My thoughts on how the Milgram mv machine works based on the evidence we have:
(I know there’s been discussion about where exactly the interrogations take place, but wherever they are,) the prisoners are made to sit in a specific chair near the wall that houses the machine.
It’s ordinarily hidden, but the wall panels shift aside to reveal it when the mechanical sounds play in the dramas. As well as the walls moving, the chair transforms to restrain the prisoner and attach whatever it takes to access their brain. The fact that none of the more frightened prisoners try to run or break it makes it seem like they physically cannot. This is why Fuuta sounds so panicked, and why Amane is suddenly helpless in front of Es in their T1 vds.
(My mind conjures very classic sci-fi mad scientist machines with wires, pipes, lights, nodes, needles, etc, but I’d love to hear how other people visualize it.)
In some vds (maybe all? I’d need to check,) you can hear Es take some steps right before their iconic line -- it would make sense that for safety reasons, the power mechanism is placed across the room. Once again it could be anything, but the sound effect makes me think of one of those giant wall-mounted levers you have to pull down.
The voice dramas don’t really provide the type of crime details that an actual interrogation would reveal, and it’s odd that they’re placed before the extraction rather than after Es gets to see the new details. This leads me to believe the machine functions with priming. All Es needs to do is get them talking about their murder, so it’s on their mind.
The video produced is much like a (non-lucid) dream. Even if the prisoners figure out that this is how it works, they can’t control it just by thinking really hard about something else. The murders produce the strongest emotional affect, and that’s what it picks up on. If someone else used the machine, it would default to whatever gave them the strongest emotional reaction in the ~15 minutes beforehand, hence why Es’ video focuses on their daunting task ahead. (The Undercover theory is still a bit loose, though, given the private shots that Es wouldn't have known about). It’s why the videos are usually closely linked to the vd topics/beats. I also like to think that the reason their prisoner colors appear so much is because they’re looking at those colors on their uniform 24/7.
The bell rings to inform Es that it’s the optimal time to use the machine -- the prisoner has been thinking about things for long enough that the video will be about their crime, and if the conversation lasts much longer they’ll start thinking of other things. It’s at a different time for each prisoner because it’s based on the specific conversation. I guess Jackalope is listening in to the interrogation, timing it perfectly. (The only one that kind of messes with this theory is Yonah, because they just keep talking afterwards lol, but it could just show that the interrogation is still in Es’ control.)
Their “Sing your sins” is the final priming nudge to get them to think of their actions as a sin, revealing their guilt.
Once activated, the prisoner enters a sort of trance/sleeping state. It’s very much like REM sleep, with the machine forcibly activating neurons and recording the output. The prisoners have asked Es what they saw, meaning they don’t remember the mvs. I like to think the prisoners do experience the mv in real time, acting as the major version of themself that appears, but can’t remember it afterwards. It’s when you experience a dream, but as soon as you wake up you’re just left with fleeting emotions and memories right on the tip of your tongue.
The video plays immediately upon extraction -- whether on a huge projection or little screen depends on which room it’s in. It simultaneously saves the memory so that Es can rewatch it later (on those old TVs in the jailbreak mix). The machine downloads the song and video together, but requires special parts to retrieve them. The technology is pretty new and fragile, so if one is broken, there might be a delay between when Es can hear the extracted song and see it with the video. (That’s my justification for Kotoko’s delays -- after 9 prisoners the parts wear out, or maybe Mikoto himself overheats it with his complex situation.)
Based on the lack of conversation we get afterwards, I picture Es leaving before the prisoner wakes from the trance. The machine adjusts their brain back to normal before they awaken, restraints freed and able to return to the rest of the prison.
It’s very much like a dream, so it’s not harmful despite the amnesia/head injuries the prisoners have. It does, however, exhaust them. Brain activity alone takes a lot of energy, so forced brain activity with added emotional strain would cause them to feel pretty drained the rest of the day.
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I don’t think it’s appreciated enough just how good TK must be at sex. I mean, after their hook-up Carlos is just laying on that uncomfortable looking couch basking...
TK literally sexed him stupid because when TK brushes off Carlos’ attempts at round 2 with some obvious, weak ass excuses... this man just stares at TK’s ass, nods, and smiles.
... like yep, uh huh, whatever you say... and then when TK runs out the door as if there’s a house on fire he needs to get to, Carlos barely notices, just.. “text me!”
don’t know what sex magic took place there but... TK is clearly cocky for a reason.
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I love Steph's origin as told in the Secret Origins 80 page giant- I just overall think it strengthens her character by giving her a lot of pathos and adding to her heroism (which isn't something writers were focused on in her actual intro in detective comics #647 since she was just meant to act as a plot device back then) BUT there is one tiny detail in it i will begrudge, and that is the portrayal of her having a minor love at first sight moment for tim
Secret origins 80 page giant, ID in alt
(or well, technically this was their second meeting in that story (the brick was the first) so...love at second sight?)
Mostly because Stephanie showed no interest in her introduction and only showed romantic feelings towards Tim AFTER this moment here:
Robin (1993) #4, ID in alt
Straight up the progression here goes:
The adventure in 'tec where they first meet -> Tim investigating the same crime scene as Steph -> she beats him up not knowing it's him at first, apologizes but says he shouldn't have scared her -> he remembers her/the moniker she goes by -> they talk about plot for a few pages -> Stephanie starts flirting
Robin (1993) #4, ID in alt
Which...is so fascinating to me and says so much about Stephanie. She highlights the fact that Tim "remembered" her. Like. Steph. Girl. This is our bar? It's sweet but kind of speaks to how much Stephanie is ignored at home/how little and sporadically she's shown interacting with her peers (and rarely ever the same kids twice). Her idea of peak romance is just...being on someone's mind even when you're not there.
Kind of also adds layers to Steph's proclivity towards jealousy later on, a manifestation of her insecurity and loneliness (though don't get it twisted, she's not written this way bc Dixon and co think it's an interesting character flaw, they wrote it bc they think it's an inherent character flaw of (particularly young) women/girls, which is very apparent in how he approaches Ariana's character as well from what I've read)
Also the fact that Steph becomes so smitten for Tim almost immediately after this is (a few issues later she aggressively flirts with him during AN ACTIVE HOSTAGE SITUATION. WHERE SHE'S THE HOSTAGE) again is kind of a mixture of kind of funny and sad. One boy is nice to her once and she's fully ready to wife him. Girl you are deranged (affectionate) (concerned)
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would you draw uro takako maybe? 😳
miss cunty herself
[ID: Two digital drawings of Uro Takako from Jujutsu Kaisen. She is drawn with dark brown roots, light brown skin and a muscular physique. The first is a redraw of a chapter cover, where she floats in the sky and pulls it over herself. This redraw is coloured, and she is lit with a bright pink light from the left, a dusk sky behind her.
The second is an uncoloured sketch redraw of the official art where she wears a pink leotard and baggy dark pink pants. She raises one eyebrow, puts her hand on her hip and looks off to the right, unimpressed. The original illustration is visible in the left corner. End ID.]
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"Come dance with us, Takanuva," Kopaka says.
Takanuva startles: his eyes fall on the Toa before him for a moment before turning again to the Ko-Matoran festivities. Further away from them Nuju looks thoughtful.
"I never learned any Ko-Koro dances," he replies, quietly, sheepishly.
"They can be taught," Kopaka just says without batting an eye, his welcoming hand extended.
It's familiarly cold when Takanuva accepts it.
He is pulled to his feet, but does not yet join the celebrations. His brother takes him a little to the side so their slowness won't be bothersome to those much more confident in their dancing.
"Your right arm," Kopaka instructs, showing him the right movement; Takanuva mirrors him. The Toa of Ice's gaze turns half-lid. "Right arm."
The Toa of Light looks down.
He quickly changes limb.
His brother nods.
Ko-Koro dances are rhythmic, harsh, heavy, powerful, Takanuva finds out as he follows along - like breaking ice into enormous blocks: motions that in Onu-Koro are lighter become heavy enough to sink in the snow, strikes that in Ta-Koro are faster turn slower to build up momentum, swings that in Po-Koro are more calculated appear sharp enough to cut through stone; they maintain a certain minute grace despite it, like certain Le-Koro leaps or the ways they move their hands in Ga-Koro, and the Toa of Light tries his best to imitate it. The songs they dance to are instead thin and crystalline despite the strict pronunciation of their dialect, their pitch high and strong like wind through the icicles as the Matoran circle the bonfire.
The warm glow flicks across the spectacled white mask with a brilliant flicker, and as Takanuva watches it entranced a thought runs through him - are Ice and Light not the same element?
"Very well," Kopaka praises gently, "Very well."
He fixes his eyes on Takanuva and sees him.
It stuns the younger Toa when he realizes it, just for a second: he sees him. He doesn't see through him, past him, before him, he just sees him - he sees Takua, he sees Takanuva, when it would be so easy to superimpose someone else on him, someone whose armor was also grey and white, who was not quite as he seemed, who was much more than what he seemed, if one in a way so different from the other.
(But was it so different, in the end?)
"Very well," Kopaka repeats with the voice he has when he smiles without showing it.
Takanuva straightens his spine.
Nuju breaks their concentration, chittering and chirping and clawing at the air: Kopaka nods, whistles something that sounds in intention like 'coming, Turaga', and kindly pushes his brother among the cheering Matoran who welcome him without questioning his presence as another song commences and with it another dance.
Takanuva stumbles, unsure. Kopeke pulls his arm and shows him how to start before his Ice brother can do so himself; Ehrye yells out the chorus to the song, to teach it to him, but he messes up a line or two in his hurry before he gets it right, and so it has to start again.
Kopaka sings, too. His voice is powerful, rolling out of him like an avalanche.
Takanuva just listens at first, dancing as best as he can, slowly forgetting to look at his feet and arms and starting to have fun. He meets Nuju's eyes: the Turaga smiles calmly, content.
He starts off murmuring the chorus so softly that he can barely hear himself, volume rising slowly with each repeat; at last he's bellowing it out, syllables a little wrong but voice clear, by his brother's side, dancing just like him, singing just like him, in a crowd of whites and azures and greys that reflect the bonfire's shining light into a thousand stars like quartz prisms, until his throat feels sore and he's stumbling and laughing while holding onto the Toa of Ice's arms breathless and so very happy.
"You're a good dancer, Takanuva," Kopaka smiles at him.
"Thank you, brother," Takanuva replies, and among the dozens of things he is thanking him for on the forefront are welcoming him in his loneliness, and seeing him.
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