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dallonm-archive · 3 years

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REVELATIONS, REVELATIONS | UPDATE #1

Hello y’all! I refuse to believe it’s been 3 and a half months since I last made an update post for this novel because time is not real :) whoops! This has actually been sat in my drafts for like a month though

A rundown of things that happened:

We have a new title! I already went into the meta and possible interpretations (it’s ~ambiguous~), so if you want you can read about that HERE.

I did 3 weeks of Nano and wrote 15k words! On the site I recorded 15053 but I think it was more 15.5k? I’ve edited the original doc now so idk but I’m v happy with that!

After that I took a break and a lot of Life Things happened re a certain pandemic that is taking :) all my motivation :) so I didn’t return to drafting until January. I also really struggled to progress with the story and decided the best thing was to revisit what I already had and work on that

It’s not that the original chapters weren’t working, I was just trying to understand the story for the first time and also Nano was such a hazy blur and I’m 99% sure November didn’t happen. I probably won’t revisit a section this intensely again until I’ve finished the draft but at this stage it really helped because the more I worked on it, the more I understood where it had to go next - I know the structure (for now), the basics for the middle and how the story ends :) hehe :) and I don’t think I’d had those revelations (aha) without revisiting this first part. I got to fall in love with the story all over again and I’m very happy with where it’s going!

This intro is already getting so long so I’m just going to jump straight into it because this update is LONG. I’m talking about all the chapters today even though not all of them are new, but since I’ve learnt a lot about them and this is officially update #1 post-nano, it makes sense to talk about all of them! I’m also going to do a new taglist because I see this as a new set of updates also I am awful at keeping up with taglists so! I’m just tagging friends who have already expressed interest + mutuals who I’m like 99% sure want to stay on so! please let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

@kowlazovdi @isherwoodj @avi-burton-writing @pamsdrabbles @ryns-ramblings @kitblogsthings @svpphicwrites @aetherwrites @radiomacbeth @bijouxs @writerlywonders @haldimilks @alicewestwater @piyawrites @coffeeandcalligraphy @shaelinwrites

usual content warnings for religious trauma and cult discussion, specific CWs will come before excerpts!

So I’m currently working with four parts, and I’ve extended the timeline from one year to four years. This suits the story much better BUT pretty much everything here was written before that decision and I do not have the energy to restructure all of it right now :) Each part is split into two sections, one for each POV. So four parts, 8 sections, Felix and Dorothy get four sections each. I let the structure grow with the story but this one is working very well!

Also I started setting my pages to light green and it was LIFE CHANGING. Much kinder on the eyes and just looks so nice?? Calming?? This post is your sign to set your page colour to light green like LOOK

So we have a prologue now!! The story made a lot more sense once I added this because originally the information we learn was just shoehorned into Chapter 1 in a flashback when really we needed to know this information going into it. That being said I struggled with this for a bit just because to justify a prologue I need that information to be conveyed in a way that is completely unique to the rest of the narrative so I didn’t want to just write this as a flashback. I ended up writing it in 2nd person and it came out in a way where it’s not clear which twins POV it is? Like it’s more of a fusion of both of them where neither of them have their own individual identity beyond “the twins” yet. I can’t tell if this is my funky POV peak or a clarity nightmare but I like it! I want it to only be ~500 words so we can take the risk.

In this they’re fourteen and they do a “blood pact” as a way to symbolically cut themselves from their family (aka: their father) whilst they’re still tethered to it. I really love it because not only is it exactly what these slightly unhinged-but-havent-tapped-into-it-yet, co-dependent-and-dont-realise-it kids would do but it immediately brings up the question of family and what family actually is. I’ve also realised a huge idea in this story is the idea of the tangible and for them, the concept of family and blood isn’t tangible so they struggle to recognise its significance (not that it. has any for them in the first place.) but their relationship, seeing each other bleed and pressing the cuts together is. The writing itself is kinda wonky because of the whole funky clarity nightmare POV but here’s a little taste of the ending:

cw: blood

You’ll slink back into your family room to clean and plaster each other’s hands and you’ll ask yourselves: which bloodstains came from who? Who bled the most and who stopped first? Who will come up with the story for the cuts on your palms and who will dispose the bloodied towel? Who is Dorothy without Felix and who is Felix without Dorothy?

Shiny new first chapter! Originally this was in Dorothy’s POV but now it’s switched to Felix and instead of just showing their reunion (which turns out is....very anticlimactic and not appropriate for an opening lol??) we actually explore Felix’s thoughts an actions after he decides to escape the cult, which was a very impulsive decision and spans about a day and a half. This one is definitely gonna take a few drafts to get right because it’s such a delicate but intense event to write and I’m content with the fact that it’s not There Yet but the prose is! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and it really helped me get back into the swing of loving this story. There’s something very delicate about it but also very troubling under the surface. The opening gave me a lot of trouble, but the first line hits!

The day Felix decides to leave the sun glows the same, and the pine trees breathe the same, and the chapel cross stabs the sky the same.

Ironically, a good chunk of the chapter happens outside the cult, as Felix decides to spend his final day taking Lola - a woman his age who is literally the only person he likes lmao - to one of the nearby towns. Whilst the main function of the chapter is to introduce the cult itself, it’s also to show how normalised leaving actually is - it’s just every time he’s left has been temporary, and every time he has left, he still feel separated from this “outside world”. They go to a candy store and a thrift store - where Felix lies about his mom (who he hasn’t seen in 20 years) being in hospital so he can use a phone :) Lola is a new character so I don’t have much to say on her, but all I can say is they are wlw and mlm solidarity but also she knows how to read him

“I don’t know why Dotty and I loved this place so much - we always got toothaches.”

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

“These apple ones are nice, but I think the lime is my favourite. Do you think the apple or the lime is nicer?”

“I think you’re leaving, but I also think you’re scared, so you’re pretending that I’m going to leave with you and that’s why you wanted to go to town. You chose the candy shop because this is where you went the first time you left, but this time you’re not coming back. Does that scare you, Fel?”

And here is my favourite paragraph in the whole chapter because <3 what the fuck <3 and if pine trees are a key Felix symbol no they aren’t 👁️ yes they are

cw: falling out a window? pushing yourself out a window? description of bones breaking

The day Felix decides the leave, when the clouds bleed amber, he pushes the scratched mahogany dresser so it lines with the windowsill, lies on top and hangs his head out. It’s never comfortable, but it’s always peaceful: sometimes cars murmur on nearby backroads, sometimes a wind chime flutters, sometimes brush rabbits rustle in shrubbery and they all breathe the same oxygen as him. He closes his eyes, inhales the pine air, and plays God: pushes himself further out, an inch at a time, until his shoulders cross the line and he wonders what bones would break if he fell. Would he break both arms or one, both legs or one? Would he break his spine? Which vertebra would crack, and how many? Would he feel them all in one big strike, or all the individual bones burst like popping candy? Evening breeze whispers against his face and he could do it right now, leap out the window and if he didn’t break his legs or back he could run to the bushes, to the pine trees, to the road, the town over East or West, the county line.

If Felix hit the ground, would it be because of a freak fall, or because he pushed himself out?

We have to laugh because I’m pretty sure I said in my Nano update that this chapter was the strongest so far besides one scene but when I looked back that scene <3 took up 80% of the fucking chapter <3 So I just said fuck it I’ll rewrite the whole thing for fun!!!! And I love it!!! It’s so jarring compared to Chapter One and that’s the point!! Everything is so over saturated and originally that was just to convey the absolute shock Felix gets from the Major Impulsive Life Decision He Just Made, but now I think it’s intentional on his part and it goes back to the idea of the tangible: whilst he didn’t grow up totally isolated this is still a new life for him, and he has nothing to latch onto, so he looks to his surroundings and hyper-focuses and latches onto it because it’s something that’s now tangible and accessible to him so he sees it in this very bright, romanticised way (the romanticisation of San Francisco is very amusing to me but it’s also very relevant). But even with that he still distances himself from this environment still - the same way he did whilst living in the cult. He has no idea how he wants to exist in this world and he doesn’t even know how to exist yet.

And so it became clockwork: eyes burst open at two, three, four in morning, doesn’t bother trying to fall back to sleep. Lurk into the kitchen, make a coffee or water or whiskey. Sit under the fritzing lightbulb with no shade, think about everything and nothing and everything and nothing. Or go for a smoke, inhale the vapours until it hurts his chest, breathe in the cool air until it hurts his teeth, wander around the block until it hurts his feet. Sneak back into a room that doesn’t belong to him in an apartment that doesn’t belong to him in a city that doesn’t belong to him. Count the bumps in the popcorn ceiling until footsteps sneak down the hall – Dorothy leaving a room that doesn’t belong to her. Join his sister back at the kitchen, she complains that they need to replace the lightbulb. Over pulpy orange juice and scrambled eggs on toast, she retells her dream and lists the possible meanings and he lists his plans for that day on how to immerse in the outside world, familiarise himself with the city until it belongs to him. Travel by trolley for the first time, eat seafood at the waterfront for the first time. Bump into a cherry-headed conure parrot by chance. Climb Twin Peaks and gaze at the new view of home. Trace the outline of translucent mountains in the air and pretend you’ll ever hike them; trace the outline of high rises in the air and pretend you know the people in them. He asks Dorothy when he’ll stop feeling like a tourist – she has no answer for him.

(context: Dorothy’s roommate, Jolie, is out of town at this point, so Dorothy tells Felix to take her room whilst she takes Jolie’s and they’ll sort it out later. Dorothy has no problem sleeping in Jolie’s bed because her and Jolie are Very Good Friends)

I also realised that, in the nicest way possible to November me, that this chapter was so damn boring because it’s very dialogue heavy but in every dialogue moment they are literally just 🧍 doing nothing. So I wrote a scene as a half-joke of Just Met Like Three Hours Ago Beau and Felix going to the arcade and it saved this chapter. It is SO fun but it also comes straight after this very emotionally intense moment and it’s really interesting to see that reach its zenith and then just. fizzle out but linger in the background? I love this scene but I also can’t take it too seriously because they play Frogger and @aetherwrites joked that the game’s a metaphor for Felix leaving the cult and I love her and hate her because she is so right I can picture the LIT1000 seminar where that analysis would be made unironically and it’d be ME who makes it and I am so close to just running with that for real. Also these two aren’t love at first sight but the chemistry is so loud like did you two meet today or have you been married for eight years and own five dogs together what’s the truth? Anyway here’s Felix murdering Beau on sight

“You know, you could’ve warned me that you’d be that good,” Beau says.

“It’s not that difficult, you could’ve warned me that you’d be that bad.”

Beau leans across to shuffle through cassette tapes in the glove compartment. “I’m not, you just got lucky. I let you win.”

“But it’s not even competitive. You just died seven times in a row.”

I’m a little unsure of the pacing for this chapter now because its effectiveness lies in the fact it takes place a week after the previous, and my job with this section post-draft is to stretch it out longer since it only spans three weeks. I’m hoping I can make it work where there’s little time between Chapter 1 & 2 but still cover more time in chapters 3-5 because I think that’d be jarring in the best way? Like the absolute intensity of that initial week quickly dissolving and suddenly he’s been living this life for months he didn’t notice go by. Again <3 a problem for post draft me <3

I don’t have much to say about this one because in Nano I didn’t even finish it, and now I have but it’s still <3 giving me trouble <3 - however I’ve realised this is probably the most important chapter at this stage of the novel because it’s the first full chapter with just the twins, trying to have a bonding moment and catch up but only learning that they a) love each other b) can’t stand each other whilst not realising just yet that they are c) extremely co-dependent. I like to call this novel multiple plot threads in a trench coat and that’s definitely it, the twins have their own individual plot threads separate to one another, but if there’s a central plot (and there kinda is?? its a surprise :) ) at its essence is them realising how fucked up their relationship is, but wanting to rectify that and trying to understand the difference between a tangled and toxic relationship.

This chapter introduces that each character has a key symbol that’s attached to the world somehow and Felix has chapters like these in his arc where he tries to navigate the state of their relationship (so there’s one later on titled “Ocean (Beau)”) and his associations with them. We have to laugh here because I was really like “oh Dorothy is sapphic so I’ll make her obsessed with the moon” but then it became a major symbol in the story <3 Dorothy IS obsessed with the moon, and Felix is frustrated because he can’t see it the way she does and he feels like part of him is missing because of that, when it’s just a different perspective but nooo these two need to have unhealthy co-dependency and then get mad when they’re unhealthily co-dependent on each other :/ Anyway I’d just like to talk about how Felix’s need to be like his sister in this chapter is demonstrated through a symbol that’s attached way more to her than it is to him even though in the prose he describes the moon as this fragile, breakable thing which is the complete opposite as how Dorothy would and lets talk about the blade mirroring the prologue!!!!

He closed an eye and pointed the blade at the moon. If he could, it’d be so easy: surgeons precision, swift wrist flick, carved and plucked from the sky. Laid out on his palm like tissue paper, half translucent and as breakable as skin - a birthday present for Dorothy, if he doesn’t tear it. He’ll try not to, but it’d be so easy.

In further development of the Moon Imagery, I’ve started using a lot of Star Imagery with Felix and a lot of general space imagery in both of their POVs and I’m delighted to say I have no idea what the meta means with that but I like it!! It fits the story very well and they’re probably mirroring each other or something!

This little chapter taught me that I need to be flexible with form <3 this was originally meant to be the final scene of the last chapter, and I was so hyped because it was one of the first scenes I conceptualised, but then it ~sucked~. However I didn’t realise until recently that it sucked because I was writing it in a traditional storytelling form - which most of this book benefits from, but this moment certainly does! not! I’m really glad because I think this book is the perfect playground for experimental form - although here it’s relatively simple though, most of the setup for this happens at the end of the previous chapter and then this is just all the information condensed as much as possible. This chapter is focused on memories so it really works for it to be cut off from the previous which is in the fictive present, and Felix’s perception of memories right now are ~a little jarring~

The final scene of Moon (Dotty) depicts Felix and Dorothy breaking into a park at 4am, promptly having an argument that results in Dorothy leaving, and Felix sat next to a fountain picking pennies out of it and trying to associate a memory with the year on the back - this chapter is those memories and this introduces the fluid relationship characters have with their past. For Felix, he’s seeing the last 20+ years from a bird eyes view in a very sporadic way and it’s starting to sink in that those 20+ years actually Happened. Some of the memories are very distanced, others are as intense as flashbacks, and some are a mixture of the two. This one is very interesting to me because he completely separates himself from the memory halfway through Fel do you wanna talk about this (unfortunately I cannot drop the name because of plot <3)

cw: light/implied homophobia

IN GOD WE TRUST / 1978

The first time Felix held a boys hand was in 1978 in the back pew at morning service. It was the first time [redacted]’s father preached and they got stuck in the back because they arrived late, because they laid in the grass together, wearing each other’s identical pecan coloured blazers as sunrise peeled back the night, and they slunk into the back of service like ghosts everyone could see and maybe they knew why they were late. [Redacted]’s father had a razor voice and he made sure every word sliced into his son and his son interlocked fingers with the boy next to him. His son didn’t look at the boy he held hands with the same way he’ll pretend his blazer is his and not the boys and the same way he didn’t look at the boy the first time they kissed behind the chapel building and the same way he didn’t look at the boy during Bible study for the week after.

Whilst I’d say in Chapter 2 the chemistry between Beau and Felix is as clear as day this is the first instance where Felix’s queerness is explicitly introduced and I’m taking this chance to say this book gets more queer every fucking week. Like I think in the last updates I was like ohhh sexuality doesn’t play much into Felix’s arc and know it’s like 99% of his damn arc and we LOVE it. But at this point he doesn’t realise like when I tell you guys this man is so repressed

I am literally only putting this here because I talk about all the other chapters and it’s weird to me to leave one out. Also because the graphic and title is pretty. Not gonna lie I love making these posts and that is 10% to ramble about meta 90% making pretty graphics that is literally just cropping photos on Unsplash and putting Garamond text over them <3

Anyway this was originally Lessons in Holy and when I revisited that chapter I realised it was so fucking messy and I tried to fix it but it didn’t really work and I’ve been scared to touch it since. However the meta is top notch so here we are - it mirrors Chapter One, Everything Holy, which explores Felix’s decision to leave the cult and with that, leave God. Everything Holy / In San Francisco explores his relationship (or lack thereof) with God and how much Felix’s life has changed since he left - and how “holy” it is. It definitely goes back to the idea of the tangible because the holiness preached to him growing up was not something tangible to him, whereas with this he looks at real life experiences, so he tries to find holiness in that. It also ties with Cyan City and the romanticisation of San Francisco as something tangible and something he can find holiness in, which a) he needs to learn that things don’t have to be “holy” to be valuable and b) it would be a shame if :) he centred everything good about his life around SF and then :) something bad were to happen whilst living in SF :) the way he and Dorothy both do this

My plan for this is basically: Condense The Shit Out Of It. The hardest part about this chapter is it is very thematic and you know as a lit major (derogatory) I love that but with more theme centric chapters the line between subtle and Too Much can be verrryyy thin, but I think focusing on character exploration over theme will fix that pretty easily. I’d also like to separate the Isaias introduction into its own chapter because it’s such an important moment and November me just? Latched it on at the end? And that plus Felix’s crisis in the same chapter is just too much. This chapter is gonna get changed A Lot but for now here’s Felix’s very chill and relaxed ending to his POV section :)

cw: drowning, drug mention

Felix didn’t speak to God for three weeks and everything unholy became holy: the coffee scorching his throat, the kaleidoscopic t-shirts and high waisted jeans, the punk rock they play at the record store – loud and electric. It’s unholy, but he sleeps through the night now, he folds coloured card into butterflies at breakfast and scribbles biro eyes over the newspaper's sudoku on his lunch break. He earns money and he spends a pinch of it on himself: on new wave records and playing cards and earrings he can’t wear yet. Sometimes he buys marijuana it’s not a sin because marijuana means he only smokes tobacco twice a day now – one at breakfast, one before bed. He bar hops with Beau on Saturdays and hikes with Dorothy on Sundays and he tells strangers he studies American Literature and he smiles with his eyes more and nobody notices that somebody’s holding his head underwater. And he doesn’t know whose hand it is, but it knows how to grip tight. And he doesn’t know how to swim, but he knows how to swallow water. And he doesn’t know if this is the punishment or the sin because the water stings his eyes but he chooses to keep them open, and the water will tangle in his lungs but he chooses to keep his mouth open. And hellfire can’t touch him under here, so he’ll keep swallowing water and it’ll burn him in a different way, and he’ll like how it scorches his throat.

(Once again context I didn’t share because I don’t like the writing that talks about it: Felix has a deep fear of drowning from past trauma, but he’s also very obsessive about it and often imagines himself drowning.)

(also the way these excerpts are just showing off my love for repetition my Intro to Creative Writing Tutor that called repetition lazy is seething rn!!!!)

Overall though, I’m v happy with how this section came out now that I actually know what the story is! As I’ve finished drafting it, I have noticed where the missing plot beats are and this is what I expected because I Do Not have a lot of experience with novels (I’ve never passed 15k on a novel before so we’re in new territory now) and generally struggle to see beats before I finish a draft. I’m thinking there’s at least one chapter missing and maybe a shorter one, like MSATBOTF, but I won’t be touching this section again until I finish the draft. Most of all I learnt a lot about the story’s form and I’m excited to play with that and be a bit more flexible!

I’m currently drafting Indigo, the first chapter in Dorothy’s POV, and I was going to talk more about it but this post is too long and the next update will be <3 all about her <3. But the chapter introduces her and Jolie’s tumultuous relationship and here’s a lil peak!

Me, a sapphic, capable of writing happy sapphic relationships:

Me instead:

cw: light/implied homophobia

If she didn’t display the ticket on the bedside table - like she had something to prove - she could have easily been in Dallas, in New York, London, Cannes, Moscow, Tokyo, Cairo, Sydney. But wherever she went, Dorothy and Jolie have had four airport reunions before today - four times they’ve had to soften themselves, disguise themselves. Old high school friend flying in to be her maid of honour, college roommates who don’t see each other as a day past eighteen, pen pals reuniting for the first time since the seventies, business trip colleagues in casualwear. The fifth time, there’s nothing to hide, and as they walk to the car, Dorothy has to wonder: if they were seen by nobody, would Jolie have hugged her with both arms? Would she have kissed her? Would Dorothy kiss back?

I’m midway through this chapter, so I’ll keep the rest of it for the next update! That I promise won’t be in three months!

If you read through all of this then I am in love with you <3

#i'd say im sorry this is so long but it was so fun to write so i'm not!#also pls be proud i cut 2k words from this bc i RAMBLED #atlastracking #writeblr #writing update #revelations revelations

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wickymicky · 3 years

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my top 10 favorite kpop singles of the first half of 2021

i did one of these at the end of march, for the first quarter of the year, and this is my update for the second quarter, which obviously is also the first half of the year lol. so like, that’s kind of a big deal, we already know half of all the kpop that will be released this year, and im starting to have strong favorites that all the stuff from the second half of the year will have to struggle to beat, haha.

rather than do a big thing like my year-end list that i did at the end of 2020, i’m gonna limit myself to just three sentences per song for songs 10-6, and five sentences for the top 5 songs haha. if these songs are good enough, and they stay high on my list all the way through to the end of the year, then i’ll post big full-size reviews of them then, i guess. or if you want to know more of what i think about something, or why i put something where i did, feel free to ask me about it lol, i love having discussions about this kind of stuff

anyway here’s the list

10: Lunarsolar - DADADA This is kind of a surprise pick for me lol, and I’d be lying if I said that at least half of the reason I wanted to include it here wasn’t just because I want more people to know about this song, and also to surprise people with an interesting pick haha. But genuinely, I think this song is really solid, there aren’t many flaws with it that I can even think of, and I’ve listened to it a ton since it came out. It’s such a fun song, and if you like girl groups and you don’t know this song, then I highly recommend it haha

9: Rocket Punch - Ring Ring When I saw the teaser images, I thought this would be a disco concept, and like it kind of is... but only in the visuals lmao, the song seems pure 80s synthwavey stuff, more like Everglow La Di Da than GFriend Mago (and I’m into that, personally haha). This was a really cool comeback for this group, and I’m continuing to get more and more into them with each new thing they do! I don’t really have a lot to say about it, but it’s just fun and catchy and bright and loud and good, and yeah, it’s a song I’ve really enjoyed listening to a lot, which is really all that you need in order to make it on this list, you know?

8: Cherry Bullet - Love So Sweet This song feels really simple to me, but in a good way! It really feels like the songwriter(s) had a really good idea one day, and wrote a song for it immediately, rather than trying to start a song and come up with ideas as they went haha. It feels like everything in the song is in service to that underlying idea, and everything helps bring it to life more

7: Itzy - In the Morning (or Mafia in the Morning, whichever you prefer. I just tend to call it “Mafia” and nothing else, lol) Okay this one might be kind of a hot take, cause I’ve seen people be prettttty divided on this song, but I personally love it haha. Sure, the lyrics are corny as hell, but that’s nothing new for kpop, and I do think the use of the mafia game as a song motif is kind of interesting, I suppose. But honestly the biggest reason why I love it is the production haha, cause damn this song hits hard and the instrumental just sounds so cool (as do the bsides! their Guess Who mini album is my album of the year so far for sure, no question)

6: Fromis 9 - We Go I’m so glad Fromis came back with this song, and I feel like it’ll be a really meaningful song for me in time. This period of time right now, when we’re starting to feel like progress is being made in the fight against this virus that’s been dominating our lives for a year and a half... I think this song captures that feeling perfectly, possibly without even necessarily trying to. It sounds like a sigh of relief, meeting friends who you haven’t seen in a long time, or just the reassurance that even though many people are still very much in quarantine and taking things very seriously, this won’t be forever and there is still good in the world... that’s what it sounds like to me

5: TRI.BE - Rub-a-Dum This one was kind of a surprise for me lol, cause I wasn’t expecting to like a song with this title this much. I like Doom Doom Ta, and I would have put it relatively high on this list if Rub-a-Dum hadn’t come out afterwards, but I feel like this song does everything that Doom Doom Ta did but better, and in a bit more of an interesting way. It was written by Shinsadong Tiger and LE from EXID (just as Doom Doom Ta was) and I think this song has LE’s touch all over it, in the best way. I love that this song is kind of experimental, cause like it only has one verse... it goes Intro > Verse > Prechorus > Chorus > Bridge > Final Chorus haha, and i think that’s mostly so that you can luxuriate in that chorus drop as much as possible. The song just really works for me overall, it’s super solid and I just couldn’t deny that it’s in my top 5 favorite songs of the year so far.

4: Dreamcatcher - Odd Eye As soon as this song came out, it was another moment of “Wow, Dreamcatcher just put out the song of the year right at the beginning”, just like they did in 2020 lol. But as the year has gone on, I think I’m not as into this song as I was into Scream and Boca (the other two from Dreamcatcher’s Dystopia trilogy, with Scream being my SOTY last year). But like... a Dreamcatcher comeback that I feel is just fairly decent and not one of my most favorites... still gets it to 4th place overall haha. That’s just Dreamcatcher’s power, even the songs I’m not as obsessed with are ones that I still get pretty obsessed with. I love this vibe, it’s a really different take on a cyberpunk-y genre from other kpop songs that have dabbled in it, and overall I think every member slayed this (especially Handong who made her triumphant return this comeback!)

3: Weeekly - After School Okay, I’ve been pretty conflicted on this song, because even though initially I wasn’t sure how much I would get into it, it nevertheless is my single most-listened-to song of 2021 so far. Part of that is how much I love Weeekly, part of that is how fun the performances were to watch (and I’m counting watching those as listens to the song lol), but also I think it really did grow on me quite a bit, and I was even considering it to be my favorite of the year for a while. It’s a lot of fun, it’s really catchy, and it’ll probably go down as one of their most iconic and fan-favorite comebacks. It’s the kind of song that’ll get stuck in your head for weeks. It’s just very very very very... Weeekly, haha.

2: Everglow - First This song is a fucking whirlwind, and it really beat the shit out of me just like the members do to the camera in the music video lmao. It’s pretty different from La Di Da, which has become one of my favorite kpop songs ever, but I really really like it too. I feel like First is what Everglow were going for with Adios and Dun Dun, but fully realized, in a more complete form. I love how high their budget seems to be now, and I love how they seem to be really coming into their own as a group, I feel like this is the Everglow they were always meant to be. Honestly, I could see this maybe becoming my SOTY by the end of the year, and it’s very close (within 10 or so) to being my most-listened song of the year, but I do still think it’s too soon to say for sure haha

1: STAYC - ASAP This was such a hard decision to make, because honestly the top 4 on this list were all really strong contenders for first place, but after a lot of thought, I’ve decided that ASAP is the one I feel like I’m the least likely to change my mind on. I’ve listened to this song every single day since it came out, except for like 4 or so, which means that even though I’ve listened to it less than the three songs below it on this list, I’ve listened to it more consistently than any of them... I just have not gotten tired of it. It’s such a breath of fresh air for kpop. It’s kind of minimalist because it really doesn’t have any extra stuff, it’s very streamlined and it knows exactly what it is and that’s all it needs to be, and that makes for a very satisfying listen, in my opinion. This song sounds like what heart-shaped things look like. ASAP ❤︎

#if i went over my self imposed sentence limit in any of these... oh well lol #i just have a lot to say about things haha #thoughts tag #o #2021 list #i'll probably post some additional thoughts in a bit #and throughout the next day or two #and yes- i'm posting this before the loona comeback #intentionally #since it comes out so close to the end of the month... it basically will count as a second-half-of-the-year song imo #but if i waited until it was already out then i would probably be tempted to include it on this list (if it ends up being good)

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mayorofcattown · 2 years

Photo

and here is that actual visual novel dev update I promised! It’s gonna be a long one so I’m putting it under a read more

this update mostly goes into progress on outlining and some art and asset making, plus some other fun details too

also worth mentioning up top, is I made a twitter specifically for game dev stuff, as twitter seems to be the kind of place to put stuff like this. it doesn’t have any posts yet, and I’ll go a bit more in detail abt my plans for it in this post, but I’m posting the link here where it’s more visable lol: https://twitter.com/cattowngames

The most obvious update is well. the art. as you can see I’ve started on making the sprites for the characters, starting with Skyler. I’m only sharing her default sprite here, tho if you are interested in the other sprites I made for her you can see the rest of those on my patreon ;)

(Going forward that’s probably going to be how I handle ‘behind the scenes’ content on there, I’ll post one piece of ‘main’ asset work from a set that is necessary to show progress/gain interest, and keep the rest as bonus content for ppl who want to see more. That way ppl who don’t want to donate can still get a feel for the project, while ppl who do still get some nice bonuses)

I’ve also updated the general visuals of the UI a bit here too, with some more textures and glitch effects to just make it a bit more snazzy, the old one was looking a little bland. I might still change some things, but I’m liking the look of it a lot better

here’s the old one for comparison (both of these taken in game):

You can see I’ve shifted it a bit more to the right (which was WAY harder to code than it should’ve been lmao..........) to make space for skyler’s sprite sitting in front of the window, which was the best way I could find to position her to make her recognisable as the player character without totally overshadowing the other character sprites (which will be on the left behind the textbox)

Also finally added the forward button, I never did find out a way to make that from actual text so I just caved and made a png of a > sign with some glitch effects behind it lol

I still need to update the rest of the UI assets to this style, but that’ll probably take a bit longer so I figured I’d just post this now either way

Most of the progress over the last few months tho has been in story stuff, which I can’t Super show, but I do at least have a solid enough outline of the main story for the parts I’m going to include in the demo. I’m planning for the demo to include the first two chapters plus a short prologue introducing the setting and things, as that seemed to be a good enough place to end things on as far as introducing the main setup and story without going to far in yet. While I can’t show any of the actual outline, I will share this little tidbit of the chapter names cause I think they’re fun (15 year old me’s One good decision was giving the chapters error code names that did in fact Pop Off)

While I haven’t outlined everything so far, I have pretty solid idea of the overarching story at this point and the general structure. It’ll have around 5ish ‘arcs’ basically, one intro arc, three ‘main arcs’ and then the ending arc. I’ve got solid outlines for the intro arc (aka the demo) and the second arc, like half of the third arc and a vague idea of the ending and first arc (which still eludes me for some reason lol)

And here’s the total wordcount for the outline so far, since I feel like that’s the only other thing abt this I can think of to show off lol

The good news is that overall the story isn’t TOO long, I mean it’s not short by any means but it’s still a relatively self contained story, not a convoluted magnum opus, so it probably wont take like. a decade to make the game or anything. hopefully...

The even better news is that the demo chapters Specifically don’t actually have a tonne of art needed for them. A lot of the major recurring characters don’t get introduced until later arcs, so I don’t actually have to draw most of them for the demo, and of the ones that DO show up, half only show up virtually through chats and things instead of in person. So basically the only characters who need Full sprite art are Skyler and Ethan and a few minor characters, cause Trinity doesn’t even get a body until the first main arc lol

Backgrounds and CGs are another story, there’s gonna be a Lot of bgs in particular, tho I’m still figuring out what parts will need CGs. The prologue at least will likely have a few, since it’s Very Short and takes place in the past, it probably works out easier to just draw like. 2 cgs rather than a full set of sprites of younger versions of the characters just for like. a 5-10 minute intro

I do still obviously have a Lot of writing to do still, and even as short as it is the demo alone will probably end up being as long if not longer than Out of the Bag, there’s just a lot more Stuff going on and setup that needs to be done compared to that

Tho speaking of backgrounds, here is the fun little detail I mentioned, I recently had the galaxy brain idea of rendering some of the indoor environments in the new animal crossing DLC, because it is Very Good for interiors

I’m probably going to make a seperate post abt this too, featuring a proper video recording of it cause the screenshots are a lil awkward (I made this in the sketch app and it doesn’t really allow for as nice of photos compared to the actual houses, but I haven’t gotten around to putting it in a villager home yet) but this is a build I made of Skyler’s apartment! This isn’t final, I just made it as a fun experiment, but I’m quite happy with how it turned out

And the last thing to talk abt (as I mentioned above) is the new twitter account! Twitter seems to be popular for game dev type stuff, and I wanted to make a dedicated account for this Somewhere, so I figured I may as well make one. It’s not specifically for OS:TRI alone Technically, in that I will post other games I make there too, but I will probably focus on OS:TRI stuff predominantly right Now since it’s the one I’m actively developing, and trying to balance multiple games on one acct would just get confusing for everyone lol

I’m still going to post updates like this here, my plan is just to use the twitter for shorted updates and promo stuff, (like lil character intros and things) and post long posts like this on tumblr later. I don’t really see much point making a seperate tumblr blog for it as well since tumblr already has filter and tags so if ppl want to read all my posts abt my vns they can just look thru my tags, twitter needs more dedicated side blogs tho. and it’s just where all the game dev ppl seem to be

Anyway, next up I’m planning on fixing up the rest of the UI and drawing the other sprites, and from there I’ll start putting the outline into the game and actually like. writing it lol

#art #original art #vns #game dev

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eragonpaolini · 2 years

Note

ok I am interested in hearing about the mouse novel you started in 3rd grade

For anyone wondering what this is about, I mentioned this story a couple times in the tags, I don’t even remember on what posts lol. It took a minute to dig it up but I finally found it, wasn't even on my computer, it was on my backup drive lol. I’m gonna liveblog my reactions to it. Probably gonna be a long post, so

It's bad. It's very bad. I thought I started it in like 3rd or 4th grade or something but I found the earliest version in my 2009 folder which was 6th grade for me 😭. I don't think I was that bad at writing in 6th grade but it's really very bad. We're talking worse than My Immortal bad. It's possible I started it earlier and moved it to more recent folders over time (cause I took like 3 years to write like 6 pages lmao) but this is worrisome. I also found updated versions in my 2010 and 2011 folders which went up to 8 pages whoo! (But somehow only 2k words for the longest versions??) The "last modified" date is worthless cause I've moved it between like 3 computers and 5 flash drives/backups so all the versions say 2017.

That being said, there is a very marked improvement in the writing quality over those 8 pages that I'm almost proud of. That last page is frankly perfectly readable as a novel written for 8-12 year olds, though the story structure still needs a ton of work.

Oh shit, I just dug into the file metadata and found out it was created in May 2007, so 4th grade! Whew! I have an excuse for how bad it is. The newest version was last modified in April 2011 so that totally explains why it's so much better towards the end. Huh, just noticed I actually updated the intro in the most recent version, which makes it slightly more palatable lmao.

Well now that I've finished liveblogging my detour down memory lane, what the hell's the story about?

A town called Miceville exists in the lowest sub-basement of a human apartment building. The main character (named Cheddar Squigee) gets himself into a predicament, lost in the wilderness due in part to his own bad decisions and in part because of his older brother's dumbassery. Hopelessly stranded with no hope for rescue while his family is worried sick looking for him, Cheddar goes on an adventure with ghost pirates to find some treasure and save them from their curse (because I’d just watched Pirates of the Caribbean), before eventually reuniting with his family. I only got as far as the “he got stranded” bit with the beginnings of lore for the ghost pirates.

Some highlights from the story:

I think the very idea of a mouse story came from me reading some Geronimo Stilton books around that time. Look them up if you haven’t heard of them, they’re great books in my memory from when I was like 10 so I’m sure they’ll hold up over a decade later /s

There’s an “I didn’t know you could read” reference to Harry Potter

The entire ghost pirates thing is obviously lifted from PotC which I think is just hilarious

There’s a Clip Art pic of a mouse on one of the pages :)

The entire thing is written in Comic Sans font except for two parts which are 1) The chapter titles which are in Impact (that meme font fyi) and 2) The main title which is in the old MS Office 2003 WordArt lmao

Some lowlights:

I was a Brand Shill™, for Lamborghini of all things

I made Cheddar’s brother a major dick and a dumbass, which absolutely was not at all inspired by my relationship with my IRL brother, not one bit. There is nothing for a therapist to unpack there.

I don’t know why I specified the mouse city was in the sub-basement of a human apartment. The humans were never supposed to make an appearance or have any impact to the story. I could just have easily made it a full mouse world like Redwall or whatever.

Everything happens so fast (what is pacing and plot structure?) so if I finished the story at the current pace I don’t think it would break 30k words, not even a novel.

Anyway, thank you so much for giving me an excuse to take a couple of hours looking at this crappy story I wrote over a decade ago. No, no one can read it it’s still very bad.

#sorry it took so long #I had to find out where it was saved which took a while #and then I wanted to set aside some time to do a proper retrospective #this was fun #thanks for the ask!#hashtag #asks #anonymous

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 3 years

Text

Moriarty 8 - 11 (FINAL) | HypMic 12 - 13 (FINAL) | Taiso Samurai 7 - 9 | Akudama 9 - 12 (FINAL)

Hopefully I’ll be able to get on to all that backlog soon, because...I don’t want it to keep accumulating and Skate-Leading Stars (first winter 2021 anime) already has an advance 1st ep. up...

Moriarty 8

(Moriarty 8 notes deleted accidentally…)

Moriarty 9

If you want a modern equivalent to the Baker Street Irregulars, then I’d suggest you look this way *jabs finger at Odd Jobs Yamada (from HypMic)*.

These CGI background horse and carriages are…kind of distracting…

I’m guessing back in those days, the Irregulars were better than Google at finding info…because Google didn’t exist until the internet did.

Moriarty 10

Just this ep and one more until the end…at least, until spring 2021.

Wow, the use of colour here is really striking!

White lilies mean…purity/chastity…?

I’ve never heard of “bending someone’s ear” until now. It means to talk to someone, especially to ask a favour or to talk at length.

Probatio diabolica: the devil’s proof. I didn’t even know that was a concept until now…(I never once studied law, as you can tell.)

“William” isn’t normally shortened to “Liam”…It’s normally “Will”…also, notice all the footprints on the floor…

Moriarty 11 (FINAL)

Last ep. before spring 2021.

LOL, kabedon.

The fishy thing about Brits is that they’ve named things across the world names from Britain. I know there’s a Doncaster which isn’t anywhere near Britain, for one thing…

Observe the weird finger-like marking made by one of the bloodstains and the scratches on the suitcase. The latter was probably forced open.

Considering the number of signs the killer left, he was clearly in a hurry…

Well, based on that shoeprint we can find the killer if we can find traces of blood on his shoe.

“Duram” (sic).

Ah! If it was raining in Durham, then there would be traces of mud on the killer’s shoes. I remember early on in Detective Conan Shinichi, then newly shrunk, deduced Agasa was running in the rain based on the mud on his pants…this is similar.

Chloral (hydrate…?).

The “washroom” (apparently a Canadian term, the British term is “water closet”) has privacy and a place to get rid of the evidence, to some extent.

What about the rest of Eddie’s clothes?

Considering there are still 5 minutes of the ep. left…there’s going to be some kind of stinger for the next season. I can feel it.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait…Director Holmes??? Y’mean, Mycroft?! That is a good stinger! See you next time.

HypMic 12

“Ever since I was born, there was never a time I’d felt I’d accomplished something.” – Aw, Doppo, sweetpea (<- this blogger calls people “sweetpea” when they’re feeling lots of moe feels for them). Please don’t say that. You’ve accomplished more than enough in your life!

…Oh, almost didn’t notice it until Hifumi hid behind Doppo and the angle changed to confirm the jacket was on the bed, but Hifumi doesn’t have his jacket on.

I think I saw a tweet that said something about a wall being wrecked (specifically “Wall: Ow…”) but I wasn’t sure of the context, so I saved it in my bookmarks…LOL, so that’s what it means?

Samatoki, I know you don’t like Ichiro…but please stop trying to preach what his 2nd character song says in the title…(i.e. Break the Wall, LOL)

Jyuto’s very much a “I’ll leave this problem to the other guy” guy.

When the Funi subs say “dame”, I think Samatoki is just referring to an “onna” (woman). It’s a bit of an odd choice, really…although I can’t go and interrogate whoever was responsible for it. I don’t have the authority or the contacts that will allow me to.

This is not the time for fighting one another!!!

Notably, in the manga, Jakurai was going to chaffeur Hifumi and Doppo to their place, but then he had to go to work and so they rode the train with their prize money. This “run from Special Forces” ending is better, I think, since people got grumpy at Jakurai for having to abandon them with the money.

“…permission to cover a story.” - Permission from…who?

*screams* I was thinking Tom, Rex and Iris worked for a foreign government! They work for Ichijiku – why didn’t I think of that?!

LOL, I couldn’t even tell what Tom was saying until I played it back…it’s English, just…said in a spot where you don’t expect it.

“…that scares me.” – This may be nitpicky of me, but osoreru is actually a derivative of osore (fear), so “it strikes fear in me”…? “It strikes fear in my heart”? What would sound right…?

Go, host mode Hifumi! (...but does that imply host mode Hifumi is the only “version” of Hifumi able to rap? Certainly, he was able to do Wrap and Rap without his jacket, right…?)

You can tell Tom still respects Jakurai after all this time because he (the former) calls him (the latter) “Sensei”. Also, this’ll be interesting, we haven’t seen many mics and speakers beyond the standard bad guy ones (depicted in both the anime and the manga).

My gosh! All I knew of this song was that m-flo, also responsible for Human Lost’s theme song (and notably they’re a hip hop group with techno influences), was responsible for this song. Man, this s*** slaps! It’s great! (Sorry, I’ve just never really had the chance to capitalise on all the info I gathered on EDM DJs when talking in terms of things from Japan…m-flo is basically the only act I know which does that, so I’m really excited…can’t you tell from how verbose I’m getting in this note?)

That’s interesting that Matenrou won and Tom still took the gold chair symbolism to represent him and the Secret Aliens as the victor instead.

Iris’s parts are awesome. M-flo has a female vocalist and so I’d assume Iris takes on Lisa’s (m-flo’s vocalist’s) parts.

…Hmm, Gentaro’s made a reference to the track “Me Against the World”, has he?...Maybe.

I’m not quite sure, but I think Ramuda said “majo” (witch) when he was referring to Beauty and the Beast in the English subs.

…gosh, what is up with that airhorn…? Still, next time is the last time. See you on Christmas…no, Boxing Day.

HypMic 13 (FINAL)

This is the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning…y’know, considering how stuff trended on Twitter, I’d say this anime’s gonna get a 2nd season, but you can’t really say that until it actually happens. I mean, Boueibu is much less popular than HypMic and that got a 2nd season…

This is the 1st episode where I woke up early enough to watch without spoilers and had no obligations to place over it, so…this is exciting, in its own sense, but in a sense, it could also be called “profoundly disappointing” because this experience is only available to me as of the final episode.

One of the tweets I saw a few weeks back came to mind – someone became interested in sakuga houkai (terrible animation, literally “animation collapse”) because of HypMic…I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing…

…Dude, you probably shouldn’t answer a call from someone who just revealed themselves to be a traitor last episode…*sweatdrops*

(Spoiler for rest of franchise) Hmm…Dice’s face is pretty straight. Assuming at this point we knew Dice was Otome’s son, this is a good poker face from him…!

This thing about gangs was mentioned in their profiles (although the words used implies they “went delinquent”), so it actually doesn’t surprise me.

I wonder if this subway exists in the mainline story…?

According to the next ep. preview I saw on Twitter, TDD will reform to take down the Secret Aliens. I’m not sure if that was a guess or whether that’s true, so I’m waiting for the shoe to drop on it.

Samatoki-san, not -sama. Hmm…

There was definitely the word “team” in Dice’s line, so it’s “what the legendary team was made of”.

…oh gosh…they’re still using that airhorn…?

Again with the play on “lonely thunder”. It’s a really fun pun, but one I’d like to see in the rest of the series more.

Notably, Iris’s rap in English missed the word “charisma” where it could have fit (unless I missed reading it the first time).

Note Samatoki does actually use the word “shinsensa” (freshness), so there’s no lie there.

I still love how much they went in on Rex’s theme, even in his raps.

Huh, that’s new. Never seen a tag team like this before.

It seems Tom’s signature is using a lot of English, which makes it easy for us English/Japanese pair translators.

Saburo didn’t actually say “Ichi-nii”, did he…?

…based on the rock intro, this is Rhyme Anima, the OP, or something that sounds similar. What I’d need to confirm this is the “nautilus” line and the “ends corruption” line, which are the OP’s two biggest tells for AMQ.

“rainmaking” – Hmm, another link from Gentaro to Rei. This might be a different part of Rhyme Anima (OP) that wasn’t used as the OP proper.

“this white light invites and heals” (<- paraphrased) – Sounds like Sensei, alright!

…now that (rainbow bit). That’s sakuga!

*a silhouette appears* - Oh nooooooooooooooo! Now they‘ve done it! They’ve included Rei! That’s more than enough spoilers to last a lifetime for y’all anime-onlys!

I wish someone would work on this collaboration between Saburo and Riou…

Hmm…what is the series endgame? Putting in Dice as the new ruler??? I mean, Dice is the worst possible politician ever. He’s far too lax about things.

*Nemu enters* - No! Nemu!

Not only is Iris a “ramen shop owner”, it’s Tom’s favourite food…No wonder ramen has significance to her.

…ooh! A new song! Update: I don’t know what this song’s name is, although it probably will become clear what its name is on the 13th. I’ll keep my eye on Twitter in case the answer is there.

…I knew it was far too early to say if there was an s2 – the DVD’s live events go until September 5th and the 2nd DRB finishes in March. That almost felt like a stinger right there. Oh well, I’m more than happy to call this anime a success, even if I would call it the worst of the arms of the franchise. All HypMic’s anime had to do was deliver fun, before anything else, and it delivered on that front. See you around!

Taiso Samurai 7

Anime burnout means I’m coming back to the anime after the day it finishes.

This dancing scene is kind of like the one at the start of ep. 2 of IWGP, except it has the owl to represent the setting as well as the dance stage.

Leo doesn’t seem to know kanji or katakana, only hiragana.

Even though this part of the anime is set in London, the characters are still speaking Japanese (lel…?).

LOL, Edward Scissorhands much?

LOL, these background gossips are like the Plastics from Mean Girls…haha.

…LOL, that’s not one of those dismounting moves, is it? It’s just kind of…jumping off the bar.

Lookit how Leo’s sticker is 90 deg. sideways from what it should be, haha.

I don’t think it’s true that Olympic gymnasts have never failed. Like other people at the top of their game, they’re probably failed millions of times, but only outside the view of most of the world. Persistence and passion are what’s key to becoming the best at what you are, no matter what field you’re in.

Now Aragaki’s what I call a “determinator” (see TV Tropes on what that is).

Taiso Samurai 8

Notably, the word used for “clothes” is specifically for Western clothing, like dresses.

Well, now we know why Leo can do those stretches…

They’ve clearly sped up the dance here, but…it’s basically the same sort of movements Yuri on Ice used to suck me in. I’m here for it!

Leo seems to be the type who tries to push away his worries by distracting people (including himself) with other things…I see. I didn’t have much of a grasp of his character beforehand.

Britney! F*** you, Britney!

Ah, that must be the (a?) fabled owl of Ikebukuro. I’ve never actually been to Ikebukuro…the closest I got was Akihabara (to memory) and even then, that was for electronics, not anime…so I’ve never seen the owl statue I’ve been talking about close up.

Rei does kind of look like her mother like this.

Ah! Rei and Kitty have a pair look now! “Twinsies”, they call it.

Amakusa’s head is located right next to Leo’s butt, so I end up staring at it…LOL.

The Hoover mission.

“I <3 Ninja”, LOL.

LOL, “Nyapoo!”

*sighs* The problem with being multi-talented is that you’re going to be told to one day put one passion above the others, even if you don’t want that.

LOL, you can be a ninja with this WikiHow article. (I was looking for Kitty’s quote, but found that instead. It seems to be a quote from one of Tomoyo’s movies.) Update: I was right.

There’s a movie in the back where the title is “Black Rainmaker”. (Tomoyo, I presume) Mifune is the 1st person credited.

Considering this is 2003…you won’t be on Mars in 2013, Kitty.

Wow, a tape! That brings me back to 2003, indeed.

Charlie’s Angels…so that’s what the tape was.

LOL, a shoebill.

“blade in your heart” – That would refer to the character for “ninja”, which has a blade over a heart. Y’know Kiss Shot Acerola Heart-Under-Blade (from Monogatari), yeah? Like that.

…you might think emails were out of place in 2003, but a virus from an email caused me to be an avid reader and that virus was unleashed around the late 90s – early 2000s.

LOL, Kitty’s cat belt buckle.

You said it, Rei. You said it.

Taiso Samurai 9

Lausanne, Switzerland.

I noticed one of the boxes at the start of the OP says “Horizontal Bars”, rather than some random name to make the boxes look like they were discarded.

Someone encoded the video funny…

LOL, BB’s getting possessive of his territory.

Fuku-chan the fukurou (owl) in Ikebukuro…LOL.

LOL, randomly there’s a skeleton with a hat in the background of Britney’s clinic.

Notably, one of the wall hangings says “heart” on it – alternatively, “soul”.

Notably, Atlanta was the 1996 Summer Olympics…there is no 1997 Lausanne Olympics, as far as I know.

Akudama 9

I watched the part where it glitches twice and I can’t quite figure out what that circular symbol is…maybe it’s Hacker’s symbol…?

Ah! Only now they properly confirm Swindler used to work in the Seal centre.

“Life that never dies is defective.” – Doctor

Does that mean Doctor is actually older than she looks, due to plastic surgery…?

Marker? What marker?

Apparently that flower is a cherry blossom…according to Detective Conan.

…I know this anime wasn’t made in America (it wouldn’t be “anime” otherwise), but Anime Feminist is going to have a field day with this one…if they haven’t abandoned it already due to their idea of morals.

…now I can even see parallels between HypMic’s authorities and Akudama’s. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

“Why did this have to happen when I’m chief?” – Sounds like…basically every authority during COVID and BLM, to be honest.

See? Akudama likes the S word. I told you.

I haven’t watched The Shining, but reading the synopsis, you can figure out why Cutthroat is the way he is…sort of.

How does the iconic quote go? “Heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Danny!” (or something…?)

They even copied the iconic eye shot! There you go!

Way to take a guy out (with the door, LOL).

…with all this killing, I can see why Akudama Drive was only in one magazine now. (Then again, HypMic was in basically all of them and that also has a tonne of problems…)

Akudama 10

万死 literally means “10000 deaths”.

Babel.

That police chief is such a mood, LOL.

I can see why people didn’t recognise Swindler, but Courier never changes his look, so…uh…

You can’t become a police chief without a sense of justice, no?

“Since when did you know that I’m not-“ - *facepalms*

Is this what they call an “ass-kickin’ Christmas”? (LOL)

Y’know, Sister, you could just do the whole “wherever you are, I’m also seeing the same sky as you” thing some other anime do.

Notably, there are shide (the paper strips) and a rope over the vault…they really do treat the shinkansen and its immortal children as a single god, huh?

Hmm? They don’t care about Sister anymore? Just Brother? (Somewhere along the way, the priorities must have shifted.)

In the end, the best ship is Brawler and Hoodlum (lel).

Akudama 11

One more ep after this. I’m gonna miss this anime, even if it was crazy over-the-top and I didn’t finish it until after the day it ended.

I think the scariest scene in all of Akudama Drive is the one where the “cleaner” tosses the girl aside.

“This nowhere place!” – Around this time, the bunny and shark’s shirts say “morning”/”afternoon” (shark) and “evening” (bunny).

The blue bird of happiness…literally. That character on the birds is the one for “happy”.

…LOL, that one glitched Courier looks more like Cutthroat.

Hacker’s drone matches Courier’s head angles, LOL.

I guess if you think you’re falling in Kanto, you’re falling in Kanto and if you think you’re floating (like Courier did), you float. I always liked that concept.

War Games. Now the title makes sense!

…but they can be together if they stay here in Kanto as vessels for the citizens? (That sounds mighty antagonistic of me, but…that logic does compute.)

Maybe swindlers play games with the truth…? (What an interesting concept.)

“Just fine.” – I think Hacker needs a “This is fine” meme.

“We can hear your heart talking.” – It means something like “We can hear you spouting your true intentions.”

“…worth every last penny…” – That’s a weird thing to say for someone whose life got changed by 500 yen…Just goes to tell you how American the subbers can be sometimes.

Swindler’s smug face is so good, LOL.

Akudama 12 (FINAL)

This episode isn’t named after a movie. It’s named after the anime itself.

The TV says “Please watch away from the TV”, i.e. stand back from the TV while you watch.

“They came and stole the offerings…” – At this point, bunny’s shirt says “freedom” and shark’s says honpou, meaning “wild, uninhibited, rampant, extravagant”.

…where did Shikoku come from? Is that where Swindler and Sister landed after they tried going to the moon?

Ohh! That Christian imagery! That’s scary!

Is Akudama Drive a tragedy? No, I think…on the contrary, it’s a story of hope.

LOL, “s*** guy”.

I thought the girl had a bomb. Turns out she has a gun, which is…far worse, come to think of it.

Instead of red characters which say things about the situation, now Shark and Bunny have Hacker’s symbol on them.

There’s no way anyone who wasn’t immortal would survive the attack Courier took…

…why is it that falling over represents vulnerability in children in all of these stores where a war has happened and/or there’s a chase? Hmm?

Wow, Sister did everything with heels on…?!

Anyways, that was a fun time. See you next time!

#simulcast commentary #akudama drive #Chesarka watches Akudama Drive #taiso samurai #Gymnastics Samurai #HypMic #Hypnosis Mic #Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle - Rhyme Anima #moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #Chesarka watches Yuukoku no Moriarty #Chesarka watches HypMic #Chesarka watches Taiso Samurai

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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February Progress Update, March Goals:

(Updated as it’s now the end of the month) How February went:

Chinese novel chapters read in February (so far): 27 (a huge amount! Last month’s was 8. This month - 4 were Guardian, the rest are 寒舍)

Chapters I studied with Listening-Reading Method: 2 (Catch me barely doing L-R and just reading Guardian instead...)

Chinese shows watched: 6. (I expected this number to shoot up and I was right! Word of Honor - tian ya ke adaptation - is airing and I am watching the raws first then the English subs as they release. I’m also maybe going to start Anti Fraud League since I finally finished ep 1. YouTube recommended me another Zhen zhehan drama - he plays Zhou Zishu in woh. It’s called Demon Girl and I’d had it in my list to practice anyway with when I got bored since it’s set 1920-1940s, one of my fave drama settings, featuring a demon heroine in which demons are like mutants who live among us. Which happens to be my LITERAL favorite story setup - mutants/monsters/etc sci fi or supernatural setup in which the story uses it to tell fantastical tales while also commenting on real social issues. Some stories do it better than others - In The Flesh and Bureau of Transformer do excellently, Love and Redemption and Guardian do some fascinating stuff with it, Heroes touches on it only a little compared to Xmen which is known for it, and Merlin often failed to commit to a strong message. But regardless - if a story has this Setup I will ultimately wanna see. So that show definirely has 3 selling points now: my Fave story setup, a heroine as the lead, and an actor I like as the other lead. I also found Mystic Nine and LORD Critical World in HD on a chinese site so I’m very tempted to just watch them in chinese only since it’s more convienient then the english sub links I have for the shows. An interesting update: trying to watch a show this month was easier than in the past - last month I could barely watch Any shows, and before that I distinctly remember shows being harder to catch the details. I watched Anti Fraud League ep 1 fully this month and caught all details roughly without pausing - and like 3 sentences of exposition on main character Mi Huo I paused and replayed the scene just to catch all the chinese subtitles and clarify I understood correctly. I think I got about 90% of the details - because I was a little vague on some word meanings and just guessed on those. And grasped 100% of the overall plot. which is well beyond where I was at month 10-11ish last time I tried watching shows. Also yay! A detective show felt as easy as watching a fluff romance which is so great, because I like this genre much more! Although I am going to give a grateful shout out to Granting You A Dreamlike Life because... while the shows first 15 eps I did watch are Not My Thing, I watched it like 8+ months into learning and it was both a challenge and easy enough TO watch and keep watching. Which made it great for improving. I really think it helped a lot. And I also think... at this point I probably could rewatch guardian without eng subs and be fine. When I watch shan he ling today I guess I’ll find out if I can handle a wuxia plot though without eng subs lol)

Japanese Audio listened to: 14 (no change, this is since start of year)

Personal books read: 11 (since 2021 started - so 6 books in February. I have been reading SO MUCH lately, I’m really excited? I’ve been meaning to read so many of my books I just hadn’t gotten around to it. This is also likely to increase as I’m about to finish dmbj 2 next time I pick it up).

Some other things:

@a-whump-muffin u inspired me and sometime soon I will be trying to play KH in japanese again, and looking at ur super amazing grammar guide u made ToT (I might try nier automata if its bearable just because I’m playing all the drakengard/nier games right now but... the language is a lot more sci fi so i’m not sure that’d go well... also i want to check if my final fantasy type-0 has japanese language settings...). But like... I am definitely up for looking at a grammar guide, and looking up words on my phone as I play. Now that’s a study method i could DO maybe ToT and also like!!! ultimately i want to do it anyway!!! i just figured it would be drowning and chickened out! but like. to study doing what u wanted to do anyway in the language??!!! wowwww ;-; i mean that’s basically why i’m reading chinese but u get the idea

Other japanese updates: I’m still listening to quickleur I just haven’t done any listening lately (u can tell by the L-R status above lol). It did help a lot though even the bits I listened to, as far as refreshing my mind on particles and verb endings. And the explanation on sentence structures u gave @a-whump-muffin !! (who is god tier if ur studying japanese they are <3 <3 )

Part of the ‘personal books read’ goal - I’m counting any textbooks I read in that category, in the hopes if I frame it in my head as reading for personal interest instead of studying, I will do it. Ideally I would LIKE to read my DeFrancis Chinese books, Chinese Nature Method grammar book, Chinese Sentence Patterns book, 2 books I just ordered, my japanese reading books (the 1st one a good refresher the 2nd one literally could be... my textbook for years its got so much). Those chinese books in part because WOW I am so used to so much grammar in context when reading, but when I go to produce language I’m a hot MESS. And I think just like... I really should read those books and fill in the gaps in my understanding and like solidify the correct understanding of what I can comprehend. Sometime.... I ALSO should read my Alan Hoenig chinese characters book. But will I???? AHA. I forgot to mention in my last reading post - but brute forcing learning the hanzi has been going fine actually. I was concerned just looking up hanzi when reading, that I would struggle to learn the new ones. But I can confirm that reading has gotten easier, and I’ve picked up a LOT of hanzi I was previously brute force looking up repeatedly while reading. So like... as long as this keeps working, I’ll keep doing it. I’m very lazy and the path with least resistance and mental exhaustion is what I’ll keep doing, if it works, even if it might be slower. (Although I do think the hanzi books I have are very useful and have helped me speed up progress when I used them).

I learned how to make gifs this month and I’m overwhelmed with all the stuff I could try to do? Idk its very cool i’m very excited about it.

Goals for March:

Basically, we’re sticking to the quite steady study plan I’ve had the past few months, which has boiled down to: read chinese, L-R, listen/watch if desired, do something listening related in japanese if desired. It’s not well rounded or anything but I’m making steady progress and its easy to keep doing.

Anything in bold is what I’m doing right now/likely to do (although we know how often I just derail).

Read chinese novels. (This can include Guardian. Currently includes: hanshe, guardian. On hiatus: Tian Ya Ke).

Listen-Read Guardian. (Reading guardian in Any way is the priority so if this happens yay, but if it doesn’t I’ll be happy if I’m still working through guardian and just postponing the listening part).

Optional. Play video game in japanese, use a dictionary and grammar guide when confused af. This one’s imminently likely just because the instant I get Nier remastered I’m playing it, and also playing Nier Automata etc games, so like... the opportunity and desire to play the japanese versions of games I want to do that with WILL hit me.

Optional. Watch chinese shows. This one’s also likely because a priest novel drama adaptation just dropped (Word of Honor, shan he ling, tian ya ke/Faraway Wanderer’s adaptation) and I don’t want to wait for the english subs.

Optional - unlikely (I’m not in the mood to listen to stuff lol). Audios. Keep listening to Japanese Quicksleur when there’s down time (like playing games), and Chinese Spoonfed audio if I feel like it.

Personal. Keep reading while I’ve got the motivation to. I am really enjoying getting through all these books I’ve wanted to read for so long.

BELOW I will eventually link a list of story recs (also see tag rec list for more):

Poyun 破云 (recced)

Poyun 破云 2

一级律师 by 木苏里 (recced)

盗墓笔记 series

默读 by priest

他们的故事 by 一根黄瓜丝儿

寒舍 by 夏灬安兰 pingxie supernatural au

818 (pingxie)

鎮魂 by priest (chapter 4)

天涯客 by priest

Qi Ye 七爷 by priest

六爻 by priest

FGEP

犹记斐然 foxghost rec

一受封疆 foxghost rec

女主大人我错 gl

将军府小妾生存报告 gl

夜半衣寒 by 夏灬安兰 pingxie (can u tell i like this author)

(瓶邪同人)所谓一切发生在网配+番外 (writer and radio voicer pingxie au)

死亡万花筒 kaleidoscope of death

将军府小妾生存报告

女主大人，我错了

魔女霓裳

公主饶命 GL

民政局领到了媳妇

In progressing difficulty, books I want to read and should be ready to read now, a la foxghost’s recommendations:

那些風花雪月 by Gong Zi Huan Xi (took 14 months of study before I tried to read this, did try, did not click with me lol)

不正當關係 by Gong Zi Huan Xi (foxghost said this was the same difficulty as the story above, so I’m probably ready for this one too).

*SCI 谜案集 by ErYa (I’ve heard this somewhat easy to read, is a good story, and since its case-centered I think it would be a good intro to later reading books like Silent Reading by Priest)

龍圖案卷集 by ErYa (There is an audiobook on Ximalaya!)

黑風城戰記 by ErYa (sequel to novel above)

Then the recommendation says you should probably watch a lot of shows for some vocab (I sort of do so I’ll see how that helps me out), and you can start tackling xianxia, like Priest’s “六爻, and then 鎮魂, then 殺破狼, and pretty much any other of GZHX’s works.” I would guess this point is when Tian Ya Ke would be more my reading level, when 六爻 is, at the beginning. I would guess after 鎮魂 is when I could try to tackle Can Ci Pin. Sha Po Lang is steampunk and fantasy, so I would guess it has some of the sci fi type words - so if I’d be ready for that, I might be ready for Can Ci Pin at the same time.

#march goals #march study plan #february goals #study plan #february progress #rec list #march

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randomwordprompts · 5 years

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If It’s Magic | Chapter 2

A/N: This is a bit longer than the first chapter, I’m not mad at it but I’m working towards something. No warnings...yet lol

Taglist: @great-neckpectations @wakandas-vibranium @bartierbakarimobisson @wakandan-flowerz @yaachtynoboat711 @oceanscorazon @babygirlofwakanda @storibambino @reaperdeldrunk Lucy huffed as she stood in line in the cafe, giving the barista a pleasant smile once she finally reached the front.

“Hi, I ordered a macchiato on the app under the name Lucille Owens. Is it ready?”

“I’m sorry but there’s no order here under that name,” the young man said with a bored expression on his face, signaling her to move over so he could help the person behind her. Lucy gaped at him and refused to leave the spot, much to the chagrin of the people behind her.

“Excuse me?! I’m gonna need you to check again because I know what I ordered!”

“I understand, but I don’t have your order here and there are others waiting. Either put in a new order or step aside, please.”

Lucy was about to rip into him before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked at Amira, who’d been quietly watching the two of them, and moved to make room for her in front of the barista.

“Listen, we have an Intro to Psych class to get to and it’s the first day. Could you put in two mocha macchiatos for me and my roommate, lease? She already paid and it’s only right.”

The male’s eyes seemed to glaze over a bit as Amira spoke, looking a bit dumbfounded. When she finished speaking he nodded and put the order in, letting the ladies know that they’d be called when they were ready. While waiting Lucy looked at Amira warily, unsure of what just happened.

Amira noticed and returned the look. “What?”

“You know damn well what. How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

Lucy glared at her and huffed. “Mira...the thing with the barista!! What was that?!”

“Oh, that. It’s a long story that I’ll explain later, when we’re alone. Please ask me something else.”

Seeming satisfied for the moment, Lucy decided to ask something that had been on her mind since their first night together.

“Fine, fine. Tell me about that fine ass dude that came to our place the other night! He was all tall dark and handsome. You said he was your friend?”

Amira silently wished she’d just answered the first question, she thought with a chuckle.

“Xavier is a lot of things. My best friend, business partner, ex-boyfriend, almost fiance-”

“Almost what now?! You not gone just speed past that like you didn’t just say he was almost your fiance. Explain, Canadian.”

“He proposed, I said no.”

Lucy’s eyes nearly bugged out through her glasses at that.

“Why the hell would you say no to that? He fine as hell, probably smart cause he goes here, and he look like he got money! Did he hit you?”

“Girl, no! It just wasn’t the right time. After some talking, we agreed to wait until after graduation.”

Lucy sat back and ended her interrogation for now, just when their orders were ready. With a wink to the barista, they left the cafe and headed to class, speed walking a bit so they wouldn’t be late.

“So you telling me she said no...and y’all are still friends? You’re better than me, dawg.”

Xavier and his roommate Daniel were in the gym exercising between classes. Currently, the latter was spotting the former in a bench press as they spoke.

“We’ve been friends since middle school, dude. Besides, it’s more of a not yet than a no. We talked and decided together that it would be better to wait until after graduation.”

As they continued to speak, Xavier finished his set and got up to switch places with Daniel, spotting him through his own bench press.

“Okay, that’s fair. But why not still be together while in school? From what I’ve seen you two still have chemistry.”

“Man, stop worrying so much about my love life and focus on yours. What happened with that cutie you took out last night? I didn’t expect to see you again until this morning.”

Daniel huffed a bit and rolled his eyes as he paused to meet Xavier’s gaze, “Dude, her friend ended up calling her crying right when we got back to her place. I feel like it was a set up but either way we said goodnight early.”

Xavier barked out a laugh as they continued their workout before hitting the showers and grabbing some food.

Amira sat cross-legged on her bed surrounded by notes and her laptop, hair pulled up into a loose top bun with a pen behind her ear as she typed away. She barely registered the front door opening and closing before Lucy was at her room’s threshold with an excited look on her face and a flyer in her hand.

“Mira, you would not believe what happened today!”

Without looking away from her laptop, Amira raised a brow as she spoke.

“You finally asked that dude out from psych?”

“What? No! I was heading back from buying my brushes and there were these women on 20th Street talking about something called ‘reproductive justice’. You ever heard of it?”

“Yeah, we learned a little bit about it in high school. Women taking charge of what happens to their bodies and shit. Why?”

“Apparently there’s going to be an event next week where they go more into detail on what it is. Would my roommate care to join?”

Amira paused her work and gestured for Lucy to give her the paper so she could look it over, shrugging a bit before she finally answered, “I don’t see why not, I like learning sometimes. Speaking of, I almost got kicked out of my Culture & Society class today.”

“It’s the second week, how the hell did you manage that?”

“I might have told the professor that he didn’t have any culture because he’s white...unless you count inbreeding, theft, murder, and beastiality.”

Lucy damn near fell over she laughed so hard, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes as Amira shrugged once more with a laugh.

“I mean, you weren’t wrong. But you know you can’t say that to these professors! They already think they’re “aware” because they went backpacking in Denver on their parent’s dime, or decided to stop washing their hair.”

“White people wash their hair?”

“Ya know...probably not.”

They laughed once more until Amira’s phone rang, the contact name “Peachy Kins” over a picture of Jonathan popping up and not going unnoticed by Lucy.

“Wooooow. So you can talk about white people but you got one saved in your phone looking all yummy with a pet name?! Ma’am.”

“Eh, cut that shit out. That’s my brother, he’s basically off black.”

Lucy snorted as Amira answered the phone and ushered her out of the room. “Well introduce me to the black side cause he fine. Heyyyy big brother!”

“Who the fuck was that?” Jonathan’s voice hit her ear as she closed the door, shaking her head.

“My roommate. She thinks you’re cute, ignore her.”

“I mean...I like dick, so I will. Anywhore, are you by your laptop?”

“Yeah I am, why?”

“Oh, just got something you might wanna see. Call me on Skype.”

Amira made a face but hung up her phone as she pulled up Skype on her laptop, calling him right away. When he answered it was clear he was in the basement of their office building, his usual dress shirt’s sleeves rolled up before he turned the camera to face what he wanted her to see. It turned out to be one of her workers, tied to a chair and barely conscious as if he’d been drugged. She was prepared to ask what was going on but Jonathan spoke first as he walked towards the male.

“So it seems we have a mole in our midst. I had Kenneth here followed and apparently he’s been meeting with the Chief of Police when he’s not working. But apparently, he doesn’t work with you guys anymore?”

The man in question was slowly coming to, looking dazed and confused as to where he was currently. Amira leaned back slightly and shook her head, running a hand over her face.

“Oh, Kenny. Kenny, Kenny, Kenny. Nah, he doesn’t work for us anymore because he was stealing.”

“A snitch and a thief? Heavy stuff. How do you wanna handle this?”

“Given that he has nothing the cops can actually use...just put him in the hospital. I think that’s a fair punishment.”

“Alright, will do. Later babe.”

“Oh Jon, wait! Make sure he can’t have any kids? No one needs to have that burden in their lives.”

At those words, Kenneth came to slightly, struggling to get out of the chair he was tied to with increasing strength. Jonathan snorted at his attempts before looking back to his sister.

“I can see why you’d say that. On it though, I’ll keep you updated on the other shit.”

After exchanging ‘love yous’ and ending the call, Amira grabbed her phone and texted Xavier the situation to keep him in the loop. She was surprised when he opted to call instead of replying, but answered the phone regardless.

“You know I don’t like texting.”

“I know, but I figured you were busy. Actually, what is that sound?”

The sound in question was what slurping and gagging, but Amira thought she might be mistaken.

“It’s nothing important honestly,” Xavier began, prompting the girl sitting between his legs to pull her mouth from his semi-hard dick, irritation clear on her face as she inquired who the fuck he was talking to. He raised a brow at her and smirked before putting the phone on speaker and replying so that both women could hear him.

“I was talking to someone that actually knows how to suck a dick, you might wanna ask her for some pointers because your mouth is pretty sad.”

Amira’s voice floated from the phone laced with pure amusement.

“Damn, you called me while she sucked you off? That’s sad as hell. Do better, Mr. Rose.”

At this point the girl was fuming, standing and going on about how she didn’t need this shit and Xavier wasn’t that cute anyways before she let herself out. Xavier simply pulled his sweats back up as Amira cackled on the other end of the phone, no doubt wiping tears from her eyes.

“She was trying to be cute, who does that?”

“People that don’t know how to suck dick, but I digress. Did you read my text?”

“I did. Jon’s handling it right?”

“Of course. I just didn’t want to leave you out of the loop of information.”

“Mighty white of you, beautiful. Since I have you on the phone though, you got plans next week? Daniel and I are going to stage a sit-in on administration about having a BSU and it would mean a lot if you showed up. You can even bring your loud roommate.”

Amira chuckled and stood from her bed, stretching her legs and letting out a small groan.

“Lucy’s just passionate, give her a break. But let me see what my week is looking like and I’ll get back to you?”

“No problem. In the meantime, go eat.”

“How do you know I haven’t eaten?”

“Because you sound hungry. Now go eat or I’ll come over there and feed you.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time unless you plan to follow through. But fine, I’ll eat...you can still come to feed me though,” she said with a smirk as she left her room to head towards the kitchenette.

“The hell he can! I got an early class tomorrow...” Lucy interjected as Amira grabbed some ingredients for a quick stir fry.

Daniel tried not to laugh in Xavier’s face when he relayed how he was basically shut down by Amira’s roommate, but he quickly failed.

“I’m sorry dude, but it’s funny. Why don’t you do something cute, like ask her out?”

“Because she’s my girl and I don’t have to do that? She knows how I feel.”

“And? Nigga, the same shit you did for her to be your girl, you now have to do to keep her that way. Fuck around and be single by your sophmore year.”

Xavier looked at him for a moment before shaking his head, “Nah, it’s not like that with us. We’ve always been friends first since we were kids.”

“Key word there? Kids, my nigga. Y’all grown now, and she’s gonna want to know that you don’t see that same little girl anymore.”

“...you give a lot of advice for somebody that ain’t got nobody.”

“You don’t listen and you won’t have nobody either.”

Xavier thought about Daniel’s words but brushed them off, sure that Amira knew how he felt about her already. Besides that, they’re bonded. They can’t be in love with anyone else...right?

___________________________________

Daaamn, Daniel! Did he have a point though? Tell me what you think!

#if it's magic #random writing #random stories #Amira and Xavier #my writing #randomwordprompts #original work

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bigbrotherfiore · 4 years

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episode one: “the queen comes to slay... beware” - lana

hoh: austin

evicted: celina (9-4)

BRIANNA: https://youtu.be/3BJCNsw_Gls

JARED: https://youtu.be/8Ocf6ZI8u-Y

MIKKI: https://youtu.be/rZUQ_fML10Q

AMANDA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyG116sz2S0

AMANDA: https://youtu.be/wIv9aSgq6nY

LANA: https://youtu.be/Ujl_L6adP2s

JAKEY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UuP7JA-8oI

DALY: https://youtu.be/2-hUw2sQtbQ

RICH: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Omrr3YY4T4HFC4HI2cRQKoywMiQXUtCi/view?usp=drivesdk

MIKKI: https://youtu.be/qEHeo1KEYF8

DALY: https://youtu.be/nvQ2MyHE3g8

RICH: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19n35RcIOMu_BJkbzGiHipf-oGRbEUaLq/view?usp=drivesdk

SZYMON: https://youtu.be/JnJWE13FcUg

JAKEY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H0eXEF6-ps

AMANDA: https://youtu.be/etcbJIvWXDM

AMANDA: https://youtu.be/KlpGFld8iRg

AMANDA: https://youtu.be/vIaEDpDMeQk

DALY: https://youtu.be/gptcBJg3AYo

RICH: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DCarU2o8ht94WAO_11YoRgKsgzFDpmmu/view?usp=drivesdk

BRIANNA : https://youtu.be/3BJCNsw_Gls

i just ate an oki hi

This game hasn't even started yet and I am already overwhelmed. Trying to manage 17 different conversations is insane!!! I have previous ties to Sara and Daly in this game from past ORG games so that is definitely an advantage I feel. However, I know neither of them is going to want to take me to the end as I have beaten both of them in the last game we played together!!!

So I am excited, nervous, overwhelmed....but still very excited to play this game! I never thought this was going to be how I was going to be spending my time tonight and for the next how many days, but I am ready for it. I feel the love from all the people in the game....and honestly it kinda scares me a little. I feel like they expect something from me, or like they are painting a target on me early so they can kick me out early. I don't want to be the one that people feels threatened by because everyone likes me. I have played in games where people would get me to a point and then cut me because they feel like everybody likes me. I feel like it is a good thing that people likes me, but I guess in a game you can't be too likable. I just have to play this the right way and find a balance in this game. I am still looking for my ride or die, in this game....we'll see who stands out in the days to come. The Queen comes to SLAY....beware! xoxo, Lana 💋

So my night 1 strategy is pretty simple. Flirt with the girls, flirt with the boys. Get as many people in my corner as possible. I don’t need people to think I’m their #1 but I want everyone to feel comfortable enough with me to the point where there is always 3 people at least that are lower on the chopping block than me!

Elise and I have made an alliance called the Final 7. I love her so much lmfaoooo. Video DR coming tomorrow

hello hello! it's 3:30 am of the first night as i piece together everything, but i seriously get SO MANY GOOD VIBES from this cast already! i swear to god im in such a good position right now -- im in three alliances, and one of those is a final two with mikki! i feel like i can rest easy knowing that my ass wont be first boot haha, but for reference, I'm going to be updating my relations with everyone in the cast over the course of this competition! hopefully i can make a short video dr tomorrow haha,, anyways here's my first impressions of the first night! ................................................................................................. ADDILYN (RELATION: LIKE) -- SHE'S SO SWEET!!! also birth twins with Elise which is so so cool heck! she plays LOL and is really good at it,, which might mean she's really good at comps too, but we'll have to see! AMANDA (RELATION: ALLIES) -- she's super cool!! i really like her energy, though i can sense her to be just a biiiit chaotic...which might work out well for me, who knows! she also loves to bake, love her AUSTIN (RELATION: LIKE) -- I haven't talked with him much, but I get good vibes from him! Seems to be a bit more calm and laid back, but I'm not too sure. I'll have to keep an eye on him and see how he does going forward. CELINA (RELATION: ALLIES) -- i love love LOVE her energy! her intro video was so cute and we have this resemblance of wanting to get drunk but also wanting to work together sober??? i haven't talked with her too much outside of that but it would be awesome to work with her!! DALY (RELATION: LIKE) -- he literally just messaged me like not too long ago but i like his vibes!! he's also very drunk so i felt that haha. has played sports for a long time, we seem to hit it off as drunk bros HDASKJLDH!! maybe a potential alliance in the works? mikki seems to get good vibes from him too! ELISE (RELATION: ALLIES) -- She's so chill and sweet!! loves to play the piano and the sweater she wore is so cute!!! she was so sweet in my dms when she first messaged me and omg i adore her,, hopefully this alliance pulls strongly!! FERG (RELATION: HAVEN'T MET) -- this mostly had to do with time zones/my call glitching for a while but I haven't really talked to him!! hopefully that'll change in the morning!! HALEY (RELATION: LIKE) -- LITERALLY AN ANGEL!!! i loved her intro video it was so cute and funny, and her vibes are so pure to me! I would love to have her as an ally going forward!! JACOB (RELATION: ALLIES) -- APPARENTLY WE DID MINIS TOGETHER?? IM CRYING THAT TOOK ME TWO YEARS BACK HDASKJDLH... anyway i feel like i can trust him!! but i haven't talked to him too much so hopefully i can talk more with him tomorrow to know more,, he stans da'vonne though so i gotta stan JAKEY (RELATION: FRIENDS) -- literally the only person that's been in a game with me beforehand DHSKJALDAH!! we talked and we're on good terms now i think!! i have to make sure i talk to him more over the course of this game wah! JARED (RELATION: LIKE) -- *insert anime conversations here* okay but in all seriousness! he seems like he's pretty straightforward about his opinions which i can respect!! i sense a bit of chaotic energy but he's still really nice! hopefully I'll be able to get to talk to him more! LANA (RELATION: LIKE) -- SHE IS SO NICE AND PURE AND I WANT TO HOLD HER SO BAD-- we haven't talked much but i understand that she's just pretty overwhelmed right now !! hopefully we can talk more wah! MAZDEN (RELATION: HAVEN'T MET) -- she hasn't been active tonight... sadness... i hope shes okay!!! hopefully its just a timezone thing ahah MIKKI (RELATION: CLOSE ALLY) -- MIKKI I LOVE YOU SO MUCH-- oh wait she can't hear me. she is SO SO sweet and as soon as i got off work i messaged her and we HIT IT OFF LIKE T H A T. we're in two alliances together with others, and one by ourselves? like? our energies are CLICKING SO WELL? I LOVE THIS SONG???? I also know that she played an EXTREMELY GREAT social game in Sailor Moon,,, so I will have to keep my eye out to make sure nothing shady's happening but! we had a call and she seems super trustworthy and she seems like she trusts me a lot so I'm SO DOWN for working with her this is gonna be a power duo like you wouldn't BELIEVE RICH (RELATION: TOLERATE) -- I don't know too much about him,,, we had a short conversation about his profile picture but not much else,,,, I hadn't seen him too active in the chat either so I can't read him? maybe tomorrow! SARA (RELATION: LIKE) -- MUSIC EDUCATION MAJOR??? I LOVE HER ALREADY!!! also she drinks too and honestly i felt that on a personal level. she seems really chill and I'm down to talk to her more! SZYMON (RELATION: LIKE) -- we talked a little bit but he had to go to bed which! understandable its almost 4 am as im typing all of these DHSAKDL but i have good vibes from him! hopefully we can talk more tomorrow ................................................................................................. as i go further along into the game, i think i'll start adding trust rankings into my list? i can't say that i trust anyone 100% yet because it IS only the first day, so i have to be wary... but i will say that mikki is still #1 as of right now and!!! yuh!! its time to lay low for a little while,, i feel like everything for me has been secured for this week, so hopefully it'll just be to get to know people better -- personally and strategically, of course <3

OKAY DAY ONEEEEE so much happened I love this whole cast so much <3 I'm gonna do a proper cast assessment later I think. but I just wanted to CHECK IN ON WHATS HAPPENED so I'm already in two alliances ashjshjhjsajhas one is called the nfps with Brianna/Elise/Amanda/me the second is called drunk whores with Brianna/Jacob/cel/me ashjsahjhsja I'M HAPPY WITH THIS like me and Brianna are also a f2 and we have an alliance called second chances and basically we have 4 people who might have our back atm but don't necessarily have EACH OTHERS backs which I think gives us a lot of numbers and protection? I'm also extremely close to szymon and cel I want to go far with them and play hard with them so badly like ashjashjjsha I have a lot of people and opportunities within this game and it's got me excited. I have so many fun people to play with that I love!!!! I also wanna say that when the nfps mentioned the alliance (like first suggested it) haley was in the chat on MUTE and heard it like ashjashjahsj but she wasn't added to the alliance so um......HELLO but thankfully I think it was like said like a joke at least??? idk but I need to stay on haley's good side because that's 👀 trust ranking Brianna szymon cel ferg? - okay so I've been talking to ferg just recently and I click with him so well? Amanda Elise addilyn daly lana Sara jakey jared rich haley Jacob - I'll explain this more in cast assessment but I genuinely haven't like connected with him as much as others??? weirdly enough?? but I'm aligned with him lmao Austin - I like him I need to talk to him more but like sahjsjahjhas I really like him that's the thing I like all these people mazden - was inactive today I hope we see her tomorrow so we can talk !! this is like VERY EARLY DAYS ASHJASHJHJS so this is gonna change probably by tomorrow even asjhahhjas ITS DAY 1 ASHJJHAS note: Brianna and szymon tie for the top spot tbh like I genuinely love both and wanna work with both but I do hope Brianna and I can get to the end because <3 us in f2 on our second org would be SO CUTE but I love szymon so ashjsajhsahjsahj YOU SEE MY PROBLEM WITH TRUST RANKINGS

If I win the first HOH I will be ending it all. I got a few right because I don't want to look like I'm throwing it too hard but like... I'm scared it will be enough. I hope not. I'm so scared omg

I feel really good !! Ahhh I accidentally send a message for my alliance in the house chat but I feel really solid; !! I trust Austin!! I’m going to make a video and send it to y’all too

Congratulation's to Austin on first HOH proud of him! um i guess i feel safe i have been fairly active with him so i do feel some what safe

I’m gonna be real here: I have talked with Austin some, and I think he’s comfortable with me? Though as of right now, I have no response from his DM I sent him... it could be because of BB playing right now (can’t watch bc im out at the beach) but I’ll try sending a message later on tonight too haha! I don’t think he’ll put me on the block, so it should be fine.. here’s some relation updates! ........................................ AUSTIN [RELATION: SURPRISE + LIKE] — I’m surprised that he won the competition! At the same time, he does seem like someone that would be good at competitions. I’ll have to use this to my advantage in the future — hopefully he trusts me enough ahah FERG [RELATION: LIKE] — He’s super cool!! We only talked a little bit because of time zones but he likes the beaches too, which is where I’m currently at!! I should probably talk to him more — we have the same interests when it comes to music, so I can definitely work with that JARED [RELATION: LIKE] — There are talks about working as allies... stay tuned for more information SZYMON [RELATION: LIKE] — he seems super sweet and funny! i get good vibes from him and so does mikki... potential ally! ............................................... Not much has changed because I’m gonna be at the beach for the next few days, but hopefully I’ll be in a good enough position this week! I’m gonna talk with Jared more about potential alliances and see what we can work with... I’ll talk with mikki about it in the future when the time is right ! She’s still my closest ally as of right now, but maybe in my next DR I can include a trust ranking! With that said, I hope you have a good night!!

I am SO excited to be playing. I’m so new to all of this though, it’s overwhelming. I’m trying to talk to everybody to make sure my butt is covered for the first HoH and not ignore anybody. I want to build authentic relationships and find a ride or die group. I’m vibing with a few people so far, but a lot of conversations seem light and meaningless. Like yes...I’m fine, I’m happy to be here, I’m excited... but what I really wanna know is can I trust you?!

Today I talked with and really vibed with Sara, Rich, and Austin all individually. We came together and we actually solidified an alliance!! The Marching Band! I am so pumped because these were the 3 people I was closest with and we all actually decided to work with each other. Obviously I’m a little nervous I’ll be ostracized and that some are closer than others, but I’m ready to take this to the end. I’m so happy we had something solidified before the HoH because AUSTIN WON!!!! The Marching Band is marching along!!! I’m just hoping I’m not the only one to put all of my eggs in one basket. It might be naive but I trust them.. we will see if it’ll be my demise!!! Also...can we just talk about Jacob’s sus accidental message to the group chat at the beginning of the first HOH comp. there’s definitely other alliances out there... I just hope mine is the best.

So Austin went on call with me and I honestly feel pretty good about his HOH reign now. He told me he's thinking of putting Lana up next to Mazden but I, obviously, IMMEDIATELY shut that down because Lana is my sequester queen! I mean, he didn't explicitly say he was gonna do anything with her when I defended her. He just asked my opinions on her and I knew what he meant, so I went to bat for her. I don't know if I should tell her that though because if she wins HOH and goes after him I don't know if he told anyone else and, at this point, I need to look out for myself. I don't need to be a prejury flop... I feel kind of bad about Mazden because she didn't expect to be working on premiere night but also she didn't participate in HOH so like... I don't know. She also gives me straight girl energy and I don't know how to feel about it. There are straight people in this community? She uses a lot of emojis unironically and girl that laughing emoji... maybe I don't feel bad. I don't know, she seems nice. I have a lot of thoughts. I'll give you my analyses on everyone else I haven't mentioned in other DRs too. Ferg: He seems nice but that video and my internet... He was on screen for maybe 30 seconds of that 3 minute video? I would've appreciated it more if my internet wasn't crappy but unfortunately for him it annoyed me how much it buffered. Jakey: He's my New York sister, I like him a lot but not as much as others. I feel bad because he's nice but I really gotta stop feeling bad and looking out for myself. But I feel okay with him. Daly: I feel like he's super mysterious but also he's kind of hot... anyway... no I won't simp but he's a cutie! I don't know if I could trust him on a game level though! Also I know I mentioned him yesterday but Szymon is so amazing... I love him. My Italy sister... I stan him. He knows me from Stan Brother and asked for an alliance called the Italian Stallions 3.0... he's literally so cute.

OMG what a day as the first HOH. My strategy was to call every single player in this game and build a 1on1 connection with each player. I am absolutely dead and I am not loving the job of having to nominate two people since so many people are so amazing. Early on my favourite people are Haley, Sara, and Szymon. I currently have 3 alliances. One is the Zwooperoos of Daly and Sara from my time on Zwooper. I have The Marching Band which is Rich, Sara, and Haley. FInally, I have The Zoo which is Jacob, Jakey, and Daly. After talking to about 3/4 of the cast on calls, I feel like my nominations are coming down to Lana/Celina/Mazden but I still have yet to talk to all 3 ladies.

A lot of people were considering throwing the 1st HOH competition but honestly screw that! I came here to play and WIN every single competition that I play in and I don't plan on looking back!

Waking up this morning allowed me to see things very clearly. I have voice called with everyone in the house minus Mazden and Celina who have made no interest to call with me so that is not helping their case at all

Honestly I LOOOVEEE Sara and Haley. These are my ride or dies in this game and I am so happy that I have them by my side!

Jakey and Daly have been pushing for me to nominate Addilyn this week and I don't really think it would be wise for my game to do it. Addilyn is a strong personality in this game and I believe she will cause drama if I nominate her. If they want her up so badly they can go to battle with her on their own. I have actually had a decent conversation with Addilyn to the point where I believe she trusts me

I’m okay with him winning HOH, but i also don’t know? We’ve talked a little and i would assume he wouldn’t put me up. He wanted to VC last night at like 2am but bitch i was not awake SKSKSK so i messages like hey i’m awake now! And idk hopefully that’s a sign that he does want to work with me and that i’m safe this week!

I am very much invested in both Haley and Sara being my ride or dies. I have known Sara for a while and I love this girl with all my heart. At the same time, I have recently met Haley in this game for two days now and I already know this girl is going to have my back to the end. Haley and I also named ourselves #TwoSames as our cute duo name. This is exactly how I wanted to start my game with two solid bonds from night 1

I don't see my name, so i am relieved, I guess it was a safe bet for him to do the people who were least active I know people have lives, but at this early in the game anything is enough to get you out!

I can’t say I’m shocked about being put on the block. I still feel like I’m getting to know everyone though and so far, I’ve been getting good vibes from a ton of players! Now I know I just have to crush it in veto to know for 100% certainty that I will be safe this week!

I am SO happy Austin won HOH! Now our alliance just needs to keep moving forward and make sure we can keep the targets off our back. I keep telling others I’m not sure how I feel, but I feel really solid with my group The Marching Band. I would LOVE to make it to the end with them. I feel bad Austin has to get blood on his hands so soon. He made 1:1 calls to everyone to determine who he’d nominate. A lot of drama came out of that and he disclosed most of it to me...so I feel that much better. But some people thought it was weird he called and I hope it didn’t put a bigger target on his back. I think I’ve got such a good connection with everyone in my alliance. Obviously I could be getting played, but here’s to believing in people. Austin came out and talked to me about his other groups. I feel really solid with him. He’s been honest, even when it’s hard. He asked if we could name our duo “two sames.” I think it’s so cute and funny, it’s a phrase I use at work with my students. We’ve voice talked the last two nights and strategized for the entire time. I truly had no idea how much time this would take up for me in my brain. I feel like all I think about is this game. I’m making my rounds and taking to people. Sometimes it’s really hard work because I feel like I’ve already found my people, but I want to protect us, so it’s worth it. Rich and Sara are awesome, I feel like we all vibe really well. Rich was the first person I vibed with, Sara and I are both teachers in a pandemic so we literally are “two sames” (sorry Austin), and Austin and I mesh well too. We’ve got a solid group and I reallyyyy hope we can pull this off. I know there are other alliances out there, and I’m CLEARLY not a part of them.. so I need to work my ass off to make this work.

So the POV player picks were actually not too bad for me. Jacob had told me that there is an alliance of himself, Brianna, Celina, and Mikki but I don’t believe Jacob would use the POV unless I asked him to. I know Jared is planning on throwing the competition as well. I also found out through Jacob that there is a Sequester alliance between Jacob, Amanda, and Lana. Also, Lana has won Sequester which is very concerning for my game as well

I totally bombed the POV today... It took me 6 minutes to find stupid Daly’s name in the word search and that set me back big time. It might not be the worst thing though because winning both comps this early on would definitely put a big target on my back

I definitely think I have an advantage this week because as HOH I was able to go on 1on1 voice calls with each player in the game to try and get a read on them and who they like/dislike. I am a little concerned with players like Addilyn, Jakey, Jacob who may be playing too hard, too fast

AHHHH I am not happy with the noms ashjhajs because I get along BRILLIANTLY with mazden already. she's honestly so great and I think I could have a potential ally and friend in her I love her and her vibe so much and honestly more than other people?? so um YEAH don't want her to go AND THEN ON THE OTHER HAND I have cel who is one of my most important people in the game go up. I love cel so much and I'm here to PLAY WITH HER and work with her!!!! I DON'T WANT HER GONE ahhhhhhhh I have 3 f2's and cel is one of them and I know this sounds insane but every single one of those 3 people are everything to me and I genuinely wanna make it to the end with all of them? so that's gonna be tricky in the end but for now I'm just gonna ignore the problem and live in happy land with my best friends in the game ashjasjhajh so yeah cel being up is awful and I'm going to save her no matter what. but I hate that it means I have to evict mazden because I love her SO much. I hate it here. VETO PICKS okay so Jacob got picked and I'm keen to see what he does because he spoke very loudly about how he'll save cel and wants to play for cel so um buddy lets see how you do ashjhjasjhs I suspect he might throw it because we know he's in other alliances and I'm positive one is with Austin!!! our hoh!!!! so um YEAH will he throw it or will he play for it and use it on cel to keep up appearances? idk but will be fun to see. Brianna is playing and she might save cel if she wins!! she asked me if she should and I was like yeah!! but also people will know you are aligned with her so it's up to you like I just want her to do what's best for her game because I want Brianna to be here for a long time with me, I love her and her winning would be iconic. so yes this is my two cents. I filmed a cute dr for this but my wifi is out so I can't send it so <3 YOU GET TO READ INSTEAD. shashhjasjhas okay bye

people i feel really close to Brianna szymon cel elise ferg mazden???? surprisingly??? what a wild card jakey people i am vibing with really well !! addilyn jared rich? haley people i like and vibe well with but honestly i'm strangely either :eyeshake~1: about or just wanna like get more from sara daly lana people i do not vibe with :grimacing: but they think i do so it's actually fine and might even be one sided on my end whoops jacob austin

I feel horrible for not telling Haley/Rich that I have previous relationships with Daly and Sara. They are both amazing people and they have clearly strong opinions against pre-game relationships but there is no way that I can release that information until after the game is over. This sucks!!

I feel good that Brianna didn't use the POV. It means I don't have to get anymore blood on my hands this week and I believe I will come away from this week with little blood on my hands as possible

I lost a lot of trust for Jared and Mikki tonight. They both went to Daly and told him that I have mentioned how likeable he is in the cast which is absolutely bs because if anything I was just agreeing with what they said to make them feel good. It is clear now that I have to watch my words with them very carefully in the future. I also wonder how much of that was planned on their end to try and create a divide between me and Daly

I AM FREAKING OUT! What the hell is happening in this house??? We can’t even sing Kumbaya for week freaking one!! Split house due to pregaming?? That bothers me. I came in to this with absolutely no connections. I didn’t know who to trust. I DIDNT EVEN KNOW I COULD TRUST THE DIARY ROOM BECAUSE I DIDNT KNOW WHEN/WHERE THEY WOULD BE RELEASED. Brianna decided not to use the veto, fine. But I obviously want to keep Mazden. Celina and I haven’t connected what-so-ever. I’ve taken these last few days to try to build up my barricade beyond The Marching Band. And I really like Szymon. He seems super genuine with me. I like Ferg too, he seems super chill. I told Jared I like him and would like to work with him but I don’t think I can trust him. I’m trying to lay low and tell people I’m voting with the house. I’m nervous I’ve made a target of myself with a few (Jacob) because I haven’t been trying as hard with him. Like I thought we were “ok” 🤷🏻‍♀️ There are clearly two sides to the house and I want to make sure I’m going to survive this mess. I honestly have no idea what’s going to play out after this...I don’t get the greatest vibes from the other side. It’s clear they’re confident that they have the numbers. Who even knows what the hell Jared is gonna do??? He campaigns for Celina..then tells rich he is willing to flip. Tells me he’s willing to flip, and then tells Szymon he isn’t sure!!! WHAT THE HECK?! JUST MAKE A GOD DAMN DECISION. Today is giving me some anxiety. I am SO nervous for this HoH. Worst case scenario, Jacob wins it because he told Austin he wasn’t sure about Rich and I. Also Szymon thinks Daly, Rich, and Austin have a pre-game relationship so that’s definitely something I need to try to keep in my pocket and kill. Rich wants a 3 person with Mazden and myself...without the other marchers. And I have no idea how to bring Szymon in but I REALLY like him. Rich and I have a final 2 that I have semi confirmed, Austin and I have a final 2 that we have named and I’ve agreed with, Sara and I have something but idk about a f2 (we haven’t used those words) and Szymon made it seem like it’s him and I against the world. I really like them and and am loyal to them all, I have no idea what I’m doing. I was trying to get through this without lying but here I am. This. Is. A. Mess.

I really want to ensure that people do not associate me with this big blindside of Celina this week. If she goes, I want others to believe that I had very little to do with the vote so that I don't become the target if someone from the other side of the house wins HOH tonight

Honestly I love the fact that Haley and I have like no lives and are always available to talk to eachother #TwoSames. It just breaks my heart that I am unable to tell her about my prior relationships with Daly and Sara because I know that will cause a huge divide in our friendship

This vote tonight is going to be wild. I am hearing that some people think it is going to be unanimous for Mazden to be evicted but in all actuality it should be Celina going home in a very close vote so I am so excited to see how this one plays out

Austin being HoH was 10/10 best case scenario for me!!! He is my ride or die, and I got all the benefits of his knowledge with NONE of the risk. Brianna being POV was scary at first, and she did her best to hide her connections, but I think all will go to plan even with her choosing not to save Celina.

im so aggrevated i wanna go apeshit i wanna go apeshi

Click HERE to see the Goodbye Messages for Celina.

youtube

#bbfiore #episodes

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steamberrystudio · 4 years

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Hey guys! Here is our weekend update...on...Monday. (I almost almost said it was our last September update before I realised it’s no longer September). *sob*

Summary:

Completed Jack Ch 5

Started Ch 6

Received new BGs

Worked on a new CG for Yuu

Started coding assets for the rest of the common route

The Ramble:

It's another one of those weeks where it feels like I have a lot less to say than usual because I really just spent the week writing.

Updates like these always make me feel weird because I'm so used to rambling but after seven days of writing, I feel like there's not much to say beyond "Yup. I wrote stuff."

So….I mean, that's it. I wrote stuff.

LoL.

Well, I did start some other things over the weekend.

First, I started coding in the assets for the rest of the common route. Technically I have already started this process. So I only need to code in the sprite expressions and music.

Expressions are usually the most time consuming part of asset coding.

So here's the thing. I kept thinking we needed one more background to actually code the rest of the common route and (potentially) release it to players as a final demo update.

But I realised I was getting mixed up and actually….we already have all the BGs needed. This doesn't mean I can just release the "interludes" right away though.

Aside from asset coding, I still have to update the flowcharts. The interlude flowcharts are incredibly simple but I need to update the images for all the others since we've made some improvements

But the two bigger things I'm contemplating involve...CGs. And some writing.

By the end of the common route, we will meet all but one LI. So I've obviously been thinking about whether or not to expand the Lance route introduction to where Lance is actually introduced as a character. It is feasible for sure. And I think I can do it without needing more BGs than what we currently have. But I'm a little undecided on this because I'm not sure how long a scene I would need and I don't want to go overboard. The common route is already about 50,000 words (it's honestly probably a bit longer since I've expanded some portions and added some content).

It's not that big a deal to extend one scene but it just boosts the overall game word count which is something I've been *heavily* cautious about doing since this game is already a mammoth.

The other issue comes down to CGs.

All the other LIs have introductory CGs when you meet them. Currently Yuu and Quill do not. They are introduced at the very end of the common route and the encounters the player has with them prior to their official route beginnings are very, very brief compared to everyone else. Yuu's is long enough for a CG and I've already started working on that.

Quill, on the other hand, has a really short interaction with the MC. Honestly, I'll need to expand it if I want to fit a CG in. That's not too hard since I can just write out a short bit that would probably be "off screen" otherwise.

I'm just debating if it's worth it, really. And what Quill's CG would be. (I mean, all the intro CGs are essentially 'close up of the guy' so…)

Of course, if I also decide to introduce Lance in the common route, I have to contemplate his intro CG too. He technically has one already but I won't be able to use it because it won't fit what his first scene will have to be like.

ANYWAY. That's all just stuff I'm thinking about right now. Decisions that need to be made. Etc.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

This week in BGs, we got a little courtyard that I will probably use for both Quill and Reuben.

Upcoming Week:

Writing, planning, doing some art most likely.

I've started sketching out Yuu's CG so I'll probably continue to work on that and, hopefully, get another chapter done in Jack's route. And, of course, continuing to code sprite expressions and music for the final part of the common route.

That’s all for this week...

See you next time!

#upcoming game #otome #oelvn #indie dev #indie game #gilded shadows #upd

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stvlti · 7 years

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♕ MISA-MISA皇后到着! ♕

the following notes were originally hosted under the URL @stvltiloqvent.

Queen Misa-Misa Arrives

In celebration of Misa’s birthday (25 Dec!) here’s a summative mix for Misa's life story. This mix is mostly based on manga!Misa's hidden depth (as I interpret it), as well as anime!Misa's song and death.

01. Fucked My Way Up to the Top - Lana Del Rey // 02. Still Sane - Lorde // 03. Bubblegum Bitch - Marina and the Diamonds // 04. Bad Girls - M.I.A. // 05. (One of Those) Crazy Girls - Paramore // 06. Bloody Mary - Lady Gaga // 07. 小團圓 - Ivana Wong // 08. Candles - Daughter // 09. 27 - Fall Out Boy // 10. Carmen - Lana Del Rey // 11. Valley of the Dolls - Marina and the Diamonds // 12. 小團圓 (from Octave the Musical) - Ivana Wong // 13. Little Susie - Michael Jackson

► LISTEN ON: 8TRACKS | SPOTIFY | TUMBLR (defunct)

(There is now a "sequel" to this fanmix! Check it out HERE.)

Notes and additional meta under the cut. Content warnings: referenced sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug use, suicide mention and linguistic ableism

May 2020 update: I finally found my translation notes for the Ivana Wong track! now added under the cut as well. and as per my other fanmixes, the Tumblr player option is no longer live.

01. Fucked My Way Up to the Top

When i picked this song i didn’t mean for the chorus to be understood literally - Misa is probably the least promiscuous person in the series. However, Misa certainly does in some way hustle in (as in, put a lot of effort into) her modelling work. Obviously, the refrain, “this is my show,” is also an apt literal description for Misa’s work in the film industry, aside from describing her work as Second Kira.

02. Still Sane

(CW: potential linguistic sanism in the lyrics)

After setting a bombastic intro with LDR’s song I thought it would be a good idea to examine Misa’s humble beginnings. Hence, a more honest song from Lorde (whose real-life rise to the top of the charts at age 17 might as well mirror Misa’s hardwork as a teenaged model). Check out the second verse:

All work and no play Never made me lose it All business all day Keeps me up a level

Like I said, hustle.

The song starts off admitting the speaker’s apprehension towards the entertainment industry – both in terms of her own success thus far and also her adjustments to such success:

Today is my birthday, and I'm riding high Hair is dripping, hiding that I'm terrified But this is summer, playing dumber than in fall Everything I say falls right back into everything I'm not In the swing of things But what I really mean is Not in the swing of things yet

I’d like to comment particularly on the line, “everything I say falls right back into everything I'm not”. A bit of a fanon interpretation that’s perhaps not too far off the canonical mark: Misa probably went through a lot of trauma, seeing as she canonically witnessed her parents’ murders, whose perpetrator went unpunished (before Kira came along); she also almost died at the hands of a murderous stalker, which led directly to Gelus’ death and her possession of a Death Note. So, as fanon interpretations go, Misa’s cheery exterior is only that – a front she puts on. Everything she says is everything she’s not on the inside.

I'm little, but I'm coming for the crown I'm little, but I’m coming for you I'm little but I’m coming for the title Held by everyone who’s up

These lines that I’ve highlighted on the mix could be taken both literally or not. When Lorde penned these lyrics she most likely meant her age by “I’m little”, which could apply to Misa too. But of course, Misa is also physically quite small.

Only bad people live to see their likeness set in stone What does that make me?

“Likeness set in stone” means statues or sculptures; Lorde is asserting that only “bad people” see statues/sculptures made for them while they are still alive, most likely because they will be the one to put the statue there (see: narcissistic and power-hungry people). However, “bad people” takes on a different meaning in the context of Death Note, as the Kira’s are supposed to be superior to the “bad people” they judge. Yet, here the speaker is obviously reflecting on their place in this pair of binary opposites – just as anime!Misa does starting from Misa no Uta, in which it is implied that she is aware of the moral greyness in her work as Second Kira.

03. Bubblegum Bitch

Ahh, if I could c+p the whole Electra Heart album onto this playlist I would, as the eponymous character from the concept album simply resembles fanon!Misa too much (self-centred, vain, and a heartbreaker who eventually breaks her own heart). Electra Heart’s invented personality (as seen in the music videos) especially reminded me of my own interpretations of Misa’s gender performativity – that her fitting Ohba’s patriarchal archetypes of feminine fickleness and irrationality coincides with a decided adoption of certain traditionally feminine traits is not unlike Electra Heart’s own experience.

But, more to the point, parts of her femininity is also genuine – take away her miniskirts and chirpy voice is her tendency to let her emotions get the better of logic, which is mirrored in Electra Heart’s demise (and is only to be expected of any human being, really).

By the way, the notebook pun is wholly intended in these lyrics:

Oh, dear diary, I met a boy. He made my dull heart Light up with joy. Oh, dear diary, we fell apart. Welcome to the life of Electra heart.

04. Bad Girls

Live fast, die young Bad girls do it well

I was looking for more Rem and Misa-specific scenes to add to this playlist when I remembered this song. These lines, as I intend, are to be associated with Misa’s torture in L’s captivity. Just before Rem erases her memories, she begs for Rem to kill her while she’s still young. But the “bad girls” part of the refrain also fits Misa, as this song is about girls going against ingrained patriarchal traditions that seek to keep girls silent and without agency (questionable stereotypes included).

Looking in the rear view swagger going swell Leaving boys behind cause it's legal just to kill

This is a continuation of the theme explored in Electra Heart, where the female protagonist claims to go through (relationships with) boys and coming out the unharmed one (because she is the heartbreaker). But, here the metaphor extends to murder, which might just be a tad too literal in Death Note context.

What we got left is just me and you But if I go to bed baby can I take you?

The second line reminded me of Misa’s sexual advances on Light starting from the Yotsuba arc, lol.

05. (One of Those) Crazy Girls

(CW: linguistic sanism)

I deliberately placed this song a few ones after “Still Sane” because ~character progression. In its original context the song’s protagonist goes from being sure they’re “not like those crazy girls” – girls that are driven irrational and stalkerish by their love” – to becoming “one of those crazy girls”. And so does Misa appear to be emotionally unstable when she first introduces herself to Light: driven by devotion she is willing to kill her friend who sent her Sakura TV tapes off for her, and in jealousy she threatens to kill Light’s other romantic interests.

The key similarity is in the chorus, where the lyrics go, “Baby, are we over now? / Maybe I can change your mind?” It reminds me a lot of the way Misa compromises with Light’s conditions at first (e.g. only meeting each other once every other week) despite her infatuation, but it is a compromise that erodes as time wears on: her second visit happens way before their scheduled meeting, and her efforts in getting Light to go on a date night with her parallels the sentiment, “maybe I can change your mind”.

06. Bloody Mary

Ahh yes, here’s the religious symbolism we’ve all been waiting for. The song on its own is written about Mary Magdalene as a figure of prophecy and loyalty to Jesus – or as Lady Gaga put it, the ultimate “rockstar’s girlfriend”. “Love is just a history that they may prove / And when you're gone I'll tell them my religion's you,” these lines that I have quoted on the mix illustrates Misa’s loyalty to Light beautifully.

When Pontius comes to kill the king upon his throne I'm ready for their stones.

Whether as Second Kira or without memory, she is willing to risk her safety for Light. As Second Kira she nearly commits suicide in captivity rather than to sell him out; without her memories, she says yes to L’s Yotsuba-infiltration plan without a second thought for her personal safety because she’d like to help memoryless!Light catch Kira.

I won't cry for you I won't crucify the things you do I won't cry for you, see When you're gone I'll still be Bloody Mary

Throughout the series, whenever Light as Kira is incapacitated and “gone”, Misa is there to be his voice and prophet. And she won’t crucify him, because she is his biggest supporter.

07. Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet

Originally, this song illustrates a wife’s infidelity, written from the PoV of the other man. However, specific lines of the song just resonate so well with Misa’s character, and it’s not as if her relationship with Light is a healthy one anyway. Think just after Yotsuba arc, when Light and Misa get engaged.

Head like a steel trap Wish I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I don't just want to be a footnote in someone else's happiness

As previously mentioned (see Kim/@casuistor’s meta), anime!Misa knows there are cracks in her and Light’s relationship. And like her state of understanding in Very/@dressed-to-keehl’s fic, she knows she will never give Light as much happiness as someone like L/Ryuzaki or Takada could, mainly because she is aware of the differences between their intellectual capabilities. And so her engagement/wedlock is like a steel trap.

Does your husband know the way that the sunshine gleams from your wedding band?

This being a rhetorical question, it is pointing out that the husband fails to notice the small details that speak of her loyalty.

Peroxide princess shine like shark teeth It's a sign (it's a sign) It's a sign (it's a sign) It's a sign - what if you peaked early?

“Peroxide princess” denotes the peroxide used to bleach one’s hair bottle blonde (i.e. Misa’s hair). To shine like shark teeth, however, implies trouble – that peroxide princess Misa’s appearance can only bring trouble. The next lines explain why: just as her artificial appearance may eat somebody else alive, it may also be a sign that she’s peaked early. She made huge success with her efforts in the entertainment industry, landing roles in American films during the second arc, but because of her early engagement with Light and her willingness to do as he wishes, she abandons further potential developments (both as an actress/entrepreneur and also as a Kira with powers of the notebook and eventually the eye, when she forfeits her memories). As such, she’s already reached her peak.

Keep a calendar, this way you will always know

Pertaining to the context of infidelity, to “keep a calendar” is to keep track of your lover’s times and schedules, so you’ll know if they start cheating on you. This sadly applies to second-arc!memoryless!Misa as Light starts seeing Takada.

this entire section is now redacted as I have later removed the song from the tracklist. this song felt much more shoehorned in than the other tracks as its lyrics didn’t focus on Misa’s POV enough.

07. 小團圓 (Little Reunion)

Full lyrics translation is hosted here.

Flipping open your novel mirth which chapter did it subside?

Opening with this very provocative line, this track introduces the start of the second arc in Death Note, the point in Misa’s life where all the happiness and mirth begins to subside, and all that is left are hard times ahead. It marks her regaining her memories and becoming Kira again, and the resumption of her relationship with Light as one purely based on their Kira partnership and not on any underlying goodwill Yotsuba!Light had shown towards her while he was memoryless. The rest of the track goes on to compare the ups and downs in life to an autobiographical novel from an introspective POV.

To know to bear settle for wear keep one’s calm in the worst of times In truth, you fear both pain and bitterness too no wonder you make a slightly dumber decision then imperfections will seem rounded then life will be a better play

The core idea of carrying on and enduring it all despite the ups and downs encapsulates Misa’s entire character in the second arc. For one, she definitely plays dumb and chooses the “dumber” decision even when she starts to suspect infidelity on Light’s part.

It is worth noting that the song title, “Little Reunion”, is likely an homage to the romance novel of the same name, penned by famed Chinese author Eileen Chang. In the context of this fanmix, this the reunion between Misa and Light as Kira, although their reunion is only in name to help Light keep up appearances.

08. Candles

(CW: referenced sexual abuse)

On its own, Lorde’s first lyric, “Today is my birthday and I’m riding high”, would not have made sense in relation to Misa, but this song answers the idea of a birthday and ties it neatly to the idea of an abusive relationship.

I'll do whatever you say to me in the dark Scared I'll be torn apart by a wolf in mask of a familiar name on a birthday card

This song focuses on the abuse from Light and imposed upon Misa towards the second arc, because as we all know in canon, it was Misa who threatened Light into a relationship at the start. However, without the presence and guaranteed protection of Rem, Misa is much more vulnerable and susceptible to abuse and manipulation. In this context, the metaphor of the big bad wolf and the little red riding hood is adequate. And the mentions of birthday and birthday candles continues throughout the song, signalling an end to innocence and blissful ignorance on Misa’s part – because, as noted earlier, she becomes aware of the cracks in her relationship with Light.

I personally do not believe Misa would ever suffer from sexual abuse at Light’s hands, because she seems canonically to be the allosexual counterpart to Light’s (grey?)asexuality. However, the metaphor still applies in whatever other abuse she suffers – emotional, verbal, and so on.

Well I have brittle bones it seems I bite my tongue and torch my dreams Have a little voice to speak with And a mind of thoughts and secrecy

Though Misa may have her own thoughts, they are to be kept in secrecy, because she needs to “do whatever [he] says to [her] in the dark”. Instead, loyal as she ever is to Light she must torch her dreams, abandon her career at Light’s first request.

09. 27

(CW: referenced drug abuse in lyrics)

I was not going to include this track as the next discusses very similar themes, but I realised Misa more or less dies at 27 and this song would be very apt. Pete Wentz writes about his own struggles in relation to the infamous Club 27 in this song, and I think the same themes of offstage hollowness, of desperation to feel the same high (either from being in the spotlight or from “sunshine” shot into the veins) and success other dead and “bottled” stars have felt, apply to Misa. All this comes back to the idea of peaking early (from “Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown...”) and dying young, although of course it is not as glamorous as initially perceived (see “Bad Girls”). And it does not help that when Misa returns home she returns to an empty nest at best – certainly, if home is where the heart is, Misa is fucked, because there is no one there to return her love.

10. Carmen

This song continues the sentiment in “27” but turns the tragedy up some more. It is also more specific to Misa, as Carmen’s character also has “cartoon eyes” that she bats when she is in the spotlight. Like Carmen, Misa is loved by all the boys and the girls, and like Carmen, she has become “famous and dumb at an early age” (dumb being a relative concept, of course, but she most certainly did not pursue further education).

She laughs like God, her mind's like a diamond

... A recollection of her earlier glory, when she was a God in her own right, as a powerful Kira. And her mind was as brilliant and strong as a diamond, although all that has passed.

11. Valley of the Dolls

The ending of Misa is very much like Electra Heart’s. Though she has gotten quite far in her life, due to endless unfortunate circumstances (starting from the murder of her parents to the collapse of her relationship with Light), she dies the death of a shooting star: brilliant at her peak, but fading fast.

12. 小團圓 (from Octave the Musical)

I included this variation of track 07 as a sort of reprise to recall the idea of Misa enduring it all even as life devolves into nothing but misery. As noted earlier, this idea is presented in the line, "在最壞時候懂得吃捨得穿不會亂" (in the worst of times, to know to bear [pain], settle for wear, keep one’s calm), which most poignantly is where Ivana’s vocals come in again after the piano solo in this version.

13. Little Susie

(CW: discussion of suicide)

This is a requiem for Misa Amane. “Little Susie” was originally written about child neglect, but it applies pretty well to Misa as well, for she has been pretty much all alone (at least emotionally) since her parents’ death.

It was all for God's sake For her singing the tune For someone to feel her despair To be damned to know hoping is dead and you're doomed Then to scream out And nobody's there...

She knew no one cared...

The repeated mention of Susie’s “tune” ties pretty well to “Misa no Uta” also. As said before, that is the first sign of distress in Misa’s character in the anime – it might as well be a cry of despair.

Susie’s death in the song is a fall down the stairs. Misa is implied to commit suicide at the end of the anime, so she too falls to her death.

#death note #dn fanmix #misa amane #dn edit #dn fst #eugenia edits #eugenia's mixes #eugenia's archive #eugenia makes stuff #dn meta: misa amane

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 6 years

Text

You Only Line Once #1 | Line Editing

Sooo, here I am, back at it again with yet another series. I had a lot of fun documenting my line editing journey in my line edit with me vid I posted a while back (which you can watch HERE), so I decided to make this a series on here. I actually intended to start this series back in August, and wrote the intro, but never posted it because I couldn't find a pun for the series title, lol. (I do it for the puns. Pretty happy with this strokes shoutout from You Only Live Once aha.) Two days ago, I wrote up a list of puns based off song titles, and @sssoto and @sarahkelsiwrites helped me narrow it down to You Only Line Once. Hope you enjoy this new endeavor!

I haven't talked about this all that often, but yessss, I have now started line-edits on my second novel, FOSTERED (which I talk about a lot, lol). I wrote this book when I was 13, and after watching @sarahkelsiwrites line edit in her Shrink Line Edit series, decided to take this on. I’m documenting my (very slow) progress on MyWriteClub as well. My goal was actually to get these edits done by the third of February, but at the pace I’m going, am totally going to have to scale that due date up.

I’ve actually re-written a scene from FOSTERED twice just for fun, and I always enjoyed the idea of possibly cleaning up the prose so it was an easier read. I haven’t read this book the full way through since I wrote it three entire years ago. Probably because the prose isn’t all that great, and while I’ve been able to move past that in recent months, I lose motivation after a while, and always stop reading at the same place. So that’s a bit of an explanation as to why I’m doing this exactly (still not publishing these books tho lol).

This has actually been my side project for the last couple weeks, but since life has = chaos the past while, I’m only now launching this thing. Regardless, I hope this journey will be fun (but expect lots of angst because that’s basically all I do when I line edit).

Also a quick disclaimer: *I’m line-editing this book, yes, to improve readability, but this isn't a re-write. My edits will continue to preserve the vibe and writing style of the original draft, so keep that in mind! Depending on the passage, rewrites may be involved (*cough* looking *cough* at *cough* Foster’s *cough* dialogue *cough*), but it’s sort of a selective process (not how I line edit for current shtuff, by the way, thought I’d put that out there).

Onto the shtuff:

Today’s goal: So this actually was my goal two days ago since I’m writing this for that session, but the goal was to (unrealistically, as I admitted) finish edits on chapter 6. If you missed my vid on line editing, I do two rounds of edits, the first pass, then the final cleanup. The first pass takes a very long time, so after I’m done that, I move onto the next chapter, edit that the final time, then edit the previous chapter a second time, etc, etc. Yesterday’s session was for chapter six’s first pass.

What I actually line-edited: I completed the first scene of six, as well as half of the last scene, so not too shabby, since I did make the goal at like 1AM.

Total chapter count: 4 edited in full, chapters 5 and 6 awaiting final pass

Total page count: 25

Updated word count: 89 008 in comparison to the original 88 000

The overall scope: Editing went rather well? The beginning was rusty because I had to remould some very stilted dialogue/fix some pacing issues, but I think the chapter has improved quite a bit. I cut a looooot of things in this chapter, as opposed to adding, which was a nice change, lol.

Music or nahhh: I don't believe so!

How much I angsted on a scale from 1-10: Not all that much. I’d say a 5 at most for the worst of it which was the very beginning of the chapter. I call this a win.

Song title that describes line-editing session: (stole this from my outlannis updates but this question is one of my faves to answer ha) You’re Good by The Narwhals. I felt pretty determined and collected, which was a very nice change, haha.

Favourite chapter edited thus far and why: I would still say it’s chapter one. I like the edits I've made on later chapters, but there’s something about the first chapter that I wouldn't mind reading again. I think I fleshed out Reeve’s voice a lot more in chapter one and made her sound a lot less monotonous which is cool, and I think with the edits, it’s a much better opening. Which is great, because chapter one hasn't really been a favourite!

Excerpt:

(as mentioned before, this is totally still not going to be perfect by any means. this one is pretty neutral/is a good example of what a clean up would look like!)

BEFORE (ft. a surplus amount of exclamation marks):

“Harrison come on! That’s not true! C’mon don’t think like that. If you weren’t here we’d all be dead right now! Do you not remember that little three trick you pulled with Red. Now don’t tell me shit that it was your fault in the first place because if you hadn’t told Red about me blah, blah, blah! You saved our lives regardless! Whether it was caused by a negative decision or not! So stop complaining! Just stop! I’m sick of hearing this because I really don’t like it when you talk about yourself like that!” I snap back, folding my arms over my chest. When he grabs me into a hug, I don’t flinch away, I return the favour.

“So, will you stop it then?” I murmur.

“I’ll try. Thanks Reeve.” He mumbles then has disappeared to the other side, leaving me in the darkness. Yes, there is no light, no sun to warm me. But on the inside, I’m as sunny as ever, my glow revoking every negative thought that has brought me down.

AFTER (ft. a considerable decrease in exclamation marks):

“That’s not true.” My voice is more frantic than I expect. Desperate for him to understand that the mistakes we’ve both made in the last couple days have hurt, but don’t define us. “Don’t think like that, alright? If you weren’t here, we’d all be dead right now. Do you not remember that little three trick you pulled with Red? You saved our lives regardless.” I bite my lip. “I know it’ll take some time, but I think we’re working on whatever this is.”

When he hugs me, I’m surprised, but return the favour anyway. He’s warm, despite the cool air moulded around us, smells like leather and ground coffee.

I’m not sure how long we stand there like that. But it’s enough time to solidify the lump in my throat, push the stupid feeling of missing something higher and higher in my stomach.

Eventually, he lets go, leaves me in the darkness. There is no light, no sun to warm me. But on the inside, I’m bright, my glow bringing me fresh hope for a new beginning.

she like a lowkey glo up I aint mad. droppin that classic harrisonboiii description tho yasss

So that’s it for this update! I hope you enjoyed seeing how exactly I go about cleaning a few paragraphs up! When I note more dramatic changes, I’ll definitely post about them in an update. :) For now, hope to see you in the next one!

--Rachel

#Writing #youonlylineonce #writerblr

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