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#and some quotes are part of too long a phrase to be represented
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rius-cave · 2 months
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Abt ur post over alastor and shipping; as an aroace person it's really uncomfortable to see someone compared changing a canon aroace characters sexuality to "we do the same with straight people" ..? like.. straight people are the majority. alastor is the ONE canon aroace character in the show, and i can barely name enough in general to fill up one hand. Like i get where youre coming from but .. personally. its weird and I feel like u phrased it badly. fanon is meant to be fun and what you want i agree but its different when ur just completely disregarding sexuality for funsies 😕
Well anon, what can I tell you! I'm not aroace, but my own sexuality is barely ever represented in media too! And when it does, people just ship those characters with whoever as well. It's normal, it's what happens when you see two characters who just tickle the right spot in your brain. Some people can look past their canon preferences, some people can't. The important part is knowing that real aroace people have to be respected. Furthermore, I've been hearing a lot of aroace people say that they CAN be in relationships and have sex too! And don't quote me on this but I've heard that vivzie said that it was okay.
As long as you find a healthy balance and understand that no, Alastor is not going to get with anyone, shipping him with whoever is not an inherently wrong thing to do.
Sorry if it offended you, but I'm a hardcore advocate for the freedom of shipping aaaaaaaabsolutely everything your little wretched heart desires. And even if I'm not into the ships itself, I support anyone who does
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unwelcome-ozian · 5 months
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hey oz, as a jew myself (ethnically and religiously), that is not anti-semitic. the number of jews that say it is is VASTLY outweighed by the number of us that say it isnt (and in large part are based out of israel). do not let them speak for us to futher their genocide. they have no claim to that land as an "ancestral homeland" by our religion, it belongs to the palestinians. the settlers of israel are european and american jews. that is not their land.
(same jewish anon that just sent an ask, sorry, i hit send too soon) furthermore, you are correct that you do not get to decide what is and is not anti-semitic as a goyim. that also goes for thos saying. its one thing to post sources of jews saying that it is (and note that you have Only posted sources saying that it is, despite so many of us disagreeing) but you have stated your stance on it by specifically stating that it is an anti-semitic dogwhistle. that is the pint at which you are now deciding what it stands for. regardless of your stance on israels illegal occupation, your statement is israeli propaganda disguised as support for the kewish people. they are not calling for eradication of us, they just want their land back as they rightfully deserve.
Thanks for sharing your point of view. 
I’ll continue to call out anti-semitic dog whistles, as I have done in the past. 
I will continue to speak out against antisemitism as well as support the people of Palestine and speak out for their rights to be free.
I encourage you to continue to defend the Palestinian people and advocate for their freedom.
I’m more than aware of the history of the saying, “From the river to the sea.”  Below are some quotes and links to the history of that phrase. 
Oz
“In August 1948, al-Banna told the New York Times, “If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea.” He said this was a figure of speech but added that the quarter million Jews living in Arab countries had become “fifth-columnists” even though they had been “loved as neighbors in accordance with the precepts of the Islamic religion, which respects the rights and liberty of other religions and minorities.”
Dr. Fadhil Jamali, Iraqi Representative to the United Nations, speaking to the Arab League, February 6, 1955: “I asked them (Arab League members) how Palestine was lost. It had been lost for two basic reasons: one, because we deluded ourselves by underestimating the power of our opponent and by thinking that the Jews were not powerful. The highest official in the League said that with 300 soldiers or North African Volunteers we could throw the Jews into the sea.”
1966, Syrian leader Hafez Al-Assad, insisted in no uncertain terms that, “We shall only accept war and the restoration of the usurped land … to oust you, aggressors, and throw you into the sea for good.”
Hamas renews call to 'free Palestine from the river to the sea'  (2020)
‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” runs a Palestinian slogan. Originally a call for a secular state in historic Palestine between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean, it soon became a sectarian slogan, deeply inflected by antisemitism. In the hands of Hamas, it is a call for the driving out of all Jews from the region; at best, a demand for ethnic cleansing, at worst for genocide. (2021)
“Additionally, B’Tselem’s conclusion: “There are various political paths to a just future here, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” suggests – at best – ambivalence about Israel’s future. The use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” echoing a long-standing euphemism for the destruction of Israel, is highly disturbing.” (2021)
The reality is that “free Palestine from the river to the sea” is as retrograde racist, and as much a call to violence, as someone who supports the KKK saying “make America White again.” (2018)
"Palestine is Islamic, and not an Islamic emirate, from the river to the sea, that unites the Palestinians. Jews have no right in it, with the exception of those who lived on the land of Palestine before World War I." (2011)
"We have come here in multitudes to proclaim that Hirbiya and Ashkelon will be taken by the mujahideen. We have come here to say that the weapons of the resistance that you see here will remain, Allah willing, so that we can liberate Palestine – all of Palestine – from the Sea to the River, whether they like it or not." Mushir al-Masri, Hamas spokesman, (2005)
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ruiz48vang · 2 years
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darknightingale1 · 3 years
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I am so furious right now at the address given to the byu faculty and staff by Elder Holland, so I'm going to go off about it. It was a disgusting talk, and I don't see how anyone can ignore the hate coming from him during it.
He starts with going on about how important byu is to him, which I'm going to ignore most of that since it's trivial and not what made me furious. It's not until he starts mentioning "same-sex attraction" that things go downhill.
Also right before this talk, the president of the university talks about a program that is meant to end bigotry on campus towards everyone. Holland's rebutal is basically "No bigotry is part of this campus."
"We hope it isn’t a surprise to you that your trustees are not deaf or blind to the feelings that swirl around marriage and the whole same-sex topic on campus."---- No, not a surprise. It was huge news when the honour code accidentally left out gay relationships, and people were going around being gay on campus. Of course you didn't miss that, but then you immediately doubled down on your bigotry instead of working towards some sort of compromise.
"I and many of my brethren have spent more time and shed more tears on this subject than we could ever adequately convey to you this morning, or any morning. We have spent hours discussing what the doctrine of the church can and cannot provide the individuals and families struggling over this difficult issue. So, it is with scar tissue of our own that we are trying to avoid — and hope all will try to avoid — language, symbols, and situations that are more divisive than unifying at the very time we want to show love for all of God’s children."---- Sorry for the long quote, but the whole thing is utter infuriating bs. You're shed tears? You've shed tears while sitting on your mountain of gold, and while you blatantly attacked people who are different just to keep your stupid fucking power. You have the power to change all of this, and save everyone, but you won't. Do you have any idea how many tears I've shed while at your university (Idaho) because I didn't feel I was good enough for your stupid church. I tore myself apart that third year of university, and I hadn't even figured out I was bi yet because of this church. I don't care for your tears or your supposed scars. I survived, other people didn't. Other people are dead because of you so I truly do not give a fuck about your feelings. And whatever scars you got are your own damn fault.
"If a student commandeers a graduation podium intended to represent everyone getting diplomas in order to announce his personal sexual orientation..."---- Matt Easton was Valedictorian you absolute idiot. The speech was for him and approved by byu. I suppose he's telling them they did bad there, but the entire point of his speech was that it was hard, but he made it through. It was inspiring. Matt Easton actually made a great rebuttal on twitter.
"In that spirit, let me go no farther before declaring unequivocally my love and that of my brethren for those who live with this same-sex challenge and so much complexity that goes with it. Too often the world has been unkind, in many instances crushingly cruel, to these our brothers and sisters."---- Your love? Oh fuck off. You don't feel a shred of love for us. You don't know the definition of love. Your definition of love is control and conditional. You don't love any of us and would happily see us all disappear. Also "Same-sex challenge" is the stupidest phrasing ever, and I'd only like to say it's only a challenge cause I'm bad at finding myself a girlfriend.
"For example, we have to be careful that love and empathy do not get interpreted as condoning and advocacy, or that orthodoxy and loyalty to principle not be interpreted as unkindness or disloyalty to people."---- What love and empathy? You still misunderstand the definition of these words. Your love and empathy only extend so far as we can help you make more money and get more power. You only say things like this so people will think you're still a good person while you tell them to turn on their friends and hurt them for existing. If you're loyal to a principle that says I shouldn't exist or that it's better that I be dead, then you are unkind and disloyal to me. You can't have both.
"As near as I can tell, Christ never once withheld his love from anyone, but he also never once said to anyone, “Because I love you, you are exempt from keeping my commandments.”"---- You absolute idiot! You're twisting his words to fit your agenda. Christ never said he would only love you if you kept his commandments. He said if you love me, keep my commandments. You aren't showing an ounce of love towards anyone. Christ showed it to absolutely everyone, and especially those who were sinners. You know who he showed no kindness and love to? Rich people, like you. He literally said a rich man can't get into heaven. He literally whipped people for selling stuff in the temple. That's you. That's literally you.
"Musket fire? Yes, we will always need defenders of the faith, but “friendly fire” is a tragedy — and from time to time the church, its leaders and some of our colleagues within the university community have taken such fire on this campus."---- It's no longer friendly fire if you realize you're on the wrong team. And how dare you use a metaphor where you're the ones being hurt and persecuted. Always back to the persecution complex. You've killed people, you don't get to be the victim here.
He also at the beginning mentioned professors radicalizing students. Look, I had professors teach things a bit off the books that radicalized me, but what radicalized me more than anything was being squeezed and squeezed while having the entire church laid to bare. It was having a family religion professor yell at me for stating a fact, it was religion professors thinking they're better than everyone else on campus. It was the fucking family class that told me over and over how evil LGBT+ people were, and while I didn't realize it at the time, how evil I was for existing. Some professors taught what they were supposed to, but they aren't the sole reason for me losing my faith so destructively. Your school hurt me deeply, and this talk makes it so much worse. They don't care. They just want to cause more pain and suffering.
If you're a member and for some reason read this, think about what he said, think about how much that might hurt to read. Your prophets are fakers that have been corrupted by power and money. They shed crocodile tears to make you feel bad for them while they're covered in blood of innocent people. Really think about that.
I hope Elder Holland rots in Hell.
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jinkicake · 4 years
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You Call Him Daddy?!
You accidentally call them daddy in front of the team.
Akaashi Keiji x Reader
Kozume Kenma x Reader
Anon, this might be a tad bit ooc in some parts.... Sometimes I picture the different ways these characters act when they aren’t seen and I like to write it like that LOL You know experiment and shit,,, Also I feel like I’m the only bitch who likes Nohebi HAHAH 
SMUT // NSFW 
WC- 2,213
~~~
Akaashi Keiji
First let me say, wow Akaashi is so pretty and done.
I feel like if you accidentally call him daddy in front of the team it’ll be such a big mess 
All the third years, except Bokuto, are going to be silent, while their captain is like ‘yo toss for me’ like the whole ‘daddy’ thing would go over Bokuto’s head. Sweet Bokuto does not kink shame, okay. The managers would be squealing and gasping in shock, sending you suggestive looks before dragging you off somewhere to beg for details HAHAH
“Keiji! I’m so happy to see you!” You exclaim softly before wrapping your arms around him, you’re at the representative playoffs and you finally get to see your boyfriend once again after the few weeks of separation
Despite living relatively close to one another, you and Akaashi were both very busy preparing for these games. While he was practicing with his own team, you were managing for yours (which always proved to be a challenge, even now)
“Oh, how is your girlfriend doing by the way?” Kuroo sneers behind you and you glance to see your own captain squaring up with the pesky cat 
“Ah, excuse me Keiji,” You pout and apologize, Akaashi gently smiles and kisses the pout off your lips before unwrapping his arms to let you go control your petty team
“Daishou!” You scold and wrap your hand around said boy’s bicep, pulling him behind you to get in front of Kuroo, you give the Nekoma captain a fake smile before turning around to face your friend “I’m trying to see my boyfriend and I can’t do that if you keep starting shit!” You whisper-yell and Daishou rolls his eyes
“I didn’t start anything-“ He lies and you narrow your eyes up at him
“Daishou stay away from them and they’ll stay away from you, okay? Save your energy for the court.” You pat his chest and gently let go of the grip you have on him,
You’re about halfway back to Akaashi before you hear the damn snake speak up again
“I broke up with her!” Your eye twitches because you know damn well Yamaka broke up with him, you send Akaashi another sympathetic smile before walking back to your teammate
The grip you have on Daishou’s collar makes him choke and you practically toss him into the wall and get in-between him and Kuroo once more, glaring at anyone who looks at you
“I am trying to talk to my boyfriend who I have not seen in a few weeks so if you both could kindly stay away from each other I would appreciate it,” You smile sweetly and Daishou scrunches his nose before opening his mouth once more 
“See you in the finals” He sneers and you quite literally pick him up by his hair
“Daishou if you don’t shut the fuck up, you’re not going to see the finals. All I want is to have a peaceful day and then go home and give my boyfriend that gawk gawk 3000 and call him daddy so if you could please help me just this once and be quiet.” You growl and drag him away from Nekoma, smiling softly at Akaashi when you pass him, you bring your captain all the way to where your team is in the bleachers and sit him down on the bench “okay, now then-“
“You call him daddy?” Daishou snickers and you narrow your eyes at him
“What the hell are you talking about?” You ask and Daishou laughs so loudly it sounds like a cackle 
“You said, and I quote,” Daishou clears his throat before speaking again, purposely altering the pitch of his tone to reference yours “give my boyfriend that gawk gawk 3000 and call him daddy so if you could please-“ 
Daishou shuts up when you sit down next to him dejectedly
“I said that in front of you and the entire Nekoma team and Fukuroudani?” You whisper and the captain throws his arm around your shoulder
“Don’t worry (Y/N)! At least you didn’t say it in front of our team…. Oh wait,” He snickers and you awkwardly face the rest of your players and coach
“Ah, Daishou, I’m going to quit” You cry and he immediately tries to calm you down 
“Wait, (Y/N), no you can’t!” 
“So, you like being called daddy?” Kuroo asks after he bumps into Akaashi. Your boyfriend can only sigh in shame and shake his head, “I-is that a yes or a no?”
“That’s a shut the fuck up Kuroo” Kenma bites and defends his other friend, trying to drag the middle blocker away from the setter
Konohana, Komi, and Sarukui simply blink before walking away, dragging Bokuto along with them so their setter can face the shame in peace 
“Oh, Keiji!” You squeak and tightly grip the bed sheets on either side of you, you want to so badly grip his silky hair but, Akaashi has rules. The dark-haired boy flicks your thigh as a warning and you can’t help the pout that appears on your face. Akaashi not allowing you to touch him is a big punishment and, needless to say, you aren’t happy about it. Akaashi continues to stare up at you from in-between your thighs, his lips have captured your clit as he sucks dutifully on the swollen bud. 
“Daddy,” The pitiful whimper slips past your lips and Akaashi smirks against your soaking cunt, his tongue flicks your clit. His warm mouth is welcoming as he continues the harassment on the delicate pearl. “I-I love you.” The endearing phrase flies past your lips and Akaashi feels his resolve soften, he can never stay harsh with you for long. 
Though, he will try.
Akaashi removes his mouth and slaps your clit with four fingers, watching as you squirm and cry at the impact. He can tell how badly you want to grip his hair and he mentally reminds himself to reward you for staying so still, well as still as you can be. He continues to tap the sensitive bundle of nerves, ranging from light taps to slaps that sound throughout the room. 
“Daddy, please,” You cry and Akaashi takes pity on you, he leans forward and licks soothing strips up against your clit. He wants to kiss the sting away because he truly cares too much about his baby and wants you to feel nothing but pleasure.
“Daddy loves you too sweet girl, I love you so much.” Akaashi coos as he kisses along your thigh, he glances up and sees you staring at him with a deep pout on your face. He just wants to kiss it off. “Don’t look at me like that.” He tries to scold but his words come out weak, your pitiful eyes play numbers on him that he will never understand. “Patience, you’ll get what you want, hold out for Daddy."
Kozume Kenma
I 99.9% believe that Kenma getting called daddy in front of the team is Kuroo’s fault ,,, LOL 
Like Kuroo knows shit and it accidentally slips and everyone is like … ‘kuroo wtf’ because nobody believes him much to Kenma’s relief HAHAH
It isn’t often that you can convince Kenma to stay after at a joint practice but when you do, you nearly regret it every time
“And then she wanted to call me daddy,” Kuroo gasps loudly like the gossiper he is and you have to refrain from rolling your eyes at the way Bokuto is hanging onto his every word “shit honestly though, it was pretty hot”
The one time…. One time you convince Kenma to stay after practice to spend time with his friends and these are the conversations you get 
“Oh, I totally believe you Kuroo” You click your tongue mockingly and the tall captain gently pushes the side of your head 
“It’s true, don’t be jealous you weren’t her (Y/N)” Kuroo throws back and you flick him off, internally smiling at the way Kenma pulls you closer to his chest and tightens his arms around your shoulders 
“Kuroo you’re literally the biggest nerd on the planet, you really expect me to believe you get pussy, much less get someone to call you daddy?” At your words Bokuto gasps and Akaashi covers the ace’s gaping mouth with his own hand
“Ask Kenma he was there!” Kuroo flicks your forehead and you turn around to your boyfriend with your hand already bunched up in his dyed hair 
“I was not there,” Kenma confirms and had it not been for his arms wrapped around your waist, you would have lunged at Kuroo
“I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe, it’s not like you don’t call Kenma ‘daddy’” Kuroo spills, stating it so simply like he’s talking about the weather. You start to mentally plan his death as Akaashi shakes his head and Bokuto begins laughs loudly
You know Kenma hates being put in the spotlight but you simply could not help yourself
“You’re telling me if you had this mf fucking you every night, you wouldn’t call him daddy?” You snap at Kuroo and Kenma tenses behind you before squeezing your hips so hard you nearly yelp, Kuroo leans back on his forearms and looks around proudly like what did I say? 
“Yeah, okay,” Bokuto wheezes and falls back on the gym floor 
“What?” You and Kuroo both snap and Bokuto laughs even harder, clutching his sides and trying to cover his loud voice with Akaashi’s jacket
“Those two virgins? Yeah right-AH” Bokuto points at you and Kenma before Akaashi shuts him up by covering his mouth once again
“How would you even know that Kuroo?” Akaashi asks while placing his other hand on Boktuo’s shoulder to keep him pinned to the floor 
“Best friends don’t overshare their sex lives?” Kuroo asks and Akaashi shakes his head quietly, Kuroo does not miss a beat with his follow-up response “Oh, I forgot you two do each other so there isn’t much to share” 
Now it’s your turn to gasp and Kenma tries to hide the audible hitch in your breath with his hand. The gym is now silent and you eagerly glance between Kuroo, Akaashi, and Bokuto while waiting for someone to confirm or deny the statement
“Come on Kuroo it was one time!” Bokuto finally gets out of Akaashi’s grasp and Kuroo gives him a pointed look, “Fine. Five times” Another moment of silence passes before “Okay, it has become a regularly occurring thing” 
“Wow,” You simply nod in amazement before sending Akaashi a proud thumbs-up, one that Kenma swats down quickly 
“So we all probably have daddy kinks…” You trail off and look around the gym suspiciously, taking in the small noticeable nods you receive while trying to subtly hide the shocked look on your face
“Well, wasn't this fun, we all learned something new about each other!” Kuroo claps amusedly and Kenma buries his head into your shoulder 
“Yeah, too much,” He mutters before nudging your nose with his ear “can we leave now?”
Of course, Kuroo happened to overhear that
“KENMA I HEARD THAT!” 
Kenma kneels behind you and he oozes disinterest as his eyes run all over your bent figure. The way he has you tied up has your face shoved into the mattress while your ass is high in the air. Kenma leans forward, hovering over you as he playfully snaps your blindfold between his fingers. 
“You’re so irritating,” He sighs and tugs on your hair roughly, forcing you to arch your back even more. It doesn’t matter how much shit he talks because you can still feel the hard heat digging into the back of your thighs. “you really wanted everyone to know your little secret.” 
Kenma trails one of his hands between your thighs, running his fingers along your slit and the gag in your mouth muffles your moans. 
“Kuroo acts like he knows everything we do behind closed doors but truthfully, he doesn’t even know the half of it.” Kenma softly rubs his palm against your ass, smoothing it over to the bottom of your spine. “Isn’t that right?” He asks and you can’t help the way you push your ass harder up against him. 
A harsh slap resonates around the room, the entire impact of it all makes your body lunge forward. Had it not been for the restraints, you would have bucked your head into the wooden headboard. Kenma quietly laughs before doing it again, letting his slim hand smack your ass once more. He watches with an amused expression at how your thighs have slightly spread for him so that he can see your drenched cunt perfectly.
“You’re enjoying this,” Kenma voices his thoughts and you nod your head, Kenma has to hold back from rolling his eyes and he leans over to release the gag from your mouth.
“Yes Daddy, I want more. Please,” You softly moan, your voice coming out hoarse due to the strain in your jaw and the dryness of your throat. Your boyfriend almost regrets taking the gag off your loudmouth. Regardless, he finds himself playing right into your game and the tightness in his pants increases tenfold. He does this all for you, Kenma lies to himself. It isn’t all entirely just for you.
“How many more do you want? How many more can you take from me?”
~ Taglist.
@yams046 @why-am-i-sad-and-sleepy @xhanjisungiex @xxashshs @chaosamu @angelkogane @augustdearly @kunimwuah  @lovellucy @osamuonigiri @pearzuko @darksxder
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becomewings · 3 years
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The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>
  BTS Universe Story Highlights, pt. 4 / 4
« pt. 3  |  start at the beginning
Introduction
The final sections for TaeHyung’s arc and the Epilogue are 4.3k and 4.4k, respectively. As with earlier parts of the series, I have included “tl;dr commentary” at the bottom of the post after a section of additional thoughts (specifically devoted to an interesting MV location parallel!). This commentary summarizes the parenthetical asides I made throughout the summaries and may be of interest as standalone reading to those who have already played the game yet would like to review its connections to the BU texts and MVs.
Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD
This guide contains major spoilers and includes references to other BU media
Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission
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Heart’s Distance
TaeHyung’s story opens with a short cutscene. In his apartment (with the calendar on the wall open to May), TaeHyung smiles at a photo of his father holding him as a baby. (The image looks similar to the photograph he holds at 1’48” in the HYYH On Stage: Prologue short film.) Remembering his father’s drinking and violence, he crumples the photo with a sigh. SeokJin then narrates over a series of shots explaining the latest developments in the loops. By this 15 May Year 22, he has saved NamJoon, ensured that JungKook and YoonGi saved each other, prevented HoSeok’s accident in the hospital, and borrowed everyone’s help to free JiMin. Everyone is gathered outside NamJoon’s container that night, smiling and giddy from saving JiMin. “How long has it been since we’ve all laughed together?” SeokJin asks. (This is a reference to the recurring phrase “we can laugh when we’re together” present throughout the Notes and occasionally this game.) He wants to relax and enjoy the moment too but knows this isn’t over yet. TaeHyung is laughing radiantly next to JiMin. “What drives this happy and innocent TaeHyung to commit such an unspeakable act?” he wonders.
SeokJin’s reflections on the coming days in previous loops present the crux of his challenge and this story: on 19 May, TaeHyung is arrested for vandalism while painting graffiti on the streets. (The bus stop depicted in the shot is the same as the one in Highlight Reel.) One thing SeokJin has learned through the loops is that TaeHyung and his sister live under the constant threat of domestic violence. On 20 May, TaeHyung goes home after spending the night at the police station. The situation gets especially bad for his older sister, and TaeHyung makes a choice that he can’t take back. (In the shot in the game, TaeHyung approaches his father from behind and the sound of glass occurs on a cut to black. We know from the I Need U MV and Save Me webtoon that he fatally stabs his father.) SeokJin’s inner thoughts relate that he has tried to stop this event by preventing TaeHyung from going home this day or even involving NamJoon—but all of his attempts have ended in failure.
While SeokJin is mulling over this challenge during their gathering on the night of 15 May, HoSeok approaches and asks what he’s thinking about by himself. “Oh, nothing much,” SeokJin dismisses. HoSeok remarks that it’s nice to be there with everyone. “It makes me think of the old days…” While HoSeok happily chats, SeokJin’s attention stays on TaeHyung as he approaches NamJoon. The player is given the choice to “get closer to eavesdrop” or “listen to what HoSeok has to say.” In the first path, SeokJin excuses himself to make a phone call and only pretends to pick up the phone as he nears TaeHyung and NamJoon. In the second path, HoSeok jokes about eating too many snacks in high school thanks to SeokJin. SeokJin is a little distracted, but HoSeok notices that TaeHyung has snacks. “Huh? What’s that? I want some too!” SeokJin uses this opportunity to follow HoSeok and join their two friends. The paths converge with SeokJin overhearing TaeHyung and NamJoon’s conversation. TaeHyung says he doesn’t want to go home and asks if he can spend the night at the container. SeokJin remembers that TaeHyung often mentioned not wanting to go home in high school. Back then, they thought it was because he enjoyed being with the group, but now SeokJin knows that he was probably avoiding his father. He wonders why TaeHyung insists on going home on the 20th since he hates it there so much. Maybe learning the reason will be the key to stopping—and saving—TaeHyung. “Do whatever you want. You can sleep over,” NamJoon replies. TaeHyung brightens visibly at this answer. “Do you want to stay up doing something? We can play a card game, or…” HoSeok chimes in too that it sounds like a fun idea, but NamJoon says he has work tomorrow and can’t stay up late. “Let’s play until I have to go to bed.” TaeHyung’s phone vibrates. His face is already grim when he peers at it. “Actually, I think I have to go home.” Surprised, NamJoon asks why, but TaeHyung leaves without answering.
SeokJin leaves the gathering and follows TaeHyung, shadowing him carefully to avoid detection. He wonders what was in the text that changed TaeHyung’s mind and notices that they’re heading in the opposite direction of his home. After purchasing snacks at a nearby store, TaeHyung stands at a bus stop. SeokJin wonders if he’s waiting for someone since he lets several buses pass by. Eventually, a disembarking figure approaches TaeHyung. SeokJin recognizes her as Kim Eunhye, TaeHyung’s older sister. She asks why he is waiting for her since he said he’d be home late. “I was about to head in, so I thought I’d wait for you,” TaeHyung replies. “You should’ve gone ahead. Dad probably hasn’t had dinner yet…” she trails off. TaeHyung says he ordered delivery to the house for their dad. “Did you eat yet? Here.” He hands her a hot dog. SeokJin follows at a distance when they begin walking home. “Do you think dad will be drinking?” Eunhye wonders. “Is that even a question?” TaeHyung returns. They go back and forth about how he has been drinking less these days, goes to work every day, and doesn’t get as angry. “I hope things stay like this,” Eunhye finishes. “...It won’t last,” says TaeHyung. From his sigh, SeokJin senses how little TaeHyung trusts his father. He is surprised to hear that his father goes to work every day. In previous loops, he wondered if the cause for TaeHyung’s accident was an external force and went to observe his father’s workplace, but the man was not at the construction site and apparently hadn’t shown up for several days.
“I better check it out,” SeokJin decides. He calls Uncle JunHo, his father’s assistant, to ask for a favor. The two meet later in SeokJin’s bedroom. “You wanted to go on-site for practical training, right? This is the form you need,” says JunHo. He dismisses SeokJin’s thanks. “The Assemblyman seemed to be interested, too. He said he’ll be keeping an eye on things.” “Father said that?” SeokJin checks. “Make sure to use this opportunity to take a thorough look around. It’ll all be helpful to you later,” JunHo advises. (It’s helpful to know that Kim ChangJun is involved in some shady business with a construction company—this is revealed in The Notes 2.)
On 17 May, SeokJin visits the construction site. The foreman tells him that they’re busy and won’t have time to pay any special attention to him. SeokJin is glad for the lack of watchful eyes because it gives him the opportunity to observe TaeHyung’s father, Kim SungHoon. He is working silently, and SeokJin can’t see anything wrong on the surface. “Why does he get so violent at home?” he wonders. The foreman has apparently been watching too and yells at him. “Oi, you! Why aren’t you working?” Kim SungHoon points out that there isn’t any scaffolding. The foreman orders him to use a ladder instead. “You can’t get any work done being all careful.” Kim SungHoon tries to protest, but the foreman won’t hear it. “Are you going to pay for it if the schedule gets delayed, Mr. Kim? Hurry it up!” A look appears on Kim SungHoon’s face as though he’s been wronged, but he uses the ladder to begin working. SeokJin’s concern must be visible, for the foreman makes conversation with him. “Ahem. Don’t get the wrong idea. You might not be well aware of it yet, but it’s hard to always follow the rules on site. We can’t stay on schedule if we’re not flexible.” “I see…” murmurs SeokJin.
Another laborer shouts, drawing their attention: Kim SungHoon has fallen from the ladder and lies groaning on the ground. The foreman curses and rushes over, demanding how he could be so careless and shifting the blame to him for not paying attention. With a hurt back, Kim SungHoon cannot continue working. Trying to downplay the accident, the foreman gives him a few bills and advises him to stop by the hospital. TaeHyung’s father seems to have something to say, but he withers under the foreman’s stare and accepts the money in resignation. The foreman then assures SeokJin that this happens occasionally on a rough worksite and hands him money too. “You’ve worked hard, so here’s a little something for you to get a nice snack. Forget about everything that happened today. You know what I mean, right?” His brazen, selfish attitude angers SeokJin, but he smiles and leaves to follow Kim SungHoon. He is shocked to witness TaeHyung’s father purchase alcohol at a convenience store rather than go to a hospital. Worried about what will happen if he drinks while injured, SeokJin tries to call TaeHyung, but he doesn’t pick up. The episode ends with a small scene of TaeHyung finishing graffiti on a wall. He doesn’t know why he painted what he did, but the “dumb, ugly-looking graffiti” represents how he feels. He rubs the still-wet paint, yet it doesn’t go away. Picking a new color, TaeHyung sprays over the existing layers like he’s pouring and emptying out all of himself.
On 18 May, TaeHyung deals with his third rude customer of the day at the convenience store. The man demands why he must pay for a bag, even though the law has changed so they can no longer be given freely. TaeHyung either relents and gives him the bag without charge or stands firm. In the first path, he gives in, knowing that he probably won’t restrain his anger if they argue further and that he’ll have to cover the cost with his own paycheck. In the second path, the customer flings the money at him before leaving. TaeHyung clenches his fists and holds in his anger. The paths rejoin with him reflecting that this isn’t a good day. He greets the next customer and realizes that it’s SeokJin. “How come you’ve been stopping by so often these days?” TaeHyung asks while ringing up his bottled coffee. “Huh? Just. I have some things to take care of around here,” SeokJin answers. TaeHyung doesn’t know whether or not to believe him. SeokJin keeps asking how he’s doing, and it makes him a little uncomfortable. Today, SeokJin asks more meaningless questions as always, until: “How’s your father?” TaeHyung can’t stop himself from responding sharply. “Why do you ask about him?” Taken aback, SeokJin stammers, “N-No reason, really. I was just wondering if he was well… Uh… Never mind.”
A rich-looking father and son enter the store, interrupting the awkward silence. The way the father looks after his son and buys him what he wants to eat plunges TaeHyung into memories—he once felt the same as the boy about his own father. He remembers asking his dad who the baby is in the photograph we see at the beginning of the story. Kim SungHoon said it was him. “Don’t you think you look just like dad, TaeHyung?” An incoming phone call shakes TaeHyung out of his memories. The food deliverer informs him that no one is home to accept the order of hangover soup. “Huh? My father should be there…” TaeHyung confirms that the deliverer can leave the food outside the door, but he worries about his dad, who was passed out drunk and groaning in his sleep when he left for work. “SeokJin. I need to run home really quickly. Do you think you can watch the store for me?” TaeHyung leaves as soon as SeokJin gives a startled affirmative. The episode ends in SeokJin’s perspective. He’s curious and concerned about what is going on with TaeHyung, as he couldn’t overhear the phone call. Since leaving the store alone to follow TaeHyung may just create more trouble for him, SeokJin decides to stay put and look for clues.
Arriving home, TaeHyung brings the hangover soup inside and finds his father slouched in the corner. More soju bottles are lying out than when he left this morning. “Your lunch is here.” TaeHyung shakes him when there’s no response. “Wake up and eat.” Kim SungHoon mumbles something unintelligible, so TaeHyung nudges him again. His father shudders and cries out. “You bastard! I’d just gotten comfortable!” “Oh… I just wanted you to eat before the soup gets cold…” says TaeHyung. Kim SungHoon calls him a bastard for not listening. “I just told you to leave that damn thing here!” “Hah… Anyway, eat your lunch.” TaeHyung touches his shoulder again, and his father shoves him away. “The pain is killing me. Get lost, bastard!” TaeHyung yelps. The back of his neck burns from something he hit, but he doesn’t feel the pain over the rage brewing inside him. He can’t stand to look at his father for another second and kicks the door open to rush outside. “But of course. Why did I run over here to make sure that miserable geezer ate something?” he thinks bitterly. TaeHyung’s temper cools as he walks back to the store, and he remembers the pain in his neck. His fingers come away with blood when he touches the spot. He trudges onward, planning to bandage it at work. The memory of the rich father-son duo comes to mind: the man holding his son’s hand so tenderly, and the kid smiling brightly up at him. It makes TaeHyung even more miserable, and he fights to suppress the feelings that threaten to overflow.
Alone in the convenience store, SeokJin feels anxious not knowing when TaeHyung will return but decides to poke around, hoping to learn something like he did when observing NamJoon’s room at the gas station. He either looks through TaeHyung’s backpack or a full box near the register. The box is only a makeshift lost-and-found with customers’ forgotten items. Despite his discomfort at rooting through someone’s belongings, SeokJin finds the crumpled photograph of TaeHyung as a baby with his father in the bag. “He wouldn’t be carrying it around if he truly hated his father. But it wouldn’t be crumpled if he liked him, either. Is it… love and hate?” SeokJin wonders. He also finds a post-it stuck on the counter with a note left by HoSeok: “I packed this for myself but Auntie invited me over for dinner. There are two patties inside. Make sure to enjoy it and write me a full review at least one page long!” SeokJin realizes they’ve spent all this time looking out for each other. He’s glad to see the signs of HoSeok taking care of TaeHyung and TaeHyung being grateful enough to keep the note.
When TaeHyung returns, SeokJin is concerned to see blood from a cut on his neck. “Are you okay, TaeHyung? What happened to your neck?” But TaeHyung avoids looking at him and doesn’t answer, instead putting on a bandage and continuing work. SeokJin ignores a call from Uncle JunHo, deciding it’s more important to look after TaeHyung. “Are you sure you can stay here all day like this, SeokJin? Aren’t there people at home wondering where you are?” TaeHyung speaks up at that moment. SeokJin smiles sheepishly. But with the incident looming ahead on the 20th and no solutions yet to avert it, he has no choice but to stick close to him. After TaeHyung’s shift ends, SeokJin asks what he’s doing now. The red seeping through the bandage worries him. “I’m just… gonna go paint some graffiti,” says TaeHyung. He reluctantly agrees to allow SeokJin to tag along. His phone vibrates before they leave. “Sis? What’s going on? What? The emergency room? Why is Dad there? Hold on. I’ll be right there!” TaeHyung runs out. SeokJin catches up to offer him a ride, which he accepts after a moment’s hesitation.
The perspective switches to TaeHyung when they arrive at the hospital and find his sister waiting with an uneasy expression. She thinks that their father was injured at work. When she tapped him lightly to wake him up for dinner, it caused him a lot of pain. TaeHyung remembers the incident at lunchtime and wonders if he felt like that earlier, too. Eunhye notices SeokJin, and TaeHyung introduces them, noticing that her hand seems to make her uncomfortable. “Did you hurt yourself, sis? What happened to your hand?” “Oh, it’s nothing. I… tripped before we came to the hospital.” TaeHyung knows she’s lying but doesn’t argue. He pretends not to see her injuries, and she pretends not to see the one on his neck—like they always do. Eunhye voices concern about the high bill, which the hospital wants them to pay before discharging their father tomorrow. “The company will take care of it if he was injured at work,” SeokJin assures. TaeHyung finds the construction foreman’s number in his dad’s cell phone and calls him. Reporting the situation, he asks if his father’s injured back can be processed as an industrial accident. The foreman denies that they can help. “How can we cover an accident where Kim SungHoon was drunk on the job and failed to follow safety protocol?” The foreman informs him that he already gave Kim SungHoon money to see a doctor. “There’s nothing else to say, so I’m going to go. And I’m telling you—don’t try to pull anything.” TaeHyung swears when the call ends. Eunhye wonders if the foreman is mistaken because she doesn’t think their father drank that day. TaeHyung purses his lips shut instead of replying, filled with rage at the patronizing foreman and their incompetent father. He hates that he can’t say his dad isn’t the kind of person to drink on the job, and his body shakes with indescribable emotion.
“They won’t cover it as a workplace accident?” SeokJin asks, the perspective shifting to him. He knows the foreman is lying but is unsure how to help TaeHyung and his despairing sister. He could pay the hospital fee himself, but that was counterproductive when he tried it for NamJoon in an earlier loop. Noticing a text from Uncle JunHo asking where he is, SeokJin postpones his decision for later and bids TaeHyung a quick farewell. “I’m sure there’s a way to take care of all of this. Don’t worry too much. Take care of your dad. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
On 19 May, TaeHyung and his sister exit the hospital room with twin sighs. Their father called the foreman back after hearing about the first conversation and let loose, only hanging up when his supervisor agreed to speak in person at the hospital. He also demanded alcohol all night and only recently fell asleep. TaeHyung notices that Eunhye looks exhausted and suggests that they take a nap before the foreman arrives that evening. Later, the foreman arrives with some workers and a box of drinks. TaeHyung stands in the corner, not wanting to butt in since this is his father’s business. The foreman asks how Kim SungHoon is doing, advises him to rest, and then adds, “We’re here to say that you shouldn’t bring up compensation since it’s your fault you were injured.” The foreman accuses him of drinking on the job, and the coworkers Kang and Seo nervously agree. Kim SungHoon argues back about being denied the scaffolding and drops the box of drinks, a “token of their sincerity,” on the floor. While the other works avert their gaze, the foreman looks down on him and clucks his tongue. “You bastard! You call yourself a man?!” Kim SungHoon roars. The foreman bristles. “What? Bastard? Watch your mouth punk!”
Eunhye tries to intervene, pleading for her father to calm down and apologizing on his behalf. The foreman accepts her actions like it’s the obvious thing for her to do. His arrogant attitude reminds TaeHyung of how he probably deals with his underlings. “Sir. My father wasn’t drunk,” he speaks up. The foreman’s arrogant air dissipates. “What are you saying? I have witnesses here.” TaeHyung explains that his dad did not drink that day or the previous one. The foreman scoffs. “Look at this kid. Where’d you learn your manners? He probably drank on the way to work even if he didn’t at home! Who do you think you are, raising your voice like that?” TaeHyung’s hands tremble with rage at the injustice, but he has nothing to retort. Suddenly, SeokJin appears. “I also saw everything. Remember me? I was there on site for practical training that day. I watched him work and he definitely wasn’t drunk.” The foreman grows flustered as SeokJin reveals the truth of the site’s dangerous work process and makes it clear that he coerced Kim SungHoon into not following the correct procedure. He glares between SeokJin and TaeHyung. “I don’t know how you both are putting up this united front… But you think it’s going to change things? We already paid him. It’s a done deal. Understood?” Fuming, the foreman leaves with the other workers in tow. “It’s alright now, TaeHyung.” SeokJin gently taps his shoulder. TaeHyung realizes how tense he has been when he loosens his grip and sees little crescents of his fingernails cut into his palms. (His wounded palms are a recurring motif.)
The perspective shifts to SeokJin while TaeHyung stares blankly at his hands. He decides to come clean about his payment of Kim SungHoon’s hospital bill, since the problem with NamJoon was that he paid it secretly. “You can think of it as borrowing—” “Thanks, SeokJin,” TaeHyung interrupts. “I’ll pay back all of it. Thank you.” SeokJin is a little shocked by his response—it is the first time he’s heard “thank you” from TaeHyung. He hopes that this is the beginning of solving TaeHyung’s problems and bids farewell for the day. Outside the hospital, SeokJin runs into HoSeok, who correctly guesses that he came to visit TaeHyung. “How’d you know?” “I stopped by TaeHyung’s work and didn’t see him, so I called him right away,” HoSeok explains. SeokJin expects him to ask about Kim SungHoon, but instead HoSeok worries about his friend first. “Is TaeHyung alright? He must’ve been so shocked. He cares a lot about his dad…” “TaeHyung does?” SeokJin checks. “Yeah. Even though he says that he doesn’t want to go home all the time, he always makes sure his dad gets a real meal every day. Even if he just eats convenience store snacks himself.” This is new information to SeokJin, who wonders if this is why TaeHyung is determined to go home on the 20th. HoSeok seems more familiar with TaeHyung’s sincerity than anyone else. SeokJin is still braced to explain how he knew about Kim SungHoon’s injury, but HoSeok is more focused on contacting TaeHyung and continues on towards the hospital. Overcome with exhaustion as his tension ebbs, SeokJin trudges home to plan his next move.
Later on 19 May, TaeHyung helps his father walk home after he is discharged from the hospital. He is grateful that SeokJin paid the bill but even more so that he intervened to verify Kim SungHoon’s unjust treatment. “SeokJin might be a better person than I thought.” No words are exchanged as TaeHyung supports his father. His arm is thin, but the weight that presses down on him is burdensome. “It’s the weight of the wheel that I can’t escape. The weight of reality—that I’m always going to be responsible for my father. A person that I wish I could let go, but can’t, and the contradictory feelings of hating my father but wanting to protect him.” In a perspective switch, SeokJin watches at a distance with bated breath. Even though TaeHyung seems accustomed to helping his father walk, Kim SungHoon raises his voice every time he almost falls. SeokJin guesses that TaeHyung is adamant about going home on the 20th because he is worried about his father, who is just out of the hospital, but all he sees is violence against his sister when he arrives. “I’m going to stop it this time, no matter what,” he vows.
On 20 May, SeokJin stands at the bus stop and touches the graffiti for which TaeHyung was arrested the previous night. (It’s the “I’m Fine” message depicted at the same location in the Highlight Reel.) He wonders what TaeHyung felt when he painted it and feels uneasy that he may not be handling this sequence correctly. SeokJin shakes away this premature doubt. There’s one thing that has changed from the previous loop: him. He has protected Kim SungHoon after his injury, paid the hospital bill, and built up enough credibility with TaeHyung to earn his thanks. This time, he reassures himself, his words will get through to his friend. Later, SeokJin follows TaeHyung when he leaves the police station. They walk in silence, but TaeHyung does not push him away or ask why he’s following. “Thanks for walking me here, SeokJin,” he speaks up when they arrive at his house. SeokJin waits a few moments before heading inside after him, entering a familiar situation he has seen far too many times: TaeHyung lunging toward his father, who looms near Eunhye. “TaeHyung! No!” SeokJin dashes to grab his arm. “Let go!” TaeHyung snarls and flails. SeokJin holds tighter, pleading for him to calm down. TaeHyung yells and shoves him away. SeokJin slams into something and falls, pain blooming in his skull. TaeHyung spins around with an expression of shock. The voices calling SeokJin grow fainter, and his vision blurs. “Tae… Hyung…” The glass shatters, marking another failed loop and concluding the story. (This is not the first time TaeHyung has caused SeokJin grave or mortal injury during his intervention: in the Save Me webtoon, he accidentally stabbed SeokJin with the broken bottle instead of his father.)
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Nightmare: Epilogue
Throughout the <I’M FINE> series, we have witnessed SeokJin’s trials and failures in the earlier time loops. These experiences culminate in the Epilogue, titled “Nightmare,” as in The Notes 1. This arc spans his efforts to save each of his friends between 11 April and 22 May rather than focusing on one or two characters. SeokJin’s decisions and their consequences here closely follow The Notes 1, so now we have a more detailed picture of his journey between the Save Me webtoon and the first book. The Epilogue fills in some gaps and provides greater depth to these events. For the sake of clearer context, I have still summarized the moments that parallel The Notes 1.
On 11 April Year 22, SeokJin opens his eyes to the familiar bedroom ceiling, the events of the previous loop replaying in his mind. Will he be able to save his friends this time? Uncertainty, horror, and the fresh pain of failure plague him, but he looks at the photo of his friends by the sea. Once, he believed that saving them would be straightforward. But while obsessing over only the problems that he could see, SeokJin lost his way and had to learn from his mistakes. The “signal fires” that helped guide him back were the times spent with his friends, the moments they began to truly understand each other, and the memories he wants to treasure. As he leaves his room, he reflects: “We’re all connected together by a single string, and we’re fated to save one another. And the person to finally put an end to all of this… has to be me.”
In his car, SeokJin encounters a scene at the school crosswalk that he always runs into around this time. He sees a downcast-looking JungKook crossing the street among a group of students. The player is given an option to get out of the car to greet him or pass him by. Regardless of the decision, SeokJin knows that he can’t let his emotions steer his actions. In a previous loop (depicted in JungKook’s arc), he brought JungKook to see the cherry blossoms blooming on the university campus. SeokJin wonders if the JungKook from that loop enjoyed it at least a little. But ultimately, it was just a day and JungKook ended up alone with nothing changed. Not wanting to repeat his past mistakes, SeokJin drives by without stopping.
Later that night, SeokJin pulls into Naeri gas station. NamJoon greets him with a now-familiar look of surprise. “Oh. SeokJin?” “It’s been a while.” SeokJin is determined to make this the last time they repeat this conversation. (As mentioned in part 1, this sequence parallels their moment at the end of the Blood Sweat & Tears Japanese version MV.) As they move to a corner of the station to continue their conversation, the perspective shifts to NamJoon. Something seems a little weird to him, and SeokJin looks like he has a lot to say, but he manages to gloss over it. NamJoon is about to invite him to the meetup with the other guys after work, but his boss yells for him to do his job. An expensive foreign car pulls up to the gas pump, and the customer drops the money on the ground when NamJoon reaches for it. “Ah, butterfingers. What are you doing? Not gonna pick that up?” the man sneers. The player is presented the choice to pick up the money or not. In both paths, NamJoon unconsciously clenches his fists. “You don’t want it?” asks the customer. The paths converge with SeokJin easily picking up the bills and handing them back to the driver. “You dropped this.” Hands shaking, NamJoon is mortified by the situation that caused SeokJin to react, yet his friend continues to stand there between him and the customer. The man demands who he is, but SeokJin advises, “You must be busy… So you should leave.” Out of steam, the customer drives off. NamJoon thanks SeokJin. “It’s nothing. What were you going to tell me earlier?” NamJoon forces his mouth to move. “Ah. I’m meeting up with TaeHyung and HoSeok today after work. Do you want to come with me?”
Back in SeokJin’s perspective, these are the words he’s been waiting for. Nerves dry his mouth, but he tries to speak naturally and inquires about the others. NamJoon doesn’t really keep in touch with them, but offers to call HoSeok, who still talks to YoonGi. SeokJin knows that YoonGi will call JungKook after hearing from HoSeok—this is how he saves JungKook tonight. His phone buzzes with a call from his father. “Oh, I’m sorry… But I need to leave.” NamJoon’s expression reflects disappointment yet understanding. “That’s too bad. Let’s hang out another time.” “Yeah. Tell the guys hello for me.” SeokJin turns back as he arrives at his car. “NamJoon. If we can get everyone together… Let’s all go to the ocean.” NamJoon looks puzzled by the suggestion. “The ocean?” SeokJin smiles in lieu of an explanation.
The third episode begins with JungKook fighting a group of thugs in a covered alley. (The date is unspecified, but this is a continuation of the night of 11 April.) They kick his stomach and spit on the ground as they walk away, a sight that reinvigorates him even though he can barely sit up. He either says something to provoke them or hurls his bag at them. Riled up, they beat him again as he laughs, vision blurring. They’re gone by the time everything comes back into focus. JungKook got what he wanted: he deliberately provoked them, and when he laughed, they called him crazy and hit him harder. He watches a breeze flatten a tuft of grass in the pavement, just like him. JungKook forces himself to laugh again because he’s afraid he may cry. Where does he go now? He feels like a ghost at home: he’s never a priority for his mom, and dealing with his stepfather is a pain. JungKook closes his eyes, hoping that when he opens them, he won’t be here.
The scene that follows appears to be a memory of 7 April, although it is not specified as such and is written in present tense. (This encounter occurs in The Notes 1 as well as episode 4 of JungKook’s story.) While wandering the streets at night, JungKook is drawn by a familiar piano tune to a music shop with broken showroom windows. He sees YoonGi, for the first time in two years, playing within and looking like he will crumble at any moment. JungKook can’t muster up the courage to follow when he leaves and instead sits at the piano. The keys feel cold like no one has touched them. By memory, he stumbles through the song that YoonGi played this night and back in the classroom hideout. YoonGi appears beside him and corrects the notes like he did in their school days.
The story cuts to YoonGi in the present, possibly in the classroom. He ignores his ringing phone partly because of his drunken stupor and partly because he doesn’t want to talk, but he finally relents and answers. HoSeok offers that NamJoon wants to hang out later. “I’m not going,” YoonGi says immediately. “Hey, don’t be like that. SeokJin’s here, too. Do you want to talk to JungKook? I called him earlier, but he didn’t pick up.” HoSeok encourages YoonGi to call instead because JungKook may pick up for him. YoonGi hangs up, thoughts complicated as he remembers a time when he watched JungKook play piano. “Looking back, that kid was my shadow. I couldn’t ignore him, even if he wasn’t speaking to me. And I kept looking out for him… because it seemed like he’d fall apart if he was ignored.” He considers leaving it be, but his fingers are already dialing.
The perspective switches again: on a rooftop overlooking Songju, JungKook grows dizzy and stumbles. Darkness grasps his ankles, and his mind empties. “I don’t want to leave anything behind. This will just be the end.” At that moment, his phone rings. He sees YoonGi’s name, and everything sharpens, as though he’s awoken from a dream. “What took you so long to pick up?” asks YoonGi. When JungKook doesn’t answer, he continues, “Everyone’s meeting up later. Do you want to go?” After a pause, JungKook says, “YoonGi. Please come get me.” (From the thug beating to the rooftop, this is how his 11 April entry plays out in The Notes 1, but it ends before their phone conversation.) Waiting for YoonGi down on the street, JungKook recalls when they all used to hang out in the classroom. “I have a place to go. People to be with. Right now, that’s enough.”
On 2 May, SeokJin sneaks into YoonGi’s workroom, which is filled with oil-soaked papers as though he intended to set it on fire. (It’s dark, so as the later part of the episode occurs in the daytime, it must be past midnight or in the early morning.) There is no foolproof way to save YoonGi since he acts unpredictably between the loops, but SeokJin has determined that YoonGi needs someone who can tie him to the world—someone whom he won’t push away. Once, NamJoon told SeokJin that JungKook still carried the photo they took at the beach. (The photo depicted in the game is the one of the boys on the wall by the sea.) While NamJoon probably relayed this to show that JungKook hasn’t forgotten about SeokJin, it stirs a different memory for him. In high school when they ditched and went to the beach, hunting for a boulder that supposedly made dreams come true, SeokJin noticed JungKook ask YoonGi an important question while their voices were drowned out by construction noise. He has now realized that both JungKook and YoonGi have the same desperation in their eyes. JungKook knows that YoonGi is like him: a person who needs a string to hold him here. Therefore, JungKook is the key to saving YoonGi.
SeokJin places his copy of the photograph next to the mirror in the workroom, hoping it will lead to saving them both. Before he can leave, footsteps grow closer. Flustered, he chooses to either explain himself honestly or hide. In both paths, YoonGi stumbles inside and collapses on the sofa, too drunk to notice that someone else is in the room. In the second path, some extra information is presented when SeokJin notices a little water dish and paper cup with breadcrumbs as he hides beside the piano. “He must’ve looked after it again.” In another loop, SeokJin saw a small, weak bird that got mistakenly trapped in the workroom. YoonGi looked after it, most likely thinking of JungKook. (This particular episode is called Small Bird, so the title may only be meaningful to players who choose this path or are familiar with the bird from The Notes 1.)
SeokJin escapes undetected while YoonGi sleeps. Later in the day, he watches the workroom from his car. The most difficult part starts now: JungKook must follow the hints SeokJin has left to save YoonGi. After staring up at the second floor for a while with an unhappy expression, JungKook seems to make up his mind and enters the building. The story cuts briefly to YoonGi’s perspective. In the workroom, the mirror shatters. (The reason is unspecified, so we are left to wonder if a confrontation unfolded like the one depicted in the Run MV and implied in The Notes 1, or if something else occurred.) Dizzy, YoonGi falters but manages to stand up. (Again, standing up from what? Possibly because JungKook hit him.) “YoonGi…” JungKook is rooted to the spot in surprise. YoonGi runs, leaving him behind. Back in his perspective, SeokJin starts the car as soon as he sees JungKook dash out of the building. He hopes that leaving “a sign” will guide JungKook to the correct motel. (In The Notes 1, it is a bloody tissue that SeokJin drops by the entrance gate because YoonGi fled his workroom with busted lips. The game episode closely follows how this scenario proceeds in Notes 1, so I’m not sure why it is so cryptic around the details implying that a fight occurred between YoonGi and JungKook.) Inside the motel (once again matching the I Need U MV), YoonGi lights the bedsheets on fire. He regrets having JungKook by his side because the people close to him get hurt. The memories of his childhood burn along with the flames: fragments of the day he arrived home and found it collapsing in a fire. YoonGi hears JungKook shouting. “I’m sure… He’ll be sad because of me. But he won’t be unhappy anymore,” he thinks. JungKook shouts for him to get up, and YoonGi finally looks at him. His last view of the room encompasses the red flames, the air wavy with heat, and JungKook’s crumpled face. The episode ends with sirens playing over a black screen.
Episode 5, “Connecting Threads,” picks up on 12 May with SeokJin preparing to set events in motion for saving his next pair of friends. At the hospital, he waits for JiMin to show up and overhears a conversation between a nurse and doctor. If SeokJin stays where he is, they notice him and postpone their discussion, but if he steps out of sight, they continue. The nurse mentions “patient Park JiMin” who has “transferred down from the 9th floor.” She reports that he keeps roaming the hallways at night and wonders if they should stop him “just in case.” “He’ll be headed back up in about three days or so. Just leave him be. If it really bothers you, check with them,” advises the doctor. SeokJin moves to his precalculated spot when they leave, planning to lead JiMin to the stairs so that he’ll run into HoSeok on his way down. In his perspective, JiMin is troubled by his stiff wrist as he waits for the elevator. A familiar voice suddenly calling his name draws him to the stairwell, but the light makes it difficult to see its owner.
The story cuts to HoSeok wrapping up a consultation with the same doctor from earlier. The doctor states that they haven’t noticed any huge issues and that he’ll be discharged soon. “Do you have any discomfort still?” “Nope, I’m fine!” HoSeok answers energetically and even strikes an exaggerated pose, feeling that he needs to. “Please take care to avoid any future collapses,” the doctor adds. This comment makes HoSeok either recall the last time he collapses or the last moment he spent with his mom. In the first memory, he collapses on the bridge as he thinks about his sick Auntie leaving him alone after she has always been at his side. In the second, he stands at the merry-go-round and wonders if his mom will be standing there when he finishes counting. “Sir… Sir? Are you alright?” The doctor’s questioning shakes HoSeok out of the past. He wants to say hello to JiMin before he leaves the hospital, but JiMin’s bed has been empty for a while. Worried, HoSeok heads to the elevator to look for him. A woman dressed in a long skirt and hat passes by with her child. “Mom!” Convinced that she’s his mother, HoSeok chases after her. He shoves past people, breathing ragged and heart pounding. Afraid to lose her, he either yells out again or goes to the stairs. The results are ultimately the same because she doesn’t respond to his shouts and disappears into the stairwell. HoSeok skips steps down the stairs in his haste. “Mom!” His foot suddenly slips, throwing his weight forward. He flails, but there’s nothing to grab onto—and suddenly, his fall is arrested by someone grabbing his arm. “HoSeok?” “JiMin? How are you here…?” JiMin looks equally surprised. HoSeok realizes it’s obvious that the woman isn’t his mom. Though he can’t remember her face anymore, he still can’t let her go. “Are you alright, HoSeok?” JiMin asks. HoSeok figures that JiMin doesn’t inquire about what he was doing or why because he already knows. “I wonder if JiMin is like me… living trapped in the past. If he’s unable to get better and move on, stuck inside the memories that bind him…” “JiMin,” HoSeok says aloud. “Let’s get out of here.”
From JiMin’s perspective now, he notices that everything about HoSeok in this moment is different from normal. “Get out of here?” JiMin echoes. Outside is unfamiliar and scary, and he knows that even if he escapes the hospital, he will still have to return some day. “JiMin, I’ll come back for you.” HoSeok leaves without waiting for an answer. Not wanting to say goodbye, JiMin follows him secretly as he’s discharged from the hospital. He stops at the line where the hallway ends up on the ninth floor, watching the bright sunlight filter in through the open door. JiMin turns away, believing that the place to which he needs to return isn’t outside but the ninth floor. “Because… I’m a patient.” The rest of episode 6 follows the events in his 15 May Year 22 entry of The Notes 1, with only minor dialogue changes. HoSeok pulls JiMin out of his hospital bed the night before he is scheduled to return to the psychiatric ward. SeokJin and NamJoon meet them in the elevator, while JungKook, TaeHyung, and YoonGi are waiting for them in the first floor lobby. A nurse finds them and sees through YoonGi’s flimsy excuse that they’re having a birthday party. Throwing snack bags and plastic bottles, they all run toward the exit. (This sequence is likely the one depicted in the Euphoria MV, although in the video it’s staged during the daytime instead of at night.) JiMin unconsciously slows as he nears the invisible boundary in the hallway, but HoSeok’s urging grants him the courage to cross the line. Passing through the door, he draws in a breath of fresh air and feels on the verge of crying.
The beginning of episode 7 follows SeokJin’s preparations to prevent TaeHyung’s incident on 20 May in the same fashion as The Notes 1. He waits at the park on the hill behind TaeHyung’s apartment building until HoSeok escorts TaeHyung home from his night at the police station. With careful timing, SeokJin calls HoSeok after he sees the two part ways and asks him to invite TaeHyung to their beach trip in two days. HoSeok turns around toward TaeHyung’s apartment.
The next sequence provides more details of the confrontation (and notably unfolds a little differently than what is depicted in the I Need U MV). TaeHyung arrives home to a familiar stale odor of mold and stench of alcohol. “Where the hell have you been all night?!” TaeHyung turns to see his father’s bloodshot eyes and his sister standing behind him, face swollen. Defiance surges through him, but the desperation in Eunhye’s eyes roots him to the spot. “TaeHyung, tell Dad you’re sorry and go to your room.” TaeHyung either apologizes, holding his anger in, or tries to go straight to his room. In both paths, Kim SungHoon yells that a beating should set him straight. He seizes TaeHyung by the collar. Something bursts and rages inside him. “What have I done wrong?! You’re the one who needs to get things straight!” His father stammers in shock, “W-what did you say?!” while his sister calls his name in warning. TaeHyung chooses to shake him off or hold still. In the first path, he shoves his father to the floor. “Why are you doing this? How long? How long do we have to keep doing this?!” In the second path, Kim SungHoon snarls that he has a lot of nerve to look him in the eye and strikes his cheek. “Why do I need a beating?” TaeHyung thinks.
The paths converge with Eunhye begging their father to stop. The voice continues thundering in TaeHyung’s head: “Why does my sister need a beating? How long are you going to do this?” “You two are a double dose of pain in my ass today!” Kim SungHoon swings at Eunhye, who has thrown herself between them, and she sways at the rough blow. The injustice of it all stokes TaeHyung’s rage. “What have we done wrong? Why do we have to live in fear like this?” Heart pounding, he notices that the cold bottle he’s somehow picked up grows warmer from the heat of his hand. He roars and charges forward. A shattering sound plays over a black screen, and someone cries, “No—! TaeHyung, stop!” TaeHyung comes to his senses. HoSeok is hugging his midsection, his sister is crying, and his father is nowhere to be seen. He wonders whose blood is on his hand. HoSeok stands there silently, looking like he has a lot to say but holding back. “I’m sorry, HoSeok. I’m okay… So you can go now,” TaeHyung says, calm voice belying his inner turmoil. “I want to cry, to scream, to kick, break, shatter everything. I want to fall apart, but I can’t do any of the things I want.” The world spins as he closes his eyes. Mind blank, TaeHyung craves NamJoon’s presence and wants to talk to him—to tell him that he almost killed his father.
The eighth and final episode, “The Pier,” closely follows the version of 22 May in The Notes 1, with the addition of SeokJin’s perspective providing greater depth to the events. The boys make it to the same beach they visited in high school. The observation platform strikes TaeHyung as familiar. As the sun sets, he remembers this all occurring in a dream, except that SeokJin climbs the platform instead of him. Atop the platform, SeokJin is fearful and full of emotions. Memories flash by of their suffering and loneliness, his failures and desire to give up as the misfortunes repeated. He is relieved that TaeHyung does not follow him. At nightfall, they head to where they’re staying. (In The Notes 1, this location is simply called their lodging, and in The Notes 2 it is referred to as a lodge by the beach that SeokJin reserved under his name. In the game, the room appears like the one in the Run MV party scenes (0’57”, 3’00”, etc.), down to the same string lights and sconces—more on this in the Additional Commentary section below.) As the others dance and laugh, SeokJin realizes that this is the first time they’ve made it this far. “It’s something I hoped so desperately for… and a day I thought would never come. We were all lonely once. We hid our own scars and lived through it alone. But it’s different now. We’re all by each other’s sides. We’ll never be alone again.” Despite these thoughts, he has a nagging feeling because he hasn’t told them the truth. SeokJin is afraid of their reactions, but this will be the only way “to really see them properly.” He announces, “I have something to say.” Only TaeHyung turns to look at him through the chaos.
TaeHyung balls up his prickling hand, wondering if this is about the dream he asked SeokJin about several days earlier. (The location of this conversation is unspecified in The Notes 1, but the game provides a flashback shot of it at the bus stop.) His frustration grows when SeokJin begins to mention high school instead. TaeHyung interrupts sharply, believing that SeokJin is still cowardly avoiding the truth. “Are you talking about when you spied for the principal in high school and told him everything we were up to? Or were you going to mention how, because of that… YoonGi got expelled?!” The mood in the room chills. “I’m sorry.” SeokJin drops his head, while the others look away or stare in surprise. But TaeHyung doesn’t want to be unhappy without knowing why, even if the truth is worse than the nightmare. “Is that all? Or are you hiding more from us?”
The perspective switches back to SeokJin. He guesses that TaeHyung is asking about the dream but can’t reveal that the tragedies he experienced were real, believing that no one else should have to suffer with that knowledge. NamJoon approaches and tries to calm TaeHyung, but TaeHyung pushes him away. “Stay out of this, NamJoon. Why does it matter to you? You’re not my brother.” (In the album Note from Her and as a flashback in The Notes 1, TaeHyung overheard NamJoon talking on the phone while they walked to their lodging. NamJoon was speaking to his parents about his younger brother being old enough to take care of himself, but TaeHyung apparently took this to heart as something about himself. It hurt and angered him deeply.) “TaeHyung, I’m sorry,” SeokJin attempts to plead with him. “Stop it, Kim TaeHyung!” NamJoon warns. TaeHyung demands again that SeokJin explain everything. The interrogation unleashes all the memories of his friends’ tragedies that he has tried to forget. SeokJin feels like his nightmares are going to become reality, and his mind goes blank as TaeHyung and NamJoon continue to argue. “I repeated so many moments of suffering… for you… Why are you doing this to me?! I only wanted to be able to laugh together.” A little flame grows within SeokJin, an indescribable feeling cresting like a wave. This is what his countless attempts have led to? “What’s so great about being together?” Shaking off NamJoon’s arm, TaeHyung yells, “Who are we to one another? We’re all alone in the end!” “Alone…” The thing SeokJin has desperately been holding onto breaks away, and the shaking in his hands now consumes his entire body.
SeokJin hits TaeHyung. He remembers TaeHyung’s sudden jump off the seaside platform—a time he thought he saved them all. “I even kept that from happening—and he says we’re all alone in the end? The hopes I had for all of us to be happy, and for us to face coming days together… It all feels like it was for nothing. I thought I left my repeating misfortunes behind me, but I now see them again, taunting me from just ahead.” This concludes the Epilogue and the <I’M FINE> series. Notably, the glass does not break, suggesting that this loop continues from this event (as it does in The Notes 1) without yet resetting.
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Additional Commentary
The only point I want to touch on here is the depiction of the boys’ lodging on 22 May after their beach trip and its potential implications. In The Notes 1, this location is simply called their lodging, and in The Notes 2 it is referred to as a lodge by the beach that SeokJin reserved under his name. In the game, the room appears like the one in the Run MV party scenes (0’57”, 3’00”, etc.), down to the same string lights and sconces.
As a standalone MV set, this location felt (to me) more metaphorical than concrete. It’s introduced after NamJoon opens the door of a train’s shipping container, a little film editing trick as though it’s a world inside—and it does feel like a space away from the real world where the boys are free to let loose, revel in their youth, and be themselves. While it seemed to serve as a more glamorous substitute for NamJoon’s shipping container where they often gathered, this location also appeared to stand in for the location of JungKook and YoonGi’s confrontation (2’24”-2’55”). An altercation between them is heavily implied in SeokJin’s 2 May entry from The Notes 1, but it occurs in YoonGi’s workroom. Since Run is an MV rather than one of the short films, which always present BU events and locations more literally than their song counterparts, it doesn’t seem too unusual that these sets are condensed to one in this video. YoonGi’s workroom isn’t portrayed until Highlight Reel, so we can kind of excuse one of the earliest MVs for artistic license.
However… the inclusion of this location in the game considerably changes the circumstances! Since it is both canon and animated, the creators had the ability to design the settings as they are truly intended to appear (within the general limitations of the game’s engine and visual style). It must have been a very deliberate choice that led to the reuse of the Run MV’s set for the 22 May beach lodging. (For what it’s worth, I have always interpreted SeokJin’s and TaeHyung’s fight in the Japanese MV for Blood Sweat & Tears to represent the fallout of that night, and that is staged in a different set.)
To further complicate matters, a date has been explicitly attached to one of the scenes in Run because it is matched shot-for-shot in the BU Story trailer Map of the Soul—and it is neither 2 or 22 May.
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24 July Year 22 is not reached in <I’M FINE>, but in the Notes, this is the date the boys plan to gather at NamJoon’s container to celebrate JungKook’s discharge from the hospital. So far in The Notes 1 and 2 (and various album-accompanying Notes from MotS: Persona and 7), this event has hardly manifested as the celebration it is intended to be. This particular shot maps a little better to the circumstances in Notes 2, as not all of them even show up in Notes 1. But again, this gathering occurs at the container—so what, and where, is this shot really depicting? How is it linked to the beach lodging they visit in some loops on 22 May?
BU has been in development for years now, so I believe there is intentionality behind this location’s depiction in the game, even if it raises more questions than it answers. Perhaps it is foreshadowing a very different version of 24 July in which they return again to the beach lodging. This is my best guess for now, and it’s exciting to think that there are still hints embedded in the older MVs for aspects of the plot that have yet to be fully revealed in The Notes.
What do you think? Did you notice the location parallels if you played the game, and did they inspire any new theories for you?
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As mentioned above, the following “tl;dr” commentary summarizes the parenthetical notes I provided in the summaries in case you want to review them on their own.
Heart’s Distance — tl;dr commentary
In the opening cutscene, TaeHyung’s photograph of his father holding him as a baby looks similar to the one he holds at 1’48” in the HYYH On Stage: Prologue short film.
During the gathering at NamJoon’s container after everyone freed JiMin from the hospital, SeokJin asks, “How long has it been since we’ve all laughed together?” This is a reference to the recurring phrase “we can laugh when we’re together” present throughout the Notes and occasionally this game.
On 19 May, TaeHyung is arrested for vandalism while painting graffiti on the streets. The bus stop depicted in the shot is the same as the one in Highlight Reel.
In the shot in the game illustrating TaeHyung’s choice on 20 May that he “can’t take back,” he approaches his father from behind and the sound of glass occurs on a cut to black. We know from the I Need U MV and Save Me webtoon that he fatally stabs his father.
When SeokJin asks Uncle JunHo for a favor to visit a construction site for practical training, JunHo expresses that SeokJin’s father seems to be interested, too. “Make sure to use this opportunity to take a thorough look around. It’ll all be helpful to you later,” JunHo advises. It’s helpful to know that Assemblyman Kim ChangJun is involved in some shady business with a construction company—this is revealed in The Notes 2.
After the foreman leaves his father’s hospital room, TaeHyung realizes how tense he has been when he loosens his grip and sees little crescents of his fingernails cut into his palms. His wounded palms are a recurring motif.
On 20 May, SeokJin stands at the bus stop and touches the graffiti for which TaeHyung was arrested the previous night. It’s the “I’m Fine” message depicted at the same location in the Highlight Reel.
The story ends with SeokJin losing consciousness after TaeHyung shoved him away and he slammed into something, marking another failed attempt while preventing the homicide. This is not the first time TaeHyung has caused SeokJin grave or mortal injury during his intervention: in the Save Me webtoon, he accidentally stabbed SeokJin with the broken bottle instead of his father.
Nightmare: Epilogue — tl;dr commentary
SeokJin and NamJoon’s conversation when they reunite at the gas station on the night of 11 April begins with 2 familiar phrases: “Oh. SeokJin?” “It’s been a while.” As mentioned in part 1, this sequence parallels their moment at the end of the Blood Sweat & Tears Japanese version MV.
In episode 3, the scene of JungKook finding YoonGi playing piano at the music shop appears to be a memory of 7 April, although it is not explicitly stated as such. This encounter occurs in The Notes 1 as well as episode 4 of JungKook’s story.
From JungKook’s beating at the hands of thugs to the rooftop, this is how his 11 April entry plays out in The Notes 1, but it ends before his phone conversation with YoonGi.
SeokJin reflects on a time NamJoon told him that JungKook still carried the photo they took at the beach. The photo depicted in the game is the one of the boys on the wall by the sea.
Episode 4 is called “Small Bird,” yet the bird is only referenced in one of the choice’s paths (SeokJin hides behind the piano in YoonGi’s workroom). The title may be more meaningful to players who choose this path or are familiar with the bird from The Notes 1.
The game is even more cryptic than The Notes 1 about JungKook and YoonGi’s apparent altercation on 2 May in his workroom. When the perspective cuts to YoonGi, the mirror has already been shattered. The reason is unspecified, so we are left to wonder if a confrontation unfolded like the one depicted in the Run MV and implied in The Notes 1, or if something else occurred. The “sign” that SeokJin leaves to guide JungKook to the correct motel is also unspecified, but in The Notes 1, it is a bloody tissue because YoonGi fled his workroom with busted lips.
The motel room that YoonGi sets on fire in this loop once again matches the I Need U MV.
JiMin’s escape sequence from the hospital is likely the one depicted in the Euphoria MV, although in the video it’s staged during the daytime instead of at night.
TaeHyung’s confrontation with his father on 20 May unfolds a little differently than what is depicted in the I Need U MV.
Some notes/thoughts on the 22 May post-beach trip lodging are included in the Additional Commentary section above.
TaeHyung has a flashback to several days prior to 22 May when he asked SeokJin about his recurring dreams. The location of this conversation is unspecified in The Notes 1, but it’s depicted at the bus stop in the game.
TaeHyung pushes NamJoon away physically and verbally when he tries to interrupt his interrogation of SeokJin at the lodging. “Stay out of this, NamJoon. Why does it matter to you? You’re not my brother.” In the album Note from Her and as a flashback in The Notes 1, TaeHyung overheard NamJoon talking on the phone while they walked to their lodging. NamJoon was speaking to his parents about his younger brother being old enough to take care of himself, but TaeHyung apparently took this to heart as something about himself. It hurt and angered him deeply.
Notably, the glass does not break at the end of the Epilogue, suggesting that this loop continues from this event (as it does in The Notes 1) without yet resetting.
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This brings us to the end of the BTS Universe Story <I’M FINE> highlights! This series turned out a little different than I originally envisioned, but I hope you found these summaries helpful and worthwhile to read. If you have any questions, important details that you felt I overlooked, or theories of your own that you would like to share, feel free to send me an ask!
For more informational storyline content, please check out the Timeline project, currently in development!
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teamfreewill2pointo · 3 years
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Family Don't End with Blood Transcription
Family Don't End with Blood Transcription [twitter version]
Jared: So, in Supernatural, our character Bobby Singer played by the wonderful Jim Beaver has a quote, “family don't end in blood”. 
Jensen: You know, it's one of the many, kind of, mottos of-of Supernatural and it is the family that you choose and it is the people that you care about and that you fight next to and that you fight to save. And that inspire you. And that push you. 
Singer: No, I think definitely the family was going to be a theme right from the beginning. I mean the Pilot story was and- and whatever the mythology of season one was- was, you know, the search for dad. 
Dabb: You'll watch the first few moments of the Pilot and it very clearly plants this flag about what it is. It is a family show.
Misha: Like who's your clan and who are the people you care about the most? And obviously, two orphaned brothers couldn't care about anything in the world more than one another, but they envelop this community of people who also care about them and one another. Alex: Sam and Dean and Cas and Jack and these host of characters are kind of... with loss forced to reassess what family is, and what I love about the show is they kind of build their own version of that.
Jared: There's so many characters along the way that Sam and Dean treated as they would treat each other. Dabb: I think that was a core part of this, because Sam and Dean are two guys that, because they define everything by family, they're always looking for a family. 
Jared: You know, not everybody out there has a wonderful family life as far as their- their blood relatives.
Dabb: Sam and Dean come from a very dysfunctional family. Their father suffered this great, you know, world shattering tragedy and really spent the entire rest of his life trying to get revenge. And unfortunately, Sam and Dean came second to that.
Dabb: So when they got to be an adult, and I think a lot of people that come from dysfunctional families find this... is it becomes less about the family you're born into and it becomes about your family by choice. 
Jensen: When you find someone that's willing to fight alongside you for what you collectively believe is the right thing, then it instantly makes you brothers and sisters in arms. And that's exactly what these two brothers found. They found other brothers and sisters in arms.
Singer: Bobby really served as a, you know, a father figure. One thing we always tried to do is that if we had a guest character that really kind of hit the mark, we would say oh, you know, we got to keep going with this- with this person. Bobby, that, character is certainly one of them. 
Beaver: If you're walking the walk, and not just talking the talk, I think probably respects that immensely and- and he sees that in Sam and Dean. 
Buckner: Crowley, Charlie, Jack, Rowena... all these people had a commonality. I mean, they were all alone in their own little universes to a- to an extent. 
Singer: When Misha showed up... and created the- the Castiel character, we knew we had something special. 
Misha: It's been such an interesting arc with the character of Castiel on Supernatural.
Jensen: You know sure the story at the core was- was about these brothers, but it was also about this- this ragtag gang of fighters. 
Samantha Smith: Most hunters are solitary. It’s lonely. And, when they can connect with other people who understand their pain and their life and their dedication and their purpose, there's going to be a bond there.
Jensen: I'm thankful for, not only the characters and how they were written and how they affected the Winchester's, but also for the actors and actresses that have portrayed them, because they too have become family with Jared and I. And they are- they're part of this crazy circus that is supernatural.
Dabb: Jared and Jensen are both excellent actors, but I think their biggest achievement on this show is the example they were able to set for everybody. And you know, it's kind of a famous story, but Eric Kripke sat them down, you know, the first season we're like, “This is your show. You guys set the tone of this show.”
Kripke: They're bringing so much more to it than I ever could have written, in their grounding it and they're making it real. And it's clear you watch these guys, and they're smart guys, going through this story and I'm-I’m thrilled.
Dabb: Both Jared and Jensen are capable of carrying a show on their own. As they now will go off and do, I'm sure. The fact that we could get them together for this period of time- again, I don’t know that’s something you are going to repeat on a TV show for a while.
Buckner: They-they really are quite incredible. Jensen learned to tap dance for an episode... I keep hearing the phrase “once in a lifetime” and probably so. 
Dabb: To get two guys at this caliber who are leading men to come in and do that job into it so well, and so thoughtfully- again I-I said it earlier, but I don't think I'm gonna find that again in my career.
Jensen: That's the crazy thing about being on a show this long and- and not just being on a show this long, but being with a large- a large majority of our crew has been with us either from the beginning 15 years or they've been with us 12 years, or 10 years, or eight years. 
Jensen: That's a long, long time for these professionals to be in one- to be on one job. 
Singer: Our set was always loose. The crew felt part of the family. They were in on the joke. The guys were always great to the crew, had great respect for the crew.
Sheppard: Truly great people all at the peak of their abilities. Some great, great wonderful writers, some extraordinary producers over the years, the various showrunners from Kripke at the beginning, to Sera, to- to Jeremy, to Andrew. It's been an amazing journey. 
Misha: I've just been both grateful and inspired to be around a crew like this. We laugh so much and I-I know that Jared and Jensen and the producers all agree, we wouldn't be here if the crew of Supernatural wasn't the crew that it is.
Alex Calvert: I came into this show relatively late compared to everybody else.
The relationships that I've seen at work and away from work are incredible. People have started families. People have had kids on the show. You know, I think these people are-are gonna be in each other's lives forever because of this bond that they formed. 
Dabb: This is a show where assistants have gone on to write scripts. 
This is a show where crew people have gone on to direct. It's a show that has tried to be supportive to people who show that passion and that work ethic to get up there and do it. I certainly have felt supported. I mean, I-I went from a staff writer to running the show and you know, so obviously I felt very supported (laughs) in kind of my goals.
Jared: You know, I've-I’ve met my wife, mother of my kids. I met one of my groomsmen. I met a ton of dear friends, and I have a new extended family, our SPN family.
Jared: I'm honored and flattered and grateful that I got to be a part of that journey. 
Alex: I think the- the overwhelming thing that I'd like to express for me and I think for a lot of people on the show that maybe don't get a say, which I want to represent, is the crew and the people that build the show and paint the show. 
Alex: You know, costume to show and- and are here everyday working on it. I think a lot of it is just gratitude and thankfulness that- that we get to do what we do. 
Dabb: On the writing side of it here in Burbank, that's always felt like there's a family atmosphere. I feel it's a great gift where we work with so many people that are both talented and professional. 
Buckner: They- a lot of laughter in that room. I remember a tabletop strewn with toys, and play-dough, and slinkies, and etcha-a-sketches, and blocks that got played with endlessly. I know there's a whole wall covered with index cards with various, either funny, pointless, or stupid, things that the writers have said over the course of many, many, many meetings that's tacked up on a wall. And remember just a lot of give and take and a lot of feelings of safety in that room. It was maybe the largest production office I've worked in. The tiki bar in the middle of the office, always laid out with cakes or whatever for birthdays. 
Eugenie: We were a community. We were a brotherhood. We were a sisterhood. And, that kind of was the way everything was run. 
Buckner: One of the writers I remember once, had major surgery and had to come to work in sweats, a really loose fitting stuff. So a lot of the writers showed up in PJs as a-as a sort of show of solidarity. So there's just lots of ways that people supported each other. 
Dabb: And I just feel incredibly lucky to have worked with, number one with Bob Singer because I've worked with him for 15 years now. It has been the most rewarding... partnership, mentorship, whatever you want to call it, of my professional life. In terms of being able to learn from him. 
Jared: His involvement in the series was so necessary from day one. He can walk on set, look at me, not really saying anything, just give me a face, and I'm like got it. And that's built over time.
Singer: I come in with a plan, but it's not chipped in stone and then, you know, lots of times, you know, the guys would have ideas. Sometimes I would accept them readily. Sometimes, we had to talk about them, but there was always this mutual respect. 
Jensen: He has been just this... Yoda character for our show. I call him my confident captain. He's just- he's been- he's been the real compass of this- of the show for so long.
We have come together in times of crisis. We've lost several of our crew members. We lost Yap. We lost Matt Riley. We lost Kim Manners in Season 4. 
Singer: Kim was a great guy and a great director. Everybody responded to his talent but also to who he was. 
Jared: He used to say, you know, we're not curing cancer, and I spend more time with you than I do my wife, my kids, my dogs. So, if we're not having a good time, then what are we doing? 
And so we tried to make sure that we kept it light and that we all realized like hey, we're putting on makeup and playing pretend for a living. 
Sheppard: I came into a couple of episodes, with a show that Kim Manners told me I really needed to do someday because I would really enjoy it and I'd love the boys. And he was right. He was absolutely right. 
Singer: The hardest part of season four was- was losing Kim. And I think the… the best thing we could say about losing Kim was that we never replaced him. I didn't feel like anyone should have that job other than- than Kim. So, you know, that was hard.
Jensen: I'm not quite sure when the-the phrase was coined, but the SPN family, as the- the fandom is- is lovingly known as. What we are on set as a crew is now reflected in- in what we see as a fandom. 
Misha: The SPN family, Supernatural family. I've seen so many instances of people gathering together to go support a Supernatural fan.
Misha: It's so lovely and inspiring and I-I-I honestly, you know, hope that that could serve as a template for how greater society works.
Buckner: When these guys were feeling for each other, or for other characters, or when they were afraid, or, you know, when they loved somebody, it just radiated off the screen, and the fans really picked up on that. 
Jared: I know several of the fans personally and care about them deeply. And it's neat to talk about a shared passion. Man, I love Supernatural too. Like, I love the storyline too. I like that episode too. Like let's talk about it. 
Jensen: We have this unique situation with our show where we're able to do these fan conventions and we do them quite often and it gives us an opportunity to get in front of a lot of these people and have honest real conversations with them face-to-face. And that's, in my opinion, that's helped shape the show. 
Buckner: And this is not just limited to the United States. It's a worldwide thing. I mean, there are these conventions held, you know, everywhere in the world. 
Eugenie: The fans are so polite. They're- they're very respectful of each other's appreciation of the same show they appreciate. It's like we're all in this together. 
Alex Calvert: I can tell you that the people that I've met and that have been affected by the show and the fans of the show will- will tell you a hundred times over that this is not the end, that this goes on forever.
Singer: They've bonded over this show. And-and have created their own Supernatural family. And have a tremendous respect for what we do, but respect for each other. 
Just a motivation of why we wanted to always keep the show going and keep it fresh was not to disappoint the fans. We certainly didn't want to disappoint them, because we didn't want to disappoint family members. 
Dabb: There's nothing I won't miss. This has been, creatively speaking, an incredible gift.
Buckner: Just be able to go to work and have that kind of freedom and not dread going into a place. 
Jensen: We love the show. We love the story.
We love these characters. We love the- we love the people that we make this show with. I hope and I believe that that translates on camera.
Eugenie: You know, there's always reruns. I'll always be able to see Sam and Dean. 
Alex Calvert: I think everybody loves that- that Sam and Dean, you know, can go through hell together literally, and give each other a big hug at the end of it and know that they're gonna be alright because they have each other. I think that's a really beautiful concept of the show.
Singer: That bond is really, I think, you know, the heart and soulless show, and what gave us the longevity that we had. 
Misha: I also genuinely hope that the supernatural family is something that carries on past the end of the shooting of the show. I hope we can continue collectively to do good in the world and to set a good example and to be a family to one another. 
Jared: Sam and Dean, much like Jared and Jensen, over the course of Supernatural were allowed to add many members to their family, and they would do anything for their family members and vice versa. This world and this journey isn't just about fighting for yourself or fighting for somebody that it'll- it'll benefit you. It's not about the glory. It's about doing what's right and taking care of good people. And I think Supernatural from day one has been able to accomplish that. [Huge thanks to Kira who helped me clean this up!!]
End of the Road Special Transcription Winchester Mythology Transcription
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lordoftermites · 3 years
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THE FOX & THE THORNBUSH
Part 2: made this one a flashback (and probably should do with part 1 as well) since I just finished reading A Visit to the Impossible Lands. We’ll just pretend I knew exactly what I was doing when I wrote it.
Pairing: Roiben x Kaye
Summary: A bit of G-rated fluff between Roiben and Kaye, because these two never have enough of that in their story and they fucking deserve it even if I gotta do it myself.
Part 1 here.
―――――――――
“Oh, come onnnn. Just try it,” Kaye says, nudging the paper cup nearer to his lips. Steam rises in lazy swirls to dissipate into the cool air of the brugh. It smells faintly of a berry Roiben thinks is familiar but can’t place, and even less like the coffee she promises it’s made of. “I mean, you liked the bacon and honey blend last week, and that was absolute garbage. This is the best one so far, I swear.”
Roiben inspects the cup in his hand, at the artwork representing Moon In A Cup—Kaye's coffee shop in the mortal world.
Printed on the side of the vessel is an intricate drawing of a tea cup. Its well is designed to look like the cap of a toadstool—a deep indigo, with silver speckles of varying size. Woven branches of spring-green thorn make up the handle. Inside the cup, on a wave of black coffee, floats a crescent moon. It seems to reflect the light of the hall, like a stolen sliver of moonlight. Just above that, as if drawn to the silver glow, a miniature green-winged moth hovers.
On the corner of the left wing is a letter H, written in a pastel pink flourish: Roiben takes a guess that Kaye must have finally managed to track down and enlist the talents of her favorite comic artist. Indeed, it’s fine work.
Kaye pushes the cup toward him again. “Would you stop looking at it like it might be poison and just take a fucking sip already? It’s going to get cold—and I’m not trying it until you do.”  Somehow, only she can make the avid impatience of a pixie an endearing trait. Roiben suspects he might have a small bias.
Although, her admission to not having tested the brew herself first is rather dubious.
Roiben raises a brow at her, but concedes with a small grin. “I was just admiring the new emblem,” he says, before taking a tentative sip of the still-actually-very-hot contents. It scalds the tip of his tongue, but to his surprise, it really is coffee. It’s light, and there’s a bitter, but pleasant aftertaste—something familiar.
The burnt spot on his tongue is beginning to dull, replaced by a slight tingling sensation that spreads upward. He frowns, contemplating. Kaye is watching him intensely, those moonless eyes of hers glittering with anticipation. She's very near to vibrating herself right off of the arm of his throne.
They’ve made it to her favorite part of the testing: having Roiben guess the flavors—and hidden tricks—of her new concoctions. He grins again: he was incorrect only once, and that had been for the simple fact he hadn’t known, at the time, what a Goo-Goo Cluster was.
“Ah,” he muses softly. “Rowan berry.” He smiles, and Kaye looks positively crestfallen. She huffs, but it’s a brief sulk; try as she might to be a sore loser, she inevitably cheers when Roiben chuckles and pulls her into his lap. He even takes another, longer sip of the coffee, to which her smile becomes full and genuine.
There are few things in his life that can warm the residual frost in his bones, and quite nearly all of them either begin or end with that smile.
He runs a finger across his lips. As he’d thought, it wasn’t just the coffee’s temperature prickling his mouth. While he’s had a brief education of what the berries might do, he’s not, until now, had to put that information to use. “A mortal safeguard from glamours when dried and strung,” Roiben says, “it seems it also contains much of the same dilutional properties when consumed by fey.”
Kaye frowns, so he elaborates, pointing to his mouth: “I can’t feel my tongue.” There’s the lightest slur in words there, a confirmation of mild insensibility.
The usual emerald green of Kaye’s cheeks have washed out to something closer to pistachio. Roiben’s laugh rings through the otherwise-stillness of the brugh, escaping him before he can help it; perhaps the berries offer a maddening effect as well. “And you said it wasn’t poisoned.”
“But... Ravus said!” Kaye exclaims, panicked and snatching the “poisoned” coffee from him. She looks at it as though it is an enemy, a vicious foe that must be slain in earnest. “Ravus said the berries are only poisonous if they’re eaten off the plant. And even then, you won’t like, die or anything—they just cause… stomach problems. He said, and I quote, ‘as long as they’re cooked, they’re one-hundred percent safe to eat.’” She huffs again, the forced air puffing her green cheeks, and sinks back against him with a sullen glare at the cup in her hands. “I was going to run a special—Free Biodegradable Necklace With Each Purchase—y’know, some rowan berries for the mortals that come into the shop.”
Roiben knows all too well the potion-maker would not have given Kaye information with the intent to deceive; for a start, of the meager list Roiben keeps for friends, Ravus has proven himself, far and away, a creature of honor and loyalty—self-exile notwithstanding. Moreover— and more importantly, Ravus now has the greater duty of being a father; no doubt he would be remiss in a few, finer details. Roiben is almost certain he would be, should such a day ever come (though he lingers not long at all on that thought and does not allow himself the further consideration of what touching Impossibility feels like).
He knows, too, that the rowan berry will do no more harm than it already has: as some mortals have adverse reactions to the pollen of flowers, the fey suffer something similar with rowan, with only a more... mystical variant. Should the berries be ingested, the ability to glamour by speech is thoroughly subdued, until the berries are expelled one way or another. Roiben had learned of its effect on their kind years back, when Ravus had been a lone, exiled alchemist beneath a bridge, and Roiben had been naught but a fool in a king’s costume, taking many an ill-advised risk to win an unwinnable war.
He had proffered sanctuary to the exiled fey in the city then—of which that asylum had extended to Ravus and his mortal lover. And now, their small child of clay and air, with her curls of flaming copper, aurelian eyes and horn-tipped ears, carried with her the protection of the Court of Termites in its entirety; from Unseelie borough to Seelie grove, the girl would be safe.
Roiben had not, neither then or now, forced fealty, and not for more than one night and one day had he requested the man’s aid in the plan he had used to thwart Silarial. A faerie sigh, Ravus had called that brief servitude. How on the mark that turn of phrase had been—Roiben is still not so sure he had taken a single breath at all that day.
“Fret not, little fox.” The private moniker brings Kaye’s ink-black eyes back up to him. Her brows are woven together in real worry. Roiben gives his consort a pitying look, and brushes a wild lock of deep-green hair from her face. “It’s…—ah, an allergic reaction, I believe mortals call it?” Kaye exhales a wavered breath of relief, before nodding affirmatively. He kisses her pout and smiles; she tastes of honey chapstick, and a phantom of roasted dandelion tea—his favorite.
“It’s very possible,” he says, taking back the newfound nemesis and holding it out for careful examination, “as it is rarely put to use by our like due to the nature of the thing, Ravus meant it’s only safe for human consumption, and likely did not think you would try it outright on your own monarch.” Roiben winks down at her, but she doesn’t seem to enjoy the joke.
“In any case—”
With a shocked gasp of dissent from Kaye, he grins, tips the cup to stinging lips, and drains it to the dregs.
“You were right: it’s much better than the bacon.”
He smiles at her—or, at least, he hopes he’s smiling. He can’t tell: his mouth has gone entirely numb.
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vancafreader · 3 years
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Fine Art Comics of Canada: Sixties to Seventies - Heart of London, Snore & More by Robert Dayton
Part One: The Heart Of London
There was a time where artists were making vast ripples away from Toronto and other outsized hubs. London, Ontario was such a place, all eyes were on it in the late 60’s and not Toronto. The Heart Of London comic book from 1968 was actually an exhibition catalog, an overview of the art that was happening there at the time. Organised by The National Gallery of Canada, this exhibition traveled from London to Toronto, Kingston, Edmonton, Victoria, Charlottetown and, of course, The National Gallery H.Q. itself in Ottawa.
This catalog/comic book consisted of fumetti, comics done using photos for the images. Fumetti was most prominently used in the 60’s by Harvey Kurtzman in Help and Playboy, prolifically in numerous Mexican comic book melodramas, and in Italian comics featuring the masked master criminal Satanik. Heart Of London’s particular fumetti is further stylized by heavily contrasted processing causing colours so bright that they make everything heightened artifice, buzzing as if emanating from a higher plane of being.
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Cover of the Heart Of London catalogue
The Heart of London logo in Pepto-Bismol pink is rendered somewhere between Archie and underground comix titles. Above it, The Comics Code of Authority symbol -a comic book mainstay of the day implying that the work is of safe moral quality- has been altered to “National Gallery of Canada”, the institution that made this comic book and exhibition happen. The cover features what appears to be London public workers, perhaps? These men in yellow hard hats casually stand in front of a store with a Coca-Cola logo also coloured Pepto-Bismol pink, Pop Art style, at the city’s main intersection in what very well may be the heart of London.
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The comic opens with a quote placed above a looming Brutalist parking lot, huddling various small businesses below it. This quote contains the phrase “heart of London” but it is rather self-deprecatingly not about London, Ontario but London, England in World War One. Sharing a name with London, England has often made this Ontario city the butt of many a joke, ie. “I live in London… (long pause) Ontario” with its population being just over 200,000 in 1968. Named in 1793 by Lord Simcoe, Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant-Governor known for starting the abolition of slavery, he was also fervently British, his vision for Canada was for it to be like England which he looooved, desperately (but stiffly) wanting this particular London to become Ontario’s capital. Alas, Toronto was chosen instead. Related, always related to everything: the term “cosmic consciousness”, the higher state of consciousness, was coined in London in 1872 by Richard Bucke, a psychiatrist and head of The Asylum For The Insane, after he received a blinding vision, illuminating him. Besides being active in asylum reform, Bucke was heavily involved in the arts -the vision occurred after an evening spent reading Romantic poetry as well as poems by Walt Whitman, who he later befriended. Yes, London, Ontario is an eccentric place.
The artists involved in the Heart Of London show were part of what was known as “London Regionalism”, a loose-knit movement of artists who were adamant about residing in London, away from Toronto or New York. Artist Greg Curnoe helped establish some of the very first artist-run centres there. He was an early member and huge proponent of CARFAC, a Canadian organisation that fights for artists to get paid and paid fairly for their work. CARFAC was founded in London by Heart Of London artists Jack Chambers and Tony Urquhart -along with Kim Ondaatje.
Besides Curnoe, Chambers, and Urquhart, the eleven artists in Heart Of London included John Boyle, Bev Kelly, Murray Favro, Ron Martin, David Rabinowitch, Royden Rabinowitch, Walter Redinger, and Ed Zelenak. They are all profiled in fumetti form talking about their practice through speech balloons and captions, along with quick biographical details. Many of these artists were known for their inventiveness, they were influenced by a variety of subject matter -including comic art- without falsely delineating these influences into false boxes of high or low art. They didn’t just make work in the visual art field either. Along with a Hart Of London work-on-paper, Chambers made an experimental film with the same name in 1970. This film intensely shows brutal shots of an abattoir in Spain interspersed with London scenes; it has been described by Stan Brakhage as “one of the greatest films ever made.”  Both Curnoe’s Heart Of London painting from 1967 and Jack Chambers’ 1968 work-on-paper Hart Of London are in the show.
Noted curator and historian Judith Rodger told me that Curnoe’s Heart Of London piece depicts The Forks Of the Thames downtown, “arguably the heart of London” near many of the artists’ studios with Greg’s studio as the main hub or heart of it all. As for the idea of a comic book catalog, it was a mystery until Rodger guided me to Katie Cholette’s PhD thesis Memory and Mythmaking: the role of autobiography in the works of Jack Chambers and Greg Curnoe which states that it was the idea of William Bragg, assistant to the director of The National Gallery’s extension services. Cholette’s paper quotes Bragg from the Sept 29, 1968 New York Times’ Arts Notes column, “…The idea was to make a kind of scrapbook, to talk as a group, not individuals. Their work is kind of echoed by the comics—it’s really their bag […] Everyone likes to read comics once in a while, anyway.” Due to its uniqueness, the catalog garnered a lot of press for the show. Beverley Lambert (Bev Kelly in the show) says, “I think we all thought it was pretty neat and it was funny. It got people’s attention.”
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When I talked to artist John Boyle about this comic book catalog, he said right away, “It’s too bad that Greg Curnoe isn’t with us anymore, because he was really interested in comic books. And he always did comic book or comic-like drawings from the time he was a little kid.” In the book Greg Curnoe Life And Work, author Judith Rodger’s description of his 1963 painting Myself Walking North In the Tweed Coat could be ascribed to many of his works. “The flat, vivid colours; schematic outlines; and text all come from his love of the comic book.” As well as the inclusion of the name of the newspaper strip Mary Worth in the piece. Another colourful painting casually inserts Dick Tracy into the frame as a representative of one of his interests. Curnoe’s series of cut-out collages were often shaped into cartoony and anthropomorphic forms.
Curated by Pierre Théberge at The National Gallery, Boyle readily notes, “Both Curnoe and Chambers talked up all the other artists who were around in London, and ended up persuading Théberge to have a group show to get a sense of the whole London art scene.”
The comic book itself doesn’t give William Bragg’s name at all, nada. The designer is credited: Roger Duhamel, FRSC, Queen’s Printer and Controller of Stationery, a federal government official, as well as the design firm: Eccleston + Glossop International. All of the photos, however, were done by the late Don Vincent, of whom Boyle says, “He was a friend of ours, of all of us. And a really terrific photographer. And he documented the whole London scene as it unfolded taking photographs all the time of everybody in this show and just of London, his whole life was photography.” Vincent’s work also appeared in 20 Cent Magazine, a delightfully scrappy local art magazine started in the mid-60’s with many of the people in the show, including Boyle and Curnoe, contributing writings and drawings. 20 Cent Magazine sold for 25 cents, ha! Vincent also photographed The Nihilist Spasm Band who are regarded as the first noise-rock band; this amazing, mind-blowing, intense and milk-spurtingly funny act was founded by the late Greg Curnoe, with Boyle and Favro (playing unique guitars that he builds himself) as still very active members over fifty years later. They are unique cultural ambassadors bringing such songs as “No Canada” to the world, having performed in Japan and in Vancouver at The Western Front with poet George Bowering guesting on guitar, and have had a documentary made about them by the late noise artist Zev Asher.
In one of Heart Of London’s comic book panels about Boyle an early issue of the four color MAD sneaks its way in. I asked him if he read MAD, “Yeah. Although that is from the designer. I read MAD, although not madly.”
A very young Boyle states in one of his panels, “The day I can truly defile myself in public, I will have accomplished everything, and I will no longer have a need to paint.” Reflecting today he says, “I still think that actually, and I think I may have succeeded. Because I do still have the need to paint. But I don’t have the need to show it anymore, or to get applause or approval from anyone. And I don’t know how that arose in me. But I kind of had a fair amount of attention and approval and acceptance and shows in fancy places and meeting important people and pleasing art administrators. And I kind of reached the conclusion that most of them aren’t worth pleasing and their opinion was not as good or not as important as the opinions of other people that I happen to know. And I thought they made a lot of mistakes and people that they chose to support. And also, their approval was very fickle. They were very fickle about it because as soon as fashions would change, their eyes were directed elsewhere and the people they thought were geniuses today were no longer geniuses tomorrow. I did kind of lose my enthusiasm for the art world, but not for painting. So, I was mistaken.”
The final pages of this catalog feature a few reproductions of pieces from the show itself, including Bev Kelly’s window paintings which, with its window panels, adapt quite easily to the comic book form, comparable to an ornate and mysterious painted comic page. The layout, however, was a bit fast and loose with one of her works being printed sideways. In her fumetti section she says, “These windows aren’t ‘real’ windows, they are still paintings. They don’t have sashes and you can’t see through them. A real window is to look through, these are to look at.” Painted on canvas, the window pieces used lumber to make the frames of the paintings, carved to look like the ribbed mouldings of window frames.
Bev Kelly was the sole woman in the show and when I asked her about this she said, “I’m very happy that they didn’t concentrate on this issue that I was the only woman. I didn’t want to be known as an artist because I was a woman.” Having recently moved to London from Saskatchewan with her husband, they were warmly welcomed by Curnoe and she would go see The Nihilist Spasm Band play every week at The York Hotel. Her first solo show was at The 20/20 Gallery in London.
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She spent the first two years of her life in Biggar, Saskatchewan where the signs read, “New York Is Big, But This Is Biggar.” Being in London changed her notions of places like New York being the absolute cultural mecca. Beverley says, “There was a really vibrant cultural community there. You know what a regionalist Greg was. He really believed, as a lot of writers do, that you should write about what you know, or you should do your art about what you know, including where you live and so on. And, of course, when I started on the windows that was right out where I was living. The first ones were of my house and then I walked around and took pictures of various houses that I thought looked interesting. When I got a studio in London above one of the businesses downtown I used some of the windows there as inspiration for my works. And then when I went back to Saskatchewan, I was very into that, looking around at what is there where you live. I even got a grant to travel around small-town Saskatchewan and look at the local -in air quotes- ‘folk art’ or untrained artists, let’s say, just painting odd things on their house or their property or whatever. So, I went and I did interviews, took pictures of them, and I imagine I must have produced some kind of a report on it because I probably had to for my grant. So that led me into being more observant and looking more at where it’s from and what is around you and that you don’t have to go to some huge, big place to find art.”
Bev Kelly was her married name and she returned to using her original name, Beverley Lambert in the 1970’s. Lambert did a series of three large lithographs for International Women’s Year in 1975 on women’s issues dealing with real news stories that happened on the prairies. Many of these prints were donated to many women’s centres across the country. She has also worked in clay doing an entire main street based on the fictional Saskatchewan town in the humour book Sarah Binks by Paul Hiebert. Beverley Lambert currently resides in St. John’s, Newfoundland where she makes art and is active as a conservator.
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Flip the comic over and it is the same but in either French or English depending on where you first started reading!
Boyle comments, “Last night, my wife and I were looking at the Heart of London catalog. She was amazed that this was a National Gallery touring show with a lot of artists who became major artists in the country. And it looked like they were trying to spend as little money as possible by making this skinny little comic book-like thing on newsprint and I think there’s a large measure of truth in that. Because, again, I remember when Greg Curnoe had a big one-man exhibition retrospective at The National Gallery and the catalogue that they did for him was kind of a minimal thing. It was like a paperback book with one colour reproduction and a number of inferior black and white reproductions and basically a list of artworks in the show. And in the same year, The National Gallery did a big one-man exhibition of Donald Judd, the American sculptor, and his catalogue was a huge coffee table book that weighed about 15 pounds and was three inches thick and loaded with colour from beginning to end. And that just, I think, represented a specifically Canadian problem.” When I mention this to Hairy Who member Art Green he responds, “Well, of course, because they’re trying to impress their betters in New York, so you get a job at The Whitney or The Museum of Modern Art. Canada has been an incubator for museum directors since forever.”
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Hairy Who catalog page by Art Green, courtesy of the artist
This style of catalog for Heart Of London corresponds nicely with The Hairy Who, another such grouping of artists around that time who were part of “The Chicago Imagists.” Their three Chicago art shows starting in the mid-60’s were accompanied by comic books that also doubled as exhibition catalogs. The Hairy Who weren’t very aware of the underground comics scene then just barely getting started, they chose this method out of creative necessity, printing a glossy catalog was cost prohibitive. Green explains, “And the printing was expensive and not very good. And we didn’t want to have a show that was called ‘Six Recent Graduates’ or something unexciting like that. And so, we realised we all liked comics and we all knew how to do colour stripping because we’d taken silk-screening courses, we figured out we could do it. And it was cheap.”
Delineating further, The Hairy Who made playful art inspired by a wide range of neat stuff. The London artists were well aware of The Hairy Who. In fact, The Hairy Who were even going to show in London at The 20/20 Gallery. Boyle notes, “20/20 was kind of a precursor to the art in the so-called artist run centres, most of which aren’t run by artists anymore. But anyway, it was one of the first and it was all sponsored by local people in London. And I don’t think it lasted longer than a couple of years, but it was a terrific gallery while it lasted.” Many of the artists in The Heart Of London show were active in 20/20, which lasted from 1966 to 1971. Greg Curnoe discussed the show with Hairy Who artist Karl Wirsum, who in a letter to Art Green wrote, “Well, if they go ahead and publish a comic book, that would be all right.” Green notes, “He may have thought that the 20/20 Gallery was more well-funded than it probably was. But it was on, we all agreed to do it. We were looking forward to it.” Green himself left Chicago for Canada in 1969. The 1968 Democratic Convention had transpired and as Green puts it, “Everybody was angry at everybody.” He was dissatisfied with his teaching job there as well, so when offered a job at NASCAD, the art school in Halifax, he leaped at it.
Alas, the show didn’t happen. In a letter to Art Green, Curnoe writes, “We had to cancel The Hairy Who show and a lot of us were disappointed.” Boyle notes, “I suspect that it got caught up in the death throes of the gallery. And they would have had to cancel whatever exhibitions they had coming up.”
Green notes that both London and Chicago are far enough away from the more major centres that artists can, “…be free to go their own way because there’s not much at stake partly and nobody’s paying attention. And I remember the first time I had been in London, we were driving on our honeymoon to Halifax where I got the job. And I thought, ‘I’m gonna stop here and get a Canada Dry.’ I’m driving down what’s the main street that runs north south and pulled into a corner store. And I said, ‘Do you have Canada Dry?’ ‘No, but we got America Dry.’  I have never before or since seen a bottle of America Dry. I bought it and it wasn’t as good as Canada Dry. And, and that’s not a dream. I mean, I have never seen it ever again. But that made me say, ‘Wow, this is a weird place.’”
While Green was teaching at NASCAD, Curnoe came for what Green calls, “One of his annual excoriations, if that’s a word, he would rip them up one side down the other in public, for being a Canadian art school with no Canadians teaching, hardly any, and all yanks -and it was true! And so anyway, they would invite him and it was almost like a ritual. He would be in the public, there’d be 400 students there and Greg would just rip the place apart. I had known Greg, I heard about the show and so on, and we got along fine. And afterwards he’d come up to me and say, ‘Well, how did I do?’ ‘Greg, you’re doing great, but you do realise I’m a yank’, but I agreed with him 100%.” Both Curnoe and Green commiserated on how Canadian art was neglected at the school. “If he had been in Chicago, Greg would have been a member of The Hairy Who or maybe started it. But he was more political, he had to be, and Chicago, the politics were so acidic that you wouldn’t have wanted to be to be involved in it, unless you went in full immersion. And we were decidedly unpolitical. Although we all agreed on the politics of it. We were a collective in the sense that we wanted people to collect us.” On this, Art Green is a tad glib, having made art responding to and criticizing Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Both Art and Greg would visit with each other in various Canadian cities: Halifax, Vancouver, Toronto. “Nobody appreciated Greg in Toronto, they went out of their way to un-appreciate him. And luckily, they did put a put up a pretty nice retrospective after he was safely gone.”
Of London, Green notes, “I think that for a period of time. I don’t know how long it was maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours, maybe a few months? Maybe a few years. London, Ontario was most interesting art scene and literary scene in the whole world.”
The propensity for great art still ran in the water there, the stream flowed, there was a continuum and a recognizing of that history. London has some great galleries including Forest City Gallery, founded by Jack Chambers and Greg Curnoe, where The Nihilist Spasm Band plays every Monday night.
In 2013 The London Museum held the group show L.O. Today with artists Jason Mclean, Marc Bell, Jamie Q, Billy Bert Young, Amy Lockhart, Peter Thompson, and James Kirkpatrick. Many of these artists are a part of the Canadian Psychedooolic art comic movement that began in the 1990’s, captured and collected in the book Nog A Dod, edited by former Londoner Marc Bell and released by Conundrum/PictureBox. Much of the work in Nog A Dod occurred in Vancouver with a couple of these London artists relocating there, immersing easily, doing a lot of collaborative drawing and art books with other Vancouver based artists. Yes, ‘Canadian Psychedooolic’ was named after the fact by Bell, but we weren’t thinking of ourselves as a movement or a group at the time. Yet all of these art books had an unfettered comic wildness, funny, and expansively playful. And Nog A Dod got out there, impacting and influencing a lot of artists the world over. Furthering the connective tissue, in 2003, The Western Front in Vancouver put on an art show featuring ‘documents and ephemera’ from musical acts The Nihilist Spasm Band, The All Star Schnauzer Band (a somewhat fake band as mail art project involving Bell, Mclean, and Thompson) and July Fourth Toilet, a Vancouver based group that often involves many Nog A Dod and Nog A Dod related artists, including yours truly occasionally wearing outlandish semi-functional semi-nude costumes specially designed by Jason Mclean. The show was curated by Jonathan Middleton, who is now Executive Director at Art Metropole, a Toronto based artist-run centre dealing primarily in artists’ publications.
Getting back to Greg Curnoe. Released in two parts in 1970, The Great Canadian Sonnet contained numerous images by Curnoe. Described as a “Beaver Little Book”, the format was modeled after the popular Big Little Books, distant cousins to comic books so named for being small, square and thick. Big Little Books were marketed to children and featured popular comic, cartoon, radio and film characters of the day in text-based stories with illustrations on every other page. Some Big Little Books had flip-it cartoons in the top corner so one could make the character move. With its second volume The Great Canadian Sonnet does this as well, stating “See ‘em move – just flip the pages” on the cover and, sure enough, in the corner a spot rolls up a hill-like abstract shape transforming into a medley of human faces.
Written by poet David McFadden, Curnoe riffed off lines in his text creating a great many detailed pen-and-ink drawings for the book with titles that included “Proud Possessor Of Meaningful Pain”, “One that will be Truly Loved by the Prime Minister”, and “The Empty Universe” which featured a drawing of a tin of apple juice and a packet of bird seed -the book’s drawings contained many such absurdist pairings. The Great Canadian Sonnet was published by Coach House Press who were -and still are- known for releasing all manner of experimental works including poetry, prose and beyond. Both volumes together weigh in at over 400 pages, with every other page being a drawing by Curnoe.
Many thanks to Jason Mclean, Marc Bell, and Judith Rodger for their immense help with this piece.
Thanks as well to Art Green for use of his respective artworks.
Part Two: Scraptures, Snore and More coming tomorrow, Friday, August 20!
Robert Dayton
www.robertdayton.com
www.patreon.com/CanadianGlam
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kendrixtermina · 4 years
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Was Edelgard’s anger against the church misdirected? Shouldn’t she be more mad at TWSITD for their vile crest experiments on her and her siblings?
You (and others who make this argument) are talking as if she isn’t mad at TWSITD at all. 
As if she isn’t disrupting their activities insofar as she knows of them, spying on them and working hard to get the intel needed to destroy them. As if she isn’t the one who (with some help from Hubert) uncovers their location & hence directly causes their defeat in 3 routes out of 4. 
Or as she herself puts it best in one of her Heroes quotes: "Beasts hiding in the light. Monsters slithering in the dark. I will destroy them all."
She wants to get rid of both. But fighting two overpowered enemies with agents scattered throughout the continent at once would be stupid.
It’s called strategy, long-term thinking. Big Picture thinking.  The “1100 years” line in the Dorothea support is maybe the most obvious example.  
You have two enemies. One has many connections & influences but their location & resources are known. The other has unknown weaponry & location, but low manpower. These two enemies are also each other’s enemies. 
So, make them fight each other (maybe by pretending to ally with one; If you’re being pragmatic it’s going to be the one that infiltrated your own faction to prevent civil war in your own country), exhaust each other’s resources. By using the faction with the unknown power to destroy the one with the large resources you can both destroy the large resources and get a chance to observe the one with the unknown power closely & uncover their secrets; after that their smaller, already thinned numbers will be easy to take down especially since you now know their capabilities and have bucketloads of intelligence on them. 
Bam. If you win you took out both your enemies, but even if you lose you’d have significantly thinned their numbers, reduced their power and disrupted the status quo, making reform finally possible even if it isn’t done by you. 
As for the church it’s literally to blame for almost all the social ills in Fodlan, regularly performs unilateral executions and as the de-facto government has been ineffective at containing the Agarthan threat for 1000 years. 
Caring about problems that don’t directly affect you? It’s called altruism. 
Also note how she phrases it in her C+ support: When Byleth asks who did this she answers “The PM”. The Agarthans might have done the experiments, but only because they had powerful backers in the form of corrupt nobles. The same could be said for the tragedy of Duscur and Count Gloucester’s plots to take over the Alliance. They always had human allies. 
Corrupt nobles, obsession with crests, paranoia against foreigners... who fuels all that? Rhea’s regime that pushes crests as gifts from above, hides wrongdoings by nobles, and encourages isolationism. At least she hasn’t done much to solve any of these problems for 1000 years. 
To focus on the agarthans only would be like completely blaming modern political problems on Russian interference without addressing the preexisting social problems in the EU, the USA and elsewhere that allow for the interference & the lies to find fertile ground. 
Again, the keyword is big picture thinking: It won’t do to just treat the symptoms, maybe cut the disease at the root. 
She’s not some angry child lashing out; She’s very rational and methodical and much of her dialogue is written to emphasize that; Even when you have Dimitri, Ingrid or Seteth criticising her they mosty call her cold & calculating or that her plan’s too complicated for ppl to understand. (Claude actually has a point with the “drastic measures are bad PR” thing though; In CF credibility winds up being Byleth’s job) 
Of course on her own route she has some moments in private where she’s dorky or cute in the occasional comic relief scene (it’s called being a faceted human being), yeah there’s that famous sad bit at the end, but the line right before that is basically “We both know the transition of power will go more smoothly if you find the resolve to off me now”
For the most part she’s consistently written as The Stoic One; It’s integral to the contrast (Edelgard represents intellect and will, Dimitri is feelings & conscience, Claude is instinct and intuition), I can’t see why ppl don’t see that besides “Irrational woman” stereotype. So the exty “the math checks out” lines get ignored and the one time she blushes gets overemphasized. Oh she’s not getting emotional because she’s just made a very weighty decision and is alone with a special friend or love interest & she’s thanking them for their support, no you see its because shes a “waifu” never mind that she has tons of female fans or that she acts super composed unless she’s around two or three specific people.  
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solschem · 3 years
Text
Roadtrip ft. PmBata from Dream Analysis /Interpretation
I’m a little bit of a music nerd and thought why not. Lyrics will be italicized and quoted lyrics will be bolded. While some things may be stated rather bluntly, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I don’t care if something is added just to sound nice, because it’s still music. Good music isn’t limited to complex and intricate pieces, and I will fight you over that. I will also be mostly focused on my interpretation rather than the intended meaning. I will treat Dream the same way I treat Mozart, looking at the looking at the official notes and tossing them to the wind. While the original intent is important, it’s only one way of many to look at a piece, and I’ve always preferred me and my band’s understanding of a piece instead of sticking solely to source material. In short, I find musicality very important. 
First off most of this will be stating the obvious, because it’s a rather simplistic song. It is the definition of radio friendly, which makes sense with Dream’s brand. They didn’t have each note add onto and change the meaning, but neither did Mozart. His pieces were known to be simplistic, yet we still look back at him as one of the greats of classical music.
Also, I will mostly be looking at the lyrics as if it’s talking about a relationship. I know Dream has said that it’s not solely a love song, but the lyrics are phrased in that way (assumingly because love songs are what do the best), so a large amount of this analysis will be built upon that assumption
You’re immediately hit with nostalgia as once the first notes come in. It’s a somber summer road trip. It honestly reminds me of Sea Glass by Rick Kirby, because even though the styles are completely different, the imagery is very strong and makes it easy to picture what’s happening. That can be very important for keeping the attention of the listener and to have them coming back again. The first few notes immediately make that emotional connection and brings you to the headspace of the singer.  (actual lyric analysis after the read more)
“People change like the tides in the ocean At least I think or am I dead wrong?”
   I see this as wondering if someone changed, or if he never really knew them. Trying to accept what’s happened, while still looking back and trying to find answers
“Foot on the brake at the light, I don't notice I sit and wait until the next song”
   He’s stagnant with where he’s at with acceptance. The nostalgia has left him frozen where he’s at. The green light could mean that life is telling him to move forward and move on, but he’s still waiting for the next song, the next wave of emotions, the next push to keep going. He’s on autopilot with his memories, but in this case they’re holding him back
“Twenty hours in an old van Up the east coast through the cold wind Drove twenty hours by the ocean Up the east coast, what a road trip
Now that interstate is paved with memories Of a past life I lived when I was eighteen And evеry winter, I think back to what we used to bе In that past life we lived at eighteen”    He’s only 21, which could be showing at how fast life moves in your early adult years. 18 was only 3 years ago, but it was also a life time ago. You and your friends are not the same people you were back then. College, jobs, bills, taxes, and the sorts are major landmarks for your life. Those are the things that really push you into the next stage of your life. That glow of being an adult but still feeling like a child wears off at some point in between the responsibilities, but at the end of the day you’re still you. To me, it’s referring to a time that only exists in memories. There wasn’t a time when none of these things mattered, but there was a time where it wasn’t at the forefront of every thought. It’s that naive innocence and ignorance that you can’t get back
“Oh, oh, oh Woah, woah, woah Oh, oh, oh Woah, woah, woah
Uh, I reminisce about a past life Things change, I get it 'cause nothing lasts, right?”
   PmBata’s lines are more obviously about a relationship, which makes sense with making the song marketable. I”ll be treating his and Dream’s lines as if they’re seperate stories for the most part. Here it represents him understanding that “nothing lasts”, but still being hung up over her. Blaming the end on it bound on happening eventually, instead of the issues with the relationship. There’s the denial of anything happening, because he’s not ready to move on. 
“Yeah, and I was thinkin' 'bout her last night Scrollin' through our memories, debatin' 'bout our last times”
   This is when you’re looking back at your old texts, pictures, and posts together. Wondering where everything went wrong. It’s honestly self-destructive and can lead to a spiral of negative thoughts and emotions. It’s giving into what you know is wrong, but there’s the need to make sense of it all. It’s the search for closure when there’s none to find
“Ayy, for a minute we was cool Then we flew just a little too close to the sun Now we finished, now we through Guess we knew one day we would have to grow up”
   Really cements the idea of young love. It was short and intense, but when the relationship actually got serious it fell apart. They weren’t ready for the next step. 
“Twenty hours in an old Ford Across the Midwest, thinking, "What for?" Drove twenty hours, but it's hopeless Across the Midwest, what a road trip”
   This captures the idea of escaping old memories, but you can’t run far enough. Avoiding them only worked for so long, but it’s time to face them. “thinking, What for?” is him saying that it’s worthless to drive and forget. The present is haunted with the past, and it’s time to confront those ghosts.
“Now that interstate is paved with memories Of a past life I lived when I was eighteen And every winter, I think back to what we used to be In that past life we lived at eighteen”
   The song ends without those feelings of nostalgia being resolved. In the end, they’re still both reminiscing on the past and trying to make sense of it. Life has completely changed and they’re nowhere near to who they were 3 years ago, but they’re still both young and not yet ready to move on. They’re still on the cusp of adulthood, but they are putting the next foot forward as they’re looking behind their backs.
_________
I hope this all made sense. Once again it’s all based off of my interpretation. I know the first couple of lines are completely off on what dream said that it’s about, but I see it more as the desperate and futile attempts at escaping your memories. At some point you have to realize that you need to acknowledge them and accept what’s happened, and this song is right before that. 
I would like to talk on the instruments used, but there’s not much to say. It doesn’t really add onto the meaning. They more of enhance the experience like a movie score, instead of telling a story like a orchestra. Contrary to popular belief it’s not a bad thing, it just means it’s less important for this song. The feeling of nostalgia and summer are very clear and present, which means the the music did its job very well. I really like it, there’s just not a reason to talk about it more
I typically do analysis for songs with more focus in the instruments, so this was a welcome break from that. It’s nice to not have to look at every single time a new instrument comes up and try to derive meaning from that. I love doing it, but it’s exhausting and songs like this are a nice change of pace
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creativityobsessed · 3 years
Text
Be Brave Adachi, or the musical shaping of episodes 1-4
Part 4: Episode 4
This is part of a 4 part series. You may wish to start with part 1, where I introduced the main musical cue we’ll be following and how it represents Adachi questioning the world as he knew it. Or, if you missed part 2, or part 3, you might want to start there.  
If you would like to follow along, please cue up 13:15 in episode 4.*
HOO BOY does everything happen in Episode 4! I swear every time I went back to rewatch to check something I noticed 2 more things that were worth mentioning. Go get your drink of choice, we’re gonna be here a while.
Since we have so much to talk about, and there’s not much new going on, I’m going to gloss over the 1.5 rotations of Questioning that happen right after Adachi gets off the phone with Tsuge. Y’all probably recognize it by now, right? Right. 
The really interesting new stuff in this episode starts after Kurosawa rescues Adachi and Fujisaki, while they’re walking back to the office. Here, for the first time in full since episode 1, we get a repeat of the guitar music that I called Adachi-at-home in the first post in this series. Now, I’m gonna have to make a slight retraction because a) I didn’t know yet that this was gonna be important later, and b) it’s more interesting than I originally thought. So, to add some nuance, this guitar cue is not just Adachi when he’s on his own, fully relaxed, it’s that plus Adachi ruminating on how he doesn’t compare to Kurosawa. In the first case, he’s wishing for just one of Kurosawa’s good qualities. Here, he’s pointing out that they are “fundamentally different” with overtones of I am fundamentally worse than he is. The super interesting thing that I missed the first time around though is that this is the tune of the Home section. Sure it’s in C-sharp major (ish) rather than A major (not exactly a related key, but not an unrelated key either, at least if you ask Brahms^), but the melody is the same enough that I DEFINITELY should have caught that. What can I say, *shrug* pandemic brain.
So, anyways, given what I have since discovered about this guitar cue, I’d like to revise what I think it’s about - it’s about Adachi’s unacknowledged crush on Kurosawa. He still doesn’t realize yet that Kurosawa is something he wants, but moments like these show us just how much he wants it. 
Around 16:15, at the end of Fujisaki’s internal monologue in the elevator, Questioning comes in. This time, though, it’s not about Kurosawa in the slightest. When I was first trying to come up with a point to this series so my Intro to Musicology professor wouldn’t hunt me down for writing a “here’s some stuff” paper, I was all ready to say Kurosawa is the answer and call it a day. But if that’s the case, then why does Questioning start here? Sure, he just found out that Fujisaki knows about Kurosawa’s crush, but the worldview that he’s questioning isn’t that Fujisaki is more observant than he thought. It’s his reaction to her disinterest in relationships. Furthermore, this version of Questioning is far more stable than previous ones - instead of a tritone or other non-chord set of vertically stacked pitches, most of the Question phrases end on unison D, or some version of D + F-sharp (usually in the m6 orientation, rather than M3). Each Question phrase is approximately in time, or at least close enough that we have a sense of when the next will happen, where in the first few versions of Questioning the space between each phrase rotation felt indeterminate. I think what we’re seeing here is that even though Adachi still has questions, his life has already changed. He has a better sense of the people around him, and is less terrified of asking questions.
The Questioning section actually pauses when Kurosawa notices Adachi’s wound, and we don’t head into the next section immediately. In fact, we don’t ever get the next section here - we jump straight to Home, as Adachi starts back in on how much better Kurosawa is than him. It’s in the piano here, I think mostly so that they don’t have to change instrumentation midway through (we’ll see why in a second). This version of Home is the same slow tempo as the guitar version, and it’s very dry. All of the harmony is in block chords, which contributes to a kind of emptiness. But that’s ok because it doesn’t last. 
After a single (musical) sentence, Adachi begins to hear Kurosawa’s own self-loathing through his thoughts. As this happens, the chords that were once in blocks stretch out into arpeggios, filling in the spaces around the melody, in a move that reminds me so much of the way that letting go of a bit of anxiety can feel like unfurling from a tiny space.** Kurosawa’s “I’m sure he finds me annoying” is immediately followed by the addition of a cello line - and I’m about to go do some rewatching looking for where cello is important, but my first impression hypothesis is that cello represents Kurosawa’s inner headspace, particularly after some of the ways I noticed it being used in ep. 7. The cello twines around the piano line that we’re already familiar with, possibly as a metaphor for the way that Adachi and Kurosawa are having similar thoughts. And, as with earlier episodes, we end without a full resolution - we get a cadence, sort of, but the piano continues for a bit and ends with a cluster of notes with G as the main thing that catches our ear. For those unfamiliar, G is not a particularly tonic-feeling note in A major. It’s flat 7, which helps tremendously in feeling like we are NOT in major, better suited to the melancholy nature of the various thoughts flying around here. 
And then. Ok, and THEN. The part I have been writing this entire series to talk about. So, to set the scene, right? Adachi thanks Kurosawa, Kurosawa deflects but gives Adachi a direct, blinding smile, and for once Adachi doesn’t squint. He returns the smile. He has become comfortable here. 
As if that weren’t enough, the music comes in, and yes, we’re back to Questioning, but it is absolutely in time, with two beats of 6/8 between each iteration of the Question Phrase. Furthermore, this version has both guitar and glockenspiel in it - the guitar is Adachi’s home instrument, and here it suggests he’s become comfortable with questioning the world around him, while the glock does more to highlight the difference in the treatment of time. 
We don’t move on from this section for a bit, because Fujisaki interrupts his thoughts. We do, however, get hints of the next section - a rising line in the piano timed in the same way as the next section will start, for example. The underpinnings of the Questioning section provide a lush background for Adachi’s monologue on visiting Fujisaki’s mother, something the first version of Questioning could not have done. Adachi is being very brave here, and the changes to our favorite cue are a reflection of that. 
As he finishes we head in to the section of the piece, which is mostly accompanying shots of Fujisaki being overwhelmed, Adachi being worried that his attempt to be brave has gone wrong, and not much happening. There’s a weird loop in the middle, which makes me think that they tried it with the whole track and it felt waaaay too long without anything happening. 
Anyway, after she reassures him that his bravery is appreciated, we head into the Answer section. Adachi and Fujisaki’s chitchat isn’t what’s important here. The important thing is we have the Answer section, and here it is fully scored, electric guitar and bass, percussion, the works. Not only that, but the cue ends, and it ENDS ON THE TONIC. We did it folks! We found the resolution! And it turns out, the way to get there was to BE BRAVE.
This may not be the end of the whole series, but this is AN ending. This is the pan-out that we get at the end of every 90s Hollywood teen romcom. Adachi has Learned Something with capital letters, and it’s not that he loves Kurosawa or even that he needs to give up his low self-esteem. It’s that he can be brave, and he can contribute. It’s hard, and it may take four episodes of building to it, but he can do it.
Which is a lesson he’s really gonna need for the beginning of 5. But that’s a story for another time.
If you’ve followed my nerdery this far and you’ve enjoyed this series, please let me know via likes, replies, and/or reblogs. I may eventually continue the series if there’s enough interest (there’s some FASCINATING things that happen to this cue in episode 7, for example), but for now, I’m gonna go take a nap.
I did a follow up in response to an ask, if you really really want more.
*All video timings and quotes are from Irozuku Subs videos. If you’re watching somewhere else, your mileage may vary slightly.
^If you’re a SUPER HARD CORE theory nerd, look up Neo-Riemannian Theory for how this works. Or just if you want your brain to explode. Either way, have fun, cause I need it for my dissertation and I STILL don’t quite understand how it works.
**Not an Academically Approved metaphor. This is why I’m doing this on tumblr.
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tomcriuse · 4 years
Note
headcanons or thoughts on how mulder and scully quietly professed their love or have been professing their love throughout the show? :)
stop i honestly have SO many feelings about quiet love you have no idea what writing this DID to me also it got a little long so sorry abt that
when mulder dated girls in high school and college, he would always try to woo them with expensive dinners and shiny jewelry and things all material that would never last. things so superficial that would eventually fade from time and memory, but were the desires of the old money new england girls.
for so long he went never telling scully how he felt unless it was hidden half-heartedly behind some sarcastic remark or joke that he hoped would conceal the depths of his affection and adoration. before he knew her, he read her thesis. after he met her, he would read it again and again and again. he would pour over the words until they’re burned in his mind and he so he could quote it like his favourite movie or book. his own personal scripture. he did this to understand something that she’s passionate about, as a way of being close to her, almost like someone will keep love letters that were written to them. it’s the rational that is so important to scully and mulder uses her scientific theories to understand everything about her: what motivates her, what keeps her going. he would quote it back to her because he’s completely captivated by her mind and the way it works and understanding something she’s truly passionate about is his way of getting closer to her.
on that same note, whenever someone else talks about something the scully knows, mulder cant help but thinking that scully would know infinitely more about the subject. he thinks that scully is constantly the smartest person in the room. even if she’s not there, he can see her phantom scoffing and rolling her eyes at something that isn’t true, and her cheeks becoming dusted with pink as she gets more passionate and excited, burning like the brightest star that he’s ever seen making the sun dull in comparison.
the gifts that he gives her are memories, not presents. they’re representative of the time they’ve spent together—of their relationship as a whole. when she was in the hospital he brought her a football tape. the tape itself isn’t important, but its that he wants to do something with her, that he wants to spend time with her. maybe it means that he’s not leaving her side while she’s in the hospital; he likes football and it will give him something to do. maybe it’s selfish. maybe he was too worried to find something that he thinks she might actually like. all that matters is that he’s trying. he’s expressing that he values her. that he loves her. when he gives her the apollo medallion, not because she loves the apollo landing or loves space in any capacity that doesn’t have to do with mulder and his genuine passion for it, but because over the last four years he’s dragged her on countless dead-end cases, he’s put her in jeopardy, he’s taken her for granted at times. but she’s never left his side, not once. this is no longer his quest but their quest, no matter how much either of them would deny it later. the medallion is their history. he also teaches scully how to play baseball. the years have been filled with horror and the unknown, and mulder wants to give her a happy memory. something beautiful—not material, but part of him. he says that it’s a “no reason present” which are the types of things that we start to associate with mulder: something given on no special occasion (even if it is) with infinite meaning. if he spent his childhood making mistakes with insignificant gifts to insignificant people, he finds true meaning in the most meaningful gifts to the only person that matters.
when he has a case without her, mulder simply rejects that reality. he’s spent so long on his own and loves scully so fully that to imagine or live a life without her just. doesn’t make sense to him. he’ll go to turn to scully and wait for her to say something that sounded intellectual but was really supposed to be insulting even if she’s not there. he’ll hold the door open two seconds too long for someone by themselves. he’ll automatically turn the ac up in the car because he knows that scully would rather be freezing than warm. at restaurants he’ll begin to order her ice water with two lemon slices. scully is simply an extension of him and doing things for her is like doing things for himself—out of nature, out of reflex, out of necessity to sustain and help her as she’s helped him become himself.
not far into their partnership, scully realized that mulder never truly had anyone else. no one went out of their way to care for him because that’s what they wanted to do—it was always done out of necessity.
the biggest way that she shows her love is just by doing things for him. “scully pack your bags we’re going to texas” “scully i need you to look through all of these files for this one phrase” “scully i need you to follow up on a lead.” no matter how much she would generally wish to not do these things, she can’t not do them. she’ll make a half-hearted complaint and throw him a mandatory pleading look, but inside she’s waiting for him to leave the room so she can get started with as much enthusiasm as he has when he talks about the case. she doesn’t care about the case, but she cares about him. she’ll keep sunflower seeds hidden in a cabinet on her side of the office just in case he runs out. she’ll sometimes replace his coffee if he’s busy doing paperwork and it gets cold. she drags him to get food so he’ll remember to eat. she’ll hold the umbrella just a little higher so he doesn’t have to bend down as much as he would at her height. she’ll move the driver’s seat back so when he gets in to drive his legs have enough room. one time, scully saw that mulder’s tie was crooked and her hands went to straighten it on their own volition. after that, mulder went out of his way to make sure it was just a little off. scully always straightened it for him.
mulder has always been notoriously hard to read, always building walls to distance him from the hurt that inevitably comes with getting close to someone else. but he was never hard to read to scully. she learned that slightly narrowed eyes meant that his brain was going a mile a minute, scanning for any imperfection in a crime scene or a statement from a witness. that when he tilted his head to the right a little it meant that there was something he didn’t understand, and then when his eyebrows would furrow a little bit it meant that that infuriated him. that when he looked at her and his eyes melted and his face became vulnerable that he was seeing the same thing in her that she saw in him: the universe and themselves and every secret that they’ve ever needed and the answers to every question that they’ve asked or were going to ask.
she also listens to everything he says. if its something big—a pervious case, mythology, a theory—she’ll remember it like she remembers songs from her childhood. the smaller the things are and the more in-passing they’re said, the more she’ll remember it and think about it, until it becomes etched into her heart and her soul. the feeling of terror he felt when sam was abducted. his favourite colour. that he prefers chunky peanut butter over smooth peanut butter. that he’ll obsessively write in books and dog-ear the pages because he likes the way the paper feels after you write on it. then there are the more intimate things. that the last time he truly felt safe was when he was in her arms. that every time he wakes up he’s afraid that something’s happened to her. that none of it matters without her.
between the both of them it’s not about saying “i love you” but it’s about trust. it’s about support. for years mulder went through being ridiculed and criticized by his peers for his belief in the supernatural. people would steal his work and get the credit for it while he stood in the background in a silent rage before he brushed it off and focused on his own mission. conversely, scully worked harder than anyone else in her field but never had anyone believe in her or back her or just listen to her. when they started working together there was someone there ready to listen and trust them, even if their views didn’t align with their own . together, they will playfully tear into each other’s theories, but the moment someone else tries, they will always support them 100% even if they aren’t totally convinced. it was unconditional.
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chronicas · 3 years
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Wanted to infodump about the symbolism of Array of Cicadas more so I’m making a separate post.
Symbolism plays a big part of my art, even if a lot of my designs are more simplistic. However, Nora is a very symbolic character, her role in the story is one that represents great change, transmutation. The main theme of Array of Cicadas is change and transformation. My main influence stems from being trans and having to deal with the consequences of change.
Nothing stays the same forever, sometimes you become someone new, sometimes the people you love exit your life. Ultimately, that’s what AoC is about The cicada itself, is a symbol of transformation and change.
Akira is a character who is going through a lot of hardships at the start of the story. She’s dealing with grief and she’s struggling with connecting to her family and people around her. In this sense, Akira is me, she’s my struggles and my pain, but she’s also my hope.
Devan is the change in Akira’s life, he’s the positive change. He represents all my friends and also a piece of myself I lost a long time ago. He’s also one of the younger characters in AoC, which is to say, he’s the future. Akira might be the protagonist, but really the thing that helps her the most, is helping Devan grow into the real hero.
Colors play a big part in AoC also, there’s two colors in particular that I use in almost all the designs. Red is the most common color in all of my art, red and black are the colors of the Izebellian Emperor, they’re also the colors of the Machine God. Red is the primary color in Akira’s design. It represents a lot of things for me, but the primary meaning in AoC is pain. Pain that someone is feeling, pain that is inflicted on others. Of course, it also sticks with it’s usual theme of anger.
Akira’s anger is more subtle, it’s in her fighting and in her mannerisms. It’s an anger that’s hard to direct at anyone because it stems from her struggles and grief. Her pain is similar, it’s mostly pain that can’t go away, it’s prominent in her design because it’s something she has to live with. Grief especially isn’t something that goes away. Her story is more focused on how to live with that pain more than it is to get rid of it.
Leo’s red is more subtle in his design. He has lots of other colors and is less monochromatic than most of the main cast. Leo’s had it pretty good, his family always lived comfortably and he didn’t have too many hardships. His anger and his pain are both for his friends. Leo is very empathetic, he takes on a lot of the pain that Caz and Devan aren’t able to deal with. Leo is an adult, while Caz and Devan are both kids, he feels the responsibility to take care of them.
Izebel’s red is simple, she was created from anger, like, almost literally. She’s been forced to shoulder the burden of Circe’s rage since she was born. Her own pain is buried deep under mounds of denial, she doesn’t want to face things that are hurting her so she lashes out at others instead. Izebel doesn’t get a confrontation until much later on, so her story is focused more on her antagonist role than anything.
Vonstantine only has a little bit of red in her design, most of the colors in her palette are cool colors, contrasted only by one article of clothing. Which is, literally, not a part of her. She doesn’t have any reason to be as angry as she is, her actions aren’t justified. Vonstantine isn’t quote unquote “irredeemable”, she’s just spoiled. She’s used to getting things her way and she’s mad that things aren’t working out for her. She represents pretty much everything all the other antagonists aren’t. She wants power and pretty much doesn’t care about anything else. She was raised with legends about her ancestors and created a false image of Karma in her mind that she aspired to be like. She’s honestly one of the most two dimensional characters I’ve ever made. Which is on purpose of course, although a big theme of AoC is change and redemption, I also wanted to acknowledge that some people don’t change and stick to one mindset their whole lives.
Karma’s red is [REDACTED]... a uh, major plot point. I can’t really go into detail about it.
Teal is the other most prominent color. The main color palette of AoC is plum, teal, yellow, and lavender. (Like just look at my theme over on @noxsylvania if you wanna see the EXACT colors I always use) Each of them have their own meaning. They’re associated with four things that will come up a lot in the lore of AoC. Teal is The Cicada, Lavender is The Sky, Plum is The Chasm, and Yellow is The Eyes.
Teal, the color of The Cicada, has the same meaning as the cicada itself, change and transformation. It also represents growth.
Devan is like Akira design wise, pretty monochromatic. His teal is of course representative of his role as a force of change in Akira’s life, but also represents his growth and the change he goes through throughout the story.
Vonstantine’s teal actually represents... negative change. She’s going to get worse ON PURPOSE. For her, it’s more of a desire for change, but because of the kind of person she is, it’s unlikely she’d actually accept the change that she needs to make.
Caz is like Leo in that she’s much more colorful. The teal in her design is more of an accent than a prominent color in her design. For Caz, this color represents her growth and recovery from her grief.
Yellow represents power. It mostly comes in the form of gold. It accents a good amount of characters designs. Like Akira and Vonstantine. Only a few characters have it as a prominent part of their design.
Leo has a lot of yellow in his design that’s more representative of his... i don’t know a better way to phrase it other than “political” or social power. Leo as a member of the Lenoir family, holds a lot of high status. However, it’s not resemble as gold on his design because Leo is VERY humble, it’s more of just something that is a part of his life and he’s more casual about it.
Azar’s design is completely yellow and other warm colors. He’s basically a physical manifestation of power and cool magic shit. He’s the spirit of a warrior that lived like 300 years ago and lives inside a super magical ass sword. Him representing power should be self explanatory.
Lavender represents peace and Plum represents death. There’s not any characters with lavender in their design that show up before Cryptadia, so I’ll skip over it. Plum is an undertone in Akira’s design as well as Karma’s (temporarily).
For Akira, it directly and 100% represents Takara’s death. For Karma, it’s representative of fucking... all the regicide she’s committed. I mean, she’s called the Regicidal Regent. It’s kinda her thing. However, as I mentioned, for Karma it’s temporary, the cloak she wears throughout the story is ditched the second you face off against her during her boss fight. This represents a few things.
Every single Gjalleon wears a hood or something else that obscures their face. This doesn’t always have a deep meaning and is just a fun thing about their character design. Devan’s hood has the most symbolic significance. Devan doesn’t like being a Gjalleon and tends to hide this fact from everyone, the Gjalleon’s descend from the Dragon God, Gjalleon as well as Karma, who was SUPER infamous because she [REDACTED]. As a result of [REDACTED], the Gjalleon’s became pretty hated by most people. Vonstantine used this to make people respect her through fear. Devan could care less about the Gjalleon family and hasn’t even MET anyone else in the Gjalleon family besides his dad. So he wears a hood to hide his obviously Gjalleon features and only goes by his mother’s surname. His hoodie is ALSO his comfort jacket!!! VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL!! The hood doesn’t symbolize much for Vonstantine other than it being the soul source of red in her design, when she takes it off to fight Devan, it’s her removing her visage, that her anger everything else was just a lie to get what she wanted. For Karma, it’s the soul source of plum in her design, it basically represents malice. Removing it symbolizes that she has no malicious intent towards the gang, mainly because she sees them all as children.
Most other colors I use follow pretty normal symbolism and not every character with these colors has it in their design for a specific reason. For Morah, red just looks good on her.
Anyways if anyone wants, I will go into the symbolism of the Cryptadia cast also.
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msuevents · 4 years
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— MOKSEONG UNIVERSITY OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY event #2: mokseong mausoleum — the chilling adventures of...
something wicked this way comes... it’s halloween! to celebrate all hallows' eve, the mokseong castle and the grounds have been charmed to look extra spooky, with several different activities scattered around for your entertainment. even the dungeons have been transformed to look like a mausoleum for the costume party... beware of the mummies!  the halloween event takes place on saturday, the 31st of october, with a bunch of activities arranged for your enjoyment by the mokseong staff. it’ll end with a costume party, with permission from the staff to keep partying through out the night (as long as everyone’s in class on monday)! but professor aurora still doesn’t want any kind of funny business, alright? ooc information will be found under the cut. for this event, there will also be two interactive events (special tasks) in which you can score double points! in relation to this event being spooky themed, the npcs page has also been updated with a ghost for each house!
— ACTIVITIES
apple bobbing are you ready to snatch up something delicious… with your teeth? look no further and come bobbing for apples! the apples are dipped into a large basin with water, floating at the surface as they wait to be caught. but the rumor around campus is that the apples are charmed, and if you unpeel it and throw the peel into the water again it’ll make a shape and reveal the first letter of your soulmate’s name…
mirror maze the great hall’s been transformed into a house of mirrors. tall mirrors, wide mirrors, distorted mirrors, and, uh, charmed mirrors? yes, if being stuck in a maze on the ground wasn’t bad enough, students are also able to walk up against the walls and ceiling mirrors due to a sticky charm! will you be able to escape this puzzle without clues? if not, just ask our sir hendrick the brave for one! if you can catch him…
haunted house were you hoping for a workout this hallow’s eve? too bad! the school’s gym has for one day been transformed into a haunted house, engulfed in a darkness so deep you can barely make out your own silhouette. the haunted house has been filled with restless spirits, and if you’re lucky, you might run into a few familiar faces!
pumpkin carving it wouldn't be a halloween party without pumpkins! come join us for a leisurely time in our pumpkin patch where you can make jack o'lanterns to take back with you to your dorms! whether you decide to carve or paint their faces is completely up to you! want to give them a personality too? charm them to speak after you're finished! they'll make a fun companion to carry around or even to decorate the campus with. just don't throw any or caretaker smith is going to have a fit!
carriage ride want a little romantic, but spooky getaway from the rest of the campus? come take a ride on our enchanted carriages! well, enchanted for those who can't see them anyway. these carriages are pulled by threstals that are provided by our very own groundskeeper lee. this carriage ride will take you all around mokseong university from the castle grounds to past the pool of the universe and back. with the carriages charmed to make the ride seem like the dead of night,  the fog and chilling sound effects just brings more of the spooky... so if you're riding with a friend, huddle up close because its going to be a bumpy ride!
movie night parties not quite your thing? not to worry, if you prefer a quieter night, the castle grounds will have an outside movie theatre, that will be showing off various muggle horror movies throughout the night. all students are free to bring blankets and snacks, and settle in for a horrific night!
costume party to end off the evening, get your costumes ready and head on down to the dungeons for a raging costume party! a rarity here at mokseong, this party is unsupervised, but prefects and head students are ordered to keep an eye on the students. alcohol will not be served by the school, but students are free to bring any if they so desire. come on down and have some fun, and while professor aurora says no funny business, remember that what she doesn’t know, won’t hurt her!
— SPECIAL TASKS
trick or treat it's not halloween without a little treat! come to the dungeons to grab a mysterious party favor before all the fun begins! nobody knows what are in these suspicious little vials (aside from professor jung of course), but be warned that they are only to be used at the event and nowhere else! any misuse of these potions will automatically earn deductions off their house points! but other than that, have fun! how to participate: members ask a # from 1 to 10 in the msuevents inbox. remember to specify what you’re sending a number for! admins/mod will send back the corresponding potion that matches the number. the potion can either be a hit or a miss which is part of the fun! it is recommended that these potions are used in-event only and have been previously plotted before introduced in threads (so there won’t be any godmodding/awkwardness). the effects of the potions last for one (1) hour in msu time meaning they can only be referenced once in one (1) thread to obtain two (2) additional points so use it wisely!
double, double, toil and trouble ever wanted to utter a ridiculous movie phrase without judgment? now you can! or, well — there may be some judgment, but it’s ok. in this task for an extra two (2) points, you have to pick a number between 1 and 20 and we’ll send you a quote from a famous movie, which your character will have to say in one of your event threads — without letting your writing partner know about it! are you up for the challenge? how to participate: members ask a # from 1 to 20 in the msuevents inbox. remember to specify what you’re sending a number for! admins/mod will send back the corresponding quote that matches the number. you can use this quote in any event thread you want to, but please don’t tell your thread partner about it! we’d love to see some hilarity ensue because of this. the quote can only be used once in one (1) thread to obtain two (2) additional points.
— GENERAL INFO
welcome to our second event here at mokseong! while this event is set to the date of october 31st in game, members will have from october 17th to november 7th to participate in the event. you’re more than welcome to continue other threads as the event goes on, but they can be put on pause if you so desire. keep in mind that event threads will earn your house points, so we highly encourage participating! all posts pertaining to the event should be tagged with msu:mausoleum. if any of you have any event-specific questions, please message the events blog rather than the main, so we can keep everything event-related in once place.
— POINTS SYSTEM
as a reminder from the first event and for the newer members, we’ll go more in depth about the house point system. characters can earn points for the house they represent by participating in the event. if you portray multiple characters, you can’t earn points for both houses they represent by threading on only one of them — both must participate in the event if you wish to earn points for both houses. characters earn one point for each thread related to the event, and one bonus point if this thread is with someone you have not done a thread with before. for example:
dotty does a thread with levi where they go to the haunted house, which gives one point. dotty and levi have not threaded before, which means one additional point will be added. this gives them both a total of two bonus points, which will be added to their total for the event.
please note that full points are only earned if both characters participate in the thread. for starters with no reply, half a point will be awarded to the house of the person writing the starter. for this event, we also have two special tasks that can each award you an additional two bonus points each! at the end of the event, we ask that all members count their total amount of points, and submit this list with links to the threads you’re claiming the points for. we will need the links for proof of the points to be awarded! everyone is responsible for tracking their own points, as us admins do not have time to sit and count points for every single character. if anything is unclear about this system, send the main a message!
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