#it recently got an english physical release

[intomybubble]

I’m 12 chapters into Medalist and right away I can see how it became an award-winning manga.

I am super excited to see it animated (Winter 2025) because its really hard to visualize the routines on paper. I hope the adaptation does the series justice because I just adopted the MC, Inori, as my new fictional daughter and she deserves it.

#desiree talks #desiree reads #READ IT! #it recently got an english physical release #it also has like 30+ chapters over 10 volumes #i teared up so much seeing their efforts #tsukasa (her coach) also bursting into tears is so relatable #after volunteering with preschoolers and elementary schoolers for 2 semesters i have a bigger soft spot for kids #Youtube

[rivalsforlife]

Ace Attorney 456 Tokyo Game Show Information Masterpost

Since I haven't seen all the information collected in one place, this post SHOULD be a comprehensive review of everything revealed today - though please let me know if I missed anything important.

New Trailer and Release Date

We got a new trailer for the 456 collection, which covers (most of) what I'm going to say in this post, and a release date of January 25, 2024!

New Features

Language Support: These games are now available in seven languages: Japanese, English, French, German, Korean, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese, along with voice dubs for each of these. These are some of the first times some of the games (in particular 5 and 6) are officially translated to many of these languages.

DLC: The previously DLC-exclusive cases Turnabout Reclaimed and Turnabout Time Traveler will be added to the game for free, along with previously DLC-exclusive costumes. You can dress up Phoenix in the Tigre outfit from the beginning!

QOL: As well, any of the quality of life features from the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles have been added to the 456 collection. This includes an episode/chapter select unlocked from the start, so you can skip straight to your favorite sections, autoplay and story mode, and a backlog/history to review recent text.

Art Gallery: The game will also include an "art gallery" which includes concept art for the games. This will also include special artworks commissioned exclusively for this collection, some of which are unlocked after beating each game and unlocking each trilogy.

Orchestra Hall: There is also an "orchestra hall" where you can listen to what seems to be the full soundtrack for all three games (though I haven't verified this), along with orchestral tracks from the 15th anniversary and 2019 orchestra concerts.

There are also two new "trilogy exclusive" songs: "Apollo Justice - A New Era Begins! 2024", and "Trucy's Theme - Bring It In, Everyone". The new "a new era begins" remix might possibly be what they're playing in the trailer. "Bring It In, Everyone" is distinct from Trucy's main theme, "Child of Magic" (listed earlier in the soundtrack list), so I have no idea what that one will be like.

Animation Studio: This new feature allows you to play around with character models, setting up different backgrounds and sprites and settings, to create whatever scene you want. This doesn't seem to have a text feature, so it just seems kind of like a worse objection.lol but with 3D sprites. (Although I'm sure the objection.lol people will find a way to rip the models in like... five minutes of the game's release)

Preorder Information

It seems we overseas people will only have the collection available digitally, but Japan seems to have physical copies along with a lot of preorder bonuses! You can find the official page here.

This includes the following:

Game Software: You can order this standalone, or with the other preorder goods, or seemingly just the goods on their own without the software included.

Original Drama CDs: Two new drama CDs are being developed for this collection! As far as I can tell, one involves the Gavinners attempting a one-night-only revival of the band (which goes poorly...), and the second involves Taka fleeing the courtroom.

Evidence and Items Set: This includes ten pieces of evidence available from the games, along with some original illustrations. As can be seen above, this includes things like the photo of Apollo and Clay from Dual Destinies, six ID photos of major characters, and a signed poster of Klavier.

As well, a new sleeve box drawn by Takuro Fuse, the character designer for 5 and 6.

That should cover everything, but please let me know if I missed any news!

#ace attorney #FUCK TUMBLR SHORTCUTS. YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS ANY EARLIER #news

[chiskz]

[ 💿💽 ] CHICHI 2nd Birthday Album (Physical) "moirai"

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮

♡ teaser/concept photos

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ tracklist

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ meaning

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai (often known in English as the Fates) were the personifications of destiny (via Wikipedia).

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

moirai by CHICHI (Stray Kids)

Studio: JYPE (Seoul), Channie's Room (Seoul)

Length: ~ 33 minutes

Released: 12 January 2024

Language: Korean, English, Japanese

Previous solo album (1st Birthday Album [Digital]): Member Branding

Tracklist:

spotify & youtube links are provided. you can also listen whole album here .

1. TITLE Crazy Fate (feat. Park Junhee of A.C.E.)

2. The Footsteps of My Dear Love

3. LAW (feat. Jurin of XG)

4. Loner

5. Villain

6. Devil by the Window

7. Run Away (feat. Seungmin & I.N)

8. YAMAZAKI (feat. SUGA of BTS)

9. IDOL

10. I Don't Wanna Know

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ trivia

➥ IDOL was presented during a performance with Avantgardey at MAMA 2023

➥ YAMAZAKI was previously released as a single and won "The Best Collaboration Award" at MAMA 2023

➥ Run Away with Seungmin and I.N was originally intended to be released as SKZ-PLAYER - the song was written in Paris during Stray Kids' visit to Music Bank Paris

➥ I Don't Wanna Know was created by HAN with lyrics by CHICHI - it debuted as SKZ-PLAYER

➥ with Crazy Fate and Loner CHICHI becomes:

* the fastest rapping idol considering each generation

* the fastest rapping idol whose first language is not Korean

* the fastest rapping artist in general using Korean

➥ Junhee's part for Crazy Fate was recorded right after he got out of the army (he got out of the army on 6th August 2023, and recording was already done in September 2023)

➥ The Footsteps of My Dear Love was written by CHICHI as early as two years ago - however, she did not feel vocally ready to perform it earlier

➥ critics assess the album as "an emotional rollercoaster leading to the discovery of one's own identity by a person lost in their own self"

➥ with the album's release, Twitter is trending #CHICHIselfmaderapper , a hashtag under which STAY and CHICHI solo stans express their pride and admiration caused by CHICHI becoming the fastest rapping k-pop rapper, when until recently she was not comfortable with the Korean language (because of which she was a victim of derision)

➥ CHICHI describes moirai as the most important musical release of her life

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

♡ quotes from moirai songs describing the whole album

" No matter how pretty the memories are, everyone will forget it. "

" Let's dream a happy dream, just like long ago. "

" It's love and war. "

" I fight with another me, hiding inside of myself. "

" The villain you failed to notice breathes within you. "

" No, I can't tell what is fake in my reality. "

" When the night is nearly ending rewind the clock, rewind now. "

" If you fall back, you're dead. "

" I cannot accept any version of you other than the one stronger than everyone else. "

" Don't stop me now. "

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

coming soon: Crazy Fate M/V & Behind The Scenes

⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅

moirai album cover by my amazing fiancee @moondust-kitten ♡

♡𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @amyysfics , @smh-anon , @neohyxn , @stealanity , @alixnsuperstxr , @juliawritingblog , @rizzshimura , @elizalabs3

╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯

#stray kids 9th member #kpop addition #kpop added member #kpop oc #stray kids oc #idol oc #stray kids female oc #stray kids added member #stray kids addition #idol!addition #idol!oc #fake kpop member #fake kpop idol #fake variety show

[girlbossblackbeard]

if they don't stop releasing those gd "making of" bts videos i will actually start swallowing thumb tacks

but because my brain is bronken i am physically incapable of NOT analyzing every pixel of them so here are the big things I noticed from the most recent one:

-the revenge crew AND spanish jackie and the swede dress up as the english navy for some reason, and you can see some crew members in the back helping izzy to their escape dinghy:

-ed in this GORGEOUS fancy white outfit but also looking like he got stabbed because of the blurry red spot???? but it's okay bc it looks like he cleverly took it on the left:

-speaking of that shot - i think stede is in the very front with his back turned to the audience based off the golden curls at the back of the neck and he's helping who i believe is izzy on the ground (notice the blue morph suit around the foot in the bottom-right). also notice auntie in the background (upper left) also dressed in english navy garb! the dream team of the century is coming together!!

-stede's "OOOOOOHHHH BURN" face when ed tells their kidnapper they've never met bc he "only hangs out with cool pirates"

-STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING STEDE EARRING:

i think the next episodes are going to do permanent brain damage :)

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 speculation #ofmd s2 spoilers #edward teach #stede bonnet

[venusvity]

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫     ( 금성 )     ╱    VENUS is a five-member fictional girl group that debuted on March 17, 2018 and are managed by FLOWERBANK Entertainment. VENUS seemed destined for greatness, originally debuting under Angelico Entertainment in 2018, they hit the scene with the instant classic, SHE DEVIL. She Devil got the girls their first win just THREE DAYS after their debut. The song remains a classic in their discography.

Despite their massive domestic and international success, VENUS has had a bumpy career path. The first snag came in 2020 when former lead singer Nakyung was put on a hiatus that would turn into her being removed from the group. She was replaced by Kim Sena shortly after. This sparked many bullying rumors, branding the group as "mean girls" and "bitches" despite none of the rumors being proven.

In 2022, Baebi AKA Jung Yoonah, the face and leader of the group, would go on a year-long unexplained hiatus. This was unlike Yoonah and turned the general public against their company, Angelico, believing they were lying to them and being dishonest about Yoonah's whereabouts.

In 2023, VENUS' contract was bought from Angelico Entertainment by Flowerbank Entertainment for an undisclosed amount. Yoonah would only reappear once their contract was bought out. Though the girls were much happier under their new company, Yoonah was caught in legal issues with her stage name "Baebi" due to her former agency refusing to release the copyright on the name. Recently, Yoonah took the CEO of Angelico, Son Jinhwa, to court for withholding of assets and aggravated assault. After a nasty court battle, the courts ruled in favor of Yoonah and granted her ownership of Baebi once again.

Despite their bumps, Venus remains on of the top-performing girl groups with every on of their releases. With their experimental concept and unbreakable bond, they solidified themselves as it-girls for generations to come.

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷　 THE MEMBERS PROFILES!

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷　 Jung Yoonah was born on July 16, 1998 in Busan, South Korea to a salesman father and art teacher mother. She is an only child. From the time she could walk, her mother put her in dance classes and Yooanh’s love for dancing came naturally. She particularly grew fond of ballet and contemporary dance, many saying she had the talent to become a professional ballerina.

She was a part of a ‘baby dance trio’ called “troublemakers” and was scouted by SM entertainment in 2011 while busking with her trio. She became a SMROOKIE and was one of the more popular trainees, being on Mickey Mouse Club and often modeled for the company. She was originally a part of the lineup for Red Velvet, but was cut from the lineup. She was promised she would debut in the group in 2015, but was replaced by Kim Yeri.

After that incident, she left the company and was scouted by Angelico Entertainment where she would continue her training. She managed to continue her schooling, training, and ballet classes all at the same time until is was confrimed she would be debuting. With no more time to give, Yoonah dropped out of her ballet classes, saying it was one of the saddest decisions she’s ever had to make. 

She debuted in VENUS as their Leader, Main Dancer, Lead Vocalist, and Center in 2018. She chose to go by the stage name ‘Baebi’ and says an old friend of her’s helped her pick it. Due to her prior exposure and bubbly persona, Yoonah is the MOST POPULAR member of VENUS.

— BASICS

STAGE NAME :: BAEBI

BIRTH NAME :: Jung Yoonah

ENGLISH NAME :: Evie Jung

BIRTHDAY :: July 16, 1998

ZODIAC :: Cancer

BIRTHPLACE :: Busan, South Korea

HOMETOWN :: Yeonje-gu, Busan

ETHNICITY :: Korean

NATIONALITY :: Korean

— CAREER

PROFESSION :: Idol

YEARS TRAINED :: 7 Years

YEARS ACTIVE :: 2018 - Present

LABEL :: Flowerbank Entertainment

GROUP :: VENUS

GROUP POSITION :: Leader, Main Dancer, Lead Vocalist, Center

— PHYSICAL

FACECLAIMS :: Seo Soojin + Jeon Jongseo

HEIGHT :: 160 cm || 5′3

BLOOD TYPE :: B+

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷　Chloe Lee was born on June 17th, 1998 in New York, New York to two Korean lawyers. Her mother is a lawyer and her father owns multiple law firms. Her parents split when she was a year old, her father signing full custody over to her mother. She hasn’t seen her father since. She was adopted by her step-father, Kevin Lee, when she was four years old having her name changed to “Chloe Lee”. Kevin had one child of his own Jacob before he and Chloe’s mother got married. They later had two children together, giving Chloe two half-siblings, Josie and Grayson.

She was street casted by Pledis when she was 15. Her mom thought it was a scam and almost didn’t let her audition, but she was able to audition and made it in without hesitation. 

It didn’t take long for Chloe to realize Pledis wasn’t for her and she left the company to join ANGELICO 3 months later. After joining ANGELICO and training there for a few months, she was then sent to compete on the MNET survival show “Produce 101” where she ranked 1st overall and debuted in the group temporary group i.o.i until their disbandment in 2017.

After the disbandment, she debuted in VENUS as their main vocalist. 

Chloe is one of the more known members of VENUS and has been in the lineup since the group’s conception. She has a bit of a controversial persona, often getting called a bitch and a bully for her interactions with her members and other idols. Despite this, Chloe remains one of the most influential and well known idols in the current day.

— BASICS

STAGE NAME :: CHLOE

BIRTH NAME :: Chloe Lee

KOREAN NAME :: Lee Chohee

BIRTHDAY :: June 17th, 1998

ZODIAC :: Gemini

BIRTHPLACE :: New York, United States

HOMETOWN :: New York, New York

ETHNICITY :: Korean

NATIONALITY :: American

— CAREER

PROFESSION :: Idol

YEARS TRAINED :: 5 Years

YEARS ACTIVE :: 2018 - Present

LABEL :: Flowerbank Entertainment

GROUP :: VENUS

GROUP POSITION :: Main Vocalist, Lead Dancer, Face of the Group

— PHYSICAL

FACECLAIM :: Kim Seojeong

HEIGHT :: 152.4 cm || 5′0

BLOOD TYPE :: O-

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷　Punyawee "Bliss" Thambuacha was born in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand on March 7th 1997. Shortly after her birth, she was given to her aunt to be raised in Bangkok with her cousins as her parents couldn't afford to take care of her. She knows very little about them and has only seen them five times in her entire life. Being thrown into a house with seven other children, Bliss wasn't given a lot of attention and was often left to fend for herself.

Bliss was no better while at school as she'd often get in trouble for talking back to her teachers or refusing to do her work because she didn't feel like it. Though, she was liked by her peers for her headstrong personality. Classmates of Bliss have said she stood up for the kids who were being bullied and would help others with their homework. Her favorite subject in school was reading as she liked to write stories and poems, being praised by her teachers for her talents.

At sixteen, she would be scouted by Angelico at a talent show where she performed one of her many dance routines with her cousin, Angel. She and Angel would be chosen to join the trainee program in Korea but Bliss would be the only one to go as Angel's mother wouldn't allow her to go but helped Bliss pack her bags and sent her on her way. Bliss would go on to become a notable Angelico trainee, starring in a handful of music videos and as a backup dancer for other groups.

She made her official debut in 2018 as their main rapper and lead vocalist.

Bliss is widely regarded as one of the best dancers in KPOP alongside her fellow member Baebi as her technique and freestyles are often a hot topic in the industry, starting many viral dance trends. She is also a highly regarded songwriter, working for groups such as Deepdive, Sunmi, Red Velvet, NOIR, Pushing Daisies, EXO, and many more.

— BASICS

STAGE NAME :: Bliss

BIRTH NAME :: Punyawee "Bliss" Thambuacha

BIRTHDAY :: March 7th 1997

ZODIAC :: Pisces

BIRTHPLACE :: Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

HOMETOWN :: Dusit, Bangkok

ETHNICITY :: Thai

NATIONALITY :: Thai

— CAREER

PROFESSION :: Idol

YEARS TRAINED :: 5 Years

YEARS ACTIVE :: 2018 - Present

LABEL :: ANGELICO ENTERTAINMENT

GROUP :: VENUS

GROUP POSITION :: Main Rapper, Lead Dancer, Lead Vocalist

— PHYSICAL

FACECLAIM :: Lalisa Monoban

HEIGHT :: 175 cm || 5′9

BLOOD TYPE :: B+

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷　Klara Blix was born on November 15, 2001, in Los Angeles, California as the older sister of one sibling.

At the age of 10, Klara and her family permanently relocated to Nanjing, China after her grandmother fell ill and her mother wanted to care for her full-time. The transition wasn’t easy for Klara as she was often the victim of bullying at her new school and struggled to make friends due to her poor Mandarin.

Although her Mandarin was pretty rough, that didn’t stop her from auditioning for "I Am a Singer" at just the age of 12 years old. Though her powerful vocals shocked the judges and crowd, she only made it past the audition phase being deemed “too young and inexperienced” to continue. This however is how she caught the eye of Angelico CEO, Son Jinhwa, who offered her a trainee contract. With Klara being only 12 and not speaking Korean at all, her parents were very hesitant to let her join the company but after much consideration and begging from Klara they let her begin training.

Being one of the youngest trainees at Angelico, Klara gained a lot of attention for his visuals and vocal talent. She also was well-liked for being one of the funnier members. 

In 2016 at age 15, Dulce was sent on the show PRODUCE 101 as one of the Angelico trainees, being the youngest in the batch. This is where she would adopt the stage name "Jiah" as it was given to her by Chloe. Klara ended up ranking 13th in the final episode and not making into I.O.I which she’s later said she’s glad she didn’t as she doesn’t believe she was ready to debut yet.

After a two year lull, Klara finally debuted in VENUS as their main vocalist and maknae in 2018. While she is adored by most fans, she is usually the one antis target or the punching bag of the group. She still remains a bright and positive member who always cheers her members on.

— BASICS

STAGE NAME :: Jiah

BIRTH NAME :: Klara Blix

CHINESE NAME :: Hu YuLing

KOREAN NAME :: Lee Jiah

BIRTHDAY :: November 15, 2001

ZODIAC :: Scorpio

BIRTHPLACE :: Los Angeles, California

HOMETOWN :: Najjing, China

ETHNICITY :: Chinese-Swedish

NATIONALITY :: American-Chinese

— CAREER

PROFESSION :: Idol

YEARS TRAINED :: 5 Years

YEARS ACTIVE :: 2018 - Present

LABEL :: ANGELICO ENTERTAINMENT

GROUP :: VENUS

GROUP POSITION :: Main Vocalist, Lead Rapper, Maknae

— PHYSICAL

FACECLAIM :: Lola Tung

HEIGHT :: 171 cm || 5′7

BLOOD TYPE :: B+

tw // mentions of abuse and murder/death.

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷　Being the second eldest of four children, Harlow Kim was born in the early morning of May 6th, 2001. She’s always had a love for singing and dancing, primarily singing. Her dream has always been to be an idol, falling in love with Girls Generation and Sistar at a young age and wanting to be just like them. 

Her home life wasn’t the best growing up, plagued by an abusive father who frequently popped in and out of her life. She doesn’t speak much about her family or the trauma she endured at the hands of her father.

While in Las Vegas, she underwent vocal training in opera as her mother was a classically trained opera singer. She proved herself to be a phenomenal singer, earning a lot of praise from her teachers and peers.

At fifteen, she was scouted by Angelico Entertainment during an online audition. She immediately left Las Vegas and her family behind, excited to start a new chapter for herself. Her excitement was cut short when she got the news her father had been arrested for murdering her mother during a fight.

After attending her mother’s funeral, Harlow flew back to Korea and continued to train. She doesn’t talk about her mother, father, or family at all for that matter, keeping it all to herself.

In 2018, she was apart of the group of Angelico trainees that participated on PRODUCE 48. While she didn’t make it into the final line up, she did end up ranking 17th overall, gaining her a small amount of success and fans that waited patiently for her debut.

After the departure of former member Nakyung, Harlow was chosen out of seven possible trainees to fill the slot, debuting in VENUS in 2020 under the stage name, Sena.

— BASICS

STAGE NAME :: SENA

BIRTH NAME :: Harlow Kim

BIRTHDAY :: May 6, 2001

ZODIAC :: Taurus

BIRTHPLACE :: Las Vegas, Nevada

HOMETOWN :: Las Vegas, Nevada

ETHNICITY :: Korean-Japanese

NATIONALITY :: American

— CAREER

PROFESSION :: Idol

YEARS TRAINED :: 5 Years

YEARS ACTIVE :: 2022 - Present

LABEL :: ANGELICO ENTERTAINMENT

GROUP :: VENUS

GROUP POSITION :: Main Vocalist, Lead Rapper, Maknae

— PHYSICAL

FACECLAIM :: Aeri Uchinaga

HEIGHT :: 171 cm || 5′7

BLOOD TYPE :: B

The template I used for the girls profiles was made by the lovely Bee ( @1dyll )! I’ve linked their blog + ko-fi in the source so you can check out all their amazing work! 💗

#╰ * VENUS : profile ⧽ burn it to the ground . #ficnetfairy #idol oc #fictional idol community #kpop oc #oc kpop group #kpop au #idol au #kpop addition #bts addition #fictional idol group #kpop fanfic #fake kpop oc #idolverse #oc girl group #fake kpop girl group #fake kpop idol #stray kids addition

[project-sekai-facts]

Hi! Welcome to Project SEKAI facts!

This account posts daily facts and trivia about Project SEKAI! I occasionally do longer analysis/content overview posts as well as some event speculation.

This account is currently operated by one mod and is scheduled to post daily at 4pm UTC. Bonus facts may be posted if I find something interesting in newly released content.

Please ask before reposting my stuff.

Hope you enjoy your visit!

↓ Submissions & Asks info + more below cut ↓

Submissions are welcome!

Rules:

Must be canon or otherwise official - Content from any server of the game (including cards, stories and songs etc), music videos, Petit SEKAI, official artwork or 4komas is OK! I will also accept content from the anthology mangas and magazine articles. In other words everything is fine except fandom stuff/unofficial fanworks.

If the fact is related to Vocaloid/Virtual Singers, it must be relevant to Project SEKAI in some way.

No leaks - Leaked content is usally low quality and I will not be able to post the fact until the content has been released officially, so I'd rather you didn't submit it at all.

Please submit a source for your fact - a screenshot, image, video or link is OK! If you don't have any then that's fine, but please at least tell me what story/card/etc is the source so I can get the screenshot/image myself.

If the source is not available on the EN or JP server, or is not available online, please attach an image/video! - I only play on the EN and JP servers, and will only be able to get screenshots and recordings of content available on those servers. If your fact relates to content exclusive to any other server or is from a physically published source and you do not provide an image/video, I will not accept the submission.

Asks are also open if you have any questions about a fact or if you have any general questions for me. Due to the incredibly overwhelming amount of asks I get nowadays, it is impossible for me to answer everything. Sincerest apologies for that. I still try to answer as many as possible but it could take a while for your ask to get a response. Also please do not ask me about shipping.

Tagging

Characters are tagged Firstname Lastname (excluding Vocaloids). For example, facts about Ichika will be tagged as Ichika Hoshino.

Events will be tagged using the translations from the Project SEKAI wiki, rather than the official English names. This is just for consistency so I don't have to go back and redo tags whenever EN changes a title.

The media will also be tagged (e.g: Hatsune Miku: COLORFUL STAGE or Petit SEKAI)

Full tag list linked in description

Send me an ask/comment if you need anything trigger tagged. Triggers will be tagged "trigger tw". Flashing lights is the only thing I actively tag atm.

Repost policy

I literally just post trivia I’m not gatekeeping that from you

I do ask though that you don’t copypaste my posts. Mainly because it undoes fomatting and removes any sources I linked in most cases, but also in the same way teachers say it just write in your own words rather than copying mine

Don’t repost my essays at all but that should be a given

Sharing a link the original tumblr post is always fine

About mod

This is a sideblog. Thanks to recent tumblr updates I can now respond to replies directly

EN player since launch, got the game for the Sonic costume, stayed for potato ni natte iku

i'm a VBS main. no i will still not tell you who my oshis are or my opinions on ships. i like the vbs side characters and asahi and sakurako. i will tell you that much because i doubt how much people care about them.

I wrote the TVTropes entry in the header before the one other person who uses that site accuses me of stealing it

Feel free to send asks about my opinions on the game idm talking

I have most notifications for this blog turned off so if I ever miss something I apologise

^ best ask i've ever gotten now framed in my pinned post

#21 people asked for this. and I shall deliver #I will add a blog theme eventually. eventually #not gonna bother with a DNI just know if I see any dodgy people it's on sight #project sekai #mod talks #well the blog's been up for several months now and the eventually finally happened. blog theme acquired.

[animehouse-moe]

Yoshitoshi Abe Lain Illustrations - ab# Rebuild An Omnipresence In The Wired

So, for the uninitiated, this is essentially the Serial Experiments Lain art book. Of course, there's more to it as it's also Yoshitoshi Abe's art book, but there's details of the world and concept of Lain, and even stuff in regards to the JP only PlayStation game for the series.

Anyways, what I'm incredibly excited over is the fact that this is not only the limited edition hardcover version, but that it's also the English version. Yeah, this got printed in English once upon a time. I'll explain the history at the end, first some examples of the contents (which are incredibly cool).

The front/initial pages of the artbook have these really cool translucent pages featuring Lain on them that mesh with a background page behind it and create a really interesting effect when you first open up the book.

Equally as interesting is that the majority of the color illustrations in the book have their black and white sketches/drafts alongside them. It really gives you an idea of the level of detail and quality of the illustrations throughout.

And of course, it's not just pure illustrations that are in this book, there's more. There's an entire full color comic/short manga in here as well, and is fully translated of course in the English version.

It's not anything that's really out of this world, but it's very interesting and super cool to have in English.

There's really a lot of dialogue/commentary in this art book that makes having the English version that much cooler really. There's an entire page covering technology like the Psyche chip and there's even a short essay/prose towards the middle of the book too.

And of course, to polish it off there's a lot of interesting concept art pieces too. It's really great seeing the how broad the look is into Abe's style and Serial Experiments Lain in general.

Now of course, the backstory. English manga publishing has some very dark days at the start of the 21st century. The amount of independent and small scale publishers was massive, and a great many went out of business before they could be picked up by a larger company. This results in a massive amount of lost manga and other content floating in the abyss that is the industry's early days. Alongside this, in a booming digital market many publishers are hidden in the cracks of the larger companies. Digital Manga represents a very odd middle ground between these two.

Digital Manga used to print books, such as this art book they published in 2006. However, since 2011 they have had to resort to Kickstarter campaigns to publish any physical media, and their most recent campaign seems to have been in 2015. Since then, Digital Manga has coalesced and assimilated with several other online and physical publishers to produce some rather obscure lines of physical and digital media. It's quite an odd story to try and explain because of how many pieces there are to it, but essentially in one way or another, Digital Manga has survived while shedding the vast majority of what it once published, leading to books like this one to be incredibly rare. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found it for under 100CAD, when even the JP versions are selling for closer to 300.

Also, a quick aside. This art book is technically a remaster/re-release of the original Serial Experiments Lain art book. The first, simply titled Serial Experiments Lain - An Omnipresence in the Wired, was release in 1999, while this art book was released in 2005 in Japan and 06 in North America. However, these two books are not the exact same. The layouts of pages are different for one, such as the difference between the two below. And even then, the content of the pages themselves can differ and change between the two. There are pages and illustrations that don't exist in the original that do in the remaster, and vice versa. So diehard fans (like myself) may want to pursue the original as well.

(Left is remaster, Right is original)

So yes, this English hardcover version is painfully uncommon on the internet, let alone at reasonable prices, so I'm incredibly happy to own it. The detail and information in the book is so awe inspiring, and actually owning it seems like a dream still because of how expensive Lain stuff is on the internet.

#serial experiments lain #yoshitoshi abe #lain art #omnipresence in wired #anime #anime and manga #anime art #anime art book #yoshitoshi abe art

[naonoholics]

Project suggestions OPEN!!

Hello (^∇^)

I'm back again with another project suggestion post! We found out about some really good manga to pickup last time so we want to hear from you again. Plus we had to remove 3 future projects since they got licensed so we're looking for a few new projects to work on since right now only 1 is really on the list.

Please link to the mangaupdates page for the manga you’re suggesting!!

Only comments left on this post will be looked at. Please don’t direct message me suggestions or send ask (that includes anon ask as well). I want to be able to keep track of all the suggestions and I don’t want to get flooded with messages.

If you have the raws (physical or digital) for the manga you’re suggesting let me know since that will factor into the picks! Plus it will give us a chance to look at the story to see if it seems interesting.

Just a few rules before suggesting a project:

Limit of 5 suggestions please. (Really think about what stories you’ve been wanting to read but haven’t been picked up) You don’t have to post them all at once so take your time since this post will remain up for a while.

No ongoing magazine stories. I have no way of getting magazines scans reliably and don’t want to depend on someone else to provide them so only stories with an actually book release. The story itself can be ongoing but if the only way to read it is currently through a magazine then please don't suggest it.

Don’t suggest projects from active groups or something they have on their future list.

The translator that thankfully joined us recently is more into the softer side of the BL spectrum atm more than the 18+ side so stories that fit that criteria will catch her eye more. She doesn't mind 18+ stories just very certain squicks she's not into.

I love age gap stories with the older person being uke so if it catches my eye I would be willing to pay for the translation like I have with our other projects.

No projects licensed for English release.

Feel free to suggest whatever you want! I’m totally out of the loop when it comes to BL releases so go wild and let me see what you’re interested in.

[c-rowlesdraws]

this is supposed to be my art-exclusive blog, BUT looked up this video to link to a friend and wound up watching half of it again because it’s so fascinating, and felt like I needed to share it. It’s a documentary about Kowloon Walled City produced by Austrian journalist and writer Hugo Portisch, filmed in the city itself in the summer of 1987 and released in 1989, four years before demolition of the city began. Today, the 6.4 acre area that once held a 14-story labyrinth of approximately 50,000 people is a public park.

the documentary is in German, with subtitles in English added by the uploader. The filmmakers’ perspective is frank in laying out the harshness of life in the city, and aims to be honest-- although the only direct interview is with a British missionary, the only white person in the whole film, and the narration makes blanket statements about broken families and an “every man for himself” attitude that contradict former residents’ own descriptions of an intensely close-knit community and households where several generations lived together, despite the tiny size of the city’s apartments. Despite these criticisms I’d make, the tone of the documentary is clearly sympathetic towards its subjects from beginning to end, and it’s a fascinating and emotional glimpse into a vanished world.

if you’ve heard about Kowloon Walled City and want to learn more, watch this thing! If you’re like me and you’ve been lowkey obsessed for years, also watch this thing! If you didn’t know about the city at all before now, you’re welcome, and watch this thing!

the uploader’s video description, which I’ve pasted below, contains additional information about the making of the documentary that adds more depth and context:

Credits go to cameraman Hamdani Milas. Christina Wesemann for creation and direction of the film and also to Hugo Portisch for production. 

 Milas was one of the people that helped filmed this 1989 documentary about the city.  I spoke with him recently and he said that he is interested in a follow up video of some sort so we may expect something new on the way. 

 He mentioned how it was an incredibly tough shoot. They were a five person crew; himself as cinematographer, a camera assistant, focus-puller, sound recordist, a researcher, production assistant and the director, and a very nice Austrian lady who was most willing to collaborate and listen to crew suggestions. 

 They shot for 6 days continuously, 10-12 hours a day, at the height of the summer of 1987. He mentioned how it smelled very bad inside from the open drainage, the heat was stifling at plus 32ºC with little to no air circulation, also not knowing whether it was sewage or clean water dripping on their heads occasionally,  they regularly had to wipe the camera and lens dry. 

 The claustrophobia- you could hardly turn around in some places with a 7kg Betacam SP camcorder on your shoulder.  They had a tripod with them but hardly used it inside because there was nowhere to position it without blocking the narrow passageways. 

 They also frequently got lost and had to ask the locals for directions. Lunch was much-anticipated each day when they could take a break outside in the fresh air. After a day’s shoot they were absolutely dripping with sweat and the first thing they’d do after getting home was to put all their clothes straight in the wash and have a long shower. Working in those conditions was an immense challenge technically and physically but, as is often the case, none of that shows in the resulting footage. 

 Here we have a very interesting first hand account of what Hamdani Milas experienced in the walled city itself when he was filming this video. So by what he’s told me we can understand just how much of an incredible risk it was to film inside this city, even though it was near to when the city was demolished and the place was seen as safer it was still a high risk no go area. 

 I took it upon myself to re-sub the video as best as possible, the 4 part version is hard-subbed on a version of this film with very poor quality, the subs are also worded incorrectly in some places. So all I've done is re-subbed the whole thing and put it onto a better quality video clip. 

 Note: about the section of this video where Jackie Pullinger is speaking, I’m sure anyone can see the subtitles are a transcript of Jackie Pullingers actual words in English and not the narrators. I’ve noticed a comment mentioning how the subs are way off in that part. While subbing this video I realised the narrator wasn’t giving an exact translation so took it upon myself to decipher what she was actually saying over his voice. Sorry I just couldn’t help it but it was out of boredom 😉

#kowloon walled city #kowloon #hong kong #architecture #1980s

[chryso0]

Hello! I have been reading finder for quite a bit but never really got to know how to see if there is a new chapter coming soon or when. I saw in your previous posts that you mentioned how you can see like new cover and some images of the chapters coming soon. I was wondering if the writer has social media where there are updates of their work?

Hiya! I’ll tell you want i know, sorry if some of this is not relevant to your question but i just wanted to put out there what i know for others who may not know everything.

For starters- yes the author does has a social media account. She makes announcements on her twitter and post pictures of her cats among other things. Her username is @yamaneayano her twitter is obviously in japanese so you will have to relay on twitters tranlsations to get by. the publishing company also has it’s own twitter account and they post promotional stuff, and other annoucnement - username is @bboy_editor

Finder comes out bi-monthly. So every other month, published physically in a magazine called Be Boy Gold Magazine. It can also be bough digitally but the release on that is much slower, because they prefer you buy it in Print! So yes we have to wait two months for a single episode to come out 🥲

There will be times they announce that sensei is not in the upcoming volume because she is taking a break or something like that which happens every so often - which is why sometimes chapters come out rather sporadically - and you have to wait four months for update, or worse 6 months! She also will sometimes pause the main storyline and write an extra- so you do get a chapter but its not relevant to the main storyline and you have to wait another two months for her to return back to the main storyline. This information sometimes she shares on twitter. But also Be Boy’s gold magazine releases a schedule for upcoming releases, where they post which authors are set for the next edition. So basically sometimes we dont know if she’s taking a break until that schedule is released.

She usually takes breaks when she is working on releasing her own book volume. As she also publishes a collection chapters to make a volume, which then get translated into english like a year later…sublime is the publisher for her english volumes and you can buy them on amazon or directly on their website digitally versions and print versions are available.

Be Boy Magazine can also be purchased, through various Japanese proxy sites and delivered to your house. Though it takes like a week for it to be delivered after it’s release, and of course you pay a lot for shipping it to the US. Keep in mind, this magazine is not released in english.

Raws get posted in various places, instragram, facebook, weibo— Personally i get a lot of my information from two discords that I have been apart of for several years. if anyone is interested in joining you can DM me and i’ll send you an invite! They post raws and spoilers, and obviously we discuss finder related news, one of these servers makes their own fan made translation of the raws and allows members to read the newest upto date chapters.

There is a creator on weibo who gets the magazine on the day of release, and post pictures of raws and gives a summary of the new chapter. If your interested in seeing those u can DM me and ill send you the link to her page - all i ask is that you dont post her raws on tumblr or any other site.

I’ll make it clear that I DO NOT post other creators raws nor fan made translations on tumblr. I just don’t feel comfortable with that. Though i will post a select few of my favorite panels - with permission. I have also been getting my own raws recently, so i’ll post bits and piece as i see fit, but I will probably never post whole chapters.

There are a lot of other places that share the raws- Facebook page, “A seme’s heart” is a great place to look and they also post their own app translated version of the chapter. and i’ve heard of various other instragram accounts that post raws as well.

Sites like Bato and Mangago also post free to read chapters on their sites- though they are usually very slow at updating and posting. But I believe they are upto date - but they probably wont have the newest chapter that just came out last night for a couple more weeks.

hope that answered some of your questions ☺️

#finder no hyouteki

[crehador]

hi! sorry to bother but i had a question about the hypmic lives? i recently got back into the fandom after several years and i wanted to know if there was a general set amount of time we have to wait before the dvds for the lives are for sale? and if its possible to buy any of the previous ones?

hii first of all welcome back to the pit fandom!

you are in the right place with this question bc i definitely know a thing or two about this <- guy who owns multiple copies of every live lol (except the solo lives bc oh god that was expensive)

this'll get long so answer goes under the cut

to start: i am a strong supporter of pirating media you cannot feasibly access otherwise, so don't hesitate to do that. i can't tell you where to actually find the lives online bc i personally do enjoy collecting the physical copies of the lives and throwing my money at the franchise, so i have no idea. but i'm sure they're all out there somewhere if you want to look!

if you are interested in buying them, they'll usually be out within a year of the actual lives taking place. 9th live just released a few weeks back, and 9th live took place nearly a year before that, so sometimes it can be a pretty long wait

10th live may be a somewhat special case because it's the first time we've had multi-angle cameras for the livestream, and i don't know how or if they'll include those on the dvds? i've heard each day is like a 3hr live as well so i'm sure it'll be a big (and pricey) thing even if they don't do anything with the multi-angle camera stuff

in short: i would expect 10th live dvds to be out in about a year, and i would personally guess that they'll cost in the neighborhood of 20k yen at least

(zero out was 16,830 yen on amiami, same price for dvd and bluray, and it seems to me like 10th live is an even bigger live... so i'm expecting it to be more expensive)

if you want to watch 10th live through an official avenue and don't want to wait, it is currently still available for streaming on abema. you can pay for the stream and watch it as many times as you want until the 14th (so there's only a few days left of that) but you'll need a vpn for it to be available in your area (unless you happen to live in japan)

as for the previous lives!

9th live is actually still available on amiami, where i usually get my lives. neither the bluray nor dvd is sold out yet, so you can pick it up that way (but again they are 16,830 yen each)

for older lives, you can generally find them on proxy sites (again, that's only assuming you don't live in japan)

personally i use fromjapan as my proxy. i don't think it's necessarily better than other proxies out there, but it's the one officially affiliated with hypster, which is what i'm mostly buying from lol, so it was just more convenient for me to set up an account there

you can typically find listings for the older lives for quite cheap, sometimes you can even find big lots containing all or most of the lives (usually some cds as well) for a really good price

they also sometimes pop up on mandarake, but won't necessarily be cheapest there

although the prices can be really low (like less than 2k for some lives; for example i just did a quick search and see a copy of six shots for literally only 1,150 yen) keep in mind that there will be shipping! so factor that into your budget as well

one tip on searching, do your searches in japanese (for example search for "ヒプノシスマイク" instead of "hypnosis mic") because sometimes a lot of things don't show up when you search in english. that's the case on fromjapan at least, not sure about other proxies

another tip is do not buy from sites like otaku republic... or whatever it's called, i don't really remember. basically even with expensive overseas shipping, proxies are still so much cheaper, in my experience, than these other sites that mark up prices to absurd rates. like i'll see these english sites selling a doujin for 10,000 yen that you could get for literally 500 yen elsewhere, it's absurd

but ahem yeah tl;dr

10th live dvds should be out in about a year

10th live stream can still be purchased on abema for viewing until the 14th

9th live still available on amiami (possibly elsewhere as well)

older lives best bought through a proxy (fromjapan or whichever you prefer)

keep international shipping in mind if you do not live in japan!

1st live does not exist btw*

2nd and 3rd live are bundled together on one dvd

*like there is no published dvd of it, some footage has been released as part of anniversary celebrations though i'm not sure if that's still available... i'm sure it's somewhere!

#asks #this is a VERY LONG RAMBLE but i hope there is some helpful info in there #feel free to skip to the very bottom for a bullet-point tl;dr

[the---hermit]

end of the year book tag 2023

I did this tag last year more or less at this time. This book tag was created by Ariel Bissett over on youtube, and I recently heard her talking about it again in her podcast, which is how I got the inspiration of doing it again this year. As I think I have also mentioned last year when doing this, I tend to be a mood reader so planning my next reads never really works, but it's fun to sit down and reflect a bit on what is coming next into my reading life before the year is over.

Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

As I am writing this I have three main books I am in the middle of: Hell Followed With us by Andrew Joseph White, Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson and Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker. I have technically also started reading Walden by Thoreau a while back, but I don't have a plan to finish it quickly, it's more one of those books I read a little bit every once in a while when I feel like it, because I want to grasp as much as I can and while I am also taking classes and studying for exams I always struggle a bit with enjoying non-fic on my own.

Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?

I am once again doing this tag in the middle of autumn, so idk how much it counts, but I don't think I have a proper autumnal book on my tbr/wishlist. I am still waiting to get the sixth volume of Something Is Killing The Children, which is an horror graphic novel so that might count as a spooky season book. But I don't really wait spooky season to read horror books.

Is there a new release you're still waiting for?

As I mentioned the sixth volume of Something Is Killing The Children has very recently came out here in Italy and I am desperately waiting to find a copy of it. I am also waiting to get Bookstores And Bonedust by Travis Baldree which is coming out at the beginning of November. There are a couple of other 2023 releases I still haven't got my hands on but I don't know yet if I'll get them before the year ends (mainly He Who Drowned The World by Shelly Parker Chan, and The Land Of Lost Things by John Connolly). I am also waiting for the release of the final book in the locked tomb series but I don't think a release date has been set yet? (and regarding that I have yet to decide what I want to do because I would like to get physical copies of the English editions, but it will be a future me problem to solve).

What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

One of my goals for 2023 is the read all the books I have bought this year, or at least as many as I can. I must say I have been very good with this goal, but I do have a couple of books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while. I don't know if I'll get into the right mood to read them before the year ends but I will add a couple of those to this list. The first one is Nel Buio Della Casa by Fiore Manni and Michele Monteleone. It's an horror novel of the hauted house genre which is one of my favourites but for some reason I haven't picked it up yet. Next is a book I cannot wait to pick up The Ballad Of The Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde, I love this author and after reading De Profundis earlier this year I have been really intrigued by this poem. Finally I bought a prose edition of The Odyssey and I might end up picking it up before the year ends.

Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year?

Not really? I expect to love a lot of the books I'd like to read before the end of the year but there's a couple of books I read this year that I doubt can be topped (Gideon The Ninth being at the top of that list alongside The Priory Of The Orange Tree).

Have you already started making reading plans for next year?

I actually have, weirdly enough. I was thinking about goals for next year and I think I will definitely keep the goal of trying to read all/ most of the books I buy during the year. I certainly need to find a way to read more of the books that have been on my shelves for years, so I will have to think of a more structured plan to reach that goal. I am also considering to create a goal to finally complete my Neil Gaiman collection since this year I have read all of the books by him I own. That could be a fun goal I think. Lastly I'd like to try and get as many books as I can second hand. It's not really super easy for me to do, because where I live there are no second hand book stores, and generally what I look for is quite difficult to find in regular shops, but there's a few exceptions, like classics for example are easier to thrift. Again these are more brain dump thoughts than an actual plan, but it's more than what I had last year at this time.

(no pressure) tags: @just-a-cup-of-anxietea, @fluencylevelfrench, @dreamofghosts, @upside-down-uni, @la-galaxie-langblr

#end of the year book tag #tag #book tag #bookblr #booklr #studyblr

[sofarsofastmp3]

15 people, 15 questions!

thanks for the tag @couthbbg i can’t think of the last time i did one of these it was super fun :)

1. are you named after anyone?

no! i’m actually the only one of my siblings who doesn’t have a family connected first/middle name. and i do NOT have a complex about that

2. when was the last time you cried?

i get misty eyed once every 5-7 business hours as is my nature as a pisces, but i last properly cried on new year’s eve. it’s tradition!

3. do you have kids?

nope!

4. what sports do you play/have you played?

i played soccer for like three years as a kid and hated! it! like “cried putting my cleats on” hated soccer. but i played softball up until my freshman year of high school. i’ve been wanting to get back into hitting recently? i found a batting cage near me i just gotta go. i dabble in tennis casually but i’m not good at ALL i have a fifteen dollar racket and a dream

5. do you use sarcasm?

more than i’d like to. had a very sarcastic upbringing but it doesn’t sound good on me (inherently earnest and lame)

6. what’s the first thing you notice about people?

hair i think? especially “post” covid, it’s got to either be hair or eyes. even when someone isn’t wearing a mask it’s what i see first

7. what’s your eye color

brown, babeyy

8. scary movies or happy endings?

i like both! across all art, the two genres i consume most are weird/gory and Romantic Comedy. to have a real answer, i’ll say happy endings only because scary movies are my least favorite type of scary media. i am VERY easily startled so i’ve always hated jump scares and was actually really horror averse until college because of it

9. any talents?

i think i USED to be a solid writer, but in the last three years i’ve gotten really out of practice. i miss it. i’m really good and fast at shuffling cards! which is a fun random one. i’m also really good at guess that song? if you’re in a do or die “guess this song in ten seconds” situation i am your girl

10. where were you born?

south florida!

11. what are your hobbies?

i read a lot. i go through phases where i play a lot of solitaire. like with a physical deck of cards. lovee a puzzle! i want to try needlepoint!

12. do you have any pets?

“my dog” is technically my sisters dog but we’ve lived together for like 6 of his 9 years on this earth and i’ve cleaned poop crusties off him when he was sick. so i feel like he’s mine too. his name is kona, which people always mishear as coda (of brother bear fame) which i actually think is a better name

13. how tall are you?

much like your average nhler, i claim to be slightly taller than i am. i’m 5’6 but usually try to say i’m close to 5’7 because i’m one of the shortest people in my family. my twelve year old cousin just passed me. it’s so rough out here.

14. favorite subject in school?

english and latin! i’ve actually been wanting to get back into latin as a hobby which is maybe the most insufferable thing i could add to my list of already insufferable traits. but i miss it

15. dream job?

i want my own bookstore so bad it makes me look stupid. a store opened up like a half hour from me that’s kind of my ideal. new/used books/music AND they’ve got a cafe! i haven’t been yet but really want to go. i’m on a hard book buying ban until june with 3 pre-determined exceptions, one of those being my birthday in march (the other two being the pub dates for my most anticipated releases), so i think i may check it out as a treat to myself then!!

i think the bulk of people have done this, but if you haven’t i would love to hear what you have to say!!! :)

#love a venue to ramble! #about me

[frogphoria]

kind of worried about how some big publishers have started to be more and more ok with releasing big AAA games as digital only. I know sometimes its possible to import an English version of the game with stores like PlayAsia (I did this with LaD Gaiden recently!) but man..Alan Wake 2 having absolutely no physical release at all has got me going back and forth on actually wanting to play the Alan Wake games at all. I like having plastic boxes and my console games on disc! Its so much more convenient for me with my bad rural area dl speeds to have the game copied off the disc and just have to download an update file or two rather than having to download 100gb overnight only to then delete it later for space :/

#terri being normal #really hoping remedy change their mind and do a physical release with how the sales seem pretty low for how well regarded it is so far

[lildoodlecat]

My collection of physical tales games is soon to be complete... at least of the ones released in English ✨✨

You may recall recently when I bought Destiny. And lamented over my wallet. Soon after that I bought Eternia ("Tales of Destiny 2 eng release. It's just Eternia. We all know this.) but of course I couldn't splurge on the original cases and manuals (I'll irresponsibly spend a lot but $300+ for Eternia was uhh (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠) ) so I got just the discs (still expensive) (rip my wallet again) then bought some reproduction cases on etsy which look perfect

[embark on a heroic journey, go on an epic journey, etc. that about sums up every tales game I think sjxk]

Then!!! Today!!!!!! I decided to drop my most recent paycheck in the shredder and snagged Legendia, Vesperia for ps4 (yes I already started it on steam ;w;) and Hearts R ✨✨✨

Did I also purchase a ps vita to play hearts r MAYBE— but I'm gonna mod it to play a fan tl of innocence r too. And other vita games ig. so it's fine

Anyway I'm very excited!!!!! Heheheheh

#god this means that ill personally own 5 consoles #what the fuck #jay yells

[mariacallous]

As the war drags on, Russian soldiers are continuing to abduct and torture civilians in Ukraine’s occupied territories. One of these civilians is Leonid Popov, a 22-year-old Melitopol resident diagnosed with schizophrenia. On April 24, 2023, after being detained and tortured by occupation authorities multiple times, Leonid disappeared from his home. After three months of imprisonment and abuse, he was transferred to a hospital ward, where he was treated for emaciation. Then, on August 2, Russian forces told Leonid’s dad that he was being released — but hours later, soldiers abducted him again. Leonid’s mom recently told her son’s story to journalists from the independent outlet iStories. Meduza is sharing an abridged, English-language adaptation of her account.

Occupation

Me and Lenya, my older son, moved to the Poltava region a few years ago, while my sons’ father — my ex-husband — stayed in Melitopol. Two months before the war started, Lenya went to stay with him in Melitopol.

Then, two weeks before the war began, my ex-husband got into a car accident. He was hospitalized for multiple fractures and memory loss. My younger son, who’s one year younger than Leonid, also went to see him. Soon after that, fighting broke out and Melitopol was occupied. My children found themselves under a blockade.

I wasn’t worried about my younger son; he’s more like an older sibling. He was with his father, helping him, driving him to get his bandages changed.

But our Lenya is a Rain Man. Growing up, he was always different. A wunderkind, a musician. He played in the orchestra, did ballroom dancing, and played chess, traveling all across Ukraine for competitions and winning first place. He competed in chemistry, physics, and astronomy competitions, and outside of school, he studied at the Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He was a walking calculator — you could give him any difficult multiplication or division problem and he’d quickly give the answer.

But he doesn’t understand people’s emotions. He was always asking, “Mom, what does it mean when you look at me like that?” When his symptoms flared up, he might jump, leap, laugh. Small children really love him. But he can also be very serious, like a sage. He’s very kind and always ready to help everyone. But he’s also very naive and succumbs to pressure — it’s easy to exploit him.

I begged him to leave Melitopol from the beginning. There were evacuation routes. But he said, “I’m needed here. I have to help people. There are grandmothers who are hungry, and I give them bread, I give them porridge.”

The first abductions

In May 2022, Ukrainian mobile networks were disconnected in Melitopol. My younger son left to look for phone service during curfew and ended up in a military office. He told me that everyone who had tried to get service, around 30 people, had been thrown into a crowded cell. There was a single bucket for all of them to use as a toilet.

There was one person in the cell who seemed drunk. He was screaming incessantly. The soldiers said, “Cover his mouth, or we’ll shoot you like kittens.” Then the terrified crowd started to beat the person. Whenever he started yelling, they would choke him to make him stop. Eventually, he died.

That was on May 21. On May 28, Lenya, my oldest son, went to buy shawarma, and there were a lot of young people standing in the same area. Soldiers came up to them, threw them all [into a car,] and drove them to a military office. There, they tortured Lenya with electric shocks. Afterwards, they let him go, but took his passport.

After that, Anna’s younger son decided to leave Melitopol. During the “filtration” process in Chonhar, Russian soldiers beat him and threatened to drive him out to the steppe and shoot him. He ultimately managed to get out and is now in Europe.

Leonid disappears

In the spring of 2023, I saw an announcement that there would be free evacuations from Melitopol with help from Western volunteers. Lenya didn’t have a passport [because the occupation authorities had confiscated it]. By then, they had already started issuing Russian passports, and I told him to get a Russian passport. But he refused; after the electric shock torture, he had made up his mind never to get a Russian passport.

Still, I prepared all of his documents and arranged for him to be taken to safety in Poland, where I would pick him up, and at that point, he agreed to leave.

The volunteers were supposed to pick him up on April 26. On April 24, his father called him, asking him to come see him. Lenya said that he was on Pushkin Street, five minutes away by foot. 15 minutes passed, then 20. My ex-husband tried calling Lenya again, but he could no longer reach him.

I asked my ex-husband to drive [to the house where Leonid had been living during the occupation]; maybe he was asleep or sick. My ex-husband broke down the door, but my son wasn’t there.

The search for Leonid

My ex-husband and his partner went to the police and the military commandant’s office. They officials there said they hadn’t detained anyone for about two months. (As it turned out, this wasn’t true; they had detained many people.) The police wouldn’t take a statement. They said, “Don’t worry, he might have been detained by soldiers — we don’t have any authority over them. They’ll just look through his phone. If there’s nothing bad there, they’ll let him go.”

I started to worry that Lenya’s disorder would worsen because of his abduction. This had happened before: in 2017, he became unrecognizable. A psychiatrist in Zaporizhzhia said that he needed to be hospitalized. He was diagnosed with “undifferentiated schizophrenia.” He spent three months in a hospital, where he was treated with antipsychotics. When I picked him up, I had to re-teach him how to brush his teeth and hold a spoon.

Later, another psychiatrist confirmed that he does have an illness but said he hadn’t received the right treatment and that his hospitalization had been unnecessary. She prescribed a new course of antipsychotics, and after that, Lenya went into a long remission.

When he disappeared, I went insane: Is he even alive? What’s happening? I was scared that the stress would cause him to lose his memory and his sense of reality again. The doctor had warned me that regression was possible and that he could regress to the level of a 10-year-old child.

I put the information on social media and wherever else I could. Ukrainian journalists contacted me; I did an interview and a story came out. But I hid the fact that Lenya had a mental illness. I thought I would lose his trust completely if he found out his mom spoke like that about him to the whole country.

I don’t know whether Russian forces saw these stories or if it was a coincidence, but after the story came out, someone called Lenya’s dad. He introduced himself as a military policeman and offered to meet. He said he was participating in the search for Leonid and asked a bunch of questions about me and his father.

The man put my ex-husband in touch with another police officer, a soldier who introduced himself as Lev. “Don’t worry,” he said when I called him, “We’ll search for him. We’ll let you know as soon as we find him. You need to be calm, your child is fine.” I trusted him. He also said I should stop talking about the abduction publicly so that Lenya would be released sooner.

“Mom, I miss you’

In June, Lenya’s father received a call from someone who said that he was being held in a military office basement with our son. The guy said our son was in critical condition: unable to stand up, exhausted, and constantly whispering, “I want to eat.” He said they were only given water every two or three days. When they were given food, which didn’t happen every day, it was only in very small amounts. He also said they were beaten. If Lenya wasn’t taken out of there, the guy said, he would die.

The men were being held in a military office in an old traffic inspection building. Lenya’s father went there, and a guard came up to him and said no one was being held there. They told everyone that no one’s in there — but in reality they’re holding a lot of people. (Editor’s note: iStories has confirmed that multiple prisoners were held in the building in question.)

I immediately wrote to the soldier, Lev: “Help! My son’s illness is worsening, he can’t starve.” Lev wrote back that Lenya was fine, he was smiling, and he was even making jokes. He offered to pass along a package once a week. Lenya’s father agreed right away. The soldier helped us organize a phone call, and Lenya had a supervised conversation with his dad.

Lev said that Lenya was allegedly being held for taking photos of military equipment.

He sent me a photo of Lenya and a voice message: “Mom, I miss you, I heard your message and started crying. Look, I have emotions now.” He’d had problems with emotions. As soon as I saw my son’s photo and heard his voice, I was eager to go. But the soldier told me, “It’s not worth it. They won’t let him go. You won’t see him, so there’s no point.”

‘They beat me so hard that I couldn’t use the bathroom for four days’

On July 24, Leonid’s father called me and said “Lenya is now going to talk to you.” I was unbelievably happy. But his voice was so weak. He said, “Mom, I’m in the hospital.” And the connection dropped.

Lenya’s father then told me that soldiers had taken him to the gastrointestinal department to be treated for emaciation. He’s 1.95 meters (6’ 5”), but weighed just 40 kilograms (88 pounds). His father took a video and sent it to me. Lenya’s 22 years old, but he was behaving like a child. He didn’t understand anything; he was just repeating, “I want to eat.”

He ended up in a gastrointestinal unit with doctors who hadn’t left [after the start of the occupation]. The gastrointestinal doctor knows me, my deceased mother, and our family. I knew he was in good hands, that they would help him recover. Lenya started to stand up and walk, and he constantly wanted to eat; they would give him two servings at the hospital.

He felt better after getting an IV. He started talking. But he was only able to tell us a small part of what happened to him. He said, “Mom, you know how you said that there’s a hell? Well, I went to hell. I was beaten by soldiers and by my cell mates.” He shared a prison cell with convicts from Simferopol and Sevastopol. He said that he was interrogated at the beginning, that he was beaten constantly by soldiers, and that he was forced to sign some documents, but he couldn’t remember what they said. He was barely fed and only given water once every two to three days.

I wrote to the soldier [Lev]: “My son is emaciated! And you said that everything was okay!” He asked if my son might have some kind of illness. From the very beginning, I had told him that he’s ill and that he’s not supposed to put through stress. But Lev told me again not to worry.

He said, “I fed your son. I brought him sausages and grechka, and I moved him to a good cell.” I don’t know if it’s true. He had lied to me when he told me that my son was happy, well-fed, and doing fine. And I had desperately believed every word I heard.

I told Lenya that there are good people in the world, like Lev, the soldier, since he passed along packages to him and sent photographs of him. “Well, he also beat me during interrogations at the beginning,” he responded. “But whatever you say.”

Lenya said, “I was so scared to fall asleep. I was scared that they would come and choke me again, kill me. I was so thirsty, but they wouldn’t give water. But most of all, I wanted to eat. Then they beat me even harder. They beat me so hard that I couldn’t use the toilet for four days. Why, mom? Ma, maybe you know what my crime is?”

“I’ll never go back there, right?”

On August 2, the local Investigative Committee called Lenya’s dad and told him that Lenya was being released for lack of evidence. His father picked him up from the hospital and drove him back to the house, but they hadn’t even made it to the door when soldiers arrived in a vehicle with tinted windows: Lev and his partner. Lev said that he couldn’t do anything to help, that the case was still open, and that he was facing pressure from his superiors. He handed Lenya a bag to put over his head, and then they taped him up and took him away. A week has passed and Lev still hasn’t answered any of my messages or the calls from Lenya’s dad.

Lenya’s father called the Investigative Committee. They said that they’re sorry but that there’s nothing they can do to help, because they have no power over the military command. They suggested consulting an international organization. I haven’t received any updates about Lenya since then.

The last time I spoke with my son was about an hour before the soldiers took him. He was so happy that he’d soon be free. “Mom,” he said, “I’ll never end up there again, right?” “No, my son,” I told him, “I’ll come to get you.” He asked me to wait so that he could say goodbye to his friends and his girlfriend, who he’d started dating in Melitopol. He told me, “Mom, I kissed someone for the first time. I’m in love.” I told him that we’ll move to Germany where my younger son is, where there’s no war. I said we’ll go to museums and churches there.

He also managed to tell me that there are a lot of people detained at the military office. Most of them are civilians that have been held since the start of the war. Their relatives are searching for them, but they don’t know that they’re there. Some of them have already died, and their relatives don’t even know.

This the 21st century. Our grandparents survived fascism in 1941. Now it has returned, only to another country. Hitler used to exterminate people with mental illness.

The human rights organization Every Human Being is assisting Leonid Popov’s mother. Its employees told iStories that they filed complaints with various agencies in Russia and Ukraine, as well as UN working groups on arbitrary detention. So far, human rights activists have only received confirmation that these complaints have been received.

After the media report about Leonid came out in Ukraine, a man who introduced himself as a military police officer contacted Leonid’s father and offered to meet with him. The man said that Leonid is fine, that he’s being fed, that he’s not being beaten, and that he was allegedly detained for taking photos of military equipment. Journalists from iStories have identified the number as belonging to Igor Kara, a former Ukrainian police inspector from the Donetsk region who defected to the Russian side after the full-scale invasion. On the phone, he initially denied that he knew Leonid Popov before confirming that he spoke with his father. Kara said: “The case of his disappearance is with the Investigative Committee. The Investigation Committee is searching for him.”

The investigator from the Investigative Committee who called Leonid’s father on August 2 and said Leonid could be picked up told iStories that Leonid has been recognized as a victim in his criminal case: “Investigations are underway to establish his whereabouts. He’s not in our custody. Contact the military commandant’s office. We also contacted them. I can’t tell you their response as it’s a classified investigation. I can’t comment on criminal matters in my department.”