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odinsblog · 2 months

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“Yeah, I mean, in 2018 was the first Shakespeare and race festival that I curated at the Globe. And at that time, there was less vitriol, but it was more like, why are we talking about Shakespeare and race? Shakespeare's got nothing to do with race.

So that led me to thinking about writing this book. But it was in 2020, when I launched the anti-racist Shakespeare webinars, that there was a horrible backlash, very racist backlash. And my own ethnic origins were brought into the conversation.

Oh, she's a woman of color. That's why she's talking about race. And actually, I had been at the Globe for 17 years by that point, you know?

And so that backlash is about ownership. It's about people feeling that something is being taken away from them.

And after the Black Lives movement, Black Lives Matter movement went global, and organizations like museums and galleries and theaters started to take it seriously, that's when you started to see a really racist backlash against any kind of progressive movement, whether it's in a theater or a museum. And I certainly had to face that in 2020.

I was a little bit worried about it, probably more so in the UK, because I think in the UK there's a special sense of ownership of Shakespeare in the way that there isn't in the US. So I'm American, but I'm also a Pakistani. And so I think it was really, it's a double whammy for the British.

Whereas in America, I feel like I was less worried because Americans don't mind other Americans talking about Shakespeare. So I was in the UK, concerned about that. But I think it obviously didn't stop me because what I'm trying to do is keep Shakespeare around.

And I'm explicitly not advocating canceling Shakespeare. And I think that's what they all thought I was doing when I was running those webinars.

So Shakespeare sets Othello in 16th century Venice, which was a very multicultural society because Venice was a sort of trading giant in this time period. So it was really financially lucrative for them to have people from all backgrounds working and living in Venice. And so it's about a Black African, known as a Moor in that time period, who was the captain of the Venetian army.

And it starts with another member of the army sort of screaming and shouting outside the door or window of a fellow's now father-in-law saying that, basically shouting a lot of racist epithets about how his daughter, his white daughter, has married a Black man. And she's done so without her father's consent. So it starts with this idea of there's been some sort of violation.

A Black man has married a white woman, and this is a problem.

So it ends up at the court of the Duke who is dealing with other issues because the Turks are now circling around their outpost in Cyprus, and they need Othello to do some work for them and to fight off the Turks. So the Duke says, oh, look, it's okay. It's fine. You know, Othello is a great guy. We've all worked with him. We know him really well.

And that's when the line comes out: He is far more fair than Black.

And what he's saying there is that essentially, look, he doesn't act Black. He acts white. He acts like us. So let's just be okay with this.

And so what you have there is a situation in which somebody who has kind of violated a kind of racial code in Venetian society is given a pass because he's very useful to that society. What happens in the rest of the play is that lago works on him and tries to convince him that his wife is having an affair with his lieutenant.

And unfortunately, Othello believes him, and they plot to murder Desdemona, and they do. He does. And it's a heartbreaking, heart-wrenching play.

And what's difficult about it is that it seems to fulfill stereotypes about Black men and Black masculinity. So it's always been a bit of a problem to stage. So yeah, it's a fantastic play, though.

It's a real sort of exploration of interracial relationships in a white-dominant society.

Yeah, I think it's harder in classrooms. And that's something that I actually been thinking about how to address a colleague of mine, and I've been discussing it. Because a lot of teachers, especially white teachers, aren't necessarily equipped to have a conversation about race that isn't going to make all the students in the room feel objectified or uncomfortable.

And so what I'm trying to, what I also get at the book is about discomfort, being able to lean into the discomfort of having conversations. And Shakespeare, for him, he was an advocate of discomfort. You were not comfortable when you went to see a Shakespearean tragedy.

He didn't want you to be.

And so we should try and be comfortable in the classroom. And there are productions who have tried very hard to lean into the racial tension and angst in the play.

But often it can be unsuccessful, particularly if it's a white director that sees too much optimism in the play. And says, oh, this play really, it's not about race. It's about redemption of characters who've been singled out for some reason.

I'm like, well, the reason is race.

My goal was always to show how it rears its head, even in the moments that are the most unexpected or that seems innocuous.

But what is interesting is that in a lot of his comedies, he's using anti-Black racism as a source of humor. And, you know, that would have made people laugh, some of the comments that you hear in some of his most delightful comedies. And because the racism isn't the undercurrent of the play, that it's easy to miss it.

So you'll just get all of a sudden a comment like Much Ado About Nothing, where the character Benedict is talking with his friend Claudio about a woman that Claudio has a crush on. And he says, oh, she's too brown for a fair praise. And that would have made people laugh.

What he's saying is that she's not attractive enough to praise her, and fair in that time was a very elite form of whiteness. It meant beautiful and virtuous and white with a luster or a shine, and that shine is the virtue of a woman. And no woman of color could ever achieve that, because she's not white enough.

So he's saying that this woman is too brown, even if she's not brown, but he's using brown as a way of denigrating people of color.

But I think Shakespeare is still valuable for us because of the contemporary nature of some of the issues that he raises in his plays.

I mean, there's a great speech in Midsummer Night's Dream where he talks about the destruction of the planet because of the way people are behaving towards each other. And the powerful resonance of that today just is unmissable. So Shakespeare is able to articulate or help you to think about questions that are so urgent in your own moment.

I think other writers need to be brought into dialogue with Shakespeare. If you teach Othello, teach Toni Morrison's Desdemona, right?

It's incredibly lucrative intellectually and emotionally to keep Shakespeare in the curriculum.”

—Farah Karim Cooper: Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and author of The Great White Bard, How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race

#shakespeare #farah karim cooper #othello #racism #ingrained racism #casual racism #writing #much ado about nothing #colorism #the merchant of venice #anti blackness #desdemona #blacklivesmatter #theatre

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auriidae · 6 months

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more of these guys :] (part 1) (part 2)

classpect thoughts under cut! yippee

these absolute fools gave me SO much trouble. i changed each of their classes and/or aspects like twice while drawing this lmao.

pearle was going to be a rage player initially! i had her down as one for the chaos — yknow, ‘red’s my favorite color’ and all that. but the catch ended up being that in this au, as rage represents in-game chaos and bloodlust, it only exists while the game is in effect, and so rage players don’t have much dominion over stuff that happens after that period ends (which has all sorts of delightful implications for grienn’s character, but anyways). meanwhile pearle definitely continues playing and also grows as a character even in times of peace. i was thinking in terms of comparing her arc in double life to secret life in particular — ‘she left the tower’ and all that, yknow? she went from being terribly isolated and functioning on a completely independent scale, winning only for herself, to being a key member of a team and finding a purpose in helping them. which is pretty incredibly space-coded, in my mind! my personal qualification for space players is that they’re destined to be lonely, often physically separated in some way from others, for a while but not forever — because space is about creation, after all. and if you look at being a witch from the perspective of reinvention — what pearle manipulated or reinvented here was herself. she found her place in the story and the person she wanted to be. witches are also some of the most powerful characters in terms of specifically manipulating their aspect, i think, which is great because i’ve heard she's pretty great at pvp lol

ignore that martyn’s color palette is not particularly great it’s hard to unify the design of a character who is super rustblood-coded but also inextricably linked to the colors green and yellow of all things. i’ll redesign him later. anyways! at first i had thought there might not be any light players in this session — since light is about sort of seeing through the laws of the game and often deliberately defying them, as well as having a certain degree of control over narrative agency due to this. and because, yknow, the life series is a minecraft youtube roleplay series, realistically the ccs aren’t going to be playing any characters that go out of their way to completely ruin the game or refuse to play it by the rules altogether. but then i started thinking — and i don’t know an awful lot about martyn’s character so forgive me if i’m going a little bit off the rails here — does martyn want to understand? because if he as a character tries to understand and affect his destiny even though he’s ultimately limited by the nature of the story itself, then he could totally be a light player. so that’s where i was coming from here. think about how he won limited life in the end, for instance — not by playing into what the game itself had been leading up to, but by acting on and finishing his own story. he’s a knight because i do think knights are a certified Narrative’s Little Guy class — they persevere through so much pressure and often also have that sort of dual persona thing, both of which are particularly endearing to an audience. it’s hard work, keeping up with the narrative and fulfilling his own quest for understanding while he’s at it!! but he does it!!

renn is Such a blood player guys he is such a blood player ohhh my goodness. playing the game in terms of your relationships with others, right? basing how you go about it on allies and interactions, and being a leader above all else? i’d say that’s pretty ren the dog coded tbh. i don’t have too much to say here because i think seer of blood renn is pretty self-explanatory — he sees the entire game as a game of relationships and ties. he has a lot of knowledge about this field specifically, and shares it with his allies in the way he helps direct them and keep them alive. the reason he’s blood instead of light is because he puts his allies over knowledge, i think — he’s far too busy dealing with all that stuff to speculate for too long what the purpose of it all might be, and that would detract from his goal (of winning alongside others or dying nobly), anyway.

again questions abt them are open forever always :3

#(<TOTALLY SELF-IDENTIFIES AS A SPACE PLAYER BTW. can u tell lmao)#pearlescentmoon #inthelittlewood #rendog #trafficblr #secret life #lifestuck au #doodles #love how u can just slowly watch the quality of the character lineup drawings deteriorate because i want to get to all of them fsfjhjf #i have soooo many thoughts abt how these characters would interact in the context of the game but will save that for another post so this-#-does not become any longer than it already is #(also i know i'm probably coming across as super pretentious abt this au just know i am excited ok! i am simply having fun!)

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figsandphiltatos · 12 days

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i'm a waste of a woman, but i taste like success

read it on ao3 here!

Story: i'm a waste of a woman, but i taste like success

Chapter: 1/1

Characters: Kipperlilly Copperkettle, Lucy Frostblade, Ruben Hopclap, Mary Ann Skuttle, Ivy Embra, Oisin Hakinvar

Summary:

Kipperlilly Copperkettle has never been great with people. She's worse with friends. Forming an adventuring party is like making friends, but with greater stakes and far less time to consider your options. But, it's also a kind of friend making that has structure. And Kipperlilly can work with structure. -- Inspired by these comments by Brennan Lee Mulligan about Kipperlilly and the formation of the High Five Heroes: "There's an indication there of Kipperlilly's focus because yeah, the High-Five Heroes is sweet, but it's also sort of a indication that Kipperlilly is pushing them towards, for lack of a better word, do we have something that we're about? The Bad Kids get their name because they've all been given detention on the first day and it's connected to their story. Whereas you get the sense from the High-Five Heroes that it's not actually describing anything. It's like the person being like, "Our inside joke is going to be high-fives." And you're like, "Well, everyone high-fives." So there's an indication there, for me at least, that Kipperlily is trying to make a comradery right away that is not actually there. It's not based in something that happened to them."

The lunchroom of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy was bustling with excited freshmen. Students shouted across the large space to friends they recognized, throngs of already-formed cliques chittered with exclusive excitement, and groupings of sorcerers and bards scoped out potential parties that still needed their skill sets. Technically, the formation of adventuring parties wasn’t meant to begin until after lunch, but it was immediately clear that those who waited were most likely to be left out.

A group of kids who clearly all fit the stoner archetype had already gathered around a table, swapping bags of chips and chatting eagerly about systems of control. A few kids hung nervously around the edges of the cafeteria, some on their crystals and others fidgeting nervously as they watched the ruthless game of high school socialization play out in front of them.

There were a few tables with lone freshmen, either texting friends or digging into their food with little care for the scarcity of resources that were friends and party members. Kipperlilly was one such student, but she had her eyes on the prize. She unwrapped the lunch she had carefully packed for herself, and laid out her bullet journal to review her color coded notes while she waited for Lucy.

She hadn’t discussed the plan explicitly with her best friend before their first day—and there was nothing Kipperlilly hated more than not having a plan nailed down—but she had faith in Lucy. She would know that they belonged in a party together, naturally. From there, it would just be a matter of constructing the perfect party around them. That would hardly be a challenge when she’d been planning this out for months. She knew exactly the kinds of party members they would need, and had started her scouting early.

A powerful wizard could make or break a party, and Oisin Hakinvar was a perfect candidate. He had gone with them to Oakshield Middle, though they’d never spoken before. Once, in seventh grade, Kipperlilly had watched him give a presentation on his proud dragon heritage—the exact kind of thing that made a great adventurer.

She had a few ideas for fighters and barbarians, but she’d already watched Nixie Humphries, a human fighter she’d had her eye on, and Fog Marrowthirst, a transfer half-orc barbarian, get snatched up by other adventuring parties. She carefully marked them from her list, bouncing her leg impatiently under the table. She looked up from her notes and craned her neck to look for Lucy when a small, kobold girl with an ax strapped to her back sat down at the table several seats away.

Kipperlilly’s grip tightened on her red pen, but she breathed out slowly through her nose just like the counselor at Oakshield had always suggested she try. Things were not going according to plan, but that didn’t mean all hope was lost.

“I’m saving these seats for my friends, actually.” She flashed an approximation of a friendly smile across the table.

The kobold girl didn’t look up from her device—It wasn’t a crystal, but some kind of childish looking handheld game. Without taking her eyes off of it, the girl reached around to grab a soda out of the pocket of her backpack.

Kipperlilly cleared her throat. “Excuse me?” She said, a bit louder. “I’m waiting for my friends to sit here with me.”

Her future friends, that was. Her adventuring party that she would save the world with time and again. For now, they’d just be getting to know each other, but why waste time with half measures? Their lives would be in each other’s hands. They would share in their glory for the rest of their careers. They would be friends, closer than they could imagine eventually. Calling them anything other than friends felt like a slight against that eventual bond.

It was like the kobold girl wasn’t hearing her at all. Kipperlilly set down her red pen and stood—

“Kip!” Lucy called as she approached. She was dressed in one of her favorite cable knit sweaters, one that she’d only recently reclaimed from Kipperlilly’s theft, and was carrying her tray of creamed corn and cafeteria food.

Keeping pace next to her was Ruben Hopclap. He was wearing cargo shorts and flip flops, smiling in a way that Kipperlilly could only interpret as smug.

“Sorry, Ruben and I got held up in the lunch line,” Lucy slid into the seat across from her. She knew Kipperlilly well enough to know that she was brimming with impatience before more than a word had passed between them. “You want to be in our adventuring party, right? I’m so excited!”

Our adventuring party. As in, Lucy and Ruben’s adventuring party. Heat rose to Kipperlilly’s face. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go at all. It was meant to be our party as in, her and Lucy’s party. Lucy was meant to come find her first. Lunch line or no, why had she sought out Ruben first?

Hot, angry tears closed up the back of her throat but before they could start to prick at her eyes, Kipperlilly inhaled sharply through her nose. Steadily and slowly inwards, hold, then breathe out at the same pace. She dug her fingernails into her palm under the table for good measure.

“Yeah, of course.” Now wasn’t the time to pick a fight, even if she’d picked fights over less before. She had to keep her eye on the goal. “Just, forget my plan, I guess.” She muttered, unable to help herself, and marked a large, red ‘x’ over the names of potential bard candidates for their party. Ruben’s name hadn’t been listed there.

She should have discussed this all with Lucy beforehand. She knew it.

Lucy’s brows pinched together in concern and Ruben huffed out an incredulous breath. They were both familiar with her moods.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had a plan.” Lucy reached across the table tentatively, resting a cold hand on Kipperlilly’s. “Can I see the rest? I’m sure you’ve got good ideas.”

Always patient. It wasn’t fair. Sometimes, Kipperlilly could manage to goad Lucy into a fight but it was a vanishingly rare thing the older they got. Something about it made the molten rock in her chest feel heavier.

“Yeah, I had some ideas for who we could ask.” She said, reminding herself that self-pity needed to take a back seat to accomplishing her goal. She’d worked hard to convince her parents to let her attend Aguefort. She’d created a comprehensive, data-backed presentation about the benefits this school could offer that Mumple couldn’t in the first semester of her eighth grade year. A vital part of proving herself right was forming the ideal party. As much as she might have liked to sulk until Lucy had no choice but to admit that she’d been wrong for not seeking her out first, now wasn’t the time.

“Great!” Lucy smiled, pulling the bullet journal toward herself.

Her eyes were such a deep blue that it was hard to tell their color in some lighting, but under the fluorescent cafeteria lights they were easy to see as she turned her careful attention to the pages in front of her. Her focus was always steady and intentional. At sleepovers and study groups, Kipperlilly would often get distracted just watching her read.

“Why are these names crossed out?” She asked, pointing with a long finger to Fog and Nixie’s names.

“They already have a party.”

The corners of Lucy’s lips crept upwards in a soft, amused smile. She looked up from the list and carefully scanned the cafeteria before her eyes landed on the kobold girl sitting only a few seats away.

“Oh, I’m sorry for ignoring you,” She said, “I’m Lucy Frostblade, what’s your name?”

The girl still didn’t look up from her game. Watching Lucy get rebuffed was almost enough to make Kipperlilly properly lose her cool, but Ruben suddenly leaned forward to get a better look.

“Is that a Quokki Pet?” He asked.

Finally, the girl’s head rose. She regarded Ruben with mild interest. “Do you play?”

“I used to have one in middle school, but a teacher took it. My parents wouldn’t buy me a new one.” Now that he mentioned it, Kipperlilly remembered the small handheld game Ruben had clung to for a few months in seventh grade.

He’d been caught checking it during math class and it was confiscated by Mrs. Nikothoe, who even Kipperlilly had to admit was a nightmare of a woman. While she probably couldn’t be blamed for taking away a distraction from a student, she hadn’t even liked Kipperlilly despite all her efforts. So for once she and Ruben had come down on the same side of an issue. It had been a refreshing change of pace, even if it had only lasted an afternoon.

“Lame.” The girl responded shortly and her attention started to turn back toward her game.

Lucy was quick on the draw, though, “You have an ax! Are you a barbarian?”

“Yes.” Mary Ann seemed slightly bothered by the continued distraction, but humored them for now.

Kipperlilly could see where this was going and very much didn’t like it. She tried to signal Lucy to stop, tapping on the bullet journal that was still in front of her. Sure, her first choices were off the table but there had to be better choices than this girl.

“We’re looking for a barbarian for our party. Do you want to join?”

The kobold girl looked between the three of them for a moment. Kipperlilly stared back and tried to imagine her going into a rage—tried to imagine what good a two foot tall barbarian could possibly be. She just prayed that they’d be rejected.

“Sure.” No such luck. “I’m Mary Ann.” And with that, her attention was back on that stupid Quokki game.

“I’m Ruben!”

“Didn’t ask.”

Kipperlilly was staring at Lucy in disbelief when their eyes met again. What was she thinking? This was a disaster. “We need to find Oisin Hakinvar.” She said, gathering up her things. There was no time to waste. She couldn’t possibly let this go any worse than it already had.

“Oisin? From Oakshield?” Lucy asked.

“I haven’t finished my creamed corn!” Ruben complained through a mouth full of the stuff. Kipperlilly shot him a dangerous glare. He did not want to get in her way right now.

Lucy rushed to catch up with Kipperlilly as she shoved her things in her bag and made a beeline out of the cafeteria. Oisin may very well have already been out on the quad, where there was an even more concentrated focus on forming parties. It might have been too late.

“Kip, calm down,” Lucy insisted as they pushed through the front doors of the school together. Ruben and Mary Ann trailed somewhere behind them, the latter with her nose still stuck in her game. “It’ll all work out. There’s no rush.”

But that just wasn’t true. Kipperlilly didn’t have time to argue the point. Stepping onto the school’s quad, she took careful stock of everyone there. Some girls had gathered around one of the many statues of Arthur Aguefort and were giggling to themselves. A few students had gathered around to watch an elven boy show off his magical prowess. Kipperlilly had to dash through his prestidigitation sparks when she spotted a blue, scaly head behind the base of a nearby statue.

Lucy followed after her, apologizing to the elf as she passed. Kipperlilly came to stand in front of Oisin Hakinvar. He was sitting at the base of a statue, eating his lunch with a vaguely familiar wood elf girl. If he had a party already, they were nowhere to be seen. He looked up from his food, pushing up his glasses and frowning thoughtfully at the halfling in front of him.

“Can I help you with something?” He asked.

“Yes,” As she spoke, Lucy and the others caught up behind her. “I’m Kipperlilly Copperkettle. We went to middle school together. I’d like you to be the wizard in our adventuring party.”

“I’m Lucy Frostblade,” Lucy jumped in when Oisin’s hesitation dragged on for a beat too long. “We had history class together last year. I know this is kind of a lot, but you’re really impressive! And we’ve got enough room still for you to join, too, Ivy. Are you a ranger?”

The wood elf girl, Ivy—Kipperlilly noted the shortcomings in her research that she didn’t realize Oisin had someone he wouldn’t join a party without—regarded Lucy with a carefully controlled expression. “Yeah, I am.”

“That’s perfect! I don’t think any of us here are super well versed in the natural world, so you’d be a great help.” Lucy offered a friendly smile, a real one, and Ivy and Oisin exchanged glances.

“Okay, so you all want us, but why should we want to join you?” He asked after a moment.

He was considering it. This was good. Kipperlilly could work with this. “We’re impressive in our own right! I’m a rogue, and one day I’ll be the greatest mastermind Spyre has ever seen. I was in student government in middle school; I was the president of four clubs, and the creator of two of those. I’ve never gotten a grade worse than a B in my life. If you stick with me, you don’t have to worry about failing.” And I’d be the perfect leader, was what she didn't say. “And Lucy is a prodigious cleric of Ruvina. She’s worked some serious miracles—”

“I’ll keep you alive.” Lucy interrupted sheepishly. She wasn’t one for bragging, even if Kipperlilly thought she should have been. “That’s what you really want to hear from a cleric, isn’t it? And this is Ruben, he’s a bard and a genuinely talented musician.”

Ruben flashed a proud grin. “I’ve already figured out how to cast healing word, so you doubly won’t die if you stick with us.” He had no problem bragging.

“And this is Mary Ann, we just met but—”

Mary Ann pulled her ax from her back with the hand that wasn’t holding her game. She dropped it into the soft ground with a satisfying thud. “I’m a barbarian.”

“She’s a barbarian.” Lucy repeated with a grin.

“Nice elevator pitch. Did you practice it?” Ivy asked, and Kipperlilly honestly couldn’t say if she was intentionally being snarky or not.

“Doubly not dying is a pretty tempting offer,” Oisin admitted. “One of my friends in middle school was a worshiper of Ruvina,” he addressed Lucy directly, “Pretty cool stuff—No pun intended.”

Lucy laughed, “Pun appreciated, intentional or not. So, what do you say?”

Again, Oisin and Ivy exchanged some kind of silent communication—Kipperlilly wondered if it was a message spell, or if they really did just have a knack for understanding one another—before either of them spoke.

“Sounds like a plan. Makes it easier that you guys already have all the other members figured out, too.”

Ivy joining the team hadn’t been the plan, either. But Lucy was right that a ranger would be helpful and, even if she seemed mean, she had to be better than Ruben or Mary Ann. A small weight lifted off Kipperlilly’s shoulders as she realized she’d succeeded, at least in her first goal of the day.

She grinned, mostly because she was relieved that this was done, and quickly held up her hand for Lucy to high five. She owed her shared credit, especially for winning Oisin over, even if the improvisation with Mary Ann had been unwelcome.

With a satisfying smack, their hands collided, and Kipperlilly carried on down the line. Ruben seemed confused, but returned her high five nonetheless. Ivy and Oisin seemed equally amused by the offer, but played along. Mary Ann, who was focused entirely on her game, didn’t even look up to see Kipperlilly’s hand hovering in front of her. Kipperlilly paused, and waited, but felt the awkward tension growing the longer she did, and eventually dropped her hand.

“Look at that! We can call ourselves the High-Five Heroes!” She chimed, trying to power through the way Mary Ann’s snub had robbed her of some of her momentum. She’d prepared for this moment, planned out the name.

It had to land.

Kipperlilly had never been great with making friends in the past. Lucy was her best friend mostly because Lucy was a wonderful presence and brought joy and light to her life, but there was certainly an element of the fact that Lucy was her only friend, too. Adventuring parties were all best friends. They were bound by blood and trauma and life debts. This was the perfect opportunity for her to finally get things right. And she intended to; She had meticulously planned exactly how she would.

An awkward silence fell over the group. Ivy looked at Oisin with raised eyebrows and Kipperlilly tried desperately to read into the expression. Maybe awkward was the wrong word, maybe it was awed? She fidgeted aimlessly with her hands, feeling the way sweat collected on her palms.

“Everybody high fives.” Ruben scoffed and Kipperlilly felt her heart drop. This was exactly why he couldn’t be here. He was going to ruin it all, and just to piss her off.

She silently worked her jaw for a moment, trying to grind out any combination of words that would salvage this.

“I think it’s cool!” Lucy came to her rescue, as always. “We’re going to be heroes!”

It seemed that, at the very least, that was a sentiment they could all get behind. Her suggestion might not have been met with the enthusiasm she’d prefer, but Kipperlilly relished her accomplishment as each member of the group signaled their approval. The High Five Heroes weren’t only going to be heroes, they wouldn’t just be friends—they’d be great. She could feel it.

#kipperlilly copperkettle #the rat grinders #lucy frostblade #ruben hopclap #mary ann skuttle #oisin hakinvar #ivy embra #i just. you're not gonna get away for vilifying a teenage girl for her lack of social skills and control freak nature on my watch #i'll literally die for her right to be The Worst #like does she suck?? yeah kinda #is she sinister?? hell no #fhjy spoilers #ig??

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pencil-peach · 8 months

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G Witch Onscreen Text: Episode 11

This is part TWELVE!!! Of my attempt to transcribe and discuss all the onscreen text in G Witch (and also just to talk about things I think are cool.) We have reached Episode 11: The Witches from Earth.

<<Click here to go back to Episode 10!

I have to hide..! (Under the cut)

So before we start, I had forgotten to mention something rather important in the last episode, that being that in the final scene with Prospera and Delling, we get a look at Quiet Zero (Or perhaps, the components that were being stored at Plant Quetta.)

We can see that the progress of this component is at 89%, almost completely finished. Bel comments later when she confronts Prospera that Aerial wouldn't need a permet score of 8 to complete Delling's original plans for Quiet Zero, and we can see that here, considering the machine is almost done.

Prospera also just outright gives Delling Aerial's Permet Score 6 data, telling him that with it, Quiet Zero can proceed to its final stage. I think it's really important to remember that the attack on Plant Quetta was not something Prospera had expected, especially with it having been done with Lfrith models. Her original plan was probably just to have Aerial reach Permet 8 and then just like. Kill Delling and take over Quiet Zero. (Maybe torture him a little. For fun.)

But the existence of the Lfrith models threw a wrench in that plan. A majority of her actions in season 2 were done in order to locate and destroy the source of the Lfriths, because the existence of an army of Gundams was a threat to Quiet Zero.

Anyway, speaking of the Lfriths, did you know that the show's OP changes slightly depending on what's happening in the story?

At the start of the show, this scene has Delling appear, and he fades out into Prospera.

But starting with episode 7's OP, shadowy images of Ur and Thorn appear behind Delling, and then disappear before Prospera fades in.

And in Episode 11 - 12, the scene is completely different, showing clearer images of Ur and Thorn, with Sophie and Norea appearing in front of them, turning to the camera.

Also, did you notice that the Ur and Thorn are color coded to Sophie and Norea, but backwards? Ur is colored like Norea, but is piloted by Sophie. Thorn is colored like Sophie, but piloted by Norea.

You'll have to excuse me, I'll probably be spending a lot of time talking about non text stuff as this episode is actually incredibly light on text...

In the opening scenes where the Earth House kids have just reached Plant Quetta, you can see Miorine silently moving away from everybody in both of these shots. Since our perspective is with Suletta for a majority of their conflict, we don't get to see a lot of Miorine's side, but I think it shows in these little moments. She doesn't understand why Suletta is acting so strange and it's frustrating her, so she's just avoiding her and hoping she sorts herself out.

A lot of their behavior in this episode is reminiscent of what they were like before they'd met each other.

Norea is sketching Thorn's face. Damn she's really good...I tried to draw Aerial one time and I got so mad I had to go bed early.

It's an understated thing but it's truly sad to me that Guel is nearly killed trying to defend the honor of his father's company in this scene, not knowing that his father was the one who provided them to the Dawn of Fold.

TEXT: T.S. - TO - D.O.F SYNC MAIN CONTROL SYSTEM MIGRATION: COMPLETED

This is the display shown on the monitor of the DOF member who hacks into its systems.

My best guesses as to the meaning of the acronym are: TERMINAL SYSTEM TO DAWN OF FOLD SYNC TRANSPORT SHIP TO DAWN OF FOLD SYNC TS might also stand for the name of the ship, which we don't know.

We get a look at the Earth House Space Ship's Map Data here, aptly titled EARTH HOUSE SPACE SHIP It's got everything. Two Cargo Unloading hatches, one at the Fore and Aft of the ship, 8 Mobile Suit Hatches across the middle, an Airlock, a Cieling Hatch, and a Bridge..! So cool...

I really love this scene where Nika and Miorine are talking about Suletta. I love how Miorine is just mostly confused the whole time. Cause she really just doesn't understand.

When Miorine says she'll send Suletta a video about Aerial, Nika asks why she can't tell her herself. And she replies, "Why?" Like, "Why would I do that? There's something bugging her, and she doesn't want to talk, so I'll just send her a video about it instead."

And when Nika asks her what happened between her and Suletta, she says "Don't say it like I did wrong." Like she probably didn't even assume there was a problem between them to begin with. In her mind she didn't DO anything, so what issue could there possibly be if nothing happened?

"Not everyone can be like you, Miorine." Nika concludes, and Miorine just says, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Miorine's never really met anybody like Suletta before. When she has a problem, she'll make it clear when she does. She's completely confident, and not afraid to stand up for herself, but Suletta isn't like that. At her worst, she can be frustratingly timid and scared, and won't say if she has a problem so as to not make any trouble for people. There are 5 days between the end of Episode 10 and the start of episode 11, and that whole time Suletta was probably acting really weird and avoidant, and Miorine probably just assumed if she needed something, she'd tell her. So she just left her alone.

That's why their eventual collision is so nice. They're communicating their needs.

I think it's really nice how Kenanji gained weight because it's been 20 years since Vanadis and it's treated as completely fine. Like yeah people tease him for it or are surprised when they see him but it's not presented by the story itself as like, a fall from grace or him letting himself go. He's still a strong and capable pilot, and he's still fully confident in himself. He just got fat. It happens !

(Also the delivery of the workers on "CAPTAIN KENANJI?!!?!" is another one of my favorite comedic line deliveries in the show.)

We also see in this scene where Jeturk's plant patrol fleet (Wormblood) are during the incident. They're heading towards the moon.

The completely emotionless way Prospera delivers this line haunts my fucking dreams. What's she thinking here? What is it about Suletta and the rest of GUND-ARM finally bringing to fruition Cardo Nabo's dream that fills her with such apathy? Such disdain? Is she bitter that it's the daughter of her family's killer that's bringing that dream to reality? Is it a constant reminder of the path she didn't, couldn't take? Is it the fact that the technology that could have saved her daughter's life wasn't allowed to be pursued until it was far too late?

Is she having to reckon with the infinitesimally small doubt remaining in her mind that maybe, just maybe, she did the wrong thing?

When Suletta calls Prospera on the phone, she tells her where they are, and that Suletta should come to see them. When Suletta starts running away from Miorine, she runs in the direction of C Block, towards her mother. (We know this because the rest of the Earth House students, which is where she started, aren't in C block when it gets disconnected from the rest of the plant.)

You should rewatch this scene and see how many times Miorine eats shit on a wall. Also this is one of my all time favorite Miorine frames. She is a kind of creature here.

TEXT: (Monitor) ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM CAMOFLAUGE SYSTEM OPERATIONAL

(Notebook)BIOINFO: IDENTIFIED PMET LINK: CONNECTED DESULTOR

Here we see the cloaking program Olcott, Bessie, and Gristan used to get close to Plant Quetta.

We also see what the Info on an unregistered Mobile Suit looks like, only displaying the status of the pilot and the MS.

Here we get a look at the control room for the plant. It's got a cool hologram...

The Desultors also launch COMP-JAM-PODS, which disables all normal comms within a wide area, and is why the DOF switch to a hopping transmission after launching them.

Here we see in the hallways that there are STRICTLY ENFORCED SPEED LIMITS (of 15b) within the hallways of Plant Quetta. (At least in C block.)

But when the Emergency Starts, all the signs change to EMERGENCY B1, with a reminder to PLEASE CHECK YOUR REGISTERED DEVICES, presumably for the B1 emergency procedures.

TEXT: EMERGENCY PLEASE EVACUATE EMERGENCY B1 OUT OF SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK UNAVAILABLE TARGET AREA: Throughout PLANT QUETTA ACTION REQUESTED: Please put on suit and take shelter immediately. EVACUATION GUIDANCE: Please refer to faculty map below for locations of emergency evacuation suits and designated shelters for each block. C BLOCK MAP PLANT QUETTA Safety Control Center

The emergency alert sent out by the safety control center to everyone in the plant.

When Sophie and Norea prepare to disconnect C Block from the rest of the plant, the command prompt that appears on the monitor is C-BLOCK PLANT QUETTA PURGE.

Also, it goes without saying, but the Monitor UI and cockpit layout of Ur and Thorn are nearly identical to that of the base Lfrith models, complete with the real time Monitoring System updates on the lefthand side of the screen.

That's all for now! Wow...next episode will be the end of the first season...we've really come a long way haven't we..?

I...I'm glad we made this journey together....it means a lot to me that you've stuck with me for so long....(blushing a little)

Unfortunately I have reached the dreaded image limit...so I have no gift to share...forgive me....

Click here to go to Episode 12...if you want..>>

O--Or you could..go to the Masterpost...!

#g witch #gundam the witch from mercury

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much-the-millers-kid · 10 months

Text

Is the WAA broke?

Those who have spent a semi-decent amount of time in the Ace Attorney Fandom knows that it's a common joke that the attorneys of the Wright Anything Agency don't get paid, but how accurate is that?

So, @inbarfink posted this wonderful analysis about how often the WAA gets paid (which I highly recommend you look at). It is highly focused on the financial stability of the client and willingness to pay. However, I am still curious about some things.

First, inbarfink was not focused on which attorney got paid, and I want to know who is doing the best on average based on what we see in game (assuming they got paid individually and not some sort of collection pooling where the agency WAA gets paid and then Apollo and Athena are given regular salaries).

Also, how do cases where they’re likely to get paid correlate to how lucrative they are? As inbarfink explains, attorneys get paid whether they win or lose. However, I have never heard of attorneys being paid a flat rate for the case. More often, they document hours, and are paid on an hourly basis.

So cue me being a spreadsheet nerd and seeing what I can find out.

First: Who is the most likely to be paid?

As far as who is “Paid,” I’m just counting the “Lead” Attorney, unless it really is a full team effort. As an example, The Cosmic Turnabout has two Trial Days: one with Apollo and one with Phoenix. Given It was Apollo’s case initially and Phoenix was covering for Apollo due to injury, we’re assuming Apollo was the one to get paid; same for Trial of Dhurke Sahdmadi, where yes, Phoenix was behind the bench, but Apollo was the main one making arguments and is the one you play as.

I’m pretty sure the only “full team effort” is just the last case of Dual Destinies, which I’m leaving out for that, and because as Inbarfink explains, it is Phoenix defending one of his own employees due to a hostage situation. No one is getting paid for that.

The only other case not being included is The Trial of Zak Gramaraye, for the simple reason that Phoenix lost money. As Inbarfink points out, Phoenix is given a child and loses a badge, so they rightfully gave a score of -1. As accurate as this is, it kinda messes with the numbers and averages, so as an outlier, it is being left out.

After putting Inbarfink's Probability Ratings in a Google Sheet, I color-coded some things to help me notice some trends, and boy did I notice some things.

First of all, on the probability ratings, “Wright” fills up the majority of the lower end, and as they get higher, there’s more and more “Justice.” Not surprising, Apollo seems more likely to make sure he’s paid.

But also, Phoenix’s name is throughout the whole list. There’s only three cases that have a probability rating of 0.9 or higher, and Phoenix was lead on two of them. Granted, one of them is Turnabout Goodbyes, where Phoenix would possibly be the most likely to do it for free because it’s Miles, so that could be less Phoenix insisted on getting paid and more Miles refused to let Phoenix NOT be paid, although that’s debatable because while Larry didn’t pay, Phoenix did expect him to.

Still, the point stands that Phoenix isn’t quite the bleeding heart everyone makes him out to be.

Okay, so that’s first glance perceptions: What about what the numbers say? Who is the most consistently likely to be paid of WAA? The answer is…

*(drumroll)*

ATHENA! With an average probability rating of 0.7!

… Okay, that’s a little unfair to Phoenix and Apollo, given that Athena has only been “lead” on three cases that we’ve seen. She’s the newest; she hasn’t had the challenge of dealing with a Larry that’s going to try to get out of paying or being expected to defend another member of WAA like Phoenix and Apollo have. Although, she also hasn’t had a canon confirmation of payment, and 2 of her 3 cases were childhood best friend Juniper Woods so she may do a friend discount, so those bring her score down a bit anyway. Ah, the importance of sample size and knowing how the statistics come to be.

But yeah, as expected, Apollo is the next to be most consistently paid with an average probability rating of 0.68, and Wright trailing behind him at 0.44.

(Also, likely not super accurate because we only saw two of her cases, but Mia came in last with an average of 0.4).

That brings us to...

Who is making the most Bank? (aka: who is getting paid the most?)

We've seen who was most consistently paid, what about what those paydays were worth? Again, this is based on the time the cases took: Inbarfink covered the financial status of the clients in their likelihood to pay, so we're saying there is no change in rate for if someone has the wealth to pay it or not.

Now, admittedly, a really accurate depiction would look at all the time stamps at the beginning of each scene and count the hours that way. However, I don’t care enough to put that much effort into this (... at least for now; I may revisit this in the future and decide to go into more detail).

So for simplicity sake, I looked up how many “Time Units” a case took, with one unit being an Investigation or a Court Session. (ex. Tutorial Cases skip investigation and usually only have one court session, so they have one time unit, whereas a final case with three days of investigation and three days in court would have six time units.)

For the most part, this is relatively simple to figure out. Go through the wiki, count the number of investigation and trial days. Except, while doing this, I had a moment of “What the heck?” Because unless I am reading the Wiki wrong or there’s inaccurate information, there are no three-day trials after the first game.

Sure, the gameplay is longer because the games get more challenging. And yes, sometimes there is a day where something happens, but it is not officially time “On the Clock” as far as the case is concerned ... But I don't think there's and three-day trials after Rise from the Ashes.

For example, in Farewell, My Turnabout, Maya is kidnapped and Juan Corrida is killed on March 20. However, the investigation doesn’t begin until March 21. Also, there’s only two days in the courtroom, March 22 and 23, giving the case 4 Time Units: 2 investigation and 2 court.

There are similar situations for a lot of cases where there is something going on where it is only 2 days officially, even if it plays like longer, especially for final cases of the game. Phoenix has a whole day at Hazakura Temple investigating Iris before anyone actually dies; the MASON System shows Phoenix’s follow-up investigation after Zak disappeared; Turnabout for Tomorrow shifts from Phoenix and Miles debating Athena’s innocence to all WAA and Blackquill going after the Phantom; Turnabout Revolution has the civil case with Apollo vs. Phoenix AND Apollo going up against both Nahyuta and Ga’ran. Something happens to make gameplay three days or multiple cases in one, but as far as payment goes, it’s one two-day case.

I could have sworn there were more three-day trials after the first game, but I guess maybe I was wrong.

Then, to get the “Pay Rate” I multiplied Inbarfink’s Probability Rating by the number of Time Units.

So here’s the interesting thing: Phoenix is the only member of WAA to have had 3-day trials. He only had three of them, but he’s the only one to have them. Also, two of those are also two of his three with a Probability of getting paid that’s higher than 0.75. If Phoenix budgets well (which I kinda want to assume he does given that last we saw he still had a Nokia brick), he might have gone at least the rest of the trilogy on Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Goodbyes. I mean, on a scale of one to six, Phoenix is the only one with cases over four, and he has two of them.

Now, Apollo is still ahead when it comes to “how much do they get paid per case” on average. However, it is a much tighter race.

Probability is ranked from 0-1, with Apollo at 0.68 and Phoenix at 0.44. Convert to the percent of what is possible (68% and 44%, respectively), and Apollo is in the lead by 24%.

However, the Pay Rate is ranked from 0 (not getting paid) to 6 (a score of 1 for definitely getting paid, times 6 Time Units). Apollo has an average Pay Rate of 2.04 out of 6 (34%) and Phoenix has an average Pay Rate of 1.94 out of 6 (32.3%). So as far as how much they’re getting paid on average, Phoenix is only behind Apollo by 1.7%.

Also, so far, Athena with her three cases, two of which didn’t have an investigation (that we saw at least), is still doing pretty okay with a Pay Rate of 1.73 (28.8%), and as far as Mia with her only two cases also not having investigations has a Pay Rate of 0.4 (6.7%), so… oof.

So there you go: Despite Phoenix's bleeding heart reputation, Mia is actually the broke bitch of the attorneys that have worked in that office. (Joking, obviously we only saw two of her cases so we don't have an accurate measure).

Apollo is the most likely to get consistently paid, and because of that he gets paid the most. However, while Phoenix has the most cases where he has a low expectation of getting paid, whether from someone trying to get out of paying or the goodness of his heart or just having too many other things on his mind, Phoenix also has some high clientele and he is the only one to end up with the on-the-wire three-day trials.

And of course, all this is based only on the cases we see in the games. Maybe if we get AA7, we'll see Athena or Apollo get their first three-day trial, or maybe being the only defense attorney in Kur'ain Apollo will have to do more pro bono work. We shall see.

Oh, and here's the full spreadsheet in game order, if anyone wants to make any other interesting observations.

Each Game and Lead Attorney was given their own color.

For the number color keys:

Probability Rating: Less than 0.25 is red, 0.25 to 0.5 is orange, 0.51 to 0.74 is yellow, and greater than 0.75 is green.

Investigation and Court Sessions: 0 is red, 1 is yellow, 2 is turquoise, and 3 is green.

Time Units: 1 is red, 2 is orange, 4 is turquoise, and 6 is green.

Pay Rate: Less than 1 is red, 1 to 2 is orange, 2 to 3 is yellow, 3 to 4 is purple, and greater than 4 is green.

#ace attorney #phoenix wright ace attorney #phoenix wright #apollo justice #athena cykes #mia fey #please don't revoke my gay card because I'm a gay that enjoys manipulating numbers and can kinda do math

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its-a-ittle-bit-cold · 1 year

Text

Trying hard to let go

1.6k words

Anakin Skywalker x reader

Waves masterlist

Main Masterlist

Part of the Waves universe, this is sort of a 0.5 story to introduce you to my version of the order etc.

Summary: While on leave, you adjust to life in the city and run into someone who you can never seem to stop finding

warnings: brief argument, grieving the loss of a loved one

a/n: another week, another addition to one of my series! I may find the energy to bust another one out tomorrow, but who knows! Happy reading!

It’s almost as if, since the official commemoration of Master Bosque, a new time period has started. It… feels as if everything that happened when he was alive is the before now, and everything since his death is after. This is strictly after.

You’ve tried and tried and tried to move on. It works sometimes, just distracting yourself, mediating, training the younglings at the Creche, plotting missions you won’t go on. Designing drills and challenges for jedi to practice with (especially Jedi who wield two blades, like you).

Becoming a Master Sentinel has also been an adjustment. After the death of Bosque, you had to take over as the head sentinel on coruscant, moving into an apartment in the highly populated domestic sectors, walking a beat, helping out civilians, catching runaway pets and showing off your lightsabers to small kids (they are always fascinated by the fact that you have, not one, but two white lightsabers, something different, something unique).

You’ve made friends, encounters frequent, while you’re on shore leave, which is how you’ve found yourself in the latest fix: a wedding.

You’ve never been to a wedding before, as all of your friends are Jedi, bound by the code, but your now close friend Callia needed a plus-one to a wedding of one of you other friends, and you weren’t about to let her go alone. So, you had set off to do something you’d never done before: shopping.

It’s a wonderful experience, shopping is. The shops overwhelm you with colors you’d never see in the jedi temple- the flashiest thing you wear is the custom beskar chest plate you’d been gifted after a battle with a high ranking Mandalorian house member. The rest of your attire is strictly shades of brown and the white-and-teal clone armor you wear on your arms in combat.

So the silks and cottons and lush fabrics of the dress shop you’ve stepped into are a shock to you. Callia- bless her- is a whirlwind who does al the work for you, picking out ten different dresses of varying styles and colors appropriate for a wedding, tossing them (and you) into a dressing room.

After a rigorous amount of spinning and pinching and hemming and “hmm”ing and denying scandalous dresses, you come out with two dresses, one, “just in case,” and to “build your wardrobe,” because Jedi, apparently “dress like colorblind grandmothers,” according to Callia.

This is how you end up sitting on the bathroom counter of Calia’s apartment, letting her pint your face with brand new makeup - the products she has wouldn’t work on the tone of your skin, considering that she is Pantoran, and therefore, blue.

She’s radiant, of course, with the golden Pantoran formal headdress adorning her light hair, big eyes, drawn in dark eyeliner, light purple dress draped over her thin frame. She won’t let you look at yourself until she’s done with you. She grabs your chin, dabbing a dark pigment on your lips, smiling.

“Okay, look.”

You turn, eyes widening as you take in the reflection of a girl- not a Jedi. Who you could have been, had you found your way to coruscant on your own, without the help of the Jedi.

could you be attending your own wedding?

no.

There’s no room for doubt and The Force.

You inhale. Was this a mistake?

No, because this is the duty of a Sentinel. Live among the people. Personify the Jedi.

Your dress, a simple sage green dress with a square neck that reaches to your mid-calf, is perfectly fluffy enough for you to hide your sabers under the skirt, thanks to your thigh holsters.

Your hair is pinned back, artfully framing your face in just the right places, and the makeup Callia has painted on is the perfect simple face.

Understated, she calls it.

the rest of the night is uneventful- aside from you struggling to walk in your heels, the misting of your eyes at the sight of the pure happiness passing in the bride and groom’s faces as they tie the final bow and celebrate their union.

It’s warm when the reception ends. You hug your friends whose wedding you’ve just celebrated, wishing them luck through the force, and the you and Callia begin the journey home. On the transit, though, you take off the heels that have been killing your feet, leaving them in plain white socks. It’s okay, because you and Callia are the only ones in this carriage.

The stops drag on as you sit in silence, eyelids drooping, the high fading from the great time you’d had tonight.

The doors slide open to a ruckus, shaking you awake, Callia also takes her head off your shoulder, glancing distractedly at the door. Clones.

More specifically, royal blue painted clones. The 501st.

Fives, one of your favorites of Anakin’s troops, catches sight of you and does a double take.

“General?” he calls out. You smile tiredly at the matching sets of brown eyes that land on you, suddenly feeling completely out of place without your armor, sitting here in civvy clothes coming from a civvy event.

“Hey, boys,” you say, standing up and bowing to them respectfully, just as you would another jedi. “I didn’t know you were on leave, too.”

“Wait! Hold the doors!”

Another clone voice, and two pairs of pounding footsteps, and then a blond trooper enters. Rex, and… Anakin.

You stop short, locking eyes with him, until Callia breaks your intense stare, nudging you with her elbow, clearing her throat.

“Ah, yes. Everyone, this is Callia. Callia, this is Fives, Jesse, Tup, Kix and Hardcase. Over there, the blond, that’s Rex, he’s the Clone commander for the 501st legion. And… that one,” you point at Anakin, “Is General Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi of the Grand republic, the one I told you about.”

The significance of this phrase is loaded for each of you.

To Anakin, you suppose this might mean you’ve told Callia everything. Everything that he said, that he did to make you fall apart.

To you and Callia, you’re referring to the one you grew up training with, your former best friend, though you’ve spared her the details of the argument that made everything go south.

Callia, ever the extrovert, strides forward and pumps Anakin’s hand.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Y/n’s other best friend!”

Well, maybe you left out the former part of the relationship.

“…hi?” Anakin shakes her hand with his glove on, eyes still on you. “Other best friend, huh?”

“Well, she told me how you two grew up together and stuff, so yeah!”

“Callia,” You say. “This is your stop.”

Indeed, her cue to leave is indicated by the holo over the door.

“Oh, well, it’s was nice meeting you guys!” Callia waves to the group of clones gathered awkwardly in the corner of the compartment. They all wave back, vaguely confused by the Pantoran girl who promptly bounces out of the transit vehicle, blowing you a kiss right as the doors close.

“Well, she seems nice,” Anakin tells you, grinning slyly.“Bestie.”

you groan.

How is it that, through the vacuum of space, miles and miles away, you can sense his presence, but on the public Coruscanti transit system, somehow you’re surprised by his appearance?

“She doesn’t seem to grasp that I’m not allowed to have any ‘best friends’.”

Rex shakes his head.

“Don’t know you were living with the civvies, General.”

you shrug.

“It’s new. just this leave I’ve moved into the city.”

Fives shoulders his way to you, face alight with humor.

“What’s got you all dolled up, General? I didn’t think the Jedi were allowed to wear anything but browns.”

“You know, gives, that’s exactly what my friends said when the saw me.” you wave your shows in the air. “I was at a wedding.”

“A wedding.”

“Yes, Skywalker, a wedding. That’s what civilians do. They go to weddings and they go shopping and do all these pointless things just for the fun of it.”

Anakin steps toward you.

“Civilians? But you’d been doing so well at fitting in, with your friends.” He sneers the last word. “Now you refer to them as others?”

You step towards him, too, narrowing your eyes.

“I can have civilian friends, you know. That’s what Sentinels do. We can’t all just swing out lightsabers and blow things up and walk away without consequences.”

“No, face it, Y/n, you’re running. Like you always do.”

“You’re one to talk about running, Skywalker.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Suddenly, you’re hit with an overwhelming wave of weariness. You’re tired of arguing with him and the tense silences and the broken moments. Biting back a reproach, to tell him exactly what that means, you glance around.

The Clones are probably tired of it, too.

“Whatever, Skywalker. I’m not doing this with you again. It always ends with both of us going home hurting.”

Anakin’s perplexed by this, you can see it on his face. Behind him, Rex has a peculiar expression of relief on his face. He probably just wants to see Jex again without having to separate their generals from another screaming match.

Anakin’s shut up, at least.

“This is my stop. goodnight Rex, boys,” You pause, then, quietly, “Goodnight, Anakin.”

It’s not until you tuck yourself into bed and turn over that you realize that this has been the first day since his death that you’ve not thought of Bosque once.

Some part of you jolts at the notion of forgetting him, but how could you? He always was and is a huge part of your life, even in his absence.

And you will always hold him near, but that doesn’t mean you have to regret him all day every day.

You felt him today, you realize. Stepping back from the argument, bidding a polite goodnight to someone you could easily hate.

You can almost feel him hand on your shoulder, showing you the way.

———

Aaaaah starting off with the process of grief! Thanks for letting me ramble to you ;)

#anakin skywalker x jedi reader #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker #imagines #star wars #clone wars imagine #clone wars #captain rex #grieving #moving on

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razzmothazz · 4 months

Note

I can't, I wanted to finish coloring everyone first, but. I just can't NOT yap about at least one of them. So um. Matsu. He's my favorite I think?

(his necklace and nail polish are the colors of the unit members! I haven't come up with a unit name yet tho,,)

On the left there is Toshiro's (they/he) hand (they're the unit's leader) and on the right is Fumi (she/they) (who's kinda Matsu's friend from middle school)

I love him soooooo much, I may have projected onto him a little with the whole sea autism thing but uhm. I'm not going to give any of them canon labels (except for pronouns) (I want it to be kinda like pjsk itself, but I also just want to be able to play around with ships and their identities), but!!! More about Matsu. Despite not REALLY giving him any labels, he's very much intended to be autistic. He's insane abt marine life (the projecting part lmao) and especially sharks and ESPECIALLY thresher sharks (which is the shark I doodled there beside him with uh other stuff!). Currently he's geberally pretty cheerful and excitable, actually never shuts up, he starts talking and then it's just. Forever. (Not neg I love him so so so so much). He used to kinda get bullied in middle school and Fumi was a very timid child back then and was afraid she'd also get bullied, so she just coudknr bring herself to help, and she kinda blames herself for that right now, she grew to be very confrontational and a bit overprotective of Matsu, and I have like a whole part of the story planned about them coming to terms with everything and learning to not treat Matsu almost as a child as they kinda tenda to do, and I just love these two so much. Am I making sense? Idk this is just a stream of whatever I have going on). By the way!!! The fourth character Seina (she/her) who's completely out of frame in this cropped pic usually keeps Fumi's confrontational and slightly aggressive nature in check, she's overall very caring BUT of course I put some sad story there ue ue whatever (not whatever, I'm insane about her, but I'll talk about Seina more when I finish her part of the reference).

I haven't thought THAT much about these guys' relationships with canon characters, but since we're on the topic of Matsu (are we?? idk at this pojnt), I think at some point he met Emu and they got along pretty well! Maybe even became friends!!! I think they match each other's energy pretty well, even if with all his excitableness (is that a word in english idk) Matsu is still calmer than her, they definitely have some autism to autism comunication going on. Oh!!! Also. I started thinking about the characters' habits and quirks, and I think Matsu would make EXCESSIVE eye contact. This is partially from the impact left not only by ppl bullying him, but just yknow ppl around him as he was growing up. He's learning to be comfortable with not restricting himself around his friends, but *because* he learned that it's pretty much one of the only ways to at least somewhat fit in growing up, it's hard for him. But they care about each other so so so much and I love them. I just started talking about everyone somewhere along the uhh this whole ramble, so Toshiro!!! I haven't said much about them yet. They're actually partially inspired by my super cool and awesome aunt in some aspects of appearance and behavior, but I still piled a bunch of my own stuff to not just copy a real person,,,, anyways. He's the group leader, he pretty much brought everyone together? They all kinda had some sort of connection to each other previously to forming the unit, but uh. I haven't come up with exactly *how* they're gonna end up as a. Group? Band? Ehatever they are. I think I focused way more on their personalities so far, woops. But I'll get there eventually. Anyways. Right, Toshiro. I haven't developed them as much YET, but geneeal appearance stuff: they have vitiligo, pink-ish hair? Overall mostly a pink colorscheme (they're all color-coded yay). He's pretty into crystals and spirituality in general, also has some physical stuff going on (but I haven't exactly figured out what yet), he can't do a lot of physical activity, has kinda weak bones (Seina helps him out a lot when he needs it!!!), Toshiro is overall pretty energetic and tries his best in everything, tho tends to overwork himself a lot bc he's dead set on getting better at everything and making people around him proud and just being reliable. I also plan on expanding on this in the later story, I think so far the themes I put in their unit have a lot to do with letting go of the past (they ALL have that in common), not letting others' expectations ruin you, accepting yourself, all that. I was kinda worried they were walking too close to N25 at first, but I think it's all good actually, esp when I later expand on their story,,,, oh right also Seina. I think she's my second favorite, she's. I love her. ik I said I'm bot giving them any canon labels, but Seina and Fumi are so lesbians and so I love to me. And also I get arospec vibes from Seina BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT I SHOUDL BE TALKING ABOUT. She's kinds the mom friend of the group, always taking care of everyone. As i mentioned, she helps Toshiro with physical tasks when he needs it, keeps Funi out of trouble and also helps Matsu in socially overwhelming situations MY CAT JUST FELL OH MY GOD ok ok she's okay, anyways. But Seina had "failed" to helo a friend in the past, so now she's a bit obsessed with being helpful to everyone as much as she possibly could, or else she feels useless and worthless. And guess what I also plan a whole arc expanding on it and eventually the other members comfort her and they all work on it and the others try to also take care of her, and of course it takes a lot of time, but I like the idea of her uhh healing? Development idk, THIS bring shown slowly and over time. Okay. I think I finished yapping *for now*

I haven't come up with their virtual singers, name of the unit, sekai and A LOOOOTT of other stuff yet, but uhm. I have so many ideas oh god

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RAMBLE OH MY GOD THEY ALL SOUND SO CUTE SJDJHDNDNDNBFN I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!! this ask feels like were on a voicechat or smthn KSHDNDJD GLAD UR CAT IS OKAY IM

wow thats a lot and you thought abt their stories way more than i did for mine so far like even future developments and stuffs KSHDHDJDKCNFNNF but I LOVE THEIR DYNAMICS!!!!! Matsu has simiar vibes to my 1st pjsk oc Yuno!! theyre both energetic and full of autism so i think they would get along skdjdhbrnf IM ALREADY THINKING ABT MAKING THEM ALL FRIENDS SORRY- SJDNJCNFJD this just makes me so happy i love hearing about others ocs UR MIND!! U MADE THEM ALL SO !!!!

and id LOVE to see all of their designs when youre done with them and THE COLOR CODING!!! I LOVE COLOR CODING SJDHHFJD this is just. awesome i dont even have words just pure excitement at this point

OH ALSO BTW!!! if u wanna do relationships with canon characters i found this chart that might be helpful :3

i have no idea who originally made it cause its been reposted like a shit ton of times but!! its great and helpful in figuring stuff out :3

#VERY AWESOME!!!!!!!#pjsk #pjsk oc

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glazedtrash721 · 1 year

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GOLLY it's been a minute! But alas, I have returned with gifts! Said gifts consist of my Welcome Home self insert, but if she was in @clownsuu 's Mob AU!! Hooray!

This young member of the Neighborhood is, while incredibly meek and anxious, also extremely loyal and willing to do what it takes to protect those she cares about and to do what she's told. Eager to please, this keeps her well on Wally's good side, which benefits her greatly by keeping her out of a coffin for the time being. She originally came from another group that I made up called the Company, which explains the bar code on the base of her neck (as seen in the previous set of drawings) and much of her anxiety and lack of self identity. Though not the greatest at fighting, she can become quite violent when the others are at risk or in danger. So watch out, because she will start swinging! And boy, does she swing hard! Willow is also known for being oblivious to lots of things, while being extremely observant of how others feel. She is quite good at reading a room or how someone feels, and she is always quick to act or react accordingly.

Relationship charts and disguises under the cut!

Here's the relationship charts! Credit again goes to @clownsuu lol

Willow probably gets along best with Poppy, Eddie, Frank, and Howdy. She's terrified of Wally, but is still eager to impress him and (hopfully) build a stronger platonic relationship with him. She's also incredibly intimidated by Barnaby, and while she gets along with Sally and Julie, she finds them a little too experimental with her. She's only really heard of Doc and Robbie, but I feel like she would feel a combination of how she feels towards Howdy and Sally towards Robbie, that being interested, but exhausted and intimidated by his sheer amount of chaotic energy.

Likewise, Poppy, Eddie, and Frank probably like her the most in return. Howdy, as expected, is pretty neutral, but he finds her interesting. Wally doesn't dislike her either, primarily because she is incredibly loyal and obedient to him and the Neighborhood, and he finds her near-constant state of fear fun to observe. Barnaby and Sally find her a tad boring, and Julie, while also thinking Willow should lighten up a bit, is also pretty curious about her. Doc wouldn't pay much attention to her if he knew her any better, and I feel that Robbie would also find her a bit boring, but would be very interested in trying to get her to react to certain things.

Now, on the off occasion that the gang needs to get into disguises, this is what Willow's get-up would be! She's a bit of a "starving artist" of sorts, setting up an easel and canvas wherever she's told to (primarily by Wally), as she sits and observes her surroundings. She can also be used to look out for certain people and their whereabouts, as she can record her observations in her art through a sort of code that she created where certain colors, shapes, and even representational things represent different things. It's also easy for her to communicate with others, as well as have them communicate with her with little to no suspicion, so she's also a sort of "middle man" within the disguised group.

So yeah! There's Mob AU Willow!! Don't be surprised if I make more stuff about this AU, I absolutely LOVE it and it's been spinning in my brain like how a frozen single serving of veggie lasagna spins in the microwave. So! You best get used to this, because there may be more to come! :D

#welcome home #welcomehome #welcome home au #welcome home mob au #art #digital art #my art #welcome home oc #welcome home self insert #oc #AAAAAAHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS AU SO MUCH #I have done so much exessive daydreaming about this AU like no cap frfr #she's just a little silly #so so silly #also constantly afraid for her life #honestly? me too sis #that's because she's basically me!#not my au #I WISH I was as creative as clownsuu GOLLY GEE WILLIKERS

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lizzy-frizzle · 10 months

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I decided to write up a silly little Operator File, for if my arknights doctor OC was an operator instead

Operator Iremia: Incantation Medic

Basic Info [Code Name] Iremia [Gender] Female [Combat Experience] None [Place of Birth] Victoria [Date of Birth] May 5 [Race] Zalak [Height] 165cm [Infection Status] Medical tests have confirmed that no infection is present.

Physical Exam [Physical Strength] Normal [Mobility] Normal [Physical Resilience] Standard [Tactical Acumen] Standard [Combat Skill] Normal [Originium Arts Assimilation] Outstanding

Profile A contributing member of Rhine Lab’s Originium Art Section, Doctor Valerie decided to join Rhodes Island as operator Iremia due to personal differences with Rhine Lab’s goals. She’s made great strides while working under Dorothy Franks, and numerous life saving devices have been invented in her name. Aside from some memory issues, her knowledge of Originium should prove valuable at Rhodes Island.

Clinical Analysis Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, this operator is believed to be uninfected.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 0% Operator Iremia shows no signs of Originium infections.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.13u/L Operator Iremia deals often with Originium based experiments, but takes unusually excessive amounts of safety precautions. With the frequency and volume of these experiments, she should be monitored more regularly, however at this point we think it's unlikely she will get infected.

Archive File 1 When Iremia first joined Rhodes Island, she struggled to make friends. She’d often find herself eating alone in the cafeteria, or isolated in the labs performing all sorts of experiments. Some operators thought she was standoffish or rude. Though, after operator Dorothy joined, she started opening up more – thanks to Dorothy pulling her into conversations. This led to her befriending a number of other scientist and medical personnel – notably Rhine Lab operators and operator Weedy.

Archive File 2 Other operators have been coming to Iremia to change benign aspects of themselves, resulting in some files being inaccurate. It turns out that Iremia’s arts can alter people’s heights, weight, hair color, and various other physical aspects. Kal’tsit has issued a mandate that operators can no longer bother Iremia for these changes, as it has resulted in requiring to update approx. 200 files.

Kal’tsit, please send out a reminder, I’ve seen over a dozen operators with different -undyed- hair color this week. - Gavial

Archive File 3 Iremia has briefly discussed her desire for a cure to oripathy – chiefly her Mom. Iremia can still be found in her dorm crying over this subject, so please refrain from bringing it up unless she initiates.

Regardless her reasons, she has put more hours in the lab than Silence with regards to experiments and tests to further our understanding of the disease. This has led to infected operators finding Iremia to be genuine, and easy to confide in. However, this has also led to Iremia attending every infected operator’s cremation. This should be noted with regards to her mental health, and perhaps we should limit her access to them.

On top of all of this, Iremia has already found a way to slow minor infection rates to a surprising degree – though not effective against heavier infections. Even if it’s not a cure, this breakthrough has bolstered her confidence and mood substantially.

Archive File 4 Iremia has established several romantic relationships with other operators, so needless to say she’s adjusted to Rhodes Island. She’s been spotted making out with a number of others in hallway corners, and for some reason when this was brought up to Kal’tsit she seemed unsurprised, and unbothered. This has led to some operators starting betting pools on the exact number of partners Iremia has among Rhodes Island. The current highest bet is thirty operators.

Promotion Record ‘Eh? You want to know how I use my arts? Well...I just kinda...do it? I’m not sure what you were expecting...’

…

‘You want to know if I can take Originium out of people? No. I’ve tried...C-can we please drop this subject?’

…

‘My rings? They’re my own design! I made them at Rhine La-Oh, I might not be able to talk about them actually. I think Rhine Lab has the patent...’

#cute girl tower defence tag #my OCs #val writes things

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sophieswundergarten · 1 year

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(Also very much not to do with me digging through everyone's past fics for the last week /s)

I think the Benedict humans should have more unconventional/interesting communication methods!! Specifically, I was thinking of ASL, because I really love learning it, but then it occurred to me that it would be fun if each duo/trio/group in the family had their own preferred way to talk.

I imagine that all of the kids use morse code (They teach Martina and SQ), while the adults favour sign. Within that, of course Miss Perumal and Reynie speak Tamil, and I feel like Mr. Benedict and Sticky would use Greek or Latin with each other.

Milligan and Kate have some complex system that consists mostly of their farm-code terms and meaningful glances (Moocho can participate in most of it, but his meaningful glances aren't compatible with both of them at the same time, so it takes longer).

I think Sticky and Reynie would be the type of silly people to sit down and teach themselves, like, Quenya (A Tolkien elvish conlang) or something just for kicks. Kate tried to learn with them, but she wasn't having near as much fun so it's something just the two of them do. Mr. Benedict knows Sindarin (Other Tolkien elf conlang), but it doesn't help him much.

Constance and Mr. Benedict have perfected a form of communication that is exclusively reciting snippets of poetry to each other. It's actually kind of impressive. They make it a game, and when one of them uses a poet the other doesn't know, they break off to ask about it. This was initially supposed to be part of Constance's schooling and broaden her artistic horizons, but she's stubborn and kept coming back to it so as not to admit defeat (And it fully delights Mr. Benedict anyway, so he lets it continue until it's just another thing they do)

I'm going to (sort of) pull this from the books and say that the twins speak to each other in Dutch. Rhonda, Number Two, Milligan, and Sticky all know a little or have picked it up over the years just from being around Nicholas, but when he and Nathaniel are in a room together they go too fast for anyone else to follow properly.

For some reason, I feel like Rhonda and Number Two (Besides the obvious Sister Speak that they're beginning to let Constance into) would enjoy speaking German or French? I'm not super sure where that idea came from, but there you go. (Their sister ability to communicate is a lot of sideways glances and exaggerated facial expressions, but it is occasionally supplemented with hand signals)

SQ leaves little written notes everywhere. Sometimes he puts them in spots that he knows only one person will get into (The cabinet with Number Two's mixing bowls, Mr. B's pen drawer, Sticky's encyclopedia shelf), but he also likes to sneak them into jacket pockets and things. His favourite is to try and slip them into Kate's bucket. He likes to use a special color code for each person when he can, so that way if someone gets into the mixing bowls and sees a little yellow slip of paper, they'll know who it is intended for.

Reynie's been asking Milligan to teach him some "spy codes", so they will often communicate short messages with an Alpha-Bravo-Charlie and number strategy, mostly assigning each member of the family a short "callsign" of sorts and then using it to check where someone is with each other.

Constance and Sticky, surprisingly, have worked out a fairly good system with their cheating morse code. They got a lot better at it, and now can do it so subtly and quickly that it's hard for anyone else to catch.

Martina and Kate make up absurdly long nicknames and terms for activities/locations and turn them into acronyms. They are fantastically over-complicated and no one has even tried to puzzle out what they're talking about.

#I want to add more but this is all I can think of right now #Do with this what y'all will I just hope it made you smile at least a little #the mysterious benedict society #mbs #sq pedalian #mr. benedict #nicholas benedict #milligan wetherall #milligan #kate wetherall #reynie muldoon #constance contraire #sticky washington #martina crowe #rhonda kazembe #number two #moocho brazos #(slightly. he's there. i just haven't come up with anything specific for him yet.)

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oseathepebble · 2 years

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Marc Ambrose's Profile

"Watch your mouth, I can dig up any of your secrets."

"A student that never seems to see eye to eye with their housewarden. Meticulous and secretive, they always seem to know something about everybody from info gained through social media or other means."

Introducing my Twisted Wonderland OC, Marc Ambrose! He's my twstsona and also has some inspiration from AUTO from WALL-E and Lethe (the river of forgetfulness)

The sections on Marc's background and notable relationships have Ch. 6 spoilers!

Close Up + More Info Below

Technical Information

Name: Marc Ambrose

Japanese: マルク・アンブローズ

Other Names: Monsieur Petit (Rook) Anchovy (Floyd) Rabid Racoon (Leona) Pebble (Ignihyde Members)

Meaning: His first name, Marc means "brave" or "virile" His family name, Ambrose means "immortal"

Voice Claim: Ayumu Murase

Biographical Information

Gender: Bigender

Marc experiences exactly two gender identities, either simultaneously or varying between the two (Male and Female)

Pronouns: He/Him, They/Them, She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual

He has no preference between men and women

Age: 18

Birthday: October 26

Starsign: Scorpio

Height: 148 cm (4'10)

Eye Color: Cocoa Brown

Hair Color: Wood Bark Brown

Homeland: Island of Woe

Family: Father, Mother

Professional Status

Dorm: Ignihyde Dorm

School Year: Third

Class: 3-B, Student No. 12

Occupation: Student

Club: Board Game Club

Though Idia is in the club, Marc still joined the club since no other club really interested them

Best Subject: Art

Due to one of Marc's hobbies being drawing, art became one of their best and favorite subjects

Fun Facts

Dominant Hand: Right

Favorite Food: Pork Adobo

Pork Adobo is one of the foods he grew up eating, the taste comforts him

Least Favorite Food: Dill Pickles

He finds the taste of dill pickles to disgusting, though he finds other pickled vegetables to be better tasting

Dislikes: Disorganization

Marc hates it when their things aren't organized. But that doesn't mean color-coded or sorted by name, they have a place for everything. To some, their idea of organization may be different, but to him, it makes sense

Hobby: Drawing

They have many sketchbooks filled with drawings they do, as they find drawing to be calming and a nice way to pass time. They also do digital art when they have the time

Talent: Hacking

Marc is able to hack into other databases, other people's devices, and security systems with ease. Due to years of doing it, they're able to leave little to no trace when hacking

Appearance

Marc is a short person with beige skin, brown eyes, and wavy, chin-length brown hair that he ties into a ponytail with 2 chunks of hair in the front. Their nails are painted black and they wear glasses. Above their left eyebrow is a beauty mark, usually covered by their hair. They also have 2 ear piercings, one on their lobe and one on their helix. They typically wear a small silver stud on their lobe and a small silver hoop on their helix

He wears his school uniform with the blazer unbuttoned. His tie is tied into a bow. He pairs his uniform with black platform loafers which makes him 5'0 when wearing them

Personality

To others that don't know Marc personally, he appears to be shy and reserved. But really, he is a loud and chaotic person. He can become very angry and abrasive if the right things set him off. It's not a rare sight to see him get emotional over certain things. His more chaotic nature only comes out when he's with people he's comfortable with, online, or alone. Otherwise, he does get shy in public

Marc isn't one to make empty threats. Though he doesn't look very threatening, many have found out they aren't one to be messed with as he does follow through with his words. He also keeps many secrets from others, such as how he obtains information of others and some of his abilities

Though he is chaotic, Marc is still very detail-oriented when it comes to his work. Whether that be his programs, machines, or school work he has to make sure everything is right and perfect. He prefers to know all the details of assignments before proceeding with doing them

He's often regarded as the "Loudest Member of Ignihyde" due to how it's not uncommon to hear them yelling at games or such in their room and how he tends to socialize more than most members of the dorm

Skills and Magic

Info Gathering: Marc is very good at gathering information about his fellow students. He does this through hacking, social media, or by observing them in person. If given a name, he can find public and private information about them

Programming: He is a very skilled programmer for their age

Machine Creation and Maintenance: He knows how to create various machinery and perform maintenance on them. He's done maintenance on several magic wheels

Explosive Making: Marc knows how to make various types of explosives and has extensive knowledge of them. This includes fireworks

Fire Magic: Marc is very adept at fire magic. Most of the spells he's mastered are fire spells

Unique Magic

Marc's Unique Magic is "Flames of Remembrance" With it, he can remove any memory from a person's head

After the memory is removed, it manifests as a small, blue flame. If the flame goes out, the memory ceases to exist. But if kept in a jar, it can be maintained, and if so desired, returned to the person it's from. The flame doesn't burn things or produce heat, it is simply just a manifestation of the memory. The only things that can make the flame go out are if Marc blows on it or if it's left outside for too long (hence why it's kept in a jar for preservation)

To give the person back their memory, they have to be the one to blow out the flame. It is possible for Marc to give someone another person's memory. But it is something they don't do unless it gives them an advantage since they can't give themself other people's memories

Background

Marc was born in the Shaftlands, but a few months after they were born, their parents were offered a job at S.T.Y.X. by Idia's parents, who they were friends with. And so Marc grew up on the Island of Woe with Idia and Ortho

At a young age, Marc's parents expressed their expectations for him. They wanted them to maintain a proper appearance, excel in school to keep up their family name, and later on become a person fit for a job at S.T.Y.X. Marc tried so hard to meet their expectations but this led to burnout

The only fun they had was when they got to hang out with Idia and Ortho and play video games. Being around them and S.T.Y.X Laboratory in general, they picked up many talents and skills

After Ortho's death and Idia shut himself away from others, Marc was alone. So their parents sent them away to go to a middle school in the Shaftlands. After they came back from their first year of middle school, they were up to date on current trends and had a new love of social media. Idia didn't like this new Marc, the new difference in their personalities cause them to start fighting. They came to despise each other even though they had been friends ever since they were babies

Upon coming to NRC, Marc hoped to not be put in the same dorm as Idia. Though it still ended up that way, much to their dismay. They continued to bicker and despise each other

As the years went on and Marc made new friends, the divide between the two became greater. Marc had wanted to be the dorm leader but when Idia became it, he was angry. And what made him even angrier was that Idia refused to make Marc his Vice Dorm Leader. The two had the biggest fight they had that day

Marc tries their hardest to separate themself from Idia and their past together, but no matter what, it seems like they always end up being stuck with him. Whether that be through the fact they're in the same dorm, class, and club, or the fact Marc is destined to just become another employee of S.T.Y.X. that works under the Shrouds

Notable Relationships

Idia Shroud: Idia and Marc are childhood friends. They used to be very close but as time passed and the two grew older, they drifted apart. Conflicts started arising between the two of them. Now they refuse to acknowledge the fact they were once friends and often argue with each other. But despite their dislike of each other, the two are frequently seen near each other, which has led some members of Ignihyde to believe the two secrety liked each other

It was Idia who gave Marc the nickname "Pebble" It used to be used in an affectionate manner when the two were kids, but now it carries a negative connotation. The two do have certain moments where they get along, but it doesn't take long for them to go back to hating each other

Ortho Shroud: Ortho and Marc were close as kids. Since Marc is an only child, they often treated Ortho like he was their little brother. When Ortho died, Marc was as sad and distraught as Idia was. Though he has mostly moved on, Marc is sometimes reminded of the incident when he looks at robot Ortho. Despite Marc's hatred for Idia, he still loves Ortho and treats him nicely. Ortho tries to get him to make up with Idia, but so far his efforts have been in vain

Azul Ashengrotto: Marc finds Azul to be very interesting. He adores him and finds his nature to be cool. He's the reason why Marc is still in the Board Game Club. Azul is the one who urged Marc to "know their worth" and gave them the idea to start charging others for his info-gathering services. The two are extremely close and Marc often visits Octavinelle and the Mostro Lounge just for Azul

Over time Marc developed a crush on him. He had accidentally confessed to Azul but immediately used his UM on him to make him forget. Ever since that day, Marc has been working up the courage to properly confess to him

Cater Diamond: Cater and Marc met through Magicam in middle school. The two became online friends and were very close. They were ecstatic to discover they were both going to NRC. They often talk about social media and current trends together. They confide in each other about personal matters. Though they may give each other horrible advice, they both have each other's back and will do anything for the other

They both got piercing together to solidify their relationship as best friends. When they go to cafes, Cater orders sweets just to post and lets Marc eat them after. Sometimes they have sleepovers where they paint each other's nails and Marc tells Cater all the new info he's learned

Riddle Rosehearts: Riddle and Marc have found out they have a few things in common. Mostly the fact that they both have parents that expect a lot out of them. Riddle appreciates having someone to talk to about his home life to that understands what he's going through. Marc listens to all his troubles and gives him comfort when he needs it. He attempts to get Riddle to do more chaotic and spontaneous things with him

Marc has offered to talk to Riddle's mom for him and tell her everything that's wrong with her parenting style, but Riddle refused

Trivia

They carry a taser around with them

They know secret passageways throughout NRC and often use them to move undetected

They are partially blind in their right eye

They have two Magicam accounts, a personal account, and a drawing account

He once accidentally caused a mini explosion in the rooms of Ignihyde. He was forced to pay for the damage

He has bitten someone's fingers before

If the opportunity presents itself, Marc steals people's shoelaces

#I WANTED TO HAVE THIS DONE ON HIS BIRTHDAY BUT I FAILED #CRYING #BUT AT LEAST NOW THEY'RE DONE #marc ambrose #twisted wonderland #twst #ツイステッドワンダーランド #ツイステ #twst oc #twstsona #ignihyde oc

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misscammiedawn · 8 months

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Penlight - Spoiler Analysis/Review Post 1 (Nozomi Route)

Download Penlight (Pay what you like) from Itch.io here

My other Penlight reviews: Quick Review - Sayori (Part 1 - Doll) - Sayori (Part 2 - Alter)

Turq's reviews: Hiroko Robot - Hiroko Tickling - Nozomi Zombie

So I had reviewed the game Penlight before and wanted to give some more praise on its narrative choices and themes. I felt the best way to do that was to break down the routes I enjoyed and what I learned from them.

Before I begin I wanted to say much of the discussion here breeds in from @spiralturquoise and I going back and forth on this game for weeks. Turq is writing a post as well and though we share many viewpoints we come from different angles. We are also aware that we have our own biases and headcanons which we may present as fact, Nozomi being AroAce for example. This post represents a read of the game and we actively encourage people to have their own reads and share them so we may read them.

My posts are going to be plot overviews with analysis. Turq had a fantastic bit of commentary on my first post and I wanted to keep the conversation running.

This post is from the perspective of someone who either has already played and enjoyed the game or someone who isn't going to be convinced to play without having been spoiled first.

If you're on the fence, play the game, come back. It's a few hours commitment and so worth your time.

The post will be here when you get back <3

So as of the latest public release this is the route map:

It sort of looks like the map of Dracula's Castle.

Also this post and any future posts will only feature content from the public release. Nozomi Reversal route is actually polished as of writing for Patreon members with a better script and CG for the ending. This is using version 0.1602.1.

As you can see the game is pretty broad. The map is color-coded between the Brown (Nozomi), Blue (Sayori), Pink (Hiroko), Purple (Consequences) and Salmon (Villain) routes.

Ignore the green, those are just to highlight the latest changes to the map from prior versions.

So I thought I'd handle my Spoiler posts the same way. Brown, Blue, Pink, Purple and then... I think I'll skip Salmon. I have no real desire to play the villain routes.

Though I was happy to see this in the Q&A segment of the Discord:

I am glad this game continues to deny any attempt at vindicating unethical choices.

Anyway. With that preamble. Let's get started with Nozomi's paths...

To begin the Nozomi route Kyou will mention that he has been studying hypnosis and this will trigger Nozomi meeting with him at a cafe after school to ask about his experiences.

She admits that she has been into hypnosis for several years, fluctuating between shame and pride in her interest, admitting that she had not intended to practice in real life until she found herself volunteering for the hypnosis show during the previous cultural festival, an impulsive action that was driven by her repressed desires, she notes that she did not plan on volunteering until her hand was already in the air.

Nozomi regrets that she did not get a chance to bond with the senior who ran last year's show and is now admitting it to Kyou.

From the offset the power dynamics are skewed. Nozomi views Kyou as a stalker and knows he has no friends to practice with. But she is also quick to keep things even by admitting her fetish, overtly admitting she "gets off" on the topic, noting how giving this information to Kyou is a risk.

In showing too much of her hand, Kyou, who does not himself have a hypnosis fetish, despite his study, gets a window into her fantasies.

Nozomi enjoys hypnosis and is excited by it.

Nozomi fantasizes about giving up complete control.

But she is aware that such scenarios only exist within the realm of fantasy and she understands hypnosis enough to know that such a thing could never happen and because she knows this. Because she has found someone who knows how hypnosis works. Because she regrets not being able to make a connection with the last person she could connect about hypnosis with, she tells him she wants him to hypnotize him.

What comes next is the first hypnosis scene, which takes place in Kyou's home.

Every route of the game follows the same timeline for the most part. Most of them keep to a week or two time frame where some others stretch out over months. But the facts of the timeline are always true. Many of these facts will come into play later on but it's important to note them because the writing around these "canon events" is tight.

Kyou's father works until late and will always have a business trip to excuse his absence for weekends. I believe I have only seen him show up one time in the entire visual novel, referenced in text as Kyou speaks about his previous night.

So with an empty home Nozomi comes over and sets down the ground rules.

Sessions are to be discussed in full before approaching hypnosis. All sessions are to be recorded. All suggestions are going to be tidied up at the end.

Kyou performs a quick down-up with a simple number amnesia suggestion (albeit there is a blank choice for a future route where you break her consent at this time) before Nozomi realizes that she needs to go home for dinner and heads out leaving Kyou feeling that the scene had no adequate deescalation and he's left to feel things were left off without a conclusion or understanding with where he and Nozomi stand in their freshly ignited entanglement.

I want to get into the canon events a little more later on, but there is a level of beautiful dramatic irony that DeMille tends to take when it comes to how she approaches similarities in the routes and consistency of the characters or timeline, particularly in how Kyou's choices impact the characters. Hiroko is the most notable example as her tennis scholarship can be at risk even if the surrounding events of the week cause her to worry. Her emotional state mingles in with how she plays tennis, after all.

I explain this as each character is well written on their timelines and depending on how early or late you play Nozomi's route in your exploration, you may find that Nozomi's evening actions are more flexible than the other girls. With Hiro and Sayori there are external factors at play with their tennis, study club and cram school commitments. With Nozomi the amount of time she gives or refuses to give, with very few exceptions, is her choice alone. She also denies Kyou justifications, though they tend to mostly be around her not wanting to explain herself to friends and family. Sometimes we know from other routes why she is unavailable, sometimes we do not. It helps put the player in Kyou's perspective. Not knowing if they can trust if Nozomi is getting her fill and abandoning Kyou or if the pair are doing a poor job of planning their scenes to include deescalation, debrief and aftercare.

Kyou's confusion grows the next day when Nozomi refuses to associate with him at school the next day. A theme which grows larger in two of the routes. Feeling like he is a shameful secret, much like Nozomi's interest in hypnosis, Kyou is forced to wait until Nozomi returns for more sessions, completely in the dark as to where he stands.

When he asks for clarification on this topic Nozomi makes it very clear.

She has no intention of dating anyone.

From here you are given the option of either respecting her boundaries or pretending to. Pretending to locks you in to a bad ending from the Delusion route.

Agreeing will begin the divergence in the tree to chose from 3 options. From here on I'll be focused less on plot outlines and more on plot analysis as it is at this point the themes of the game begin paying off.

Trance: Kyou introduces a reinduction trigger and the pair explore the kink with increasing levels of thrill seeking. We get to see the risks of abandoning safe framework, the hurt that comes from compartmentalizing your kink and social lives.

Reversal: Nozomi is offered the penlight and becomes the dominant. We get to see how the girls must have felt under the penlight's sway and experience Kyou being unambiguously mistreated without the fallback of "it was his own fault"

Zombie: A massive abreaction happens and the focus of the story falls upon safety and mitigating damage in hypnosis scenes.

So let's do them one at a time.

Trance:

One of the biggest themes of this game is that hypnosis is a collaborative action that takes place with communication, trust and caution. As I had mentioned in the initial review post any of the endings which are considered "good" involve the penlight being broken as it represents a "one way" process of hypnosis, whether it be overriding agency, skipping communication/feedback or removing safety.

It's my personal view that the penlight represents the toxic elements of a hypnotic relationship and compress the timeline of damage from years into a single week. It's one of the few things that Turq and I diverge in from our reads. It's also why I think Turq's review of the Nozo-Trance route is going to be the definitive one, in the same way I intend my analysis on the Sayori-Alter route to be definitive when I get around to writing it. My history with the toxic elements of hypnosis all revolve around a lack of safety in hypnosis itself, after all and that is the lens I approach things from.

The reason I say that is because the Trance route is firmly based in the relationship aspects of hypnosis and how trust, communication and collaboration need to be established.

Nozomi continues to treat Kyou as a trance dispenser in this route, disappearing when their scenes are concluded. She also intends for hypnosis to only work when they are in Kyou's home as a way to ensure it is secret from the world and no one can know the things that she is interested in.

This leads to the route being divided between scenes at Kyou's home where the pair slowly erode their safeties to introduce more and more exciting ideas into their mix and school scenes where Kyou is ignored by an increasingly standoffish Nozomi who refuses to acknowledge Kyou's existence outside of sceneplay.

Kyou even says it himself in narrative "I might be the one hypnotizing her, but it's really me following her suggestions around here."

When Kyou stands up for himself and says that he didn't even know if he needed to prepare for Nozomi's arrival her reply is nonchalant.

At the start of the route Nozomi was eager to be fully communicative of all things and yet as her comfort with this arrangement has continued she has assumed more and more that Kyou would be willing to go along with anything she wanted. The divide between them grows more as Kyou finds that his day-to-day life hasn't really shifted as much as he would hope.

So... if "good communication and mundane hypnosis" is part of the condition for a good ending, what is a condition for a bad ending?

Outside of the obvious outcomes such as being expelled or punished, a decent number of endings have Kyou given the responsibility of caring for another human being who no longer has agency.

The game is always clear that when collaboration breaks down but the hypnotic relationship remains then one party is having to do all of the work and it is not a good thing. There is no ending in the game where Kyou is willing to or enjoys having a mindless and controlled partner.

That's important to note because with the understanding of Kyou's comfort there we know that collaboration and a relationship (not dating, just a relationship) is what he desires and in this route he is not receiving that because Nozomi stonewalls him.

What's worse is that she's not even put any thought into the fact Kyou may feel this way.

But hey. It's not like he's a mind reader or anything...

Oh by the way the suggestions have subtext to them. We'll get to that a bit more with the Nozo-Reversal route.

From here Nozomi has Kyou say her trigger phrase (and almost crashes into the floor because there's no safety in place for how she flops) and Kyou has her come clean.

Nozomi is finding it increasingly more arousing how little control she feels she has when she is in Kyou's home and much of her fantasies involving hypnosis revolve around a complete helplessness.

The fact that the penlight is overriding her caution, repression and agency is something that she finds actively enticing and even the act of being forced to confess her "shameful" kink is alluring to her.

This squicks Kyou out enough that you are forced to make a decision on if you even wish to pursue a relationship with her. A sign that even the person enabling her fetish isn't fully accepting of it. A bad ending will occur if Kyou decides not to continue, but to continue he now finds himself on the slope and catering to her desires.

The problem is, they're not communicating.

Nozomi told him all of this under hypnotic compulsion. She is no closer to reconciling the shame from her sexuality but now she has revealed the depths of it to Kyou and he has taken it as instructions. In exchange Nozomi will try to include Kyou in her life more.

Kyou then goes online and begins reading ReadOnlyMind stories and learning what he thinks a hypnofetishist would enjoy and has come away from the encounter believing that Nozomi actively desires having her agency removed. The lack of communication allowed him to know what Nozomi desires and he has mistaken it for what she wants.

Further up the slope and with some dangerous new ideas of what their fun and games should be, Kyou visits Nozomi's home on Saturday and discovers that his post hypnotic suggestions still work on her outside of Kyou's home.

In every route Kyou is a believer of the "essential lie" of hypnosis. "No one can do anything under hypnosis that they didn't want to do."

That will come up a lot. The Delusion path is a thorough takedown of the idea in general.

Here it informs Kyou that Nozomi is eager to surrender her agency and removes another layer of safety. The rule that the suggestions only impacted at Kyou's home has eroded.

The pair commit to some kinky shenanigans and Nozomi's mother almost catches them doing some hypnotic rope play that is well handled in CG art and I shall not deprive you the enjoyment of seeking it yourself (the game is "pay what you want" on itch) but stands to show two things.

Kyou is having more fun like this and Nozomi is becoming increasingly comfortable with her desires and allowing for more risk taking.

Also there's a choice between spanking and tickling and I firmly believe that this is the most overtly erotic scene in the entire game. Kyou keeps testing her limits and whether it be via the penlight or Nozomi being free to explore her kink without any shame, she keeps on matching his challenge at every turn, seemingly enjoying every second of it, even when they court the danger of discovery.

Kyou even notes a few times that she never breaks scene at any point for her own comfort or security.

...I will save my personal commentary on hypnotee agency until Sayori's review... But I have thoughts.

At the end of the day in which Nozomi insists Kyou needs to head home, Kyou suspects he is being brushed off again because Nozomi had her fill from the scene and no longer wishes to be around him. She says that she has no more time for the weekend and will see him on Monday.

Kyou decides to press back and hypnotically forces her to come to him the next morning. They even stay up online to discuss their next scene.

Unfortunately Sunday is, in every single route of the game, Hiroko's tennis tournament and Nozomi must dedicate her day to being with her bestie and throwing her a karaoke party afterwards.

But her compulsion commands her to go to Kyou and so she does, abandoning her friend.

The next morning they have a roleplay scene that is increasingly high stakes and Kyou continues to press his advantages, unaware of the sheer power of the penlight. She even gets Nozomi to her underwear with very little effort.

Though the scene requires a little bit of management afterwards, Nozomi forgetting that her clothes are her own, it was an enjoyable experience for them both.

But then her phone pings and she is informed that she is missing Hiroko's game. She insists she has to leave and Kyou, not understanding the importance of this event, pushes back and assumes that she is once again ditching him because the scene is over and she does not want to deal with Kyou outside of their play.

There will eventually be a route where you get to hypnotically command her to stay but for now Kyou accepts that she has to leave.

Having let down her best friend, Nozomi withdraws and goes back to the former arrangement, scolding Kyou via text message for attempting to pester her during school and says that she needs to take some time to focus on study, leaving Kyou feeling abandoned again.

Something they both fail to do as they fail their mock exams hard and this leaves Nozomi feeling yet more shaken and wanting to retreat from kink.

However she believes that if they just "get it out of their systems" they'll be free from their obsessions. Leaning further into the slope that the pair are on.

The safety and sanity have long since vanished off of the horizon in their risk profile and consent has been on a broken foundation since the start.

What follows is a scene where they bring their kink into school hours. Creating an open trigger (with no safeties) that will reenact the tickling/spanking trigger from the weekend.

It goes poorly. Regardless of the effect Nozomi will feel it continuously for the full lunch hour and it gets worse with every iteration of the trigger.

That night the pair attempt to mitigate the damage and once again the thrill of the high is placed above the detriments it is having on their social lives.

So Kyou decides to escalate instead of deescalate.

This is not a good idea.

The scene escalates until Nozomi is on her knees wearing nothing but her underwear and unable to speak above a whisper, exclusively referring to Kyou as "Sir". The further into the scene the pair get the more Kyou shapes himself to become the type of hypnotist he believes Nozomi dreams of.

At this point you are given your final options for the endings:

Make me a cheese omelet - Become my girlfriend - Become mindless for me.

Nozomi actively resists the penlight and tries to physically restrain Kyou to prevent him snapping his finger or pressing her forehead to force her to be his girlfriend. This is the one boundary that you had to accept at the start of the route to allow things to get to this point. You literally cannot reach this moment without Kyou agreeing to respect that boundary and breaking it is a guaranteed bad ending. Either Kyou steals Nozomi away from her friendgroup and the pair will sink into their kink exploration with no allowances for their school, career prospects or external friends to interfere or Nozomi will succeed in stopping Kyou from robbing her of her agency and leave him for breaking her one rule.

The "mindless" ending is... dark. I'd rather not go over it as it doesn't make additional points other than having Kyou finally understand his penlight robs people of agency, which he does not learn in this route until the very end.

The omelet ending is a sweet and tender scene between the pair which has an ethical jumping off point.

The next day Nozomi slips and refers to Kyou as "Sir" during school hours and her friends instantly get on her case about it.

I should note here that Sayori knows Nozomi's fetish in every route. These little bits of characterization that remain constant through all of the routes really add flavor to certain interactions.

The true growth comes when Nozomi, seeing Sayori interrogating Kyou and thinking the worst of him, comes in and offers to invite her friends to Kyou's house to tell them everything.

Once there she discovers all the programming tied to being at Kyou's home kicks back in to both party's surprise. Kyou agrees to remove all suggestions so they can talk.

The subject of the penlight is raised and they finally realize that it is a bit special...

Kyou puts it eloquently here:

The penlight is destroyed leading to the golden ending of the route. Nozomi, realizing how much damage the pair had done in their chase of thrills, cuts off from hypnokink to focus on her studies.

After a timeskip she meets up with Kyou after exams and says she has been watching hypnosis videos again recently and asks if they can start exploring again without the penlight.

She accepts that she still does not want to date but she may end up treating Kyou as a trance dispenser again if she approaches without an arrangement and Kyou says he doesn't want to push her. The pair communicate and agree that they just want to explore out of friendship and interest.

Nozomi kisses Kyou on the cheek and it is clear an establishment of trust has been made and the pair will find something more healthy this time.

Now... I'm the type of person who enjoys watching "analysis" videos that just tell the plot beat for beat and I would need so many more hours to even attempt that for the entire game so I'll be more swift with the other two, especially as a lot of similar ground is covered. I'll likely do a more full breakdown of Alter route for Sayori but let's get through the other two a bit faster...

Reversal:

One of the main reasons I wanted to do Trance route in full and show off how the entirety of a route plays out is that the knowledge of how other routes play out help so very much with the retelling and expanding on the themes.

If Nozomi takes possession of the penlight then Kyou will become her plaything for the duration of the route. Her behavior is not altered, however. Her risk profile is, however.

In the Trance route Nozomi wants to put strict safety and restrictions on early play because she is afraid of being discovered and does not fully trust Kyou to play with her mind. She does not hold the same reservations in reverse, however. So what happens when someone who ditches scenes without deescalation is running the scene?

A constant "Bad" condition on any route is an open trigger/suggestion that bleeds outside of play spaces. We say a lot of that with the restrictions of Kyou's hypnosis only supposed to work within Kyou's home in the trance route and how things get worse when that restriction is tested and broken. In other routes one of the absolute worst situations is the impact of a suggestion exiting the scene and stretching out into the world.

God I should have started with Sayori...

As a sidenote, Hiroko's route actually has some mildly positive impact (at least not inherently BAD) of play stretching out beyond scenes. But Hiroko's routes are a little more light hearted than the serious lectures on communication, safety and abreactions that Sayori and Nozomi's routes deal with.

So Nozomi's first command is to perceive her as invisible and she runs off to her evening plans without closing out the suggestion.

As I said earlier, the suggestions are symbolic at times.

One of the most interesting things about this route is that we get to see what the girls experience with their time going under for the penlight. Most of the inductions involve Kyou starring at the penlight for a few text boxes and then waking up with no clue as to what happened.

Kyou also likes asking his hypnotee their opinion on topics and finds that they're always accommodating and accepting of his playstyle. Nozomi was remarkably good about all of the events that transpired in the Trance route after all...

Sorry, Kyou...

The penlight makes it so enjoyable to go into hypnosis that you cannot really advocate for yourself. Hypnotee Agency is not a thing in most of these routes and the Reversal route makes this clear. There is only one actual choice you can make in the entire route and it's only there because Nozomi tells Kyou to make it.

Incidentally the bad ending of the route (newly added as of this update) is unlocked by making the insignificant choice of "pat head" or "striptease".

Turq and I have a mild disagreement on this moment. I believe that when Nozomi sees that Kyou is willing to and incapable of stopping himself from getting naked for her she is so turned on (sexually or otherwise) by her level of control that she is pushed over the edge of morality. Turq's read is that she dehumanizes Kyou in that moment and loses empathy for him that leads to the good ending.

Odd that the sex-repulsed asexual has the read that she was turned on.

Anyway...

Nozomi continues to ignore Kyou at school and come to his house at night to brainwash him and selfishly steals him away for Hiroko's tennis match, asserting that she is going to take him with her for the celebration.

Funny. In Trance route Kyou subvert's Nozomi's agency to have her skip the tennis match, in Reversal route Nozomi subvert's Kyou's to force him to attend.

In this route she doesn't mind associating with Kyou with her friend group because she is in control and doesn't feel like the association will out her or be a mark of shame for her being a "freak" (her word, not mine).

She puts Kyou through a mortifying scene and bullies her friends around to get her way with making it happen, the power of the penlight having brought up some bullyish tendancies within her. She wants to check in that Kyou is okay but as before he is only allowed to agree.

During school she continues her unempathetic behavior and starts a big fight with her friends when they attempt to talk to Kyou and she continuously talks over him and at one point she even commands him not to say a word.

Nozomi's behavior is fairly toxic at the end of the fight, going as far as to pull a guilt tripping "I'm horrible" as a way to distance Sayori.

The controlling behavior and lack of communication, trust and safety bleeds out once again as she commands Kyou to tell her the truth about if she is a horrible controlling monster and he does.

He tells her she has not been fair. That she stopped cleaning up her suggestions the moment she took over. She took Kyou's stated limit (not wanting to sing karaoke) and instantly overrode it. She forces Kyou to hang out with her friends but does not extend him empathy or kindness. She just treats him as a toy.

Like. Literally. He tells her outright.

This causes Nozomi to get defensive and demand that if Kyou was so upset then why did he chose to continue obeying. We are then lead to the good end or bad depending on the earlier scene.

In the good end Nozomi breaks the penlight realizing what she has done and in the bad she becomes Miss Akemi and makes full use of the penlight.

The deprogramming scene that follows is actually remarkably tender and sweet with all the tenderness of someone's first hypnosis scene, checking back and forth if the other is okay, Nozomi knows she has gone too far and is so careful in this sequence.

To add in to how tender and connected the hypnosis scene is, this time there is no brutal cut between penlight and waking. We are in Kyou's perspective the whole time as his eyes slip closed and he follows Nozomi's voice through the experience. We get to see Kyou reacting to Nozomi's words and experiencing the delightful relaxation and trust he has in Nozomi during these moments. He wonders if he is actually hypnotized while agreeing in thought to go with it.

Eyes open and close for fractionation and each time the artwork fades in and out, Nozomi's expression becoming more serious and/or concerned as it continues.

Questions of if it's working become certainty and Kyou even notes "I can't resist" not because his agency is overridden but because he tests his eyes and knows he cannot open them and that's okay.

"I just want to listen."

This is by far the longest hypnosis sequence in the game and it is essential that this be the case as it is the thesis statement of the game being played out. We are not witnessing the trust and tenderness of a well communicated and safe hypnosis scene, we are experiencing it.

The ending even has Nozomi accept the consequences of her behavior and make-up with her friends, admit her fetish which is one of the hardest things to achieve in any given run and Kyou is earnestly and honestly part of their friendgroup. Nozomi notes that she may wish to buy a pocketwatch in the future.

In terms of "good end" this is one of my favorite because Kyou gets to be friends with everyone, Nozomi comes to terms with her repressed desires and we get one of the most pure displays of hypnosis in the entire experience.

I am curious about other people's feelings on this one.

I'm running on fumes for the remainder so maybe I'll cover "Zombie" route later.

All I will say is that it is a route that is begun by Kyou having Nozomi imagine herself as a zombie, likely thinking of the Chinese Zombie trope of arms stretched outright and looking dehumanized. Nozomi takes it literally and tries to bite Kyou's flesh off.

This entire route is punctuated by abreactions and hypnotic safety. We are reminded of our fuck-up throughout the route by a giant bruise on Nozomi's character model (and lack of glasses for much of it) and it is the only route where all three of the main girls get involved with the experimentation around hypnosis right from the get-go.

With everyone clearly communicating and trying to accommodate for safety we still, in the mock stage hypnosis scene, get an abreaction despite every suggestion being very well laid out. It's almost weird how well packaged they are in this route and highlights how sloppy the suggestions are in the rest of the game.

The idea being that no amount of safety is going to cover everything. When we play with hypnosis we cannot possibly know every single thing about every single person we play with and mistakes can and will happen and we have to both own that and minimize the amount of harm we do by being tidy but also by talking out suggestions first and not springing them on people.

No matter how careful we are there will always be mistakes and it is better to deal with those mistakes before the scene than during it.

It's actually a remarkably good fable and makes a stunning point. I think that erasing all the barriers (Nozomi's shame of being discovered, Hiroko assuming the worst of Kyou, Sayori being involved enough to be the sane one in the room who has researched enough to know what is true and not attached like Kyou and Nozomi enough to not let things slide) and showing Kyou make sensible suggestions is the best way to approach this.

Even in the best possible timeline where there are no external factors and everyone is on their best behavior you can still mess up.

...and boy howdy we are going to mess up a lot in the rest of the game.

Next time I'm going to trauma dump on you all and type more than is necessary about Sayori's routes and reveal why my Penlight tag is "Sayori is best girl".

But for now... I have typed a lot and I do not wish to type any longer.

Eagerly awaiting Turq's post.

#camden posting #dawn posting #sayori is best girl #penlight #visual novel #hypnokink #I need a blended tag for when a post isn't solely authored in a specific headspace #media essays

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devilbeez · 5 months

Text

Let me take you through the journey of me speed running my portfolio, smile

Mostly because I need somewhere to write this and word doc wouldn’t give me feed backs

Note that this will be very wonky because I have not thought of anything but the concept— I have 1 out of 6 characters figured out so imma color code them and call them by alphabet

Concept and inspiration:

What I wrote for my portfolio: Artist’s emotion and upbringing always had been reflected in their art. So what would happen if in a world where that part is intensified for the viewer to see

What actually started this: I want sport anime type of story but with Artists. Also this scene from Ouran host club that inspired Aster don’t question why just take it.

Story:

I’m still debating on what I want to use as the final story, they both are essentially revolve around the relationship of college kids’ relationships from friends to lovers to found family and they’re all in an art club and have specialized methods and styles; graphite portraits/landscape, Abstract expressionism, animation, graphic design, Dada-esque sculpture and then there’s the one guy that can’t draw cause every art clubs always have that one member that only join to not do anything.

Plot option 1: Anne Certayn is a college kid who doesn’t know themself. They know what they’re good at— well good enough to graduate and make money, but there’s no passion in it. Anne were hoping to float through the rest of their school year so to avoid all invitations to join a club they join an art club, what they assumed to be a club they can just sleep though. Sadly, Anne new clubmates’s energy are too much for them.

Note about this plot:

Each character’s relationship with their art, e.g. Aster’s desire to be perfect and uphold his family’s legacy and all of it being reflect in his art. His art had always be something that lean heavily toward realistic in every way, dull color, proportion, reflecting how his passion and desire are tugged away for something more refined. Meanwhile his boyfriend, Carter is someone who contempt with his life and where he is, he have more abstract and colorful art reflecting how he’s putting his true self out for everyone to see, both perfect and imperfect.

Anne’s journey to find their passion for art again after a lifetime of being discouraged from being interested in art by people who told Anne to dial down any of their passion for things they don’t care for.

This is honestly a very slice of life, fluff, maybe comedy story that doesn’t have heavy lore. It just friends being pals

Plot option 2: A love story between members of a college art club.

The couples:

One of the leader (Carter) x his friend (Aster) since high school. They had been dating since first year of college but Aster had always held himself back because his family’s legacy. Their story is going to be revolving around Aster’s struggling to choose between Carter and his family because Carter’s family is not exactly on the same level as Aster’s family

Shezaraya x D no idea what will be their plot yet but D is an animator and concept art who occasionally fight with Anne because she doesn’t like how they joined without any sort of passion for art. She also sometimes fight with E who keeps riling her up by saying “digital art is not real art” without meaning it. Shezaraya is an graphic designer She’s more chill than D but she will still shit talk with her

Debating on giving E a lover(s) or not because she’s very much the agent of chaos. You ask about her love life and it would be like “oh yeah my ex almost framed me for fraud so I ended it” and if you ask her “isn’t your ex the barista down the street?” She’d go “oh not her, the other one— not the one that crashed my car because I broke up with him, the other other one”

Characters:

I have one character designed but I’m write as much as I have. Note that these are like— barely coherent concepts of the characters

Carter Wassily

- He’s the leader of the art club.

- His specialty is abstract art, specifically abstract expressionism.

- He major in marketing, minor in communications in his 3rd year.

- His design is inspired by abstract art in history; Constructivism and De Stijl

- He’s fun loving, enthusiastic about anything and everything he love. He does not afraid to put himself out there and be his truest self. He do have tendencies to get too invested in his art to the point he forgets all time and necessity he need.

- He’s dating Aster since first year of college but they know each other since high school

- He somehow didn’t know Aster is rich until last year of high school

Aster Richman (edited)

- He’s the vice president of the art club

- He’s majoring in law in his 3rd year.

- He specialized in Realism painting

- His name will be revolved around stars because I want it to come back to Carter’s tattoo

- He also have a red ring, matching Carter’s other tattoo since his family frown on tattoos

- He’s more serious than Carter. He try to be more stoic and calm though he do have his moments where Carter make him flustered or someone make him irritated. He pride himself on being good academically.

- His family is rich. Yes his name is a pun, I’m trying make all of their name a pun

- His designed was inspired by Victorian aesthetic but the palette came from realism period of art where the color is more dull then later he have an Isabella moment where his palette become lighter and less monochrome.

- He also wear glasses after his development because we really need the reverse “took off glasses and become beautiful” trope cause we had that in Cloudy with a chance of meatball and we need more of that

Shezaraya Sunshine

- She major in Music in second year.

- She specializes in Graphic Design with the style similar to Art Nouveau

- She’s dating/going to date D

- She’s the most passionate in her work after Carter

- She dream to make music and create her own album covers

- She’s similar to Carter but she’s a bit of a perfectionist when it come to her work. Other than that she’s one of the most chaotic person in the club

- She’s also very kind and optimistic

Anne Certayn

- They major in Engineer in first year.

- They have 0 artistic skill

- They lost their passion for things they like because when they was younger people tend to dismiss them or make them feel bad for being excited about things they enjoyed

- Weirdly they’re close with E the most

- She major in Communication in second year,

- She also have a few Communication classes with Carter

- She specializes in Animation with soft color and visual, reminiscing of Impressionism movement

- She’s passionate, a bit snarky, very spiteful to the people who deserve it

- She was raised to be more like Aster but she rejected that lifestyle

- Funny enough despite having the same world view of “anything can be art” as E they butt head a lot, mostly because E just like messing with her

- She absolutely hate Anne at first because how they joined the club but they bond after a while and she learn to tolerate them

- She major in Literature in third year

- She specializes in unconventional take on art, aka Dada. She mostly do mixed media and collage

- She is an agent of chaos. Little gremlin that just here to stir the plot and yet somehow she’s one of the chillest people in this club.

- She believes that anything can be art and that art have no rule but will absolutely throw that away for the sake of chaotic debate with D

- She have ex lovers….no one know how many but she have exes

#probably will fill this out later #original story #original character #concept art #concept story #devilg04

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jane-crow · 5 months

Text

VORTEX TIME BABY

yes i am putting tws for this post because IT IS required in context of everything im about to dump onto you crows

(putting the tws here to just to be safe. TW: g0re,mention cann1bal1sm(trying to get someone to do that),kn1v3s sui implied and l0ss of a b0dy part)

with that out of the way lets get into the oc rant :D

so- just fair warning- i did change some things around in the cannon lore but its not a full COMPLETE change- but you'll see what i mean later on SO- oh and also caines a tiny bit of a dick- BUT unintentionally because i think he just doesnt realize what hes doing is wrong (at least in this aus context but maybe also within the cannon au)

in my au- vortex has been there the longest INSTEAD of kinger- but kinger has been there the second longest. vortex has been in the circus for 20 years (since they were 7 btw and yes this was intention of me) and caine wasnt perpared for humans he tended to leave vortex alone a lot

AND THUS before the group we all know and loved showed up a unlucky group of seven people showed up- think of the group as pomni but worse. the group wouldnt really listen to vortex when it came to the circus so they all tended to avoid vortex/stay in there rooms- which led to all seven abstracting- one by one and vortex having to watch it happen. so of course- caine wasnt around so vortex was stuck waiting for caine to appear while trying to survive abstractions- WHICH THEY DID HURRAY- but they didnt go without getting injuries (im not going into detail on said injuries- at least not by much-) which ties in with his design- SO

"vortex was almost all black..with their teeth being white,the tips of there hair having color- red,blue,green and purple,their eyes having color- one being blue the other being orange. and their tail- which the tip had some red on it followed by other colors. their body was covered in scars. their face,tail,back,arms and legs had scars."

"vortex DID have clothes..but- they were always hard to makes out. the clothes they were (forcably) given were a black tanktop,a flannel which had very few hints of color. the color being a few hints of red here and there. same with the shorts expect they had hints of green instead. they had boots were more of a black-ish grey-ish color"

moving on-

so- you may or may not have already assumed vortex isnt the biggest fan of caine BUT DONT WORRY I HAVE ONE MORE POINT TO PROVE AS TO WHY THEY DONT- so vortex was kind of a "test subject" for caine right? (not a literal one because- its a digital place-)soo- caine put the virus in vortex to see how much humans can take in the circus (mentally of course) which resulted in vortex having glitching episodes! and eventually- the glitch became sentiant just because of how attached it was to vortexs code at this point- and you'll never believe it buuutt- it wants vortex to eat the members of the circus- huuurraaay- moving on- because were sort of coming back to that.

how i imagine the circus is- its like a show but it has its own spin off game- and as for the show i imagine that like within the cannon universe people can like literally watch what these characters are doing so i like to imagine they all have acts- and the rooms they have are decorated by said act they do. unforunatly- vortex being the test subject he is- doesnt have an act so..what does his room look like?? well-

"vortexs room was pretty empty compared to the others rooms. they had a bed,a desk and a closet. that was about it for things that were in there. they had some random plushies that they had found around the circus while they were alone. they also had a projector with a remote to change colors. he tends to keep it blue and red along with the green dots which represent stars. the project itself was meant to represent the northern lights. there room was also dimly lit just because he tended to find the circus overwhelming. the colors were always to much for her whenever she decided to explore the circus."

one silly fact before i go back to the glitch- since vortex doesnt have an act he likes to watch all of the other members preform and hehehehe. soo- you know pomnis eyes in that one scene where she sees her door? think of that but for vortexs eyes- but not as wide yk? and i like to imagine that their tail is gently wagging and me and my freind made a joke that the camera thats recording the circus members acts just pans to vortex and vortex is just like "..oh heey-" and awkwardly leaves somewhere else lmao

OK BEFORE WE OFFICAL GO BACK TO THE GLITCH- the glitch does have a design

"the glitch is basically an all green looking entity. it has a few other colors here and there but it was mostly green otherwise."

anyway- so. since the glitch is- VERY relentless when it comes to vortex it just keeps telling them to- y'know eat people. but eventually one day vortex had enough of the glitch and- cut their arm off. BUTTT DONT FREAT- they get a prosthetic made by our favorite silly jester (midheard this again on a call with a friend when they actually said their oc lmao)

oh one last thing. you wanna get rid of that glitch? well good luck- you cant do it without whipping vortexs memories- so basically a hard reset.

OH AND- vortex (since they were alone for so long) has this like tent where they put a bunch of stuff they collected while being in the circus- and yes there is a lot of shit in that tent- trust me

WELL THATS ALL OF THE IMPORTANT STUFF- FACT LIST TIIIMMEEE (some of the facts i already typed out but shhh. also this is where the kn1f3 tw comes into play- its the VERY last fact. also the su1 implicantion. I ONLY CALL IT IMPLICATION SINCE YOU CANT DIE OFFICALLY IN THE CIRCUS FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND. if you want to change it to attempt instead dont hesitate to ask ^^)

-vortex can bypass the swear filter only because he was the test subject for the digital circus so caine didnt put that into her code

-vortex has a fear of abstractions because a group of seven people came and all seven abstracted. he also had to see queenie abstract

-when people first see vortex when they hear about abstractions they think shes abstracting

-they have scars from abstraction attacks

-hes scared to get close to anybody in the circus (unless he already got close to them)

-they dont really trust caine

-hes explored the circus so many times out of boredom

-the fake exit triggered her abstraction trauma

-her tail wags when she gets any sort of affection (headpats,hugging,hand holding ect)

-autism

-showed up alone BUT a group of seven others came and abstracted

-11’5

-vortexs nickname is air because bobbin (a friends oc) and bubble make bnb so- with vortex having the nickname air its airbnb

-voidy. just- voidy.

-uhhh vortex once had a bad glitching episode- SO BAD that they stabbed himself- and they are very ashamed of it because his mind wasnt clear- and she wasnt in to much control anyway

#tw gore #tw cannibalism #tws #the amazing digital circus #ocs #tadc oc #tadc #tw knife #tw sui implied #tw mild body horror #oc rant

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