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chiimeramanticore · 4 months

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Mike isn't sure exactly why he took this job. Maybe a haunted house based on Freddy's isn't exactly worth his time. That is, until he sees a familiar face during his shift.

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Mike and Springtrap meet for the first time and it sucks lol. 3859 words, slight TW for references to child abuse/neglect and gore 👍

Read it on AO3!

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Mike isn't really sure what he expected taking this job. Sure, a haunted house about Freddy's. Real respectful. It's probably not even going to help him get any evidence on his father. But the dude that hired him swore up and down they'd gotten "real authentic shit, y'know?" for the attraction. It's possible, he figures. Mike knows well enough about the teenagers that try to raid the closed Freddy's locations for proof the rumored murders really happened. He also knows well enough that if he hasn't been able to find any solid evidence yet, they definitely haven't. Maybe there isn't any evidence at all. Maybe he's just going crazy.

Sitting in the office now, Mike definitely feels crazy. This is a waste of time... The whole building feels like it's held together by glow-in-the-dark paint, duct tape, and good luck. The ventilation in here is awful. He can't go two seconds without something breaking. Night shifts are supposed to be easy, damn it.

What's worse, Mike finds himself hallucinating a lot more when he's here. When he complained about seeing stuff that wasn't actually there, his doctor handed him a slip of paper with a schizophrenia diagnosis and a prescription for antipsychotics. Mike brought the pills home, but didn't last long actually taking them. He knows whatever he's got, it's not a disorder. It's from that damn gas his dad used to love messing with when he was a kid. He'd inhaled enough of that garbage to probably give him permanent brain damage, he figures. And the stuffiness of this office often makes Mike feel like he's back home, breathing it in again. Whatever it is, his doctor wouldn't be happy about it.

Mike sighs, eyeing the new cassette left on his desk, labeled "Tuesday." His employers are way too committed to the retro thing– they can just call him or talk to him in person. Surely this is more work than it's worth, right? Whatever. He pops it into the player and hits play.

"Hey man– okay, I have some awesome news for you!" His employer's voice begins. "First of all, we found some vintage audio training cassettes. Dude, these are like pre-historic! I think they were, like, training tapes for, like, other employees or something like that. So I thought we could, like, have them playing, like, over the speakers as people walk through the attraction. Dude, that’d make this feel legit man." Mike groans. He isn't sure what's more annoying, this guy's voice, or the prospect of having to listen to Freddy's training tapes every night on loop.

"But," the voice continues, "I have an even better surprise for you, and you’re not gonna believe this! We found one. A real one." Mike furrows his brow hearing this. A real... what? There's no way it's what he thinks it is.

"Uhh, gotta go man. Look, i-it’s in there somewhere, I’m sure you’ll see it. Okay, I’ll leave you with some of this great audio that I found. Talk to you later man!" The casette goes quiet for a moment before a new track starts playing, one of the training tapes in question.

"Welcome to your new career as a performer-slash-entertainer for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. These tapes will provide you wi–" Mike stops the tape. He's not interested.

"What the fuck do you mean, 'a real one'?" He mutters to himself. He looks to the security monitor to his right. Everything looks exactly the same as it did yesterday and last week. Mike switches between cameras quickly but deliberately, scanning each room for discrepancies. There's no way they found a real animatronic, right? There's no way. They were all dismantled and scrapped. Mike knows they're haunted, or at least were at some point. Maybe if he can just find it on the cameras, he can assess if it's actually going to be a danger to him.

He clicks over to the last camera, eyes flicking around the screen. Nothing's different. Maybe he's freaking out over nothing.

But right as he clicks back to the start, Mike sees something move in the bottom left corner of the screen.

He clicks back over.

Nothing.

If there was anything, it's gone. And he's not sure there ever was anything. Maybe he's going crazy. Maybe he's just crazy. That'd be the most reassuring thing to learn, he figures.

Mike realizes his heart's beating at a mile a minute right now. He leans back in his chair, trying to breathe slower. He's just hallucinating, he tells himself. It's fine. He's fine. The panel to his left beeps, signaling the ventilation needs to be reset. See? He's just freaking out. He turns his attention to the panel, waiting the seconds it takes to reset the ventilation.

It doesn't take him long after this to settle back into the routine he's found in the few days since he started this job. Check the cameras idly, get spooked by something that isn't actually there, fix something that inevitably broke, repeat. He continues like this for about an hour, still somewhat puzzled by what he was told on the tape. Maybe he wasn't even referring to an animatronic– it could be anything, really. And these cameras are so grainy, it's not hard to miss something small.

Mike stares idly at the static on Camera 04, feeling like his mind is turning to fuzz, too. It definitely takes him too long to notice, but... there, on the left side of the screen. A pinprick of light that Mike knows for sure doesn't belong. Is that... an eye? It's dark, but he swears he can make out the right half of a head surrounding it. He blinks a few times, unsure if he's making it up, but the half-hidden face remains. And it looks like it's looking at him.

The panel beeps at him. Mike doesn't want to look away, but he does, resetting the ventilation once again. When he gets the chance to look back again, the face is gone.

"Sssshit," he hisses. "Shit. Shit." He clicks through the cameras again, trying to find the thing in here with him. It's too dark to recognize it easily, but the shape of the head seemed like an older mold. Even then, he's not really sure. He just wants to see it again. But there's nothing on the cameras that looks like it. He sighs, sitting back in his chair to refresh his eyes.

When he looks up at the window to his office, the animatronic is there. Staring at him.

Mike's blood runs so cold it damn near freezes over. He's paralyzed– all he can do is stare back. He recognizes this animatronic, or at least he thinks he does. It's so worn down now, but... it's Springbonnie. How could he ever forget Springbonnie...? His father's favorite.

The rabbit moves. It shifts its weight, then slowly starts to shamble to the left of the window. Mike doesn't know what to do– it's not like he's got a door to shut on the thing. He watches it appear in the doorway, using a hand to brace itself on the frame. It struggles to move, not unlike how Mike's seen the haunted animatronics move, but this feels different. It's not bound by its mechanics. But... the only way it'd move organically like this is if someone was inside.

Even if he's just being fucked with, he's not about to gamble on it. He'd much rather get laughed at for falling for it. He grabs a screwdriver from his desk, just in case he needs to defend himself against it. He presses himself up against the back of the chair he's in as the creature gets even closer, far too close. Like it's curious about him, too. It smells awful– like death and mold. From here, Mike can see clearly that it's not in costume mode. Tears and rips in the fabric expose its mech, which he wouldn't be able to see if it was in walk-around mode. He isn't sure what he's dealing with, but his heart is pounding so hard he's sure it can hear the sound too.

The rabbit puts its face mere inches from Mike's, and makes an odd noise, somewhere between a wheeze and a moan. Mike grips the armrests of his chair tightly, certain he's moments from death.

Then, with another wheeze, "...M... Michael," it says in his father's voice.

Mike doesn't wait for anything else to happen. Almost automatically, he springs out of his chair, pushing the thing over, and bolts for the door. He doesn't care what it is. It's not a hallucination. It's not an animatronic. It can't be his father. Please, don't let this be his father. It won't matter if he can just get out of here. Leave and never come back.

Mike hears the thud of footsteps behind him, still somewhat slow but much faster than before. He doesn't dare look back at it.

He refuses to lose speed as he whips around a corner, but he doesn't look where he's going– he crashes into a prop mannequin, bringing both tumbling to the floor. Mike scrambles to stand again, but he's not fast enough. The rabbit has caught up to him. He tries to take off again, but it grabs him by the wrist with an iron, mechanical grip. Mike strains against it, frantic, like a trapped animal, to no avail.

"Calm... down," the rabbit says sternly.

"No! No, you– You're not real!" Mike shouts, still struggling to escape.

"You're being...!" The rabbit stops to cough and wheeze some more, but the grasp he holds on Mike is unwavering. "Y– You're being ridiculous," he says finally.

"N- no, you–" Mike pulls again, and the rabbit presses his mechanical claws into his arm, just enough to hurt. Only now does he remember he's still holding the screwdriver. He swings it at the rabbit, unsure which parts of him are flesh over metal. He gets lucky, the metal tip landing in his upper arm and hurting him enough to let go of Mike. Mike takes this chance to tackle the rabbit, pinning him to the floor and wielding the screwdriver over him.

"You–!" The rabbit says. "Y– you won't kill me."

"Oh yeah? Give me one good reason I shouldn't stab you in the fucking throat right now!" Mike says, though the way he's trembling betrays his attempt at sounding menacing.

"Language," the rabbit says. "You won't kill me, b- because... I have information. I have... the answers you've been looking for." The way he speaks is labored. His voice is raw and tired, like he hasn't used it in ages, and he sounds continually out of breath. He sounds pained... Mike knows he's weaker now. Mike knows it would be easy to kill him in this state. But he also knows he's right. Everything Mike has been working toward has been for this– for information like this. Information enough to convict his father for the murders he knows he committed. Could they even convict him looking like this...?

"What happened to you?" Mike asks. That's never been what he'd envisioned asking his father.

"Take me back to your office," he says. "I'll talk there."

Mike's suspicious, but... an interrogation while he's still got him pinned to the floor isn't exactly comfortable for either of them. "Fine," he says, moving off of him. "You walk ahead of me."

"Scared?" the rabbit asks, a teasing tone in his voice. Mike doesn't grace it with a response. He watches him stand, then start to move back toward the office. He walks with a limp. Mike studies him from the back, trying to parse what's come of him. It's hard to tell where exactly the man ends and the machine begins. His hands and feet seem metal, but between the crossbeams and wires he can see in the torso, there's what looks like flesh inside. Old, rotted, disgusting flesh, but flesh nonetheless.

They re-enter his office, and Mike sits down in his chair. The rabbit finds a place to sit on the desk. Mike doesn't move his eyes from him for a second.

"What happened to you?" He asks again.

"I had a... lapse of judgement," his father says. "I couldn't get my mind off the old place... the pizzeria. I had left it standing all those years... I wanted to go back. Put... put an end to everything. I meant to dismantle the– the animatronics." Mike isn't sure how much of this is truth, but he lets him continue.

"This... old thing," he says, looking down at himself. "I'd almost forgotten about it. I just wanted to... put it on again. Old time's sake." He chuckles, it sounding just as terrible as the rest of him. "I'd forgotten safety protocol. It was old... wet, moldy."

"You–" Mike hadn't wanted to believe he'd springlocked himself, but that's exactly what he's telling him, isn't it?

"I know," he says. "What a fool I was."

"You didn't," Mike says. "There's no way."

"I did," he insists. "What would I gain from... lying to you about this?"

There's usually something– even if Mike doesn't know what it is. Regardless of how it happened, though, it's undeniable what's happened to begin with. He definitely got springlocked, whether by his own hand or someone else's. And these things usually were mistakes. He just never thought he'd... be so stupid about it. If anyone would remember how to avoid a gruesome death in one of those suits, it should be his father. What could've caused him to forget? There's something he's keeping from him, he's sure of it.

"If you were springlocked, you'd be dead," he says finally.

"But I'm still here," William says.

"How?"

The rabbit shifts in place, as if he's considering whether to tell Mike this. "I found it," he tells him. "The secret to eternal life."

"Bullshit," Mike blurts.

"Language," William says. "Don't act like... you don't want to know."

"Just tell me."

William sighs. "I call it Remnant," he says. "It's... a lot of explanation. It can bind a soul to metal. It can..." He tries to laugh again, doing slightly better this time. "...It can make a man immortal, Michael."

"Is that what you'd call yourself?"

"No," he says. "It's what I almost was. I had... been building up enough, still. But what was in me already was enough... enough to save me when this happened."

Mike studies him a moment longer before finally asking. "How much of you is even human anymore?"

William seems to ponder this for a moment before answering. "Does it matter much?" He responds. "I am more than human now. More than machine. I'm... something new. I am the two combined."

"But your body is still in there, isn't it?"

"I am not just the body. I am not just the suit. I'm not just the metal. I'm it all, Michael. All of it." He seems proud of this, proud of the monster he's become. At least he's finally got a look to match him.

"...All because of this Remnant stuff," Mike mutters. He wonders if, somehow, that's the reason the animatronics were haunted, too. Remnant kept their souls there. But how would he have made that happen? How long has been working on this?

"Last time I saw you, Michael, you were..." William trails off.

"I was seventeen," Mike finishes. His father had just disappeared one day. He was known to do that when Mike was younger– usually because he was out somewhere drinking. Some nights he'd come home late, or just not at all. But when the days began to pass without him, Mike left completely alone in the house... What else was he supposed to do?

"And now, how old are you?"

"...Fifty-two," Mike says. Thirty-five years had passed since they'd seen each other. After this long, Mike had begun to hope he'd just find his father dead. In a way, he has, he figures.

"Mm." William stares at him, and now Mike feels like he's the one being studied. "It's... been quite some time," he says. "You've grown up well."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mike says.

"It means exactly what it seems it means," William says, a touch annoyed. Then, calming down again, "You're resilient. You're tough. You aren't a coward. Otherwise... you wouldn't be here. Would you?"

Mike says nothing.

"I raised you with the hope of you... becoming strong," he continues. "That, when life knocks you down, you don't stay down. I believe you're... Well, correct me if I'm wrong."

Mike doesn't know what he wants him to say. He glances the rabbit suit up and down, as if that'll somehow give him an answer. He's not going to "admit" to how great his father says he is, because it's clearly leading toward something. Going with it would just be walking directly into whatever trap he's planted. But denying it is an even more obvious fail-state.

"...Cat have your tongue, Michael?"

"No," Mike says finally. "What do you want?"

"What makes you think I... want something from you?" William asks.

"Why else would you be talking to me?" Mike says.

"Do you think I... I– I hold any sort of power like this?" William insists. "Look at me, Michael."

Mike's been looking at him. "You look awful," he says quietly.

"I've been down there for over thirty years," he says. "I lost the ability to track time. All I could... do was wait. Finally someone found me."

"To make a mockery of you." Mike can't stop himself from saying it. He rests an elbow on an armrest and uses his hand to cover his mouth, hiding the smile he also can't stop himself from.

William sighs. "It's... unfortunate. Yes."

Mike's never seen him look... dejected before. Not that he's exactly looking at his father right now, anyway. But still, as much as Mike hates to admit it, he looks genuine. Maybe he really is weaker like this.

"...Did it hurt?" Mike asks him.

The rabbit slowly lifts its head to Mike. "It still hurts," he admits. "This... is not the body I had planned to spend eternity in."

"So you are immortal," Mike says.

"I don't know the limits of it. But I went thirty years without food, water, much sleep... must count for something. I don't think I age... but there's not much way to tell."

Mike's weighing the possibility of killing him. He didn't seem that afraid of death when he'd been threatening him– but that doesn't necessarily mean he can't be killed. It just means he doesn't fear it. Mike still has half a mind to set this whole dump on fire with his father inside. It'd be so easy... electrical fires nearly start every night here anyway. He could let everything burn and rest with the knowledge that nothing inside would survive.

If he knew his father would die, at least.

"...Michael," William says, the silence between them too long now. "I... I've had time to sit with my regrets. There's more I wish I could have done... More I still need to do. I can't like this."

"Whatever it is, you can get it out of your system here," Mike says. He's expecting him to give some bullshit non-apology for the kind of father he was. Being touchy-feely one time, decades after he'd just disappeared one night, is never going to fix it. But Mike will let him say it, at the very least. It's not like it'll matter.

"I can't do it here," William says. "She's not here."

"...She?"

"Elizabeth," he tells him. "I still have to... go back for her."

Mike remembers the day Elizabeth died. Even now, he can easily recall the sight of her remains pouring out of Circus Baby's chest... the blood, the gore, the smell. The way he'd felt his whole body freeze over at the sight of it. The way his father had tried to save her, even thought it was clear she had long passed that point. The way he'd cried... the way both of them had cried. He could never forget losing her. Then... how could he talk about her like she's still alive?

"Where... where is she?" He asks, cautiously.

"Circus Baby's," William says.

Mike shakes his head. "She can't be." He'd visited the place again years ago, though still years after the incident. He had wanted to find Circus Baby there, thinking his sister might be possessing the robot– but the place was devoid of animatronics.

"Not the restaurant. She's in storage," William says. "The rental company... Only I ever knew where the storage was." He leans in toward Mike, as if they aren't the only two people here. "It's under the house. Always has been."

"Under...?"

The rabbit nods. "Our home," he says.

Mike had returned there too, years ago. He'd never thought, in a million years, that there'd be anything more than bad memories there. He'd never thought he'd have passed over something so important... so close, and yet so far from seeing his sister again– even if she wasn't quite herself.

"I can show you how to get there," William tells him. "I need you to do it, Michael. You're the only one who could."

"Wh– why me?"

"You're family," he says. "You're the only one I trust."

Mike feels something deep inside him stir upon hearing that. He exhales.

"Is she...?" He starts. "Is she... in Baby?"

"She must be," William says. "You need to find her. You need to set her free."

Set her free... It's something Mike's been trying to do with the other possessed animatronics for years. Put their souls to rest. But they've all been so... uncooperative. Animalistic. Maybe their programming had interfered with their true personalities. He should expect it to be the same with Elizabeth, then, but... She's family. She would have to recognize him eventually. That's why he has to be the one to do it, isn't it? She wouldn't trust anyone else. She needs him.

"I..." Mike feels that same deep ache inside him. He misses her, he realizes. He's missed her terribly. And now, he can see her again– and save her. "...I'll do it," he says finally. "Show me how to find her."

The rabbit finally leans back again, laughing. "Good," he says. "Don't let me down, Michael."

"I... I wont." Mike isn't sure this is the right choice to make. He can't shake the feeling he's being pulled into something bigger than him. But how could his father have planned something for this long if he's been stuck in this state for thirty years? And how could he miss his only chance to see his sister again– especially knowing that she's been just as stuck for just as long? How could he not want to help her?

He still wants to burn this place down with his father inside. He will soon, he tells himself. Once he saves Elizabeth, then he can come back here, and put an end to everything.

He just hopes he'll make it back here at all.

#fnaf #five nights at freddy's #michael afton #mike afton #william afton #springtrap #fnaf 3 #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic #juno.txt #my art #i hate these guys. they hate each other (puts them in a room together)

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ystk-archive · 7 months

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[Translation] capsule in girls '60s magazine (Feb. 2004)

When I first saw their music videos, the striking visuals immediately caught my eye. Simplistic designs, vivid color schemes on the outfits and sets… I can't describe the style as anything other than '60s-inspired. For the first edition of our "Pick Up Artist" feature, it's one whose existence fascinates me — let's take a look at the charm of capsule.

capsule is a music unit consisting of Nakata Yasutaka, whom manages the sound, art direction, design, concept work and so on, and vocalist Koshijima Toshiko. Nakata directs the image, visual aspects, and songs while Koshijima performs it all, resulting in their unique style. - original interview by Aikawa Chisato, translation by ystk-archive -

The reason behind their '60s-inspired visual style

Nakata: To be honest, I don't have any particular attachment to the '60s. I just like unique and minimalistic things, stuff with interesting shapes and clean designs and whatnot. It started when I got into interior design, and at first I especially liked Space Age furniture.¹ That's changed a little recently — I like pieces made out of wood but still with that outerspace kind of vibe. Even when it's made from wood, it doesn't feel natural, it still has this sort of odd look. When it comes to the '60s, I like the plywood that they often used. But I'm intrigued by Karimoku furniture too (laughs).²

— So would you say you're more interested in space and not the '60s?

Nakata: Yeah, and I guess sci-fi movies played a part in that. In movies like Men in Black you often see Tulip chairs, though I don't think they were used to evoke a retro or '60s feel on purpose.³ With films like that I tend to focus more on the furniture and not the overall atmosphere; if anything, I see furniture along with fashion as objects that look nice when put into a scene you're taking in as a whole. I like to come up with unconventional settings. Women are usually depicted in sci-fi films as secretaries, all wearing identical wigs and uniforms, and I like that kind of weird atmosphere. So instead of me consciously liking '60s aesthetics, I wound up thinking they were cool without making the connection that they were from that decade. I also love clothes that incorporate simplistic, striking designs, since they're like spacesuits (laughs).

— How do you feel about wearing clothes like that?

Koshijima: I'm also not obsessed with the '60s or anything, but I like to play around with that era's clothing and makeup styles. It's more fun than just wearing normal clothes.

— Have you two had similar tastes all along?

Nakata: Our tastes used to be completely different. I feel like she's adjusted to match me.

— So Koshijima-san is committed to being a model?

Koshijima: Yep. I haven't changed my approach, ever since the beginning.

— Are there times where you feel like your tastes really are different?

Koshijima: I don't think so. If we actually were fundamentally different, I don't think we'd be working together. Strangely enough, when I look at the materials I'm given, I start to think they're cute. Nakata: When I get an idea, I suggest it first. Koshijima: But he doesn't show me clothes or anything directly, instead he shows me photos and videos… Like I'm being brainwashed (laughs). The more he introduces me to all kinds of cool things, the more similar we become. After I watched the materials he gave me, poses and dance moves just started coming naturally to me without even realizing it.

— Maybe you ran across something from the '60s that left an impression and that ended up coming through in your image.

Nakata: Yeah, there are a lot of easy explanations for it. I wonder if we're more like a new product with a retro design that would fit nicely in someone's living room, rather than something that could be found in an authentic '60s vintage shop. I think even if we intentionally collected oldschool aesthetics from that era and tried to copy those, it'd still turn out differently, because peoples' concept of the '60s and the real '60s are two different things. But if you take parts of that concept people have of that decade and use them, you wind up with something that has the right feel to it. For me right now, the concept I have in mind is the "style" of the '60s. Instead of making clothes or objects to match up with the '60s aesthetic, the styles are already floating around in my head, and then I make content that reflects that. There were a lot of useless shapes — like aren't record players from back then weird-looking? The technology of them and the half-dome shape are of that time, but the way they look on the outside is as if someone was imagining the future while designing them. It's interesting how these days it's the opposite: now the exterior designs of things are retro while the tech inside is highly advanced. And I like both (laughs). I even like things that seem out of place. I'm drawn to a sense of disharmony.

— Would you say the essence of the '60s is woven into your music?

Nakata: Not intentionally. I think the things I like tend to show through my music on accident. Basically I want to make any music, as long as it's cute.

— So do you feel like music is essentially an object?

Nakata: Music is something I started doing because I thought I could create it. It was right when I was in junior high school, they'd made a lot of progress with technology so making cassette tapes became fun. Part of that was because I liked the feeling of winding a tape up. I liked playing around with machines more than the music aspect itself and, when it comes to decorating, I even like the look of a tape deck sitting in a room. So that's why I want our CDs to be sold in regular stores along with other kinds of merchandise. I don't think music should be classified as something special and separate; it's good if it's just one part of the total amount of belongings in a space. Rather than wanting people to listen to our music seriously, I'd be happy if they enjoy the atmosphere it gives when they play it out in the open.

¹ Space Age design was characterized by "sleek, aerodynamic lines and geometric forms," "dominated by bright, bold hues" and was often constructed of manmade materials such as plastic. You can read more about it here. ² Karimoku is a Japanese brand of all-wood furniture boasting superior craftsmanship. You can read more about it and look at examples here. ³ This is the famous Tulip chair.

#nakata yasutaka #koshijima toshiko #capsule #girls '60s #phony phonic #S.F. sound furniture #Retro Memory #2004 #magazines #interviews #translations

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sundaysplayzone · 7 months

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Sorry if you've been asked this before, but do you have any tips/advice on drawing characters in a retro style? I've been trying to make a new fursona who's lore is that he's a mascot for a sci fi themed fast food burger chain from the 90s, and I've been struggling. I'm not even sure where to find good references, I've tried pinterest and google already. Love your art! :]

If you mean designs, I'd stick to simple. Almost all mascot characters are pretty simple in their overall design. Usually basic with a prop or article of clothing that makes them stand out. But the style also has a lot to play in that as well. Think of characters like Tony the Tiger, Bugs Bunny, Chester Cheetah. The all use normal animals (with mostly normal colors) coupled with a mix of markings, clothing and style to make them stand out.

If you want it to look like the 90s, I would look towards commercials of that era. They had a lot of good examples of animal mascots. You'd probably want something in between Disney style and styles common in Saturday morning cartoons.

Also look at common colors and themes in fast food from the 90s. Warm colors were usually used in fast food because those colors naturally make our brains feel things like hunger, compulsion and comfort. So for your character specifically (but could work well for any retro mascot character): - Simple design - Simple markings/colors (usually saturate but normal colors for their species) - Always drawn in a specific style (I suggest looking at common Disney and 80s-90s cartoon motifs) - Utilize warm colors like red, yellow and orange - Have something about them say "Yeah this character eats at this restaurant", such as: Always looking hungry, always offering/summoning food, or wearing something having to do with food. If you want to make them as authentic as possible, try and find what worked for other characters and mascots. What threads really held them together?

#90s #kidcore #nostalgic #nostalgia #retro

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heckyeahponyscans · 8 months

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Thoughts on G5 MLP Make Your Mark Chapter 5, Episode 1: Cutie Blossom Bash

Summary: Misty's friends take her to Zephyr Heights for the Cutie Blossom Bash, a celebration for all the ponies who've gotten a cutie mark in the past year. The only one not excited about the celebration is . . . Misty.

Thoughts: Great episode, and I'm glad we get to see how the others got their cutie marks! (So Misty getting swooped into the air by magic as it happened WAS above and beyond how it normally goes.)

It was so nice seeing Argyle again and I liked how he was lingering right next door to make sure everything went well with Sunny's lemonade stand. When the two ponies started fighting, he frowned and started to move around to the street, but Sunny defused the conflict before he got there.

My impression from the G5 movie was that Queen Haven didn't invent the "royals can fly" lie, she inherited it, and that matches up with Zipp's flashback, since I would expect a more massive reaction she was the first pegasus in living memory to (seemingly) fly.

Something interesting about G5 is that cutie marks are both super important (acting as a magical power up) and very understated. Like, I don't think the show ever turned to the audience to explain what they are, nor are there any Cutie Mark Crusaders running around . The information is introduced through context clues, especially with Misty wanting a cutie mark so badly.

(Sidenote, but in my mind cutie marks are 'natural' magic, similar to a seed sprouting, which is why they didn't disappear during the dystopian period. Dalmatians are born white and get their spots later, I imagine a cutie mark is something like that.)

It also seems to matter less what a cutie mark actually shows and waaay less job / talent related. Although even in G4 it was more like a Rorschach test than anything else. Rarity's symbol isn't a sewing needle, it's jewels; Cheerilee has flower symbols and says it symbolizes "the bright smiling faces of [her] students".

I didn't mind G4's cutie marks being job-related, I think it's fine to have a fictional utopia where everyone finds their dream job and their work is like a fun hobby instead of a tiresome chore. (Especially in kids' media.) But I do like G5's take better, where they symbolize who you are more than what you do. As Queen Haven says, it's a step towards becoming "your best, most authentic self."

Speaking of cutie marks, a butterfly is perfect for Misty because, as she realized in this episode, it symbolizes her growth and ability to change.

As Megan said, "When you look at a caterpillar it's ugly to the eye, but remember a caterpillar becomes a butterfly." Thank you Megan.

A lot of this episode was about Misty's anxieties, which I found very relatable because I had terrible social anxiety that I didn't really get a handle on until I was in my thirties. (Don't ever stop working on yourself or feel like you are "too old" to be happier, whether you are thirteen or eighty-three.) It was great seeing Misty expressing her feelings and vulnerabilities to her friends.

It really drove home that although Sunny is a protagonist, Misty is THE protagonist of MYM, the character who grows and changes the most.

Misty's terror and embarrassment aside, the Cutie Blossom Bash events were very, well, cute! I like that it's a communal celebration of all the ponies who got their cutie marks and the silly little flags they carry. (And I like Seashell getting even more of a spotlight, retro ponies represent!)

Overall this is one of the top episodes for me so far.

Random thoughts:

They remembered that baby Sunny didn't have rainbow in her hair . . . but forgot to scrub Mane Melody from the background of one of the shots with Argyle. Whoops!

During the brunch with Queen Haven, it struck me that she is the first kind-hearted mother figure that Misty has ever experienced. (Well, since she was a tiny foal anyway.)

Argyle's color scheme reminds me of G3 Seaspray

When Zipp starts to tell her cutie mark story, Pipp interrupts and Zipp sarcastically mouths along to Pipp's words, great little touch

Izzy got her cutie mark "on the eves of the Translucent Moonstone Moon"

I think I know where Gertrude, Opaline's beloved mane brush, went; Misty gave Gertrude to Pipp as a get-well present in "A Little Horse"! With all my heart, I hope Opaline doesn't seek revenge due to her big evil plans being spoiled, but rather over this hairbrush.

Since I already had the toy of Misty I knew her mane would change color, but I figured it would be due to magic or something, not hairspray. Love the excuse Misty came up with about the magic shrub.

Opaline legit laughs behind her hoof like an anime villain, what a treasure <3

#G5 #My Little Pony #MYM #Make Your Mark #spoilers #Chapter 5 Episode 1 #Cutie Blossom Bash #cartoon

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blazehedgehog · 4 months

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As someone who I know is intricately familiar with Genesis music and the FM synth it uses; why is it that many people (including myself) enjoy the Genesis era Sonic music but when Jin Senoue tries to emulate that sound using Genesis synth samples (Sonic Superstars being the most recent example) it just doesn't sound very good? I know it's literally become a running joke in the community that Senoue uses the Genesis synth too much but it's not like Sonic 1 or 2 had bad soundtracks even though they used the same instrumentation, and Senoue is obviously a very talented composer, so I don't really understand why his attempts to emulate the Genesis soundtracks always turn out so mid.

The general theory I subscribe to is that with the soundtracks to Sonic 1, 2, and presumably even Sonic 3, those games were composed by people who were just writing "real" music. They would pick out real world instruments and write for that sound.

If you've never heard it before, for the 20th Anniversary, Sega put out a compilation soundtrack for Sonic 1 and 2, which included the original demo tracks Masato Nakamura wrote for those games.

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Now these are basically just MIDI files, because they didn't need to be anything more than that. But you can tell he was thinking in terms of horn sections, bass guitar, and so on.

Nakamura would submit these MIDI songs on cassette to Sega, and Sega's sound engineers would transcribe those instruments into something that sounded appropriate for the Genesis hardware.

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Now, Jun Senoue did the same thing, to a degree. Jun's first major Sonic soundtrack was Sonic 3D Blast on the Sega Genesis, and Jon Burton (of Traveler's Tales) revealed Jun's own demo cassette. If you listen to Jun's tracks, they're all done on the Honky Tonk/Rhodes piano. There's no attempt to utilize real world instruments or have any kind of sound diversity. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Instead of writing music for a band, he wrote music for an individual playing a keyboard.

Worse still, it has eventually been revealed as of Sonic Origins that Jun Senoue had very little awareness of how to make Genesis sounding music. Again, he only submitted his songs on cassette. He was not responsible for the FM Synthesis conversion, just the raw notes, which were all written on, and for, a keyboard.

(throwing the rest of this ask under a "read more" tag because it embeds a lot more videos and even some images)

So when it came time for Sonic 4, and they had Jun Senoue do the retro style soundtracks for those games, he was probably pretty out of his depth. He was writing for style of music he did not really have a nuanced understanding of.

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So we get this crunchy, grating, disassociated "this is what the Genesis sounded like, right?" sort of sound. The musical equivalent of one of those early 2000's "How to Draw Manga" books: somebody who thinks they know what they're doing, has actual talent in other adjacent areas, but doesn't actually get this particular niche.

This is one of the reasons why I'm actually a little warmer towards Classic Sonic's music in Sonic Forces -- it's not Jun Senoue. Somebody on that project understood enough and had Naofumi Hataya handle a lot of Classic Sonic's music. He has actual experience with chiptunes and wrote something that feels like it belongs in a Sega System 32 arcade game or something.

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Not every single one of Classic Sonic's songs are stone cold bangers in Forces, but at least they sound more authentically retro than Jun's attempts, because they were written by someone who knew what they were doing.

Beyond that, I don't know why Jun doesn't just, like... do better, in a sense. I suppose I don't know his composing environment and how easy or hard it is to slot in what he'd need to sound more "authentic." I just know from my own perspective how easy it is to grab a VST or a soundfont for common Genesis/Yamaha instruments.

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But even then, more authentic instruments aren't going to solve the problem that this style of music doesn't seem to be his strong suit, even if somebody at Sega keeps pushing him to do it. Thankfully, I think somebody finally realized it, given how Sonic Superstars seemed to be full of his Sonic 4 style fake-retro music and most of it got replaced at the last second.

#questions #biggnife #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #jun senoue #music #masato nakamura #naofumi hataya #tomoya ohtani #lots of video embeds

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elbiotipo · 10 months

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Some of the aesthetics I want to introduce to my space opera setting just aren't possible anymore. Beto reading an paper magazine issue of Astronaútica Popular, old heavy CRT monitors (especially true when spaceships need to save weight), Ragua playing around with an old hand-held console, steel welded rockets. On one hand, it's also a bit nonsensical to expect realism in this way; all old sci-fi looks quaint and obsolete to us, except perhaps for the cyberpunk genre which remains surprisingly prescient, so no matter what I invent, it will be obsolete so I might say fuck it and go with a retro style anyways. On the other hand, it does requires less suspension of disbelief that daily life can remain mostly as it is, rather than go back to say, paper magazines and single use electronics.

It's just... I hate writing about using electronics because that's what I do all day. Writing my characters pulling a cellphone to solve their daily problems (as I did today multiple times) just clashes with me. A scene of Beto reading the latest astronautic news on his smartphone feels less authentic, if it makes sense, that him reading a magazine. Why is that?

The focus is still on the adventure and the "costumbrismo" (in quotes because it's not), the daily life of a rugged pilot in the space frontier who suddenly has to deal with a new person in his life. I don't want to write about him scrolling through his social media timeline, I want to write about him landing the ship on a remote airfield and basking under the light of unknown moons while drinking tereré. Even the presence of contemporary electronics just sorts of bothers me.

#cosas mias #at the end I might find an excuse through the machine war to use the retro style #but still many thoughts #I'm not a luddite much less some kind of reactionary let's go back to the past type #I just think a smartphone is kind of an intruder when I write if it makes sense #campoestela

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momolady · 7 months

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I was wondering if you could explain your naming process. How do you come up with names? What sort of inspiration do you use? How do you keep track of what names you’ve used? I’m really curious because you’ve inspired me to revive my OC monster writing. You don’t have to give out all your secrets, I’m more curious about how you keep track of it all.

First off, I’m gonna be honest. I’m horrible of keeping track of names. I write so many characters that I often get confused and rename characters constantly. Like, I think Odd’s wife has been Abby and Nora at different times. So like, don’t ask me how to keep track, it’s by the seat of my pants and my pants are worn out pajama bottoms.

As for the actual naming process, whenever names aren’t given to me, I actually several processes I go through. Each just depends on mood and such.

Sometimes I get a feeling for a character and I’m like “oh they’re an A name!” And I scroll baby name websites until I find a few names that feel right. I test each one out until one has that perfect *chef’s kiss* feeling.

My other process is that I sit on fantasy name generator going through all their generators until a name pops up that Im like “believable! Perfect!”

The final one is where I deep dive research. Like for all my demons I actually go through the Ars Goetia and search through all the demons and their rolls in hell to find the perfect fit. For characters that need to have culturally significant names I sometimes can spend an hour researching and looking up things to make sure it sound authentic and feels right to the characters.

I generally don’t like looking up names for their meanings, because I’m in the ballpark that a child’s name, when given, isn’t meant to represent something in their life. Rather their name is part of their parent’s or family’s life. So, for that, I try to think of what their family life was like, get a small sliver of their parents in my head, and find a meaning significant to those shadowy figures, rather than the MC or monster themselves.

I also like looking at the most popular names from the decades to help with the feeling of a character. Sometimes a name from the 60s or whatever helps cement a characters personality and vibe in that sort of retro glow.

I hope this helps you! I’m glad you’re writing again! I’m so happy I could help in anyway at all.

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gaykey · 11 months

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I really feel like SHINee is making a business decision for continued longevity. And while there are plenty of debates to be had about the nctification of SHINee or appropriation of black music and culture in kpop, especially when it comes to title tracks, the b-sides we've heard still feel authentically SHINee to me. You can feel their personality in those b-sides. I would also say SHINee is very good at making things better than they objectively sound on paper. I think one reason this is rubbing people the wrong way us because they ferl it strays too far from SHINee sound, but they've always said they are a contempoeary band and this is contemporary. They will put their SHINee twists on it, and even though it may not be everyone's favorite SHINee will still make it their own.

I think SHINee's model post-enlistment, in a very different musical landscape from where they've started, is focused on hooking new fans with title tracks and then keeping them with b-sides.

yes anon, i totally agree!

you've put it perfectly.

i admit, in regards to dcm, and more so with hard, this new approach can be quite jarring to an older fan, but, i understand their approach and goal.

i think some fans kinda see it as then selling out? or conforming to 4th gen in some way

but they are, and have always stated, that they're a contemporary band, and that involves adapting to the new styles and sounds. the key to longevity is being able to keep up with changing ideas and opinions.

and same. to me, their album is so full of shinee. it showcases all the elements they're good at, and genres and styles they thrive in. the members individual colours are also so present and i think the album is really cohesive.

starting off with those very new styles as something fresh, and a bit controversial in terms of what we're used to from them, but then hitting those dance heavy, retro and electronic genres that shinee are sooo sooo good at, and then slowly sliding to really good classic vocal heavy tracks.

shinee said they will NOT fall into that rut that so many groups do post-enlistment.

and it's worked amazingly.

they've reached an all-time career high in terms of sales, and got the most itunes number ones in their company for the year so far, being praised by for their talnet, and are hooking new fans EVERY DAY, and that's in their 15th year.

like, as divisive as this comeback is, credit where credits due y'know? their talent is getting well-deserved recognition and ultimately they're happy with their creative decisions.

#anon #shinee

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lunariamv · 3 months

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its time, im in my charon era

ive made my first three rpg horror games :DDD

there's three because two of them are parodies and then there's one actual legit one

all three are in authentic charon game format: rpg maker 2000, similar art style, similar horror premise, short story

i did it for the aesthetic OKAY

⚠️ Before venturing into any of my works, please heed my disclaimer/rules;; I don't want obstructive people engaging with me or my works ⚠️

✿ warning: running these games is a gamble because rpg maker 2000 is old software that windows is trying to assassinate (i cant even run it on my computer sometimes, i have to use a virtual machine or the game editor lol) so i apologize if it doesn't work ✿

the readme has troubleshooting solutions, and easyrpg exists to combat this, but it's not perfect. for example, it changes the text a little bit, which ruins the aesthetic

if ur like me and u care about the aesthetic a lot, then use a virtual machine, otherwise if you have a laptop and not a hardcore gaming pc, the game will probably run fine.

(the one time that having low quality graphics is good xD)

windows 11 users beware, im sticking with 10-

when all else fails i have gameplays available on my youtube

🌸 HERE IS THE GAME MASTERLIST 🌸 PLAY THEM HERE

!! please care and heed my content warnings when playing these games, as they contain dark subject matter; i promise ill make less edgy stuff in the future its just rn i REALLY WANNA MAKE CHARON GAMES FOR FUN !!

the first two (Akeno Delusion and Carousel) are strictly parody games on the genre, and Doom Stones is the authentic 100% serious charon game

looking back akeno delusion sucks to me but thats cuz its my first one and i gotta start somewhere, the quality only goes up from there

eventually ill stop using rpg maker 2000 and make games with the other makers for more versatility but rn im in love with the retro aesthetic im so sorry

*my art isnt that good but im getting there ok!!

also just a heads up, im not 1 to 1 charon; the aesthetic, artstyle, and story elements are the same, but i dabble in male yanderes instead and i go different places with the story;

🌸 mostly male yans

🌸 protagonist is actually a character

🌸 story goes a little more in depth

🌸 more focus on the horror aspect than sexual

so basically im like a female charon right now heheheh

i plan to make more rpg games, but for sure i want to make at least three more games with similar story beats.

its because i want my own take on the concepts -- doom stones is my take on makoto mobius, but i also wanna make a "scavenger hunt a person's house" type game like makoto nikki and a yanderella equivalent (but the love triangle has more drama)

AND…. MIX ORE BUT YANDERE BUBBLE TEA??????? :DDDD

once im done ill move onto dsp era cuz i wanna make some actual rpgs; like with the cute assets and pixel art

🌸 please follow and support me if you like these and want me to make more; this is just a small portion in the large list of games i wanna make <3

💮 please feel free to contact me regarding game ratings if you sincerely think they're off, im a noob when it comes to posting stuff;; and im just going off code of conduct, if it has any hint of explicit content its going to be 18+, whereas implicit would be like 17+ idk

im not taking any chances lol

🌸 I'd prefer if people don't contact me about troubleshooting problems, but if they have to, carefully go through my instructions first. even then keep in mind i might not be able to help;;

💮 I'm posting these games on tumblr only because they're short. If I make longer games, I'll crosspost them to itch.io or something.

🌸 I'll also make a website in the future, but for now I'll post the games on here. Thank you for stopping by!!

#rpg maker 2000 #rpg maker horror #☏ lunaspeaking #gamestuff #lunaria #lunariamv

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mysticalcoquette · 11 months

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mystical coquette might not feel as “streamlined” as a lot of other aesthetics but it’s cuz it’s just about being a coquette with occult, retro and mystical interests so it spans literally so much that’s y I love it, it has its own look but it’s also up to the wearer to decide how exactly they want to interpret it, it’s not about all having the exact same makeup look or outfit or scents etc. it’s abt finding ppl in ur community who enjoy the same things as you, and finding joy in expressing yourself authentically, it’s an expression of my own girlhood that I wanted to share with others in hopes tht ppl would also relate to and enjoy it. ⚔️🤍🌙🪷🐇☁️

#coquette #coquette community #mystical coquette

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intogenshin · 8 months

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The Symbol of the City

I’ve noticed some interesting things in Fontaine that I want to share, but I haven’t had time to play any quests besides the main storyline so I’m doing it with the understanding that some of it might fall through. All corrections are welcome though.

This post will cover:

Fontaine history

The relationship between music and technology

The meaning of technology according to German philosopher Martin Heidegger

The influence of the 1927 silent film Metropolis in Fontaine’s narrative

How the Bible plays into all of it

Music & Technology

Firstly, the Fontaine symbol looks like 2 things:

A fountain and a retro futuristic city design.

At the same time, the design of the fountains in the city resemble a musical organ. The melusine named Blathine outside Opera Eclipse mentions that the pillars of water formed in the fountains are “like the music that plays in the background during an opera”, most likely referring to an organ.

On the other hand, a city works as a high expression of technological advance.

These two elements are closely tied to the history of the region. Remuria’s empire centered its development around the arts and intellectual fields (especially music), while Fontaine does it around machinery and engineering.

Music and technology are thus introduced as companion concepts.

It’s not the first time Genshin relates the two though: back in last year’s Lantern Rite event, it was revealed that madam Ping (alias Streetward Rambler) used to have a rivalry with Guizhong over the authenticity of music that is composed and played on an instrument and that which is produced by a mechanical invention.

In Guizhong’s opinion, while mechanisms were no substitute for human composers, they were yet capable of producing simple but fine melodies. But Streetward Rambler believed music to be an expression of the soul, an emotional enterprise that could never hope to be replicated by machinery. —Story Teaser: Echoes of the Heart

Eventually, Madam Ping changes her mind: Guizhong’s memory lived on through her invention, and madam Ping was able to express her feelings of grief accompanied by the tune in the bell she left behind.

But Streetward Rambler did not acquire [Guizhong’s bell] from Rex Lapis for the purpose of producing further funerary tunes. No, each time she rang it, it was to play the tune that Guizhong composed on it. The two once clashed over their beliefs about the meaning of music, who would have thought that with Guizhong’s passing and Streetward Rambler’s mourning, two tunes composed in discord would eventually become one harmonious composition?

That which is expressed through an instrument is not that different from that which is produced by a machine. While the musician uses their instrument to project their emotions as an extension of the soul, an engineer uses machinery to project their intellect as an extension of the mind.

Estelle: Truth be told, letting someone as feeble in body as I serve as a blacksmith is the main point of this machine. Estelle: Humans can use tools, and exquisitely-designed tools can make the impossible, possible. Estelle: Some say that all automated forgings are hollow and soulless. But if you ask me, the machine is just as much of a tool as a regular smith's hammer. Really, I would love to see those smiths knock metal into shape with their bare hands... —Semi-Automatic Forging quest

Music was the defining trait of Remuria’s identity as a nation, and technology is one of Fontaine’s.

Technology & Domination

King Remus built multiple fairways (perhaps like the pipes of an organ?) that he used to rule his nation, either literally or metaphorically with music, and conquered neighboring tribes in order to have full control of Remuria and avoid its prophesied demise:

The King, resting peacefully at the heart of the palace, listened closely to every melody and every note coming from every corner of the empire. Upon hearing any discord, the God King would correct it immediately with a pluck of his strings, bringing perfection to the symphony of his empire. To spread the harmonious symphony throughout the world, he built far-reaching fairways, which conveyed the melodies as never ending ripples from Capitolium to every corner that sat above the high waters.With his immortal fleet, Remus conquered all the islands on the high waters. Even the great dragon beneath the abyssal depths submitted to his power. Those were the best days since the end of earliest peoples, and eternal prosperity seemed so near at hand. He believed that as long as all the cities echoed with this greatest of songs, they would escape the judgment of fate and at last reach the land of eternal bliss. —The history of the decline and fall of Remuria

Fontaine is currently doing something similar, just that instead of conquering other people through the symbolic force of music, they’re asserting control over the land through first - the allegorical climate change they’re not preventing, and second - the developing of technology at the expense of the integrity, health and life of their own people:

Sir Arthur: Disaster! Disaster! At a recent public exhibition, the Babich Automated Analysis Engine suddenly exploded in a shower of gears, causing great injury and death to onlookers! Sir Arthur: Mr. Babich himself was severely injured and remains unconscious! Sir Arthur: Analysts' Guild President Marco Borja has opined that this tragedy was nonetheless an inevitable step on the path to progress, and that the Guild expresses its deep sympathies and condolences.

Musical instruments in Remuria function the same way machinery does in Fontaine, they are technology developed with the purpose to control by forcing the enemy tribes into submission or as a justification to exploit their workers.

Allegorical (or not so much) imperialism and capitalism, if you will.

These are precisely the dangers that German philosopher Martin Heidegger warned about technology in 1954 with his essay The Question Concerning Technology.

The Question Concerning Technology

Heidegger centered his work around the concept of “being” not as isolated sentience, but as a result of the relationship between a subject and its surrounding environment. He thought, for instance, that the term “ousia” (known as “essence” in philosophy) had been misinterpreted by previous philosophers and lost its real meaning, which he attributed to the conflicts of the modern era due to forgetting what it meant “to be”.

To put it simply, the phrase “I think, therefore I am” proposes the act of thinking is the essence of what it means to be, but Heidegger believed there had to be a state prior to the generation of that thought for the thought to be generated in the first place. A being exists with its environment, and that relationship between the subject and object is the essence of what it means “to be”.

However, it is hard to realize this reality of “being”. For example, when you’re doing an activity for long periods of time like writing or hammering a nail on the wall, you will eventually forget the existence of the pen or the hammer in your hand. At that point, it is not part of your reality even though it very much exists. Life in the modern era is the same, we become blind to certain parts of our existence in doing routinary tasks to survive until we interact with those parts.

So everything we perceive or interact with becomes “unconcealed”, but it’s a reality that’s defined by our own individuality, not an objective truth.

In this sense, the “essence” of technology is not anything technological, it’s not the machines or what’s produced with them, but something that goes deeper into its relationship with humanity.

Heidegger thought the essence of technology was neither a means to an end nor a human activity, but a way to reveal (or “unconceal”) reality.

Technology embodies a specific way of revealing the world, a revealing in which humans take power over reality. While the ancient Greeks experienced the ‘making’ of something as ‘helping something to come into being’ – as Heidegger explains by analysing classical texts and words – modern technology is rather a ‘forcing into being’. Technology reveals the world as raw material, available for production and manipulation. —Future Learn, The Technological View of the World of Martin Heidegger

Heidegger draws attention to technology’s place in bringing about our decline by constricting our experience of things as they are. He argues that we now view nature, and increasingly human beings too, only technologically — that is, we see nature and people only as raw material for technical operations. Heidegger seeks to illuminate this phenomenon and to find a way of thinking by which we might be saved from its controlling power —The New Atlantis, Understanding Heidegger on Technology

Machine-like People

The danger Heidegger warned about had to do with becoming a society that understands all aspects of reality through the technological lens: that both nature and people would be treated as nothing but resources to be used, like pieces of a machine.

All things increasingly present themselves to us as technological: we see them and treat them as what Heidegger calls a “standing reserve,” supplies in a storeroom, as it were, pieces of inventory to be ordered and conscripted, assembled and disassembled, set up and set aside. Everything approaches us merely as a source of energy or as something we must organize. We treat even human capabilities as though they were only means for technological procedures, as when a worker becomes nothing but an instrument for production. Leaders and planners, along with the rest of us, are mere human resources to be arranged, rearranged, and disposed of. Each and every thing that presents itself technologically thereby loses its distinctive independence and form. We push aside, obscure, or simply cannot see, other possibilities. —The New Atlantis, Understanding Heidegger on Technology

Fontaine has adopted this general worldview not only in relation to the workers, but also in the way they treat court cases as spectacles.

If Sumeru explored the question of what it means to be or what can be accepted as a living being (through stories like that of Karkata, Benben and Wanderer), Fontaine on the other hand seems to be asking what separates a living being from a machine when interpreted through the lens of technology, where workers are exploited as disposable objects and people’s tragedy is commodified for entertainment.

For King Remus also, those within his borders had to be controlled, and those outside had to be conquered.

Both Fontaine and Remuria are cities whose culture has become technologically driven.

When society adopts the technological lens —whether technology itself is involved or not— to understand themselves, their humanity is stripped from them. And do they not become just like a machine?

Gontharet: Those who always work and work will find themselves little different from clockwork machines. It is only through constant questioning and asking that we can forge a new path! Gontharet: Our history and present are all proof of this.

"All I have to do is put on my helmet, shut out the background noise, and carry out my orders." Freminet began to see himself as an unfeeling clockwork toy. —Freminet’s Official Introduction

Freminet, alongside Lyney and Lynette, is a member of the House of the Hearth, a secret Fatui organization composed of orphans who work for the Harbinger Arlecchino, who they call “father”, doing missions of espionage and other not so legal activities that more often than not risk their safety. It is unclear what exactly is Freminet’s role, but by the looks of it, he seems to feel less like a human and more like an automaton when carrying out his missions.

The City As A Symbol

(or: let’s get biblicaI)

There is no doubt that Remuria is based on the Roman Empire, but there’s another aspect to Fontaine that’s very intrinsically influenced by the Bible: the city as the epitome of human virtue and decadence.

God’s kingdom is represented as a garden. Adam and Eve are said to have wandered in the wilderness after they were kicked out. When their son Cain became jealous of his brother Abel, who was receiving God’s favor, he murdered him and was marked as a sinner.

Cain further isolated himself from God by running away and establishing the first city. A city in ancient times was just a group of homes, but what characterized it was the tall walls Cain erected as a means to protect himself from retaliation for his crime.

Cain’s city, much like Jerusalem and Babylon later, breeds a culture of violence and abuse, but also of man-made inventions like animal domestication, arts, and metalwork —aka, technology.

Those in power (starting with King David) always end up succumbing to their lowly desires, impulses and vices in Jerusalem. Babylon (which enslaved the Israelites) goes on to become not just a single city in its historical period, but the metaphorical and almost cyclical condition in which humanity condemns itself over and over again through the symbol of the city.

There are two main ways to deal with humanity becoming corrupt in the Bible: a flood or a messiah (mr Jesus The Christ for the Christians). The flood reboots everything and the messiah solution is more about accepting the city for its virtues and defeating sin through death and reincarnation, then God brings his garden into the world, so it’s like a Hannah Montana situation with the best of both worlds.

Anyway, let’s go back to Genshin:

After the first civilization was nuked with a flood, the survivors lived in the wilderness:

When the tide receded and the earth was revealed again, no cities nor civilizations now stood above the high waters. Survivors and the newborn alike lived amidst the forests and rivers, shorn of all knowledge and wisdom. Human lives were no different from those of wild animals on the earth or in the sea, driven on by the laws of nature — muddling through time with neither beginning nor end. Civilization and order were finally restored to the land named Fontaine the day the great king Remus descended upon Meropis in his golden Fortuna. He taught people how to farm and raise crops in the land, and built temples and cities with giant rocks to house the people. Most importantly, it was he who spread the beauty of music and art, which differentiated humans from other living things, causing them to see themselves as masters of all things. —The History of the Decline and Fall Remuria

Remus taught the people of what would become Remuria good things, but also reintroduced arrogance. And the cycle of Cain’s city was fulfilled again, with the nation causing their own destruction.

Remuria also is described with some kind of tower at its center, just like Babylon. And from the story of the Tower of Babel, this tower can be understood as the symbol of the city itself, the expression of human ingenuity.

I want this to be understood not as a direct reference to the biblical stories, but as a narrative parallel to an ancient story about the dangers of technology.

A city is an isolated concentration of humanity’s sins and virtues, surrounded by tall, imposing walls. A city gives rise to arts and technology, and it also breeds hedonistic desires and dangerous machinery.

I’d say the tall walls of Fontaine aren’t just to make the city look like a dam and annoy players who want to climb. And its technology seems on the right track for devastation.

Technology is not the enemy though

I said in the beginning that Fontaine’s symbol resembles a retro futuristic city. More specifically, both the symbol and the design of the city itself remind me of the futuristic envisioned city in Metropolis, a 1927 silent film by director Fritz Lang that has influenced the sci-fi genre to this day.

Metropolis is divided into two classes: the elite that lives on the surface, and the workers who live underground and produce the energy that powers the city.

(Sound familiar?)

The movie makes a point of depicting the workers moving mechanically, in a zombie like state, when they walk towards the machine they operate and while they work on them, as if they were parts of the machine themselves.

The son of the city’s master, Freder, ventures into the underground tunnels and discovers this reality for the first time. When a worker fails to operate the machine correctly, it suffers a malfunction that causes an explosion, leaving many victims behind. Freder is hit by the explosion and has a hallucination where the machine turns into Moloch, a pagan god in the Old Testament that had to be fed human sacrifices, while a group of slaves is being forced into its mouth, and then the workers behind them walk into it voluntarily.

A woman called Maria promises the underground workers that a mediator will eventually help them, as Maria believes the “head” (upper class) and “hands” (workers) just need a “heart” to communicate with each other. This mediator turns out to be Freder, who voluntarily takes the place of one of the workers and suffers the horrors of working in the machines in the flesh.

When Freder’s father finds out, he asks his local mad scientist —who has been working on a robot with human faculties— to give his creation the appearance of Maria, and orders this robot-Maria to twist the beliefs of the workers so they’ll antagonize the real Maria. Robot-Maria also shows up in the city as the figure of the Whore of Babylon, and inspires the upper class men to give in to their desires and vices.

Meanwhile, the workers are encouraged to revolt and destroy the very machines they’re enslaved by, against Maria’s ideology of unity. This destruction causes a flood that almost kills the workers’ children, but they’re saved by Maria and Freder.

The workers burn robot-Maria in the stake and later realize it was just a machine. Freder also fights the mad scientist at the top of a building from where the latter falls and dies.

At the end, Freder acts as a mediator between his father and a representative of the workers.

Ok but why was that whole summary necessary?

In essence, Metropolis is both a dystopian cautionary tale about the dangers of technology that we’ve discussed in this post, and also an allegory for the Bible (yes fr).

Maria is a Virgin Mary expy and Freder is the figure of the messiah (the “mediator”), Jesus Christ. He descends from the paradise above and suffers the pains of the people in the flesh. The mad scientist is a stand in for the devil, and Freder’s father represents the kings that continuously become corrupted in the history of Jerusalem.

Maria is who preaches true belief, while robot-Maria represents an idol of false belief that the workers are fooled by and also the sins and desires the upper class are enslaved by.

The flood that’s caused by the workers’ revolt is pretty much self explanatory in the biblical sense, you know what that is.

In the context of the industrial revolution, the narrative of the false belief aligns with what Heidegger would later address as the danger of technology, the inhuman lens through which the reality of the modern man is interpreted. The desire and sins the upper class is seduced by are of course capitalist interests.

Maria doesn’t condemn technology itself, she even tells the workers an altered version of the story of the Tower of Babel in which the tower couldn’t be finished because the intellectuals who designed it and the slaves who were building it just didn’t understand each other. The tower itself was an accomplishment of human ingenuity in her version.

Likewise, the movie closes with the hopes that this new understanding between head and hands will lead into a better, more fair society.

The figure of the messiah is not what’s important, but the ability to conciliate the power of governance and the working power in order to redirect the course of the city into an enterprise that serves humanity instead of using them like a machine.

Now, in the context of Fontaine, the energy that fuels the city and belief are more closely intertwined than in Metropolis.

The city is powered by Indemnitium, a form of energy which is produced by the belief in justice extracted from trials. We’d have to wonder, then, whether the integrity of this belief remains truthful, or if it has been replaced by the false idol of spectacle.

We know that at least one person in the city harbors discontent for the work, the spectacle and the Indemnitium energy:

Message in Cafe Lucerne’s board:

”For future generations, for our descendants, we must refuse work, refuse the trials, and oppose Indemnitium!”

King Remus in Remuria attempted to avoid the fate of their destruction, Fortuna, by conquering other tribes and establishing control over his people through a shared government, yet he ended up fulfilling the prophecy and condemning himself with those very decisions.

So I wonder if Fontaine might be in danger of self fulfilling their own prophecy should the workers of the city revolt against Indemnitium, since the members of the Narzissenkreuz Institute came up with it as a means to avoid their impending fate. And whether the people of Fontaine will survive their prophesied flood just like the children of the workers in Metropolis survived the flood the workers themselves caused.

#Genshin lore #genshin impact lore #Fontaine #long post #analysis #Fontaine lore #Remuria

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subliminalbo · 1 year

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tw: suicide

Tom couldn't believe when Rebecca told him that she was thinking about Conversion. Was life really all that bad? Sure, they were witnessing the slow decline of civilization one day at a time and yeah, Conversion was one way to mitigate the creeping anxiety of the inevitable end while maintaining a productive role in society. But it wasn't like she'd really be herself, right? Conversion promised to wipe all concerns from the party's mind but the result was somewhere between a human being and a mindless automaton. She wouldn't be his Rebecca anymore, he argued.

But this was the right choice for her. One where she could be happy, wouldn't have to carry the misery of the world anymore. She could still be there for him. However they remade her.

The really sad cases donated their bodies to The Corporation to fill spots on assembly lines. A mindless lifetime dedicated to manual labor. But Rebecca wasn't alone. She even chose the Dream Wife template with the Arts and Culture memory expansion so that she wouldn't be just a mindless fuckpuppet around the house. After twelve years of nodding through sports talk she could finally carry a conversation with Tom about all the trivial little things he loved.

God, he missed her personality though.

At first it felt real enough that maybe Tom could live with this Rebecca as if nothing had changed. But it was the small things. She'd lost the fire that had once driven him crazy. She didn't argue small details anymore, didn't derail perfect evenings just to be right. She didn't labor over restaurant orders or advocate for Tom when he was too timid to advocate for himself.

He must have taken her back to The Corporation a dozen times to install new personality expansions. The Corporation never came close to his Rebecca though. Tom knew that he had to be okay with this. When he looked into those pearl white eyes and saw nothing staring back, he had to be okay with the fact that this is what Rebecca had wanted. It was her choice.

Slowly, though, Tom learned to accept his new wife. Riding the train for two hours a day to and from his office, he had time to think about all the privileges they shared. The outside world was a constant assault of sound and image. Ad space plastered to every imaginable surface, these days less focused on selling products and more so on pulling consumers' attention away from the sky. Last Tom had checked it was looking more like a burnt yellow.

The train was no exception to the ceaseless flow of information. Digital screens projected over the car windows played ads for The Corporation on loop. A constant reminder of the life Rebecca had chosen. But each ad had the effect of making Tom feel better about her choice. Dream Wife, Dream Life, the slogan went.

He returned home each day to her bright smile, her delicious cooking. Their home was decorated in a retro turn of the century style. The windows cloaked the view outside with the image of a blue sky, a starry night. It was the dream life that Rebecca had always wanted.

And one day Tom discovered that it was okay to command her. That it was okay to treat her as the object she had chosen to be. When she called him "Master" for the first time he was surprised to find himself turned on. When she begged him to command her, he didn't hesitate.

He bent her over the couch and saw the port on the back of her neck where the Conversion had been installed and he heard the moans, those authentic moans! A sound that hadn't come from his wife's mouth in years. They weren't the sounds of a human robot, but a human woman's. A human woman who could get wet on command, whose pussy was always tight, and libido endless.

As he thrust his cock inside of her, all Tom could think about now was how thankful he was for everything The Corporation had given him. The words from the digital screens on his daily train rides scrolled by on a loop in his mind: Dream Wife, Dream Life, Dream Wife, Dream Life. He regretted ever missing Rebecca now because she had never actually left. She had only been reshaped into her best self.

Dream Wife, Dream Life.

His grip tightened around her hips as he teetered on the edge. She came with him, as she had been programmed to do. Her screams echoed off the walls.

Tom sank back into the couch, holding on for a moment to catch his breath. She remained frozen there, awaiting further orders while his cum dripped from her pussy. He could only stare in admiration of her beautiful form. Her naked back, the curve between her shoulder blades, the dimples above her ass. He thought of the time before Conversion was an option. He thought of the millions who had chosen to end it all, the labor crisis that had forced the hand of engineers far smarter than Tom to find a solution.

And now here she was, his wife Rebecca. She was still here. She was still with him. Flesh and blood and code and programming.

Tom smiled, and for the first time he thought, I am so thankful for The Corporation.

#hypnokink #mind control #brainwashed #a little more conceptual than I usually work with #and weird and a little sad and dystopian and apocalyptic too i guess i really hope this doesn't suck #hypno caption #hypno story

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shuinami · 9 months

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What he said 👩🏽‍💻

I can't lie, I'm not tryna hear this Spider-Punk don't (ever) listen to grime and other kinds of hip-hop* or more black-associated genres thing. I heard this little clip before I watched the movie I think but now that I'm active in the fandom but idk, I feel like people need to loosen up a bit, we can all have our different interpretations. If even Daniel Kaluuya has his own interpretation of what punk means which he literally put into his interpretation of the character that blessed our screens and everyone loves so dearly, I find it weird for people to slick imply that Spider-Punk has to be so detached from stuff that's more commonly associated with black people... like a person/character can have multiple aspects to who they are and what they like.

As someone who is a black Londoner too, that's something about Hobie that was so special to me representation wise like how Daniel Kaluuya chose** to mix the cockney and the MLE (or road as the interviewer puts it 😅) so much in the little screen time Spider-Punk had and the way that they designed Hobie to have like the more (irl time) trendy, Florida originated/African American influenced wicks whilst being on a retro vibe with the punk thing, on top of his overtly anti-establishment politics and the implications of him being a Spider-Man (i.e. STEM nerd, etc.)... It's such a nuanced and genuine feeling character, I don't feel like I've ever seen a black British character like this which is kind of crazy but that's what makes him so special.

All this to say, I get that he's punk, I really do, but the idea that he has to be totally severed from black British culture in order to achieve that is like... I mean, everyone can have their interpretations and headcanons ofc but I feel like putting him into a box of what punk means to you (outside of the politics) and then getting frustrated that other people feel differently about a fictional character because they're coming from a different and, moretime, blacker place is just kind of... a lot 😅.

Also, am I crazy or do we maybe think they cast Daniel Kaluuya, someone who is most famous and critically acclaimed for his roles in unambiguously black movies like Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah, Black Panther, Nope... for a reason, maybe? Perhaps 🥸?? Like maybe him being black and black culture is just very very important to his character, maybe? Maybe the animators animated their little test thingies to Daniel's voice before they cast anyone, despite Daniel not being punk or cockney for a reason, perchance 👁👁?

Anyways shout out Daniel Kaluuya as always, love his work 🤎🤎🤎

*Obviously, there is the element of anachronism here, like if you say this because there wasn't grime and whatever genres in the '70s, fair enough, but that's not really the vibe I tend to get when some people say this kinda thing

**The directors or whoever asked Karan Soni and Daniel Kaluuya how to make their characters authentic, which is why I attribute the accent chosen to him as opposed to the writers. BTW Hobie's accent is not a common mixture, usually a person will lean way heavier towards cockney or MLE, to the point that you wouldn't realise they incorporate one or the other in their speech. The slang felt super deliberate; I'm guessing the MLE in particular was a Kaluuya touch to emphasise Spider-Punk's blackness. Point being: it was a purposeful mixture and not just, like, how Daniel Kaluuya talks (he uses MLE mostly, like most of us do lol)

#anyways yh i love us fr s/o all my black british ppldem 😭🤎#maybe i'm waffling but idk i was feeling this way #across the spiderverse #hobie brown #spider punk #daniel kaluuya #shui meta

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illicit-astrology · 1 year

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Pluto Goes Retro!

Pluto goes retro once a year for around 5-6 months. This year, Pluto stationed retrograde yesterday May 1st. What does this mean?

Usually, this is the time where you feel loss of power or control over the external events in your life. Things that you rely on, to feel powerful, is usually questioned or challenged. This is the time for:

Tapping into your inner power and finding power in yourself rather than relying on external things, events or people.

Pluto is about survival, so you need to question if your survival habits are holding you back and don't serve you anymore.

Acknowledging your shadow-self that comes out when your sense of power is questioned or being challenged.

Deep introspection to realize the most authentic version of you.

Grounding yourself and letting go of control because that's pluto's highest goal.

I hope that's helpful! Don't panic, Pluto got your back ;)

#pluto #pluto retrograde #astrology #horoscope #transits

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sundaysplayzone · 1 year

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Commonly Asked Questions.

I get asked the same 3-5 questions all the time, so I thought I might make this new lil pinned post to help everyone out! But first, I want to thank you all for visiting my blog!

Do you take requests?

No, I do not.

Are your commission open?

Yes currently! Honestly now a days they’re almost always open. You can check them out on my website HERE!

Are you okay with gift art?

Of course! I would be flattered! If you’d like, you can find most of my characters here on toyhouse (I promise to update it soon!)!

How do you get the retro/vhs effects on your art?

I actually made a tutorial on that here! But honestly at the end of the day it’s a lot of “I plug this picture into several different apps and video editing software.” I wish I could give you a simple answer, but there is no easy way to do it that’s the same every time. I rarely if ever do it the same way back to back. Some colors look better when edited in Photoshop, some in Photomosh Pro. I pay almost $100 a month to have access to all of the software I use to make these effects because it’s part of my job. But luckily you can find so many free tutorials and apps out there, you just need to be curious and try new things!

What do you use to draw?

Another vague answer whoo! Sorry, but I use so many things to draw! But usually it’s sketch/ink/color/shade in Paint Tool Sai, and then move it to Photoshop to add the background, effects and details. I also use Procreate and Clip Studio from time to time. When it comes to traditional, it’s usually standard cardstock or a mixed media sketchbook. Then I draw and color with microns, copic pens, jelly rollers/gel pens, prisma colored markers and copic markers.

Did you draw the backgrounds in your art? And if you use screenshots, where do you get them?

In the majority of my pictures, I use screenshots from old cartoons. I get these screenshots from the shows themselves. My friend is kind enough to set up a program that takes snapshots hundreds of times during the show. Then when the episode is over, they send them to me. I then spend HOURS, going through thousands of images and delete all but the good pieces. A majority of the time they take a lot of editing to be usable. I have to clean them up, remove character and scale the images.

This isn’t always the case however! I do often draw my own backgrounds! If you ever want to know, feel free to ask!

As for the more aesthetic/abstract backgrounds, I make those myself! I spent far too much money buying licenses and rights to use tons of different patterns and vectors. With those, I love recreating authentic backgrounds in the style of those seen in the 80s and 90s!

I see you draw a lot of Transformation/Chubby/(insert common movie trope here). Are you a fetish artist?

No, I am not a fetish artist. Do I draw art that might be someone’s fetish? Do I take commissions from people with a fetish for this subject matter? Yes, of course. But people need to realize, furry characters alone are a kink to some people. For me the difference is in how it’s drawn. And I personally do not draw my art in a way that sexualizes the piece.

I love drawing transformation scenes, people being swallowed by a monster, extra big tummies, but not because it’s something that I find hot. I just like drawing fun scenes. I get bored of just drawing a character standing in place all the time. I like drawing wacky scenes!

A lot of my love for these come from cartoons. Edmund getting turned into a cat in Rock a Doodle. Hercules getting swallowed by the hydra. Kaa hypnotizing... everyone xD It’s just a story telling tool and sometimes it’s fun to draw! I’m not into hypno but I do like drawing big, colorful eyes. I’m just whatever about tf but I love drawing the swirling magic effects and the character changing from human to animal. It’s just cool to me!

In short, when I draw these things, it’s like I get to draw scenes from cartoons and movies in my style. It’s so wonderful to attempt to emulate some of the effects and details they used in movies from my childhood. It’s not about the hand changing into a paw for me, it’s the magical sparkles and how it’s so bright and vibrant compared to everything else. Where you see it go from hand to paw, that’s what I love drawing about tf art! Or being able to exaggerate the body and make a character look weighty by making them really round. Getting to draw a comically big mouth, giving a fun and interesting perspective shot. I think that stuff is so neat! Because it’s art!

I don’t care if it is someone’s fetish. I’m not drawing it in a way that’s sexual. Heck, it even says I wont in my TOS! Everything is G-PG here in Sunday’s Playzone! I’m not here to make that kind of content. It’s okay if adults have fetishes, and so long as you and others aren’t sexualizing my art, all is well!

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