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bladekindeyewear · 4 years

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HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-08-06

♪ HS2 HS2 is baaaaack ♪

♪ HS2bloggin here we gooooo ♪

♪ Structural changes on their team but I don’t caaaaare ♪

♪ Already resooolved myself that its NOOOT gonna beee as good ♪ with inattentiveness to details characters like Terezi forgetting-what-they-used-to-know and an obsession with dwelling on traaageeeDEEE without relief-or-considering how weee’d feeeeeeel~ ♪♪♪ --so just gonna enjoy-what-i-caaaaaan about iiit~ ♪♪♪

Okay time for bankruptcy

> CHAPTER 11. History's Most Notorious Haters

Let’s see how effectively my perky new lowered-expectations attitude lets me enjoy this comic *click*

wut

Oh. so is this Dave drawing comics about current events or Regular Calliope doing so for our very first lanky look at her presumably-grown-up-more cherub form

> Knight: Keep it real.

HOLY SHIT IT’S DAVEBOT AND ARADIA

so we just get to SEE them?! just like that??? no buildup or anything? :D

Okay I’m marking out a little that’s a good sign. Also what a nerdy cop-out to turn the roboteyes into glasses that’s barely passable which is perfect, the rest of his outfit looks pretty cool tho

DAVEBOT: and thats reason four hundred nineteen why despite my mans many accomplishments i will never acknowledge big skateboardings contrived message that tony hawk is the quintessential skater of our generation ARADIA: o_o DAVEBOT: not in these trying times

Good to see Ultimate Dave is being true to form with regards to the core of his personality

DAVEBOT: beep boop ARADIA: i have told you several times that i was a robot before and i know for a fact you dont have to say beep boop DAVEBOT: hm that sounds fake does not compute ARADIA: david DAVEBOT: mom

I was with this conversation until the last two lines what the fuck

(I’m reading into it aren’t I, Aradia was trying to be atypically proper -- even though she wouldn’t have the frame of reference to know without being specifically told that “Dave” was considered nickname shorthand for the human name David, and thus if she DID know there’s no reason she’d use it except to troll him -- and Dave’s just mocking her response. Without any shame about his continued weirdness of calling people Mom, and by without any shame I mean he made the choice EXPLICITLY to intentionally evoke the awkwardness. Wow I got a lot out of two lines.)

(Oh, also alt!Callie’s true Jade-body incarnation here probably prompted her to start using “David” by example. There, various mysteries solved via a pile of assumptions probably to be disproven in the next couple lines I read.)

The Knight and the Maid stare at each other briefly, having exchanged enough meaningful glances over their time together to know when to drop it.

Would Time players have an easier time gelling this way, like this particular smoothness? Dropping it just before it gets weird or excessively irritating?

(Overclasspecting)

ARADIA: i think we have exchanged enough meaningful glances over our time together to know when to drop this DAVEBOT: what i enjoy about our conversations is that you just say things like that

OKAY I SNRK’D AT THAT. That was funny.

Initially. And now I’m concerned whether Aradia is being controlled by the narrative-speak, or whether they’re both just humorously referencing the meta-text they can both see, or--

ARADIA: oh is that what you enjoy ARADIA: well we are both an infinite number of years old living countless lifetimes at once but thats no reason to waste any of our...

WHAT??!? She’s an Ultimate Self too?!?

Um, okay! Yeah! So they’re BOTH just riffing on the narrative then. But... why would Dave need a robot body to accommodate his Ultimate Psyche without getting sick but Rose not need it? I can understand Dirk not needing it because the merging of the full breadth of his multiversal individuality gels well with him being a God of the aspect governing the power of his multiversal individuality, but Aradia?

Were the robot bodies not necessary after all, and the sickness Rose suffered and Obama thought Dave would have suffered some sort of ruse? Are there shenanigans afoot? (Or are we going with the “troll biology is better” cop-out?)

She knows how this will play out, having undoubtedly tried this joke on her friend in some timeline or another. Their rapport reflects a unique combination of their matching aspects but greatly differing classes. One a passive but powerful servant to time, the other wielding the aspect like a honed blade.

WHAT????

PASSIVE SERVANT OF THE ASPECT?!? WHAT THE FUCK

Okay if that means anything like it sounds like I guess my class chart is finally blown up, sure, they only waited (*checks last edit date*) SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS TO BLOW THAT GUESS UP, SURE

Wow. Okay, I feel some obligation to jump to conclusions and say the whole class chart is wrong, but let me stay strapped in to see if “passive” is as literal as one would expect alt!Callie to mean, or it just means “an active class passive compared to other classes”. And, serving the aspect? Oh dammit, now people are gonna come at me advocating a Maid / Page dichotomy about actively serving the aspect versus allowing the aspect to be served... or Page / Maid even, jesus

I wish I had enough energy to have those chats anymore. I’d rather hold on and see the whole ridiculous chart scheme they have in mind... which is definitely (and hopefully) the one Andrew really drew up at the time and not made up by the staff, even if it throws away plenty of my old work... I’ll just stop thinking about it and keep reading.

...

--no, I don’t think I can just stop thinking about it yet. Dammit, brain.

So um. Maids serving their aspect. There was a whole “Maids serve” thing going on throughout the whole plot of Homestuck, but despite how prevalent it was, I wrote it off as the story riffing on the classical definition of Maid when the actual stuff Maids accomplished was something different and more specific, just like Knights constantly got riffed on for chivalry and the like. Furthermore, service seemed like a really shitty class definition, when class definitions are the verbs one uses to interact with reality through Aspects to change the way reality unfolds, and “serving” isn’t really an action that results in change, implying a distinct deficit of agency that I wouldn’t have viewed as fair. (Especially since you originally think “meant to serve others” and not “meant to serve the aspect”, implying even LESS agency.) Furthermore, MOST passive classes from their descriptions seem to have a propensity to act “as if by the will of the aspect”, so even with the nuance of “serving the aspect”, devoting an entire class verb to service would just step on the territory of other active/passive class pairs’ passive sides, right?

But... IF we were to take this for granted as what it SEEMS... then concentrating on that angle of “serving the aspect” implies a whole lot more agency than a service class might sound on its surface. The definition fits with the story better once you contextualize all the Maid-y references to service around Jane, for instance, with the additional idea of “serving Life” by baking prolifically and creating more of its symbols in food and--

--fuck. “Serving”, like serving to others. Serving the aspect as its attendant AND serving it out to others that need it. Maybe this still IS part of the Additive class pair! Whoa. :O

Okay okay so, what I/we thought before was:

Create/Add - Maid / Sylph

Destroy/Reduce - Prince / Bard

But “additive” really isn’t an elegant verb compared to the “Destroyer” classes, so... could it be the “Servants” and the “Destroyers”? Like Maids cleaning up and healing the broken wreckage strewn through the halls by a bratty Prince’s tantrum???

It’d certainly be weird... and it’d CERTAINLY be a wild twist where I was partially wrong in some fascinating ways but not entirely off base?

One a passive but powerful servant to time, the other wielding the aspect like a honed blade.

And yet, I can’t bet on this being the situation yet; not at all. First, it relies on the idea that alt!Callie’s explicit narrative here is slightly misleading, which would be a pretty extreme thing to commit to, even for a technical truth like “she was saying it was passive relative to other classes even though it’s technically “active””. Second... it would mean that Muses are even more wildly defined than the previous insinuation of hers, that the Sylph -- what we thought was the passive additive class -- was not enough like a Muse compared to a Witch. Muses not being that Additive? I could grudgingly understand that, but Muses not being anything like passive Servants?! That would be EXTREMELY weird!

So... there’s not a whole lot of chance that I’m not dramatically wrong somewhere about these classes! In a way that throws the entire chart into disarray!

I’m... oddly excited? Huh.

That’s a pretty nice surprise that I actually feel that way.

(Don’t hit me up all at once to discuss this Classpect development over Discord, I’ll still need a few days without talking about Homestuck to recharge as usual. Like... maybe wait and come at me as a group chat? So I’m not talking about the latest developments separately with everyone? No that wouldn’t work, how about... guh I dunno, look my outlook’s a little more positive right now but dealing with Homestuck still takes emotional energy okay?)

Okay the rest of this page...

ARADIA: ... DAVEBOT: time then make a weird face ARADIA: ........ DAVEBOT: waste time DAVEBOT: time ARADIA:............. DAVEBOT: i experience all points of time simultaneously please just say time and make a weird face

This is true.

ARADIA: .................. DAVEBOT: cmon megido youre killing me clocks ticking ARADIA: ... ARADIA: time o_o

The Maid casts a furtive glance around the empty crew quarters, as though to search for someone more sympathetic to her bit.

ARADIA: tough crowd

Dorks.

> ==>

(Lazy fruit-throwing sword-training I won’t bother to screenshot but looks fun)

(I mean, really lazy looking, these people really don’t have Andrew’s knack for action composition that would make the same amount of gif-creation effort feel like a microcosm of the event they’re depicting, unfortunately. Again, I don’t blame them; Andrew was just too good at it.)

DAVEBOT: ok heres one DAVEBOT: how old do you think you are ARADIA: emotionally? ARADIA: that is a pretty heavy topic DAVEBOT: you know damn well thats not what i meant ARADIA: you know I have been through a lot dave DAVEBOT: ok ARADIA: its just so kind of someone DAVEBOT: ok i get it ARADIA: to finally ask how i feel ARADIA: i am beside myself with emotions ARADIA: i want to open up DAVEBOT: jesus christ ARADIA: shall i open up about my past traumas to you ARADIA: would you enjoy that ARADIA: to think even a frog like me can work through their pain with a dear friend ARADIA: you have truly blessed me on this day dave strider

Is Aradia JUST trolling here or is her Ultimate Self grappling with a ton of real unresolved trauma too that she’s bullshitting around Dave-style?

DAVEBOT: times fun when youre having flies

Okay that’s a damned good frog pun.

Alright now Davebot’s rapping

DAVEBOT: lacking tact i stay stacked while i breach contract DAVEBOT: sacred vows disavowed got divorce fever DAVEBOT: i leave her DAVEBOT: dont look back dont perceive her ARADIA: do you want to talk about it :( DAVEBOT: about what ARADIA: would you say you are hung up on leaving your wife and friends behind

Goddamnit is DAVE’S ton of real unresolved trauma leaking into his raps unintentionally Dave-style?? I knew we had to address it when we cut to Davebot but how about LESS TRAGEDY IN THIS COMIC MAYBE

DAVEBOT: arent you even a little guilty about ditching your boyfriend ARADIA: what ARADIA: oh fuck

But she knew what she was doing when she did it she explicitly did it didn’t she? Epilogues quote:

DAVEBOT: what about your boy DAVEBOT: eyepatches ARADIA: oh sollux is in one of his moods ARADIA: this was all getting to be a bit much for him ARADIA: if i go ill probably just cut him loose DAVEBOT: good move

And then they stepped through the sky hole more or less. Did like, distracted Ultimate Aradia not realize exactly how long she was leaving Sollux for, ie forever? Or did she “ascend” to Ultimate status later and hadn’t thought back to the full consequences of her actions within this timeline? Or both? From the looks of the link we’ll probably find out on the next pa--

--Wait. Something else I just thought of, unrelated.

If Aradia is an Ultimate Self, that’s another coincidentally Ultimate version of someone hanging around that happens to be on the prospective list of Soul-Powered Jujus that might have their creation loops closed in the coming story. Could those two things play into each other somehow? Like instead of their souls getting stuffed into the items, their “Ultimateness” is? Or as if that’s a necessary component, or... no, I’m probably overthinking things.

> (Months in the past, but not many...)

Uh huh. Is that flashing because he’s “watching” Aradia leave? But I thought Aradia SAID she was leaving--

> (==>)

--and that black hole portal doesn’t look as cool as it sounded in the Epilogues. But why was Aradia acting surprised, she said “I’ll probably just cut him loose” mere MOMENTS before entering the portal, did she mean “cut him loose” as in “I’m going to talk to him before leaving” and then just IMMEDIATELY forget that she didn’t say anything to him because she cared so little???

Wait. Waaaait wait wait. I think. I think maybe I missed some subtext. Lemme do some fuller quotes here:

ARADIA: oh sollux is in one of his moods ARADIA: this was all getting to be a bit much for him ARADIA: if i go ill probably just cut him loose DAVEBOT: good move

His gaze remains fixed on her. She blinks and looks away, unsure what to say next. He’s standing perfectly still, presumably waiting for her to say something. She met him... what was it? Once, twice before? She can’t remember. But she knows this is a very different Dave. Aside from the metal skin, he seems implacably confident. But then, people go through changes. She’s been through more than her share. She cocks an eyebrow, recalling her own stint with a metal body.

DAVEBOT: hey earth to whats your face ARADIA: oh ARADIA: its aradia

[...]

DAVEBOT: youre coming DAVEBOT: better decide quick i doubt that dank fuckin hell funnel is staying open for much longer ARADIA: yes i suppose so ARADIA: thats where all the action is right? DAVEBOT: all the action that matters yeah ARADIA: off we go then :) DAVEBOT: word

He holds out his hand. She looks around, and assumes he means for her to take it, so she does. She didn’t know someone could fly this fast. He nearly yanks her arm out of its socket. She considers reminding him that maybe this isn’t necessary, since she can fly too. But she doesn’t want to risk saying more embarrassing stuff around this outrageously cool dude. Besides, they’re through the wormhole before she can even finish the thought. It vanishes the moment they’ve crossed.

...this was a SHIPPING thing wasn’t it. She’s impressed as hell with Striderbot, she SAID she’d cut things off with Sollux, and then she was so busy being swooped off her feet and into the portal that she forgot to actually say anything to him. Is that what happened????

Ultimate Self Davebot x Ultimate Self Aradia. Huh. Didn’t see that coming. (Though, again... they could make it SLIGHTLY clearer that this wasn’t just a blatant continuity error.)

Anyway, a rare-don’t-get-used-to-it [S] page...

> [S] (Gaze.)

...Okay that was kinda funny.

> (==>)

SOLLUX: h0w the fuck am i g0ing t0 get d0wn fr0m here.

HAH! Okay, he’s taking it pretty well. :) --and THAT’s what she realized she forgot, giving him a flight down from the tower before leaving.

GOOD. KEEP THINGS HUMOROUS EVEN WHEN LITERAL ABANDONMENT IS HAPPENING. THAT’S the Homestuck I was missing. :) :) :)

> Back to reality.

(Since the black hole is outside “canon” reality.)

Those are some cool poses-AHAH JESUS CHRIST ALT!JADE YOU LOOK ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING XD

COULD YOU MAYBE HAVE CLEANED UP THE DRIED BLOOD AT SOME POINT OR IS SOME OF THAT FRESH FROM EATING MORE RAW MEAT

(Lord English’s blood leaving permanent timeless bloodstains would be a cool new thing to squeeze into canon i admit, i wouldn’t blame them for taking the excuse even if you could find small canon counterexamples I’m not sure of but dimly think might exist)

((ALSO SHE’S GONNA BE TINY NEXT TO THEM I DUNNO IF THAT MAKES IT MORE TERRIFYING OR LESS, PROBABLY MORE))

DAVEBOT: so youre telling me you dont even feel a little bad that you ditched him to be a weird death acolyte ARADIA: no i think he found my wiles both charming and irresistible DAVEBOT: not even an ounce of guilt or self doubt huh DAVEBOT: just like that DAVEBOT: no conversations about the greater good DAVEBOT: no revelations about your feelings

Is Aradia a jerk or weird? Can’t decide.

ARADIA: do you often find your faith in yourself shaken like this or is it a new experience now that your mortal coil has been left behind DAVEBOT: what ARADIA: do you think now that all that is left of you is a literal ghost inside of a machine you are more or less likely to embrace finality DAVEBOT: oh dope more cult of one shit DAVEBOT: immortality changed you ARADIA: could it be that you are projecting your feelings onto my situation DAVEBOT: does not compute rose jr ARADIA: ... ARADIA: we dont have to talk about it DAVEBOT: thanks

Wow, I actually can’t follow this conversation at all. Let me stare at it for a sec...

...okay, the first part she’s talking about DAVE’s faith in HIMself being shaken, not her own. She’s not asking if he relates to HER experience, she’s contrasting it.

Then, asking if he’d be more likely to embrace death, or... Time? Death. Whether his self-worth has changed because he might view himself as “less real”, something Aradia doubtless struggled with when she was a robot who already had so many excuses to devalue herself at the time? And then Dave talks about “cult of one” shit what does that even mean-...

OH. Like she’s a death cult. Gooot it. Because Aradia’s of the position that death and ending should be celebrated, and Davebot understandably isn’t entirely bought in. This is as hard to parse down as one would EXPECT conversations between two Ultimate Selves to be hard to parse down, unlike Rose and Dirk where their insane missions and glaring flaws shine bright enough through it all that you can follow their conversation flow easily.

JADE: They sit in each other's presence, the silence between them as meaningful as any words they could exchange. DAVEBOT: its always really cool to hear how meaningful my silences are DAVEBOT: especially while DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: especially while i am attempting to experience them

Alt!Callie pulling a narrative-text AFTER a talk-identifier like “JADE:” is really hilarious in my opinion.

JADE: i do not need your approval. the story will continue how it must. DAVEBOT: beep boop hater detected ARADIA: wow is that true JADE: i am not a hater. DAVEBOT: classic hater line DAVEBOT: i know this because i am pouring through genuine actual quadrabytes of information on historys most notorious haters JADE: no, you aren’t.

Pffffff. This is pretty fun.

DAVEBOT: you are the exact opposite of a hater ARADIA: a liker DAVEBOT: ok DAVEBOT: perfect example your tolerance for whatever is going on with DAVEBOT: all this ARADIA: i think she looks quite lovely covered in the viscera of the all-powerful enemy she consumed ARADIA: floating lifelessly in our periphery ARADIA: observing our every action and noting its relevance :) DAVEBOT: uh huh thats what i mean

I was gonna note “liker” as additive for pointless classpect purposes, but really more quoting it just because I really enjoy this conversation. I’m starting to get sold on the chemistry of these two a lot faster than I expected.

JADE: even though I understand that it must happen, i am growing frustrated with the direction of this conversation. DAVEBOT: do you want to talk about something else stinky JADE: what would you suggest?

How long has that dried fucking blood been on her

DAVEBOT: ok hear me out DAVEBOT: kanaya DAVEBOT: but like DAVEBOT: wearing huge jorts

That explains Homestuck’s twitter earlier

> Weeks in the future, relative to the original point of interest...

Wait wait which point of interest? This time we were just viewing? *click*

I love what must be this shitty imagination-ship they’re using to cross the substrate of reality

> ==>

Whoaaaa. So they DIDN’T stay in those outfits for long? It showed them in a bunk bed earlier, it showed CallieJade still going around blood-covered afterward-- dammit, I’m having a hard time gauging exactly how much time is supposed to have passed between their entry into the black portal, their earlier conversation, and this moment. And as likely as some are to call this poor scene composition, I can’t think it’s anything but intentional, given we’re dealing with a couple of Ultimate Time players bullshitting with each other.

Moments like these are not rare, and serve a valuable function to the story. They are able to show a passage of time with the bulk of the emotional labor of a lengthy bonding process happening off screen. How did we get here? What have they been through? These questions are often better left open to individual interpretation and can give the one interpreting a sense of ownership of the story.

See? We’re being trolled is why. (Even if the authors are pulling the trick Alt!Callie describes maybe a little too damn often, because a cut like this where we’re supposed to fill in the emotional gaps and intervening events ourselves as readers depends on readers’ faith that sensible events and decisions for these characters would OCCUPY the gaps, as if readers don’t have faith that what intervenes WOULD make sense to their understanding of the characters the way the authors are writing them... it just seems like an excuse to do whatever you want without adequately explaining yourself, when in reality if you’d spelled out the events that led to it we’d all cry foul at the mischaracterization.)

...okay, maybe I’m a BIT bitter. Sorry. Where were we?

JADE: As a point of curiosity- ARADIA: oh shit!!!!

The dead Cherub possessing the body of an equally deceased Goddess of Space pauses at the interruption.

She doesn’t talk much, then? Too busy doing whatever talking you’d do as your other possessed Jade body? Just how temporally related is you controlling THIS Jade compared to when you were controlling the other? When that Jade pegged you as enjoying contact with friends, are these two just not enough for you, or did you “experience” the trips entirely separately? I don’t THINK the alt!Callie possessing either Jade is a separate entity from the other, but...

Were she to voice her opinion, it would be that --actually-- it is not unusual for those whose primary concern is The Grander Scheme to have a passing curiosity about the insignificant. So when one really thinks about it, any annoyance with the attendant’s small mindedness is both understandable and warranted.

She pissed

...also, “the attendant”. Even if “serve” is really the verb here, that phrasing really irks me as if she’s talking down to her. Which, I mean, makes sense for alt!Callie’s character, but doesn’t make me feel better about this new definition being foisted on us.

ARADIA: :( JADE: as a point of order, you never answered dave’s question. ARADIA: which one he is very chatty JADE: you experience time in a way that is woefully unfamiliar to me and it has... piqued my curiosity enough to learn more. ARADIA: ?_? DAVEBOT: shes asking how old you are

Wait a minute, is Alt!Callie asking a question about a dropped topic from WEEKS ago?! And is Davebot so in touch with Time and the meta ordering of topics that he actually CAUGHT ON that fast to what she was actually wondering about?????

This is getting more disorienting by the minute.

ARADIA: in this form our bodies stop aging once we reach maturity i think ARADIA: the god tier keeps our physical form locked in a state of undying ARADIA: even in death the bodies do not decay ARADIA: only lay dormant

THAT LAST PART IS FUCKING IMPORTANT. It’s being brought up intentionally to tell us that JOHN’S DEAD BODY can still be in the wallet Terezi’s carrying around RIGHT NOW without having decayed over the past years. I remember remarking in SOME previous HS^2 liveblog post of mine that I was alarmed by the decay that would have happened there (can’t find my remark on short notice and don’t really care to), so this explicitly dismisses it so we won’t be surprised by the fact that she could keep it in just-dead condition.

DAVEBOT: like how long have you been alive JADE: yes, that one.

[...]

ARADIA: oh maybe a few hundred years or so DAVEBOT: what JADE: what? ARADIA: well if i had known you were going to be so judgy about it DAVEBOT: when did this happen ARADIA: oh i spent some time in other doomed realities and timelines and came back before anybody could tell i was gone

Hm!

We knew she spent a LONG time in the dream bubbles, enough to talk to “pretty much all of the Nepetas”, but she was actually able to access a universe or universes and hop between them? That’s not something any time traveller we’ve seen has been explicitly able to do intentionally before, quite like she’s describing.

DAVEBOT: oh just out for a bit of fun then DAVEBOT: just hopped on over to a different reality DAVEBOT: real casual like DAVEBOT: oh hello dont mind me just popping in to see if it really is as doomed as they say it is DAVEBOT: did not disappoint ARADIA: yes almost exactly like that :) DAVEBOT: who did you hang out with are they cooler than me ARADIA: it is complicated to explain DAVEBOT: oh ok nevermind then DAVEBOT: all clear

Yep, he’s kinda bewildered. Is this Pesterquest stuff she’s referring to? Did she stop by Pesterquest?

DAVEBOT: a whole alternate universe ripe with the coolest motherfuckers imaginable ARADIA: you were there too i threw your air conditioner into the sun DAVEBOT: wow thats fucked up DAVEBOT: thats not where that goes at all JADE: these events are not-canonical. ARADIA: rude

Ah! Yeah, almost certainly Pesterquest. (Still haven’t played that and have little inclination to now that I’m more sure we aren’t being gaslit with intentional continuity errors, just disappointed by actual continuity errors.) Oh! And that makes a bit more sense because I imagine that’s Black Hole territory, and that territory outside of Canon seems pretty rich and easy for time-travellers to hop between stories and timelines willy-nilly. As they’re apt to in fanfics, which is the most appropriate way for things to be in that realm!

DAVEBOT: is that the trope of being hundreds of years old but looking young forever patently sucks ass DAVEBOT: a plot device an asshole would write ARADIA: :( JADE: that is not what i am trying to say at all. DAVEBOT: hmm wow yeah thatd really be a sort of pot/kettle situation i guess DAVEBOT: i cant believe im the only woke one here DAVEBOT: its hard being such a visionary AND such a fine metallic specimen DAVEBOT: but im an altruist first and fucking foremost ARADIA: so selfless JADE: yes, the greater narrative is truly blessed by your beneficent presence. DAVEBOT: oh so you got jokes now huh JADE: i have always had the ‘jokes’ of which you speak, but i have heretofore exercised restraint in laying you low. JADE: i possess knowledge of many of your iterations, as the scope of my powers allows me to exist in several narrative structures at once. DAVEBOT: but can she see why kids love the sweet cinnamon taste of cinnamon toast crunch JADE: i do not know, or care, what that means. ARADIA: neither do i :)

I’m actually really enjoying this conversation

JADE: its cultural significance to you as an earthling is wasted on the two of us entirely, as we have not conflated the misguided notion of clinging to nostalgic cereal advertisement trivia with socially relevant conversation.

Pff she literally checked her meta notes just now to learn what the cereal ads were after admitting she didn’t know what it meant and pretending not to care

> ==>

Oh, closer look at Davebot. Are those actual SHAPED shades over his robotic eye bulges? Weird, I thought it was just a lazy line drawn between them with red sharpie at first, Sans style. That would’ve been funny.

> ==>

Ohh, I get it. I was gonna say that was an unwarranted reaction... but he just realized that the Time-wait puns will be coming from BOTH his shipmates from now on. That’s gotta be a downer. :)

> ==>

HOLY

FUCKING

SHIT

IS ALT-CALLIE LAUGHING!??!?!?!??

That’s REALLY, REALLY GOOD!!! SHE’S ALREADY LAUGHING OCCASIONALLY THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY

“BEST NARRATOR” COFFEE CUP

SHE’S ADORABLE

> ==>

Ah, was that Jade kicking you out? Or just the multiverse punishing you for being briefly happy :(

--oh, end of the update. Guess that’s it for now!

...

Alright I know I’m A BIT BEHIND on covering the HS2 commentary,

But

I really would rather wait on that a bit longer if that’s alright. Real busy and stressful week or two. (Found out my hair is starting to thin noticeably at age 31! Quite suddenly, too. Blood test looks fine so it’s nothing serious... gonna see a doctor to check if anything can be safely done about that, it’s really hurting my self-esteem more than I thought it would. Didn’t think it would hit my emotions that hard when it eventually happened, knew it was likely but not so SOON... really messing with my anxiety every time I accidentally touch my hair, now. I’ll deal with it.)

If I sound really aimless in this post, I think it’s cause I am? My mental and emotional energy’s REALLY drained. I’m glad that June/July break in HS^2 happened when it did, and I’m definitely glad there’s apparently plenty in HS^2 I can really enjoy, if this update is anything to go by. Maybe this comic can help lift me up instead of knocking me down. :)

See y’all later! More Patreon commentary blogging catchup after some other upd8.

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #Homestuck^2 #Homestuck Theories #Homestuck Theory #spoiler #spoilers #Classes and Aspects #Space and Time #Aradia

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vertebralheights · 5 years

Text

REALLY LONG CHARACTER SURVEY. RULES. repost , don’t reblog ! good luck !

TAGGED. Redoing this from uhhh last year almost. TAGGING. Yeet

BASICS.

FULL NAME: MV Boli Dingbat

NICKNAME: Bo

AGE: It’s really hard to gauge but lets just call it mid-twenties, but she’s been alive for much much longer.

BIRTHDAY: It honestly has changed like. 100 times? Currently it’s February 18th.

ETHNIC GROUP: Skeleton monster.

NATIONALITY: Undergroundian

LANGUAGE(S): English, Dingbats.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Demisexual

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Demiromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Technically this is verse dependent but her main verse squeeze is an absolute meme.

CLASS: Prodigiously lower-class.

HOMETOWN / AREA: She doesn’t remember what it was called. She lived near the Capital, Maybe in Hotland? She doesn’t remember much before Vertebral Heights.

CURRENT HOME: Vertebral Heights, a city with a dwindling skeleton population.

PROFESSION: Unemployed with no benefits!

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: That would be weird.

EYES: White most of the time, sometimes they’re ooky spooky green/teal.

NOSE: Set nose to NO.

FACE: Bean-shaped.

LIPS: No thanks.

COMPLEXION: Bo has kinda yellower, slightly off color bones from lack of light and access to bone polish.

BLEMISHES: She has a sternal foramen, a genetic abnormality.

SCARS: None

Tattoos: How?

HEIGHT: 5'5″

WEIGHT: Like. 12 Pounds?

BUILD: She’s very slim. If her bones had flesh on them there wouldn’t be that much of a change in physique.

FEATURES: No flesh.

ALLERGIES: Hard to have allergies without lungs, blood, or organs.

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: ???

USUAL FACE LOOK: A relaxed and placid smile, eyes wide but also very tired looking.

USUAL CLOTHING: She has one pair of dark jeans that she wears and a variety of t shirts, most of which are black or have funny sayings on them. She usually wears a green flannel shirt tied around her waist. She never wears shoes, and always wears a black stocking-hat beanie.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR(S): Losing her friends/family and being completely alone.

ASPIRATION(S) : Learning how to use her magic and her other skills to the best ability that she can to protect people and solve problems.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Clever, friendly, creative, intelligent, compassionate.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Depressed, mildly nihilistic, no regard for personal care or safety, anti-authoritarian (not really a BAD trait but it hasn’t gotten her anywhere)

ZODIAC: Aquarius!

TEMPERAMENT: Generally, she’s very good natured and friendly.

SOUL TYPE(S): Monster Soul, her ‘trait’ is Idiosyncrasy.

ANIMALS: If she were an animal she’s probably be something rat a possum or a rat.

VICE HABIT(S): She does them botha lot less, but she used to drink to excess and smoke a lot. But since taking in Lark and becoming happier with her life, she’s cut down on those habits a lot. She still drinks on occasion (to have fun more than to drown her sorrows) and she still smokes when she’s really stressed/overworked.

FAITH: It comes and goes.

GHOSTS?: They’re lovely.

AFTERLIFE?: It happens for some people.

REINCARNATION?: Yes, she knows it can be done.

ALIENS?: God, she hopes so.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Anarchist???????

ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: Money would be cool.

SOCIOPOLITICAL POSITION: Pro environment and pro-monster rights. Anti-Capitalist.

EDUCATION LEVEL: Uhhh the 4th Grade??? She stopped after her parents vanished. Had a lot of advanced education from her parents as supplement to her education.

FAMILY.

FATHER: Dr. Zapfino Dingbat ✝️

MOTHER: Dr. Lucida Dingbat ✝️

SIBLINGS: Cooper Dingbat ✝️

EXTENDED FAMILY: She has an adopted child, Lark, who she’s had for about two years.

NAME MEANING(S): It’s a font, chosen from a big book of 5000 fonts based on what an old skeleton said she should be named. I dunno, the lore is fuzzy.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: Her parents were a part of an initiative during the war that took human bodies and turned them into monster warriors via skeleton resurrection. It was semi-successful.

FAVORITES.

BOOK: Bo doesn’t have a favorite, but she does have a pretty sizable collection of do-it-yourself books on a variety of subjects, as well as a few music books, and a very well-read book on plumbing.

MOVIE: Can’t recall ever seeing one? Lmao she’s only ever had radios.

5 SONGS: Thrift Shop, Planetary Go, Seashore, Love Like You, and Polka Covers or literally any song ever made.

DEITY: Johannes Gutenberg, creator of fonts and typeface. But that’s mostly a joke.

HOLIDAY: All holidays are just variation of the prime holiday... H A L L O W E E N.

MONTH: They all seem to be the same for her.

SEASON: Fall or Winter, probably.

PLACE: Cities and Caves.

WEATHER: Overcast and on the cool side.

SOUND: The accordion, harmonica (most instruments, really) the sound of certain people’s laughter, the sound of a dry erase marker on a white board.

SCENT(S): Brass, pine trees, hospital antispetic, food cooking, weirdly, trash.

TASTE(S): Soy sauce, vegetable broth, white rice.

FEEL(S): Cool metal, small clicking buttons, flannel,

ANIMAL(S): Rats, Possums, Mice, Raccoons, Badgers, pretty much anything that’s kinda... Scrappy.

NUMBER: 11. I wrote 11 last year and I still don’t know why. Why 11.

COLORS: Green!

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Figuring out and playing instruments, reverse engineering machinery, rock climbing, singing, somehow turning all food she cooks into fried rice.

BAD AT: Cooking anything that isn’t fried rice, public speaking/singing, believing in herself.

HOBBIES: Tinkering with instruments and appliances, learning new shit, pestering her loved ones, exploring caves.

TROPES: Satisfied Street Rat, Always Save The Boy, Family of Choice, Undead Barefooter, Wrench Wench

AESTHETIC TAGS: #cities, #green, #neon, #abandoned

GPOY QUOTES: My only crime is that I was down to clown.

FC INFO.

MAIN FC(S): None, I just draw her.

ALT FC(S): Seriously, I just draw her.

OLDER FC(S): Seriously-

YOUNGER FC(S): sTOP

VOICE CLAIM(S): I’ve been at war with what she sounds like for what feels like eons. I’m currently on a kick with Sara Gilbert, but I think Bo would be way less monotone than Sara. I dunno, I usually just think of my own voice with a slightly different accent and inflection.

GENDERBENT FC(S):

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: if you could write your character your way in their own movie, what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?: It’s an absurd comedy. Stephen Chow is directing it. There are ridiculous fight scenes and cult-classic humor. It has absurd montages and weirdly placed rock ballad musical numbers. It’s honestly not very good.

Q2: what would their soundtrack / score sound like?: Bo’s sountrack is all 8-bit chiptune music, kazoo covers, polka remixes, and hard rock.

Q3: why did you start writing this character?: I started in 2015, took a big break, picked her up again in 2018, took a smaller break, picked her up again here in the tail end of 2019.

Q4: what first attracted you to this character?: I loved Undertale and Skeletons. Wanted to make a skelesona, loved to rp, decided to mix the two, got rid of the ‘sona’ part and here we are.

Q5: describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse: I wrote this last year and it’s still true, She can be a little inconsistent depending on who I’m writing with. She changes a lot, writing partner/muse to muse. Also I don’t ever want to make her as depressed as I’ve written her in the past.

Q6: what do you have in common with your muse?: Too many things honestly, Bo started as a self inset. We’re pretty different now, but we dress the same. The biggest one is one I’m trying to dial back on, which is the mental illness.

Q8: what characters does your muse have interesting interactions with?: I’ve branched out even LESS that the last time I filled this out. Currently it’s just. Tumblr user bonepranks.

Q9: what gives you inspiration to write your muse?: Listening to fight-y music, watching Undertale comic dubs, talking about her to people.

Q10: how long did this take you to complete?: Eh, not that long. Most of this was filled out already.

3 notes · View notes

cheshiresense · 6 years

Note

I just found the alt!swinging pendulum bits you've done and I am blown away. The really funny thing? I actually remember wondering how things would be going if Ichigo wasn't alone in that verse the first time I read it years ago. Having you explore that and having those bits be UraIchi is beyond my own imaginings! How did Kisuke take waking up in the past? Did he know Ichigo was thrown back too, or did he think he was alone for a while? Any chance you'll ever consider a bit from his POV?

I imagine the Soul King (following SP canon) offered them the same deal when they were both locked up in Muken. They wake up in different places in the past though so that might’ve caused a bit of panic, especially since Kisuke would’ve known Ichigo was in bad condition before coming back, and the Soul King didn’t exactly give them details about where they would end up.

My muse does not want to write anything above in Kisuke’s pov (or anyone’s pov) though so Imma just give you something else in Kisuke’s pov. Takes place sometime in the future after the other two bits I wrote.

Kisuke is reorganizing the Twelfth’s seated complement on paper when a commotion coming up the hall makes him glance up. His lieutenant’s dulcet tones is easily recognizable even if it does take a few seconds for Kisuke to make out what she’s shouting about this time.

“-try ta bust in, I swear I’ll bankai your ass inta the next century!”

Her reiatsu is a simmering ball of irritation, and somewhere further behind her are two muted - one more than the other - but equally familiar reiatsu signatures.

Kisuke sighs. Well, at least they’re using the door.

Hiyori reaches his office, and he half-expects her to slam it open without so much as a knock. She doesn’t knock, but she also keeps her grip on the doorknob so that when she storms inside, the only sound comes from her sandals against the floorboards.

Kisuke arches an eyebrow. “Hiyori-san, what can I help you with today?” He pauses a beat. “Because I could have sworn I said I didn’t want to be disturbed this afternoon.”

Hiyori rolls her eyes before crossing her arms with a scowl. “You know perfectly well what. Shiba’s here with some paper-pusher. Says he needs you ta sign some stuff.” She snorts. “Who does that dumbass think he’s kidding?”

Indeed. If there’s one thing Kisuke regrets about coming back to this time, aside from the tripled workload of being a captain again, it’s that he seems to have garnered the Shiba Clan Head’s disfavour. It’s troublesome at best, if only because the lieutenant keeps swooping around and sticking his nose into business that has nothing to do with him every time he sees Ichigo with Kisuke as if his cousin is some damsel in distress who needs to be saved from Kisuke’s evil clutches.

Not that that’s enough to make Kisuke stay away from Ichigo of course. Kaien would have to make sure he’s well and truly dead and buried for that to happen, and as far as Kisuke knows, the lieutenant isn’t that suicidal yet.

On the other hand…

“Paper-pusher?” Kisuke repeats in mild tones.

Hiyori shrugs aggressively. “Probably a runner from the Ninth? Who cares, Shiba brought her.” Her eyes light up with gleeful violence. “Can I kick’em out?”

“No,” Kisuke says dryly and immediately gets a sullen glower for his efforts. Hiyori twitches like she wants to launch a kick at him, and Kisuke mentally applauds her self-restraint when she manages to reel back the urge.

Ichigo’s been good for her, and not just because he managed to walk her through achieving Bankai in only a few short months.

“Why not?” Hiyori hisses at him. “Ya know that dumbass is probably just here ta drag Ichigo back ta the Shiba compound for some family get-together he only threw together an hour ago cuz he gets the shakes or breaks out in hives or somethin’ every time he even thinks about the two of ya together. I should just boot’im out! Ichigo’s not gonna wanna go.”

Here they both turn to look at the couch tucked in one corner of Kisuke’s office where a certain Eighth Division Third Seat is buried under about three blankets and fast asleep. There are bags under his eyes, and even unconscious, his brow is furrowed and tense.

Kisuke hasn’t seen him this stressed in a while. Despite all the annoyances and necessary adjustments of being dropped in this time, the past has been good for Ichigo. But Aizen has tainted at least a third of the Twelfth Division, and arranging for accidents out in Rukongai that would fool even Aizen Sousuke is a chore and a half. As a captain, Kisuke can’t not be seen for more than a day or two, especially with spies in his own labs so he can’t even use the excuse of losing track of time over an experiment or invention to sneak out. Ichigo on the other hand is regularly sent on missions outside of Seireitei, sometimes leading patrols, other times going solo, and that gives him more opportunities to slip away. But that also means a lot of the dirty work falls to Ichigo now, on top of his Third Seat duties, and Kisuke hates it.

So when they have a day like today, when Ichigo managed to finish his paperwork early, and Kyouraku doesn’t need him for anything else, and nothing Aizen-related is particularly urgent, Kisuke is loath to let anyone bother him for anything short of the apocalypse.

“Well?” Hiyori snaps impatiently.

And yet…

“Let them in,” Kisuke decides as he sets his work aside.

Hiyori stares for a moment, then draws herself up and bristles. “What?!” She whisper-screams at him. “Have you seen Ichigo lately? I dunno what’s goin’ on over at the Eighth for them ta have so much work ta do, but clearly they’re workin’ him ta the bone. The last thing he needs is Shiba’s… everything!”

Kisuke almost smiles. Hiyori has become surprisingly… steadier with Ichigo around. Their friendship is an odd one. They still bicker about as much as they did in that other future-past, but Hiyori is a little calmer in Ichigo’s presence, and she certainly listens to him more than she does Kisuke. She’s also become ferociously protective of him since the first time she saw Ichigo stumbling into the Twelfth looking like death warmed over and spending the next six hours sitting at Kisuke’s side and staring at nothing. Kisuke got no work done that day. He was tempted to simply take Ichigo back to their apartment, but people might ask questions, so he simply holed them both up in his private quarters and curled himself around Ichigo until Ichigo came back to himself.

(Ichigo had just come home from a mission - solo, two and a half weeks long, District 70, West Rukongai. It was also the first time he took a little side-trip and quietly dispatched thirteen Shinigami - five of them not even a century old, with faces young enough to pass for middle-schoolers, and obviously naive enough for Aizen to bribe or brainwash - out of the group of fifteen Twelfth Division members who also happened to be on a mission two districts away, investigating rumours of particularly strong Hollows in the area. The thirteen were separated and later found messily slaughtered in various locations where Hollow reiatsu soaked the air.

Kisuke will never be able to top the events and circumstances he manipulated in order to turn Ichigo’s soul into the perfect weapon against Aizen. But teaching Ichigo the intricacies of what amounts to wetworks and then sending him out to do a job that should be Kisuke’s to handle comes pretty damn close.

Ichigo’s told him more than once that it’s not his fault, and Kisuke knows his lover well enough to hear the truth in it. Besides, Ichigo’s never been one to hold back from telling Kisuke exactly what he thinks.

But still this is another sin for him to bear, even if it is necessary, and it drips wet and red in a way that even his most horrifying missions from his Onmitsukidou days never will.)

Hiyori predictably flipped that day, pacing back and forth like an agitated tiger and taking her ire out on the training grounds, and at the five-hour mark, she almost ran off to tear Lisa a new one for “piling too much crap on their Third Seat, isn’t the Eighth supposed ta be the squad that took it easy?!”

Somehow, Kisuke managed to convince her to stay put. The last thing they needed was the Eighth to launch an investigation of some kind. Hiyori still glared at him like she was trying to set him on fire with her eyes, but she also spent the rest of the day - as soon as Ichigo came out of his daze - shoving food at him and kicking anyone who so much as looked like they wanted to ask why the Eighth Division Third Seat was in the Twelfth Division compound. Not many though. It helped that some of them had already seen Ichigo coming and going since he graduated.

“If they only want me to sign something, I’m sure they’ll be quick,” Kisuke says now.

Hiyori does not look impressed. “You-”

“And I won’t let Shiba-san wake Ichigo,” Kisuke continues before levelling a pointed look on his lieutenant. “Let them in, Hiyori-fukutaichou. The quicker you do, the faster they’ll leave.”

Hiyori’s jaw works for a long moment, her hands clenching into fists before finally relenting. She turns on her heel and stalks back out without so much as a salute to Kisuke.

She still doesn’t let the door bang shut behind her though.

It takes her two minutes to retrieve the compound’s two visitors, and Kisuke can hear her threatening them all the way back to his office.

“-break anything and I’m gonna put you and spineless over here in the Fourth for a month!”

Then the door swings open once more, Shiba Kaien steps in with a mousey-looking young woman holding a stack of files at his side and practically cowering from Hiyori’s rage. Hiyori shoots Kisuke one last venomous warning look before shutting the door and storming off.

Kisuke isn’t surprised when he feels her reiatsu retreat only to her office across the hall despite the fact that she should be training a group of Shinigami on one of the training grounds at this time.

He ignores it. She can’t hear anything and that’s enough. He gets to his feet as Kaien and his aide approaches with greetings of Urahara-taichou, but the moment Kaien catches sight of Ichigo on the couch off to the side, Kisuke cuts off his exclamation with a perfectly pleasant, “Shiba-fukutaichou, if you startle him awake, my lieutenant will not be the reason for your impending visit to the Fourth.”

The threat seems to stun Kaien, perhaps because Kisuke’s never bothered before. The Shiba Clan Head has already given him the overprotective shovel talk, inserted himself into every conversation Kisuke starts with Ichigo the few times they’ve agreed to eat dinner at the Shibas’, even tried to drag Kisuke off for “male-bonding time” with an arm around his shoulders that threatened to strangle Kisuke that one time he caught the two of them sharing a brief kiss in passing, and Kisuke has let it all slide without batting an eye.

(On the other hand, Ichigo almost gutted Kaien for that last one, and whatever Ichigo said to him later in private, it made enough of an impact that Kaien hasn’t laid a hand on Kisuke since, and he even gritted out an apology the day after.)

Whatever the reason, Kaien’s mouth shuts with a click, and that’s all Kisuke cares about. He smiles blandly at him, then at the woman hovering nervously a foot behind the lieutenant. “So then? What do you have for me to sign?” He pauses, raking a casual eye over the woman. “Your aide is vaguely familiar to me, Shiba-san, but I don’t recall you working with many assistants in the past. Did she get a haircut? New outfit? Perhaps she used to be blond?”

There’s a moment of silence, then the woman straightens from her impression of a wilting flower and roughly signs in butchered Onmitsukidou shorthand, :speak private. no ears?:

Kisuke eyes them for another few seconds before heaving a sigh. Kaien glances between them before jumping in, “Nah, she probably just has one of those faces. Anyway, here are the files. She had stuff for the Thirteenth to sign too, so I thought I’d accompany her here to get her in faster.”

Kisuke nods agreeably. “I see. We’d best get started then. That looks like quite a number of reports.”

He tips his head in the direction of the door that leads to his private quarters before circling around to where Ichigo is sleeping. He has a feeling he knows what this conversation is going to be about, and Ichigo won’t want to miss it. Besides, it isn’t just for Kisuke to decide what they’re going to say.

He kneels once he reaches the couch, ignoring the eyes on his back. He has never been ashamed of this relationship he’s built with Ichigo. It’s the one thing that was never even up for discussion after they came back in time - they wouldn’t hide this, wouldn’t hide them. They have to work together anyway so people were bound to find out they knew each other. Whether or not Aizen or Central 46 finds out they love each other doesn’t really matter in the greater scheme of things. Maybe it’s selfish, but it’s the one thing Kisuke won’t give up, and it’s always as much a surprise as it is a relief to know that Ichigo feels the same way.

(On occasion, when Kisuke lets himself, he thinks, even if the whole world burns again, so long as he still has Ichigo, he could keep going forever.)

“Ichigo,” He murmurs, reaching out to run gentle fingers through bright sunset hair. “I know you’re tired but I need some help with work. Could you wake up for me?”

Ichigo stirs almost immediately, leaning into Kisuke’s hand before he’s even fully awake, and that’s never something Kisuke will stop marveling at, the innate trust in such a simple gesture.

“Mm, Kisuke?” Ichigo mumbles, rubbing the sleep from his eyes even as he pushes himself up onto one elbow. “Somethin’ wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong, per se,” Kisuke replies lightly, helping Ichigo peel back the blankets as he sits up. “Unless you call the truly abhorrent amount of paperwork Shiba-san and his assistant just brought in wrong, which I would not argue against.”

Ichigo snuffles out a snort, and Kisuke tries not to frown at the way he presses a palm to his forehead, pain lurking in the crease of his brow. “Headache?”

Ichigo grunts and drops his hand. “Just a small one. I’ll be-”

He breaks off, then sighs, half-exasperated, half-relieved as Kisuke touches fingertips to temples and soothes away the building migraine with a soft flicker of his own reiatsu.

“Thanks,” Ichigo sighs, sounding more awake. Kisuke hums and rises to his feet to give Ichigo some room to get up as well.

A hand slides into his, their fingers tangling, and it’s habit, easy and familiar, hello and l love you and I’m with you - the way Ichigo presses a kiss to Kisuke’s knuckles before letting go and stretching the kinks out of his back.

Then the mask comes down, all scowling irritation once more, as Ichigo pushes to his feet and Kisuke steps to the side, and both of them turn as one to their two staring guests.

“Please,” Kisuke gestures to his quarters. “Through here. I do hope this won’t take the rest of the day.”

“We can speak freely in here,” Kisuke assures once the door is shut and the only two chairs in the room have been pulled up beside the bed. Ichigo perches at the end of the bed and Kisuke takes a seat beside him.

“But before that,” Ichigo interjects with his usual bluntness, eyes sharp on the brunette still holding the files. “For fuck’s sake, change back, Hirako-taichou. This is fucking weird, even for you.”

The woman pouts for a second before a Cheshire grin splits her face. Her form wavers before the illusion spell slides off, and the familiar figure of the Fifth Division captain is the one lounging back in the chair. He dumps the files on the ground now that there’s no more need for the pretense.

“You’re good,” Shinji nods at Ichigo. “Nobody gave me a second glance on my way here. Even Hiyori didn’t notice anything.”

Ichigo shrugs. “Whatever. Why are you here?” He looks at his cousin. “And you?”

Kaien grimaces. “Don’t look at me like that. I wasn’t actually coming to get you today.” For a second, his gaze flits from Ichigo to Kisuke, and he gives Kisuke the oddest look Kisuke’s ever received from him. At the very least, the passive hostility seems to be missing. Then the man looks back at Ichigo. “Hirako-taichou came to me for a favour.”

“You owe me a few favours at this point,” Shinji retorts, but he turns back to Kisuke quickly enough, looking uncharacteristically serious. “Alright, I’m not gonna waste time beatin’ ’round the bush.” To his credit, he does pause for a moment before glancing at Kaien. “Should Kaien leave the room?”

“Hey!” Kaien snaps back, and for once, he’s completely serious too. He looks slightly confused, but there’s also an alert sort of tension in his reiatsu as he looks at them all. “I’m not going anywhere. You went to the trouble of badgering me to smuggle you in here cuz everyone would just think I’m here to drag Ichigo out. You can’t include me halfway and then tell me to leave.”

“It ain’t even halfway yet,” Shinji mutters. He looks to Kisuke though, and when Kisuke - after sharing a glance with Ichigo - nods, he shrugs and barrels on. “Eight months ago, ya told me ta clean house, Urahara. Ya told me you were cleanin’ house too.”

Kisuke cocks his head. “So I did.”

Shinji shakes his head, looking irritated. “I was only ever watchin’ Aizen, and Ichimaru once he joined up.” Kaien suddenly straightens but Kisuke doesn’t take his eyes off Shinji. “I didn’ look at anyone else ’til ya mentioned it. And then I started noticing a few of ’em leavin’ for missions I didn’ sanction. Granted, lieutenants are allowed ta look over missions and assign them without notifying me so long as I sign off on ’em before the final mission report reaches the Ninth, so Aizen’s not actually doin’ anythin’ illegal. But he assigns a lot of missions. Missions that might or might not come from up top, if ya get my drift. So,” Shinji taps a finger against the hilt of his Zanpakutou. “If my dear lieutenant’s been mockin’ up missions ta put in front of me, what the hell is he sendin’ my people out ta Rukongai for?”

Kisuke considers him for a long moment. “You mean you don’t know that yet?”

“And here’s the thing, Urahara,” Shinji continues abruptly almost before Kisuke finishes. “Ya told me you were cleaning house. And there’s been talk. Interesting talk that I’ve followed up on, and ya know what the records say? In the past seven months, thirteen percent of your squad has died, Urahara. Thirteen percent. All killed on different missions out in Rukongai. The higher-ups are gettin’ chatty. They can’t decide if ya just don’t care or you’re plain incompetent.”

Kisuke blinks. Then winces when Ichigo elbows him.

“You didn’t tell me that,” Ichigo says sharply. “The old man’s been giving you shit? Or Central 46?”

Kisuke waves a dismissive hand. “It’s nothing I can’t handle, Ichigo. I’ve never been the best captain. I’ve made mistakes before, sending out Shinigami too weak for the mission assigned to them. They don’t suspect anything.”

Ichigo only frowns harder. “…You could lose your captaincy though.”

Kisuke smiles, a twist of a thing that feels too bitter by far. “Oh you don’t have to worry about that either. I’ve invented far too many things for the Gotei for them to even consider demoting me. And who would take my place anyway? Head of a squad centered around research and development, and not something the government would want disbanded now that it exists. Kurotsuchi-san? He doesn’t have Bankai yet, he would never get the votes, and he would never win a trial by combat against me. They won’t demote me for anything short of irrefutable treason. They can’t.”

Ichigo watches him for a moment longer before knocking their hands together. “If you’re sure.”

Kisuke smiles fondly at him. “I am.”

“That’s cute,” Shinji says flatly. He even sounds like he means it, but at the same time could not care less right now. “Now what the hell is goin’ on? Cuz I’ve noticed a handful of Shinigami from other squads have also been gettin’ offed on missions. Are ya doin’ that too? And why’re ya-” He stops, and a muscle jumps in his jaw. “Are ya tellin’ me Aizen’s infiltrated all the squads? Is that it?”

“Wait wait wait, back up,” Kaien cuts in, ignoring Shinji’s blistering glare at being interrupted. “Aizen is- I know something isn’t right about the guy but why is he even doing… anything? What’s his goal?” He looks between Ichigo and Kisuke again. “And why are you two of all people doing something about it? I know you said you bumped into each other and that’s how you met but seriously I am not that fucking stupid. What is going on?”

Shinji’s gaze swings back around to bore holes in them both, clearly demanding answers.

Kisuke sighs and tugs absently on the brim of his hat before glancing at Ichigo once more. Ichigo stares back, then shrugs. “You did say Shinji would come to us first.”

Shinji’s eyes narrow at the familiar use of his first name, the syllables rolling off Ichigo’s tongue far more easily than Hirako-taichou ever had, but he stays silent, listening, always listening.

“And Kaien’s an idiot-” Ichigo continues, and Kaien makes a frustrated noise that Ichigo ignores. “-but he’s not, you know, Goat-Face levels of idiot. Neither of them’s gonna run off to the government about it. Might as well.”

And you can always modify their memories if they try running to anybody else about it, Ichigo doesn’t say because it’s exactly what Kisuke will do if it comes to that, and he figured out how to make a Kikanshinki work on a Shinigami a long time ago.

“Best get comfortable,” Kisuke advises, shifting back to lean against the wall next to his bed even as he lets the long sleeves of his haori flutter down to hide his hands. A binding spell quivers between his fingers, and beside him, Ichigo’s reiatsu whispers over his senses, so faint that even Kisuke only feels it because he’s so familiar with it.

He looks at Shinji, then Kaien, then, “What do you know of the Soul King?”

#bleach #uraichi #urahara kisuke #kurosaki ichigo #myscrap #sarugaki hiyori #hirako shinji #shiba kaien #uraichi in sp verse #aniseandspearmint #msg

853 notes · View notes

onestowatch · 3 years

Text

Get to Know Groove-Pop Duo Balu Brigada [Live Performance + Q&A]

Inspired by musical heavyweights like Frank Ocean and Gorillaz, Balu Brigada is all about experimentation. Their discography provides the perfect backdrop to any setting—from coastal road trips, summer BBQs, flirty dancefloor moments, and everywhere in between. The band is no stranger to performing, having toured around New Zealand numerous times, including treating an exclusive audience to an electric performance at Live Nation and Vodafone’s recent Ones to Watch showcase.

In addition to delivering a standout show at our recent showcase, the duo has just released their latest single, “How It Would End,” the first song off their upcoming EP. The single is their debut release as a two-piece, with its bouncy synth hooks and groove-worthy melodies sure to get you up on your feet.

On the eve of their first release as a two-piece, Henry and Pierre Beasley Zoom in from their parents’ rumpus room—the scene of many family jam sessions, which spawned their self-described “groove-pop” band Balu Brigada—to discuss archival footage, guilty pleasures, and which brother is the better mover.

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Pierre: We’re actually at our parents house right now, because our houses are both equally too small to do anything in, but actually right behind us is a grand piano that used to be our grandfather’s. He was an orchestral conductor, so it’s a bit of a family heirloom.

If that piano could talk, what do you think it would’ve said to you during your piano lessons back in the day?

P: Try harder [laughs].

Henry: It would probably say, “Slow down!” as well, ‘cause I remember just getting frustrated. You know, you play something 100 times, badly, and you just wanna get it done so you play it faster but then that sounds even worse!

P: It was a classic case of your parents make you do piano lessons and you miserably endure them, and then I think we picked up our own instruments, that we did actually enjoy playing, from there.

When would have been your first-ever public performance? Did you put on shows for Mum and Dad when you were little?

P: Probably some church Christmas event or something, to be honest. We were brought up in the church, so I think my earliest memory of performing was being a little Elvis in a Christmas production, which, yeah, I wouldn’t like to see that footage back...

Could there potentially be footage out there somewhere?

P: Yeah [laughs] Some granny with VHS footage of me with my hair in some big, slicked-back mop or something.

H: Pierre and I have got a bit of an acting background as well, so there’s some horrendous clips that you can pull up of us on shows that I won’t name [laughs]. But you can’t take yourself too seriously; you’ve just got to be able to laugh at it.

Performing is in your blood though, isn’t it?

P: Yeah, Dad was a ballet dancer in his prime and he actually met our mother, who was an actress, in a musical. They spent the majority of their twenties performing and then Mum pursued a TV career until she started having us boys so, yeah! Performance is very much in the construct of our family, which has been really cool because we’ve got that support from our parents who also understand the life of a performer and understand the passion.

H: We just actually saw some archival footage of Dad in his Royal New Zealand Ballet days—it was quite a trip! That’s literally some of the first footage we’ve seen of him as a ballet dancer, which is wild because it was such a big part of his life. Obviously no one had a bloody iPhone back then to just record clips, but it’s a shame. I would love to see more footage of him dancing, because it was such an integral part of fostering our creativity as well.

Did you boys take ballet lessons when you were kids?

PIERRE: I did it for a few years and Dad’s always said, “Ooh, you would make a good dancer!” And still to this day he’s like, “You know, it’s not too late to become a professional dancer...” You didn’t though, hey?

H: Nah, I didn’t. Pierre’s definitely more the mover, which you’ll see in a few videos of ours. I’m kind of skulking in the background doing something minimal and then Pierre’s managing to find a dance move out of thin air, which I can’t quite fathom myself.

You both studied music at Auckland University [Pierre majored in jazz, Henry, pop]. Did you ever take ideas that you were working on for Balu Brigada into uni?

H: It’s kind of like the informal way we started the band. I was playing guitar randomly for other bands and didn’t really have a project of my own, but I was writing all these songs during uni, so I was like, “Okay, why don’t we try a song where I’m leading?” Previously, I’d just written for another project that someone [else] would front, so that’s when I enlisted Pierre and my other brother at the time…

P: Brother at the time [laughs].

H: [Laughs] He’s still my brother—he’s just not in the [Balu Brigada] project at this point—but that’s how we all got together and took our background of jamming in our parents’ rumpus room to playing my original songs, and then making it more collaborative along the way.

Did Balu Brigada originate as a four-piece?

H: Yes, there were a few versions. Sometimes we’d go with a three-piece because Pierre was underage, and couldn’t play the show, or sometimes we’d get someone to replace him for the shows that he couldn’t make. It was a four-piece for probably four years or so and then that transition [to two-piece plus live drummer] was in maybe 2019. That was a lot to do with the fact that the other two band members—they were invested in it, but also had lots of other plates to juggle, and Pierre and I have always been the core and the nucleus of the band, and so it was like, “Okay, this is our whole world, so let’s kinda scale this back. You guys can invest more into your lives outside of the band and we can just really home in on this thing.”

So it’s kind of like you two are Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, with extra band members brought in for touring purposes.

H: We’d love to draw that comparison! [laughs]

P: [Laughs] Absolutely! Yeah, the role that our drummer fills is less an actual band member and more a session musician, I suppose.

How would you describe your music to people who are yet to hear it?

H: I think our favourite description, or at least mine, is groove-pop at this current point in time. Would that be your choice of description?

P: I just go with the easy one: alt-pop. Groove-pop is also cool, but I dunno if you just made that up, or…

H: I definitely made that up.

P: [Laughs]

What was the last Balu Brigada single release and what’s your next scheduled single release?

P: So the last one we released was in October last year, it was called “Moon Man”, and our next single is called “How It Would End”. This is the first time that we are choosing to release a single when we already have [a new, as-yet-untitled EP] ready, so we can actually get some momentum with the project rolling out, as opposed to how we’ve done it in the past where we released a song and then we were like, “Oh cool, that went well, now we need to finish the next one,” which is a silly way to go about it if you want to get that momentum. So this time we’ve got a few things in the bank.

H: This is the first instance where we’ve been able to play songs live before they’ve been released, which has been quite exciting for us.

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Which songs off this upcoming EP have you performed live so far?

P: We’ve been playing “Number 1” and another song called “Favourite Clothes” in our most recent shows, and they’ve been going down well. Because we don’t have too many of those up-tempo, four-on-the-floor, driving songs, “Number 1” is a good one to just slot in there to hype-up the energy a bit.

The entire EP is killer, but I reckon “Number 1” is my favourite song on there at the moment. It reminds me of N.E.R.D!

H: For sure! N.E.R.D is a massive influence and when I started that one off I was definitely conscious of, “Oh, is this too Neptunes or too Pharrell?” And then I was just like, “Nah.” We love that you’ve drawn that connection, that’s great.

Also, something about the overall vibe and the sparkling melodies throughout “I Should Be Home,” another standout track from the EP, called to mind The Strokes...

P: Yeah, I’ve been listening to a lot of The Strokes—especially their latest album—so that would make sense. I just think all of the melodies that Julian [Casablancas] hits are real nice.

H: I think because Pierre was listening to The Strokes so much that always bleeds into my listening habits, because we spend so much time together. I think that would have definitely been a subconscious influence, because it was definitely in line with what we were taking in at that moment.

Your previous way of working, drip-feeding one song at a time, reminds me of the Gorillaz’s Song Machine project, where songs were recorded and released separately before they were collated and released as a collection.

H: Yeah, for sure. I really liked that roll-out. It was cool, and obviously the featured artists on it are world-class, interesting, eccentric creatives in their own right. Gorillaz’ second [Song Machine release], “Désolé” [featuring Fatoumata Diawara] is my strongest memory of when I was living in Melbourne. I lived there for a few months and that song came out around that time, and I was like, “Woah!” I listened to it this morning, actually; it just rocks my world. Gorillaz are a massive inspiration in terms of how we like to think about music, eclecticism, and genre-mashing.

Given that part of your band name pays homage to the character Baloo (but with different spelling), talk me through your love for The Jungle Book.

H: That movie is a very nostalgic kick for us brothers…

P: Not the movie that was out a couple of years ago, the Disney one…

H: I couldn’t believe it when I found out it was from the ‘60s, hey! When you’re a kid and you’re watching that shit, there’s no differentiation that you can make between The Jungle Book and, say, Aladdin [released in 1995]. You’re just like, “The Jungle Book, man, it’s such a jam!”

Have any Balu Brigada songs been synced to a TV series or film?

H: Only in one very informal instance. I was actually on a show about six years ago called 800 Words and I think we had just released our third release and then I had a shoot day. The actor I was working with, Milena Vidler, was like, “Oh, I’ve gotta be listening to music in this scene, what shall I play?” And I told her, “We just released a song today!” And she said, “Well why don’t I play that!?” So that is literally the only sync we’ve got so far, but it was quite a serendipitous moment. To see myself on screen and then hear our band play as well was quite meta, a little in-joke or Easter egg.

Do you each remember what made you fall in love with music in the first place?

P: Abbey Road on vinyl. It was Mum’s. I would’ve been, like, 11. It blew my mind. It was the first time I got to know an album in full, and didn’t just know a single that was on the radio or whatever, and I just loved the way that album flowed and the musicality of it, and how it’s pop music but they were also experimenting. There’s just something about that album, which probably—when I think about it—is my favourite album of all time and made me want to do music.

H: Mum will definitely want the credit for that one; Dad’s got the Bowie records, Mum’s got The Beatles ones. This one is way less cool, but my answer is probably “I Miss You” by blink-182. Combined with “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard—that was my favourite song. I was like, “Yep, I’m a rock guy now. I’m a band guy. Take me as I am.”

P: [Laughs]

H: I couldn’t say that it’s my favourite song now, but I remember that distinction pretty clearly, being like, “Yeah, this is me now”.

Did you have any Yellowcard posters on your walls?

H: [Rotates webcam] I’ve got some nice Gorillaz ones over there, but no Yellowcard ones.

If you could choose any band to go out on tour with, who would it be?

P: I’d probably say Tame Impala, just ‘cause I’m a diehard KP [Kevin Parker] fan. But I don’t know if we’d be the right fit, though…

I can totally see you guys opening for Tame Impala – Balu Brigada would be the perfect fit!

H: I mean, my pinnacle artist is Frank Ocean and I love the idea of getting to tour with him, but, no [laughs]. I don’t think. So that makes Kevin Parker feel a little bit more attainable. I don’t think it would be too far-fetched, hey? I reckon we should link it up.

#balu brigada #interview #indie pop #groove pop #alternative pop

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mint-sm · 7 years

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LOS CAMPESINOS! REVIEW/ANALYSIS: No Blues

Ugh… I’m about to do a bad thing and probably make a lot of other Los Camp fans angry. If they actually read this, that is.

Okay, I want you to take a look at this cover art for a second. This kinda lush greenery flushed out with this pink-ish mist. It’s a little funny visual pun of the title of this album (Get it? No blues? Hah), and it probably does bring some form of atmosphere and interest to someone in the right mindset or just has a different taste in visual aesthetics… but I’m sorry, personally for me, it’s kinda flat. Not only is that pink that kind of flat-looking “millennial pastel pink,” but as a whole, this cover feels like it’s lacking contrast.

Honestly, it feels like a bit of an apt summation for the album itself: I can totally see the potential appeal to a certain crowd, and there might technically be nothing much wrong with it, but honestly, I can’t get into it despite it apparently getting a lot more positive response than something like “Romance is Boring.” I’m not trying to be resentful or anything, but it’s kinda confusing because while I can find a lot of arguments as to why “Romance is Boring” is so compelling, I can’t honestly find much about “No Blues” that explains why people love it so much, and it just doesn’t do it for me. That’s basically the “No Blues” right there. It don’t do it for me.

So remember in my first few Los Camp reviews how I said the band has 3 distinct eras? Reminder: “Hold on Now Youngster...” and about half of “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” were part of a “Twee Pop Era,” which then bled slightly into the “Noise Rock Era” with “Romance is Boring,” but it was immediately halted with “Hello Sadness,” and since then with this album and the next, “Sick Scenes,” we’ve been in a sort of “Mellow Alt Rock Era.” “No Blues” epitomizes this era very much, and it does signify a lot of the gradual changes to the band throughout the years that I can both appreciate, but also not.

On one hand, I’m really glad that Los Camp have changed their sound as pretty fluidly as they had. While I think I’ll always find their earlier works a bit more compelling, I’m glad to see that a crashing twee-rock band of college students in their 20’s is willing to grow up an adapt to something more mature-sounding and refined with a few more years to grow and personally develop, especially in a music scene that has kind of eschewed the music they had found previous success in, and have shifted to this sort of alt rock scene. One that has much cleaner production and mixing, one with slightly gentler guitars, tighter vocals, and more “grown-up,” much more self-aware themes.

I’m also glad that this was made during a point where Gareth Campesinos! finally seemed to reach a breakthrough and write lyrics and music that was especially HIM. Going once again back to “Youngster,” another reason why he’s not very fond of it was because of his lyrics, which he felt like was from a caricature of himself rather than himself-himself, and it felt rather dishonest or the like. Starting from “No Blues,” it seems Gareth has finally allowed himself to be as freely-moving and esoteric as he wanted, especially since the darkness of his 2011 personal history that resulted in “Hello Sadness” being the darkest album they’ve ever released no longer clouded him. I can totally respect that: he finally found a grip on the type of music that he wants to make, and the band was now free to reach its current goals, and that’s completely appreciable an artist.

MY PROSE IS PURPLE BUT NOT AS PRETTY AS LUCER-ER-ER-ERRRNE! / FOR SWEET NOTHINGS FROM THE LIPS OF A GARGOYLE, NOBODY EVER YEARNED /

HOWEVER... The problem that I immediately have with “No Blues” is that despite all of its admirable artistic intentions, it comes off as pretty pale and boring, to be honest. Musically and lyrically, this album just is not very compelling to me, because it honestly feels way too much of an attempt at the band going “Oh fuck yes, we’re done with being emo like in Hello Sadness, now we can actually write the music that we actually want to make!” But instead of it turning out somewhat adventurous, it feels both very crammed, rushed, and mildly inaccessible (for the band, anyway), and it’s done so in a way that it’s not only lacking diversity, but there’s almost no room for it to properly breathe, and as such just feels samey-sounding and choked a lot of the time.

Two terms I’ve used a lot regarding Los Camp’s discography are “dense” and “engaging,” and I think I need to specifically define what I mean by that. When I say “dense,” it usually means the music or the lyrics are compact with details, sometimes in like a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rate. This gives a lot of the albums a lot of their relistinability, and you’ll keep finding more and more creative and colorful little moments every time you listen to a song.

But something that you also need to tap on if you want to make them actually worth listening to again is that you have to make them “engaging,” and that comes as a result of a lot of things, such as making the music or lyrics properly digestible, building up empathy or sympathy, building up the listener’s interest in the topics you want to delve into, whether the listener is remotely interested in your topics, etc. It’s not an exact thing and it is very subjective, but unfortunately, I don’t feel that majority of “No Blues” really checks off any of those ticks.

With “No Blues,” what it often feels like is that the lyrics have become very dense, with some of the most obscure references to date -- lots of lyrics about other musicians’ lyrics, politics, obscure postmodernist novelists, constellations, Greek mythology in correlation to those constellations, and European football. Holy shit, European football is everywhere on this album -- but there’s nothing particularly engaging about it unless you actually give a damn about it, because as I mentioned with “Hello Sadness,” one of my bigger problems with it was that it lacked context.

PEOPLE LAUGH, THEY WILL CALL IT FOLLY / BUT WE CONNECTED LIKE A YEBOAH VOLLEY /

Yeah, these may be complex and esoteric metaphors, but not only do they end up being incredibly distracting for me as I have to manually figure out with almost every line what the hell emotion Gareth’s supposed to be conveying, but I have no real drive or motive to actually bother because it doesn’t really say anything as is (That “Yeboah volley” line above? Guess what that’s supposed to mean without googling it. Trust me, context doesn’t really help) In that regard, it’s actually making an even bigger flaw I had with “Hello Sadness” even worse: Los Camp’s first three albums were able to convey a smattering of different, sometimes diametrically opposing emotions. “Hello Sadness” reduced itself to be being more comfortable with trying to convey just one.

But “No Blues”? I can’t really find anything that personal or really that narrative or thematic about what’s going on here other than a really vague… I dunno, millennial liberation? Light humor? Mature upbeatness? This doesn’t feel confusing in the sense that “which one of these many emotions should I be REALLY feeling?,” it’s more like “what is this one thing I’m supposed to latch onto? Whatever it is, it feels like I’m clutching at straws here.” Or more directly, it’s just one-half an emotion at best, and even then, there’s nothing very engaging or dynamic about it.

And that’s one of my biggest problems with the album as a whole, as well as why up to this point I really haven’t said anything about specific songs yet. It all feels rather flat and too clean for its own good, like a really sharp, hard glowing red, now being reduced into a flat, grayish pink. It might have a little bit more shine to it, but a lot of its actual vibrance has been lost, resulting in all the songs being mostly homogenous, unadventurous alternative indie rock that honestly doesn’t feel like it’s offering anything that new or unique as a now-turned alt-rock indie band. It may have shed the youthful problems that Los Camp themselves felt they were plagued with, but in the end it feels like a lot of that youthfulness is what made them so compelling, and now they’re just… boring.

THERE'S NO BOX TO TICK FOR RED, SO I PUT DOWN BLUE INSTEAD / 'CAUSE IT'S CLOSEST THERE'S TO GREY IN THE CATEGORIES / AND THE VEINS WITHIN THE WHITES ARE A STATEMENT OF DEMISE / DOE EYES, YOU SHOULD STAY AT HOME LICKING BATTERIES /

But I suppose I should get onto individual tracks. Like I said, a lot of it feels rather homogenous and unadventurous, and as such, a lot of it is pretty uninteresting to talk about since most of the tracks feel like they lack diversity, lyrically and sonically.

“What Death Leaves Behind” and “Cemetery Gaits” are I feel what are the album’s more “banger” tracks, but unfortunately, with the cleaner and more sterile production, a lot of it feels a little flaccid. Yes, Gareth’s voice is loud, the drums and guitars are wailing away, and you can totally tell when they’re trying to make the catchy standout moments, but that’s kind of the problem: I can totally expect what they’re doing at this point, and it doesn’t strike any chords for me.

They’re playing chords, they said their lines (which again, since they’re so obtuse a lot of the time, I can’t really hear them as anything except just words instead of, yknow, concepts or ideas), but it all sounds very generic and sanitized, and honestly very stuffed; since there’s not a lot of proper breathing room or actual relief, the progression of these songs are often very uneventful and unsatisfying. In these tracks especially, I don’t feel any sense of escalation, climax or relief despite SOME flatly-mixed-in additional instruments near the end; it all somehow sounds exactly the same and I’m like “Get the hell on with it already! Where’s the actual payoff?”

I feel bad drawing comparisons back to the band’s earlier works, but I kinda have to because it shows the band have been shown to be capable of definite satisfaction (hell, some tracks I’ll get to later on manage to pull this off). Those albums were messier and noisier, yes, but if I could describe them as like a texture, they would be like nice slabs of concrete pavement. Probably really gritty, but not unpleasant enough to walk on barefoot, and you’ll probably get a lot of different consistencies and feels depending on how it was paved, and overall it feels solid.

“No Blues” on the other hand just feels like a sheet of completely smooth, cheap plastic. Brittle, lacking in texture, and completely devoid of life despite it attempting to mimic a popular sound and style, but whether by design or by accident, it’s still cheap, hollow, and feels really artificial, but not even in like a PC Music/SOPHIE way where it’s also trying to be so whacked-out and alien and uncanny-valley-ish on purpose.

This trait also goes onto the slower moments, such as “A Portrait of the Trequartista as a Young Man” or “Glue Me” or “Selling Rope (Swan Dive to Estuary)”, which again, are not only not very musically adventurous, and they get kinda tedious and boring after a minute or so despite any sort of attempts at escalation or being dynamic, and the lyrics that could usually pick up that slack are really unengaging. I’m reading the lyrics, and I’m trying to find the many, many references in this album, but while I can understand them, I don’t “get” them, because I’m like “Okay? So?”

MAKE HIM RECITE THIS MURDER BALLAD / A SOMBRE TUNE TOLD BY A BORE / PUMP BLOOD AROUND THE LIMP AND PALLID / HARMONISING AS YOU SNORED /

However, I will say though, this album isn’t completely devoid of good ideas, because despite me saying this album doesn’t have a lot of standout moments, there are some good concepts here and there. While I think the rest of the song is kinda “meh,” “Cemetery Gaits” has a pretty neat intro, with that small swooping, kinda-windy and radio-wave-sounding soundscape matched with this little looping synth arpeggios, then gradually matched with a gradual increase instrumentation, like guitars, pianos, then finally just exploding with drums, it’s a great start to the track. It’s a shame that it doesn’t quite escalate any further than that, even with the introduction of Gareth’s vocals, multi-man chorus and that... ugh… millennial whoop near the end.

“As Lucerne/The Low” also starts of pretty well, and I think the verses actually do more in getting close to building a vibrancy that Los Camp was sorely needing, especially since the opening lines are just Gareth wailing “There is no blues that could sound quite as heartfelt as mi-i-i-iiine!”, just this wonderful bit of self-deprecating yet such sincere energy that I’ve missed for since previous albums, and is just one hell of an intro (I remember this was the first song of the concert I went to, and it was just like “Yep, that’s Los Camp!”). Unfortunately, by the time you get to the choruses, it all just slows down really awkwardly as all Gareth does is sing “Is what I came for… in the darkness I do adore… is what I came for” and it just doesn’t work, especially alongside those tropical steel drums. Yeah… I don’t really get it either.

I think one of the only tracks I love all the way through is the first one, “For Flotsam,” which admittedly does set a good first impression for the band’s new sound on the album. Refined and maybe a little too pristine, yes, but it actually covers a lot of range instrumentally and vocally, and actually feels like it has an actual atmospheric soundscape, and the mixing actually makes everything stick out a bit more.

Also, while the melody I probably should find monotonous and boring, especially with Kim’s looping vocals in the background that almost sound kinda artificial at times, it surprisingly flows really well, and it actually feels powerful and kinda… grooving at times. It’s got a really catchy hook, the melodies actually feel diverse, the lyrics are nowhere near as overly-ornate and distractingly referential as with other songs, and it provides both a satisfying rising tension AND also a satisfying climactic payoff, I love it.

FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND SPINDRIFT, ALL THE GIRLS I HAVE LOVED / DUMPED TO EARTH BY A SPENDTHRIFT, GILT ANGELS FROM ABOVE! / AND I SAW GOD IN THE BATHROOM, I BAPTISED HIM IN SICK / EMBRACED HIM AROUND HIS CISTERN, "C'EST LA MORT, ENOUGH OF THIS!" /

“Avocado Baby” is also a pretty good track, which also seemed to have a more compelling mix to it, and actually feels like a poppy “banger” track that does have more energy and a few more laughs to it that actually make sense without being a diehard football fanatic. The lyrics here feel a lot less overly-poetic than in other songs, and it manages to have a dense amount of wordplay in a way that’s both more easily digestible, but also pretty playful and kinda cute, especially for this era of Los Camp.

I HAD A FRIEND WHO HAD MADE A FLAG DAY / BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS FROM SHARDS OF A HEARTBREAK / I HAVE KNOWN FRIENDS TO CRACK FROM LOVE'S WEIGHT / BLOSSOM IN RIBCAGE, UNTIL THEIR BACKS BREAK! /

These two songs near the end, “Let It Spill” and “The Time Before the Last Time” also do manage to be a bit more accessible, and are more actually explicitly about something: Sex. Yay! But this being Los Camp, it’s played for a bit more awkwardness and comedy, one of my favorites being with this lyric in the latter song: “The shower-head moaned / and I looked down to the tray / Sons and daughters washed away.” Gross.

These actually do feel more instrumentally engaging as well. I love that descending, actually genuinely energetic and climactic chord progression for the chorus to “Let It Spill,” and that weirdly synthesized soundscape of “The Time Before the Last Time” actually feels both really refreshing, but also kinda beautiful and epic, and something that I honestly didn’t feel like I’ve heard Los Camp make before, but I’m glad they did.

LET IT SPILL, LET IT SPILL / LET IT SPILL ALL OVER US TWO / YOU'LL FIND ME UPSIDE DOWN IN THE BELFRY / 'CAUSE BABY, I'M BATS, IT IS TRUE /

I hesitate to call “No Blues” a “bad” album. I honestly do feel like I am missing something, especially when I write this among a sea of people who find that this album is one of Los Camp’s best. It has a lot of great ideas, and it even has a few really good songs, but the sum of its parts just isn’t making a compelling whole for me, and while I will still listen to those songs, there are a lot of parts of this album that don’t do it for my tastes.

I get the feeling that this really does come down to a lot of personal tastes and biases. I know that everybody has an equally valid opinion, but at the same time I kinda feel as though this album just wasn’t made for my person in mind, and in the end, it probably wasn’t. As I said earlier, this was basically Gareth deciding to go all irreverent and write the lyrics he wanted, and the band the music they wanted, and as it just so happens, it seems a lot of people genuinely appreciate it, so you know what, good for them; I’m glad they still have an appropriate audience (one that I can only assume are just as much football fanatics as most of the band is, and trust me, the football isn’t going to leave anytime soon).

Unfortunately, for me, I’m not that person. I’m less interested in Gareth’s referential humor and poetry and more for him being able to craft those conflicting mental mindscapes through standalone metaphors born from a deep sense of self-deprecating self-awareness, and in a way that anybody can really immediately sympathize with him. When he does come through with those moments in this album, I think it’s great, especially when the production becomes once again able to carry that emotion.

Sadly for me, most of the time, it does not, and what you get is like this weird plastic, beige box covered completely smoothly with a few symmetrical football-themed etchings onto it. If you have an appreciation for uniform, productive smoothness and those football-themed etchings, I won’t hold you back from appreciating it, but as for me, it’s just kinda “meh.” And that’s a shame. (2/5)

FAVES: “For Flotsam”, “Avocado, Baby”, “Let It Spill”, “The Time Before the Last Time”

#los campesinos #music review #no blues

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burnhampeaches · 7 years

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answer all emojis!

🐰 That I sleep with a baby bottle and my mum hides the fact that she has a second mum

💗 Everyone in the whole universe! Everyone gets hugs!

🐹 Rowlet and Piplup. Both of them are my favourite birds (Barn Owl and Penguin) ,and they both have my favourite elements (Earth and Water)

🌠 It would be chaotic, but at least everyone will follow my standards and rules

👀 It involved me, my mum, and my grandpa going to the Himalayas. We were hiking through a village, and then my mum fainted and her face hit the rocky ground causing her to get wounds. And then, I woke up.

☀ Fun to talk with @ohwillchampion, relatable @clodplaye, having the same sense of humour @anirudhiyer19992, kind @coldplayfeels, and we both like drawing @wingsofqurdrel. There are loads more but, I’m just lazy to state it all.

😘 She’s kind, she’s cool, she relates to me on a very high level. She’s brilliant, her sense of humour is always on point, she has a beautiful singing voice. She’s my muse, my love, my best friend that I haven’t met yet. She’s my PJ @clodplaye

💁 Nah man, this world has too much hate. We should just try to help others and be kind. No matter if we will risk our precious lives, kindness must reign alongside hate. Everything will and must be balanced.

🌟 My kindness, my doodling skills, I live healthily (I’m bad at this type of thing)

🐾 I’m scared of swimming and dogs. Not sure if I could overcome those two because it makes me scared stiff.

🎁 Anytime I hear Coldplay or Blur’s music, Doctor Who and/or My Little Pony merchandise, and when people compliment my doodles.

💙 People hate me, are jealous of me, pressure me to do things I don’t wanna do, pressure me to not be myself, and controlling me.

😤 Not really. But if you do piss me off and I shout at you, you’d better say sorry to me.

🐇 Berrychamp fanfics, self insert fanfics, adventures in the Land of Dreams, and stuff like that

🌻 No homophobia, no racism, no sexism, more equality over everything. We need equal rights!

🍓 Kill all the bad people in the world, Befriend all my internet friends, Marry anyone who is willing to live forever with me, Kiss anyone who actually loves me.

✈ London I guess? It’s the heart of the world’s economy. Also lots of concerts and conventions are held here. And not to forget I wanna find 221B Baker Street

☕ Just being alone on a rainy day, with good Wifi connection, sufficient food and water, very cool atmosphere, playing Coldplay and Blur on my phone and/or laptop, snuggled in bed with my toy Barn Owl, Nico and my baby bottle that I sleep with, and nobody disturbing me. Also me not giving a s**t about society.

🌸 INTROVERT ALL THE WAY BABY!

💧 Oh I don’t know. If I’m not mistaken, either at a restaurant with my family, or in bed while watching Live 2012

🎵 Oren Lavie’s Her Morning Elegance, Iron and Wine’s The Trapeze Swinger, Wintergatan’s Marble Machine, Owl City’s Hello Seattle, Alt-J’s Taro

⚡ Flight and invisibility. It’s fun to prank people back after they pranked me. Also, I get to fly without the priciness of plane tickets and no one will suspect me.

💛 The internet is your friend, listen to Coldplay, and penpals still exist.

💚 My cousin. She has the life I wanted. She has lots of friends, she lives in London, she’s been to a concert, she has multiples achievements, and she is more popular than me

🙊 My existence, and that one time I shouted at my classmates that I hated one of the teachers

🌺 Indonesian and English (learning Mandarin in school) I’d love to learn Spanish and French (much to my mum’s friend’s dismay)

🍀 The 11th Doctor. I relate to him so much. He is also funny and clumsy, like me.

☁ It’s basically a dream land where all my internet friends are now my IRL friends, my parents are nicer and not so short tempered, me and the family live in London, occasionally famous people and fictional people come around, and Guy Berryman loves my family’s Indonesian dishes. I have different versions of this for different AUs, but it follows the same path.

💜 I already did one I think? It was helping my parents dry my kittens after their bath

🐬 Barn Owls for me! Other than the fact that I love them, they’re cute, deadly, and silent. They also are active at night, like me.

🍄 Long story short, my old Malay teacher used to mock me and tease me with my classmates until I cry. They keep doing that when I get one of the answers wrong. I still have a grudge upheld for him (my old teacher)

😣 My mum telling me to stop being clumsy and not to get so sensitive. There are times where I wanna go to a psychiatrist with my mum and solve my problems there.

🍪 Same as always, a doctor. I wanna get into gynecology. If I can’t, I don’t mind being an illustrator or a game designer.

🍰 Jelly beans, lollipops, milk candy, and chocolate filled with strawberry yogurt ( Y'know? The Ritter Sport chocolates with the pink packaging?)

🍑 Barn Owls, drawing, selkies, Song of the Sea, Coldplay, When Marnie Was There, etc… (Too lazy to list it all)

💘 I cry and have a panic attack

😪 Life and its bad luck

🙀 Nope, Noes, No way Jose

💥 MARMITE IS YUMMY FOR ME DEAL WITH IT! WANNA FIGHT WITH ME MATE?

☔ Yes, and no. Call me a living oxymoron but, we all have different perspectives, no?

😊 Drawing, listening to Coldplay, and hiding under my blanket in bed

🎤 Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven is a Place on Earth

🐝 My clumsiness and laziness. I can try to fix my laziness, but clumsiness is tricky

🎨 EVERYTHING! From my bestie PJ to Berrychamp. Doodling is in my blood

🐻 Procrastination and depression

🌷 INFP. It suits because the descriptions are on point with me

🐶 If I’d choose between The Doctor, Sherlock, and Castiel, I’d pick The Doctor

👑 The members of Coldplay and Blur. They are just a bunch of friends who met during college and decided to make a rock band (also they changed their band names)

🐴 Opinion on life? Yeah it sucks balls. I really wanna do something about it. But hey, we all can’t get what we want.

🍋 VERY EMOTIONAL. SO EMOTIONAL YOU’LL HATE ME FOR IT

📚 I dunno any quotes but I’ll tell you the titles. Secret Daughter (Shilpi Somaya Gowda), Boywatching (Chloe Bennet), and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney)

😔 Draw and listen to music. It sorta does

😌 Just do it for the ones you love. In all honesty, I’m not the type of pick myself up person

🌍 Indonesia

🐧 Quiet, Sensitive, Weird

🐵 Uh, no quote changed me (yet)

💭 Nope, but my mum did

💫 Probably Misha Collins. I don’t have any idea

👻 Not really. They are just a part of myths anyways. Call me non religious if you wish but I’m gonna stand on my own ground

🎀 Casual. Simple yet nice

🎬 Kungfu Hustle, Song of the Sea, When Marnie Was There, Kiki’s Delivery Service, The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons, and lots more…

🍦 Going to Disneyland with my grandparents and aunt

🐼 I would meet all my internet friends. They lit up my life in a way I can’t explain. Believe me, they made me happier than the people I know in real life.

Thank you so much for this Lara! Hope you love it! 😙😘😚

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years

Text

Since the Christmas event/banner should get announced any day now, I might as well post my predictions for what we might get out of the new Christmas units [and from the New Years units afterward].

I’m in a bit of a weird position with the Christmas banner where I want to skip it in order to save for the New Years banner, since that’ll probably be better to summon on, so I’m caught between wanting units I like to get Christmas alts, and wanting them to instead go to units I don’t care about so it’s easier to skip them, lol.

Either way, that one leak/rumour that’s pretty much been proven correct after the official reveal of The Agito Uprising said that we’d get a Christmas alt for Phoenix, so I’m just gonna assume that’ll be the new dragon on the banner, but I think that’s the only thing the leak said about the banner, so I can only guess about the new adventurers. But going by how regular Phoenix works, I have a feeling that she might be a light element skill haste/HP dragon, like Halloween Maritimus. Which would kinda suck because with how good Freyja and H-Maritimus are, that’d be a really tempting dragon to get, but I specifically want to skip the Christmas banner. Welp.

In terms of the new adventurer alts, I’m gonna guess that it’ll be like the Halloween banner we got a little while ago, and that there’ll be one 5-star, two 4-stars, and that all of them plus the dragon will be a different element to the old units on the banner. So I don’t think any of the new units will be water element, like how none of the new Halloween units were light element. We haven’t really gotten many light or wind units in the last few months, so I think we might get two light units and two wind units. I can’t really tell if Christmas Phoenix would make more sense as a light or wind unit, but I’d probably prefer it if she’s a light unit since then the 5-star adventurer would probably be a wind unit, and since wind is my most fleshed out roster at the moment it’d probably make them less tempting to pull for, which would work out better for me. But it could be the other way around.

I’m gonna just go ahead and assume that the 5-star adventurer is probably gonna be another 5-star alt of one of the main female characters, since we get one for basically every new banner like this, lol. I’m guessing it’ll probably be Alex or Sarisse. I could see Alex working pretty nicely with a 5-star light dagger alt, or something like that. But I feel like Cygames might keep ignoring her for a while longer. Who knows, maybe we’ll get Christmas Ranzal as a 5-star instead, lol. I don’t think we’ll get a Christmas Luca one way or another, though, if only since we’ll probably get Gala Luca in January.

For the 4-star adventurers I think there’ll be one wind one and one light one, and I think it’ll be like Halloween where they’re both alts of regular characters from the summoning pool. I think we’ll get one female and one male 4-star alt, and I have a few guesses/hopes for male characters, I’m at a loss as to what female characters might get alts here. But anyway, for male characters, Xanfried still needs an alt and I think a Christmas one would be really fitting for him, but it’d kinda suck to see him get a 4-star alt. I also think that Waike could work really nicely in a Santa get-up since he’s already basically Robin Hood. But realistically I think that the most likely male character to get a Christmas alt would probably be Elias. Summer Celery opened up the doors to us getting alts of event units, and Elias as a Christmas caroler is just too perfect to not happen, lol. Also he just desperately needs a good alt.

I’m at a loss as to what female characters might get alts, but for some reason Sinoa keeps coming to mind as an option. I don’t really have any specific reason why, though. I think we also got an illustration of Sarisse and Hildegarde in Christmas outfits last year, but I don’t know if Hildegarde would get another seasonal alt this soon. If they give Elias an alt, though, it might be nice if they also gave Pia one, since they’d go really well together, and she’s also a bit of a meme unit who needs a good alt.

In terms of their kits and stuff, as I said, I think Alex could get a 5-star light dagger alt here, if she gets one at all. If it’s Sarisse, she’d probably be a 5-star light/wind bow. And I could see Christmas Phoenix basically being the light version of Freyja.

If we get Christmas Elias, I could see him being a light wand. But I wouldn’t want him to have a kit like Noelle’s, since that’d be too important to lock behind a limited banner. If Xanfried gets a Christmas alt, I think he’d be a light/wind lance, with a similar kit to his OG version, but maybe with some energy mechanics thrown in if he’s a light unit. And then Waike could maybe get a light/wind bow or dagger alt.

I could also see Sinoa still being a wand if she gets a Christmas alt, but we probably wouldn’t get both that and Christmas Elias as a wand unit at the same time.

If we get Christmas Pia, she could maybe be a light lance, or if she stays as a wind unit, maybe she could be a sword or dagger or something. No weapon types except for wand and staff really make sense for her, but she’s already a lance unit as it is, so anything’s possible.

Also part of why I’d be on board with Elias and Pia getting alts is because they’d be easy for me to skip, lol. But I do feel like they’d make a lot of sense in general.

As for the New Years banner, it’s a fair bit further away, but I still have some hopes and predictions for it. I’m trying to hoard my resources for it at the moment, so I’m a lot more invested in having it turn out nice, lol.

Like with the Christmas banner, I think the New Years banner will be either light or wind element [with maybe one wildcard off-element unit]. Personally I’d want it to be light-based, just because my light roster’s weaker and that’d make for a more exciting and tempting banner. But either would be fine.

If it’s a light-based event/banner, then I think the datamined Tsukuyomi dragon might be the equivalent to Shishimai, which could work since, like with most event dragons, Shishimai was the opposite element to the old New Years units, so having a shadow event dragon with light units would make sense. I could also just see her design working nicely as a raid boss in addition to a playable dragon. And since she was datamined around December last year it’d make sense if she ends up being related to the upcoming New Years event. She might be the banner dragon like Marishiten, but that’d imply it’d be a shadow banner/event like the last one which would be kinda lame. Also her design doesn’t really seem inspired by the year of the rat, unlike how Marishiten had boar familiars floating around her and stuff.

Like the Ieyasu banner, I think the new zodiac banner will have one 5-star adventurer, one 5-star dragon, two 4-star adventuers, and then an event welfare adventurer and dragon. I think they might also put Ieyasu and co back on rate-up during the banner but who knows.

If they’re light units, I’d want the new 5-star to be a blade or a wand unit. We really need some more good light units of those weapon types. B-Zardin, Lucretia, and Amane are all kinda meh and don’t really have a place in end-game content, and from what I know Yachiyo is the weak link of the HZD meta group who just doesn’t have a better alternative to replace her with. So we really need something new there, though it’d also kinda suck in it’s own way to lock a good light unit behind a limited banner. Personally I’d lean towards wanting a light wand rather than a light blade, since they’d probably end up being less ‘essential’ in the long run than a light blade, and also I have B-Zardin but I don’t have Lucretia so I want a light wand more, lol.

If they’re wind units, I’d probably want the 5-star to be a dagger or lance since those are probably the weakest parts of the wind roster at the moment.

I dunno what to expect from the new banner dragon, mostly because I don’t know very much about the Japanese mythology they’re drawing from with them, but from some quick wikipedia searching, maybe we could get Benzaiten as the new one. Either way, regardless of the element it is, I think they’ll be a strength dragon like Marishiten was.

For the 4-stars, if they’re light units, I could see us getting a wand and/or a lance. I don’t think we’d get a 4-star light dagger or bow out of the banner, though, since we’ve got several options for those already. Same with staffs. We also only currently have one [non-limited] 4-star option for light blades, swords, and axes.

If they’re wind units, then I doubt we’d get a 4-star blade, lance, or staff, since those options are pretty fleshed out already. In particular i doubt we’d get another 4-star wind blade when we got Addis in the last New Years banner. So I’d prefer to get a sword, axe, dagger, or bow instead.

And in terms of the event welfare adventurer, If they’re light then I at least wouldn’t want them to be a bow, sword, or staff, so they don’t overlap too much with past event units we’ve had . I think a light blade event unit could make sense, but we’ll see. If it’s a wind unit, then we’ve only really had Su Fang so far so anything other than a wind dagger would be fine, but if you want to count Ranzal then it might be best if they avoid having it be a wind axe either. And same as the stuff I said above, I’d prefer it if they avoided having them be a wind blade/lance/staff unit either. So I’d prefer a sword, bow, or wand.

If we get a wild-card unit like Addis then anything’s possible, but we still haven’t gotten a 4-star flame blade at all yet so that’s an option.

On top of my personal bias, one reason why I’d like it to be light-based is so that we can get more light units with energy mechanics. There’s nothing stopping them from making a wind banner with energy mechanics, but I feel like it’d work better to have an energy-themed light banner, since light has way more in the way of existing units who also have energy mechanics in their kits. If we just got a set of wind units with energy built into their kits then I fear it’d end up like the Valentines/Christmas units, or Pia, and they’d have too little energy support from the rest of their element’s roster to really work well.

Also the new banner will be based around the Year of the Rat, and since we’ve already had one light unit with a lightning theme, I can’t help but think of Pikachu, so it’d be kinda fun to get a lightning rat dragon and stuff, lol. I also feel like a lightning-themed light wand unit could also make sense.

So yeah my best case scenario hope would be if the New Years banner ended up with a 5-star light wand, a 5-star strength HP dragon, a 4-star light lance, a 4-star flame blade, a 4-star event welfare light blade, and Tsukuyomi as an event welfare shadow dragon. But who even knows.

I’m fully prepared to be proven totally wrong with both of these banners, but we’ll see how it goes. I mostly just want the New Years banner to be worth hoarding for, lol. But it’d be worth it even if they just bring Ieyasu back since I still don’t have him.

Also I’m hoping that we’ll get some free daily tenfold summons during both the Christmas banner and the New Years banner. And maybe even some log-in bonuses. Anything to make it easier to hoard my resources would be nice at this point after how much I pulled on the gala, lol. [And on that note I did in fact end up caving in and summoning more on the last day of the gala, and even though I didn’t get Gala Elly I did get Cupid, so that’s nice]

#dragalia lost #in which I say a lot of words that might get almost immediately invalidated if I end up being wrong with my guesses :v #but it's fun to speculate and I need something to keep me occupied since there's been a lack of new content lately lmao

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quonit-aceattorney · 6 years

Text

2-4 Bad Ending

Rules:

Q = Me, Quonit.

BF = Bardic Feline, the friend that made me spend 30 dollars on the game and whom I am messaging

I don’t use those when I send the messages close enough my username doesn’t appear.

Any typos (unless they are funny and part of the conversation) will be fixed.

x Note x

I watched this after i finished the original trilogy. Not after playing 2-4.

Index

Q: My brother sent me a video of the 2-4 bad ending and i decided i needed to record it and I remembered there is a person i spam ace attorney stuff to Q: I am really happy i figured out the blackmail. looks like that is what causes the bad ending

nothing has happened yet

and this is terrible

this is terrible so far and still nothing has happened

dammit

this is terrible Q: ya it sounds like a bad hobby, not exactly terrible though

the video he sent is trying to show me a bunch of different paths of the bad ending so

okay sure they were watching so?

that seems to be shelly's reaction to all of it

i feel to terrible to phoenix

maan

phoenix im sorry!

FUCK

HE'S NOT GUILTY

THIS IS THE WORST Q: MATT DIDN'T FUCK OFF

noooo

maya....

NOT ADRIAN!!!

THIS IS AWEFUL

I DO NOT ACCEPT THIS

that was awufyl

i cant even spell it right

im so upset Q: 2-4 is now terrible

that was so

just

i am so happy i didn’t get that ending

i might've cried

EVERYBODY WAS KINDA DEPENDING ON PHOENIX TO BRING A MIRICAL

AND THEN BOOM NOPE NOW EVERYBODY IS JUST KINDA

UNCOMFORTABLE, THEN EVERYBODY SUFFERS

HORRIBLY

MATT GETS TO CONTINUE LIVING FREELY, WHICH IS SHIT

ADRIAN

IM SO UPSET I CANT EVEN SAY IT THAT WAS TERRIBLE

Q: :(

good ending yes

i need to watch the part about that

or draw a picture

i was so tired when i started yelling how everybody was in the family hahaha

now it is just a thing now: one big huge family

BF: if it makes you feel any better, the Bad ending of 2-4 is most famous for one incredibly unfortunate typo hahah

Q: sadly the typo was not in the video haha

I'll go look up a video with the typo

BF: Booooooo

the very very last line in the original English port (and lol I feel you, but it IS called the Bad Ending for a reason) is simply:

"The Miracle Never Happen"

Q: HAHAHA

it never happen

BF: I AM SERIOUSLY DISAPPOINTED TO HEAR THEY FIXED THAT FOR THE HD VERSIONS hahah

Q: well the thing it my brother sent it to me and the sprites weren't HD but it didn't have the typo

BF: the typo is one of the running gags in the fandom

weird...I dunno then

BF: if it was a shot of the original game, it shoulda been there.

it fixed in my version

BF: so I don't know what to tell you.

Q: hmmm

eh i forgot

BF: a mystery

Q: TRYING TO MAKE LIGHT OF THIS AWFUL THING

BF: hahah it's the Bad End, not the not the one that actually happens in canon

Q: woooo

BF: Otherwise Game 3 would be weird.

Q: I wonder how much fanfic there is for alt game 3 where bad end is canon

this franchise always gets bigger so im just going to assume there might be a bunch

BF: Not that I've looked seriously, but I honestly can't say I've seen much for the Miracle Never Happen ending

Q: huh! weird

so i can finally start shrinking my expectations for this again

"oh ya the original trilogy nice IT'S ALSO ONGOING AND HAS A BUNCH OF GAMES TO IT A FUCKING ANIME AND-" seriously i only expected that first bit and even then iw as a little shocked

BF: Only finished one that isn't buried on the kinkmeme somewhere that I know of is a weird short dark thing where Matt gets haunted to death by Juan

Q: i misread that at first and thought of the fazbear comic zarla did

BF: lol no not that one. and you know that can't be post 2-4 because Juan is alive in it. XD

Q: ohhh

i was very happy in 3-5 discovering that everybody can be a ghost wooo

BF: hahah yeah

theoretically Maya should be able to eventually learn how to channel any dead person

Q: ooonnnne dayyyyy

you said that like maya isn't appearing in the next games wtf

hopefully the new cast will be good enough i won't miss the old one too much

BF: ...I'm NOT sure what I said that indicated that, but might as well let you know now so you don't get too disappointed haha; No, Maya isn't in game 4. there's a side detail when you are investigating around that indicates, without naming her, that she's still out there and still in contact, but she never gets mentioned by name and never shows up.

They REALLY REALLY wanted to clear the decks for a new cast in this one, so almost no one from the original trilogy makes an appearance.

Q: ohhh

i'll keep my expectations low

BF: just try to keep an open mind hahah

Q: i figured it out because you said that "theoretically she should be able to in the future" and the fourth one takes place 8 years in the future, so by that point we should get an answer for that question... and we apparently dont.

NO CHARACTERS FROM OLD GAME maybe like 2 BUT NONE OKAY

BF: And also remember that there IS two other games after 4

Q: true...

and spin off games...

BF: yep. there's a really odd spinoff title that's a crossover with the Professor Layton series, and Maya is in that one.

hahah look I'm not going to spoil it for you, but you can be assured that Maya is WAY WAY WAY too popular for them to get rid of her forever.

Q: i also need to figure out who that guy is now apparently!

Maaayaaaa. OF COURSE.

BF: she's arguably the most loved of the assistant characters.

Q: more than franz? whaaaat

that part was great haha. otherwise: I wonder who the other assistant characters are and who will be my favorites :0

BF: but the assistant character who DOES debut in Game 4 is amazing and I love her.

Q: WHEN I HAVE MONEY AGAIN ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS I WANT TO GET IS GAME FOUR

WITHOUT MORE ACE ATTORNEY I CAN'T SPAM YOU!!!

BF: hahah well Ema you've already met (though she doesn't play the assistant role in 4), there's the girl from the Edgeworth spinoffs who I absolutely adore (she reminds Zarla of Hunter)

Q: oooo

i need to sleep but i wanna ask you more questions (that hopefully won't get me spoiled) tomorrow

BF: hahah okay!

I'm trying to decide how much to tell hahah

ah well. gniiiight!

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