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jazeswhbhaven · 2 months

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Just Another Day in Hades...(Requiem of the Survivors Event React I)

Hey hey everyone, we've got a fresh new event featuring our Hades bois!! We get a healthy dose of each noble, and seeing how they interact is quite amusing, just like how it was watching how our Avisos bois interact. It seems to me for their dynamic, our bois tolerate each other more than enjoy each other's company as they're too focused on living their lives for Leviathan (except for Glas who is literally trying to overthrow him but waiting for the right moment) But let's dive in because there's much to discuss regarding Levithan's lore and our eerily adorable Orias. (seriously he's like a doll, which they do describe him like that in the event story)

You know the drill lovelies, grab a snick snack, get comfortable, let's read my bullshit rambles while summarizing this thing. ( ˘▽˘)っ♨

First I wanna touch on how Glas and Foras are on patrol, (Hades looks so pretty btw) and he's just like hahahhaaha angels asses getting poke Foras how about that?

Foras goes to point out like matter of factly that whatever he's talking about isn't supposed to be used that way and Glas is like things are fully meant to be used for other purposes that's how you know it's good (basically how I took it) and Foras is 100% done with him lol So far their dynamic is "this is my annoying coworker that I must tolerate all the love of my boss"

Like foreal. Foras is a fan boy of Levi, just like Amon is a fanboy of Beel. OH and since it's a rainy day in Hades, Barbatos is hiding away in his coffin because he prefers sunny days (my sunshine, he's so particular, i'd cuddle with him in his coffin) And since it's about to rain again fucking Glas starts fucking around with Foras again

No, he wasn't wanting to hang out with him or being nice, he was calling Foras "small" compared to his more spacious coffin. He was really egging him on to get mad and start a fight, but Foras chills out and this bothers Glas. Lol And then there's a slurping noise, and Foras immediately is like "Glas wtf stop it." and Glas foreal wasn't doing anything this time, but-

This little dude shows up, our blood thirsty Orias.

So it's revealed here that Orias is taking apart an angel so he can eat the soul, which is a glowing orb of light. This glowing orb is edible...

Edible you say....

ANYWAYS different fandom cameo (inner joke for those who know)

And thus why I brought up Geto in the first place my lovelies. Exactly why. (if you don't get it, Geto is from JJK and swallows cursed souls and they're this huge ass orb he just eats who no gag reflex)

But a little before this, Foras and Glas are not happy to see Orias. At all. Turns out these two hate him, because he keeps trying to come after Leviathan's soul. Orias had originally been teasing with Foras saying that he probably hoped he wasn't gonna come back at all after being gone for so long (huh wonder if he's been out killing angels)

So every time he eats an angel orb, he gets even younger. So what I can already tell is that he's obsessed with being younger, so while he looks like a child, he's really thousands of years old (guesstimating because devils and angels have been around a long ass time in this universe)

Pit stop on Orias for a moment, but the more they describe him in the story, the more I'm convinced that while his design is cute, love his jewelry, he does appear very childlike. And we run into the entire Stolas thing again, however, Orias looks much younger than Stolas (to me anyway and his body is boyish too, this is explained in the story that he's smaller in stature as well) While I understand this is more of appearance, some of his mannerisms are even childish, the tantrums, the pouting, the whining (which come with age regression so I do think they hit that point pretty well)

SO after all that with Foras and Glas meeting Orias, they go to warn Levi about it, who's really blah blah blah whatever because he doesn't care about it too much. The other subjects though are rattled to hell,

And here he is, Orias making his grand entrance just bolding stating and asking for Levi's soul.

And Levi being the way he is lol

Just, no hanging, no punishment for Orias. Just a simple No.

I'm not gonna lie this was a surprise for me on Leviathan's attitude and character. Normally he's so abrasive and here he's being...hm? Soft...kinda like Solomon had a point in Chapter 5.

See? Orias has a noose and Levi doesn't even bother to use it. He's strangling a random subject that demanded Orias be punished (he was stupid to even speak he knows how Levi is lol)

So they explain how every devil wears a noose because it's a symbol of everyone's loyalty to Leviathan and that their lives belong to him in so other words. Live for Levi. Die by Levi. (why does this sound like a cult /hj)

Orias is an exception to this rule though. Leviathan is even having a small chat with Orias as if he never said what he said and he warns him about eating too many souls but Orias being himself, he can't get enough.

Also revealed that Orias is possibly older than Levi. They never really confirm his age btw but there's more lore about their history and dynamic here in a bit.

And it's brought up once more that Levi is lenient on Orias even after he's been so blunt and rude basically.

So some lore here! (so this is much faster to screenshot this instead of each indiv. screenshot lmao idky i didn't do this before)

in short Orias is a special cookie and has like VIP access to Levi's more chilled behavior. At first I didn't really understand that until I kept on with the story. But Levi is sending Orias off on a errand and he promises he can eat as many souls if he does it, but Orias only wants one thing...and well Levi just lies to him about promising a chance

And with that, Orias is off to do his errand but I honestly don't think he trusts that Levi says what he says. That and it's a known thing that some devils are capable of lying and that's because these two hold a special loophole.

but we'll get to that later.

MY SUNSHINE MY LIGHT MY BOUNCY BOO. give me that full body sprite dammit *foams at the mouth*

Barbatos enters the chat! Our lovely sun devil is out in the semi-nude today because there's more sun. He literally stayed in his coffin all day because it was raining. I find that he and I are polar opposites on that front because I hate sunny days (where I live it's humid, not dry so the heat during the spring and summer is unbearable) I don't even like rainy days here unless it's like in the 60s and raining because at least it's not that damp, hot rain. ANYWAYS Foras btw was asking Barb who he was talking to and Barb is like THE SUN DUH <3 he speaks to her with his body and I think that's the cutest thing.

Ooop. Glas is a hater I see. It makes me wonder if he just doesn't like seeing Barb naked because he's too positive and bright about it. Barb even annoys Glas more by saying he loves being naked and Glas having these reactions to him doing so makes him laugh and more happy that he's being honest about his feelings. Oh Barb, i love u.

But yeah after he's basically telling the two emo bois in front of him what's up, Foras lets him know Orias is back and well...

Glas tells him (again) to put him clothes on and his freaking vines turn into clothing. That's dope.

Barb saying fuck unprompted on main?

s a y it s l o w e r

(not me flirting with him during a srs moment, help)

Glas makes an observation that Orias may be that great of a devil if Barb doesn't even like him.

A lover huh? After you're done with loving the sun Barb, save your love for me I am hopeless, I need you to make me a bed of rose petals in your coffin and I'll sit in them (if I can fight through my issue with touching plants T_T)

Foras calls him out on that statement and I love his energy. Foras is that devil. That guy. He literally does not give a single fuck about it. (Unless it's MC he cares about what they think and Levi) Barb respects Orias in his own way. Meaning he don't respect him at all lmao be fr right now. But n o rlly he does explain why he has his own view. Orias is a good ally, and that if Levi sees him so highly then he must be alright in some way. Foras agrees that Levi doesn't make mistakes so that must be true.

But Glas comes in with the reality check. He doesn't trust him. He says everyone is pretty much blinded by Orias's appearance as being innocent.

He brings up the fact that he's literally trying to kill Levi, and he's older than him, might even be older than Luci. (interesting...) And the three of them just start arguing about who's right, and if Orias is really that bad or if Glas is just being weird again and gloomy and trying to start shit but it is mostly Glas starting shit so-

And low and behold all of them get strung up because Levi's ears were burning (not literally he just knew they were talking shit about someone else when he's not there to hear about it) see I told you all he'd just come by and be like "i heard you were talking shit...not in my palace you won't"

lol

Because Levi was jealous about them talking about Orias, all three of them get blasted with his energy and now they're jealous thinking why the fuck is Orias always spared but we can't catch a break. Levi finds this amusing so he stops punishing them. And Glas is quite perturbed because Levi goes right over to him and tells him he was doing too much. Glas challenges Levi on that and wants to know why it's them that gets punished when they've served Levi for years. Orias shows up and he acts the way he does and suddenly he's the majesty's bestie now or whatever.

As we see here, Levi is just really amused by all of this he doesn't even care of what Glas even said. It's pretty much him being like "oh look at the giant devil whining about not being my favorite. cute"

Levi asks Glas before we get here "who's the only other that can doubt and lie like I can?" No one can answer that but Levi explains that it's Orias and why. He was raised at the same 'farm' as him in heaven. BIG LORE STUFF. So it's confirmed that Orias and Levi know each other on another level. Our Hades bois are excited to hear more about their majesty's past because it was rare for any of the nobles to really know stuff like that, especially in levi's case. AND this is a great stopping point for part 1!!! See you all in part 2 ^^

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb spoilers #whb leviathan #whb event #whb orias #whb hades bois 💜#this event was also lore heavy goodness

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acid-comet · 2 months

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Someone asked me for my rant on MLP Gen 5 so ima post as much as i can remember here.

I wanted to redesign Sunny Starscout and Izzy MoonBow. Sunny is gonna be mule based and Izzy crystal pony based, also i personally believe gen 5 is in their teens compared to gen 4 in their college-adulting age. I hate that she calls herself a princess... like i dont like that mlp treats alicorns as a royalty thing and not a demi-god thing but Sunny just ticks me off bad

Gen 5 has minimal and uninteresting story, character personality, character design, etc. Most of the main cast look like background recolor ponies, their designs have nothing to 'grasp on to' and their personalities dont have anything to care for or about. And their names SUCK! They tried to continue a; Twilight Sparkle and Lyra Heartstrings, type name but failed. Their all duplicates of eachother besides their personal 'thing': Main pony, artsy pony, influencer pony, tomboy pony, guy pony, weirdly in-depth character pony.

Whats worse than that is looking at the concepts. Their new gen had decent concepts, but seeing that they were going to recreate gen 4 was devastating. Monster high is doing the same thing?? They have the same characters but with small tweaks and differences. i think it would have been easier to just remake gen 4 instead of making a new gen, ugh.

Also the story doesnt make since/ sounds so weird if its the same timeline as gen 4 but n/a time passed. Gen 4 ended with P!Twi making a school for magic for all races, and gen 5 opens up to REVERYONE separated? By race and pony race?? And everyones left in the dark about it since none of the main cast are relevant enough to know, and no one to give that info besides the villain but why would she just tellnthe audience??? if everyone separated again wouldnt Windigos be affecting this? Wouldnt a windigo villian make more since than a continuity error 'alicorn'???

Theres more to add but i cant think without combining my own headcannon in right now, bleh.

#art #artwork #character art #concept art #digital art #illustration #mlp #mlp g4 #mlp art #mlp gen 5 #mlp redesign #mlp redraw #mane 6 redesign #mane 5 redesign #my little pony #mlp sunny #mlp izzy

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mariekanker · 9 days

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im sooo smart i couldnt find the blank template but i have now but its fine . classic deviantart meme font.

explaining my self under the cut (EGGHEAD SPOILERS INCLUDED)

Favorite character: Franky, Robin and Usopp. Franky is my favorite but Robin and Usopp are the best characters. For Franky it's mostly that I like weird guys in hawaiin shirts and I also like inventor/engineer characters and he's both which is not fair to my psyche. And a lot of the shit he makes is so silly all those extra vehicles in the sunny all have to be cartoon animal themed and that's so cute. Silly guy making his silly machines, aww aww. I like Robin because she's a little weird a little offputting. Wish they went way further with that but I still enjoy that element of her character. And that she's the designated smart one but not in a killjoy way, and it's so sweet seeing her find happiness over time. I like that Usopp is the straight man or everyman type guy of the crew, and how most times the thing he chooses to do is the most "yeah i would have done that in this situation". I like that at no point he suddenly overnight becomes some brave boy and is a shounen anime badass now, but instead he's anxious about everything but pulls through regardless. He could have quit back in water 7 but he didn't !! New world scary as hell but he's still here having not given up or died !! There's something i really appreciate about having a character who isn't a badass or anything like that succeed too because its harder for him. And I lovee a good usopp fight, his fighting style is so fun and the usopp vs perona fight is one of my favorite of the whole series. I think it's fun that he was able to work around his fear of close combat by getting experimental. And of course the whole thing with how they make a point in Enies that Usopp doesn't have to be insanely capable and competant to have value and have his friends love him and i think that's nice. Everybody's valued on the crew even if their unique skills are more "niche" or whatever. :] .

Liked by everyone but me: Sabo. I think I would have liked him a lot more if he wasn't introduced immediately after Ace died as Luffy's secret brother he also has (anime adaptation is way worse for this because they can't even hide that Sabo didn't die !! It's so obvious !!) I know they have a whole passing the torch thing going on and the fire fruit thing is very cute but i feel it kind of takes away from the impact of ace dying to give luffy a different fire brother yknow ? either way though, he has the personality of a slice of white bread like i really dont find him endearing at all, all i get out of him is he's kind of fun to draw i like pulling a brightheart warrior cats fan design on him. as far as i can tell most OP fandom people generally like him i never see sabo slander LOL but that's just me

Didn't like at first: Orochi. Choosing him more out of what I felt was appropriate given some characters i.e. franky are clearly supposed to start off on a bad note then be likable later. Orochi never gets redeemed or even becomes particularly silly and charming in the ways many other villains do. Him being an over the top piece of shit who was also scared of everything then had beef with Kaido just appealed to me idk lol plus all the stuff with how he's doing all this out of some kind of paranoia/trauma response and like yeah fuck sure i'll take that some kind of a reason over nothing at all. he's a little like arlong if arlong was like really really lame. i think it's funny he fake dies like twice + his actual(?) death scene is honestly pretty badass that was a good ass scene. one of my more favorite villains tbh and he pleasantly surprised me because i really assumed he was just going to be another comically evil annoying lame guy in a different coat of paint. think again it's annoying lame guy but a little better.

Would like to know more about: Crocodile, Pudding, Kiwi, and Mozu. Honestly there's like 27 characters I could put here. Crocodile stands out to me because of the implied trans thing mostly but regardless, I am curious about his relationship with Robin and his run in with Whitebeard and the thing with going out of his way to stick his neck out for Luffy in Marineford. <- that was probably just Crocodile being grateful luffy busted him out of impel down and not wanting to say it, but i like to think there's some kind of "luffy reminds crocodile of himself when he was younger" type deal because yea croc wanted to be pirate king before whitebeard shat all over him, yeah? yeah i wanna know this guy's deal. and yeah what were the circumstances of him and Iva's initial meeting? Out of everyone I chose he's probably the mostly likely to get some kind of detailed backstory and such. I assume Pudding is probably going to be very relevant eventually what with the opening of the third eye or whatever the fuck. Excited as the prospect of more Pudding, really hope we do not get another hancock situation where her entire character devolves into being really obsessed with a guy. Low expectations for this one I just hope she gets things to do that uh . don't suck lol. i really like her a lot. I think I kind of already explained Kiwi & Mozu yeah, in general more of anything on Franky Family would be nice. I know they're not important like Croc + Pudding but I hope they at least get some silly mini story shit. Filler ep where Franky reminisces on franky family . i will take antyhing.

Least favorite character: Orlumbus. don't like the columbus cameo. that's it, this one isn't deep, the fact he's a character at all is just dumb to me. i do rank him lower than villains or intentionally annoying charatcers because at least characters like Spamdam you're clearly supposed to want him dead so he's doing his job as a character.

Like the design, dislike the character: Zeo. Wasn't huge on the new fishman pirates in general. Would have to reread Fishman Island to elaborate better. Zeo's design is badass though.

Like the character, dislike the design: Usopp. Looks like a caricature

Same personality: Usopp and Pudding. Only 2 I could think of that have made me think yeah, they're just like me for real on a regular basis.

Favorite ship: Going Merry. I love that the Merry is just the silly little boat that could held together by duck tape and how comically smaller she is compared to marine ships, really bringing together this idea that the straw hats are just some scrappy weirdos who have no business being alive this long- Oh. Oh that kind of ship. Okay. Frobin is like the most . Sounds like a pairing that would actually happen, makes sense for how I understand these characters to be, etc. I'm not in the camp of believing they're end game or canonically secretly in love, you just don't have to like . Conveniently forget things about either character to force it into making some kind of sense. More importantly though, I think it's fun how they're counterparts to each other. Robin is history/nature themed, Franky is futuristic/technology themed, but both are connected through the pluton thing. They're both "keys to the ancient weapon" but instead of being destructive evil characters they're more interested in building the other up. Something like that. And it's a weird girl + silly guy dynamic and I like these kinds of "met you in the worst situation but we made it out together and are now both enjoying ourselves" relationships. If I was spamdam bringing robin and franky together for my evil scheme only for them to not only both escape but end up on the same crew and become very close I would have to quit my job out of embarrassment.

Least favorite ship:Crocodile x Buggy.I don't care for most hate love type dynamics anyways but particularly don't enjoy this one because seeing Buggy in this toxic yaoi with my boss type situation doesn't appeal to me at all. (Obviously not the worst OP pairing in the world, just as far as pairings I actually see with my eyes every now and again I don't really care for this one)

Would befriend irl: Kokoro. I just like her. I would listen to her talk for a long time about whatever the hell.

Would not befriend irl: Sanji. I mean like more than half of all OP characters are people i would not stand but I have a dunking on Sanji quota to achieve.

#fandom opinion meme #id in alt

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darkdevasofdestruction · 2 years

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Hi !!, I have been very lucky to find your DBD content and although it is for now the only thing I have read, I can surely say that I love it! and wanted to place an order.

Headcanons of the Assassins with an S / o that is a little sunny with them at all times but your companions hate you and make fun of you so you run to the Assassin camp to feel better with your loved ones.

You can put the characters that you think are best suited to this, I give you freedom to choose.

I understand if you can't do it but anyway, thank you so much for everything you bring us! 💖

(My English is not good and I am very sorry for that.).

Hey there~! Your English is fine, I got the gist of what you wanted to say! I know you’re probably asking for longer HCs for some of the Killers, and separately, but I had a bit of a different idea on how to approach this, so I hope you like this! <3

---

It wasn’t your fault that you were trying your hardest to be positive, or that you weren’t necessarily being affected by the darkening or fear that most of the survivors were going through.

Why should you bother wasting every second of your life - Or whatever there was that remained of it - Thinking up a shit tone of strategies to counter killers, get better at fixing generators and finding the hatch, when you could chat about your passions, hobbies, friends, families and other cool stuff?

Like how Kate loves to play the guitar! Or... How many of them have pets! Or Yui’s racing and motorbike passion! Claudette’s interest in botany. Everyone was so unique in their own way, why not take pride in that!

Unfortunately, your fellow Survivors weren’t leaning your way, so you often found yourself wandering around the foggy forest on your own - You were never afraid of getting lost, after all, you never needed food or water, and somehow, you always ended up back at the Survivor camp, even if you only walked straight ahead.

This time, though, things went different - Instead of arriving back at your designated camp - The Killer Camp was painted out before your very eyes.

You couldn’t help but stand there, rooted to the spot, with eyes wide open and mouth slightly agape from the shock - How did this happen? Did the Entity make a mistake?

Looking like a deer in the headlights, you just stood there, staring blankly, while all the Killers turned around to stare back at you uncomfortably.

Thankfully, the Entity made it so that no altercation can happen in between trials, so at least you were safe.

“Yo, toots, watcha standin’ there for? Come over. We were just gossipin’ ‘bout ya normies!” Ghostie was the first to let out a dark cackle and wave his hand, calling you over, where he was standing in between Michael Myers and The Legion.

You were more than happy to oblige, and with a wide grin, you immediately scuttered over and sat on the log next to him.

Susie was the first one to greet you properly, and started playing and braiding your head, while Ghostface started talking about horror movies and whatever crimes he committed in the real life.

Myers, though silent, didn’t bother budging from his spot, but it was kinda obvious he was getting annoyed with the young ones’ obnoxiousness.

Freddy was letting out low, menacing evil-laughs, but they went completely unnoticed, especially after he earned a hit to the back of his head from Trickster’s bat, before the K-pop singer scooted over and plopped down on a log opposite of them, smirking and shifting the conversation towards music and how beautiful the screams of his victims’ agony were, especially synthetized into his songs.

The rest of the Legion members joined in the conversation, behaving like normal young adults do, and gossiping here and there about random shit from their neighbourhood and all the drama they went through.

Adiris was keeping her distance, not wanting to disturb anyone with her rotting, pusing stench, but at least the censer smell was offering a soothing aroma for everyone.

Hillbilly and Bubba were shying away from the crown, and Charlotte, Sally and Amanda were desperately fighting against the Doctor and the Clown so they wouldn’t dare try to harm a Survivor outside of a trial.

Which made Anna come over and bring you into a bone-crushing hug, protectively swinging you in her arms and humming a sweet lullaby, showing that she was taking care of you now.

Rin finally got the courage to come over, and though she wasn’t able to speak much, she appreciated having her hair played with, and if her ancestor, the fierce Kazan, dared approach you, she’d hiss at him and get in a fighting stance, katana out and ready to fight - Thankfully, he seemed to get the idea and he’d back off, happy to let his young descendant do her thing.

Pyramid Head would take out his sword and plant it as a shield in front of you, realising your innocence and how you didn’t deserve to be Executed, as you’ve never committed any sins worth of punishing, so whenever the Cenobite was attempting to steal you away, he’d get destroyed immediately.

Carmina, timidly, would come over and let out soft craw-like sounds, blushing sweetly as you’d pet her head and smile at her so nicely, calling her beautiful and what not.

Sadako would play tricks on you and try to cause some minor harm like tugging on your hair or pushing you around, but Wesker would stop her, as he was far too interested in flirting with you - After all, there weren’t many people to flirt with, in the Killer Camp, after all.

Nemesis was trying desperately to infect you, while Caleb would use his slingshot to counter him, and Talbot would continue fighting himself against even thinking about using you as a Blight Test Subject, considering how wrong all the other subjects went.

In the end, Lisa and Evan were the ones to walk you back to your Camp, and Philip would pat your head and offer a small smile as a farewell wish.

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dearmahiru · 9 months

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— together in death; dearmahiru's shinjū theory

tw: this post revolves around the discussion of group suicide and a toxic relationship

Before I Love You had released, I proposed Mahiru attempted to commit a lover's suicide with her boyfriend. It's hopelessly outdated (and terribly formatted) but, given we've recieved many confirmations about Mahiru's story, I wanted to try rewriting the theory with the new information. For reference here is the old post.

Yamanaka: ❝ When we designed the characters and their sins, we tried to design them in a way that is open for interpretation depending on how each viewer feels, and encourage differences in opinions. For example, some sins may be legally wrong, or something that you can’t forgive emotionally, and some may be interpreted differently due to cultural differences and different upbringings. So we encourage people from all walks of life to participate, to increase the diversity and depth in the results. ❞

Understandably, this post will paint Mahiru in an overtly sympathetic light given my bias towards her. However, I'm disinterested in rehashing the same "Mahiru is a bad person" points when everyone is aware of her flaws. I acknowledge proposing this theory would seem like an attempt to absolve Mahiru of guilt but that's not my intention. Like every character, Mahiru is morally gray and whether the audience finds her forgivable is up to them.

So, without further ado, let's begin.

01. Setting The Scene

This particular scene in I Love You is extremely important: namely, it's the location of her victim's death.

If we look at Mahiru's incarnation records, her victim died in Aokigahara, Japan's infamous suicide forest. This makes sense given he had died by hanging.

At least since the 1960s, Aokigahara has become associated with suicide, eventually becoming known in English by the nickname "Suicide Forest" and gaining a reputation as one of the world's most-used suicide sites.

Adding onto this, we know Mahiru went with her boyfriend to Aokigahara. First, ofcourse, the two are seen walking through a literal forest. Second, in Mahiru's Undercover memories, the sleeves perfectly align with the clothes Mahiru and her boyfriend wear. There's no other day where these sleeves align—trust me, I checked.

Q. Can you drive a car? Mahiru: "I have a drivers license. But I'm only a 'paper driver.'"

A paper driver is someone who's license is only 'paper' because they don't use it. Aokigara is a two-hour drive away from Tokyo which is where Mahiru lives. If she doesn't drive then this might mean it was her boyfriend who drove them to Aokigahara.

So to recap, Mahiru and her boyfriend went to a suicide forest together. This does beg the question though: why did Mahiru come along? If she knew her boyfriend was suicidal then wouldn't she try consoling him? Unless, ofcourse, Mahiru also wanted to die.

02. Love Is Mine

When you peek into Mahiru's symbolism you'll notice one reoccurring theme: clinging onto someone until you both suffocate.

Beginning with this shot of Mahiru and her victim, she's depicted as the literal noose tied around her boyfriend's neck. However, as many have noted, it can also be interpreted as her comforting him. As opposed Haruka who's straddling ontop of his victim, Mahiru's boyfriend is laying on her lap while she gazes into his eyes. Although violent, it's a distinctly intimate scene.

Personally, I'm partial to the name theory which suggests each prisoner's name reflects something about their crime. I noted the meaning behind Mahiru's name here but I'll regurgitate it. Mahiru's name means "Midday" which fits along her description:

A prisoner who is like the sun, always chatting and laughing.

So, with the theory in mind, Mahiru's crime relates to her eternal sunny presence.

Along with this, each prisoner has the kanji for "wood" in their name and removing that kanji reflects an aspect of their crime. (For instance, Haruka (嬰) would be "baby" or "necklace" and Yuno (堅) would be "strong" or "resolute" like her real personality).

With out the wood kanji, Mahiru's name is 隹 which means means "bird," obviously relating to how Mahiru and her boyfriend are both bluebirds suffocating within their small birdcage. Their relationship was doomed from the beginning—as bluebirds are wild animals and therefore cannot survive in cages. It was inevitable one of them would've become stressed out and died. Put a pin in the birdcage symbolism since we'll came back to that.

Moving on, in her first voice drama, Mahiru reveals how her victim died:

Es: "I see. So, you became a murderer as a result of some relationship conflicts? Jealousy… Grudges… Having your partner stolen from you… Those stories aren’t all that uncommon now are they?" Mahiru: "You’re wrong. It wasn’t that. I…never even wanted to kill anyone in the first place!" Es: [pauses] Mahiru: "I just… I was… just being myself."

(honestly really frustrating how people still theorize mahiru/her boyfriend cheated when she expressed multiple times that wasn't the case. all of the victims apart from kotoko's were innocent people and mahiru "loving my bf is my defining personality trait" shiina isn't about to tap someone's elses ass. if anything this is a demonstration she was only stressed out about her partner leaving her but whatever i digress)

And then later on these exchanges happen:

Es: It was your love which killed someone, right? Despite that, will you still try to love another person? Mahiru: [thinks] Actually, I was hoping you could tell me the answer to that, prison guard… If what I did was unforgivable.

Mahiru: Ah, this isn’t good. Be careful, okay? Um… Um… If you’re that kind to me, you could die as well. Just—kidding?

So already, this theme of suffocation has been reinforced multiple times. Mahiru goes with her boyfriend to a suicide forest, she locks hands with him, she's symbolised as a noose hanging him, she's stuck in a birdcage with him, and it's her sunny disposition, her love for him which kills him.

Which forms the foundation for this theory: following her theme of clinging until suffocation, Mahiru tried to die alongside her boyfriend to forever stay with him.

Q. What is the ultimate form of Love?Mahiru: Being always together

Mahiru: My first shrine visit of the year was together with him. Obviously I know what I want to wish for. Please let us stay together like this forever. Please don’t let anyone else get in our way

Do you really think you know what love is? If you do, let's just overheat together! [Mahiru is outright singing, "Lets stay close together for so long we could die from the warmth.]

If you don't hug me, even our hearts will start drifting apart [Otherwise, "If you don't hold me close then I won't feel loved by you."

Mahiru: "Ehehe...I love, love, LOVE YOU!! Don't ever let me go, ok!"

The happiness we tightly bound up and suffocated, is no longer here

Which leads us to our third point: oh goodness Mahiru's relationship was a hot mess.

03. Love Is (Un)Dead

Okay, so we've established a lot but there's one thing missing: Is Mahiru herself suicidal?

Mahiru: It’s because I've… decided that I’m going to live for the sake of love

Mahiru: Hmm. If you can’t forgive me for what I’ve done, then there’s no point in living—to be honest. [laughs]

Mahiru: Being in love is… If there was no such thing as love, then my life would be so bland. So, if you say that I won’t be allowed it anymore, then there’s no point in me living.

An extremely unfortunate yes! Similar to how Shidou wishes to die because of his love, Mahiru only lives for the sake of love. (Infact, coasting off this shinju theory, I'd even say that both Shidou and Mahiru wanted to die for the sake of meeting their loved ones again.)

One specific detail I'd like to highlight are Mahiru's shoes.

In Japan there is a custom for people to take off their shoes before entering their homes, as to not track dirt into their houses. As a result of this line of thinking there is also a custom where people take off their shoes before they enter the afterlife as not to track dirt and such into their ethereal destination. Abandoned pairs of shoes in Japanese media have become symbolic of suicides, and they are also common in non-Japanese media.

This specific symbolism is seen an additional time with Mahiru and Kazui's victims in Undercover and Mu in It's Not My Fault, both of which are related to suicide.

In Mahiru first MV, there's always a shot where we can explicitly see her shoes. They're on in the beginning, off when she confesses to her boyfriend and they begin dating, and on again after something happened to her boyfriend.

I believe this may represent she was suicidal during the relationship. Apart from this, there's lots of little details which paint the picture she was unhappy with her life and dating her boyfriend.

When being interviewed, she tends to talk a lot, and she seems to have developed some special feelings for the prison guard, and sometimes also shows a lonely, vacant expression in contrast to her normally bright and cheerful self. [These "special feelings" for Es aren't necessarily romantic. Atleast, it's "love" in the same way Mahiru thinks of a murder prison as a romantic getaway. It's moreso developes a connection with Es because they uniquely give her attention and she finds their hardwork admirable. She finds them kind and, "if youre kind to me I'm going to start relying on you, thanks!"]

"Hello! I’m Shiina Mahiru, 22 years old! I may be incompetent, but it’s a pleasure meeting you!"

Mahiru: Right…… so you too, Mu-chan…Hmm, I guess it’s because of the environment here. Sometimes your mental state has an impact. Mu: …You’re the same, then? …that it’s gone…… Mahiru: …it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. This sort of thing happens all the time~

I guess we can just say that this feeling is happiness I can't stop feeling like there's something missing

We can both feel lonely sometimes, but wonder if you'll get angry soon

We fought sometimes, I was happy to get hurt Let's have matching pain, this sickness is pretty bad

This is a claim of responsibility From the two of us with matching love Wanting to know everything about you, but wanting to die because it can't come true It's all because of love

Don’t lose focus even when exercising! The pastel tones mean not only do you look ready to go but also give off a cute oneesan appeal. Even for a rougher style of dress you can’t be careless! Painted toenails and a necklace show some attention to detail to make for a sexy casual style. Just because it’s outdoors doesn’t mean you can relax too much! Even when picking out a date outfit to protect you from the cold, you still want to protect that loveable silhouette.

Most damning of all I'll say is Mahiru's parasite cover. The song tells a story about a scorned girlfriend who was used for sex and seeks alcohol in order to deal with her lingering feelings for ex-boyfriend. At one point Miku throws a bouquet back mirroring Mahiru's desire for a wedding.

(hmm funny how the "mahiru is a yandere because she covered psychogram" crowd was silent about this cover i wonder whyyyy)

Why can’t you understand? I hate you! Never touch me again

Wait a second, when did things start going wrong? I loved the bad parts too, everything was fine

It’s even worse when you are nice to me, But I don’t want to be given the cold shoulder [Most of all, Mahiru desires attention from her boyfriend. In her T1 MV she mentions how he "not the brightest so he never notices that I go to the beautician." This is a likely a blow to her self confidence given the heavy emphasis she has on appearing pretty. Sporadically across the magazines there's lines about "not slacking off" in public because people are always watching.]

Hey, give me back the time I used loving you, You liar. But I still love you

Hey, please don’t leave me behind, Hey, I’m hungry [This line always makes me so sad. In Mahiru's cover there's a beep to imply she's leaving this as a voice-mail for her boyfriend. Once again fulfilling our "stay with me always" clinging symbolism quota.]

Pretend not to see spitting out saliva, You're going to throw me away as incombustible waste

It’s just a bunch of “why”, I can’t change, I want to…I don’t want to leave

Hey, I want you to let me hug you at the last moment, thank you. And now, you are too (a parasite)

It's the last line I'd like to highlight because, all in one song, we've reinforced Mahiru's happiness in the relationship and the clinging symbolism. Mahiru and her boyfriend were both parasites who's clung onto eachother and deprived eachother of nutrients. Both of you suck!!

Then there's Mahiru's two symbolic locations: the birdcage and the carousel. Both of Mahiru's mindscapes places her in the same location: her home, as evident by the couches with pillows.

Personally, I subscribe to the idea the Day 16's house belong to Mahiru or it's a shared home with her boyfriend. If the poor financial situation theory is correct then the two might've decided to live together to cut costs (or Mahiru pressured him into agreeing). Her boyfriend works at a convenience store so he's probably not as financially well-off as Mahiru who recieves an allowance.

However, on a subconscious level, Mahiru thinks of her their home as a birdcage. As stated before, bluebirds can't survive in birdcages, and this is represented by her boyfriend's feathers falling from stress. Something interesting I'd like to note is that Mahiru considers leaving the birdcage but instead decides to dive back into the feathers, causing her boyfriend even more stress. Say with me: clinging 👏 until 👏 you 👏 suffocate 👏 imagery.

"Hmm... I’m a little troubled that I can’t go home, but... It’s fine, I guess. Even if I go home, there’s nothing left... And, I find it fun talking to you!"

Then, after her boyfriend's death, she thinks of their home as a carousel ride. The ledge at the beginning of the MV implies that—rather than an expansive space like Mu's beehive—the carousel is a small space. It's only Mahiru, the couch, the carousel, and a dead corspe. All she's able to do is fall asleep or ride the carousel again by herself, knowing she'll have to get off at some point. It's once again that imagery of something which is cramped and suffocating.

Both of her mindscapes cut them off from the outside world. Within her own mind all that matters is simply her and her boyfriend.

04. The Only You Can('t) Leave

Finally, I'd like to note something which has been sitting on my mind: Mahiru's themes of destiny and rebirth.

Q. What do you think happens when people die? Mahiru: They go to heaven!

Lovers committing double suicide believed that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in Edo period Japan, which taught that the bond between two lovers is continued into the next world, and by the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism wherein it is believed that through double suicide, one can approach rebirth in the Pure Land.

(big credit to doctorbunny's and archivalofsins's work on the this is how to be inlove with you locations for pointing this out! ily2 please check them out)

On Day 8, Mahiru goes with her boyfriend to go see "Your Name." Take this with a grain salt because I haven't see the actual movie— I refuse to watch a Makoto Shinkai film until he's allowed to write yuri—but the general gist is that two teenagers from 2013 and 2016 end up swapping bodies. Later, it's revealed that Mitsuha, the main heroine, is fated to die from a comet hitting the earth in the future. Fortunately, through time shenanigans, her fate ends up being altered and both teens end up surviving.

A romance movie featuring a dead lover and a mid relationship? Why, it's perfect for Mahiru!

The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break. This myth is similar to the Western concept of soulmate or a destined partner.

Okay, okay, jokes aside that's not the sole reason I'm bringing up Your Name. Ofcourse, what's most interesting is it's theme of soulmates and how it relates to Mahiru.

Mahiru: Yeah. – Him and I… we loved each other. Properly as boyfriend and girlfriend. We met in college… It was the first time for me, so I don’t know if it was good or not, but… I think we were just normally going out together. I thought it was fate. He said it was, too.

Q. How did you meet your lover? Mahiru: We met eyes at the university terrace. I really felt like it was fate.

On the terrace at university, when I met eyes with that person I knew it must be fate. I might have been born purely so I could one day end up together with him. Or not, am I just overthinking things?

I ran into the person I’m interested in at the bread shop. This has to be fate, right? In the end I ended up buying the same bread as he got, but maybe I don’t need this much… > < I wasn’t thinking about the calories.

We went to one of the filming locations for a movie we both like! This sort of thing can only happen in Tokyo huh! It really must be fate that even our taste in movies lines up. I feel like a totally different person to before I met him… [Once again the movie she's talking about Your Name which is one of the highest grossing anime films of all times... bestie... ily but your rose colored glasses are blinding!!!]

Namely, once again, we're reinforcing the theme of clinging together until you suffocate. Two soulmates forced into loving eachother by the hands of fate. It's a very romantic idea twisted into something heart-wrenching.

The idea of "saving your lover from death" is briefly reflected Day 8 where Mahiru gives her boyfriend a hangover cure from called Corspe Reviver. A bit on the nose, don't you think?

This sections dawdles a little bit from the whole Shinju Theory but it felt off if I didn't include it. Given Shidou's entire character revolves around killing in order to save his loved ones, I can almost imagine Mahiru's murder was to save her boyfriend as well. There's not much evidence but... it's certainly there, right?

05. Conclusion

Aha, this post kind of devolved from "heres my shinju theory" and moreso "wow, Mahiru has a lot of suffocation imagery" which is true. There's so much of it. I don't even think this is all of it!

Theres alot more I wanted to add but... I'm not good with writing long posts if you couldn't tell! If anyone would like to add onto this for me I'd be thrilled ❤️

#take a shot every time the word suffocate or clinging crops up #like qjqjajajakak its actually insane to me how many times it pops up like????#I'm not even too confident in this theory because of how much i dawdle around but it's weird right!!!!#milgram #mahiru shiina #milgram theory #<- do not follow me for that tag btw i am not a theorist i just like mahiru alot #꒰ 🕊 ꒱ ── cinnamon lead astray

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beestriker015 · 2 months

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Elesa x male s/o headcanons

Being a famous model as well as a gym leader, Elesa is no stranger to people vying for her affections.

Unfortunately for them, she is already in a relationship with someone whom she loves dearly, that being a handsome young man named s/o.

Elesa met s/o on a sunny afternoon in Nimbasa City when she had time off from the gym and her modeling career.

While wearing a disguise to avoid being bothered by her fans and the paparazzi, Elesa accidentally ran into s/o as he was leaving the Pokémon Center.

“Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! Are you alright?!”

She asks the young man while offering him a hand after knocking him over.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just try being a bit more careful ok?”

He says with a small smile while accepting her hand to pull himself up.

“Thank you. My name’s s/o by the way.”

“Nice to meet you s/o, I’m….Elise.”

She greets him after quickly thinking up a fake name to use.

“Tell me, why were you in such a hurry Elise?”

Looking at the ground feeling slightly embarrassed, “Elise” chuckles awkwardly before answering.

“T-to be honest with you s/o, I was just really excited to ride on the Ferris Wheel. I haven’t done so in a long time because of how busy I’ve been lately.”

“You don’t say? Funnily enough, I was on my way there to ride it too! Now this may sound like a strange question, but would you perhaps like to ride it with me?”

Thinking for a moment, the incognito gym leader/model smiles and nods.

“Sure! After all I do owe you for running into you a minute ago s/o.”

“What are we waiting for then, let’s go!”

Gently taking her hand, s/o leads “Elise” to the Ferris Wheel before they get on it together.

Needless to say, the two had a really fun time and enjoyed each other’s company a lot as they talked about various things including their wins on the Battle Subway, favorite pokémon, and fashion tastes.

Once the ride was over, s/o gave “Elise” his number in case she ever wanted to hang out again, causing her to blush a little as they parted ways. “H-he gave me his number! W-why is my face heating up so much?!”

She asks herself before looking at the piece of paper with s/o’s number on it, a smile unknowingly making its way onto her face as she inputting the digits into her Xtransciever before heading back to her place.

Unsurprisingly, Elesa kept in contact with s/o and continued to spend time with him since then whenever they both had the time, leading to the two slowly catching feelings for one another.

Elesa was the first to realize her feelings, which presented a problem.

“How can I think of s/o that way! He’d never return my feelings because he thinks I’m someone else. We’ve grown pretty close over these couple months, so maybe it’s time I tell him the truth. I just hope he understands and somehow accepts my feelings.”

Sending s/o a message via her Xtransciever to meet up somewhere in private, s/o eventually arrives with a questioning look on his face.

“Why’d you want to meet me here Elise, is something going on?”

“I’m sorry s/o, but my name’s not Elise.”

Taking off her disguise (which consists of a hat, sunglasses, and designer scarf in case you were wondering), s/o is shocked to see the beautiful model/electric gym leader in front of him.

“Y-you’re Elesa! I don’t understand, why would you lie to me about who you were all this time?”

“S/o, a lot of people only like me for my looks or my careers rather than for who I am as a person, so I put on a disguise and used a different name to avoid being recognized. When I met you, I was scared that you would be like everyone else if you found out who I really was, but I know you well enough now to see that you aren’t like that. I was always planning on telling you, I just didn’t know how until now. Believe me s/o when I say that I truly enjoyed all the time we’ve spent together, so please….don’t hate me for lying to you.”

Getting over his initial shock, s/o wraps Elesa in a comforting hug, making her blush from the contact.

“I don’t hate you at all Elesa. I understand why you did what you did. Besides, I couldn’t possibly hate the woman I’ve….fallen in love with.”

Hearing those words causes Elesa to tear up as she breaks from the hug and looks at s/o with a smile.

“I love you too s/o!”

He returns her smile as both of them share a passionate kiss, thus beginning their relationship. As a couple, Elesa and s/o are very openly affectionate, neither of them shying away from kissing and cuddling in public. Dates consist of either spending time alone together while watching movies, or partaking in double battles as a couple on the Battle Subway.

Early on in their relationship, Elesa introduces her boyfriend to her closest friends, those being Emmet, Ingo, and Skyla, who thankfully get along with s/o quite well.

(S/o does his best to comfort his girlfriend when Ingo suddenly disappears one day without a trace, but she and his brother Emmet never stop mourning the missing Subway Boss.)

Despite not being a trainer himself, all of Elesa’s pokémon love s/o, especially her two Emolga who enjoy perching on his shoulders, which their trainer gushes over every time they do so.

“That’s so cute! I need to take a picture of this s/o! Don’t move!”

S/o is always extremely supportive of his girlfriend, whether she’s doing a gym battle or a photo shoot, which Elesa is very much grateful for.

“Thank you for being there for me today s/o, I appreciate it greatly.”

He smiles and gives her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“No thanks necessary babe! I’ll support you in whatever you’re doing no matter what! What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t?”

She smiles and kisses him back, happy to have such an amazing partner.

Jealousy in their relationship is uncommon, but definitely exists.

Elesa gets jealous whenever one of her gym trainers (or sometimes the occasional challenger) flirts with s/o or make comments about him, which he wastes no time reassuring her about.

“One of the girls was talking you up today s/o, I would’ve lost my cool if it weren’t for the gym battle I was having being so intense.”

She huffs in annoyance as s/o hugs her affectionately.

“Pay them no mind babe. You’re the only woman who has my heart Elesa, I love you and you alone.”

S/o gets jealous from all his girlfriend’s fans, which Elesa admittedly finds kinda cute.

“Must your male fans act like shameless simps! Some of the things they say just makes my blood boil Don’t they understand that you’re in a relationship?!”

Elesa giggles while calming down her angry boyfriend with a shoulder rub.

“Aww, no need to get upset dear. My love shines only for you. You’re the light of my life, and nothing or no one will change that.”

Speaking of her fans, Elesa will not tolerate anyone speaking ill of her boyfriend.

“I don’t appreciate what you just said about my s/o. Who I date is my choice, not yours! Now either apologize to my boyfriend and keep your opinion to yourself or leave!”

It always makes s/o’s heart flutter when Elesa gets protective of him, and he’ll do the same if any of her fans get out of line.

“Hey! I saw where your hand was going pal! Try touching her like that again and I’ll break every bone in your body!”

Only on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries will s/o and Elesa ride the Ferries Wheel, as it holds special meaning to them both because it’s where they first met.

For their second anniversary, s/o proposes to Elesa while they ride the Ferris Wheel, earning a very emotional response from her.

“This is the most romantic thing ever! Yes! Of course I’ll marry you s/o!

She exclaims gleefully with happy tears in her eyes before pulling her boyfriend turned fiancé into a warm embrace and kissing him repeatedly.

When it comes time for them to get off, the engagement ring on Elesa’s finger shimmers in the moonlight as she walks home with her beloved s/o, the love she has for him shining brighter than a thousand suns.

#pokemon #pokemon x reader #pokemon black and white #unova #unova region #pokemon gen five #pokemon elesa #gym leader elesa #male reader #pokemon x male reader #elesa pkmn #elesa x reader #elesa x male reader

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schismusic · 13 days

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Joy Division, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love New Order, too

Spring is weird as hell because one time you have this glaring sun that powers you up like being plugged into a wall outlet, then not five minutes later clouds begin to gather and you feel like you're going to die if anything goes south. So the most obvious combination to represent two sides of this same coin, emotional and meteorological, is Joy Division and New Order.

Sometimes you need Transmission or Shadowplay for the sunny days — impassioned jolts, sparks flying everywhere. Sometimes The Perfect Kiss hits harder on a cloudy afternoon, coming back home and in need of that extra push to not fall asleep in the train. It's surprising to realize the versatility displayed by both bands, or the same band in two different iterations according to whomever you ask. Peter Hook says, as late as 1993, that the laziest member of New Order is Ian Curtis. Or again this other person, in the comments under the Atmosphere official video on YouTube, who went to see New Order (Hooky-less New Order, which might be a relevant distinction) at the O2 Arena a couple of years ago and they gave an encore, says "Those of us who stayed got the privilege of watching Joy Division perform three of their songs". Interesting outlook on the matter. I personally saw Peter Hook and the Light play both Joy Division records and, I'm pretty sure, an encore comprised of just Love Will Tear Us Apart at the Arti Vive Festival in Soliera, back when it was still free to attend some of the events. I remember being pretty mad that Hooky had stopped to take pics with basically everyone and then left exactly as I was approaching. In retrospect I don't exactly blame the man, it was like midnight anyway. I remember nothing of the back trip home.

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My first contact with Joy Division happened when I was thirteen and very much in my prog era. I was in Rome staying at an aunt of mine's place for my fourteenth birthday and she told me I could get a CD, since I had gotten some money saved up over time. Some Facebook page dedicated to Pink Floyd I'd liked (yeah, Facebook at age thirteen — I literally just wanted to play a fucking Flash game, back when Facebook allowed them, and I ended up getting to be terminally online. Crazy how things turn out) used to share a lot of memes and fanart relating to the Unknown Pleasures album cover, and me being a massive Pink Floyd head at the time I thought "I mean, if these guys are pushing this band so hard, that's gotta mean something". The album cover was pretty striking, admittedly: a far cry from the paisley ass paintings that I had grown to accept as the gold standard for the music I liked, but its simplicity struck a chord closer to The Dark Side of the Moon, or perhaps The Wall. Those were records I liked a lot, probably called them "the best records ever made" to more than one person, not like they aren't but that's a very bold statement to make when your listening experience consists exactly of

Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor when I was six;

Daft Punk's complete discography (minus Random Access Memories, which wasn't out yet) when I was twelve;

Pink Floyd's complete discography, courtesy of a CD collection coming out with some Italian newspaper, that same year;

a couple random classic rock records recommended to me by older friends and relatives usually well into their fifties or sixties at the time, random people on Internet forums — which, for clarification, I did not actively attend, preferring to just lurk from time to time — and the OndaRock "milestones" page.

So browsing through the surprisingly expansive CDs section of this electronics shop in Rome, and being mesmerized by a vinyl rack in the days when Music on Vinyl was the final frontier of pretending you could re-analogue the digital ("you mean to tell me these are like CDs, but bigger? Whoever designed these truly lived in the future"), I came across that very same album art that had stricken me so hard. I had listened to the first seconds of the album on YouTube, but that weird drum sound — so echoey, so distant, ultimately not particularly powerful, meaning it didn't really sound like Bonzo: it sounded more like my own band, which at the time didn't even exist yet — I didn't really know what to make of. This store I was in had one of those preview listening machines that would scan the barcode on the CDs and give you a small snippet of the song. I pull the CD up to the scanner, the scanner lights up green, I put on the headphones and the solo from this comes up:

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Clearly they had to be kidding me. I had come to know, sneaking into infinitely many rehearsals with the band from my mother's town, what it sounded like when someone tried to play lead without something else filling up the arrangement (even though I didn't really know all that, or at least lacked the vocabulary to properly express it) and, for Christ's sake, didn't these guys notice rehearsing? It sounded empty, weirdly so, and it wasn't my thing, I thought. I put that CD away and picked up a band I knew I'd like — Genesis, specifically. So Nursery Cryme became the first CD I've ever paid with my own money, the very day I turned fourteen. Not a bad pickup. I remember being very impressed with the fast blurring lead guitar on The Musical Box and digging the sweet pastoral atmospheres of For Absent Friends and Harlequin. I still think of that record more often than one would probably assume looking at this blog, or my most played on Spotify. At the time, that was the best move I could take, really: why beat my head against a record that, as your average prog nerd ballbreaker, simply wasn't speaking to me?

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Then all of a sudden in August of the same year my friend's dad hands me a 16 gigabyte USB drive, full of random music from all eras of rock. A lot of it remains inscrutable to me for a really long time, most notably Tom Waits (see related post), but I spent the whole month reading random folder names, seeing if something catches my eyes, and at one point I come across the Mars Volta. Open the folder up, read the names of their first three records, and my first thought is "Christ, these guys look incomprehensible. I'm about to have some fun". Long story short: I end up having a lot of fun, the Mars Volta turns into my favourite band at the time and finding out that they had previously been called At the Drive-In makes me gain some measure of respect for punk rockers: if they tried hard enough, I must've thought, they could prog as hard as anyone. In the meantime the ghost of Joy Division remains at the back of my head. I feel like I'm missing something, for the first time in my life: it's not them, it's me. Too bad that same realization didn't occur to me when it came to the people in my life until much, much later, but that's being fourteen for you I suppose. Early King Crimson and the Mars Volta were the pinnacle of violence to me, and not even the very few Metallica songs I'd downloaded just to see what would happen scratched that itch. It felt a bit too cauterized for some reason (I would later find out I had been looking in the wrong direction the whole time: the Black Album "sucked", according to my favourite metalhead of the time, who somehow catalyzed my interest from the very second I saw him in the school's courtyard. Hard to imagine why I would imprint on people like puppies do, but what the fuck, not like I've ever outgrown that anyway, I've just gotten better at managing it). But I felt there was more than violence to this, or different forms of violence. When Christmas came around and my relatives tried to get me presents, my mother asked if there was anything specific I was interested in, and I basically told her "look, if they can get me some CDs off of this list, I'm golden". It had some bangers on it, namely Noctourniquet by the Mars Volta — it's one of their best and I will die on this hill, be warned — and The Downward Spiral, which might as well warrant its own post in an ideal world. But the best of them all I think came from a random purchase, once again with the little money I had lying around at the time.

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Closer appears to be, right away, a bit more concrete, and if there's something inexperienced music fans like is a pretty packaging that conjures a strong emotional response before they've even played the record. Compare a color-inverted graph of pulsar emissions to a literal funerary monument. Opening up the booklet I was shocked to see that Genesis was used as a negative point of comparison (bad omen, I thought) by people close to the band, and I came across much more detailed information about Ian Curtis's untimely demise — at that time, something far too removed from my experience to be faced with the delicacy and attention it deserves. Atrocity Exhibition hits like a ten-ton truck, a reference which at the time I wouldn't have been able to make for obvious reasons, and Isolation exposes all the nerve tissue under the skin. Passover comes in and strips everything even barer, and then A Means to an End turns… danceable, for some reason? Big emotional moment with The Eternal and Decades, which I thought actually took them closer to my usual tastes. And yet at the same time I kept looking at Colony, Heart and Soul and Twenty Four Hours as the most compelling cuts. Geometric assault sounding like sheet metal if it were music; rhythmically driven emptiness that serves as a minimal backdrop for depressed poetry, and finally a rocking ebb-and-flow that would probably inform a lot of my interest in GY!BE-like post-rock in the coming years. Very interesting to think that the same guys who'd done Unknown Pleasures could think of this. To this day, when asked, I still do think that Closer is the best Joy Division record, but what does it even mean when the records are exactly two, compilations notwithstanding?

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It was around this time that it came to my attention that both Joy Division and another band called New Order had a record called Substance out, both published by the same recording company, both coming out within a year of each other. Looking it up, it turns out it's fully intentional, because New Order is simply Joy Division minus Ian Curtis. It would turn out to be a tad bit more complex than that. Anyway, I look New Order up and kind of have to do a double-take. Synthpop? In my Joy Division? More likely than you'd think, considering Isolation exists. But yeah, that sort of seals it — I wouldn't care about this New Order for a million years. Until all of a sudden a couple of years later David Sylvian bursts like a comet in my face, which of course leads me straight to Japan, the same year as I'd come across Berlin-era Bowie, and you can probably guess where this is going, right?

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Well, you'd be wrong. I still don't check out New Order. There's a whole new world open to me — vaporwave and therefore R Plus Seven come to my attention, which leads me to dissect that record like an alien tool of unclear purposes. This of course leads me onto an ambient tangent, taking me back to my Tim Hecker listens of that same year, which has the effect of renewing my interest in "pure" electronic music and the then-rising post-dubstep movement. The sheer experience of sound, the dazzling modernity and innovation, is what's in at the time. I have no time for nostalgia-pandering dimwits: the future awaits. Then all that jazz from the first Godflesh post hits, then God pulls the funniest gag in the history of viral infections to my memory, and I have some time to actually look back, a bit less prejudiced. As it turns out, synthpop is not the devil, as some of you might have surmised by now, and as I relisten to Blue Monday I realized I have never listened to either of the Substance record. I do know some, most perhaps?, of the tracks on the Joy Division one, and I do think the New Order one has the more striking cover art — not to mention I knew, by this time, that this was the one to give Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance its name, and that Your Silent Face soundtracked one of the most memorable moments in Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson. As the ultimate Hideo Kojima stan, I couldn't let this slide, so I pop the record on and get hit with this:

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Way to go, guys. Holy shit. I knew that Ceremony was a Joy Division cut before they could record it, but what the hell — Bernard got it, too. It wasn't a matter of singing ability with songs like these, it's just getting it, finding the right energy. They had that right energy. And then it hit me just as many times these dudes have made Blue Monday over and over again before actually getting it right, and everytime I look into it it's funnier and funnier to realize just how many different attempts it took them to finally be Kraftwerk, but augmented — with the stellar results we all know. Everything's Gone Green, 5 8 6, Temptation potentially, all lead up to this one moment in the history of dance music where somehow three dudes and a girl hailing from Manchester managed to out-gay the Pet Shop Boys (by their own admission, apparently), to shake the whole world's collective booty, to do whatever it is they were supposed to do in this last comparison that would ideally make the previous one a bit less obnoxious but whatever, it's 3am as usual, you know how it goes by now don't you? But then after Blue Monday the record keeps going, and thank god it does, because it's banger after banger. How do these guys keep doing it?

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So I spend some time with that record, then it fades down, then it comes back up last month, when the weather calls for it and its parent company. Which is when I find myself watching the Control movie for the first time, surprisingly enough seeing as I already enjoyed the work of Anton Corbijn as a photographer. Looking at all that, it is revealed to me that Joy Division never really having died is not a bug, it's a feature. Everyone is gasping, I get it, but please pick your jaws up and check this out: the band has never learned how to play their respective instruments. One might go so far as to argue they play their own stuff their own way, and that's basically it. Nothing could be further from the truth. These guys jammed, a lot; that's how Joy Division wrote songs, that's how New Order wrote songs, even going as far as having Bernard Sumner fucked up on acid so he could find the chorus to Temptation or the whole band bombed out of their minds on X in Ibiza clubs to write, basically, the entirety of Technique — and even then, not really, there's a couple jangly tracks that the X would most likely render unlistenable but what do I really know? Point being: it might now have been sparked by a music teacher or instructor, it might not have been the product of a process comparable to that within Television, which led them to organically seek out better, more "by the book" musicianship, but New Order were incredibly familiar with their instruments, had formed an element of comfort and understanding that counterbalanced the alien-ness to music terminology.

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Peter Hook recently uploaded a Yamaha-sponsored video to his Instagram, which I am pretty sure has a say in running, where he jams on a Yamaha bass and, you know, it sounds like Hooky alright, but it's never a discernible bassline until he kicks into the A major strumming that opens Love Will Tear Us Apart. Before that, he just strolls around the neck, leisurely strumming away at power chords imbued with that thick chorus and reverb combo he became renowned for. I would never, in my wildest dreams, have imagined I'd find myself thinking "okay, awesome, stop talking — I want to hear you jam a bit more" referring to one of the musicians who were part of possibly two of the craziest storiest in the history of contemporary rock'n'roll, also notorious for playing the rockstar whilst carrying the minimum possible baggage of technical knowledge he could. Once again, this is nowhere near a knock to the man — quite the opposite. Ian Curtis asked "persistence, well, what does it matter?", and Hooky (and, of course, the other members of New Order) found a way to constructively answer that question. Moments before Coil, but a bit later than Israel Regardie, they said "persistence is all" and built a brand on finding a way to consistently sound like splendid, eternal, golden children: "like crystal", impassionate, tightly-knit performers with the purity of a child's heart. Ian Curtis had, in certain ways (at least artistically), the purity of a child in his heart, which some might even argue was a distinguishing feature of most of his literary idols — if you think about it, William Burroughs could be your dirty-minded classmate who walked in on his parents sharing an intimate moment in the bedroom (had his parents been gay men, the metaphor would probably fly better, but that most definitely wasn't the case). So the heart of Joy Division remains untouched, if a bit more naked. Heroes of post-punk, sons of the silent age, you can sleep soundly tonight.

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#schismusic #music #musica #long form content #schism writing #joy division #new order #post punk #new wave #Youtube

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ultrastupid · 9 months

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Do not expect me to post in main tags often, I just had to post all this because Sunny, my love, my chaotic little bird man. I had to share all the stuff I've found and/or screenshotted about him with you all because I'm obsessed to an insane degree. Commentary will be included on stuff. Hit the "read more" for more, LONG POST AHEAD!

Some of the few bits of info we have about Sunny, from Clown's old deleted blog. Things of interest include him being friends with Barnaby, an inkling of what his house looks like and where it would be located, and what puppet type he was. Also, the hidden text on his picture. Keep in mind that "being quiet" was a large theme back in the old Welcome Home lore.

An actual high quality version of the Sunny-getting-grabbed-by-puppet-hands pic, since I've seen too many versions of it looking crusty, along with a high-contrast version of it to show the hidden background details.

Group photos of the OG six puppets. Also where my favorite image of Sunny screaming comes from lol. Of course, can't forget that Sunny's name is upside-down in the second pic, hinting at his nature of being different.

Ooky Spooky™️stuff that happens to have Sunny in it. If there is a smidge of Sunny in it, I save it.

Sunny merch. I don't know what on earth this thing is but I'd buy it /lh Also of course, getting rid of him and all that. Note, I believe Clown when they say that Sunny is truly removed and the removal isn't a part of the story or whatever... I can dream otherwise, though, because man that'd be cool if he was removed on purpose FOR a story point. But again, Clown said he was just removed because he didn't fit into the story and they don't like "hero types" for it.

Wake up babe, the OG Frank ship is here. Franks's phone not having a 3, and also having a 6 on it could have meant something, who knows (Edit, it's their numbers from that one pic, I was tired lol). Also more "behave" and "listen" stuff included as well. Anyways observations aside, I just love how floofy Sunny is in the second pic, it gives me life. It's one of the more polished images we get of Sunny, too.

Screenshot of the text that came with the group picture. Again, "being quiet". I'm sure that people could run with this theme for their fanart and fanfics if they wanted to, since I know beta designs have been getting some comeback.

Some more information on what Sunny was planned to be. Points of interest include confirmation that him and Frank indeed were going to be in a relationship, Sunny being a "hero", and Sunny's purpose involving "blow the whistle", which when you pair it with the "be quiet" stuff and focus on "being quiet" really starts to paint a picture and makes me go nuts over what he could have possibly have done. Add the "you're FREE" and again, more things just fall into place. Anyways, "attributes already covered (bird)" makes me laugh.

Anyways onto the more inane stuff (/pos), Frank and Sunny as Ducktales OCs. Everything about the Sunny pic makes me feral and bang my fists on my desk, because he is SO flaming queer, LOOK AT HIS FACE, HIS BODY LANGUAGE, HIS MOVEMENTS, FRANK'S REACTION, THEY ARE BOTH FLAMING GAYS!!! LOVE, ENDLESS LOVE FOR THESE TWO!!!

And lastly to end this all off, Gay People Jumpscare: Electric Boogaloo 2. Sunny's beak being CONE makes me happy. Frank and him physically so close together and Frank blushing makes me happy. Them explicitly being called gay makes me happy.

These two are so delightful, and I like to imagine that in a canon where Sunny still exists, he's accepted into Eddie and Frank's relationship and it's poly and everyone is happy, THE END.

Thank you for coming to my rant about a scrapped character for something that technically hasn't even started and is a flaming queer.

#moltenembers.txt #welcome home #welcome home sunny #Double U Aitch

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danceofthexdragons · 11 months

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Itachi Birthday Headcanons

Happy Birthday to my Hubby Supreme @itachianon Father of my Child My Bestie Hottest Guy Alive Genius Most Caring Loving Doting Man I Could Ask For ♡ I love you LOTS

Itachi hates his birthday. He dreads it. He doesn't count it as a day of celebration but a year of learning from all the years behind him to gain more wisdom. He hates that he has to stray across this day every year and he wishes he could genjutsu everyone into forgetting. He considers this seriously.

He stays sober on his birthday. He refuses to touch a drop of alcohol. Sasuke on the other hand, has very different ideas.

Every year on this day Sasuke has his hawk send a birthday package to wherever Itachi is: Included in the package is a handwritten letter, several handmade dangos and sweets, homemade cupcakes w/frosting decorated with his own eternal mangekyo sharingan (reminding Itachi he has ems and Itachi doesn't), a book guide to "How To Be Popular With The Ladies", several selfies of him and Naruto happily married, designer reading glasses, a cashmere blanket, and a whole cartel of Konoha's Finest Booze. (Sasuke's hawk has to make several trips, and gets quite snippy.)

(Naruto sends Itachi secret nudes, snakeskin assless chaps, and secret admirer letters, which Sasuke rips up)

Once every blue moon Sasuke shows up to spend the day with Itachi, much to Itachi's chagrin and delight. They go to all the sweet shops and even sneak into Konoha's movie theater, and then later hit the pubs. (This year they watch The Little Mermaid movie.)

(Naruto tries to give Itachi love taps "birthday punches" but it doesn't go over too well.)

Sasuke discreetly edges a beer or two every few moments towards Itachi, weighing in on how many beers it would take to get him stone cold drunk.

Itachi does mid level genjutsu to make Sasuke think he's drinking all the beers.

Kisame gives Itachi a pet chicken this year, which Itachi is thankful for since his past birthday gifts consisted of a pet shark which he had to set free, a platypus which he had to kill because it was venomous, a blue ringed octopus which tried to choke him, and a venomous cone snail which Itachi thought was pretty until it tried and succeeded to strike him with a deadly mix of neurotoxins and Itachi was sure he was dead. He named the chicken Emmy and made sunny side eggs for breakfast every morning.

Deidara gave Itachi an overly large raven shaped clay sculpture with a bow tied around it, which was set to explode if Itachi ever rode on it. Itachi asked Deidara to take a midnight date ride with him on the clay bird, and Deidara eagerly said yes, it sounded romantic.

Pein gave Itachi a raise and upper management level Akatsuki including free health insurance, which basically meant he had the authority to be more powerful than all the other Akatsuki members. Itachi didn't think it was a stretch. He also got the special cloak with a hood. Itachi was grateful for being partially shielded from the rain and snow and freezing temperatures.

Konan gave Itachi giftcards to a Spa Day and Hooters. She does the night shifts on Thursdays.

Shisui presented himself as a male hooker. He jumped out of a cake.

Itachi hates to admit it, but he secretly wants to buy himself a Harley.. He doesn't, because he feels it would be too indulgent.

After Naruto becomes Hokage, he has a special present for Itachi: He sets up an orphanage in Itachi's name, with full state of the art facilities, library, fancy living quarters, school, etc. Itachi feels that the Knucklehead has finally done something right and is very pleased with his present.

(Naruto drafts a contract for Itachi as part and parcel with the orphanage which includes a clause to have dinner with him every Saturday night, which Itachi doesn't sign.)

Itachi has a secret ritual from then on that he does on the day before his birthday every year, which is to go to the orphanage and spend all day with the kids.

After spending his birthday with family and friends and Akatsuki, he has a whole night to himself and.. A special girl. A mysterious girl he's been seeing. She's desi and beautiful and has shoulder length brunette hair, with dark mischievous eyes. Itachi hasn't shared her with anyone, for many reasons. What is so puzzling about her? What is her secret? Why do they have rendezvous on this night? What is it about her..

Itachi and his love have a passionate night of love making and their night ends with a ring.. A vow. Tragedy?

Soon. Soon.

(She gifts him with a Harley, which is what she knew he wanted all along.)

#itachi #itachi headcanons #itachi hc #uchiha itachi #itachi x reader #itachi fic #itachi hcs #itachi fanfic #sasuke #itachi x y/n #naruto #itachi x you #naruto fanfic

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qtubbo · 5 months

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genuinely one of my favorite things about sunny art right now is that it's all so different. i love the more standardized designs of the older eggs but it's really fun that with the new ones you can tell who's who even without that consistency. especially with sunny since her outfits are more varied as well. it's really cool to see all the ideas people have for her!

ITS SO MUCH FUN!! I love seeing all the new designs form, everyone has a different style for them. Everyone focuses on different attributes, one person on crowns, the next on literal sunny side up eggs, and then the next on the sun. I also love the age variations like I personally see the eggs as quite young but its so cool to see people drawing her as 6 or 13 like omg thats my baby girl.

When it comes to Empanada and Pepito this applies aswell, I love how some people got really creative with pepito and gave pepito albinism it contrasts really well with the red of pepito’s shirt. And the amount of different hairstyles for Em because her parents have such bright colors is so funnnn. I love seeing designs form its the best.

#qsmp #Qsmp sunny #qsmp empanada #qsmp pepito #asks!#I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!

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insertdisc5 · 1 year

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Devlog #10: Questions and Answers

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, which is the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!). You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!!

LET’S GET TO IT. This devlog is all about questions!!! So many questions!!! I’m gonna answer them all!!!

Happy 2023, everyone! It’s the year of In Stars and Time! In Stars and Time will release sometime this year on PC and Nintendo Switch! I hope you’re excited!!! In the meantime…

Nothing much to talk about this month! I am still fixing bugs, playtesters are still playing, etc. So… here’s another Q&A (Tumblr asks edition)! They're mostly characters/story based, because that's what Tumblr is all about. No spoilers though, I promise!!!

(PS: you can ask me questions whenever on tumblr btw teehee)

Anonymous asks: Hi!! Thank you for making such a wonderful game with lovely little characters!! I spin them in my head like microwaved macaroni. Can I ask what everyone's hobbies are? And their deepest fears? (If that's not too spoilery) Also have a good day!!

Siffrin likes to do wood carvings! Isabeau likes fashion, designing clothes, sewing them, that sort of thing. Bonnie likes to cook! Mirabelle and Odile both like to read- Mirabelle is a horror fan/YA type stuff, while Odile prefers non-fiction.

As for their fears, most of them are spoilery, but Odile is really afraid of heights.

Anonymous asks: I am DYING to know what that rope is on Mirabelle's outfit is, it's sometimes visible and sometimes not and I don't know what it's attached to?? I want to draw her but this rope!! Is getting me

It’s a rope that works as a belt! It goes around her waist, not her hips. It’s so her dress isn’t all flat and boring

Anonymous asks: oh DOES Sif like wearing slippers?? They seem like a slippers guy. Also what small things ticks the characters off?

YOU FELL INTO MY TRAP!!!!!!!!!!! Siffrin prefers socks. Mirabelle is the one who wears slippers.

Hm… I think saying those would be spoilers also, so I’ll just say that Odile hates when people keep secrets from her.

Anonymous asks: What is each party member's favourite season? While we're at it, what's their favourite kind of weather?

Hm… I think Siffrin is split between winter and summer (they have a good cloak that works for all kinds of weather!). Mirabelle’s and Odile’s are fall. Bonnie’s is summer (coastal kid!). Isabeau hears everyone say every season except spring and picks spring.

They all prefer sunny weather for different reasons. Siffrin because it’s easier to travel when it’s nice outside. Bonnie because they like the sun. Mirabelle because she likes to read outside under a tree, same with Odile. Isabeau because “being under the sun gives your skin a healthy glow!”

Anonymous asks: Questions! Do you have a rough estimate for how long the game will be? If this isn’t a spoiler, how did the gang all first meet? And if it is a spoiler then… what’s each of the gang’s favourite colour?

I don't want to give any numbers just because playtimes will vary drastically depending on the way you play, but I can confirm ISAT is SIGNIFICANTLY longer than START AGAIN: a prologue!!!

For the gang meeting, first Mirabelle went traveling to try to save Vaugarde, then she met Isabeau in Jouvente, then they met Odile while traveling, then they met Siffrin, and then they met Bonnie. The nitty-gritty details aren’t really that important so I haven’t thought about it much. Most of the details on how they met will be found early in the game, so you won’t have to wait hours to know!

As for their favorite colors (Looks at the game. The game is in black and white) Think you’re funny, huh? HUH!?!???! NEXT QUESTION!!!!!

felikatze asks: how did siffrin obtain their fantabulous hat? and who is your favorite character to draw?

Siffrin was born with this cool hat. Popped right off with it on. And Siffrin is my favorite to draw, with Mirabelle a close second. Bonnie is my least favorite to draw within the gang but I still love them dearly. The King is my least favorite to draw period

inverts asks: why does siffrin wear gloves? what's loop's favourite food? what's the KING's favourite food? teehee

Bunch of reasons, but really the two main ones are 1. Looks cool and 2. Keeps them from biting their nails.

Thank you for the Loop question. No one asked about Loop!!! If Siffrin asked them their favorite food, Loop would say “bananas”. But is it true? Yes. But is it? Yes, for sure. But? Yes.

The King’s favorite food are uuuh (I go through my rolodex of foods) carambolas. Yeah

Anonymous asks: what are the gang's favorite hot cocoa toppings?

I don’t know enough about hot cocoa toppings to answer this, so have their favorite nonalcoholic drinks instead. Siffrin doesn’t think they have a favorite drink but really it’s sugarcane juice, Mirabelle’s is either tea or orange juice, Isabeau’s is probably milk or something, Odile’s is tea (but it’s gotta be expensive), Bonnie’s is pineapple juice.

Anonymous asks: whos the shortest (besides the kid) and tallest of them all?

Within the crew, Siffrin is the shortest (besides Bonnie), and Isabeau is the tallest! The real tallest is the King, of course.

Jovial-gender-jester asks: did the kid & their sister ever cook together?

Their sister taught them how to cook, so yes!

Anonymous asks: will we learn more about how Siffrin damaged one of their eyes?

Yes :)

Anonymous asks: what’s your opinion on speedrunning isat/saap from a lore perspective? as in, what do you think goes through siffrin’s head when they decide to do it?

>:3c teehees evil-y (⬅has added an item and lore made specifically for speedrunners)

Anonymous asks: is the gang gonna be okay. are they gonna be happy

>:3c I teehee evil-y once more

Anonymous asks: Is there a map of the world? Where are things exactly (e.g. where is Ka Bue compared to Vaugarde (?) ?)

Have this map I drew early in development of the countries around Vaugarde. The story doesn’t really need me to know about The Whole Map so I didn’t think about it. I only figured out two neighboring countries’ names too so I could say other countries’ names for Worldbuilding Reasons (as in, to show Vaugarde is a country inside a world, and not just The Only Country In The World), but I do see Vaugarde as being surrounded with many other ones. Could’ve figured out more country names, but two is a good number. Ka Bue is on the other side of the world- Odile has been traveling for A While. For country sizes here, think European countries!

jovial-gender-jester asks: is it alright to ask how you came up with craftonomy? it was cool realizing it's different from craftology, and maybe has no bearing? the concept's fascinating!

Welcome to insertdisc5’s brainstorm theater

Hi I am insertdisc5 and I am making the prologue> ok i need a magic system for this world > fuck i can’t use basic fire water grass because one of my puzzles is all around finding a fire > ok well every magic system in rpg games is just rock paper scissors really > so… why not… just… rock paper scissors > ok but what kind of world comes up with that tho > so maybe it’s all around Creating Things… you can make all kinds of art with rock (sculpting) paper (art, writing) and scissors (uh… idk cutting things) and i kind of like the idea of magic being something similar to art, so let’s call it Craft > ok now i need to create events with every fucking thing i added to the maps, and also explain the world a bit more > the study of craft… craftonomy > hey you know how you have astronomy (studying space) and astrology (adding meanings to constellations, horoscope) so it’d be funny if it was the same, it would be a funny joke > craftonomy (studying craft) and craftology (“if you’re rock type you’re probably very strong but gullible hehe”) are born

Punkitt-is-here asks: How is RPGMaker treating you ⬅(best wishes)

Rpgmaker is my little cat that stays on my lap cutely and doesn’t even scratch me anymore. This is in big part thanks to my programmer who takes care of the really hard code for me teehee (THANK YOU ISABELLA!!!)

hummingcrows asks: How do you stay motivated!

I genuinely don’t have a helpful answer for this, I don’t find it hard to stay motivated to finish things in general… The few times I felt discouraged, I just either went “ok what’s like A Small Thing I can finish today, so this day isnt a total wash” even if it’s just doing one sprite, or “what’s one thing that would make me really happy to add” like a small scene or something, or just making the chairs’ backs rounder for Lore Reasons, and then I do it, and I am happy, and I am motivated

Anonymous asks: what was it like converting the character designs to game sprites? did they transfer easily or was it difficult?

Pretty easy! Outside of Siffrin (who already has a very simple design), I knew I would have to convert them into sprites, so I knew I couldn’t go too detailed with them. Even with their first concept art, I made sure to doodle them as sprites as well so I could make sure they would look distinct from one another!

(Very First Concept Art for everyone except Siffrin. Got their faces first try! (Except Bonnie))

Honestly the main problem was with their height… In the prologue, they all are very small, since I used a 48x48 size, and Siffrin has a MASSIVE hat that takes almost half his size, so all the other characters had to be drawn relative to Siffrin’s size, which meant I couldn’t add as many details as I wanted. I’m glad that for In Stars and Time I found a way to make the sprites taller (they’re 48x96 now, but I’m not using the full height), so now they are all cute and not squished.

(Some of the first sprites I did for the prologue. Look at how squished everyone looks!)

(Profile sprites for In Stars and Time)

roebeanstalk asks: Have you run into any mechanics you've been excited about, but have decided it's better to save them for a future project to keep this one going? Kind of a "kill your darlings" but for game mechanics?

I’m very happy to say that I’ve managed to add all the things I wanted to add to the game! It helped that there weren’t that many mechanics I wanted to add in the first place lol. I even had time to add one I scrapped early in development because it wasn’t that important! But it made me happy to add it so it’s in now!!!!

galaksyz asks: how many siffrins must be stacked on top of each other until they overtake the eiffel tower in height (ok i just wanted to give you the mental image of the Siffrin Pillar)

actual question: once the game is released, what part of fan reactions & creations would you look forward to most/what would you hope for most?

i think it would be awesome to see fan comics or animations, or OST remixes, or YT playthroughs, analysis/essay videos, maybe AUs... if you had to pick just one of those sorts of things, what would it be that you'd like the most?

212.9 Siffrins. Thank you for asking

And I genuinely love every single fan reaction/creation I've seen so far!!!! I have many folders filled with everyone's reactions/creations that I love to look at when I feel down :')

Fan comics definitely have a special spot for me in my heart tho... Those were always my favorite kind of fanarts to make, as a fanartist myself. The comics I’ve seen from the prologue already make me so so so happy!!!

And also, people just writing about the game… Like, just about things they like, things they’ve noticed, or theories they have, there’s also been a few and they just make me so happy. My brain goes on a loop of “yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah”. This is why I love the theories channel on the discord so much hehe, I tried really hard to add little breadcrumbs so it makes me happy when people pick up on it!!! And someone made a post that was just a list of everything they liked about the prologue and it made me so happy it felt like I was floating for a week hehe

pixxyofice asks: I am always curious about gamedev struggles. So... how hard is it to fix bugs for this game in particular? With the time looping I bet it would be hard to figure out maybe.

Uhhh and also what are each member's favorite colors?

Not that hard! I haven’t done a lot of Big Weird Code inside of rpgmaker, so any bugs are usually because I messed up a switch or variable, so it’s just a matter of figuring out the problem and changing one (1) thing. As for finding out there’s even a bug, that’s what QA and playtesting are for!

Bugs related to the time loop mechanic have (FOR NOW?!?) all been taken care of, so the bugs now are mostly related to choices, since some choices appear/disappear depending on where you are in the story. So sometimes I get a playtester like “hey Adrienne, i don't understand this choice i'm getting here”, and it’s because i messed up and it shouldn't be here yet. OOPS!

As for their favorite colors (I look again. The game is STILL in black and white. I try to run towards you but I'm held back) lemme at ‘em, LEMME AT ‘EM– (a few minutes pass, I calm down) Ok. What's the last question?

itr13 asks: what's everyone's favourite colors?

…..

Mirabelle’s would be a warm pink, Siffrin’s black, Odile’s dark green, Isabeau’s sunflower yellow, and Bonnie's black (but really, light blue). ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!?!?

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

#devlog #in stars and time #start again start again start again #ask tag #this is very long!!! thank you to everyone that sent a question!!!! thank you!!!!!!

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naffeclipse · 1 year

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*Fires this at you high velocity* COMING IN EXTREMELY LATE TO THE PARTY FOR SLEUTH JESTERS IS ME! MYSELF! AND I! This shot is taken from The Christmas Chapter that can be found in “Heavenly Bodies in Case Files” Thank you so much Naff for your INCREDIBLE writing skill to bring me some of the BEST DCA fan fiction I HAVE EVER READ. it GENUINLY had me crying for a FEW DAYS after i had initially finished it. The masterstroke of the entire fic is the singular point when Eclipse say’s “Sunny? Sunny!” after Sun jumps in front of the spray of bullets to protect the vigilante. It’s the pause he has and the unwritten shock. you don’t write it, you don’t spell it out. you don’t write a paragraph on how the vigilante catches this blatant and obvious change and this pause. shit you don’t even describe how deafening the flames become as sun falls. you don’t describe how the air hangs in the room despite the turbulence of the inferno around them. you don’t do any of this, because you DIDN’T NEED TO. and you hit the nail on the head SO HARD that it made his death all the more heart wrenching. that singular moment of Lucidity through his red haze and obsession. He went from just a sociopath, to a character who knew how to do one thing really damn well, and didn’t know how to stop. a character who COULD have been redeemed. he went from a character that could have been met with the term “Eclipse died a long time ago” to something entirely different that i don’t even KNOW how to describe correctly AHHHG! I would credit the person who designed the outfits but sadly that Tumblr has been deactivated so whoever made the designs in the sheet attached THANK YEE. Once again thank you so much Naff for your INCREDBILE fic.

I have been looking at this in my inbox all day and I can finally respond to it, ahhhh!

I love the composition fitting everything neatly in and being able to see everyone's expressions as well as the faraway, somberness set at a distance to capture both the characters' emotions as well as the mood of the scene. Your Y/N is so cute, too!

Ahhhh, I love that Eclipse is there, too. It's not Christmas without family, right? The headstone, the detectives, and the boss man himself are *mwah*.

I'm so happy you enjoyed Sleuth Jesters! Your every word means so much to me, you have no idea, babe!

Thank you so much for sharing! ♥

#just gonna gnaw on this tonight ty #sleuth jesters #sleuth jesters fanart #cirtex

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accio-victuuri · 8 months

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excerpts from this article : “Behind the scenes of "Sunshine by My Side", a story of starting over again”

"I would think, why would a young, handsome and sunny boy like a divorced female director who is going through difficulties?" The plot gives a good explanation for this question - because Jian Bing once illuminated a small, dark corner in Shengyang’s heart.

The similarity between Xiao Zhan and Sheng Yang is a coincidence

The characters of Sheng Yang and Jian Bing can be seen from their names, as well as the warm and healing relationship between them. In the initial script setting, Sheng Yang was as direct, light and sunny as his name, without so many layers, just a simple and warm big boy. However, after Li Xiao and Xiao Zhan started to contact each other because of discussing the script , Li Xiao discovered a temperament in Xiao Zhan that could be added to Sheng Yang.

This was Li Xiao’s first close contact and understanding of actor Xiao Zhan. “I found that he was different from what I imagined.” Li Xiao said that before this, she had not fully understood Xiao Zhan and just know that he is very popular.

Perhaps this is also a stereotype, giving people a sense of distance and room for speculation. But when Xiao Zhan sat in front of Li Xiao, Li Xiao felt Xiao Zhan was beyond it. "He has a classical temperament, especially like a person who came from the past, unlike us modern people who are always surrounded by all kinds of information, his energy will be scattered, but he does not seem to be distracted by the complicated surrounding environment."

While discussing scripts, Li Xiao and Xiao Zhan would also recommend some of their favorite movies to each other, "I didn't expect his taste in movies to be so literary. Some of them are really boring movies that I can't stand."

Because of this, the story of "Wei Sheng Huozhu" popped up in Li Xiao's mind, "I think there is no love and attraction for no reason in this world. In real life, everyone can feel the hormonal changes of both parties, just like someone." It’s a kind of metaphysics, but in TV dramas, the audience may not be able to feel it, so they have to do some homework on how two people attract each other.”

In this story about a young man holding a pillar, the first thing Li Xiao thought of was warmth. Jian Bing inadvertently illuminated Sheng Yang's inferiority complex caused by his father's career, and gave him some encouragement and positive guidance. At completely different stages in their lives, the two gave each other some help and met again ten years later. "Such a romantic date and a story of worshiping a girl for ten years happened in Sheng Yang, played by Xiao Zhan. It's reasonable."

Xiao Zhan's dedicated and persistent temperament adds more possibilities to the role of Sheng Yang. After creating so many scripts, Li Xiao found that sometimes when writing a character, if the actor's own temperament is not very close to the character, it is actually half the effort. But if the character is very close to the actor, the actor's own natural temperament and temperament can be used. status, that is, getting twice the result with half the effort.

"Sheng Yang has a kind of stubbornness. He will do something very determinedly and can stick to it for a long time. Including his good impression of Jian Bing, which lasted for ten years, all came from my contact with Xiao Zhan." Li Xiao said.

On the contrary, Sheng Yang's obvious external settings, such as his career as a designer, family atmosphere, ability to draw, etc., are similar to Xiao Zhan's, but it is a coincidence. Li Xiao didn't know that Xiao Zhan was a designer before becoming an artist, and he didn't know that the plot where Sheng Yang painted clouds for Jian Bing happened to use Xiao Zhan's painting skills.

During the script creation stage, director Song Xiaofei and screenwriter Li Xiao had reached a very clear consensus on "The Sun Is With Me": the story should be real and down-to-earth, rather than just creating a romantic idol-like love.

Therefore, all the scenes in the drama are designed to make the actors feel this reality. For example, we chose to shoot in Chongqing because Xiao Zhan is from Chongqing. That is where he grew up and lived. There is no strangeness to this city, and it is easier for him to believe that he is Sheng Yang himself.

Including Sheng Yang's home, the director led the art and props team to build a 1:1 replica of the two-story corridor in the studio to capture Sheng Yang commuting and returning home. In order to create the bustling atmosphere of the courtyard, the crew not only built Shengyang’s house, but also built a room in the opposite building, so that when shooting night scenes, they can put some lights in the opposite room, or the noisy background sound of the TV , to create a breath of life and set off a real sense of atmosphere.

The messy advertisements in the corridor, the rusty stains on Shengyang's bed, and even the warped walls were all made bit by bit by the prop team. Xiao Zhan came to Shengyang's room for the first time. Looking at the basketball posters and paintings all over the wall, it became clear that Shengyang liked basketball and painting. During the break between shooting, Xiao Zhan drew some paintings by himself. When Sheng Yang was happy, he also added the "air shooting" action.

"The fit between the character and the actor is very high, which is helpful to the actor's performance. First of all, Xiao Zhan is confident when he sits in front of the computer. When he opens those design-related software, there is not one he can't use. In this way I can just shoot at his hands and the screen, that kind of focus on work does not require acting, and the sense of reality comes out all at once."

When filming, the director is also worried that if the environment creates a strong sense of stage, the actors will enter a state of acting that is out of style. So in terms of reality, "Sunshine by My Side" put a lot of effort into it: for the subway scenes, we actually went to the subway to shoot them; we also restored the details of the parts at home; when we went to work at the company, we turned on the computer and saw the design works on the computer."It is this complete sense of reality that can give actors the greatest sense of immersion and security."

#xiao zhan #shengyang #sunshine by my side #accio victuuri translation #OH YES I HAVE TO AGREE HIS TASTE IN MOVIES IS 😍😍😍😍

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humornaut · 10 months

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My Journey with Omori

Hey everyone. Rather than my usual analysis-type posts, this is going to go into my own personal experience with Omori. I've kind of wanted to do this for awhile, because I feel like I have a lot that I want to say about this game. This post is going to have major Omori spoilers. I will also be going into some criticisms of the game (though not particularly heavily). This one will be a long one.

My Background

This might not be something that people care about, but I feel it is important to start with my life situation at the time I discovered the game.

In 2020, I graduated from college with a degree in game design. If you remember 2020, you can probably guess where I'm going with this. Everyone left for spring break, and the day before we were supposed to come back, they extended break by a week. Then, at the end of that additional week, classes had gone fully remote. My three roommates at the time never really came back to campus, and I finished out the lease alone. I never got to do any kind of internship, and I didn't get a graduation ceremony. I really didn't know what I was doing with my life, and finding a job in the games industry seemed impossible. So, I made a decision to move in with my aunt and work at an insurance agency. I was states away from anyone I ever knew, working in an industry wholly unrelated to what I had just dedicated years of my life to studying, but it was a job.

I wonder a lot if this was the right call. At the time, it seemed like an obvious decision, but now, I'm even more unsure of my skills when it comes to breaking into the games industry, and working 40+ hours a week can really sap your motivation when it comes to personal projects.

As the world opened back up, I started hearing from all my friends less and less, and life really started getting monotonous. Living alone is expensive, and I'm not good at opening up to new people.

Last November, by chance, a comic by twitter user Shrimperini appeared on my feed (it's still the pinned tweet on her account if you want to see!). One thing led to another, I saw some more positive reviews of the game, and I ended up picking the game up on Switch when I saw at on sale at a Best Buy.

Now, anyone that knows me could tell you, this isn't the type of game I usually play. I've always gravitated towards things like strategy games or rogue-likes. I only really stray from that in a few cases, whether it's to play a game with my friends, or just a game that I've had a long-standing connection with, like Pokémon. I did play Undertale and Deltarune (and loved them!), but overall, this type of game was not one that I typically went out of my way to play.

Also important: I've never interacted with any fandom in the way that I do with Omori. You can trawl through my Twitter, you won't find much of me talking about ships or obsessing over details until I started talking about Omori. All this is to say: Omori was a bit of a first for me on a few different levels. So, let's get into my actual journey with the game.

The First Playthrough: The Sunny Route

I unfortunately already knew a few details about the game going into things, but nothing that was too big of a spoiler. Something that I think gets overlooked is how great Omori's prologue is. In my opinion, the first night in Headspace is the best night in Headspace, bar none. It perfectly sets you up for what the game's going to be about, and I want to talk more about that later, because I feel that it really shines on later playthroughs.

Based on what I said about my background, you can probably guess what I'm going to say. Sunny's story and personality resonated heavily with me. At school, I was always the quiet one, just kind of following what my friends wanted to do until I started coming out of my shell a bit later on. Faraway is very similar to the town and suburb that I grew up in, and I know that many people feel the same way. Walking around Faraway felt like walking around my own home town today, years after almost everyone I knew back then has moved out and started their own lives. I mean this literally, as well, since I started playing this game right around American Thanksgiving, so I actually was back in my home town. It's nostalgic in a way, and I think that that is a major strength of the game.

I also do want to say, that while a Kel/Sunny comic is what introduced me to the game, I mostly assumed that it wasn't actually a canon ship. What I didn't expect was for the game to actually depict a close male relationship that does border on romantic in its presentation, which made those opening transition scenes of Sunny and Basil so interesting (as well as Basil indirectly calling Omori cute during the flower meaning segment), though I do want to talk a little bit more about that later.

From there, I feel that my experience was a lot like most people's first time with the game. I got to experience Faraway, then tried to rush through Night 2 of Headspace without paying much attention, so that I could get back to the real world plot. I didn't pay much attention during Sweetheart's Castle, and it's already-commented-on gameplay drag issues felt exacerbated by the fact that I just wanted to get on with it.

Real world day 2 happens, I got to meet Hero in the real world, Basil gets pushed into the lake, etc, etc. The shroud has started to lift on what's actually going on here. The North Lake segment got me ready to figure out what was actually going on, but first: Last Resort and Humphrey.

It was around this time that I began wondering if there actually was any kind of gay subtext actually going on. Of course, I had seen the Lost Library entry for the ride home from the beach, but as I descended into Sunny's subconscious, the way that the game started talking about Basil took on a much different tone. I got to the Branch Coral, and listened to it talk about how Sunny and Basil are connected by a "string of fate". This immediately set off some alarm bells in my head. A lot of debate has been had about this line, but for me personally, even if a string of fate isn't always romantic imagery, it certainly is most of the time. Seeing it written in the game (as something that Sunny's subconscious is saying, no less) completely had me reconsidering if there was a connection, which I hadn't really thought about since Basil's disappearance. I thought about the photo album, and how well Basil is treated in Headspace, and it just had me thinking.

I got through Humphrey, finished up the side quests that I still had, and it was time to start Black Space. Prior to that, however, Stranger lead me through Basil's garden once again, going over the flower meanings. I took note about how the meaning of sunflowers, as it was the first time I made the connection about Sunny's name and Basil's meaning for them (plus him literally always facing Sunny in several scenes lol). And then there was what Basil said about white tulips.

Being honest, it was difficult for me to interpret Basil as not being in love with Sunny after that, and Stranger's dialogue in some of the Black Space rooms really cemented that for me.

Black Space as a whole left me extremely intrigued as to what the plan was. The way it ended really left me in suspense for what was really going on. How did it all relate to what happened to Mari? I had already assumed at this point that she had taken her own life, due to some of the imagery. But what else was going on here? I didn't exactly think the game was going to veer back from being a horror title to turn into some kind of dating sim, but it was clear to me that Basil was involved with some other secret.

In a reversal of what I had expected of the game up until this point, I found it difficult to care about the real world plot of the game during day 3. It didn't help that it felt like a rushed resolution of the Aubrey plot, and I felt like I was simply going through the motions. I still have no idea how I'm supposed to interpret the key in the treehouse and how it got there, and it felt a little aggravating that plans were being made between Aubrey and Hero to include the hooligans next time, while Basil himself was still locked in his room.

So then, the truth sequence. It completely blew away my expectations for what the game was saying, and recontextualized so much of what came before it. Sunny had done something awful by accident, and Basil had done something awful to protect him. That last "Do you want to save Basil?" really hit me hard. I hadn't felt so part of the game until this moment. It was like I was Sunny, and I was mulling over whether or not I forgive Basil for the horrible situation his actions put us both in. The stakes are high, because it's clear that something bad will happen to Basil if I don't. I didn't actually know it at the time, but this is the first time you can actually choose not to save Basil. It's emotional.

And the fight. The way the game creates confusion as to what is actually going on between Sunny and Basil during it by using vague wording and hallucinations. Basil's desperation and the way his desire to protect Sunny as his "perfect" best friend come together, leading to the fight.

Memory Lane happens, and I honestly didn't think much of it at the time. It was cool to see some of the memories in better detail, but it wasn't as emotional to me as what came before or what will come after.

I would be remiss to not include that we learn that it was actually Sunny that had a crush on Aubrey, and not the other way around. I had already suspected this, based on Aubrey not being close to him in the photo album, along with the Lost Library memory, but I remember thinking it was an interesting choice to have Basil be the one to call it out.

I finished up the game, and it impacted me a whole lot. I wasn't planning on playing the other route at first, as I heard that it was just Headspace and mostly unchanged, and I felt satisfied with the story that I got. I walked away with the understanding that pre-canon, Basil had feelings for Sunny that he likely didn't understand, while Sunny had a crush on Aubrey that he was never bold enough to pursue. How they felt at the time the game actually took place is irrelevant to the story being told, outside of us understanding that these are relatable individuals, and I walked away alright with that.

Of course, after that initial wave of emotions from the ending subsided, I did have some criticisms. Sunny's actual friendship with Aubrey felt underdeveloped, as her behavior both in Headspace and the real world differ so heavily from how she behaves in the glimpses we see of the past. Unlike Sunny's relationships with the others, there's no real unique identifiers other than Sunny's crush. While I would not have wanted the only living female character in the main cast to have been treated as a love interest in both the real world and dream world, it would have been nice if the game gave us a little more than just the swing set conversations, like how we get Kel talking about their late night trips to Hobbeez. In addition, while I understood on a base level that whether or not Basil and Sunny are forgiven didn't really matter to the story being told, not seeing it happen left me feeling a tad empty.

Finally, I felt extremely dissatisfied with Headspace. On a superficial level, I could see that many of the things in Headspace were based on things from the real world, it didn't really feel like it had all that much significance, and the knowledge that it would be more of the same in the other route kept me from playing it. I occasionally visited the subreddit, read a few post-canon fics (Bask in the Sun by Lemari and They say Flowers are Meant to be Sunkissed by Witherdahlia being highlights with very similar concepts), and slowly immersed myself in the Twitter community.

Of course, as time went by, I started making my own interpretations about the game. I got very attached to Sunflower, as I felt the fics were the most interesting to read, and I already held the interpretation that Basil had those feelings for Sunny, even if I didn't think it even mattered if Sunny reciprocated (though I did like talking about their dynamic a lot). In February, Sunflower week happened, and I randomly happened across a tweet that pointed out how Sunny knows the recipe for a strawberry cake in Headspace, with that being relevant due to Basil's birthday being one in which a strawberry cake appears. This blew my mind a little bit, and I made the decision to go back and play the Hikikomori route.

The Second Playthrough: The Hikikomori Route

What I had previously assumed would be a slog through things that I had already done before turned out to be far more interesting. Without the desire to get back to the real world plot hanging over me, I found myself paying a lot more attention to the things that were happening in Headspace. Playing the prologue again was amazing, because I was taken aback by how it practically parallels the entirety of the Sunny route, right down to having to retrieve a stolen item and receiving an eyepatch after the boss fight. Some day, I might break that down further, because it's so interesting. But not today.

Pyrefly Forest and Sweetheart's Castle were much more bearable this time around, because I was paying attention to the little references to Basil and Sunny's friendship in Pyrefly, and the ways Sweetheart's Castle represented a candied-up version of the way that Sunny interprets the concept of "home". This time through Headspace, I saw the very subtle ways that Basil's thoughts "follow Sunny into his dreams". And then, rather than Mari leading you through North Lake, it's Kel. Stranger no longer tells us what Basil thought about white tulips and Sunny, but this time in Black Space, I noticed the implications that Sunny would open up to Basil about his trauma coming from the Lake Incident. It ends with Omori catching Basil in a bridal carry before returning his flower crown.

Whereas the Sunny route was this heart wrenching tale about forgiveness and guilt, and overcoming your fears for others, and how ignorance hurts those you care about the most, the Hikikomori route functioned almost as this deep dive into Sunny's subconscious. The fact that I was playing through pretty much the exact same stuff again but with a completely different perspective kind of blew my mind, and I wonder if this was intentional.

This is all to say that it was around this time that I was once again asking myself the question of if Sunny's feelings for Basil (at least pre-canon) were entirely platonic. Especially as I played the Basil Rush, with its new Tag Photos and Release Energy, I wondered if the game was actually trying to imply a romantic connection. And if it was, why? What purpose would it serve in the narrative for these feelings to exist? How does it relate to Sunny's crush on Aubrey, which surely must've existed in the story for a reason? And how does it all relate to the litany of things Sunny things about in regards to romance?

From a narrative perspective, I could reason that Sunny and Basil having feelings for each other that they could never healthily explore injects further tragedy into the day of the incident and Sunny locking himself away. It provides a context for Sunny's focus on "saving" Basil, both in Headspace and the real world. Basil is undeniably linked to photos and flowers, which are two huge symbols that appear throughout Sunny's mind.

Everything else is stuff I've already spoken about before. The way Sunny treated Aubrey parallels how he treated Basil, and via both things like his fear of spiders, and the way all the foods Sunny appears to know information on how to prepare being associated with Basil, his dynamic with Basil mirrors the way Sunny thinks of Hero and Mari's relationship during Memory Lane.

Playing through the Hikikomori route completely changed the way that I thought about Omori. It was no longer just the story of Sunny accepting his role in his sister's death, I was also now considering the possibility that the game did have a romantic subtext between its two deuteragonists, and thinking about the repercussions of such an idea.

As I completed everything that there was to do in the Hikikomori route, I was immediately taken in with the idea of replaying the Sunny route, with all the knowledge I now had from my previous experiences. First, let me say: Everything that I assumed about playing through Headspace a second time and was luckily wrong about, actually applied on my third run. I did not enjoy playing through Headspace on my third run through, and it will likely be awhile before I do so again.

However, I did start to get an appreciation for details that I missed in my first run in Faraway. Basil's little mannerisms during cutscenes, such as looking to Sunny before responding to Kel's insistence that they were all still friends, as well as the repetition of Sunny backing away from his friends' pain due to his subconscious guilt and fear of facing it, before the final payoff of Sunny choosing to walk back into the center of the room on his own accord during the confrontation with Basil. During Memory Lane, I took note that in the Treehouse Memory, Sunny asked to see one of Basil's pictures that had nothing to do with Aubrey, when previously he only asked to look at pictures of her. There are three different instances in which the player is reminded that Hero and Mari's relationship specifically is one in which they cook for each other specifically, and this information was now recontextualized with the knowledge that Sunny knows the recipe for a strawberry cake, owns a book about tofu (which he hates), and that's not even getting into all the stuff about smoothies in Headspace. Where Aubrey saying that Sunny "would listen to her talk to hours" was once a confirmation that Aubrey and Sunny did have any kind of dynamic at all, I now saw it as a recontextualization of how we were told Sunny interacted with Basil. (also, the "truth" being hidden in the toy chest, which is itself hidden in the closet was certainly a choice /j)

What was the point of all this?

Frankly, it's starting to feel like I'm running out of things to say about Omori. With every post I've made on here and Twitter, there's less things for me to extrapolate from Omori's storytelling, and it's unlikely that we will ever get any more added on to canon. I've grown to love this community, and I think it's so interesting when I look back at how I interpreted the game back in November when I first discovered it, and today. I hope that that will become evident with the mod that I am working on, Senesce.

Obviously, everyone has their own ideas when it comes to what Omori is trying to imply with its characters. Accepting Sunflower as "canon" (in the sense that those feelings do exist in some form) has deepened my love of the game and characters, and I love that other people can have entirely different interpretations and still be just as satisfied with the game! Even if it was all unintentional, I cannot deny that it has lit a fire under me when it comes to game writing.

I desperately want to create a game that has someone at home obsessing over the smallest details to extract meaning in the way I have for Omori. Flawed as it may be, it's special to me, and I'm glad I played it. Thanks for listening to me ramble about it!

#omori #omori spoilers #omori sunflower #sunflower omori #sunnflower #omori basil #omori sunny #why omori matters to me #this has actually been sitting in my drafts for awhile #also ive never really gotten the chance to say #but i actually think it's irrelevant if sunny and basil's relationship would be healthy or not #or if they actually get together at some point #what happens after the credits is pure speculation and not worth arguing about #what's important is how those feelings impact interpretation of the game and its themes/symbolism #(even if I do find it most satisfying to think that they do get together at some point years down the line)#(and find the post credits scene of them smiling at each other to be extremely satisfying due to the idea that regardless of being forgiven #(they at least have each other)#ramble over

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