up. when he said that it reminded me of how middle children commonly get chastised by their parents or overshadowed by their other siblings bc they are the "middle child" so aizetsu is the middle child imo.

urogi is the youngest simply bc he does not give a shit about anything. this dude is literally living life just to have fun, just like karaku and can be reckless with their actions. to him rules are meant to be broken and he does not listen well to authoritative figures (looking at you sekido)

living together as siblings for the four of them is a fucking mess. sekido who's always irritated by his brothers probably has a chore list that nobody, except for aizetsu, follows. but even if aizetsu follows it he still gets chewed out for not meeting sekido's expectations of cleaning, and sekido just ends up doing the chore himself. karaku and urogi both have weekly chores to do, but they put it off on aizetsu because he's easier to manipulate into doing their bidding.

aizetsu often gets mistaken for being the youngest sibling out in public bc he's so timid and has dejected pout on his face in comparison to his other siblings.

their heights from tallest to shortest: karaku (187cm;6ft 2in), sekido (186cm;6ft 1in), aizetsu (184cm;6ft 1in), and urogi (182cm;6ft 0in)

in my headcanon, karaku and urogi are both identical twins, and the rest of them are fraternal.

sekido and karaku always gets into arguments over karaku's lack of respect for bringing random women into their home. like sekido woke up one morning to find some stranger in his fridge eating HIS leftover takeout that clearly said "DO NOT TOUCH -SEKIDO"

karaku and him both have gotten into very violent and physical fights. one time it gotten so bad karaku was bleeding out and he had to leave the house. didn't return back for a week.

none of the other brothers know if one or the other apologized, but they ended up being brotherly again so-

aizetsu is shy around attractive women so he relies on urogi to be his wingman no pun intended.

this backfires bc urogi ends up shit talking about aizetsu, flirting with the girl and absolutely forgetting why he was talking to the girl in the first place.

aizetsu witnessed urogi leaving with one of his crushes at a party and he went back home crying into his pillow over it.

urogi made it up to him by giving aizetsu the girls ripped panties (urogi you little shit)

urogi has a pet female cockatiel that he named "bandit" bc he taught her how to steal food from people's plates and drop them into trash cans.

when he's butting heads with sekido as a way to piss him off he lets bandit fly around the house and knock things over. particularly vases, glass jars, etc. before putting her back in the cage when sekido is about to murder him.

sekido breathes through his mouth when he sleeps, karaku sleeps with two fans on bc he's always hot and ends up with a congested nose in the morning, aizetsu is a light sleeper and listens to white noise (you'll find out why soon), urogi snores very loud and talks in his sleep at night.

since the home they live in is a three bedroom (aha) sekido has his own room which is the masters, karaku has his own room too, leaving the youngest of the quad squad aizetsu and urogi to share a room.

i headcanon that karaku likes to walk around the house wearing grey sweatpants (no underwear) and is shirtless. sekido sleeps in one of those satin or silk pajamas and wears a robe when he's in the house on a weekend. aizetsu sleeps in a sweatshirt and shorts, sometimes wears his snorlax slippers but urogi teases him about it whenever he sees aizetsu wearing them. urogi sleeps butt ass naked. yes. i shit you not. like he'll wear boxers or briefs to bed, but somehow he takes them off while he's sleeping and he wakes up naked.

on a scale of most to least who takes care of their appearance & hygiene? karaku, aizetsu, sekido, and urogi.

karaku showers at least three times a day, follows a religiously dedicated skin care routine, and wears his retainers for his teeth at night. i headcanon he sleeps with a bonnet on his head to protect his luscious locks. he regularly goes to the hair salon to get his hair fixed. visits the nail salon too for a mani, pedi, and a facial if he has enough money for all three. face card never declines. hes immune to breakouts and flare ups on his skin. lowkey wears makeup to hide the dark circles underneath his eyes. brushes his teeth in the morning and the night. girls say he smells like a roasted peach kinda citrusy. very sensual smelling.

aizetsu showers once or twice a day usually before he sleeps. he washes his face with some affordable brand like clean&clear or neutrogena and puts lotion on his face. always shaves his facial hair and body hair. brushes his teeth in the morning but he always forgets so he does it before bed. i headcanon he used to wear braces up until the age of 15 and they got removed. he goes to a salon to do his hair and only trusts that one stylist to do it. ppl says he smells like fresh laundry and lavender.

sekido only showers once and that is before bed. he doesn't wash his face that often bc his skin is sensitive and even branded sensitive skin products don't work for him. so he ends up just using expensive dermatologist recommended products. besides from that his skin is soft and he does have a flare up when it gets to be the summer time. he shaves his face, doesnt shave his armpits, or down there. his chest has some hairs, but he gets them waxed. has hairy ass legs. brushes his teeth after a meal and before bed. sleeps with a mouthguard bc he grinds his teeth at night. he doesn't take care of his hair very well. doesn't know what products will work for his hair texture so its usually unkempt. he smells like cinnamon.

urogi was the child that did not want to shower. his mother had to fight with him to get him to take one. so i believe that he showers twice a week. he doesn't smell bad unless he's been sweating really hard. he knows he is very prone to breakouts but he doesn't wash his face. instead he just splashes water on his skin and scrubs the dirt off with a towel. surprisingly enough it works for him. he will shave his face but not anywhere else on his body. he has hairy legs. he washes his hair with 2 in 1, combs through the knots while its wet and lets it air dry. remarkably his hair remains thick, voluminous, and doesn't shed. i headcanon he smells like sandalwood, kinda earthy smell.

who is most likely to move out first? aizetsu. he's been saving up money for a long time to move out of the hantengu household. he's unable to deal with his brothers attitudes. tired of sleeping in the same room as urogi especially since bro has a pet fucking bird.

who will get married first? karaku. he would date the person for maybe 2 years, then propose that they get married. he wants to be sure that he person he marries is the right one for him.

who's the better cook? despite being so damn perfect karaku can't cook for shit. sekido can cook a decent meal FOR HIMSELF but not for his brothers. aizetsu is not allowed in the kitchen bc he left a pizza in the oven on BROIL NOT BAKE and it almost burned down their kitchen. he is only allowed to use the microwave. urogi is a good cook so they assign him to cook them breakfast on the weekends mornings and nights.

who has better grades in school? sekido. he turns in his assignments before the due date, he's always on the principal's list, and is a member of the student council as president. the rest of them aren't as academically well as he is. aizetsu may come in second place, but he struggles with math (i headcanon aizetsu is dyslexic) & anything related to public speech. urogi does struggle with math and for some reason he's an ace at world history. karaku tends to skip some classes on fridays by hanging out at the gym with the gym coach. he's smart in literature, science, and world history. like aizetsu he struggles with math.

from most to least who works out more? karaku, urogi, sekido, aizetsu. we all seen karaku's body like tell me this man does not lift weights. karaku is always at the gym in the early morning hours bc according to him "the early bird gets the worm" urogi works out at the gym too, he's one of those dudes you see doing pull ups and does leg presses. never misses out on leg day. sekido does workout but only focuses on his arms, chest, and shoulders. doesn't care too much about have a muscular build. aizetsu doesn't step one foot into the gym. he was blessed with a high metabolism so it's easy for him to stay with a slim figure. he does have some muscle on him because he does bojutsu and jujutsu.

what are their vices? karaku has a bad habit of smoking weed. not that it's dangerous for him, but none of the others like the smell of some of the flowers he uses (homie got that gas). so he smokes outside on the patio. meanwhile sekido smokes cigarettes (specifically malboro special select 100 gold) and he always drinks a can of white claw on a saturday evening while he's watching fucking debates on tv. aizetsu vapes and he smokes weed by himself. doesn't like to smoke with urogi bc he laughs at the stupidest of shit and it blows aizetsu's high. he does drink but not a lot. poor boy is a lightweight. urogi vapes and drinks twisted teas. he drinks that bc, and i quote, "beer tastes like bitter like sekido's soul, seltzers are just spiked waters for depressive queers like aizetsu, and liquor is as problematic as karaku's dating history. :P" (everybody let's side eye him)

notes: i would add more but i don't want to get too ahead of myself here. this may develop into a series. idk yet. depends on how much ppl like my headcanon of them lol

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underforeversgrace · 1 year

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Welcome to Intro to Ghosts

Title: Welcome to Intro to Ghosts

Words: 2606

Chapter 1 of ?

Summary: Sure, turning sixteen was supposed to be a big year regardless, but this was a little beyond what Danny had expected when he'd both been told he was now king and then asked to be a teacher for the Intro to Ghosts class while also being a junior in high school. Now he has to juggle a secret identity, being a superhero, doing centuries worth of old paperwork Pariah didn't do, his own schoolwork, AND his students/classmates schoolwork! This'll be fun. Or catastrophic. Hopefully fun.

AO3

Danny was immensely grateful for ghost powers as he triggered his intangibility, letting the spit and drink mixture fall from him, after a cursory glance around to ensure no one was studying them too much at the table they had claimed outside the Nasty Burger. Tucker, the one who assaulted Danny with the gross mixture, was still laughing so hard that he held a hand to his chest, Tucker’s amusement currently greater than his need to breathe.

“You cannot be serious.” Sam said, ultra-recyclo vegetarian compliant burger halfway to her mouth.

“Okay, it isn’t that outrageous, guys!” Danny whined, balling up a napkin and throwing it at Tucker’s face. Hm, turns out fighting for your life on a weekly basis gave you pretty good aim!

“That… that was a good one, dude,” Tucker finally said, wiping tears off his face.

“I’m serious!” Danny grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest, a playful grin on his face showing he wasn’t truly upset.

“Danny. Do you really expect us to believe Ishiyama and Lancer offered you a job?” Sam said, finally remembering her food as she took a bite.

“Technically, they wanted me twice.” Danny informed, smirking.

“Excuse me?” The other two said simultaneously.

“They told me they originally wanted Phantom to do it but, as they said, ‘due to the hazard to his life posed by ghost hunters, it would be unwise to have Phantom at the school at set hours everyday.’ So they settled on me, good ole Danny Fenton. All the knowledge of the Fentons, none of the ghost hunting propensity.”

“That and no one knows how to find the elusive, mysterious Phantom long enough to offer him the job in the first place, I’m sure.” Sam said with an eye roll.

“Is this irony? This feels like an example of irony.” Tucker added.

“Do I look like Lancer, dude? Leave the literary device analysis or whatever to him.”

“Well, you don’t look like Lancer. But apparently you do look like a teacher.” Tucker retorted.

Danny laughed. “I still can’t believe it. Apparently, the school board thinks an Intro to Ghosts class is exactly the newest elective to offer when school starts back next month.”

“Not gonna lie to ya, bro, when you told us you’d gotten called in by those two, I thought they’d finally realized how many detentions you’d never actually served.”

“So, are you gonna do it?” Sam asked.

“The options are me, my parents, or the Guys in White.” Danny replied.

“So are you going to be by going by Danny, Mr. Fenton, or King Phantom? And do we have to call you that?” Tucker asked, a fake thoughtful look on his face as he propped his chin in his hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few weeks passed by in a hurried marathon for Danny as preparations were made, for both of his newly found duties. Sometimes he questioned if becoming a teacher was really a good idea - especially since he was the same age as his peers but doubly especially since he had now spent the last month of summer break doing teacher homework. Being a teacher had at least been voluntary, unlike the whole King thing!

But whenever he questioned if he’d made the right choice, his parents would make another tool to murder him with or the GIW would cause millions of dollars in property damage chasing a blob ghost, and he’d known the other options were, uh, not good to the point of being non viable.

Not that that had been the only training involving far too much paperwork he’d had to deal with this summer. Admittedly, the whole teacher thing made sense to have paperwork. But why did being the King of All Ghosts require so much paperwork? At least he hadn’t had to learn a new language, though. All paperwork was filled out in ghost speak - a language called Exspirate, which was fairly similar to Esperanto. Exspirate is a language that ghosts just know upon formation, both how to read and write. But Danny had had the joy of learning that different dialects were also a thing depending on where in the Zone the ghost formed and they were not always exactly the same!

So, yeah, between preparing the syllabus and material for his class and getting several centuries worth of paperwork caught up, Danny never wanted to read anything ever again.

It hadn’t been all bad, at least. His recent coronation had given him some authority over the other ghosts, who either respected him for his abilities or feared him for his power. He’d have to work on the whole ‘fearing him’ thing but regardless, both forms kept most ghosts off his turf. Invading another ghost’s haunt was a bad enough idea, but invading the haunt of the King and risking that which his Obsession demanded him to protect? That was a good way to find out what lay beyond the Veil.

Danny fidgeted with his backpack as he glanced at the clock again. Today was the day - first day of class. Lancer had decided to omit Danny’s name from the schedule listings that were being handed out today - leaving it with a simple TBA. Danny was quite grateful Lancer had thought of that - Danny’s Intro to Ghosts class was only offered during the last period of the day and Danny was anxious enough without having to field questions from his peers for the beginning of the day.

He’d been asked to show up early, to meet with Ishiyama and Lancer, and only them, before the day began. Apparently, even the other teachers hadn’t been informed of Danny’s new position. Danny had originally thought this was also to help protect him before the class started, but the glances Ishiyama and Lancer had given each other had given him reason to doubt. Were they… pulling a prank? Weird, teachers were people too. Wait, Danny was a teacher now! Of course teachers were people, he was a people! …mostly.

Drawing a large breath, Danny finally pushed open the front doors of the school, making his way towards the principal’s office. Despite being a junior now and having gone through these doors for two years at this point, something about crossing the threshold today felt different. He arrived at the office, where the door was open and he could hear the two’s voices in the room.

“Uh, hi?” Danny said, knocking on the door and peeking his head in.

“Glad to see your streak for being on time has continued since the end of last year, Daniel.” Lancer said, a friendly smile on his face.

Danny flushed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Heh, yeah.”

“Are you ready for today, Danny?” Ishiyama asked from her place behind her desk, fingers steepled together as she studied him.

The halfa nodded. “Yeah. Kinda nervous, though.”

“That’s perfectly normal,” Mr. Lancer reassured him. “And I will be right next door to you if you need me, alright?”

“I know the situation may not be normal, but being nervous on the first day of anything is very normal.” Ishiyama agreed.

“Here’s your class schedule for the year and the class roster.” Lancer said, handing two pieces of paper over to Danny. Danny scanned over both pages quickly. Pretty standard schedule - all the basics like math, science, English, and history were there. The only unusual thing about his schedule was the ‘free period’ directly before his last class of the day - Intro to Ghosts, administered by TBA. Danny wasn’t even going to ask how his credits worked like this - the Ghost class was still counting as one of his elective credits, despite him being the teacher of it. The free period was what the teachers called a planning period, he’d learned. Yet more time for more paperwork and grading.

“Is all your material ready?” Lancer asked.

Pulling his backpack from his shoulders and sitting it in an empty seat, Danny nodded, unzipping the light purple backpack that somehow had survived two years of ghost hunting and looked fine to survive two more. He pulled a binder out, handing it over to Lancer for review. Since there wasn’t exactly any textbooks on ghosts that weren’t either written by total quacks or required high level understandings of physics, cellular biology, chemistry, and theoretical plasma, Danny had had to make his own.

“It gives a pretty good look over of various things without going in to deeply to any one topic,” Danny began as Lancer flicked open the binder. “There’s sections on ghost culture and law, ghost psychology, the uses and behaviors of various types of ectoplasm, and history. History is the longest section. And I’ve cited my sources!” Danny was actually quite proud of how much work he’d done, interviewing various friendly and sometimes-friendly-sometimes-murderous ghosts to get as much information as possible, including consulting Ancients like Clockwork and Pandora. Besides, he’d already been learning law, culture, and history while he’d been preparing to be king, so he’d already had a head start. “Oh, did you hear back about bringing in guest speakers?”

Lancer’s eyes were still scanning through the binder when he replied. “The board has approved it, if the permission slips we send home today get signed. And your parents were fine with these expeditions into the Ghost Zone for you to get these…sources?”

“Absolutely, they know they’ve taught me enough to defend myself!” Danny lied enthusiastically. His parents didn’t even know he had this job, much less gone into the Zone. “And I’ll make sure the slips go out today,” he added, finally looking through the roster. The course was only available to juniors and seniors and had a twenty person cap, so he recognized most of the names. Sam and Tucker were there, of course, though all three had been warned to make sure they behaved and the other two would be removed from the course if they became a distraction. Valerie was there, too. Danny made a mental note to avoid mentioning anything that could be exploited as a weakness. Dash, Paulina, Starr. No Kwan, surprisingly. Mikey and four other juniors. Six seniors that sounded familiar to Danny, but he couldn’t place a face to the names.

“This looks good, Mr. Fenton.” Lancer said, flicking through the last few pages in the binder.

“Thanks! Jazz proofread it already, so the grammar and spelling and stuff is fine.”

Lancer nodded. “We’ll get copies made in time for your class this afternoon. In the meantime, class will be starting soon.”

A glance at the clock confirmed Lancer’s statement. Despite being here over an hour early, it was now only five minutes before the first bell. “So we’re really doing this, huh?”

“Yes, Danny. Your first day as a teacher begins today. Gives a new meaning to the term student teacher, right? Huh? Huh?” Ishiyama said, poking her elbow into Lancer’s side.

Yeah, seeing his teachers be human was really, really weird.

Danny grinned, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, heading out the door.

As soon as he was out of sight of the principal’s office, he pulled his phone from his pocket. Sure, it was still technically before school and he was a teacher now too, but the instinct to conceal his phone from Lancer was too deeply ingrained at this point. Unlocking the phone, he clicked on a calculator app. Technically, it did have the functions of a calculator. Though that wasn’t what he used it for, keying in a long string of numbers. Sure, maybe it was overkill to have all three of their birthdays be his code, but he took the whole secret identity thing seriously! …even if maybe he should never have introduced himself as Danny Phantom.

He clicked the percent twice in quick succession once he finished the string of numbers and the calculator face moved away, showing the chat conversations he had going.

One conversation had a new message - non urgent so as to not actually send notifications to their phones - and Danny brought it up. It was the one he’d been going for anyway.

A profile picture of a poorly drawn, cartoon-y green blob ghost took up the screen, the words PhanPhuckingTastic loading… running across the bottom.

PhanPhuckingTastic loaded.

Missed messages -

EatVeggiesNotFaces: I swear to Clockwork I am going to strangle Dash if he does not shut up.

TooFineTechie: kick his ass babe

EatVeggiesNotFaces: Not your babe.

Danny snorted as he read the messages,

TotallyNormalKid has rejoined the chat.

TotallyNormalKid: sup

EatVeggiesNotFaces typing…

TooFineTechie typing…

EatVeggiesNotFaces: Did you get fired yet?

TooFineTechie: i dont have the homework

TotallyNormalKid: you guys aren’t funny, you know that right?

TooFineTechie: ding dong ur wrong

EatVeggiesNotFaces: We’re hilarious.

TotallyNormalKid: be nice, I can fail you!

EatVeggiesNotFaces: And we can ‘forget’ and ‘accidentally’ leave you in the Thermos for three hours next time Jazz catches you.

TotallyNormalKid: that’s blackmail

TotallyNormalKid: you both get A’s!

TooFineTechie: boo-yah!

TooFineTechie: anyway wat schedules u 2 got?

TooFineTechie: Photo Attachment

Danny and Sam both sent the pictures of their schedules as well. Of course, they all had Intro to Ghosts together. All three were together in English and history, but those were the only two all three shared. Sam and Tucker had taken different electives - Danny’s second elective was technically his planning period - and Sam was in a higher level math class than them. Danny and Tucker had math at the same time but with different teachers. Third period English they all had together, but the first two classes of the day, all three were separate.

At least all of them had lockers together - not directly beside each other, but only a few apart.

TooFineTechie: well thats some bullshit

TooFine Techie: lmao danno good luck not failing math

TooFineTechie: cant copy of me or Sam!

TotallyNormalKid: rude

TotallyNormalKid: I don’t need your notes!

TotallyNormalKid: King, fam.

TotallyNormalKid: no ghost attacks

TotallyNormalKid: so no skipped classes!!

TotallyNormalKid: hoe

TooFineTechie: u love me tho

EatVeggiesNotFaces: Behave, children.

EatVeggiesNotFaces: Tucker, stop antagonizing the superhero/teacher.

EatVeggiesNotFaces: Danny, stop being a little bitch.

Danny laughed as he finally arrived at his first class, sliding into a seat towards the back, as close to the door as possible. This was a room he’d never been in before, so he immediately started scanning the room for points of entry and hiding spots. Ghosts could phase, sure, but for some inexplicable reason, most of his rogues still preferred to come in through windows and doors intangibly. And, sure, he should be safe from attacks now, but old habits died hard, especially ones caused by recurrent threats to life and limb (even if he wasn’t exactly alive and could reattach limbs.) He closed out the app, sliding his phone into the external pocket of his backpack, where it bumped against the Thermos he kept inside.

Jazz called him paranoid. Danny said he was just being realistic.

Though, she may have a point he mused as he pulled paper and pencil from his bag. The ghost attacks had rapidly dropped once Pariah fell through the Veil, too Faded from defeat and sleep to maintain his form any longer. Apparently, Danny being the next King was just common knowledge in the Realms and no one bothered to mention it to him. No one had anticipated Pariah would Fade, he’d survived centuries in there already. The last three months of the previous school year, Danny’s attendance and grades had rapidly improved. And that was while he had just been Prince, before he’d accepted the power of Crown and Ring.

Maybe he could stop being always wary, always on edge. About ghosts, anyway. Humans still scared him.

#Grace writes #danny phantom #danny fenton #phic phight 2023 #Phic phight

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9leaguesofmirrors · 9 months

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5 Times Ross and Lisgoe Definitely Weren't In Love (and 1 time they were)

I'm a sucker for "5 Times, 1 Time" fics, so I decided to make one for my current brainrot ship

When you live with someone for long enough, you grow used to seeing them everywhere. Even if you don't spend every waking moment attached at the hip, you'll see them going about their day at the same time as you. It gets to the point where not seeing them, when you know they're in the house, is a little jarring

Lisgoe had to get used to that quite quickly, since Ross likes to bring home work to do on his day off

He isn't clingy but, when they first started living together, when he was downstairs and hadn't heard so much as a shuffle upstairs for most of the day, he started to wonder if he's snuck off somewhere. Eventually, he decides to test the waters

"Ross, are you still there?"

No answer

"Ross?"

Still no answer

"Twat!"

No answer

OK, so he's definitely gone

Deciding to get to the bottom of this himself, Lisgoe got up and made his way upstairs

Once he reached the top floor, he noticed that the door to their bedroom was ajar, which suggested at Ross had either just left or just got back - if he even left at all. Lisgoe decided to take a quick peek through the space in the doorway, and that's when he saw him

Ross was sat at his desk (technically, they shared it, but he used it far more often) with a desk lamp on. There was a stack of books on one side, a laptop in front of him and another book propped open by his hand. Everything was in its place

What started as a "quick peek" turned into something that took a little longer. He wasn't staring, obviously, that's weird! This was just... something that wasn't staring! Truth be told, there was something about seeing Ross so focused that caught Lisgoe's attention and refused to let it go. Maybe it was the stillness of it, aside from nimble fingers flicking through pages and the clicking of keys. Or it was the way his brows furrowed in concentration as his knuckle rested on his lower lip

Yes, there was something about it that made it impossible to look away. And he'd come to the conclusion that it was Ross' fault. It wasn't a bad thing, but it was definitely his fault

"Staring is rude," Ross said, not looking up from his work "can I help you?"

"I thought you'd died." Came the casual response as Lisgoe opened the door and leaned against the doorframe "And looking is different to staring."

"I know. And you were definitely staring."

"Don't wank yourself off, I was just looking."

"What do you want?"

Instead of replying, he left his spot and went over to stand behind Ross to get a better look at the laptop screen. It was full of... there was lots of...

"What the fuck is this?"

"Data analysis"

"Right, I see it now."

"I assume you know what-"

"What do you think I do at my desk all day?"

"I don't know, you don't tell me about your job."

He didn't know what possessed him to ask, but it came out before he could stop himself:

"Tell me about it."

The way Ross blink rapidly and seemed to twitch his head to the side suggested that this was not what he expected to hear

"You want to hear my weekly evaluation?"

"I want to know if you actually understand what you type into that laptop."

Lisgoe knew damn well that Ross understood what he was typing, but it was the one method he knew would explain everything in detail. And it worked! He was completely in the zone, like a lecturer explaining to a keen student

Had he been less focused, he'd have noticed that Lisgoe hadn't looked at the laptop screen more than twice

○��○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

There are things you expect to see in Royston Vasey: blood in Edmund Chinnery's veternary, pens in Pauline's office, Dean trying to interest some poor sod in his magic

What Ross didn't expect to see at the dead of night, after waking up randomly and realising his partner wasn't there, was finding him lying on the edge of the pavement a fair way out from their home. He didn't look injured or annoyed, in fact it was the rare sight of him looking almost peaceful, his eyes directly up at the sky

That was, of course, quickly ruined when he realised he was being watched

"Fuck off, Glenn, I don't have to deal with your shite after 4pm. It's clearly past 9."

"Have you been here all day then?"

That made him sit up suddenly, noticing who it was seemed to make him less cranky

"I've only been here for half an hour, maybe, I left the house at 11."

"It's currently 2:30 in the morning. You've been here for 3 and a half hours."

"Have I? Fuck, must've fallen asleep."

"What are you doing here? People are going to think you're homeless!" Ross took his arm and tried to yank him up "Get up, you don't know what people have done on this street."

"Get off, I'm fine!" Lisgoe said as he shook free from his grasp "It's 2:30, nobody's gonna see me. Besides, I've done this before, you've just never realised."

"Are you the newest member of Legz Whatever? Has their director got you method acting in preparation for his newest disaster?"

"Fuck off, you cheeky bastard!" Lisgoe shuffled a little, moving so he was facing the empty road "I come out here sometimes, only when I really hate things."

"What things?"

"Everything. Work mainly; sometimes it's fine, but sometimes I can't stand anything about it. I hate my job, I hate my co-workers, I hate my boss - especially hate my boss."

It was a this point that Ross remembered how little Lisgoe actually told him about his work. He knew he was a debt collector, he knew he had two stupid bozos working for him, but that's it

"I didn't even know you had a boss."

"Not many people do." Lisgoe couldn't help but laugh a little, there was something oddly empowering about the fact people assumed he was the man in charge "I'm Barry and Glenn's supervisor, Hammonds oversees everything. When those thick twats don't meet their target, I'm the one who gets it in the ear. He gave me a right telling off today, the gobshite. He doesn't give a fuck about those two, I'm the one who's meant to be making sure they reach their target each week. What am I? Nanny Mc-fucking-phee?"

Ross waited for a moment, then folded his jacket and put it on the floor beside Lisgoe. He sat down

"I've never met Hammonds, but he sounds like a wa- um, a very arrogant man."

"That's not what you were gonna say."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You were gonna swear!" Lisgoe said with a mischevious smile which Ross did not find handsome at all "I heard it, you were gonna call him a wanker!"

"No I wasn't."

"Come on Ross," Lisgoe teased, moving closer "you wanna call him what he is. We both know that. Nobody's around, let it go."

Ross leaned away slightly, refusing to give into his influence. This was met by Lisgoe laying back down with a huff, hands behind his head

"Aren't you a boring sod!"

"I'm not calling him that because that isn't what he is."

"Maybe you think that, I think-"

"He's a... prick"

At first, Lisgoe was taken aback, then he started to laugh a little

"It's funny when you hesitate before you swear, you're like a primary schooler saying 'crap' for the first time!"

"It's not that funny." Ross replied, but his sterness was weak. He was focused on the man beside him, who still seemed tickled by what had just happened

He had to admit, seeing Joseph Lisgoe's tough shell crack a little wasn't an unwelcome sight. If it happened again, at some point, not that it would, but if it did... he decided that he wouldn't mind

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

"You're an idiot." Ross muttered as he held an ice bag to Lisgoe's cheek "I mean it. You're a complete idiot."

"Can you say it again?" Lisgoe snarked "I don't think I heard you the 6th time."

"One week, can you go one week without picking a fight with someone?"

"I don't know, can people go one week without testing my fucking patience?"

It didn't matter what Ross said, it wouldn't change Lisgoe's mind that the bastard deserved it. Actually no, he thought, I went easy on him. I was kind enough to give him a minor concussion instead of snapping his neck. Either way, it seemed that Ross was making sure his message came through, because he was pressing the ice down so hard on Lisgoe's cheek it was like he was trying to dislocate his jaw

"Do you have to press so hard? Or do you just want to give me another fucking injury?"

"If you don't want me doing this, then stop wanting to attack everyone that looks at you wrong. I don't find this enjoyable, seeing you come home with new injuries every day."

"You're exaggerating!" Lisgoe grabbed his arm and moved the ice away "And he was asking for it! I don't care what he had to say about me, he shouldn't have dragged you into it."

There wasn't a response after that. He leaned back on the sofa as Ross put the ice away, not speaking even he was sat back down

"Ross, don't do the 'silent treatment' shite. It annoying as fuck when people pull that-"

He hadn't noticed Ross leaning in until his lips pressed against his own. The first thought that crossed Lisgoe's mind was that asshole didn't let me finish. What made things worse was, as soon as he pulled away to say something, he just pulled him in again roughly

It pissed him off, how easily Ross affected him. The last thing he wanted was to be affected like this, to need this: those hands, that mouth, just... It felt so fucking pathetic every time and yet he couldn't stop himself. It wasn't just adrenaline, it was like an anchor weighing him into place. His nails dug into Ross' back tightly, and he revelled in the sound he produced

Out of everything, that was the one thing Lisgoe hated about the way he felt. Royston Vasey knew him as impenetrable, and he was! Nobody dared to challenge him because everyone knew he wouldn't be stopped. That was who he was, unwavering and authoritative

So why did he react so erratically when that man threatened Ross earlier? Why did the mere thought of Pauline make him want to storm right into that Job Centre and turn her inside out? And why the fuck, whenever Ross kisses him, even for a second, does it make his brain shut off for the duration of it? He wished he could come up with an answer, but his brain was short-circuiting and Ross had his lower lip in his teeth...

He hated it. He truly fucking hated it. But he didn't at the same time

As he felt Ross's hand move up his shirt, he thought this is going to kill me

Then, as he pushed Ross backwards against the sofa, he thought what a fucking way to go!

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

The next morning came far too quickly

Neither could remember when they ended up in their bed, but it happened. Clearly. Because Ross had woken up and was laying on his side, looking at the back of a sleeping Lisgoe. Instantly, his eyes were drawn to the tattoo that decorated his back - a large snake slithering up to his neck. Ross thought it made Lisgoe look like a member of the Japanese mafia which, he supposed, was partly the point. Still, it made him look infuriatingly good; when Ross first slept with Lisgoe, he was less disturbed by the fact he liked doing it with guys and was more confused by the fact it was the first instance in which he wasn't massively put off by someone's tattoos - especially given how many Lisgoe had

Before he could stop himself, he slowly reached out and touched his shoulder, running his fingers gently down the black marking... next thing he knew, he's been back-handed in the face by a very surprised Lisgoe

"Fucking hell..." he muttered when he finally realised who it was, still slightly groggy from tiredness "What was that?"

"That was me, you moron!" Ross was clutching his face, clearly feeling the sting

"I know that," he turned onto his other side, facing the man he just hit "what were you doing?"

"Nothing."

A pause. They both knew that was a lie, Lisgoe wasn't accustom to smacking Ross in the face

"I was just looking at your tattoo," he explain, reaching for his glasses on the bedside table and putting them on "I didn't realise that warrented a smack in the mouth!"

"I didn't do it on purpose! You know unexpected touches put in fight-mode, I raised my hand, you were too close, you got hit!" Lisgoe looked at the red mark on his cheek and asked, in an uncharacteristically soft voice "Are you OK?"

Ross was caught off-guard by the quiet, half-whispered tone. It actually made his chest jump a little, but only because it was so unexpected! Yes, it was like a jumpscare... but nicer

"It just hurts," he answered, more confused than in pain "a lot."

"Oh give over. I didn't hit you that hard, you big bitch! It's not like I'm gentle with you when we're fucking, anyway!"

"Thank god," Ross felt himself smile a little upon hearing that familiar, snappy tone "for one horrible moment, I thought you were developing compassion."

"Nah, not a chance!"

Lisgoe was lying on his back now, which meant Ross could see even more of his tattoos. Maybe it was the fact they were just a neutral monochrome that made them look OK (well, more than OK), or maybe, and this was a frightening thought, Ross liked tattoos on Lisgoe specifically

He faced the ceiling

That was the one thing that truly set his teeth on edge: Joseph Nigel Lisgoe was an exception to all his rules. Don't get involved with the wrong sort: the sort with tattoos and vulgar language, the sort that settle disputes with their fists and find books a waste of time

What made things worse is that no only had every rule been broken, but it turned out that they were all based on incorrect conclusions. Lisgoe may not have been good with logic or reasoning, but he could tell you everything about niche subjects like medieval torture methods, famous cults, and serial killers - hell, he'd probably truly enjoy reading a book on the subject if he didn't find the act of reading so difficult. He didn't get tattoos because they made him look intimidating, he could do that without ink on his skin, he just thought they looked cool. And Ross learned that, despite everything, he wasn't a hypocrite; whatever you gave, he gave back. Direspect, attitude, favours: he repaid it in full - maybe not in the way you expect it, but he did. Lisgoe wasn't a kind or even a forgiving person, but he wasn't dishonest

When he thought about it, Ross realised that he really couldn't predict anything about Lisgoe the same way he did for everyone he met. But, for the first time, he didn't want to. He didn't want to look for patterns in his behaviour and try to figure out his next move. For once, he'd met someone he didn't want to analyse - he just wanted him as he was

And that thought alone went against everything he'd taught himself

Joseph Lisgoe, in many ways, was a jumpscare

●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●

First thing Lisgoe thought when he came home from work:

Well. That was shite

It wasn't like he hated his job normally, some days just felt worse than others. This was one of those days; it was as it Barry, Glenn and Hammonds were in cahoots today, banding together in order to make Lisgoe's life a misery. All he hoped for was that he could come and forget it all happened

The first thing he noticed was Ross Gaines, in his dressing gown (this evening seems to be looking up), pouring a glass of white wine (ah, that explains it)

"You've had it shite as well then?"

"What gave it away?"

"The wine, you only drink white when you're pissed off. I don't even think you like the taste."

"Well, you don't exactly look happy yourself." Ross took another glass from the cupboard and a bottle of red "Lucky for you, these came together. Shut up, Joseph."

"I didn't say anything!" Lisgoe grabbed the bottle and took a large gulp

"I saw the look on your face, you were going to make a dirty joke. And stop drinking out the bottle, there's a glass right there."

"I know."

"I can't stand it when you drink out of the bottle."

"I know."

"Then why do you keep doing it?"

"I have free will, dickhead!" Lisgoe retorted with a smug look as he took another swig of wine before putting it down on the counter and pulling Ross towards him "And pissing you off makes my day so much better."

"You're insufferable, you know that right?" Ross' focus darted to Lisgoe's mouth, then back to his eyes "A real pain in the arse."

"And you have the personality of a fucking dish-cloth."

Lisgoe kissed the corner of his mouth (which did not affect Ross Gaines at all), then took a step back to actually pour himself a glass of wine. He raised it up, to which Ross did the same. They then took a sip

Neither could explain why, but they started to feel a little better than they felt a few moments ago

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

"I told you, you need to quit!"

"I'll quit on my own terms, Joseph. I don't need you to tell me when to do things."

They were having an argument in their kitchen. Not one of their meaningless, amusing games - they were both annoyed at each other. Ross had come home with a bruised arm thanks to an altercation with Pauline, and Lisgoe had gotten mad and told him to quit on the spot. Of course, Ross tried to explain that finances meant he couldn't, and quitting would mean unemployment - which would mean Pauline had even more power over him. He had to bide his time, make a plan

Lisgoe wouldn't hear it

"Either you enjoy getting used as a punching bag or you're more of a stubborn bastard than I am! There are other jobs, and you're more qualified than any of those incompetant shites!"

"Oh, and I'm supposed to believe that's the only reason you're so against me working there?"

"... What?"

"Those... defamatory and false rumours that I had sex with her." Ross' face was smug, as if he'd cracked the Enigma Code "We both know you have a jealousy problem, are you scared it'll happen again?"

Then there was silence. If looks could kill, Ross would probably have been brutally murdered. Lisgoe could brutally murder him right now

"First of all, wipe that fucking look off your face." His voice was quiet yet sharp "Secondly, don't ever bring that up again."

"Let me live my life and I'll let you live yours."

"Sure Ross!" He snapped, clearly done with the conversation "I'll let you live your fucking life! Pauline can do what she wants with you! I'm going." With that, he was up the stairs like a bullet from a gun

Ross watched him, knowing damn well how screwed he was. When Lisgoe said something, he meant it. He wasn't going to wait for anyone to stop him, if he said he was going, he was going and gone for good. Something about that notion made him want to throw up

Before he could stop himself, he was following. Halfway up the second flight of stairs, he finally caught up and grabbed Lisgoe's wrist

"I'm not letting you leave."

It was stated like a fact, the objective truth

"Is that right?" Came the reply, dripping with malice "And what are you gonna do to stop me?"

"Nothing. I'm just not letting you leave?"

"Why's that?"

"Because I love you."

That snapped Lisgoe right out of his angered trance. His face seemed to glitch into one of shock and confusion. Is this a mind game? He thought Is he trying to mess with me? He studied Ross' demeanour: slightly tense, his muscles were contracted, but his face was earnest - like he'd told Lisgoe something that couldn't be disputed

"Why are you telling me this now? When I'm packing my shite and fucking off?"

"That's exactly it. No point hiding it now, I've been waiting for the right moment to say it for ages. I don't like using the word, it's too dangerous - too much risk of it backfiring. I'm probably not going to say it again for a long time, so make the most of this. But I know you, and I know that you meant it when you said you were going. And I don't want that."

"So you said it to get me to stay?"

"Why else does anyone say it? I know I'm not going to find someone else I can say it to and mean it, you're rare. I'm not going to love someone else the way I love you. Never. And that's unnerving."

What else do I say to that? Was the thought that immediately burst into Lisgoe's mind How does someone respond to that? In spite of himself, he started to laugh - which clearly wasn't the right response

"Joseph, why are you laughing? What are you laughing for? I'm being serious."

"I'm sorry Ross, but I can't believe you. I mean, let's look at this factually - I know you like doing that. What about me is worth loving? What even is there to like?"

What hit Ross wasn't what he'd said, it was the tone. As if he'd accepted that he was so unworthy of positive regard that the very idea of it was laughable. All he could do was listen to Lisgoe and approach it the way he knew best - factually

"You're blunt to the point of rudeness, but I only think that because you say what I need to know not what I want to hear. You have this... annoyingly fascinating way of reading body language and facial expressions that leads you into fights. But it also means you know when I want to be left alone. Basically, your 'bad parts' work in my favour."

Now neither of them knew what to say, they'd gone from being so guarded... to whatever this was

"I like-"

"Joseph, leave it."

"No, I want to-"

"I know it's awkward, you don't have-"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Alright then."

"I like... fuck, now I've forgotten how to word it! ... you can't here someone's problems without inserting your own opinion, but it always makes sense - you look for solutions instead of bitching. You have a fucked-up, dry sense of humour, but I do too, so we laugh while everyone looks at us like we're sick. And you never like giving me the last word, you always have some kind of rebuttal. You challenge me. It makes things fun, but you always find a way to call out my bullshit. I need someone like that." Lisgoe looked down at his wrist "And I like when you let go of my wrist, which you've been gripping onto for 5 fucking minutes!"

Even more embarrassed, though he tried to hide it, Ross let go

"There's also the physical shite," Lisgoe continued with a shrug "but that's-"

Whatever he was going to say died in his throat, because Ross had pulled him into a kiss, letting his back press against the wall behind him. Lisgoe's hands were around his throat gently

"For the record," Ross' voice came out hoarse "I wasn't thinking about Pauline when I was with her."

"So it did happen," Lisgoe started to bite and kiss along his jawline "you lying bastard!"

"Maybe it did, but my mind was elswhere." He could feel his partner at his neck and tried to keep his voice steady "Some debt collector that came knocking on my door once, maybe you know him?"

"Yeah? What's his name?"

"Barry Baggs."

"Get fucked!" Lisgoe gave him a hard shove, but the laugh that followed showed he didn't take it personally

"I'd say that encapsulates your goal, wouldn't you?"

"After that, you can finish in your hand!"

Lisgoe moved up the stairs, but only made it two steps before he was pulled in again. This time, the kiss was slower, the movements less frantic and the electricity buzzing rather than sparking

Nothing else needed to be said

#the league of gentlemen #league of gentlemen #gainsgoe #ross gaines #joseph lisgoe #joseph nigel lisgoe #tlog

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lestappenforever · 2 months

Note

Quick and Weekly (or rather race week specific) kind of analysis, basically just my takes on what went on during the race.

WE NEED TO GET THE YOUNGER ROOKIES SEATS. Ollie was an absolute beast yesterday, finish p7, managing the tyres, MANAGING A 7 TIME WORLD CHAMPION BEHIND HIM, holding off the rest of the pack, close to overtaking george, just Nico with his experience was able to hold him off a bit longer. Scoring more points in F1 than F2. Scoring more points than almost half of the grid. All with just one free practice session. This kid has a future (the only driver I could actually call kid😂)

Ferrari look fast. Finally being able go see Charles’ pace yesterday, in addition to not being fucked over by strategy or any shit, they’ve done a pretty good iob on that car. I mean, a rookie scored on his debut, and so far, a Ferrari’s always been on the podium. Of course this is just the second race, but still.

Haas aren’t that shit this year. The car looks good. Kevin was an absolute MENACE yesterday. Holding off Yuki, Esteban, Zhou, Valtteri, Alex, Logan, Daniel ALL WHILE HE KNOWS HE HAS A 20 SECOND PENALTY. Also Nico’s pace was pretty good, holding off Zhou and Alex, and kind of with ease. Apparently having a TP other than Guenther is proving to something quite positive.

RB are in shambles. Like, Yuki was pretty good, but wasn’t able to convert his p9 quali to points, and Daniel is just not doing well, that even with that 20 second penalty to Kevin, he’s still dead last. (Maybe it wasn’t McLaren, it was the choice of leaving red bull back in 2019) (I have a whole thing in my head about Daniel, and I still want to make sure if the facts and data before sharing it). But it might have been a miss that RB didn’t get Liam in this season, but we never know. I mean, Helmut Marko did say that there could be mid season surprises. And so far, non of the RB drivers seem or look to be even in contention for that Red Bull seat, in all honesty, it appears so far that Checo is more likely to keep his seat for 25!

I am not 100% convinced with either McLaren or Mercedes. Like yes both are consistently scoring points, and gaining, but I can’t really find that speed. Like they are okay, better than last year, but not Ferrari level improvement. Also, the strategy that both teams put Lando and Lewis on (especially Lando) cost him a better position, more points, maybe even a podium let’s be real.

Williams are okay. Ngl, I love James Vowels, his technicalities and as he said in DTS his geek-inees (hoping to be like him honestly one day). I feel like, Saudi and Bahrain aren’t really their tracks, because they did well, both Logan and Alex gaining positions. They are a team I’m waiting and hoping to see thrive, because Alex and Logan both deserve it.

Stake were okay, especially with that Zhou crash in FP3, like he couldn’t even qualify, but strategy kind of wasn’t ideal, and in all honesty, they’re just kay, not too fast, but not too slow.

And finally, our leaders. Despite everything, they do be cooking (Adrian and Max, you’ve both done it). That speed, the tyre deg, just everything about that car is phenomenal. And Max deserves it, after everything he’s gone through in his life, and he deserves to re-write the history books, which he already is, with re-reaching seb’s record not even 6 months after breaking it. This man who everyone is bored of his dominance are all going to be crying and missing him after he retires (I DON’T WANT TO THINK OF THIS DAY, BECAUSE I’LL BE THE FIRST ONE IN TEARS) but Max Emilian Verstappen is something that hasn’t come and probably won’t come again in Formula 1 and Motorsport history.

So yeah, that’s kind if my inital takes in the race, kind if a mini summary as well, and may we always listen to the Dutch National Anthem because I’ve been emotional this week with Max and everything happening around him.

This is such a wonderful analysis that really doesn't need anything added to it because you've got this spot-on, so I will try to keep my own thoughts relatively brief.

Ollie did incredible and I am so excited to see him in F1 permanently. Him and Liam? The future is bright.

I am cautiously optimistic about Ferrari and I really hope that, for once, they won't fuck themselves over which is in no way, shape or form a guarantee.

K-Mag did so fucking well, and it brings me so much joy seeing my fellow Scandinavian putting on such a performance. And Nico had a decent race, which also makes me happy. It's obviously far too early to be sure, but their new team principal seems to have been a good choice.

VCARB are just... Well, I'm not even going to utter my thoughts. All I will say is that there is no way in hell Daniel will be a good replacement for Checo. Claiming Daniel is better than him is just laughable.

McLaren and Mercedes are giving Ferrari 2023 vibes with their strategy calls yesterday, and it will be interesting to see how they develop over the season.

I truly hope Williams will improve over the course of the season, because I want to see Alex and Logan do well so fucking badly.

As for Stake: they were unlucky, and I'm just glad Zhou made it out of that crash unscathed. It's a shame he missed out on being able to qualify because holy hell did that team do their fucking best trying to get his car ready. I want to see him, and Bottas, do well.

As for Red Bull, they are as impressive as I hoped they were going to be so far this season, and as a Max girl it makes me laugh seeing Max haters bitch about his dominance making the sport boring. I, for one, am having the time of my fucking life. I won't even think about him retiring at this point, and will just keep enjoying every race for as long as I can. And seeing Checo starting off the season in such a strong manner fills me with joy. I am by no means Checo's biggest fan, but the shit he went through last season at the hands of disgusting Helmut Marko and the F1 community at large has me wanting him to suceed. Put some respect to his name because God knows he's fucking earned it.

Thank you so much for sharing yet another wonderful analysis, my darling. You have no idea how happy it makes me, and how much I appreciate it. ❤️

#Asks #agentofchaos001 #agentofchaos001 ❤️

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lutiaslayton · 1 year

Photo

« Introduction || Masterlist || Next (coming soon!) »

Hello everybody! This playthrough is finally starting, and with it goes my sanity. I am playing on DS (French version but you will probably never see photos of it), mobile (UK version, I might sometimes give screenshots), and emulator for the Japanese “Friendly” version, of which I will provide the most footage.

The “Friendly” version is a re-release of the first DS games which added the furigana to the text, made all weekly puzzles available from the start instead of locking them out as downloadable content, and perhaps had a few other features I am not aware of. I only realised once I reached the title screen that this was not technically the original, but oh well. When I compared the DS, non-“Friendly” version of London Holiday with its mobile re-release version, the differences were completely anecdotic (the kanji 言 replaced with its hiragana spelling twice, and hint coins being renamed from ヒントメダル to ひらめきコイン, their current name); so I hope that the differences will be just as minor, because I unfortunately do not have the means currently to check them.

Major disclaimer:

I DO NOT SPEAK JAPANESE. KEEP THAT IN MIND. All my conclusions are based on what little stuff I know here and there about the language, but I am not at all a reliable reference in the subject. If you can speak Japanese, then please do feel free to correct me anytime, add details I forgot, etc. Thank you!

Important Note:

In the Japanese version, puzzles are consistently referred to as 「ナゾ」 (pronounced “nazo”), while 「ナゾトキ」 (pronounced “nazotoki”) will usually refer to the act of solving such a puzzle. Both expressions are written in katakana, which is in Japanese a way to emphasise words (kind of like italics, if you will). Normally, you would expect to find both expressions written as 「謎」 and 「謎解き」, but the fact that they are written in katakana instead will be interpreted here as “the characters are talking about something similar, but distinct from the original meaning of these expressions.” In other words, not all puzzles are the same, and a distinction must be made between simple riddles or mysteries, and 𝓹𝓾𝔃𝔃𝓵𝓮𝓼™.

I will try to consistently translate 「ナゾ」 as “puzzle” all throughout, and will use any other word if the Japanese version did not use this specific magic word (e.g. if the Japanese version uses the regular spelling 「謎」 instead of the katakana spelling). Therefore, when characters use the word 「ナゾ」, I will consider that they are talking about something far more specific than simply a “mystery.”

Why do I emphasise on such a nitpick? Because a big part of this lore analysis… is to try to define what a “puzzle” even is to begin with.

In this post and the future ones, if you find screenshots which have coloured text, the rule is basically this: red if it’s a “puzzle”, blue if it has a similar meaning but is not the same type of “puzzle” as the one we are most interested in.

Anyway. Digression aside, let’s get started!

HD Version only: The Extra Cutscene

I don’t have all that many things to say about it, since you can watch it on Youtube just fine and the Japanese version doesn’t have much to say that the English translations don’t say as well. Still, just a few things:

Layton has packed a very small suitcase, while Luke has filled the trunk of the Laytonmobile to the brim. Could it be that after Last Specter, Miracle Mask and especially Azran Legacy, Luke is expecting to have yet another long journey? After all, it is just around the very beginning of August, so he’s probably on summer vacations (and that is assuming he isn’t homeschooled anyway during the rest of the time; he definitely was during the time they were travelling around the world in the Bostonius).

Layton, on the other hand, does not seem to expect to stay in St. Mystere for long; but then again, we are talking about the man who, about three years earlier, went off to Misthallery without even packing anything and ended up having to stay there for a few days. (Speaking of… neither did Emmy, for that matter.)

Also, I could analyse the fact that in order to reach St. Mystere, they crossed the Thames, and that thanks to Diabolical Box, we know the approximate location of Gressenheller within London (~9 Earlham St., Westminster); however, I will not do that, because DearestHershel already made a video entirely dedicated to locating St. Mystere using these exact points and others, and I do not disagree with his conclusions.

Letter from Luke to the Player

🇯🇵 親愛なる友人｛プレーヤー｝　へ 🗺️ To my dear friend, {Player}, 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 To my dear friend, {Player},

🇯🇵 ボクたちが、あの日、あの町で体験したことは、誰にもいえない秘密になってしまったんだ。なぜなら、これは… 🗺️ What we experienced that day in that town has become a secret that we can’t tell anyone. This is because… 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 The things we saw that day in the village became a secret we would have to keep from everyone for the rest of our lives. Because, you see…

Nerd talk aside, I would personally consider this letter to not be canon in-universe, notably because Luke specifically states that he will never divulge the secret of St. Mystere… only to proceed to do exactly that in his letter. Also because of the fact that this letter being canon would imply that someone sharing the Player’s name exists in the Laytonverse and that Luke knows them well enough to want to share details of his cases to them, including this one.

Whether you decide to make your personal self-insert character canon or not, this still raises the question of just how many people are aware of what transpired in St. Mystere. Layton and Luke seemingly decided to not tell anything to anyone at all in order to protect Flora; Bruno and the inhabitants of St. Mystere have been aware of pretty much everything for years (perhaps less so in the case of the robots) and will keep doing their thing; and Don Paolo is quite unlikely to tell anyone either due to the fact that pretty much every plan he had for the town, its treasure, and its robots, ended in failure (and also, depending on how we interpret his character, he would also keep the secret for Flora’s sake).

And yet, there is something that has been bothering me for many years…

親愛なるレイトン教授へ

あれから数か月になりますが、教授、お元気ですか？一緒に仕事をしている仲間からレイトン教授が遺産相続騒動を解決したという話を耳にして思わず手紙を書いてしまいました。

タージェントから世界を救ったあのレイトン教授が単なる遺産相続のナゾトキの依頼を引き受けるなんて。まさか…と思いましたが、ナゾには目がない教授ですし、きっと知的好奇心を刺激される不思議な出来事だったんでしょうね。

Dear Professor Layton,

It’s already been months since then, hasn’t it? I hope you’re well. When I heard from my colleagues that Professor Layton had resolved an inheritance dispute, I couldn’t help but write a letter.

I couldn’t believe that the same Professor Layton who saved the world from Targent accepted the simple request of solving an inheritance puzzle! But since you always have a penchant for puzzles, it must have been a curious case and quite the intellectual workout.

This letter was written by Emmy Altava and was revealed in the Japan-exclusive Azran Legacy art book (For the translation, I borrowed the one made by @the-azran-legacies for the general style, but took the liberty of altering a few words when I felt like their translation was deviating a bit too much from the original text). Needless to say… If only at first glance, this is an issue. Not only did Emmy hear of the case, but she also heard of it from her journalist coworkers? Well, then again: perhaps what should be said here was that Layton did indeed talk about the case to the media (reluctantly so), but left it at “We solved an inheritance dispute in a remote village, it was boring, nothing to see here.” And perhaps the reason Emmy heard of it from her coworkers was either because Layton had not solved a single case between AL and CV, or because this case was simply a “really, there is nothing to see here, I promise” and some journalists are not buying it.

PS: Wild ass theory. In the original trilogy, Luke isn’t writing his letters to “the player.” He’s writing them to Emmy. And in the case of Curious Village, Emmy received Luke’s letter some time after she sent Layton her own. After all, did you know that while CV, DB and UF all start with Luke writing a letter to someone, there is not a single letter to the player in the prequel trilogy games? In fact, perhaps we could even theorise that Luke only got Emmy’s address thanks precisely to the letter she sent to Layton? And he decided to write her a letter explaining her the whole story after he finally got news from her?

Cutscene #01

There is not much to say about the cutscene itself, apart from the fact that the country road they are taking leads to absolutely nowhere else (which is precisely what Puzzle #001 is about), and that aside from said narrow country road, there is not a single human-made element around them for miles. My 2018 past self had already emphasised on that, but St. Mystere is consistently described as being particularly isolated and secluded (due to the fact that it has only one exit, and that the crank being stolen later will close that only exit).

The Car Scene

Phew! We finally made it past the, um… first two lines of dialogue in the game after the mobile cutscene. Wow. This is going to be a long ride, isn’t it.

I will not give the entirety of the dialogue, but I will show the parts that caught my attention:

🇯🇵 …２ヶ月前、資産家、アレン・ラインフォード氏が亡くなった。 🗺️ …Two months ago, the wealthy Allen Rhineford passed away. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Two months ago, Baron Augustus Reinhold passed away. 🇯🇵 その後、彼の遺言状が開示されたが、そこには、実に興味深い内容が記されていた。 🗺️ Later, his will was disclosed, and it contained some really interesting details. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Shortly after his death, his will was disclosed. The contents of it were fascinating, to say the least.

Baron Augustus Reinhold is actually named Allen Rhineford in the Japanese version, according to the romanised version of アレン・ラインフォード. Also, it is to be noted that the Japanese version does not seem to refer to him as a baron, at least not yet.

(EDIT: I mistakenly wrote it as Lineford, thinking that there was no official romanised version; however, there actually is one, and it is indeed Rhineford, not Lineford. The source is this Japanese wikipedia page, which gives the romanised names of the characters according to the Japanese version. My bad!)

He died two months earlier; or rather, his death was publicly announced two months earlier, as we will learn much later. Either case, the event Layton refers to took place more or less two months before the day they arrive in St. Mystere, which means that this would have happened around the end of May/beginning of June 1963.

🇯🇵 …我が一族の家宝、「黄金の果実」をこの町のどこかに隠してある。 🗺️ …My family's heirloom, the "Golden Fruit," is hidden somewhere in this town. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 "The Reinhold family treasure, the Golden Apple, is hidden somewhere within this village. 🇯🇵 「黄金の果実」を探しあてた者に、私が所有するすべての遺産を相続させる… 🗺️ Whoever finds the "Golden Fruit" will inherit all of my property… 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 To whomever successfully locates this treasure, I offer the whole of my estate."

Fun fact: the original Japanese version refers to the Golden Apple as 「黄金の果実」, meaning Golden Fruit, rather than specifically an apple.

🇯🇵 遺言の内容を知った一族の者たちは、その「黄金の果実」を、先を争うように探した。 🗺️ The members of the family, who knew the contents of the will, scrambled to find the "golden fruit". 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Naturally, those who attended the reading of the will immediately set out in search of the Golden Apple. 🇯🇵 しかし、結局、誰も見つけることはできなかった。 🗺️ However, in the end, no one was able to find it. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 But in the end, everybody came back empty handed. 🇯🇵 そもそも、そんな家宝があったなんてことを誰ひとり聞いたことがなかったという。 🗺️ In the first place, no one had ever heard of such a family heirloom. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 It turns out that no one had even heard of such a treasure existing until its mention in the will.

The Japanese version specifies “family members,” while the English translation is more general—which could have implied that other unrelated people might have been present during the reading of the will (or at least, that is how I have interpreted it for years). It is a nitpick, since we are probably few to imagine that people from outside St. Mystere would have actually been present during the reading, if you think about it hard enough. But it is interesting to note that Layton is thus more or less saying here that the only people who bothered searching for the Golden Apple were the family members themselves, and that there is no clear mention of other outsiders coming to look for it.

If no outsider aside from Layton was warned, then this raises the question of just how Don Paolo came to hear about it in the first place… Current hypothesis is that he is stalking Layton and perhaps even reading his mail, simply put. There are dubious ways to read letters without opening them.

Did you notice that the scenery changes after Layton is finished explaining the basics of the case? It seems like the country road led them to go through a forest dense enough to block some of the sunlight. After Luke solves the puzzle, the background goes back to the brighter scenery.

🇯🇵 ああ。彼は莫大な財産をかけて、生涯最後のナゾを仕掛けたというわけだ。一体、何が目的なのかもわからない。 🗺️ Yes. He set up the last puzzle of his life with his vast fortune. I don't even know what the purpose is. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Quite. Augustus Reinhold staked his entire fortune just to create one more puzzle before his death.

Hey, would you look at that! ナゾ has been said in a dubious context, you know what this means. Take a shot everybody (I’m joking. Please don’t. Tea is amazing but there are health issues related to drinking too much of it).

Joke aside, there is something else to note: depending on how the sentence is read (I do hope someone who can speak Japanese could help clarify), Layton might be either saying that the baron staked his fortune on that “last puzzle,” or that he used said fortune to set up the puzzle in question—or, most likely, both, given the fact that we have another case of “ok perhaps this isn’t magic but you literally have to be the richest person on Earth to pull this off” on our hands.

Additionally, in the Japanese version exclusively, Layton has this additional line: “I don’t even know what the purpose [behind the treasure hunt] is.” This line was most likely removed from the translations due to the lack of space.

In fact, there was another instance in which the translations had no choice but to add another dialogue box and split Luke’s dialogue in two! This happened in this case:

🇯🇵 確かに先生とは気が合いそうですね。ところで、「黄金の果実」っていったい何なのでしょうか？ 🗺️ I’m sure he would have gotten along with you. By the way, what exactly is the “golden fruit”? [1|2] 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 It certainly sounds like you two would’ve gotten along, Professor! [2|2] 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 By the way, just what is this Golden Apple anyhow?

To be honest, I believe that splitting this dialogue into two different dialogue boxes makes more sense, since they are two vastly different sentences and lack a clear transition.

🇯🇵 宝石なのか、骨董品なのか、それもまたナゾだよ。実に興味深い。 🗺️ Is it a jewel or an antique, that is also a puzzle. Really interesting. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Some speculate it's a rare antique, while others say it could be a gem, yet its identity remains elusive. 🇯🇵 だけど、ルーク、私はこの一件に、他にも何かとてつもない秘密が隠されているような気がしてならないんだ。 🗺️ But, Luke, I can't help but feel that there are some other great secrets hidden in this case. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 But, Luke, I can't shake the feeling that this matter is linked to some larger mystery. Something huge.

So, have you noticed? The English translations have failed to account for the fact that Layton used the magic word in order to describe the nature of the Golden Apple. Just thought I would let you know, it would be a shame to forget to take a shot :p

Oh, and speaking of removing an important “puzzle” magic word through the translation, we have another one just a bit ahead:

🇯🇵 このナゾトキをラインフォード夫人に依頼されただけさ。 🗺️ I was commissionned by Mrs. Rhineford to do this puzzle solving. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Augustus Reinhold's wife, Lady Dahlia, has asked me to investigate the situation.

Anyway. Layton “can’t shake the feeling” that there is a lot more to the Golden Apple puzzle than a simple treasure hunt. But what could possibly lead him to this feeling? Well… the fact that St. Mystere is so isolated, that the Golden Apple would be an heirloom whose existence is unknown to the members of the family which is supposed to own it, even the fact that Lady Dahlia Reinhold would contact him specifically, perhaps… are some ever so slightly peculiar details, I suppose. Not to mention, perhaps, one thing related to the map puzzle, depending on how the puzzle lore goes. All this is not necessarily enough to truly raise the red flags just yet, but enough to spark some curiosity and suspicion.

🇯🇵 先生、なんだかはりきってますね。考古学者でありながら、どんなナゾでも解決する名探偵、 🗺️ Professor, I'm kind of excited. The great detective who can solve any puzzle while being an archaeologist, 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 This is all so exciting! 🇯🇵 エルシャール・レイトン、さっそく現場へ急行ってわけですね！ 🗺️ Hershel Layton, rushed to the scene immediately! 🇺🇸 I hope St. Mystere is ready for the famous archeologist and puzzle-solving detective, Hershel Layton! 🇬🇧 I hope St Mystere is ready for the famous archaeologist and puzzle-solving detective, Hershel Layton!

Come on, Luke, you have seen much harder puzzles than this. Though, if I were to open a map and see this blatantly not-to-scale drawing instead, I too would have at least a little moment of surprise.

So… This is when the crazy talk really starts getting in. What are your thoughts? Luke is evidently shocked just at the mere sight of it, so I fear that the Doylist explanation “Luke actually is holding a regular map, it’s just that the players are shown the puzzle instead” seems out of the table. Somehow, Luke is able to take this paper, solve the puzzle on it, and deduce from this drawing real life directions for what is for him, currently, the middle of nowhere.

Strange, really strange… It is almost as if the drawing itself were less the key to figuring out the real life directions to take, and rather a gatekeep preventing whoever looks at it from accessing the true map until the puzzle is solved.

Hm? Ah, don’t mind me, I was just rambling. I have not seen enough evidence in this particular instance yet, so the hypothesis that Luke would be surprised less by the fact of seeing a puzzle, and more by the fact that he would find a puzzle that would do Lady Dahlia’s bidding, is at this stage baseless conjecture. I will just keep this little bit of speculation in the back of my mind and see if more evidence to confirm it shows up later, under similar but different circumstances. (Spoiler alert: it does happen regarding the puzzle lore, and it is even crazier than I expected.)

🇯🇵 その地図を解読しないと町には着けないらしい。 🗺️ It seems that you can't get to the town without deciphering this map. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Lady Dahlia seems to have given us a test. We'll need to decipher this map in order to find the village. 🇯🇵 どうやら夫人は、私を試すつもりのようだ。 🗺️ It seems that she is going to test me. 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 She wants to see if we're capable of cracking the mystery surrounding the Reinhold fortune. 🇯🇵 私が遺産の謎を解ける人物かどうか…君はどう思う？　ルーク。 🗺️ I wonder if I'm the one who can solve the mystery of the inheritance... What do you think, Luke? 🇺🇸/🇬🇧 Care to give it a go, Luke?

Um. Ahem. Excuse me? That last sentence is quite intriguing, all the more so since it could have used the puzzle magic word, but decided to go with the regular kanji spelling instead. Funny how it was not translated at all in the English versions… I can imagine why, but that is still surprising. This sort of reminds me of the cryptic sentences Layton will sometimes say in the prequel trilogy for no reason other than to sound cool and cryptic.

Anyway. We FINALLY reached the first puzzle! Yayyyyy… oh, dear.

So, uh… You know what? I think I will leave the actual puzzle for another time. This post has already been WAY longer than I anticipated and I am exhausted x’D I would rather go back to it with a clearer mind rather than rush it.

And that is all! Just getting to the first puzzle has been quite the adventure, and trying to keep track of so many languages at once made things even worse. To be honest, in the future I will probably drop all languages other than Japanese and US + UK, including dropping French despite the fact that it is my mother language, because searching through the files is not a short task… and because I did not even get to show them here at all anyway, so this was pretty much extra work for nothing.

I guess I will go back to them one day if I ever make my archiving work public, but that will be the question for another time. For now, the website I made for CV is for local use only, because uploading it and its assets would be quite the hassle (not to mention “arguably illegal…?” I have no idea here).

In either case, the Italian, Spanish and German versions are certain to be dropped when I will move to other games. The European version of Curious Village contains the data for all languages at once, but starting from Diabolical Box onwards, this will no longer be the case; so unless I were to get the roms for all EU languages each time, I wouldn’t be able to do the datamining if I wanted to.

Still, speaking of languages! There is one last thing I would like to share, and that is a thorough comparison between the US and UK versions. Here goes!

The differences are either nonexistent or subtle most of the time, but as we can see, there are a few differences still. So… Should I refer to the US and UK versions as two different languages? One language and a half? Eh. Who knows. I have been treating them as two entirely separate languages so far, just to be thorough.

« Introduction || Masterlist || Next (coming soon!) »

#professor layton #lutiasplays #pl theory board #professor layton transcript

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kyouka-supremacy · 9 months

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Its so sad about selling it as a shounen when its seinen. Ive literally watched reveiws from people who called it a shounen (just reviewing the anime) or had a gard time catgorizing thinking shounen meant action/adventure when its an age group. As someone whos getting older its disheartening to see seinens cast to the side

Yeah... Like tbh I can see where the confusion comes from, with the superpowers and repeated fight scenes being elements that are recurring in shonen manga, but that's stopping to a very superficial reading of the media. I do agree part of the appeal of bsd is how it tackles adult themes that a shonen manga can't reach, how it doesn't shy back from diving into disturbing concepts and depictions– it is meant for an older audience, and treating it as a shonen risks to end up making it lose a lot of its charm, because there's some things that you just can't sugarcoat.

I feel like Bones' adaptation of the Fukuchi vs. sskk fight is a good example of what happens when you shonen-ify a seinen scene: in the anime the scene failed to transpose the characters' internal insight and moral conflict, as well as renounced to all the interesting themes questioning war cruelty (themes probably deemed unfit to a teen audience due to graphic descriptions and reflections on political subjects). The anime adapted all the action in the scene, but it was left at that, on a very superficial level, pretty much erasing everything that made the scene thematically relevant and emotionally moving.

But then again, in the end works (and especially well written, original works) can be so that they hardly fit in a single category, and that's okay. Death Note is technically a shonen that serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump, but imo it feels a lot more of a seinen. The Promised Neverland is a shonen, but it's also the manga with the oldest demographic of any other series serialized on the WSJ, with a wide slice of sales coming from an adult audience, and a whole published analysis book written by a researcher from the Hiroshima Women’s University. Bsd is a seinen that targets at an adult, male (?) audience, but that doesn't exclude it sharing traits with shonen manga.

I do understand and to an extent sincerely share some sort of reclaim of bsd as an adult media. It's comforting to say: “I'm an adult, and I'm interested in bsd, which is an adult book”. The thing is, genres are ultimately conventions, and pretty volatile at that, and in the end in my opinion it shouldn't really matter if the story is a seinen or a shonen, as long as it is a good story. And still it does matter, because we're all so used to see our interests be mocked and made fun of, that we feel the need to say “it's an adult story, so it's good; it's not something to be made fun of, and my interest for it is legit and justified” when it really... Doesn't have to be like that. It's natural for adult stories to attract an adult audience (for relatableness of themes, for an easier time in understanding complex subjects and even a curiosity and interest in complex themes and questions), but I think that shouldn't come with diminishing media targeted to a younger audience, with saying it can't hold depth and thematically relevant motifs or that adults are automatically childish to take interest in them. I share a sentiment of frustration that calls for reclaiming bsd as an “adult media”, but I also think that at least personally, it comes from a place of stigmatization of everything that isn't adult like it was automatically bad when really there wouldn't be anything wrong with bsd being a manga for young men either.

(I ended up following a string of thought here, so I apologize if it resulted in projecting / making assumptions on what you meant with this ask. It's perfectly legit and understandable for you to be annoyed by the misinformation around what shonen and seinen mean with no other implication, and the rest is only personal opinions added)

#To be fair imo bsd could perfectly be considered a josei it's just that no one wants to say it out loud.#But you take one look to the bsd merch and all of it is blatantly meant for a female audience there's bags for women and jewelry and dresses #And that's on top of what I guess we can say is evident fujoshi fanservice #The female slice of the audience can't be any less of half of it and in reality it's likely to make the majority of it #It's simply that no one wants to admit as much.#bsd #bungou stray dogs #people asks me stuff

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skytrustunitedstates · 1 year

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Weekly Technical analysis | SEBI Research Analyst | Logical Nivesh | 14 Dec 2022

Weekly Technical analysis on Nifty and Bank Nifty | SEBI Research Analyst | Logical Nivesh| 14 Dec 2022 Ashutosh Bhardwaj is a SEBI registered Research Analy...

#Weekly Technical analysis #SEBI Research Analyst

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talenlee · 5 months

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Decemberween ’23 — Dweebovision

We live in an age of external participation in games. Watching people play games is so long-lasting a practice that I literally cannot imagine a place it started. Even the earliest games have examples of people caring about the outcomes of games they weren’t playing, one way or another. The immense video firehose that is the internet and its significantly lowered cost to engage is a way we can take formerly niche games and present them to their audiences.

David Webb is Very Good at Scrabble and word games. In the ecosystem of British Television, he is a serial prize winner, showing up on various TV shows, and winning you know, teapots and houses, and whatever else British TV gives people as rewards for winning on their particular kind of game shows. If you don’t want to watch for reruns of 90s TV shows to see Mr Webb at work, though, you can tune into his Youtube channel, and watch how every few days, he presents a new Scrabble match against high-level players, with extremely detailed, clear step-by-step thinking of him trying to win the game aggressively and how he does it.

Scrabble Grandmaster's Showdown: Expert Insights

Watch this video on YouTube

If you’re used to videogame Lets Players, or streamers, you may be used to a lot more trash talk than Webb’s going to give you. He opens things with the same phrase (Scrabble, my opponent/I am on the play, let’s go), and then it’s just thoughtful, slow, methodical play of Scrabble. It’s with an online tool, which handles things like automatically checking terms; you can’t play invalid terms, and the game shows you the points return of a play, or the remaining tiles in the bag. There’s a lot of information and no real ability to bluff (more on that later). And Webb wins a lot of the time, but he also loses often too — when you’re playing against the best, in a game where outcomes can be influenced by random chance, what other options do you have?

What I find the most fun, and often I skip to, is when Webb finishes a match, he gives his seemingly-habitual analysis of the game (huge, huge, win for (me or my opponent)), then pulls up a move analyser. This involves replaying the game step by step, and he reasons through his choices, even honestly indicating where he gave up points and whether or not he thinks that’s a good idea. In this section there’s a shocked sound effect he plays any time he misses a bingo, where he realises there was a way to score a huge pile of points and didn’t get it. And he does! This is a guy who’s very good at Scrabble, he’s in the top rarified levels of this game and wins money playing it, when that’s an option, but he still misses seven letter, eight letter, and nine letter words.

Reassuringly, he also mentions how yeah, he’s really good at Scrabble, but the game is too hard for a human to play perfectly. It’s a very gentle attitude.

Join an Expert on a Journey through the Times Cryptic Crossword

Watch this video on YouTube

One of the funniest things on this very sedate, very British channel focusing on language puzzle games, is that Webb has expressed a concern that his audience, his fans, are made up of two separate streams of interests, and they don’t overlap much. See, in addition to playing Scrabble against other high-level Scrabble players on the internet, he also does a weekly solve of the Times Cryptic Crossword.

And like, I know it’s funny to me, but it’s also kind of true. I watch him solving the Cryptic Crossword and find myself getting angrier and angrier at the Cryptic Crossword. That’s meant to be solvable? That’s a thing a person is meant to tease out of understanding? How! How was that even vaguely tenable as an explanation of the term budgerigar?

It’s still good for learning how cryptic crosswords are made up of technical language, that you have to become familiar with to play. It’s not just a matter of looking at a puzzle and seeing what words fit, you have to learn how those clues are trying to justify being a clue for the word they are, and how little they want you to imagine that word.

5 OUTRAGEOUS nonwords that stayed on a Scrabble board

Watch this video on YouTube

This is a focus on online play, though. Face to face Scrabble (and other, non-dictionary-checking) Scrabble games involves an extra layer of strategy that involves not just playing words but lying about them. The rules in tournaments run that it’s the job of the opponent to monitor the board to ensure your word are valid. You play a word, and your opponent can challenge it, and if they challenge it, and the challenge is valid, the tiles leave the board and you lose the points. But if they challenge it and the challenge is invalid, they lose a turn. This is to keep people from just challenging too much.

Problem is this means that there’s an actual strategic element to choosing when to bluff, and when to lie, and that’s where this kind of gameplay comes up. I’m sure this feels unpleasant to a certain type of player; the idea that playing your opponent in a game that otherwise feels very asocial and technical is, no doubt, concerning!

I think I talk about Scrabble a fair amount. It’s a really interesting game because while its core principles are pretty stable, its pieces are really dynamic. For example, the scrabble dictionary used to reject a lot of alternate spellings of words. It also used to permit slurs. Now, it includes neopronouns and has opted to exclude words that are predominantly only meaningful as slurs. The pieces change, the core game stays, and top level play isn’t about understanding words as much as it is seeing words in terms of their relationships. There’s anticipation of potential pieces, there’s an awareness of a huge arsenal of possible terms, and there’s even room for bluffing in a game that ostensibly is about the most basic form of technical challenge.

It’s an incredible game!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Decemberween 2023 #Games

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