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tojitiddies · 3 years

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✰ TEACH

pairing ⋆ toji fushiguro x fem!reader

synopsis ⋆ in all your years of teaching you’ve never encountered a parent like toji.

warnings ⋆ vaginal sex, oral sex, creampie, dacryphilia if you squint, dumbification

ꔵ the first time you ever saw toji fushiguro was around second month of school, when megumi had began acting up in class. you knew megumi to be a spoiled rich kid, as he was always being dropped off and picked up in sleek black cars with tinted windows, along with his older sister tsumiki. sometimes you’d catch a glimpse of the driver if megumi ever needed assistance getting his bag out the car, but that was the only semblance of adult supervision you’d seen megumi receive outside of school faculty.

megumi was always dressed crisply and his meals efficiently packed. he really didn’t seem to understand the concept of sharing or caring and relied on his tiny fists to solve conflicts. this was all a stark contrast to his sister tsumiki, seeing as his older sister’s teachers only sang her praises. truly you had tried to get through to the seven year old, but out of all the trouble makers you’d ever taught, megumi really liked to work your nerves.

which brought you here, at a parent-teacher conference with megumi’s father, toji fushiguro. his large figure looked comical as he sat in one of the small plastic, colored chairs, usually inhabited by first graders of course. he wore a plain black t-shirt and white slacks. he also had a black blazer that he he had draped over the side of his chair. the side of his lips was decorated with a menacingly large scar that twitched occasionally as he listened to you speak.

“... all i want is for megumi to have a good time here in first grade. i know he and his sister are new so making an adjustment may be difficult, but i’d like to make the transition for young megumi as smooth as possible.” you finished as you fiddled with your fingers.

toji shifted in his chair with a slight grunt. “mrs. ____ is it?” he asked. you shook your head.

“just miss actually.” you corrected him shyly. his entire demeanor was so intimidating you didn’t want to insult him. you almost miss the mischievous glint in his eye as you lift your eyes to face him again.

“i understand your concerns with my son. i had no idea what a little shit he was being. especially to such a beautiful young woman as yourself.” his tone is suggestive, contradicting the polite smile adorning his lips.

you smiled uncomfortably. “thank you, but i would never think of your son as...a little shit. i’m sure he has a sweet side somewhere. which is why, i thought maybe megumi could benefit from some sort of counseling?” you suggested, pushing forward a slip of paper. toji leaned forward taking the document from the desk and began to read over it, his brow quirking up in interest. “alongside being a first grade teacher i also serve as a counselor here at the elementary school.” you began to explain. “although i’ve never counseled a student of my own in fear of bias, i think it would be wise if megumi had someone whom he was acquainted with.”

toji set the slip back down and set his gaze on you. you squeezed your thighs together as he fixed you with his stare. he really was intensely attractive. “hm, how unfair is it that my son gets more alone time with you than i do?” this time he smirked. so it wasn’t your imagination, he was flirting with you.

“mr. fushiguro?”

“i’m only teasing teach.” he chuckled. “i agree. i think we could all benefit from megumi’s counseling,” he folded his arms over his broad chest, his muscles flexing beneath his shirt. “so when does he start?” your eyes zoned in on toji’s biceps before blinking back up at him he pretended not notice you ogling him. “ah well...next wednesday perhaps? all i need is for you to sign the slip.” you said sliding him a pen from your desk.

your fingers brushed against his as he took the pen. you tried to ignore it, knowing he was probably only try to get a rise out of you. he began to scribble his signature, once he finished he stood up from his seat and you followed suit. “thank you mrs. ____ for contacting me.” he said, holding out his hand for you to shake.

you took it, letting his large hands envelope yours. “ah...again it’s just ms. ____. i’m not married.” you corrected him again with a lighthearted laugh. toji smirked at that before he leant in towards you. startled, you froze, afraid he might kiss you, until you realized he was only leaning towards your ear. “we’ll be in touch then, ms. ____.” he spoke in a lower tone. you were left standing there completely dumbstruck as he retrieved his blazer and threw it over his shoulder.

“yes...” you murmured quietly in response as he left you alone in the classroom.

ꔵ three months into counseling with megumi you had begun to see progress. his angered outbursts only came in waves and he had stopped using his hands and started using his words. his attitude toward you had also warmed up and he had even began giving you hugs. you were happy all the exercises you’d been working on with him were finally starting to pay off.

the only big issue? his father.

every time you spoke to him there was always a flirty or suggestive undertone. he never crossed the line but he would constantly get close to doing so. there was one counseling session a couple weeks ago when he came to pick up megumi (something he had suspiciously started doing ever since your counseling had started). you were both standing outside the door of the classroom, with megumi inside coloring, as you briefed toji on his counseling session.

“so he’s doing well then, i’m glad. but how are you doing teach? i know dealing with these little brats all day can’t be good on your stress.” he said, resting his hand on your forearm. you glanced down at his thumb caressing your skin before laughing nervously, brushing his hand down. “ah...really i’m alright mr. fushi - “

“i’ve told you to call me toji.” he interrupted, his voice dropping to that low tone once again.

you cleared your throat, trying to settle the butterflies that formed in your stomach. “thank you toji. but really i don’t mind it. i’ve been doing this for almost eight years now..” you tried your best not to let your voice waver under this suggestive tension.

toji stepped forward, the space between the both of you becoming almost non existent as your breasts came in contact with his chest. “well just know teach...” he murmured, lifting his fingers to your chin, “if you ever need any stress relief - “

“papa!”

you jumped back from toji like a frightened feline, while toji stood in place clearly unfazed by his child’s sudden presence. you’d been so focused on trying not to jump toji’s bones right then and there, you hadn’t even noticed megumi open the classroom door. “can we go home now? i’m hungry.” he whined, brandishing a cute pout on his face.

you couldn’t help but smile at the cute kid. toji bent down and picked him up, resting him on his hip. “hungry huh? well you can eat this knuckle sandwich for interrupting ms. ____ and i.” he teased, playfully twisting his fist into megumi’s face. megumi giggled slapping away his large hand before turning to look at you. “sorry ms. ____.” he apologized sweetly. yet another skill he’d learned from his counseling sessions.

you grinned and leaned forward to pinch his cheek. “don’t worry about it lovebug! it wasn’t that important anyway.” you chirped, glancing over at toji to see his lips twitch into a frown. you held back a giggle at how identical his pout was to little megumi’s. you leaned into the classroom to take megumi’s backpack off the hook, which toji took and swung over his free arm.

“say goodbye to ms. ____, megumi.” toji instructed. megumi raise his arm to wave, which you met with a small high five instead. “i’ll see you in the morning megumi!” you cheered. toji glanced back at you briefly. “don’t forget about my offer ms. ___.” he said with a wink, before turning back around and walking off with his son.

once he and megumi were out if sight you fell back against the classroom door with a whine. toji fushiguro would truly be the end of you.

ꔵ the afternoon sun shone through your window as you finished up the last of your student reports. as you began to pack up, you heard a knock at your classroom door. “come in!” you called out, not bothering to look up from your work.

you sighed as you gave up on organization and just began to sweep the papers into a folder, but before you could finish, a large hand fell on top of yours. you let out a yelp, looking up to find toji fushiguro smirking down at you. he looked as though he’d come straight from work, blessing you with a tight button down shirt and black slacks. god, he was a work of art.

“afternoon teach.” he greeted you.

“mr. fushiguro what a surprise. what are you doing here? megumi’s gone home already hasn’t he?” you asked, trying to keep calm as a million more thoughts raced through your mind.

“ah, that’s right. he’s long gone. ‘s just you and me.” he said as he fixed you with his strong gaze, his hand closing around yours. “i came because i wanted to thank you. i haven’t seen megumi like this in awhile. i know this was mostly a school thing, but he’s been less of a little shit at home too,” he informed you, his thumb slowly caressing your hand.

you were becoming putty under his touch. “yes...i’m glad gumi’s doing do well at home too. all i want is the best for him.” you answered, stumbling over your words a bit. toji brought your hand up to his lips kissing your knuckles. “mhm...so i was wondering if you’d thought about my offer?” he asked, looking back at you through those lustful eyes.

“mr. fushiguro - “

“toji.”

“t-toji...i’m delighted you would pay me a visit simply to thank me, but it really isn’t necessary.” you could feel his aura start to envelope you, the tension between you two thickening with lust. the most he’d done was kiss your knuckles and already you were trying to keep from rubbing your thighs together.

still holding firmly onto your hand, toji began to walk around your desk. “ms. ____, i insist you let me properly thank you because i feel you’re deserving of it. do you not?” he murmured, gingerly pulling you up out of your seat, guiding your hand towards his chest. your fingers instinctively hooked around the fabric where he’d left his shirt unbuttoned. his other arm snaked its way around your waist.

“toji...we shouldn’t. this is highly unprofessional, i could get fired. and what about megumi?” you rambled, trying to keep your composure. toji leaned down and began to press sweet wet kisses down your neck. you sighed out, letting your hand fan out across his chest.

“megumi will be fine teach. no one has to know anything as long as you can keep a secret. now let me take care of you.” he whispered, licking a stripe up your neck. his knee came to situate between your thighs, you wasted no time grinding against him. a soft moan escaped your lips as you let your head fall back against your shoulders.

“kiss me...please?” you mumured, hooking your arm around his neck. toji’s scar twitched as his lips formed a smirk. he lifted his head, grazing your lips against his before pressing forward. the kiss was rough and sensual, both of you devouring each other in a clash of lips and tongue. you moaned into his mouth, continuing to grind against his thigh. when your lips finally separated, a string of saliva connected you before dripping down onto your blouse.

“enjoying my thigh teach?” he taunted, flexing his thigh muscles and causing you to let out a breathy moan again. “y-you’re teasing me.” you whined desperately trying to grind your clothed clit against his thigh muscles. the hand on your waist slid down taking your thigh and pinning it to his waist, granting you better access. “so needy for me hm?” he murmured into your ear, taking your lobe between his teeth. “tell me what you want baby.”

your hand fisted his collar as you desperately ground yourself against him. “please fuck me toji. i can’t take your constant teasing anymore.” you whimpered, nuzzling into his shoulder. toji chuckled at that before reaching behind you, clearing your desk in one fell swoop. papers and files fluttered to the ground as he lifted you up on top of your desk, spreading your legs.

you both hastily begin unbuttoning your shirts, one of your buttons popping off in the frenzy. toji chuckles as he lowers himself to his knees, his chest muscles rippling as he moves. “i can’t believe you have the nerve to walk around in a tight little skirt like this.” he laughs wickedly, sliding up your pencil skirt until it bunches up at your waist. you feel your cheeks heat up with embarrassment as the wet spot in your panties becomes noticeable. toji slides his finger up your covered folds, the slick coating his finger prints. “how lovely.” he purrs to himself.

“please...” you whine breathily, scooting forward hoping he’d take the hint. he chuckles darkly blowing against your clothed clit before pulling aside your underwear to marvel at your dripping cunt. “look at that.” he marvels before letting his tongue dip between your folds. you let out a choked moan. it had been so long since you’d been touched this way by someone other than yourself, it felt like heaven. he paused only to hook his fingers around your panties and discard them who knows where.

just as quick as he was gone, he’s back to hungrily bury his tongue in your cunt, switching between prodding your hole with his tongue and sucking your clit. your fingers fisted his raven hair, as you loudly praised his skill through moans and chants. the wet sounds of him slurping and licking up your arousal egged you on to grind against his mouth. waves of arousal just keep coming, whatever his tongue couldn’t catch dripping onto the desk.

your thighs threatened to close around his head as you felt yourself coming close to climaxing. “fuck stop! toji i’m gonna cum,” you whine out, weakly trying to push his head away. you hear him hum in amusement as he instead, moves his hands up to spread your thighs back further. his tongue works your hole, slowly spreading it wider before he’s able to curl his tongue inside. you let out a loud cry, your hips jerking and bucking as you’re overwhelmed with pleasure. your vision spots as you cum all over his tongue, your thighs threatening to snap around his head but his hands keep you in place.

toji finishes licking up the rest of your arousal before rising up from between your legs, towering over your trembling figure. one hand comes up to your chin, roughly tilting your head up to look directly at him. “open,” he commands, to which you obey immediately. your tongue rolls out lewdly as he spits your arousal down your throat. “good girl,” he purrs. “now turn around, i’m about to fuck the living daylights out of you.”

eagerly you turn around on your stomach, thankful for the desk supporting your torso as your sure your wobbly legs would not be able to. you hear toji unbuckling behind you as your spread your legs slightly, swaying your hips hoping to entice him to move a bit faster. toji’s hands come to spread over the globe of your ass cheeks, kneading them in his palms.

“you’re so fucking sexy. i’m sure you already know ever since we’ve met this ass has been all i ever think about.” he chuckled, letting his hardened cock slide back and forth between your folds. you let out a whine moving your hips back against him. “i want you to fill me up so badly, please hurry.” your croak out, your voice hoarse from your previous climax. toji brings down his hand against your ass harshly, receiving a yelp in response. “and who you do you think you are ordering me, huh teach? i’m not one of your little first graders baby,” he grunts, spreading your ass cheeks again, letting the tip of his cock tease your aching hole.

“beg for it.” he taunts in a sing-song tone, sliding his cock up and down and against your cunt. your let out a small puff of air as you turn your head back to look at him with your pleading eyes. “please toji...please stuff me full. i haven’t been fucked in so long i wanna be filled up please.” you whimpered, your hips stuttering against his cock, now lubed up with all the juices he’d collected. your begging seemed to please toji, his scar twitching as his lips formed a smug smirk. “good girl.”

toji slammed his cock inside you, no regard for easing you on to his length whatsoever. tears pricked your eyes at the sharp pain, your insides spasming around him. “shit, you feel like a fucking virgin squeezing me so tight. you weren’t kidding about not being fucked in so long, hm?” he chuckled. you didn’t get the chance to respond as he was already pulling out to slam back in. it hurt so good, the pain and the pleasure of being stretched around his girth. he continued to thrust harshly inside your cunt only receiving broken moans and strings of curses from your lips.

his hand came to your hair, his fingers roughly grabbing your head back. your arousal began to return once more, dripping down his cock and making the most obscene squelching and sucking noises. “such a naughty teacher, letting a parent fuck her right in the classroom, huh?” toji’s gruff voice came from behind you. you whined, one of your hands reaching behind you to spread your ass cheeks to grabt him more access. “feels so fucking good, fuck me harder, please.” you manage to say through clenched teeth. “harder baby? you got it.”

before you can even think to react, his arms come to circle around your thighs, lifting you up against his chest. you let out a small cry, your arm instinctively circling around his neck for upper support. toji holds you up, legs spread over his cock. the cool air of the classroom hits your clit causing you whine out in frustration. toji chuckles. “impatient, are we teach?” he murmurs before ramming his hips up into you, his cock sliding back in immediately. “fuck!” you blurt out in surprise.

this new position had him hitting you in places no one had ever discovered and your tits bouncing up and down with fervor. your cunt fluttered, hearing his grunts so much closer to your ear. your lips fall slack, your tongue rolling out ever so slightly as he fucks you dumb. everything just feels so fucking good. “fuck keep squeezing around me just like that teach, i’m gonna cum.” he growls into your ear “fuck...stuff me full of your cum t-toji,” you sob, feeling yourself come closer to your second climax as well.

you bring your free hand down to your clit, rubbing it slow in contrast his quick thrusting. you wanted to savor this feeling. “god, keep touching yourself just like that baby,” he moans, swiveling his head to sink his teeth into to your shoulder. everything seems to slow, the pleasurable drag of his hardened cock against your walls, him hitting your spot just right, the way you sucked him back in as he pulled out...

“toji i’m - “ you can’t even finish before a wave of pleasure knocks over you, your vision spotting once again as he brings you to your climax for a second time. toji continues to fuck into you faster chasing his own high before you feel the spurts of thick cum filling your insides. you’re barely able to think, your fucked out daze taking over. you barely notice him move you off his softening length to set you down. you immediately grab ahold of him, your legs unable to support you at the time. you can feel his cum and your arousal begin to trickle out from your cunt, earning a satisfied whine from your lips. toji laughs softly, leaning down to press a kiss against your forehead. “i haven’t had a good fuck like that in awhile. you were better than i imagined, taking me like that.” he spoke, his voice sounding muffled to you as your daze still hadn’t worn off. you hum softly nuzzling into his warm chest.

toji bites his lip as he looks down at you, you’re just so fucking cute clinging to him that way. he lifts you up on to the desk, carefully dressing you back up. he can’t find your panties so he just pulls you skirt back down from where it had gathered at your waist. he tucks your breasts back into your bra and picks up your blouse from the floor. he smirks at the missing button, doing what he can to close your blouse back up.

you smile gently, watching toji perform his aftercare. this must be the fatherly side of him you rarely get to see. after he’s finished dressing you both back up, he sets his gaze back on you. “so, i’ll see you next wednesday ms. ____?” he asks, settling back into his usual smug demeanor. you scoff before muttering out a small confirmation. he grins that smug toji grin. “perfect then. i’ll be sure to tell megumi you said hello.” he walks out shutting the door behind him, his heavy footsteps echoing down the hall.

authors note ⋆ hi! this is my first time ever writing and posting something here on tumblr <3 i really hope this wasn’t too bad this took me like three days to write and i deleted and added a bunch of stuff so i hope it isn’t too wacky. thank you for reading!

#toji x reader #toji smut #toji fushiguro x reader #toji fushiguro #toji fushiguro smut #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jujutsu kaisen smut #jjk smut #x reader

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gffa · 4 years

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TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE JEDI ORDER IN STAR WARS CANON [A Meta/Reference Guide on AO3] aka, SO WHAT DO THE JEDI SAY AND DO IN THE ACTUAL CANON? Previously on gffa Is A Nerd: I’ve done reference posts on the Jedi Temple before, but so much of it was Legends and a bunch more canon has come out since that I wanted to focus on a post about what we’ve been given about the Jedi Order in canon! While we never actually get that much about them (seriously, it’s a handful of comics, games, and books, even The Clone Wars was really light on actual Jedi worldbuilding) there’s finally enough that I wanted to collate it as much as I could. Another goal is that it’s often hard for me to distill out what is actually true of them in the source material vs my own assumptions or what is said to be canon when Lucasfilm’s story has actually never said any such thing or what I’ve read in so many fics that I forget it’s not actually canon. This is no judgement on those assumptions or bits of fanon, many of them are ones I whole-heartedly embrace! But this time I wanted to create something of a master post about what the Jedi have said, done, and taught in the canon (though, expect it to always be something of a work in progress, as new content is always being added or I hunt down something I hadn’t yet finished) or what Word of God commentary has said about them, because I find them endlessly fascinating and enjoy seeing what my assumptions about them are versus what actually goes on! This is a master list focused specifically on Canon, so Legends is a separate continuity from this. Partially this is because I enjoy Canon, partially because this is Lucasfilm’s property and they get to define the rules, partially because George Lucas’ view on the old expanded universe was that it was separate from his Star Wars. “There’s this notion that everything changed when everything became Legends. And I can see why people think that. But, you know, having worked with George, I can tell you that it was always very clear–and he made it very clear–that the films and the TV shows were the only things he considered canon. That was it.” –Dave Filoni, The Star Wars Show, speaking of working with George Lucas ”I don’t read that stuff. I haven’t read any of the novels. I don’t know anything about that world. That’s a different world than my world.” –George Lucas, on how the old EU was not canon to his Star Wars Which means that many commonly referenced elements that are often assumed to be Canon are not. For example, the concept of the Jedi being kicked out at the age of 13 was brought up in the Jedi Apprentice books (which started in 1999, before Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith existed) and have not been referenced anywhere in Canon. They’ve been contradicted by Legends (there was a 17 year old Padawan in The Way of the Jedi who did not appear to fear aging out) and has also been contradicted by Canon (Ahsoka was 14 when we met her, Caleb was 13 when he became a Padawan, but was described as “too young” for it normally, but the war had forced everything to accelerate). Canon vs Legends is relatively simple to tell–most anything that was published before April 25th, 2014 is NOT canon, most anything published after IS canon. There are some guide books that will have a Legends disclaimer in the back despite being set after the date, the role-playing books appear to not be canon, the mobile games exist in kind of a limbo as I’ve never seen any yea or nay on them, and some require judgement from the audience–ie, LEGO Star Wars is probably not going to be canon, I think it’s safe to say! But most serious stories released after that date are part of the tapestry, which often does reintroduce elements (like Thrawn being reintroduced in Rebels or Bant Eerin in An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure) but only what appears in those specific stories is canon, not their previous histories in Legends. This master post will be broken down into seven sections, grouped together as best I can! SECTION 1 - HOW THE FORCE WORKS SECTION 2 - JEDI CULTURE & PHILOSOPHY & TEACHINGS SECTION 3 - JEDI AS A PEOPLE SECTION 4 - PSYCHIC SPACE WIZARDS DOING PSYCHIC SPACE WIZARD THINGS SECTION 5 - JEDI TEMPLES SECTION 6 - JEDI AND THE BIGGER GALAXY SECTION 7 - EVERYTHING ELSE (REAL WORLD ANALYSIS + OTHER NOTES) Hopefully, this will be interesting and fun to look over for anyone who’s into this kind of thing! This is not a value judgement on the worthiness of Legends elements, as I enjoy many Legends things, too. This is not an attempt to control what other people enjoy putting into their fic or treating as part of the tapestry of their Star Wars or talking about! Merely this is “what is part of the canon as we move forward with Star Wars” and a fun exercise in shedding my own assumptions about what the Jedi have actually said and done themselves. I’ve done my best to organize things into groupings that help show consistent themes with the Jedi, as well as sourced things as best I can. I always encourage people to read the source material for yourself, as any second-hand telling of things is going to be imperfect, no matter how much I worked to stick largely to just quoting the material!

#jedi #jedi order #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #yoda #mace windu #depa billaba #kanan jarrus #count dooku #meta

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ckret2 · 4 years

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So I've been deeply pulled into the Radiosnake pairing bc of your fantastic writing! Problem is, now I have fic ideas but no knowledge of the Hazbin background. Can you tellI me where I can get more Hazbin info? I've only watched the pilot and read your stuff. I heard there were comics??

That is an excellent question anon, because right now it is really hard to get Hazbin background easily.

Okay, so, the canon info on Hazbin Hotel can be sort of sorted into four tiers, from most to least canon.

Tier 1: The Definitely Canon

There is, of course, the pilot. And then there is an Angel Dust prequel comic, only seven pages of which have been released so far. We’ve been told it’s gonna be finished and we’ve had glimpses of in-progress prequel comics for a couple other characters—most prominently Alastor’s and Charlie’s—but so far that unfinished Angel Dust comic is the only one that’s been officially released.

Finding the in-progress comic pages is... a challenge. Nobody, as far as I can tell, has been specifically collecting all of the pages we’ve seen so far. I was able to scrounge up:

Couple more Angel pages

some Alastor pages

another Alastor page

a random Alastor panel

another random Alastor panel—I’ve seen the full page of this before, Alastor goes “Hello ladies!” and they go “HELLO ALASTOR~<3″ but I can’t find the full page now

There’s a smattering more canon panels on the artist faustisse’s twitter, but I haven’t dug them all out, and some of the posts I’m gonna link in a lil bit have a glimpse of another panel.

If you haven’t already heard of Helluva Boss, I recommend looking into it as well. It’s a second series being created by the same folks, different cast of characters but set in the same version of Hell, so any canon details we learn in Helluva also apply to Hazbin.

Helluva’s pilot is here. Plus a cute music video here.

Earlier this month, during a BLM charity stream hosted by show artist Ashley Nichols—she runs regular streams under the title “HuniCast”—they released a few sneak peaks of future Helluva scenes, all compiled here.

And that’s it for canon. Two pilots, a music video, a smattering of future scenes, part of one comic, a few WIP pages/panels from other comics.

Tier 2: Pseudo-Canon

Everything else we currently know about Hazbin (and Helluva) are things that the creators have told us. Consequently, they’re all pseudo-canon—and likely subject to change in the future as the shows and comics are further developed and released. Some details that were released/described in the past have been contradicted at other times, or else radically changed by the time the pilot came out.

(For example, when Alastor was first created years and years ago as an OC with no plans for Hazbin, he was a demon deer who could shapeshift into a human shape—now he’s a demonized human with a few deer traits. And Charlie and Cherri Bomb used to look very different.)

So until and unless they make it into canon, all these pseudo-canon details are subject to change and should be taken with a grain of salt—but, they also comprise most of what we know about the characters’ backstory and the as-yet-unaired characters.

Pseudo-canon info on Hazbin is scattered mainly between two sources: the creators’ twitter accounts, and livestreams where they take questions and talk about the making of the show. If you and livestreams do not get along (my ADHD and livestreams do not get along), or if you don’t want to wade years and years back into twitter accounts to dig up every scrap of info on the characters the creators have ever mentioned, collating all the pseudo-canon info is gonna be hard. (It’s gonna be hard even if you do want to sit through the streams and dig through all their tweets.) Lots of fans, me included, depend on the absolutely heroic work of various fans who are willing and able to watch hours-long streams and collate a list of canon factoids released during the streams. I’ve reblogged as many of these posts as I’ve been able to find:

Alastor’s sound design (on twitter)

Alastor's Sound Design (post I made with screenshots of weird—but very interesting—subtitles slipped into the aforementioned video)

Sir Pentious and Cherri Bomb’s sound design

Niffty and Husk’s sound design

Charlie, Katie, and Tom’s sound design

Intro song’s sound design

Happy Hotel’s sound design

details from Faustisse (including a pic of a couple costume designs. Most of these posts come from zatyrlucy, who’s been doing a fantastic job of going stream-by-stream to get lists of details from the regular streams by Ashley Nichols and by comic artist Faustisse.)

more details from Faustisse (including a pic of the Von Eldritch family dining room)

Faustisse 3 (better look at that table)

Dollymoon’s Hazbin Hotel Facts - PART ONE (Shoutout again to dollymoon for compiling these, we’ve never spoken but I am eternally grateful for this service. Dollymoon’s posts are THE single most reliable compilation of Hazbin Hotel’s nebulous pseudo-canon facts that I have found to date, including both links to the sources and timestamps where applicable. Dollymoon’s URL has changed since making this post so the “read more” link doesn’t work but the “source” or “reblogged from” links direct correctly to the new blog. Incidentally, the risk of other blog creators deleting their blogs/posts or changing their URLs is why in info posts like these, I always link to my own reblogs rather than their original posts—their original posts might vanish without warning, but I know I ain’t gonna delete my posts, so these links will still work in the future.)

Hazbin Hotel Facts - PART TWO

Hazbin Hotel Facts - PART THREE

Faustisse 4

HuniCast - Australian Wildlife Relief charity stream

I think this was a faustisse stream (the original source deleted these posts, so the comic pages that were originally behind that read more cut are now gone.)

Faustisse stream 6?

And those are all the masterposts of factoids I’ve managed to collect. If anyone has more masterposts, chuck ‘em at me.

Even this isn’t all the knowledge that’s been released about the show. The posts that dig the farthest back are Dollymoon’s, and even they don’t comprehensively cover all of Hazbin’s production. A couple of these characters, Vivziepop created as a teenager, so there’s some truly ancient concept art floating around out there that will have details that probably aren’t canon anymore... but might still be until something happens to actively contradict them.

Tier 3: The Wiki

The wiki is kind of an absolute mess. It’s a chaotic blend of things actually seen in the pilots/comic, things mentioned at some point in some stream somewhere, and wild fan speculation based on what they headcanon as plausible based on the above, all mixed together with very little indication for which is canon, pseudo-canon, fanon, or speculation. Most of the statements on the wiki don’t have citations.

(And, on top of that, half the main characters’ info gets split up into separate tabs instead of just having a normal-ass wiki page, AND their image galleries are on COMPLETELY SEPARATE pages that are linked to in one of the tabs, and the most important characters all have TWO SEPARATE GALLERIES. Which doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of the facts hidden underneath those tabs, but nevertheless drives me up the wall.)

Some things on the wiki were added according to info released so long ago it’s probably changed by now. Some are possibilities that got reported as facts. Other things on the wiki have unambiguously changed, or else are just flat-out incorrect. (For instance, at this moment Alastor’s page still lists him as an overlord, even though it's been confirmed that Alastor is not an overlord despite his power level because he isn’t interested in and didn’t pursue that position, per this stream. For a little bit, somebody’s fanart of their headcanon human Alastor got added to the wiki as concept art.)

tl;dr: the wiki should never be trusted as a primary source. The wiki’s better than it used to be. Even so, at this time, it’s only trustworthy to fill in the gaps of what you already know is true from other, better sources.

The thing it’s good at is it more or less compiles all the known info all in one place. Trying to figure out who the hell this Vox guy is is really hard if you’re reading for mentions of him in compilations of a dozen different streams, much less if you’re trying to comb through those dozen streams yourself, plus a dozen more, plus three different artists’ twitters. In comparison, it’s really easy to, say, just go look at Vox’s wiki page, where all the trivia is compiled. (And Vox’s page is actually one of the better cited on the wiki. Look at all those numbers!)

So, if you need to find out who this character is you’ve never heard of before, if you want to see a full list of the thus far named characters, if you don’t remember whether Alastor likes coffee or tea, if you want to know what Angel’s twin sister looks like, if you need a reminder of Sir Pentious’s death year... check the wiki. It’s an okay starting point.

But, if you see a “fact” on the wiki that you yourself don’t remember from straight out of the pilot, and it doesn’t have a citation that links to a tweet or a stream... regard it suspiciously. And do not trust it unquestioningly as fact until and unless you have seen the source.

Tier 4: Noncanon Creator Shitposting

I’ve mentioned Ashley’s HuniCast streams a couple times. The biggest draw of them is that she usually gets several of the voice actors in the streams, where they’ll happily say nonsense in their character voices. For the most part, they’re not sharing any actual canon info they’ve been given on their characters, just goofing around pretending to be their characters. Nevertheless, a lot of the things that happen in streams get accepted as broad fandom headcanons, like Alastor being into dad jokes. (My favorite, for obvious reasons, is this one.)

It’s easy to find the source audio for all this wonderful nonsense by searching youtube for “HuniCast highlights,” and then rummaging around for animatics people make out of the audio. The only one noncanon video of this sort I can think of that didn’t originally come from HuniCast is a lone one from Alastor’s singing voice (who’s a different voice actor than his speaking voice).

So, obviously, none of these are canon. But they do come from some of the people actually involved in the creation of the show, and they are in the characters’ canon voices, so a whole lot of people treat them as semi-canon anyway. (Even the wiki lists “dad jokes” among Alastor’s likes, which to my knowledge hasn’t come up anywhere except for HuniCast streams.) Since they’re so broadly-known, they’re worth knowing about as important sources of fanon, even if you don’t want to adopt them into your own headcanons. They’re basically the same level of canon as blooper reels.

#anonymous #ask #hazbin hotel #reference #helluva boss

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lovewriting-5 · 4 years

Text

Rules:

*gif credit goes to @angelshizuka*

9. Confessions

11. Breaking Free

10. Screeching Tires:

We carefully enter the house, I call “Hello! Hello? Claire? Stephen?” When there is no answer, Daniel says “Looks like grandma and grandpa haven’t come back from church yet.” Sean looks at us with a little smile, “Well. At least they won’t yell at us for going out...” He says “That was so cool to spend time with Chris at the market! Did you know Chris’ mom was an artist?”

Sean says “We...didn’t...How so?” He says “She drew comics! You guys should see her drawings, they’re so cool. Just like yours!” Sean tells him “Thanks, dude.” Daniel looks around, “Hey! Uh...” I ask, suspiciously “What? What is it?” He says “Sean, (Y/N)...I wanna go check on the room...upstairs. I know it’s mom’s. Please...”

Sean and I look at each other. I tell him “Daniel, you heard Claire. They will freak out if they know we went inside. We promised them.” “We won’t tell them! We’ll be in total stealth mode! They won’t know anything if we make it quick...” he contradicts.

He also throws in “It’s just...I really want to know what’s inside. What kind of stuff she had. Chris had tons of things that belonged to his mom. And I have nothing! Come on...You guys don’t even have to come with me...if you don’t want to...”

“Fuck it. We’ll come with you...So you don’t make a mess and get us caught.” Sean tell him. The three of us head upstairs and go straight to the locked bedroom door. Daniel tries the knob. Frustrated, he says “The door is still locked! I just...Don’t get why they lock the room. What’s the big deal?” Sean says “We’ll find a way to open it.”

Mischievously, Daniel says “This is super easy! I can just break the lock with powers!” I say “Yeah, we could do that with a hammer...” “Let’s try and find the key instead, right?” Sean says. He says “I’m just gonna clean up real quick.” As soon as he went into the bathroom, I tell Sean “Sean, I’ll keep watch while you and Daniel search for the key.”

They begin searching all around the second floor. I was starting to get a little nervous that Claire and Stephen were going to return any moment. I tell them “Hurry up! They might come back any minute!” Sean says “Yes, we know. I can’t find the fucking key! We just need five minutes.”

I was sitting at the top step, keeping an eye on the front door. After five minutes, Sean sits down next to me. Frustrated, he says “I give up. This is impossible.” He then says “DANIEL!” Daniel comes walking over to us. Sean asks “You really think you could open this door...without doing too much damage?” A smile shot across his face, he says “Yes! I know I can.”

We stand up and follow him to the door. Cautiously, I tell him “Go for it.” He says “Yes!” Sean reminds him “And don’t blow apart the whole house...” Daniel holds out his hand and uses his power. There was a blast. I holds my arms in front of my face to block it from the debris. We see the damage. Sean asks, annoyed “Really?” He says “Oops...”

The two of them walk in the room. I stay in the doorway to still keep watch. I figured the two of them need to do this together. Daniel says “Wow. There’s not that much left. Where do you think they put the rest of her stuff?” Sean tells him “It’s her teenage room, I’m sure she...sorted through her things before leaving for Seattle. The rest is probably packed in these boxes.”

I could see that there were boxes stacked in the corner near the closet. The rest of the room looked like it hasn’t been touched in years. Daniel asked “Sean...What do you think happened to all the stuff in my room? When we left...” Sean says with sadness in his voice, “I don’t know, enano...I wish I could answer that.” All he says is “Okay...”

I see Daniel picks up a book and goes to sit down in the armchair in the far corner. From the doorway, I say “Okay, you guys seen everything, you wanted to see? Claire and Stephen will be home soon now.” Daniel says “Just...Five more minutes.” He sets the book down and starts looking at the other items in the room.

Daniel asks “Sean...Are you really mad at mom for leaving us with dad?” I know it’s a topic he doesn’t like to talk about. For Daniel’s sake, he says “It’s a bit more complicated than that, man...” Sean picks up a teddy bear that is sitting on the dresser. He shows it to me. I smile and say “Cute.”

Sean says “Hey Daniel, check this out. His name is Ulysses.” He asks “Like...the hero?!” Sean says “I guess.” He says “So cool!” Daniel takes the teddy bear and sits on the ground, “Hi Ulysses! So...You were a friend of my mommy’s? I hope she took good care of you. Did she take you with her when she went on trips? I wonder why mom loved it so much. You’re not that fluffy anymore, little bear...”

Underneath Ulysses there was a folded piece of paper. Sean picks it up and examines it. He asks “Why would Claire lock these up in here?” He goes and sits on the bed. Daniel sets the teddy bear down and follows.

Curiously, Daniel asks “Is that from mom? Huh? Let me see...” as he tries to grab the piece of paper. Sean blocks him, “Daniel...Come on...” As he tries to grab the paper again, “What’s it say? Read it!” Sean blocks him again, “Seriously, stop!” He moves the paper slightly so Daniel can read it. Daniel begins to read, “I’ve heard the news about Seattle. Please help my boys and their friend if they come to you...” I walk into the room further as he reads the letter.

He asks “What? Why did they hide this from us?” Unsure, Sean says “I don’t know...” Daniel continues “You can reach me at this address, it’s a PO Box I use sometimes.” He looks back and forth between Sean and I. Asking no one in particular, “What’s a PO Box?” Sounding disapproved, Sean tells him “Well, a cop out...in this case...” Daniel finishes reading the letter, “I...beg you...please...help my sons.”

“Oh yeah, right...Total bullshit.” Sean says a little angry. “What do you mean? She cares about us!” Daniel says. He says “Well...I don’t...” Trying to sound hopeful, Daniel says “Maybe she...changed her mind! We could try and contact her!”

He says “You don’t even know her, okay?! Don’t get any wrong ideas. We should just...stick to our plan. For now...” Daniel asks “Can I read it again...?” Handing the letter to him, Sean says “Yeah...Then we gotta go...”

Distracted by the letter, we never heard Claire and Stephen coming up the stairs. We knew they were there when Claire says, shocked “My goodness. What happened...?” I say “Shit!” She asks “Excuse me, what are you three doing in here?! Except, visibly...ransacking our house while we’re at church?” Sean and Daniel stand up from the bed with the letter in hand.

I try to explain “Claire...We’re sorry...But we just wanted to - -“ Sean interrupts “We were just looking...for answers...and...uh...” Looking at the door, Claire asks “Were they really worth breaking my door open?!” Calmly, Stephen says “Claire, please. Calm down...” She tells him “No Stephen! They went way out of line here!” She turns back to us, “We specifically told you to stay out of this room!”

Daniel tells her “Uh...I just wanted to see my mom’s stuff!” Claire tells him “This isn’t her room anymore! There is nothing to see in here! It’s time you learn to respect some rules!”

“What’s the problem, then? If there’s nothing to see, why lock us out? Or get mad? It’s like you’re in denial...I know that mom left us...and yeah, it made me mad...but at least we moved on...” Sean says, angrily. Pointing a finger at him, she says “Don’t you dare lecture me, Sean. You don’t know anything about how I feel!” She grabs the letter from his hand, “One letter doesn’t change what she did to me...all of us! She is not welcome back.”

Sean tells her “Just don’t blame us...for being curious about her...” Claire says “But I know her better than anybody! She hasn’t changed! She just feels guilty!” “I can’t hear that.” Stephen says. He then leaves the room.

She was going to go after him but turns back to Sean, “Listen, Sean...I know life has been tough on you the past month...Bless your souls. And...and we put up with a lot of things...But...that...Breaking our door to sneak in the room...That shows you don’t respect us. Then act like I’m the bad guy! After what we’ve done for you! I knew something like this might happen...maybe you three staying here wasn’t such a good idea...” I thought After all you have done for us. We appreciate it but they just want answers.

Having a realization, Sean says “Man! I think I see why mom left now...She couldn’t put up with your stupid rules anymore!” Claire says “Oh...So that’s what you think? Then let me tell you something - -“

There was a loud thump and then Stephen’s screams could be heard from downstairs. Claire yells “STEPHEN!”

We hurry down the stairs to his workshop and find him trapped beneath a cupboard. Frightened, I say “Oh, shit!” Stephen shouts “Get...this...god damn thing off me!” In terror, Claire says “Stephen! No! Hold on, honey! We’ll get it off...” The four of us try and lift it. He says in pain, “NO...stop! My legs!”

Daniel steps back away from the cupboard. I was still trying to think of ways to get Stephen out. Sean must have given him a signal because he yells, “Do it, Daniel! Now!” She asks, confused “Do what? What’s going on? Oh, Lord! What...What are you doing, Daniel?”

Claire and I step out of the way. Daniel holds his hand out and concentrates on the cupboard. The cupboard begins to lift just enough for Sean to pull Stephen out. Daniel falls to the floor in exhaustion. I catch him just before he hits the floor.

She rushes to Stephen’s side, “Oh, my baby...Stephen, are you okay?” Exhausted, Stephen says “Now I am...Thanks to Daniel...You were right, Claire. I should have fixed that cupboard months ago. I guess my laziness will get me someday...” Bewildered, Claire says “What in the name of God was that all about? That’s impossible...What are you, Daniel?” Sean says “Claire...Listen...” Stephen says “They saved me, Claire. That’s all that matters...” Finally accepting what happened, she says “Maybe...It was a miracle...Thank you, Lord...”

All of a sudden the doorbell rings. Claire stands up and looks out the window. She says “It’s the sheriff...” Muffled, the sheriff says “Stephen? Claire?” Claire says “I didn’t...” The sheriff says “It’s about your grandsons and their friend.” She says “We didn’t call them.” Sean tells her “I know, grandma...” It was the first time, I ever heard him call her that since we arrived.

The sheriff tells them “They were spotted at the Christmas market, earlier today...” Still standing close to me, Daniel asks “What are we gonna do?” Stephen says “Go hide in the garage!” Sean says “No...No! No way!” I add “If the police search the house, that makes the two of you accomplices.” She tells us “Get your bags and go out the back door...I will distract him...” I ask “Really?” Stephen says “Yes. Now...”

The sheriff asks again “Stephen?” He says “Get the hell out of here!” The sheriff says “I know you’re in here, your car is in the driveway...” Sounding very caring, Claire says “I’m so sorry...For everything...I wish we could have helped you more...I wish you could stay here with us...Watch out for Daniel.” I tell them “Thanks for helping us...Both of you...” She tells us “Oh, we love you. Now hurry up!”

The three of us sneak into the hallway. Sean says “(Y/N), Daniel, wait for me while I go upstairs and grab our bags!” He runs upstairs. Daniel and I crouch as we run to the back. We hear Claire slightly open the front door and begin talking to the sheriff. Daniel and I have our winter gear on when Sean joins us with our backpacks in hand. Daniel and I throw our backpacks on. I open the back door and quietly say “Hurry!” Sean says “Move your ass, bro...Shit!”

We are in the backyard. We see another cop car pull up. I look around and decide the Eriksen’s yard. I tell them “This way!” We run towards their yard and climb the fence.

We run to the front yard of the Eriksen’s house. We are stopped in our tracks when a third cop car pulls up. We hold for a second and wait. The cop car put on its siren and pulls back out in our direction. All of a sudden Chris runs out into the middle of the road. He holds out his hand. Daniel yells “Chris!”

Daniel then thrusts his hand out and throws the cop car off the road into a tree. Chris turns to face us and is disappointed at the sight. Sean and I pull Daniel away. We run off in the opposite direction.

We came to a clearing up on top of a hill overlooking railroad tracks. We take a rest on a rock.

#Sean Diaz x reader #Sean Diaz imagines #Life is Strange 2 fanfiction #Sean Diaz #Life is Strange 2 #LiS2 #Life is Strange #LiS #Life is Strange fanfiction #Life is Strange x reader #Life is Strange 2 x reader

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violetwonders · 5 years

Text

Blubbering Mess

college!AU with mr. hot guy Rowoon prompts: “Why are your feet so cold?” and “You’re my new pillow.” word count: 2,766 warning: uhh kind of steamy… I guess lmao,, but dw it’s 99% fluff, 1% angst (?)

a/n: support sf9!!! support rowoon’s new drama airing in sept!!! loosely inspired by miss ailea infinitum-imaginaerum if you ever read this I love you your writings gave me inspo <3 i hope you gain strength and that you’ll be happy! ++ also not rly sure if there's alcohol that tastes like water,,, welppp ignore it pls

“Your food is getting cold,” Somebody whispers in your ear as the chair besides you scrapes with a loud screech. Your head snaps up in slight surprise. You feel something in your guts knotting at the sight of him, and you find yourself fearing it. The faint scent of him fills your senses. You quickly turn your attention back to the papers in front of you, but somehow, you can’t seem to focus on them anymore.

Not trusting yourself to speak, you opt to let out a small sound of affirmation instead. You haven’t seen him a while.

“What are you doing?” Rowoon leans in, his arm touching yours as he tries to peek at your papers. “Studying.” You plainly reply, trying not to focus on how a simple touch of his arm makes your heartbeat ring in your ears. “Studying? Seriously? Hey, we haven’t seen each other in two weeks!” He slightly chides with a laugh.

“Aren’t you coming back yet? The dorm is a mess without you. I can’t live with Dawon alone.” He shakes his head, strands from his made hair falling. At his words, you can’t help but chuckle. “Yeah? Do you now get how hard it had been on me when you went for an MT?” You remember how Dawon had gotten drunk and puked all over the room. You had to clean it up with your nose clipped painfully and buckets of water and towels wasted.

Rowoon laughs freely, the action successfully capturing the attention of nearby students in the cafeteria. At this, you smile at him. “Okay, okay, fine; I agree, you’ve had it worse than me.” He grins at you fondly, reaching out to ruffle your hair. “I missed you.” He casually declares in the same tone.

Your heart drops in surprise but also in bitter acceptance. You know he doesn’t mean it like that. You try to nod as casually as him, “Yeah, I did, too.” The words get stuck in your throat, but you let it out anyways. He would never think of you more than a close friend.

Keys jingle as you try to open the door to your dorm. It’s been two weeks since you last stayed with the boys because of club activities requiring you somewhere else, and as Rowoon had mentioned, you were sure the room was unkempt and messy. However, what you did not expect when you opened the door was to find Dawon and Rowoon cleaning the room. Well, more like Dawon cleaning and Rowoon standing idly.

“What are you guys doing?” You couldn’t help but ask incredulously, your eyebrows knitted in sheer suspicion and your suitcase rolling into a stop beside you. Dawon, cleaning. The two just didn’t seem right together. Rowoon, you could understand. His side of the room is always spick and span, but Dawon?

At the sound of your voice, Dawon’s head immediately turns. “Oh my goodness, my princess! My love! My honey! You’re back! Why didn’t you tell me?” He dramatically drops the broom and dustpan he’s holding in both hands and comically skips to you. You can’t help but smile a little. You missed him and his antics, too. “Surprise…?” You muse unsurely. “Damn it, I think I’m going to cry. It’s been so hard without you.” Dawon fictitiously sobs, his face morphing into a frown. He grabs the surprised you into a rough hug, and you let out a laugh.

“It’s only been two weeks, Dawon. Rowoon didn’t even greet me like this.” You share amusedly, but despite your contradicting words, you pat his back. “Without you, that bad jerk Rowoon had been torturing me! He kept on nagging me to clean my stuff and to sleep early and to take a bath and to study and to eat vegetables and to stop ordering so much take-outs and to-”

“Yah, she does that to you, too!” Rowoon finally voices out his complaints and jogs up to you and Dawon, who is now glowering in mock annoyance at the tall guy. “She so does not! My princess is an angel. I missed you so much; don’t ever leave again.” Dawon clings onto your arm, which you subtly reject by pulling away from him gently. A smile lights up your face in amusement.

“Why were you cleaning?” You decide to question instead.

“Oh, right!” Dawon gasps. You see a small grimace climb up Rowoon’s face and become curious. You turn your attention back to Dawon. The playful guy grins widely, “I convinced that giant over there to come to a party in exchange for me cleaning.” He pops both thumbs up while nodding victoriously to himself. You look over to Rowoon to check his expression. He scratches his temple sheepishly, “He cleaned – well, he’s trying to clean – two weeks of mess, so I think it’s going to be fine. I just need to steer away from alcohol.”

You know how easily drunk Rowoon gets, and as sad as that was, it was also comical. Despite his tough, handsome looks, he couldn’t handle a few shots for his life. Already picturing him cutely drunk in your mind, you stifle a laugh, “Going to a party means inevitable alcohol drinking, Seokwoo. But fine, it’s almost a miracle Dawon is doing any form of cleaning anyway.”

Dawon calls your name, shaking your arm eagerly with a big grin. “You should come, too. It’s been so long since we’ve hung out with each other!”

Although he says that, you knew you were going your separate ways during the party. He usually got too jumpy and excited to stay with the two of you, anyway. Nevertheless, you get what he means and nod casually. “Sure, I guess I should.” If Rowoon ever got drunk, at least you were there to stay sober.

As you expected from usual college parties, the atmosphere was already warm with packed bodies dancing against each other and loud music blasting against your ears the moment you enter in. Thankfully, it doesn’t smell as sweaty as the other parties you’ve been to, so you could actually handle walking around the house. Probably because it’s so big, you wonder, as Dawon catches your attention by slinging an arm around your shoulder.

“Hey, princess, enjoy the party. I’ll talk to you guys later.” He ruffles your hair gently before walking his way up to someone.

“So, it turns out he leaves us as soon as we walk into the scene. Where do you fancy going?” Rowoon leans down to your height, a playful twinkle in his eyes. You cautiously take a step back because he is too close. Trying to forget the blush that is slowly climbing up to your face, you offer, “Do you want to go to the kitchen?”

“Are you hungry?” He asks into your ear as the loud bass continues to drown the voices around you the deeper you walk into the house. “Not really, but it’s really noisy here!” You half-yell into his, as Rowoon grabs a hold of your wrist gently and starts to lead you through the bodies. “Don’t get lost then!” He playfully yells, before looking back to grin at you charmingly. You feel a squirm in your insides. You were starting to regret coming to this party.

The trip to the kitchen isn’t that far. When you arrive, you find that it’s empty for the most part, just about two to three people chatting against the countertops to the left. Beer bottles, a few bowls of punch and plastic cups fill the island. You spot bags of chips beside the drinks and grab one for the both of you. “It’s much quieter here.” You announce the obvious, trying to say something to break the semi-awkward silence.

“Yeah, better,” Rowoon says, as he reaches for the bag of chips you were idly holding. You watch as he easily rips it open with his hands. Handing it to you, he asks, “So, what did you do during your club retreat?” Just like that, you two fell into easy, comfortable conversation. He always had that effect – that effect of making everything seem fine just by talking to you. That’s what developed your crush towards him in the first place. You could always trust him to make you feel better, simple as it was.

As the two of you finished half the bag, he licks his lips and looks around in search for something. “I’m kind of thirsty now.” Rowoon finds water bottles near the island and screws the cap of one open. “Yah, be careful.” You warn. It was a harmless bottle, but you could never be too sure. “This is just water,” he reassures you.

You grab a bottle yourself. It tasted like flavored water, so you down half of it. “Do you want to dance?” Rowoon tilts his head to the source of the music. “I’m not really a good dancer.” You reveal with a sheepish chuckle. “Well, I can teach you. Come on.” He tugs at your wrist encouragingly, despite your small protests. The music grows louder and louder as he leads you near the center.

“Come on, jump.” Rowoon grins as he jumps to show you. You laugh, “This is so ridiculous, Seokwoo.” But you jump with him anyway, as his melodious laugh rings around you. “Jump to get the feeling of adrenaline.” He advises, now throwing his hands up to the air to the beat of the music. Soon, you do get the feeling that he described and eventually loosen up.

“See! You’re good at dancing!” He grins, naturally reaching to settle his hand on your waist. Almost immediately, the previous happy grin on your face falls, and the feeling is replaced by a nervous flutter in your stomach. Rowoon doesn’t seem to notice, so you gain courage and gulp your panic away. You slowly step closer to him and place a hand on his shoulder.

He turns his head down at you, a little caught off guard. You’re too shy to look up and instead stare at his shoes that suddenly seem more interesting. Rowoon chuckles, finding you insanely cute. He snakes the hand that was on your waist to the small of your back and gently pushes you closer to him. Your heart stops beating for a second before he tilts your chin up with his other hand.

“I don’t think I can handle how cute you are.” His voice is low but you hear every word he says despite the loud music around you. His eyes are a bit darker in contrast to the excited glint they sported earlier, and you visibly gulp under his stare. Rowoon leans in closer, and you can’t seem to breathe.

His lips find yours in a short moment, and you find a faint taste of the chips you had earlier. Despite it, his lips still tasted so good and so like him. You wonder why you didn’t find the courage to kiss him much earlier. All nervousness and fear wash away from you as Rowoon holds you tighter to him. Your hand reaches out to gently tug at his hair and the other rests flush against his chest.

“I should’ve done this much earlier,” he hums regretfully against your lips before capturing them again with his. Your eyes flutter close as you tilt your head to kiss him better. He was so, incredibly sweet, and you came to an inevitable decision that you could never get tired of him.

Rowoon’s kisses turn much more passionate as he nips at your lips. His hands continue to tug you closer and closer to him, even though you’re already so pressed against him. When you part for air, his eyes are much darker. He grabs your hand before tugging you to a dark hallway where there aren’t much people.

As soon as the both of you are out of obvious eyesight, he gently pushes you against the wall. Before doing anything, he looks into your eyes, now a little gentler. “Are you okay with this?” Rowoon whispers. You don’t have to ask me anything, you think in your head, but instead, you answer him by locking your arms around his waist to pull him to you. “Yes,” you answer, a little desperate.

He half-smirks, a happy glint in his eyes, before he crashes his lips back on yours. Eagerly, the two of you press against each other, and Rowoon breaks away to kiss the side of your mouth. He kisses your jaw, then moves down to kiss your neck. “Seokwoo-yah,” you couldn’t help but sigh out, your hands now gripping his hair tighter. At first, you felt him peppering your neck with soft kisses, then it gradually came to a stop.

“Seokwoo?” You question when you don’t feel anything anymore. You look down to see his head resting on the crook of your neck. “Seokwoo.” You shake his shoulder, but he lightly grunts in reply. “Is he… sleeping?” You realize in surprise, yet you can’t help but laugh. Was it the water? Was it actually alcohol? You ponder. You do feel a little bit light-headed.

Why did it taste like water? But you don’t think much of it. Rowoon’s head is getting heavier on your shoulder. He got me riled up for nothing. He’s lucky he’s cute, you think as you try to push him away from your body to sling an arm around his shoulder. His head lolls on top of your head. You glance at his sleeping face and chuckle.

Getting him back to your dorm was pretty tiring. You had to inform Dawon you both were leaving because Rowoon accidentally drank something and had to take his car to get home. Dawon was also a bit drunk, but he agreed, knowing that Rowoon getting back to the dorm was a better option than leaving him in the party. He assured you he could go back home with another friend, and then you left.

On the drive home, he woke up a few times but he was still a drunk, blubbering mess. He kept on poking your cheek and kept on grinning cutely. It took your willpower to keep on driving and to not kiss him instead. As soon as you parked in the driveway, he went outside and started running wildly. You had to chase him and ask him to quiet down. He then kept on pouting and acting upset. Seriously, he was so childish when he got drunk, but also so incredibly cute.

Now you’re currently fishing your keys out of your pocket to open the door to your dorm, while Rowoon is swaying from side to side behind you. “Where are we?” He asks innocently, poking your shoulder a few times. “We’re at the dorm. It’s time we sleep,” you say and open the door wide for him to go in.

“What?” His eyes go as wide as saucers. “We… you… I… sleep? Together?” Rowoon gasps. You laugh as you push him in, “Yeah, we’re going to sleep. Why, you don’t want to sleep?”

“No… no, that’s not it. But… Rowoonie thinks it’s too early to sleep together.” Rowoon scratches his temple, a drunk red flush on his cheeks. You close the door. “Why? It’s just sleeping?” You stifle a laugh, teasing him. “Rowoonie… Rowoonie not ready.” He continuously shakes his head. You gasp when he stumbles to the side. You then release a relieved laugh, “I’m just joking, Seokwoo.”

“O-oh…” He quiets down. You can’t help your big grin. He’s really such a cute drunk. “Lay down there.” You point to his bed on the left, and he obediently lies down. You take his shoes and socks off. “Why are your feet so cold?” You ask a little bit worried. “It was really cold in the car.” Rowoon reveals, pulling his blanket up to his chin.

Looking at him buried in the covers with only his face peeking out made you really warm and fuzzy inside. He’s so cute, you think for the umpteenth time. You sit down by his side, stroking his hair. “If you’re sleepy, go ahead and sleep.”

“Can you stay with me, please?” He quietly requests, as you soften. “Yeah, of course I will.” You slide down next to him, the both of you gazing at each other. Rowoon snuggles into you. “You’re warm. You’re my new pillow,” he mumbles against the expanse of your shirt. “Thanks for being here with me…” Rowoon confesses as he drifts to sleep.

“You’re welcome,” you whisper and press a soft kiss against his forehead.

#sf9 #sf9 scenarios #rowoon scenarios #rowoon #sf9 imagines #rowoon imagines #rowoon fluff #mine #i dont know what i wrote hahahaha

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makeste · 5 years

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BnHA Smash!! 01 and 02: Smash!!Might is a Fucking Menace

okay, so. I have about a million other things I should be doing instead, including (1) responding to asks and/or finishing in-progress metas, (2) reading Vigilantes, and last but not least, (3) actually making a dent in the ever-increasing backlog of Actual Work That I Really Should Be Doing Instead.

so naturally I’m procrastinating by taking my first stab at reading BnHA’s cute 4-panel omake spinoff series, BnHA Smash!! IT JUST MAKES SENSE. look, I have exactly one thing I felt like actually doing and not procrastinating today, so I might as well do the thing. basically it’s my attention span’s world and I’m just living in it.

anyway! so apparently this series was scanlated by good ol’ Fallen Angels. that’s right; prepare yourselves for some very creative cursing, fellas. other background info for anyone who, like me, is unfamiliar with this spin-off: this series debuted on November 9, 2015, a little over a year after the original series. said original series was currently at chapter 66, meaning the Final Exam arc was just wrapping up.

so now that we’re all properly oriented, let me go over a few disclaimers real quick and then we’ll get started!

all comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.

I’m aware that not everyone may be familiar with Smash!! even if they’ve read/watched the original series, so I’ve tried to make this recap comprehensible even if you haven’t read the spin-off. that being said, it’s probably more enjoyable if you have, so you can either purchase the first volume from Viz here, or read the chapter online (I don’t want to link directly, but the spin-off is available on most of the usual sites. literally just google “read mha” and you’ll find some good options).

this readthrough contains a handful of sorta-kinda spoilers for the BnHA manga, although there are no direct spoilers. just an indirect reference to a joke in chapter 242, as well as a reference to a theory which as of now is in no way canon. but just to be on the safe side I’m posting a heads-up.

and I think that’s it! so here we go.

so we’re opening with a brief summary of the series. people have superpowers and shit’s nuts. you know the drill

there’s also a brief description of the way that the superhero economy works, complete with Mt. Lady’s employees unionizing and demanding better pay

...what

guys I keep staring at this and thinking that surely, SURELY it doesn’t say what I think it says. sidekick... what... manager??

you know what? Viz unfortunately doesn’t include this series as part of their subscription package (WHAT AM I PAYING YOU FOR, VIZ), but it does at least include a free preview of Smash, and I bet you that this, the first fucking page of the series, is a part of that preview. so... let’s see...

okay, see, this actually makes sense! so did the FA scanlating team collectively all have a fucking stroke?! just, what??

this is one of the reasons why I had difficulty reading Vigilantes too, tbh. those early chapter scans were, uh. but at least Vigilantes has a Viz scanlation too. I don’t want to spend 10 bucks just to read one volume of this, but we’ll see. anyways

so now there’s a strip about baby!Izuku watching his favorite clip of All Might saving one hundred people from a bus accident or whatever

lol Inko you should not have left your shrewdly calculating four-year-old son unattended omg

TWELVE MONTHS’ WORTH OF TEXTBOOKS HOW CAN THIS EAGER YOUNG MIND RESIST

and this is why you don’t leave your credit card info saved on the computer when you have kids. life lessons learned today

this is the first indicator we have ever had that baby!Izuku wasn’t perfect and was, in fact, capable of being a little shit and giving his mom plenty of gray hairs in his own special way. ngl, I fucking love it

also 12,800 yen is about $118 USD, which is honestly a really good deal for a year’s worth of textbooks. he got three boxes of books! I just googled the average cost of college textbooks, and the google article said the average student spends about $1200 a year. so this is a fucking steal tbh

OH MY GOD INKO HOW MANY TIMES MUST HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF BEFORE YOU LEARN

at least install a fucking adblocker ffs. you’re lucky quirk supplement ads are the worst of the ads he’s getting! PARENTAL CONTROLS

now we are cutting to a comic about baby!Izuku defending another boy from my problematic fave, as seen in page one of the original series!

lmaooo

I’m not clear on how much of this spin-off can actually be considered canon. my understanding is that it is Horikoshi-reviewed and approved, even though he doesn’t actually write it. but it’s obviously a humor series, so a lot of it is just going to be jokes. that being said, I think my approach is going to be “if it’s not completely ridiculous and doesn’t contradict the actual manga, go ahead and consider it canon”

(ETA: I might change this up after reading the first two chapters. most of these strips would have terrifying implications if they were actually canon sob.)

anyhoo, this actually does contradict the manga in that we saw this encounter play out very differently. but I kind of wish it was canon regardless because looool. these cocky preschoolers and their fucking Battle Tears

the next comic is Mt. Lady accidentally stepping on a guy’s face and the guy being way too fucking happy about it (read: having a fucking nosebleed and taking an upskirt shot). we’re just going to skip this entirely. this is another problem I was having with Vigilantes too. you know, for all my complaints about Mineta and such, BnHA as a whole is so much tamer than it could be, and I need to give Horikoshi credit for that. he mostly knows where to draw the line, and to his credit he’s also much, much better about this kind of thing than he was when he first started. maybe Mineta’s standings in the character poll results are helping to clue him in

anyway, I’ll mostly just skip past the iffy stuff because I don’t have patience for it and there’s still plenty of other stuff to cover. so on to the next strip

which features a bunch of reporters fawning over Mt. Lady’s flashy quirk while Kamui Woods laments in the shadows

and yet we know this kid will have a prominent rise within the next six months. it’s so strange to revisit the start of the series and see how much things have changed in such a short time

oh my god

no one who dresses up as a giant mushroom could possibly have good intentions. I. just

and look at the fucking disappointment in Deku’s eyes. KAMUI WOODS HE BELIEVED IN YOU!

now some strange man is coming up to Deku and is all HEY YOU, YOU’RE A HERO OTAKU, TELL ME WHAT TO BUY MY SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON FOR HIS BIRTHDAY. better not ask him unless you’re prepared to shell out $120 bucks for some fucking textbooks

hey, what!!

WE DIDN’T EVEN GET TO SEE WHAT HE BOUGHT HIM? unless it’s the action figure the kid appears to be holding? but I’m just going to go ahead and assume Izuku recommended the number one best gift that any seven-year-old child would love, i.e. a giant sword

now it’s a sludge monster omake!

so Izuku is trudging home all depressed after CERTAIN INCIDENTS, and Sludgey is glooping his way out of a sewer towards him

oh no All Might

my biggest takeaway from this is the fact that the entire second half of chapter one takes place after All Might has emerged from a fucking sewer. I forgot all about that somehow. or maybe it never fully processed until just now. but omg. this entire chapter must have smelled so fucking bad. these poor kids

wow All Might

sure called that one wrong. ah well nobody’s perfect

looooool

lmao, Smash!!All Might appears to be quite a bit more vain than the original. wow dude

btw, friendly reminder (and I think this is something that was actually pointed out to me after one of the recaps; that’s one of my favorite things about doing these) that All Might, after saving Deku, actually read his notebook before signing it. super-fast, I guess, because he’s the best. but yeah, so he knew exactly how smart and observant Deku was, and how much he wanted to be a hero. his decision to pick him as his successor didn’t just come out of the blue; even before the “my body moved on its own” thing, there was a lot Deku had going in his favor. this is one of those little details of which BnHA has so many, and which I love

lmao what the fuck

ngl this version of the series would have been amazing in its own way. but yeah. so this is why we clearly can’t assume everything in Smash!! is canon lol. but I can already tell I am going to enjoy the shit out of this series

now we’re cutting to Deku running at Sludgey in order to save Kacchan, oh shit. the most dramatic part of chapter one. clearly no moment is sacred

sob what

I don’t understand this strip at all. is this supposed to be a serious moment inserted unexpectedly among this multitude of joke strips? or did I miss the punchline? heeeeelp

(ETA: okay so. my best guess is that All Might wrote all over Deku’s life-saving advice, and so the joke is that Deku no longer knows what to do when assaulting sludge men because HIS NOTES ARE RUINED. idk. what does 25 P mean??)

now All Might has Done The Thing and saved my boys, and now Mt. Lady is helping with the cleanup. scooping up all the bits of sludge and putting it in trash bags

oh my god

nope nevermind. nope. nope

-- shit. okay, you know what? this first chapter has been a real in-your-face reminder of the fact that the sludge monster was not made of cute sparkly 2018-trending-fad slime, but was in fact composed of RAW FUCKING SEWAGE. (ETA: to be clear, I’m pretty sure the joke in this strip is that she accidentally picked up dog-doo during her clean-up. but still, the fact that it was indistinguishable from the rest of the gunk speaks for itself.) I think I forced myself to gloss over this fact originally due to the nope factor. but just. Izuku and Katsuki were both choking to death on this shit?? and just, how the fuck did they make it out of this not traumatized

and also, like. All Might was straight up going to leave Izuku alone afterwards, just, “well enjoy your autograph, fine citizen” and blasting off out of there. and everyone fucking saw Katsuki almost suffocate to death later on, and after giving him a pat on the back they fucking let him go off on his own too? and you can’t even make the argument that this was Just Another Day In Quirk Society either, because more than a year later, Katsuki is still a bona fide fucking celebrity from the media coverage of his attack. it clearly was not something that happens every day. in conclusion, these kids are resilient as fuck, and thank god for that because people apparently just do not give a shit, holy christ

anyway. at least Mt. Lady had gloves

OH MY GOD

I FUCKING KNEW IT OH MY GOD. THE ROIDS. MUSCLES LIKE THAT DON’T JUST GROW ON TREES, I DON’T CARE HOW MANY LBS OF GARBAGE THIS KID HAULED OFF THE BEACH. THIS BOY BEEN HITTIN THE JUICE

Smash!!Might is so fucking shady omfg. probably sells cheap counterfeit electronics on Amazon

oh shit and that’s the end of the fucking chapter lol. that’s it?? that was only eight pages. fuck it, let’s read another. but first here’s Horikoshi’s note on the spin-off

so he really feels that Neda gets the spirit of the series and understands him. that’s very encouraging. the best spoofs and parodies are done out of love. I really think I’m going to enjoy this series

so! onward to chapter two

so here’s All Might dressed as Mr. 2 Bon Clay from One Piece, I guess??

“you know what’s funny? dressing a man in girl’s clothes LOL.” guys can we grow the fuck up. and also acknowledge that All Might can look good in anything, so this questionable gag wouldn’t have even landed anyway. you work that tutu All Might

lmao check out the past users of OFA here

All for One for All theory fucking confirmed lol. just look. that’s him in the back of the conga line. clearly

so Deku is all “hell yes why would I possibly say no??” but then

HIS LIMBS. lmao. sign here

in all seriousness, given the shit this kid has been through since the part of the series, All Might probably should have gotten him to sign a liability waiver of some sort. not that it would have stood, since Deku is underage! anyways Deku you totally have grounds to sue the shit out of the Symbol of Peace should you ever choose to do so. and the trend of Smash!!Might being shady af continues yes please give me more I love it

so now All Might is giving Deku his fitness plan which has a really elaborate name

given that this is Smash!!Might, I can’t help but wonder if this plan is in actuality some sort of MLM scheme. All Might are you trying to get Deku to do Herbalife

lol what in the fuck

the original series skipped right over a hell of a lot, it would seem. like the time Deku traveled to Arizona and fought coyotes in a poncho

I’m starting to suspect that Neda-sensei might be on some sort of substance. “let’s see what jokes can I make about chapter 2 of BnHA. I know, I’ll send the protagonist to a fictionalized version of the American Southwest in a sombrero, and then turn him into a 65-year-old oil tycoon.” naturally

lmao that’s really it, that’s the strip. moving right along. okay??

now Izuku is staring at the intimidating piles of Beach Trash and is all “I HAVE TO PICK ALL THIS SHIT UP?”

omg Deku no

somebody call Marie Kondo. Deku none of this is salvageable. not even to reuse in a color page photoshoot spread four years from now

OH SHIT

PROVED ME WRONG OH SNAP. SHOWED ME RIGHT WHERE I COULD PUT THOSE SASSY TAKES. MY BAD DEKU I’M SORRY

anyways I don’t know what Smash!!Might is so upset about. he probably wove some kind of clause into the contract Deku signed that allows him a percentage of the profits. unless Deku already spent it all on textbooks

what the fuck is this fucking series lmao

time for a round of “what is All Might casually crushing in this panel?” is it (a) a cardboard box, or (b) like, a mini-fridge or some fucking shit. IT COULD BE EITHER. IT MAKES EQUALLY AS MUCH SENSE EITHER WAY. “HEROES THESE DAYS ARE [FLEEEEEEX] OBSESSED WITH BEING FLASHY”

holy shit no wonder he ran away to the Sierra Nevada. it’s only a matter of time before this freak fucking kills someone

NOW WE’RE CUTTING AWAY TO KAMUI WOODS DRESSED LIKE A DAFFODIL, IN THE SAME FUCKING COMIC STRIP, BECAUSE REASONS

my jokes about the mangaka being high as a fucking kite when he wrote this are gradually becoming less jokes and more serious inquiries??

lol so he coincidentally just stumbled across All Might and Deku at this exact moment

AND IT WAS A FUCKING REFRIGERATOR OH MY FUCKING GOD

do you guys remember during the final exam when All Might beat the everloving shit out of Deku and Kacchan, and everyone was all “JESUS CHRIST WOULD YOU LEARN TO FUCKING HOLD BACK A LITTLE THEY ARE CHILDREN YOU MANIAC.” but now we can see plain as day that he was, in fact, holding back. anyways Smash!!Might is terrifying as shit and if this had been the main series I would have already pegged him as the final villain by this point

here he is now wearing an old-timey bathing suit but looking more like an escaped convict than anything else

this panel is actually canon. I’ve decided. this 100% definitely happened at some point. especially the swimsuit

now two bikini babes are walking up and they’re all “IS THAT ALL MIGHT??” with excited sparkly eyes because they don’t know that he’s actually a deranged con artist who crushes refrigerators like empty soda cans. this spin-off has truly opened my eyes

LOOK AT THIS SKEEVY FUCK. JUST LOOK

AND NOW HE’S RUNNING OFF AND LEAVING DEKU TO DROWN IN EXHAUSTION, SON OF A

“SUDDEN BUSINESS” KSJLDKF SMASH!!MIGHT IS A FUCKING MENACE TO SOCIETY AND ALSO DOES NOT GIVE ONE SINGLE FUCK. NOT ONE!! HE’S OUT THERE FUCKLESS, AND NO ONE IS SAFE

now Deku is approaching his mom all serious and says he wants to change up his diet

and she’s looking at the menu he prepared all impressed and thinking that she might join him. as long as it’s for your health, Inko. if this manga starts making jokes about your weight, I will beat it over the head with Deku’s textbooks

OMFG

THIS WENT IN THE EXACT OPPOSITE DIRECTION I WAS EXPECTING, AND THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING I’VE EVER READ WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. the whole fucking family is on the juice. and the fucking mangaka is on some special juice of his own oh my stars

now we’re cutting to Mt. Lady stomping on a car

thank fuck no one was actually in there. also does she not wear shoes

and also, it only just occurred to me that she must be another person with a special quirk costume, because her suit shrinks and expands along with her. Hagakure and Momo are really getting shafted by the costume design team here. they need to fire some people

anyway so Mt. Lady slipped on this carelessly placed vehicle and fell down and crushed an entire building whoops

bruh, you think you’re “ow.” let’s hope that building was empty too

and now she’s toppling another building just fucking because, I guess. and saying she can’t do urban areas

lmao and now the sidekick [CENSORED] manager from chapter one is back to guilt-trip her omg

I need this man to show up in every freaking chapter. please. respect my wishes

and now Izuku is standing on top of his collected pile of garbage screaming in victory

I only just realized that there’s still a big old Pile O’ Trash on this beach, though. someone needs to haul all of this junk away. or else get All Might and Mt. Lady to crush it all with a combined effort

oh shit here it comes y’all, the famous “eat my hair” scene. potential comedy gold right here omg

lol what the fuck

this man is a fucking billionaire and he’s out here clipping coupons and deleting pictures of his son in order to make room for them smdh

okay now we’re doing the hair scene

oh. oh no. I know where this is going sob please keep this comic rated PG for the children Neda

motherfucker they really --

Smash!!Might is a straight-up felon. this man has no fucking scruples. that’s okay Midoriya-shounen, if you don’t want to eat my hair we could just try some REDACTED, jesus christ I am going to need some bleach for my eyes after this

OR LET’S JUST STRAIGHT UP GO THERE WHY NOT

lmao sob. well, two chapters in and we’ve established that no territory is off-limits here. it’s a brave new world. wow

so that’s it! our introduction to BnHA Smash!! I enjoyed it a lot and I will definitely be reading more! I’m not sure what kind of schedule I’ll keep, but this is a really good procrastination manga thus far, so knowing me I might actually work my way through this relatively quickly. especially since the Manga At Large is on break this week. anyways my deepest apologies to the many people who have been requesting for me to start Vigilantes instead. I just need something lighter right now, and this is a good fit. one of these days I’ll get my shit together with the other two spinoffs as well.

#bnha smash!!#boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #all might #midoriya inko #mt. lady #kamui woods #bnha smash!! 01 #bnha smash!! 02 #makeste reads bnha #the pile o' trash is a legit plothole though you guys #are we just supposed to pretend it magically vanished #they really drew deku standing shirtless on top of a heap of garbage #and in the very next panel declared that the beach was spotless??#so what is the truth #someone #answer me

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aqvarius · 5 years

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[HAPPY ENDING WALKTHROUGH + REVIEW] HLITF: Toru Kurosawa MS1: Meeting Him + MS2: Falling in Love

Oh, Kurosawa. Sweet Kurosawa. How I loved you. Honestly I was kind of fine with just his My Sweet Bodyguard route back in 2014. See this review for more and also for noob Tea writing back when 18 old me thought that constituted critical analysis (now I am self-aware enough to just call this a standard review/thoughts haha, what analysis…). So anyway I was kind of fine not playing Kurosawa’s routes until I started writing batch headcanons and then got a couple of asks about Toru and felt like I needed to get a better understanding of his actual character.

Expectations:

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’d heard from a few people that his MS1 was not that good and/or straight up infuriating so naturally I was intrigued. I was writing a review at the time (Takado from Romance MD) and looked back my old reviews to see how I did the structuring and I stumbled across that Kurosawa MSB review (and my scathing Goto MSB review lol) and I liked him well enough! I just had some issues with the pacing of the story and general lack of MC involvement. So I kinda thought it’ll probably be a similar sort of route where Toru has to sort out his issues and I guess his MC will help him get through them.

I already knew from MSB that Kurosawa has a dark side so I already didn’t go into it expecting the genki type (e.g. Sora from MSB/Hiro from Love Letter from Thief X/Nagito from Scandal in the Spotlight). Well even though I thought I knew what I was getting into, this sweet and naïve girl was not expecting that rollercoaster ride of a route.

Click below to read my thoughts (spoiler warning!!) and scroll all the way to the bottom for the happy ending walkthrough

Reactions:

I wrote at the end of my notes that I’m surprised actually how similar his route is to his MSB route. I definitely want to address this in more detail but I’ll start with Toru’s character.

So Toru starts off very genki and chipper and like how he usually comes across as when you see him in anyone else’s route. He’s friendly and supportive and encouraging and he helps you out. Actually parts of his MS1 are quite similar to Soma – the way they treat and use informants in particular. I made a joke that Kurosawa is like Soma but darker and then he more or less confirmed it in MS2 so… I’m just bragging about how well I know my Boys lmao ignore me. The main difference here is that his MC isn’t the most competent, unlike Soma’s MC who is “the best suited for Public Safety” (sorry I’m like flexing here cause I love Soma’s MC so much) and actually good. That’s when Toru steps in to give you handy advice and a cheery smile since Ishigami is really good at cutting you to the ground. There’s always something jarring about going back to reading MS1 routes for any character because you always forget how noob MC is at the beginning haha. Except Soma’s MC who is a boss and a half. That being said, she does get better when she puts her mind to it.

Anyway, it takes seeing him deal with informants that makes you realise that there might be something a little more insidious about his character (but this is the same tactic as Soma so it’s not quite unique yet). But you only really get a sense of how dark he really is right at the very end of his MS1, like literally only right at the end of his Happy Ending. That also brings me to something I don’t like which is you have a whole chunk of story missing if you only get his Good End. The only thing you get is a warning from Soma that being involved with Kurosawa will make you cry and then you have to figure out from context clues in MS2 that Toru pulled a good old fuck n chuck on you. And that officially makes him the biggest asshole in HLITF. Going back and reading the MS1 special stories is tragic cause MC really believes Kurosawa is her destiny like a total fool when he’s just played her like a freaking triangle – that’s how easy she is to get played. I hope you’ve already played when reading this or weren’t planning on reading it or don’t mind spoilers because it was seriously a shock when it happened. Like I knew something was gonna go wrong because no way would it be that easy but I was not expecting that from a game like HLITF. Even when reading through his MS2, I really thought he wasn’t just playing her for sex and that there was affection there somewhere that he was just trying to tamp down. I think this is where my preconceived ideas of him from MSB were playing up because that’s maybe what would have gone down had it happened with MSB MC.

I wrote in my old MSB review that Kurosawa’s character is made of contradictions and that even at the end of his route, I still don’t quite understand him and that I found him realistically human that I felt like he could exist outside of the gamespace. Interestingly, I feel the exact same way about him in HLITF. Even after finishing his MS2 and epilogue, I don’t quite get him. Granted, I may be feeling this way because with the other Lis that I’ve read, I’ve been able to read enough to get a better sense of their characters the more I play. But I feel like Toru is someone that even after you’re together, he still keeps himself quite hidden; actually, this is far more so the case than in MSB. I joked that he wears a condom over his feelings at all times and it’s TRUE. That’s what he has on: an emotional condom.

However, this feeling of not quite getting him may be due to the dynamics between Toru and his MC and the confusing nature of their relationship and its development. The thing feels weird about Kurosawa’s MS1 and 2 is that it’s different from the other routes (except Namba’s maybe? I haven’t played him yet) in that you’re not his aide. Toru is your ‘same age friend’ rather than an instructor (although he’s 25 and Shinonome is 26 so it’s kind of interesting that there’s such a HUGE gap between you and Shinonome even though there’s only one (or maybe two) years between you). So first off it’s absolutely tragic how little Ishigami cares about you in this route lol. But I think one of the things I enjoy the most about HLITF is that instructor-aide dynamic (sorry Ayumu but dw I still love you even though we’re peers now) and that’s definitely missing in this route. You do get some guidance and stuff but it sort of comes across more as friendly advice from a neighbour rather than instruction from your mentor. I think Kurosawa had more of an instructor vibe in Soma’s Adversaries route than in his own routes.

I guess it’s that MC idolises Kurosawa as a senpai who she thinks is better in every way and she’s always fawning over how sweet and helpful and funny he is, which is why she becomes so disillusioned when he has no problems completely fucking her over. It’s quite entertaining how much this MC hates Kurosawa after he plays her. Like, she’s SO pissed. Even Ayumu’s MC never hated him even when he messed her about and somehow she kept loving him with the persistence of a parasite. No, our dear friend MC despises him.

Her anger is actually quite comical. I think personally I relate more to the type of MC that Kaga/Soma/Ishigami have, so playing Kurosawa’s routes definitely felt like more of a ‘third person perspective’ thing for me. If you have a shorter fuse than I do and like to act on your emotions then you’ll likely feel satisfied reading this route. That this MC’s personality is so different from MSB MC is probably what makes their dynamic so different. Kurosawa would never treat MSB MC like he did HLITF MC. Speaking of their dynamic though, I’m a little confused by the idolisation vs rival thing. At one point towards the end of MS2, Ishigami basically tells you to stop putting Kurosawa on a pedestal and treat him as a rival because you’re the same age – but has MC really been idolising him in MS2? Hasn’t she kind of been hating him?

Kurosawa’s MC is also fairly different from the other HLITF MCs that I’ve played. They all generally have good instincts and a strong conviction and sense of justice and so much empathy for their men and their issues. However, there are some notable differences: for example, Shinonome’s MC is optimistic, almost to a fault. Even when she feels like she’s been betrayed, she still loves Shinonome unconditionally. Shinonome’s MC is very genki and a bit more shameless haha. MCs like Soma’s and Kaga’s (and I imagine Ishigami’s) are a little more hesitant(?) and sweeter, possibly because they’re more easily led around by the demanding Kaga and the manipulative Soma. While still having the base HLITF MC traits, somehow Kurosawa’s MC seems a little more pessimistic and more cynical than the others and overall not as cute/sweet. But also she seems to have higher 女子力 (not sure how I can translate this… like feminine aesthetic ability? Google it or google joshiryoku) since she describes wearing makeup three whole times in the route!! Which is three more times than I’ve ever in my life heard HLITF MC talk about wearing makeup. I bet Ayumu is wishing his MC is more like this lolol. Essentially I think all the other HLITF MCs trust their instructors and their relationship with their whole being (except Ayumu’s but she’s optimistic enough to get through it) whereas Toru’s MC really does not lol.

One of the issues I had with Kurosawa’s MSB route is how abruptly or inexplicably they fall in love. I have the exact same problem with this route. I’m thinking maybe they tried to do the ‘betrayed by a guy you thought was your friend and started developing feelings for and then falling in love even after seeing his true self’ thing but the problem is you don’t see them falling in love! Especially in MS2 which is literally called “Falling in love”. In fact, you just see MC getting more and more angry and annoyed at him. Okay I can sort of excuse that, maybe since I think her anger stems from the fact that he just played her like that even while she liked him so much. If she didn’t like him then she’s probably think “wow he’s an ass and I’m a terrible judge of character” but overall wouldn’t give a fuck. Even then, the MS2 Good Ending chapter seems to indicate that you’re not fully aware of your feelings for him. But when does Kurosawa start falling for you? You literally don’t know. He just plays you and plays you and treats you the same as always and then BAM episode 10 and he’s suddenly confessing his love and saying he’ll keep loving you even if you hate him (but only in the HE). I’m trying to figure out when exactly he falls for you because I don’t know that he’d do the good old ‘lie to a girl to have a one night stand’ manoeuvre if he already liked you; in fact, he even admits that he couldn’t stand you at first. Maybe he starts liking you when you start treating him coldly haha. But it also seems like he likes your soft-heartedness? I guess we won’t know for sure until his PoV is released. Voltage is getting good with making money lol.

I think I actually kind of enjoyed the MS2 GE more than the HE because I think getting Ishigami’s acknowledgement and approval (and his schedule!!!! Finally!!!!) somehow meant more to me than getting Kurosawa’s love. But this is also because Ishigami is at least respectful to you in other people’s routes usually but he’s so scornful in Kurosawa’s routes it makes me so sad haha please love me Hideki-san.

But yeah anyway I got serious déjà vu over two things: the first being the sudden random confession. The second is Kurosawa just going AWOL. I basically SCREAMED when he went AWOL cause that was an issue I had in his MSB route (you spend like 2 whole chapters just looking for him and texting him and calling him to no avail l m a o). And then the exact fucking same thing happened in his MS2!!!!! Granted, it didn’t take 2 chapters to resolve but o m g, it’s like the writer consulted with his MSB route before writing this lol. At least HLITF MC actually gets to contribute to Toru’s development this time. Similar to how Goto’s MSB and HLITF routes have some minor differences in the details of his back story, Kurosawa also has some small changes in his history with regards to what happened between his father and his uncle which is kinda nice because the story will still feel fresh and new even if you’ve played his MSB route.

ETA: another thing I forgot to mention is that Kurosawa’s low self esteem really comes through in a very similar way as in MSB. See here a quote from MSB:

and then in HLITF:

(Toru is actually Very Precious when he takes off that emotional condom)

One thing that every single HLITF route gets right is the plot. I don’t know what else to say, the plots are always just really good. Detailed, intriguing, suspenseful, the perfect amount of action. The reason I love this whole title so much is because you have the romantic aspect but you also really feel involved in uncovering these grand schemes through investigation and it always thrills me towards the last third of the route when the action and drama really pick up. So good. The one thing that always clues you in on the possible perpetrators though is that they have sprites. Every time there’s a sprite you just KNOW they’re somehow involved in the plot lol. The quality of the writing too has improved so much compared to other titles that were written and/or translated a few years ago. There’s a lot of contemporary slang and references that makes me feel like it’s definitely a native English speaker who’s doing the translation, and someone who’s really clued into contemporary English-speaking media and online culture.

The epilogue was kind of cute but I didn’t feel super immersed because I was upset at my boy Shinonome for going to goukon when he has me waiting around to hang out with him. Kurosawa’s MC is definitely a lot more forward than other HLITF MC (bar Shinonome’s, but Shinonome’s MC is cuter about it) which is great and she seems to be a good and mature communicator. You get a really sexy CG (which by the way can we just thank the HLITF artist because she never fails to deliver incredible art) and Kurosawa is surprisingly human in bed. You can definitely sense that their relationship is more balanced than that of instructor-aide overall; MC is more proactive rather than in some other routes where it’s always your instructors who are doing all the work lol. Maybe this is because you’re peers/same age friends.

In general, I think Toru’s a great character, really interesting, there’s lots of nuance and detail to his characterisation and I think the writers did a good job. I just prefer a different type of guy when I play otome games. I bought the ending set just to write this review for some reason thinking that it was the PoV stories but I made a mistake and it’s just the .5 stories rather than his PoV (I’m thinking it’s the sequel maybe? Where the PoV is in the Special Stories) so you’re welcome. There’s this whole water bottle/flower plot running through the special stories which is actually quite sweet and it makes me a little annoyed because it’s way cuter than the actual MS. You’ll definitely like it if you’re a fan of Kurosawa though. It’s also kinda funny cause it just goes and undoes the whole soulmate-debunking thing because I guess it turns out that you were destined to meet, just way before you two ever even knew of each other’s existence. Both the action plot and the romantic plot of Kurosawa’s Season 1 are really set up for continuing on in Season 2 and getting closer both to him and the truth behind the mysterious hospital death/cult investigation so it would be nice to see how the relationship and the story develop in the years to come. Voltage you’d better not cancel HLITF or I’m gonna beg outside your headquarters every day for 5 years and/or until I get arrested for trespassing.

If you want to get Happy Ending for Toru Kurosawa’s MS1: Meeting Him and MS2: Falling in Love, read on below for the walkthrough.

Toru Kurosawa MS1: Meeting Him Happy Ending Walkthrough

Ep 1

B. “Definitely.” A. “Definitely.”

Ep 2

C. “He’s a funny guy.” A. Nod

Ep 3 (no change)

A. “Toru with an S.” B. Try to figure it out.

Ep 4

A. “No!” B. “No way!”

Ep 5

C. “I’m doing this for myself.” B. “You’re awful.”

Ep 6

C. “Kurosawa.” A. “No, that’s it.”

Ep 7

A. “Namika, the nurse.” C. “I want to be your number one.”

Ep 8

C. Kiss him. B. “I’m not interested.”

Ep 9

B. “I’ll shake things up.” A. “He’s kind.”

Happy Ending

———————————–

Toru Kurosawa MS2: Falling in Love Happy Ending Walkthrough

Ep 1

“Congrats again.” “Basically.”

Ep 2 (I wanted to call him a lying bastard)

“We’re only coworkers.” “Ask yourself that.”

Ep 3

“Didn’t need it.” “My liaison.”

Ep 4 (You can tell him to shut the hell up lol)

“What’s this mean?” “Fine.”

Ep 5 (no change)

“No thanks.” Ignore him.

Ep 6 (“He’s a liar, but hey”)

“A few things.” ‘Everybody likes him"

Ep 7

“Yeah.” “Don’t lie.”

Ep 8

“I respected you.” Avoid his eyes.

Ep 9

“I’m fine with that.” “You think?”

Happy Ending

#walkthrough #review #toru kurosawa #her love in the force #hlitf #voltage #voltage inc #voltage otome #otome game #otome blog #love 365 #otome romance #otome walkthrough

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yunaffie · 5 years

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Shu Takumi interview

Several years ago, Official Nintendo Magazine UK (now no longer existent) had an interview with Shu Takumi and it was even on their website. Now their website is no longer around, but I did manage to find the interview on the Wayback Machine and I figured I’d repost it to make it easier to find, as well as give people who haven’t seen it yet the opportunity to do so.

On the day that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies is released, Takumi talks to us about his best-loved series

Shu Takumi's most famous creation, Phoenix Wright, is famed for his 'turnabouts'. These whiplash-inducing twists of logic see him step into the unknown in order to seek his client's innocence; he's essentially a chancer, blagging his way to victory. Talk to Takumi, however, and you sense that he leaves nothing to fate. His stories are intricately plotted, his jokes laser-targeted and his heroes full-bodied personalities.

In a medium in which storytelling starts and ends with 'man hates thing, man shoots thing', Takumi is a rare exception to the rule. With his latest yarn, Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney, on the horizon, Associate Editor Matthew Castle was lucky enough to cross-examine one of gaming's definitive voices.

Matthew Castle: Before we start, just for any readers who might not know who you are, could you tell us about your role at Capcom?

Shu Takumi: I'm a director, which means that I propose ideas for new titles, design the games, write the scenarios and direct the projects. In addition, I mutter complaints and, when the intense pressure of an impossible schedule finally gets to me, escape into a fantasy world of my own creation [laughs].

MC: Before developing Ace Attorney you worked on Dino Crisis. How does one go from dinosaur survival horror to virtual courtrooms?

ST: Dino Crisis was the brainchild of my then boss, Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami. Working on his projects taught me not only how to make games, but also how to think about them. After Dino Crisis 2 wrapped, Mr Mikami gave me six months in which to create any kind of game I wanted.

I was still pretty wet behind the ears, but as I'd originally joined Capcom with a desire to create mystery and adventure games, this was a huge chance for me to make my mark as a creator. In the end it took a team of seven 10 months to produce the first GBA Ace Attorney title. Having the freedom to create exactly the kind of game I wanted was amazing and it was a real pleasure to work on that project.

MC: Can you remember when the idea of Ace Attorney first came to you? How did your bosses respond to the idea of a lawyer-based adventure game when you first described it to them?

ST: It was in 2000 when Mr Mikami said I could make my own game and my original idea was a fairly typical adventure with a detective as the main character. Most mystery adventures have the player choose from a number of different dialogue options for their character in order to progress the story, but I wanted a new gameplay style that enabled players to deduce for themselves what was happening, rather than just selecting canned responses. I developed this into the concept of facing off against the suspect in a crime and exposing the contradictions in their statements.

I was sure my new idea would be a fun and original take on the genre, so I started to revise the main character, since a detective would be too traditional for such an original concept. I asked myself, "What kind of professional would face off against a suspect and expose their contradictory statements?" The answer, of course, was a lawyer and so the Ace Attorney concept was born.

Incidentally, I wrote the game design document at home during my summer holiday straight after Dino Crisis 2 finished. One day, I got a call from Mr Mikami. Despite having supposedly given me free rein to design whatever I wanted, he warned me off doing a game about courtroom trials!

MC: Ace Attorney paints the police and legal profession in a silly light. Have you ever had feedback from lawyers or policemen about your portrayal of them?

ST: A few years ago I had the opportunity to speak with some police detectives and they told me that their real-life investigations are nowhere near as absurd as those that were depicted in Ace Attorney. I thought to myself, "Well, I had sort-of guessed that already..."

I've never had feedback from any lawyers, but I imagine it would be the same. They'd tell me they don't scream out "Objection!" as vigorously as our characters and I'd think to myself, "Well, I had sort-of guessed that already..."

MC: Every Ace Attorney game is full of great characters, so when you wrote each sequel how did you decide which people to bring back?

ST: The first time a previously featured character returned in a later case was Larry Butz. Phoenix defended him on a murder charge in the very first case of the first game and he showed up later in the same game as a supporting character in the fourth case.

He wasn't originally planned to be a recurring character, however. The schedule for designing and drawing a new character for that case was so tight that there was a serious risk we wouldn't make it in time, so we decided to reuse an existing character simply to save time on asset creation. Thus, Larry made his encore appearance, which ended up being a well-received element of the first game's storyline, so from the second game onwards, we started bringing old characters back intentionally.

How we choose who to bring back is simple: it's usually either characters who are popular with fans, or those I am fond of [laughs].

MC: For all the madness, there's something traditional about the mysteries at the heart of Ace Attorney. Did you draw on any classic crime writers for inspiration?

ST: You could say that there is a mixture of the spilled blood of victims, the guilty tears of killers and the sweat of hard-working detectives flowing through my veins... To put it less graphically, from the time I came across the Sherlock Holmes series as a child, all the way through to my university days, I've been obsessed with reading classic murder mysteries. It's safe to say that Ace Attorney would not exist were it not for Perry Mason.

When writing the cases for the games I've found inspiration in the works of GK Chesterton, Ellery Queen and Anthony Berkeley, to name but a few. And I can't leave out that modern classic of the genre, Columbo.

MC: How hard is it to devise a juicy twist and to hide it from view? In storytelling you often want to obscure the details, but videogame design often requires clarity. Did you find it hard to rectify those two things?

ST: They say that it's harder to create a puzzle than to solve one and that's certainly proved to be the case in my experience. For the first game, with my lack of experience I found it less like a challenging task than a hobby with which I became obsessed.

You need to control the information presented in the game so that there is a single right answer for the player to deduce, but also weave in plenty of initial inconsistencies for them to uncover and our trademark 'turnabout' twists to confound their expectations. This is where reading all those mystery novels in my youth has really paid off.

MC: Having worked on four Ace Attorney games, how did it feel to step away and work on Ghost Trick? Were you nervous to leave that safety bubble?

ST: I first started working on the Ghost Trick concept in 2004, after the completion of the original GBA version of Ace Attorney 3. The third game was supposed to be the last one, but plans changed and I ended up working on the first DS Ace Attorney, which, as you know, was the first Ace Attorney title to be localised and released in the west. My next project after that was Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, so by the time I got around to finishing Ghost Trick it was 2010, six years after I first thought up the concept.

I certainly felt a lot of pressure when making Ghost Trick, as it was a brand new IP and I had just left the Ace Attorney series, but I was grateful for the chance to take on a new challenge.

MC: Ghost Trick featured some incredibly gruesome murder concepts - death by giant roast chicken is my favourite. From where did you draw inspiration for such a huge variety of deaths? Did any not make the cut?

ST: I feel that the most violent way of murdering someone is by directly shooting, stabbing or strangling them, so for Ghost Trick I wanted to have more indirect ways of killing someone, with a darkly comical, more symbolic feeling to them.

Combining this approach with the fact that the Nintendo DS screens are not the largest, or most high-resolution displays out there, it became important to make sure that whatever death we were presenting to the player was visually easy to comprehend. So being crushed to death by some giant object was a perfect fit for our requirements, whether it was under a big rock or a huge roast chicken.

As far as cut ideas, there was going to be a stage where the victim had been crushed by a huge safe that fell from the ceiling, but time restrictions meant the whole stage was cut. I do love having giant objects fall on people, don't I? That's probably the influence of Tom and Jerry on the young Shu Takumi showing through.

MC: More importantly, how did your team react as you presented these death ideas to them. Was anyone worried for your sanity?

ST: Yes, and not only that, but I also made it my goal to cause the team to worry for my sanity whenever I presented an idea, because if they were, it meant it was a good one. I would hear a little voice in my head saying, "You win!" at times like that. The more "You win!" moments one can have in life, the better.

MC: There were nods in Ghost Trick to Ace Attorney - Missile the dog, for example; a character who looked like Wright - do you see the two games as existing in the same universe?

ST: Those are really just coincidences: the guy who looks like Phoenix actually only has the same colour suit on and the dog is not the same breed as Missile, which, coincidentally, is the name of my pet Pomeranian.

Ghost Trick takes place in what is obviously a much more fantastical world than Ace Attorney. You may have noticed that the level backgrounds in Ghost Trick never have any kind of writing in them. This was an intentional design choice to prevent the game's setting from being identifiable as taking place in any particular country or era from the real world.

MC: Could you imagine an Ace Attorney/Ghost Trick crossover? Any deaths that we couldn't prevent by way of possession could then go to trial in a courtroom...

ST: ...or Phoenix Wright could be killed and Sissel could prosecute his killer in court! Whatever form it might take, a crossover between these games is something I would love to see happen.

MC: When you return to Ace Attorney after a period of absence - whether it was to write Apollo Justice or Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney - how easy do you find it to slip back into that world and that writing voice?

ST: Writing for Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney was the first time in several years that I wrote in the voice of Phoenix and Maya, but those characters are so dear to me that I carry them around everywhere in my heart, so it was very easy to pick it up again. It was like a reunion with old friends and was a very pleasurable and nostalgic experience for me.

MC: When you came to write the scenario for Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney, how hard was it to make those two universes gel? Layton's world traditionally dispels the paranormal, while Wright tends to embrace it.

ST: I worked together with Level 5 to develop the world in which the crossover takes place. It took quite a lot of time for both sides to find a setting into which we were happy to place our biggest characters. The starting point for me was when I wondered to myself if one could still use logic to solve a case in a world in which crimes could be committed using magic. I really liked this idea, so it was hard, but fun, work to design the court sections of the game around it.

MC: Putting all diplomacy aside, who would win in a battle of the wits between Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright?

ST: If you ask me, I don't think Phoenix would be able to hold a candle to Layton in a real battle of wits. However, we all know that the hand of fate somehow always manages to bring a 'turnabout' in Nick's fortunes, no matter how sticky the situation, which means, well, sorry, Professor, but you're out of luck!

MC: With Ace Attorney 5 and Ace Attorney Investigations how does it feel to see your characters in the hands of other Capcom employees? We imagine it must be like a parent sending their child to school for the first day.

ST:

That's an apt comparison. I do have mixed feelings about it sometimes. For instance, I was really surprised to see that after we focused on the new character of Apollo in the fourth game, the Dual Destinies team decided to bring Phoenix back. Ultimately, though, having creators other than myself take the helm of the series is a valid choice, as it brings new directions and new story possibilities.

The team on the new game have looked at what the essence of Ace Attorney is, and as long as they can give the fans another great game to enjoy, I'll be happy. After all, the fact that the series is still going over a decade after I made the first game is something I couldn't possibly have imagined in the first place.

MC: Have you seen the Ace Attorney film? If so, what did you think of it? Was it funny to see characters you sketched out all those years ago in the flesh?

ST: I saw it, and I even got to make a little cameo when the film company invited some Capcom staff to visit the set. You can see me briefly in the spectators' gallery in the final court scene.

It was really something to see the story I wrote for the first game brought to life on the big screen by real-life actors.

And those costumes! They were such perfect recreations. The director, Takashi Miike, is an expert at making existing works from other media into entertaining live action films and he did a great job with Ace Attorney. I highly recommend that everyone reading this check it out, if they can.

MC: This interview is part of our 100th edition and we're looking back over some of our magazine highlights. Looking back over your own career, what is your personal highlight to date?

ST: As a creator, the greatest compliment to me is when someone tells me that they played one of my games and enjoyed it. In the course of the press tour for Ghost Trick in 2010, many players from around the world expressed their love of Ace Attorney to me and it's moments like those that make me glad I became a game creator. Also, I'm deeply honoured to have been asked to take part in this special issue and having myself, my team and our work considered a highlight of your magazine's history. I'd like to thank you on behalf of everyone at Capcom. This opportunity is in itself a highlight for us.

MC: Many of our readers are keen to know, what's next for Shu Takumi?

ST: Game projects are a complex balance of so many factors: what I want to make, what players might make of my concept, what Capcom as a company wants from the game, and also broader trends in the gaming industry. My next project is in the preparation stages and I still don't know myself what form it might take by the time it's finished.

Whatever happens, though, I'll be pouring my heart and soul into it and working towards that eternal goal of hearing positive reactions from the players at the end of all the hard work.

#ghost trick #ace attorney #shu takumi

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tessatechaitea · 5 years

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Superman: Up in the Sky #4

Best DC cover ever or greateast DC cover ever? Those are the only two choices.

Die Tasche. Die Tasche? DieTasche! Die Tasche. Shtop.

The story begins with somebody talking about a race for charity between Superman and The Flash. They say it was televised and that people bought tickets to sit along the route and watch it. Seems like a huge scam to me. How long could it actually take Flash to run around the Earth ten times? Like fifteen seconds? I could probably do the math on it but I don't want to show off. But this story assumes that Flash and Superman didn't run so fast that people couldn't at least see them blur by. So this kid telling the story says that Lex Luthor offered to double the money to charity if Superman loses. And Superman heard it with his super-hearing which meant Superman was going to just have to win no matter what! He'd just have to believe he was faster than The Flash and then be faster than The Flash. Because that's how comic books work. What makes a hero is the secret reserve of strength and will and confidence that only appears when the hero is about to be defeated. People who are defeated aren't heroes because they don't have that reserve. They are losers. Big stupid losers. Did you die from your cancer? Not a hero, jerk. Did you fail to get that promotion at work because you didn't complete the project a hero would have completed at the last minute? Total loser. Did one of your kids drown in the pool because you gave up on the CPR like a big jerko loser dumb-dumb? Yeah. Not a hero. Maybe even a villain! But Superman, being a hero, now had to win the race for charity! And The Flash apparently isn't a hero because where were his secret reserves to beat Superman? What an idiotic failure. Although I haven't finished the story yet! Maybe Superman is still going to lose just like the cover implies! I bet the point of this story is that Superman loses sometimes but nobody ever gives up hope in him! And he always tries his hardest! And maybe even before the race, he made a bet in Vegas that Lex Luthor would bet a billion dollars against him which would pay off like a billion to one!

Lame. Superman wins.

Superman wins but the dumb kid telling the story doesn't explain how. The kid just goes on and on about contradictions but totally uses the word incorrectly. Like saying "Superman is faster than a speeding bullet" is a contradiction. Is it? How? If Superman is faster than a speeding bullet than he's faster than a speeding bullet and that's not a contradiction! Stupid idiot kid. The kid is so dumb I bet the kid got the story wrong and just made it up to make herself feel better. Because the kid telling the story is the girl that Superman is looking for and she has to believe that Superman can do the impossible (like win a race against The Flash) or else she's just going to rot on whatever planet she's lost on. So the story is about hope or something. Superman hopes and so Superman does. It's kind of like Oprah's Secret, I guess? It doesn't make any sense but since it's Superman, you always know he's going to win. Even that time he died, he won by killing Doomsday as well. So see? Blade was wrong. You should always bet on red! And blue! The second story is also about hope. Hey! Are all these stories about the hope Superman gives people?! I've been duped! I thought this was going to be a bunch of stories about how hard Superman can punch bad guys! Stupid DC Comics hiring some intellectual namby-pamby like Tom King! Writing stories that are all, "Superman shows how faith and hope can inspire us to be better than we are!" Whatever! I hope the next issue is about Superman punching a gigantic space monster! Superman: Up in the Sky #4 Rating: Oh yeah! The second story was about Superman interacting with Clark Kent because they were struck by magic space lightning and separated into two unique people. As if that's a thing! Somehow Superman's Kryptonian DNA makes him all logical and shit while his human upbringing makes him all emotional and valiant and sacrificial and awesome! Isn't that the way it always is? Humans are the greatest beings in the universe because they know how to cry while reading Shakespeare! Everybody else in the universe is a boring old rational Vulcan! If another alien species is allowed to be emotional, they only get one emotion. Like how Klingons are angry and Ferrengi are sneaky and Romulans have huge cocks and Guardians of the Universe are assholes. Only humans have mastered the spectrum of emotion and that makes them the best! Go Clark Kent! You teach that Superman a thing or two about hope! Now merge with him again for next issue and get to punching shit!

#Superman #Up in the Sky #DC Comics #DC #Tom King #Andy Kubert #Sandra Hope

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h3llthing · 7 years

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overwatch ramblings

okay @capnkeeta >:3c here’s my 2 AM ramblings abt blizzards fu cking writign. also @moonlitseer because she might want to read this too

A big issue with Blizzard’s handling of Overwatch is inconsistencies considering the lore and characterization. They have had consistent problems with this, and have so clearly not done any kind of solid planning considering the direction they will be taking with Overwatch’s general plotlines that the graphic comic that was supposed to be coming out for sale sometime around April 2017 was canceled mid 2016.

First Strike was supposed to detail the rise of Overwatch during the Omnic Crisis, which meant it would have mostly been about the original members of Overwatch, and would have taken place well before the current canon timeframe.

According to Michael Chu, it was canceled because the team “ultimately decided to take the story in a different direction”. While “the core of this story remains, we have changed and expanded upon how we see the events that took place during the first days of Overwatch”.

That, by itself, would read as fine, especially since Chris Metzen’s retirement meant that his views on the story’s evolution would be removed. However, the novel was very late in its development, and was probably mostly finished. That is a huge thing to cancel, especially since it was only 100 pages long and probably wouldn’t have told us too much beyond things we already knew about the early days of Overwatch.

If they felt their view on (supposedly) already established events had changed so radically that they had to cancel a graphic novel in its final stages of completion, the story for which had been in the works for years, then how can they move forward with the work as a whole with no established past to base their currently evolving plotline off of? Their willingness to dump the canon they were about to establish worries me, as to me to means they’re willing to scrap things at a moments notice, which will definitely have ripple effects once different plotlines start going.

Most importantly, they need to establish a strong base to move forward off of. Currently, they’re trying to push the story forward without establishing the past important events, or establishing much about most of their cast.

Their way of introducing more current events with the shorts is very well-handled, possibly because the shorts require a bit more production work. They are concise, worldbuild well, have excellent characterization, and insofar have not contradicted themselves. There are voicelines and effects in the game that make reference to them (for example, there used to be memorials to Mondatta in King’s Row. I’m not sure if they’re still there or not).

However, their comics are, honestly, a mess, along with their characterization. Now, a lot of their characters are still pretty much blank slates. They haven’t given most of them establishing comics or shorts (which I strongly believe they should do before moving forward with the plot), and instead seem to be switching between the Ana/Soldier vs Talon side of things and Bastion for... some reason. Don’t get me wrong, Bastion is a cool character, but they have gotten a short and a comic, the latest of which promises that their storyline will be followed. This leaves most of the non-Talon and non-original Overwatch heroes high and dry.

We have gotten no out of game establishing storyline media for Mei, Pharah, D.va, Lucio, Zenyatta, or Mercy. (Interesting how they’re all female or POC/POC-coded characters...) This is especially troubling for Mercy, since she is a major player in Reaper, Soldier, and Genji’s backstories, as well as the only original Overwatch team member who hasn’t gotten a speaking role in a comic or short yet. Lucio has gotten his EP on Overwatch’s website, but beyond that nothing.

We have gotten a minor establishing storyline Zarya, due to her ending cameo in Sombra’s short, but beyond that we don’t have much on her.

Orisa isn’t counted because she hasn’t even been released on normal servers yet, so it’s expected she hasn’t gotten any media beyond her gameplay video and introduction video.

This leaves a good bit of the cast just kind of floating around for now, until Chu decides to hopefully let them start doing stuff.

The lack of characterization now leads me into characterization issues concerning contradictions between medias!!

A perfect representation of their characterization problems is the newest comic, Binary, in which Bastion’s possible relationship to Overwatch is explained. With Torbjorn. Of all characters.

Now, I am glad that the writing team has decided to try to make Torb more interesting. As it stands, he is kind of a generic Blizzard character who does not stand out from the rest of the cast in any way. He has the most generic backstory, the most generically dwarven Blizzard design, and one of the most generic movesets/ults (below only Widowmaker and Soldier).

That being said, instead of realizing where he is now as a character- being very distrustful of omnics, as well as guilt ridden over his involvement with them- and building off that, they decided to just... ignore all that.

As evidenced by his voicelines in King’s Row- “If you ask me, the Brits have their heads on straight! Omnic rights? Pah!”- Nepal- “It's like a culmination of a thousand of my worst nightmares! Are you kidding me?!”- and Numbani- “No No No! N-O NO!”-, he has seen societies in which omnics can live integrated with humans, both peacefully and with societal upheaval. Seeing an entire society like Numbani be able to love peacefully with omnics did not sway him. Seeing omnics being abused, targeted, and straight up murdered did not sway him. (His comment on omnic rights is especially inappropriate, considering Mondatta’s assassination in front of a huge crowd of people took place in King’s Row).

But I guess getting offered a twig by a random omnic in a forest was enough to melt his heart.

There are so many ways Blizzard could have written this. As it comes off, it seems like they’re ignoring what little they’ve done with Torbjorn so far so that they could awkwardly just shove Bastion in with the team. They could have had Bastion help a child, save one of Torb’s family members, come to Reinhardt or his aid in a time of need! They could have had them emotionally actually connect, and have had his realization that yes, even bastion units can change and have that realization be actually emotionally charged and meaningful!

Instead they had some generic village be supposedly threatened by him, have Torbjorn conveniently be there for whatever reason, then have the two of them wander off into the forest together to somewhere.

They’re also very bad at establishing timeframes. We know that Rein was wandering around somewhere in probably Germany at the time of his comic. We know that their families were together for Christmas. We know Torb was in some random village in Swedenfor Binary. When did those take place in relation to one another? Where is Torb’s family? He clearly didn’t live in that village, so why on earth was he there? He’s retired, so why wasn’t he with his family? Did it have to do something with Winston’s recall? Was he specifically there to track down Bastion? If he was, is he taking Bastion to Winston? If so, why weren’t we shown that?

TL;DR - Blizzard’s writing team is skipping over a lot of important stuff in the canon, both for themselves and for the fans. They’re being inconsistent with the lore and with established characterization, and considering what amazing stuff we know their writing team can do, the most recent plot comics like Old Soldiers and Binary are just very, very disappointing, and honestly seem like they’re rushing us along with the plot while skipping over “less important” things.

Disclaimer: Of course, I’m just a fan. I’m not a part of the writing team, so maybe I’m 100% wrong. Maybe they have everything planned out and established and just needed the one rewrite, but from a fan’s perspective they are looking VERY disorganized.

#aprils life #overwatch #blizzard #binary comic #bastion #torbjorn

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someonetotaketheedgeoff-blog · 6 years

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2.10.2018 - Journal (Feminism)

(Written on 26.06.2018)

For me procrastination is completely interlocked with addiction. I’m addicted to putting shit off. Why?

All I do is scroll on my phone and smoke. Occasionally I make shit and get a few important things done but then I go back into melt back into a procrastinatory coma,

almost not existing and/or having no control over anything I do. It’s terrifying really. I’m afraid of my own lack of self control.

I’m afraid of not living the fullest life I can. Due to being afraid of living the fullest life I can live (not knowing or knowing the full extent of your potential is a terribly conflicting idea. You’ll never find out what it is and you’ll only figure it out by trying. You continue wandering down your own personal dark cave of potential potential, crossing your fingers so hard they contort and almost snap as you pray that the cave doesn’t end. Many people reach some point in there lives where they just decide to set up camp in the dark somewhere and call it a day. They watch as others walk past. As they get older and more bitter they’ll spit and screech at the passers by - ‘Yeah don’t worry about going any further mate, there’s nothing there, I’m sure of it. Nothing but blackness ahead… Spoiler alert you never figure out who you are, it’s a myth, it’s a load of bullshit, come sit by the fire and drink with me… and I’ll tell you stories about myself that I wish were true but have been so beaten down by fear I can’t remember what’s real any more anyway’).

It’s pretty ironic. I’m attached to my life and not at the same time. There’s a group of contradicting voices within me. Which I believe is what the idea of nihilism does to the mind. Nothing means anything and everything means something.

After watching Nanette and the recent death of Eurydice all I think about is how cooked the world is. How cooked it is for women and people that aren’t white, straight and male. Yet I’m on top of the food chain and still struggle to be ‘happy’.

No one wants to hear that though. Of course they don’t want to hear it. It’s irrelevant. When there’s an imbalance you don’t want any focus on anything other than what’s creating the imbalance. You don’t want some straight white guy, that grew up with nice supporting intelligent parent’s with money that fostered any fucking thing I wanted to do saying they struggle to be happy.

This disclaimer’s important. It’s never been my point to try and receive sympathy or claim that my problems are on par with anyone else’s problems. I’m simply regurgitating my experiences (i.e having a massive whine on the internet).

It is worth noting though that even at the top it (can) still suck. But that’s not what oppressed people are concerned about. They’re concerned because of the insane crime of being oppressed and treated as if they’re not human.

I don’t really know why that’s my knee jerk quip to the current situation. It’s probably a very selfish one. Probably a defensive one. To basically be like - ‘Well… just so you know ladies, it’s still horrible up here at the top… so you know… no rush’. Which’s a horrible thought that came from brain, but I don’t want to be a bad person, so I’m sharing it with you.

It’s difficult because it’s true and that’s confusing. But it’s a waste of time because it’s not helping equality if I take up hours of days writing think pieces about how minorities haven’t been so unlucky as to be equal so that they can enjoy the fruits of nihilism to it’s full extend and various other irritating philosophical conundrums. The fact that life’s a struggle even when you’re on the top is something to talk about later, not now.

(I’m sharing this thought process because I’m ashamed of it. I want everything to be good and kind and equal and I want people to have the best lives they possibly could)

Perhaps it required the anger and insanity of all the shades of feminism to get the world to listen. And you know, if for the price of people (males) at least beginning to talk about things was due to 17 ridiculous BuzzFeed videos about the dangers of man-spreading! Then you know that’s OK.

The problem is there are many aspects and pockets of internet feminism that’re kind of crazy, kind of nit-picking and overly extreme. Things such as mansplaining’s problematic because it can be sexist in itself if you’re a women being talking to by a guy about something and you just assume they’re talking down to you because of your gender, unless that information is revealed at some point (or if after further investigation and several miracles that particular guy admits he was talking down). It’s specifying and dangerously locking down aspects of being a cunt and assigning that behaviour to a gender.

The man spreading thing is also very over the top and overly dramatic. And you know what, bloody unnecessary! Very nit picking and strange! It’s such a strange and small thing to get all angry about, why would someone care so much about someone sitting on the train with slightly spread legs? It’s just crazy feminazis. I just don’t understand! I mean why would women be so nit picky about such a minor thing? It’s not as if there’s an inherent under-hum of neck hair prickling fear within all women all the time, 24 hours day, for their whole lives that a man might kill or rape them! No… that’d be ridiculous.

I’m explaining this stuff in a cheeky manner to hopefully gain your attention.

I believe that on a surface level that things such as ‘mansplaining’ and ‘manspreading’ are strangely specific and they’re issues that completely isolated are irrelevant. But they come from a place, a fucked up darker place (that shit doesn’t just come out of fucking no where).

I believe shit like ‘mansplaining’ and ‘manspreading’ are partly responsible for why ‘feminism’ (at least on the internet) is a complete fuckfest. And why some people (mostly males again) believe the word to mean - ‘We hate men, we want to be the top dogs, I wish to be on a throne while men in gimp suits scurry around my feet offering a silver cup of their tears’.

I believe it’s because people, men and women, see something specific, something like ‘mansplaining’ or ‘manspreading’ and that is all they see. Maybe they’re young, they haven’t experienced much and haven’t begun to explore and research. And unfortunately the small window of opportunity in their minds gets filled with that and they shit and they shut off completely. And as we all know Pablo Honey wasn’t a very good album.

They see that and go ‘oh well that ridiculous, they’re winging about me spreading my legs on a train… wow ridiculous’.

And all the women are like - ‘Well yeah mate… Because you rape us and you kill us…’.

But at that point it is too late. The guys already making Feminist’s Get Destroyed Comp 7 on YouTube.

Talking to a friend she told me she ‘hates men collectively, not individually’. Laying in bed later that evening flicking that thought around like a Rubix cube made out of penis’s I flipped it on it’s head and imagined I said the sentence - ‘I hate women collectively, not individually’. Aha! I thought. That will just not do, that’s fucking sexist! That’s a load of horseshit. After I calmed down and my non-opposable thumbs were sore after pounding them on the glass of my enclosure I looked across at my cave paintings, at all the boobs I’d drawn, and various other blog posts and thought you know what? Having a brief flick through of history (and especially current times) women are totally without any argument allowed to collective ‘hate’ men if they want too… in fact I’d be confused if they didn’t.

All of this reminded me of something the great black comic Patrice O’neal once said about race and his animosity towards white people. Which is truly ironic because he had many extremely polarising views on women and gender. However I think it applies well.

He begins talking about Hitler and the Nazis.

‘…Hitler and his crew… after the war it was against the law… you can’t even have the moustache no more…. you can’t even rock that… you just don’t rock it… that nigger is the devil, OK… that moustache is the devil! Hitler then the devil…

So what that enables you to do is move on…. it enables you to move on… meaning I don’t have to hate every German. I don’t have to be bogged down. After the holocaust being a fucking Nazi was criminal… to this day. Like they find out you used to be a Nazi you get fucked over. You can’t even apologise, oh no I only put a couple in the ovens… no no no… you’re done, you’re fucked… which is great for the spirit of being Jewish! We went though this, we know exactly what happened, we know exactly how many people it happened too and we know exactly who did it! So it enables you to have a chapter in a book…

When I start off with white people I say look… white is the only thing we got from slavery.

We have a finish date… questionable start date… questionable amount of people that died, questionable affect on our minds… when we were free they was like bye nigger nice talking to you, OK, you’ve been living this way for 400 years, now we expect you to live wonderfully now and what we did to you was not criminal and the only thing left is your skin so you have the skin colour of the enemy… so… every white person is Hitler’s moustache… really… to my gut all white skin is that… on some level’.

I wonder if you can easily see the comparison I’m trying to draw by referencing this. Basically men are the Hitler’s moustache to women… on some level.

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thebrewstorian · 7 years

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Pop Culture Conference 2017: Beer Culture: Session 8: Community and Identity

The last session at the Pop Culture Conference was about community and identity, and while its content was similar in many ways, perhaps because it was the last of the track, people were a bit rowdier.

Like this guy. It’s Sam Adams, in case you wondered.

Josh Sopiarz started the session with his talk "Brew Free or Die: Craft Brewing and the American Revolutionary Instinct." He argues that in the 1980s-1990s we experienced an explosion in our access to beer, and from its beginning craft beer was set apart from other macro breweries. Because of this, we started to see “battle” language, with craft consumers or marketing folks using words to indicate the act of brewing on a small scale was a revolutionary reaction against the big guys to produce more flavorful, locally produced, artisanal product.

But Sopiarz asked: is this actually a "revolution." He mentions the book The Comic Book Story of Beer: The World's Favorite Beverage from 7000 BC to Today's Craft Brewing Revolution, as an example of something that shows the larger heroic struggle of brewing (with many scantily clad women throughout history I might add) and its importance in nearly every significant historical event. He also references the Jeff Rice book Craft Obsession: The Social Rhetorics of Beer to show further evidence of this. Rice says that craft turns to the ideas of revolution or battle tales, and that those function as a grand narrative of explanation or a grand identity narrative; to support this, Rice includes quotes from brewers where they talk about being a revolutionary, highlighting craft v conglomerate, portraying conglomerates as imperialists. Finally, in revolutions you have winners and losers, and you have to choose a side and there is no in between for the truly committed.

Sopiarz says this is problematic, not just if you think of this in terms of linking revolution and gender/race. These are white guys talking about a revolution. He suggests that maybe what we need to be thinking about is whether this is a revolution or a renaissance, saying that America is probably too politically naive to call this a renaissance. And of course this word does have a link to the effeminate, and lots of people have written lots of words about how masculine brewing is. Maybe use the phrase "craft beer insurgence" instead?

But counting the earliest non/micro brewing, we are nearly 40 years into this "revolution," and yet we are still using this revolution terminology. Beyond marketing rhetoric, you only have to look at book titles to see that this has spread outside of brewery PR: Ambitious Brew, Red White Brew, Audacity of Hops, Inside the spirit of craft beer.

Aren't we past that? Are we at the point where the trope has run its course and has become cliche. AB/InBev is fighting back: we have their attention, they are "not backing down," and they have the resources to rebrand Bud as "America." If you asked craft brewers just what they were running against what would they say? Anything. Everything.

Is the party over as Sam Adams' Jim Koch said in the April 2017 op-ed piece in the NYTimes? If the large brewers can just buy it all up do we actually have the endurance to make this an insurgency? Either way, what does that look like as we go forward if we aren't attached to the revolutionary narrative?

Jasun Carr talked about how his experiences moving to Idaho, not known for its craft scene, drove him to do research with the brewing community for his talk "Navigating the need for authenticity in a craft beer 'desert.'" Carr says he doesn't live in the cool part of Idaho, and that due to liquor laws, availability due to demand and distribution, and a sparse population in some places, Idaho is a craft desert. He explains that this is obviously different from a food desert, those places where healthy food is hard to obtain, but that the access limitations have an impact on people who move there and have a strong connection to the craft community.

Carr did an online survey of 66 online online groups and beer communities. Here are the results 1342 started the survey, 623 finished; 85% male, averaged 33 years old; they had 8 servings a week, the survey asked about average ABV. He found that when he asked about concerns about brand authenticity people preferred brands connected to tradition and who stuck to their original principles (so the opposite of a revolution). When he asked about beer seeking behavior in people who live in areas with less access to craft he found that they echoed his own experiences: if you were used to having a variety, you turned to trade online or with out-of-state visitors.

One facet that I found interesting was that people used social media to stay informed about beer related events, which of course is odd if there aren't events in your area... He also asked about whether people were part of groups as a way to measure community. He found that people who are more concerned about authenticity are bigger users of social media, and they seek more variety in the beers they drink. Turning to apps, he found that people in a desert are more likely to use them as a way of connecting more to a community because they don't have one easily accessible. He found that people in the NE are less concerned with beer authenticity, but excluding them the rest of the country was pretty much the same in their ratings.

He concluded that people in a craft desert take the best that we have available, but acknowledged that without easy access to events, taps, craft on grocery store shelves, they might not know what they are missing. He wondered if the geography (probably population density?) actually mattered or whether the grater issue are the differing liquor laws.

Molly Taggart gave a talk entitled "Three Cheers to the Intersections of Entrepreneurship, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity: An Exploration of Business and Community in Craft Beer Culture," in which she used ethnography to talk about connecting with consumers. In it she talked about her own personal identity as someone who works at Kent University in Ohio, owns a bottle shop, and is a member of gay community. She says she definitely feels an us v them conflict when thinking about the demographics of the industry, and gave an example of hosting an LBGTQ event and being asked if her bar was "they gay bar." In this she noted that categorization around sexual or gender identity seemed important to attendees, though she also noted that they didn't ask if it was "the dog bar" when they had a dog event.

Most of the rest of her talk asked us to consider brewers, but also the other people employed in the industry (distributors, retailers, sales reps) when we talk about its demographics. Who are the sales reps she interacts with? In total (I think in all her time as a shop owner) she says there has been 1 female and 1 person who identified as gay -- and there are 20 individual reps/week, with pretty regularly turn over. Further, we need to ask about the people who are in charge and making the money -- how are they are connected? Who is on company boards of directors or in the state guilds?

She concluded by saying that we are leaving behind a huge market segment. Your money is your voice, and there is room for a more candid discussion about where your dollars go and who you are supporting. She also said that we should bring farmers into the discussion, and had high praise for Rogue Ales as a model for local or farming integration (though she thought they owned their land and only used what they could grow in their beers).

The final speaker was Adam Deutsch, who talked about how "Beer is an Equity Issue." He said he'd looked at beer from a sort of ethnographic-esque perspective of observation. He defined equity for the brewing industry in the same way we do in higher ed, as systematic access and accommodations. So he has a real issue when he looks at the price of beer in San Diego county, especially as it pertains to worker wages or benefits.

As a San Diego resident, he's seen the prices of pints increase -- and has also seen pubs selling "cheater glasses," which seem to be glasses with a thick bottom. He asks why this cost is going up? The standard answer has been that it's because minimum wage has gone up (though it isn't in effect yet) or that transportation costs are higher (though they haven't actually increased and it doesn't travel very far if it's brewed on site). He says one interesting contradiction is the growler movement: you have to buy a container, and ultimately the economics don't make sense because you end up paying more for less beer that you have to drink faster because it doesn't keep in that container. And, of course, if craft is about community, when you get a growler to take home, so you don’t have the community tap room experience.

He suggests that "perceived value" is in play here, and that people think that the more expensive the beer is the must better it must be, and then competition makes those prices even higher. How do breweries actually take care of their employees? Maybe free beer or an industry discount, which in effect makes employees free marketers. But they don't get paid very well or have unions, there is huge employee turnover, and a because people want to get into the industry at any cost they end up not valuing the work that they do. They are willing to do so much for so little, because it is a sexy industry AND because there is always someone waiting to take their place.

Though breweries should be good neighbors (as they sell themselves), what Deutsch sees instead is that his local breweries are taking advantage of their neighbors. To really give back to the communities, breweries need to pay real benefits with retirement and living wages. And he'd love to see at least one employee-owned or unionized brewery in San Diego. There cold be incentives or political advocacy support from the local brewers associations or guilds.

Ultimately though, maybe breweries just need to resist the urge to grow.

Curious about the Sam Adam image?

Curious about the Bud as America image?

#craft revolution #craft beer #beer history #craft beer desert #unions #beer

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