#much more obvious answer in retrospect | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leggerefiore · 11 days

Note

To answer your Grimsley question:

YES. Go crazy about him being a vampire again.

since I'm so fixated on his appearance rapidly changing in two years... here...

cw: vampire Grimsley, mentions of blood, blood drinking, sm/usum Grimsley

pairing: Grimsley/Reader

Alola had been an unexpected location for the gambler to choose. Sure, he was the type to indulge himself in luxuries when he actually had the cash to, but sunlight was not exactly his most favourite thing. Apparently, however, there was a sunscreen that seemed to temporarily stop his affliction… Enough to even see him out surfing in the waves that surrounded the scenic islands.

Though, a few people had fretted over him doing such a thing. His pale skin and seemingly frail body drew many locals and other tourists distress. It was worse when they recognised him. The image of the Unovan Elite Four member was popular enough, but seeing him worse for wear after retiring drew much concern. The stress of losing so much money gambling was thought to be the reason. It made sense, after all. Something so high stress would turn anyone's hair grey and make them become wearied.

Then the knowledge of his family's issues… Well, that was part of it. Their ruin was a facade of sorts for them to shift around again. It was an issue when they went recognised for so long. Grimsley had even been scolded for daring to put himself so out there. He remained apathetic. Thrills were simply too addicting to him to call a stop to any of his actions.

You watched him tread into the hotel room wordlessly. His attire was certainly a shift from the suits that you were more than used to seeing him wear. The proper rich son attire had been abandoned for something still on the elegant end. White fabric dotted with black patterns danced against his pale skin. He fluttered down onto the bed and fanned himself.

You sat down near him. “… You really shouldn't be out in the sun for that long,” it almost felt too easy to scold him. His icy eyes gazed up at you. His apathy was more than apparent. Your hand came to comb through his greys. People asked if he had let himself go from the stress or been afflicted with something that suddenly caused such a shift in his appearance. “Are you hungry?”

That caught his attention. His hand reached up to grab the one you had tangled into his hair. It was brought near his mouth, where his cool breath chilled the skin. Goosebumps rose almost instantly. His hands were nearly as frigid. “… Parched,” he corrected teasingly, “Was that an offer?” You sighed and nodded. His teeth soon pierced your flesh as his pupils shrunk onto slits. The pain was only present for a moment before it faded. His teeth were removed to allow for better blood flow into his mouth.

It had not been too surprising when he confessed his true nature to you. Truthfully, it almost felt painfully obvious in retrospect. Every oddity about him was so easily explained by his vampirism. No, what had surprised you more was his retirement from the Elite Four and becoming exclusive with you. Grimsley was more of a playboy than anything and disguised his feedings as nothing more than an eccentric kink. However, having dedicated himself to you, it seemed his intake had lowered immensely. He had insisted on it.

His “ageing,” for lack of a better term, was due to his slower feedings. Apparently, youth was harder to maintain in the diet carefully tethered to how much precious lifeblood you could give to him in a six to eight-week period. Well, he also managed blood through other unscrupulous methods, but only yours was drank directly from the source. He released your wrist and sighed. Blood still dribbled to the top. A bandage would need to be applied.

A handkerchief was taken from who knows where on his personal in the meantime. It was pressed tenderly to the wound. He sat back up, obviously refreshed from the feeding. You could swear the grey section of his hair had become less noticeable, even. A kiss was pressed to your knuckles as his eyes closed.

“There is no blood that I have drunk that has ever satisfied me as much as yours,” he admitted unexpectedly, “… I don't think any thrill has excited me as much your blood tastes when flavoured with endorphins.” You were stunned into silence by his words. His hand still held your own tightly as the pressure was kept. “Man, to think that you could make me take such difficult risks,” Grimsley sighed, “Well… I met with a friend for lunch today. He looked mortified at my appearance.”

“You are a bit dishevelled, Grim,” you shook your head, “Sometimes, I even get startled when I wake up beside you.” He gasped at your words to feign disbelief.

“My heart… You wound me,” the gambler removed the handkerchief to confirm the bleeding had ceased, “Don't you know it's my unfaltering dedication to you that has made me like this?”

“What was that thing you said… Oh, right, “A beautiful loss is still a loss, and an ugly win is still a win,”?” you repeated something he had said during his tenure as an Elite Four member.

“Now… Are you saying I'm a beautiful loss or an ugly win?”

You only gave a chuckle in reply.

#grimsley x reader #grimsley/reader #pokemon grimsley x reader #pokemon x reader #pokemon/reader

12 notes · View notes

heretherebedork · 11 months

Text

Okay, I went back to episode one to try and figure out more about this disorder and what it means and when it develops. I did not get much help, honestly. But I am still trying to figure this out.

Because the biggest question I have is when does this disorder typically start? Is this something that just happens randomly and at any time? Is it something you're born with? Maybe it's Maybelline? Because we need that info for what's going on with Lomfon.

Although honestly rewatching this at this point in the show... this is screaming 'metaphor for being visibly queer and homophobia' and it's only become more obvious in retrospect. Because so much of this is about the idea that the disorder can be good or bad depending on your point of view and how people seeing others with this disorder will make assumptions about them and who they love and honestly it's really interesting in that regard, especially with Patts being pan and/or bi while Tai feels much like a gay man (Patts sought a relationship outside of the disorder while Tai never did, waiting despite his own loss of faith in the idea and isn't that just fascinating when you consider the ideas of love and loss and fear of coming out but also fear of losing love to society and just the layers are all there.)

Also, this is fascinating when you consider how private the rainverse seems but whether or not it is... well, that's a big question the show is asking now, isn't it?

The isolation of it all, the idea that this silence even when people are around you puts you completely in a different place than everyone else despite seeing around him how many people are deeply connected despite their rain deafness. Honestly, the main isolation we see during these times are either because the people around them forget they're deaf or because they choose that isolation (Patts staring at Tai out of the car window, Tai locking himself in his room after his parents break up) but we also see the very loving date of the non-soulmates who aren't isolated or struggling at all even as the rest of the world judges them and again the queer vibes of it all.

TAI. TAI. Don't just say that I need more answers, damnit. GIVE ME ALL THE DETAILS PLEASE. When does it develop? How? Is it something you're born with, is it contagious, is it just something that randomly happens? What is it?!

Again. The queer vibes. The metaphor. The very real face of queerness in the face of a homophobic society no matter how queer people represent themselves.

(The straight couple that aren't soulmates in the restaurant, the assumptions of the workers that he had to have a soulmate even though we later find out that only a fraction of people with hearing loss have one... the assumptions that because he has one visible difference that lends itself to a conclusion that their conclusion is correct. Dying.)

I feel like this implies that the disorder typically starts before twenty and the beginning of hearing their soulmate happens at 20 but Lomfon was obviously able to hear Tien in the rain right before he started hearing their voices. What does it all mean, damnit? He's had a crush on Tai this whole time so it isn't about queer realization and it's not the first time he's been with Tai and Patts in the rain (remember when he told Tai he didn't believe in soulmates? The was in the rain and he definitely didn't hear them both in that moment... or at least I assume he didn't from how they showed the scene in the last episode) so what is going on!!!

It's so fascinating because it really is a great metaphor for queerness, particularly the visible type, and honestly the break up between Patts and Nara when faced through the lens of how so many people approach bi/pansexuality as a whole but Lomfon is just the wrench in everything. Is he polyamory? Is he about falling in love with the wrong person or at the wrong time? Is he about how realizations and choices can be contagious? I don't know!

Anyway.

... I dunno, I love this show and I am fascinated by trying to figure this out but I am most heartbroken thinking about how Tien is now the only one in this group without a soulmate based in the idea of destiny when he's the one who believes in the idea the most and has never doubted the Tai's soulmate would be the love of his life despite watching his parents divorce despite being soulmates and I just... I just want him to be happy, okay?

#la pluie #la pluie the series #la pluie series #bl series #thai bl #thai drama #thai series #thaibl #asian lgbtq dramas #thai bl series #asianlgbtqdramas #bl drama #thai bl drama #thai bl meta #in which i think deeply but maybe not deeply enough

46 notes · View notes

sang8262 · 10 months

Text

JP rambles: default outfit and character design edition

cause i asked about his character design and now I'M thinking about it, also im procrastinating so i have thoughts here goes

mostly about his default outfit, with a tiny bit about outfit 2 at the end. I already know this is going to be a needlessly long post lmao

TL;DR - JP is inspired by playing cards, bartitsu, and vampires/bats. he's a poker faced gentleman through n through

~~also minor spoiler warning for World Tour things, such as having JP as a Master and getting to max level skills/ bond with him~~

This is a safe space and I will be HONEST: I didn't like his default look a lot at first, but I've since warmed up to it!! I still use his outfit 2 (color 10) online tho. I speed ran World Tour for that, I have suffered, and I WILL enjoy it.

Anyway, it was once I realized he has thematic ties to playing cards that really made his default design make sense to me. First, some proof that he takes inspiration from playing cards to begin with.

Once you get Master Skill level in World Tour mode, everyone gets a little cutscene movie featuring their skills, archetypes/ titles, and ends with a quote commemorating your achievements as their student.

JP's starts off like this, with a bunch of playing cards with his name on them falling down the screen:

(also, btw, where we get more of that bat imagery, but i'll get back to that later)

This is what made it click for me and made it really obvious why his name is stylized the way it is, using the font it uses. His name reads the same way right side up as it is upside down, and looks very much like how the values are printed on these cards.

Then, the video includes several 'titles' for each character. Some of these get used in other promotional material too, but JP's are as follows:

King of No Country

High-Rolling Pretender

Gentlemanly Tyrant

In which, again, the poker/ gambling references show up with the phrase "high-rolling", or "king" of no country.

And final proof, is that each Master in World Tour can be given gifts that they will react to in unique ways, and also receive extra bond points for. Sometimes they're things the character likes, or really hates: it's just what gets an interesting reaction out of them.

JP (unfortunately) only has one such gift item he has special dialogue for: antique playing cards.

Although his reaction to them are... less than positive (he literally calls them 'trash'), he also points out how old cards can't be used to play actual games, as it is against the rules.

Within the game's universe, it shows that he cares, or at least knows enough about cards to even have these notable responses to them. Considering it outside the game, the devs specifically decided to make his special World Tour gift a set of Antique Playing Cards, instead of any other item. They wanted to make this connection between him and cards for a reason.

So to me, I think this is a lot of evidence that shows a clear and intentional relationship between JP's character design and playing cards.

In retrospect, I honestly think he does look like the face cards quite a bit lmao. The white hair and beard + mustache, the cravat, the colors too (really strong orange/ red, paired with gold and that bit of marble on his cane), and the cane paralleling a scepter/ sword.

Speaking of, more about the cane: the devs had an interview answering fan questions, and at one point they explain the inspiration for JP. I'll link the video here with the timestamp for this question:

https://youtu.be/ORw3_BK7o70?t=146

But basically they say they wanted to have a character use a cane, and cites bartitsu/ Sherlock Holmes as well. So, even if they worked backwards from 'cane', all the way to 'gentlemanly tyrant who likes chess puzzles and launders money through fighting game tournaments', I think they made it work well with the playing cards aesthetic too!

Finally, I'll go back to the bat imagery that I think is pretty interesting.

Parts of his design subtly incorporate bats, such as his brooch on the default costume:

And more directly in his alt costume 2, seen on his buttons and coat pattern:

And I have to imagine the brooch on his default outfit is somewhat invoking of a bat (with wings and large ears) because of his WT skill Mastery video having a giant BAT in the middle of the screen. I also thought it might be in reference to the Shadaloo organization symbol, which is a skull with wings.

Then even further from the comics, Kalima-- his assistant while organizing the fighting tournament in Nayshall-- warns Luke that JP is like a "vampire who will suck this country dry". The vampire analogy just works so beautifully with how he works as a criminal, not to mention the other aesthetic associations with it.

All in all, I really REALLY love JP's personality and whole modus operandi as a character and villain so greatly in his design. I definitely also feel that his outfit 2 isn't nearly as symbolism laden as his default one, but I am a sucker for formal wear and suits, so I am just, in love. Plus the subtler nods to his bat/vampire-ness is there, if only very minimally.

Edit: noticing this as I literally posted this AH. But also on the playing cards from his WT skill video, it has two different faces, it has both the Jack (or possibly King...) and the Joker:

It continues to add to his duality/ hidden true nature/ deceiver type character so much, it's perfect. And of course, with his name, or pseudonyms starting with "J". So either Jack or Joker works perfectly. I mean literally, he isn't the king of any country... but he'll still bring it to ruin all the same.

Edit #2: omg i keep remembering things i meant to add thank you adhd very cool

BUT, in the original Japanese version of the Mastery skill video, his titles are SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT. As is the Korean translation, which is a more direct translation of the Japanese one than the English is.

'So "King of No Country" was originally also: "No-Life King of a Ruined Country"

And turns out, doing some good ol' googling, that 'no-life king' has some established meanings to it:

Basically, it's related to other media including vampires, undead, monsters, so I'm guessing 'no-life' is closer in meaning to 'immortal', having no natural lifespan rather.

So yeah, even more references to vampirism for ya

but aNYWAY,, Thanks for reading my silly observations!!

I think I got pretty much everything but if there's anything I didn't mention or something to add please please do, I love reading replies and the tags (this site's so much better for this kinda stuff lmao)

#jp rambles #sf6 jp #jp refs #i wont apologize for analyzing my favorite characters so much and i wont apologize that it's a long rant i totally wont #but sorry it's so long #and i have to keep adding edits cause i forget so easily aaaaa

28 notes · View notes

p5x-theories · 8 months

Note

Here’s a fun little question, I know we don’t know to much information about all of the wonder squad, but if you could pair off the phantom thieves(including Akechi, Sumire, Zenkichi, and Sophia) and wonder squad, who would each of them be friends with the most, based on just vibes and the general traits that we know of?

Ooo! I love an excuse to think about the potential dynamics of characters that've never met in canon (even if for most of the Wonder Squad we have... very little canon to go off of in the first place).

Also in retrospect after typing these, they may not be strictly all who they'd each be the best friends with, but I guess they're character duos that I think would bond for a particular reason, in a way that might be interesting?

This also turned out much longer than expected, so, uh. Under the cut it goes!

Wonder

Not to start with something totally out of left field, but I feel like Wonder and Yusuke would get along, in the way that I think Yusuke would enjoy drawing him, and Wonder seems to just sort of stare off into space sometimes, which'd make him a great, barely-moving sketch target, haha. If everyone else wanted to go and do something else, but Yusuke wanted to stay and draw, I feel like Wonder'd stick around with him (either intentionally or not). In general, Wonder just kind of goes along with things, which I think would lend well to him spending a lot of time with Yusuke, who tends to sweep up whoever's with him into what he's doing/passionate about. Yusuke's influence might even help Wonder be a bit more actively passionate about things, too!

As an extension of that, I think Polter probably would get along with Yusuke since they both seem to be art kids, though I have no idea if Polter's attitude towards art is the same as Yusuke's, haha.

Closer

Just to get the obvious out of the way here, I feel very strongly that Motoha and Ryuji would get along. They both have a very enthusiastically supportive sports friend vibe. I think it's sort of a given, to the point where it'd be weird not to bring it up at all.

However, if I'm supposed to come up with duos here, there's someone else I wanna go with that's a little less obvious- Motoha and Sumire. I think, first and foremost, that Motoha's enthusiasm would be really, really good for Sumire. I haven't gotten the impression that Motoha's really someone to lie just to make her friends feel better (though she wouldn't say something cruelly blunt, either), and she's definitely the type to get hyped up when her friends do well with the way she encourages Tomoko. I think Motoha's encouragement and opinion- both genuine- would really help Sumire's self-confidence, and I think Motoha would bond with her over them both having sport interests (if different sports).

I think their respective sports' skills, for that matter, would probably rub off on each other a bit, too, haha. Motoha seems like the kind of person who'd be down to try something that's really important to a friend of hers at least once, if not more. I feel like they'd do pre-exercise stretches together.

Cattle

Cattle... I have a slightly out there suggestion for, actually. You know when a younger little kid latches onto an older kid who gives off the vibe of knowing what's going on in a situation?

I feel like Sophia would kind of do that with Cattle. Cattle very much likes to give off the vibe of cool confidence, knowing what's going on the majority of the time but rarely being fazed by the stuff he didn't expect either. I feel like Sophia would kind of latch onto Cattle in a way she didn't quite with Morgana, because of this? She wants answers, and to understand, and has a billion questions, and that curiosity doesn't go away after awakening her Persona properly. And Cattle seems to enjoy being the bird with a plan, the one with the answers.

So I can kind of imagine Sophia drowning him in questions about the Metaverse and Thief stuff and humans, because he at least likes to act like he knows all that, and she always wants answers but sometimes her questions are a little too difficult for others to answer. Cattle would probably at least try?

Shun

Not to bring in Yusuke again, but Yusuke and Shun would absolutely get along and it'd be a mistake not to say it. One of the first things Shun says to Motoha is asking how the ramen at the restaurant she and Wonder just ate at was. You know he'd be asking to hear every detail of how Yusuke describes food, and Yusuke'd be just as happy to give the descriptions (and to eat the food in the first place, haha).

I do actually think that Joker and Shun would get along as well, though, because they both enjoy cooking. I'm not sure whether Shun enjoys cooking as a group activity, but considering all the dishes Joker learns how to make in P5S, I think you can pretty easily argue they have a shared interest to talk about, whether they actually cook together or not, haha. I know Wonder can cook as well, but I guess it feels more like it's an interest of Joker's (as opposed to a necessity for Wonder, who lives alone), in my mind at the very least?

They also both give off kind of a "loner delinquent at school" vibe that most of the Wonder Squad doesn't quite have, which I think would draw Joker just a bit more towards Shun over the others, even without the cooking stuff.

Yukimi

I think Yukimi and Makoto would be an interesting one. Yukimi's silver hair and apparently "cold" exterior would remind Makoto of her sister, I think, whereas I think Yukimi would see herself in Makoto with how they both lost their fathers and grew up with heavy expectations from their remaining female guardian. To that end, I think their interactions might be a little awkward at first, coming from slightly different angles of relation to each other, but I think if they started interacting (and possibly fighting Shadows together) without overthinking it, they'd easily start to bond, and probably also be terrifying in combat as a duo.

I think sparring would be equally good practice and catharsis, on some level, for them both, haha. Though if they're both used to heavy expectations, they, uh... may study for finals to death if left alone for too long, so maybe that's one thing they shouldn't do as a pair.

Seiji

For the sake of pairing each P5 and P5X thief once, and also because (as the recurring theme here) I think it would be interesting, I think Seiji and Zenkichi would be an unexpected pair. At first it's probably just a thing where, if everyone else is hanging out with someone, then they're kind of the leftovers? But there's also really something, in my brain, to the fact that Seiji's detached attitude is implied by his profile to come from his rich family (and/or cold education) but he wants connection, and Zenkichi is a literal dad on the team who didn't (and still doesn't entirely) quite know how to connect with his daughter but really wants to. They both sort of have a family thing going on, which Zenkichi is at least starting to work on (though we don't know about Seiji), you know?

Of course, given that Zenkichi is Zenkichi, I don't think he would pick up on this for a while. Like, just long enough that it starts to get a little embarrassing in retrospect, haha. And Seiji might notice the similarity, but I really doubt he would act on it. So I think where it really starts it that Zenkichi eventually picks up on the fact that Seiji, polite as he is, is the only one (besides Okyann, though honestly, she might do it too) who never calls him "Gramps", or any other nickname like that, ever. I don't know if every member of the Wonder Squad or even the original Phantom Thieves would always call him Gramps, but I think there'd be moments. Except with Seiji.

And I mean, Zenkichi is an investigator. I think once he realizes there's something to pick up, he'd quickly piece the rest of it together, with or without a literal background check. And I think his attempts to bond with Seiji would be awkward, because Zenkichi's sort of awkward around the kids most of the time when he's not fighting anyway, but I do think he'd try, the same way he tries with Akane. Probably better, even, because he's actually making progress on Akane so he's learning, and they can do stuff like fight shadows together, haha.

Not sure how fast Seiji would pick up on what he's doing (or, in particular, how intentional it is), given we don't really know him that well, but I do think he would at least subconsciously start to feel like there's at least a bit of a connection there, and maybe once it'd start it'd build faster and faster, or they'd just sort of slowburn a found family situation. Either way. I think it'd work.

Also, Haru and Seiji can bond over not knowing the price of basic goods, and having a limo escort them everywhere, because they're both rich. You know how it is.

Mont

Listen- if Mont also has an injury that makes it so she can't do her favorite sport anymore? Or at least, certainly not on the level she used to be able to, and certainly not as easily in the real world as the heightened physical abilities make it in the Metaverse? Then I've gotta think about her interactions with Ryuji. Mont's a little tricky because we don't know her as well, but I think Ryuji's enthusiasm would do good things for her, especially if she still has that ache in her heart, like her description says, that she can't skate anymore. Definitely going for morning jogs together, maybe also physical therapy either together (if... possible?) or at least being each other's accountability buddies to make sure they both keep it up. And I think it'd be fun she taught him how to ice skate (if he doesn't know already- not sure how canon we consider the original P5 opening, hehe?), because absolutely no one would expect him to know how to ice skate, let alone technically having training from a professional in the subject.

I don't think anyone would expect them to get along as well as they do, either, which might be just as entertaining as their actual potential interactions.

Rin

Hear me out: Yaoling and Haru. Admittedly, I don't have a huge basis for this one, but I was thinking about Yaoling with the peppers in her sticker, and Haru with her garden and teas, and I think Yaoling helping Haru with the garden and being a bit childishly excited about the plants as they grow would be really fun, and I'm sure Haru would always appreciate the help and enthusiasm as well.

They'd also just be fun as a duo interacting with others, because Haru is very much the combat threat and one that would obliterate a cop with a smile on her face, while I strongly feel that Yaoling would be the one cheering from the sidelines/otherwise the backup of the situation. My impression is that people would expect Yaoling, as the more energetic and (at least going by vibe) louder and outspoken of the two, to be the dangerous one, but you're really doomed if Haru joins in.

Not that Yaoling isn't a threat, too. They're very much two cute girls that bonded over gardening and could destroy you if you deserve it. It's just that people don't expect Haru to be the muscle, haha.

Leo

Now, okay. For Leo, this may be a little self-indulgent on my part and probably more than a little obvious, but I think he and Akechi would make such a funny pair.

I don't know if Akechi would strictly enjoy it, and certainly he wouldn't show it at surface level if he did. But they both have the superhero Personas, and there's no way Leo isn't a Featherman fan. Enthusiastically a Featherman fan. Leo has the vibe, thief outfit, and battle lines, EVERYTHING of someone who is very earnest about his interest in superheroes, tokusatsu, and etc. Which is to say, I don't think Akechi wants to be grouped with Leo. I don't think Akechi wants to admit that he on some level enjoys being a superhero duo. But I think that is absolutely who he'd get paired with out of the options, if I have to come up with a duo for each of them. (Futaba would also make Featherman jokes just to make Leo happy and Akechi not.)

He can't even win when he uses Loki, because he's Grey Pigeon. It's inescapable.

Okyann

This one is maybe an obvious one- Kayo and Ann.

But I think Ann actually finds Kayo a bit offputting at first. If they meet in reality before meeting as thieves, I'd say it's because Ann's parents are the kind of people to leave their daughter in an empty house for a year+, so I'd believe they're also the sort of people to have subjected her as a little kid to a lot of adult-focused events with all their friends over that all gush about Ann exactly like Kayo does to Wonder, but don't actually care about her in any capacity and are more just doing it for her parents. That's headcanon, I guess, but it tracks in my mind at least. In the modeling industry, Ann's also used to that level of friendliness being performative, too (in her social link for instance), which doesn't help.

If they first meet as thieves, on the other hand, I think Ann might instead be a bit put-off because Okyann seems like she might come off as a bit much sometimes- and there are plenty of reasons Ann doesn't get along with the other girls at Shujin, even if it's not Ann's fault- and not to mention outdated fashion-wise. On the flip side, I'm not really sure how Kayo would feel about Ann? It could be her seeing herself (for better or for worse), or it could be her seeing a teenager that's part of the trends that evolved without her. Either way, though...

Once they start to bond, I think it's all over for everyone. I can totally see them hanging out, getting crepes together, expanding each other's fashion knowledge, getting their hair done and cute makeup, all kinds of silly girly stuff that Ann doesn't quite have someone else to do that with and Kayo'd usually be considered a bit "old" for. I think Ann helps Kayo feel younger again in reality, and Kayo probably (intentionally or unintentionally) helps bolster Ann against some of that anti-aging beauty stuff. People would probably mistake Kayo for Ann's aunt or mom or something, but I think in actuality they'd actually be closer to two besties with a bit of a difference in age than anything.

Tomoko

My suggestion here might be a little weird, but... Tomoko and Futaba. Not because I think they have shared interests, or even much in common besides I guess being short teammates with glasses haha, but because I think that's... actually kind of the point?

Futaba's not good with social interaction. It's a well-known fact. Tomoko, however, is a bit on the softer/quieter side, but she's never really been shown to have any anxiety about interactions as far as we've seen, and is pretty outgoing even. And I think that would work really well for Futaba, because Tomoko wouldn't have the vibe of judging her if she doesn't quite know how to interact, but also has enough backbone to keep pushing Futaba when she needs it. Tomoko's not going to draw attention to them the way their flashier teammates might, either, but she can take charge if she needs to. Tomoko can get through a crowd to get Futaba that computer part she needs if Futaba can't do it. She's the scout-ahead teammate that tells Futaba when the coast is clear.

Also, Futaba's weird in a way that Tomoko has only lightly shown signs of, and I think that would rub off on Tomoko. Tomoko's willing to get a little silly- she and Wonder posing before serving people food, for instance- so she'd indulge Futaba's sillier, weirder moments, and I think that'd make Tomoko weirder in turn.

Kiyoshi

Okay, speaking of weirdos, it's the two left- Kiyoshi and Morgana! This is the key of the whole duo: they both like feeling kind of superior about the weird powers they have (or at least think they have... but that Kiyoshi as a full teammate would in fact actually have), and get really enthusiastic about it when someone encourages them.

I think it'd be sort of like an infinite validation loop- Morgana shows Kiyoshi something cool in the Metaverse, or really anything sneaky in reality for the fact that he's a talking cat, and Kiyoshi thinks that's cool and it feeds into his thing about being a psychic chosen one, which makes Morgana feel wanted and validated as being cool. And then Kiyoshi figures something out, or otherwise puts together something neat and probably cool they can do in the Metaverse (he strikes me as a "what can you do with psychic superpowers" ideas/trial and error kinda guy), and Morgana thinks that's cool and immediately wants to try it in battle or for a heist, which makes Kiyoshi feel recognized and validated as being cool.

And that just goes on. And on. To the benefit and possibly slight detriment of everyone else, because there are really both pros and cons to two of your most enthusiastic teammates also sort of wanting to feel better and cooler than everyone else all the time (even if they of course still respect and value their teammates).

Um. So there you go! Nearly 3k words about which P5 and P5X teammates I think should bond, basically. Honestly, you're just enabling me at this point. I hope you're having as much fun as I am, haha!

And also. I did not mean to write like three times as much for Seiji as anyone else got. I don't know what came over me there.

22 notes · View notes

depressedhouseplant · 2 months

Text

Just Fucking Write - Day 58

Prompt: A continuation of Day 56

A/N: Everyone pretend to be shocked it’s a Juyeon ship. I wanted to save this a little longer but I started a new medication a few days ago & have almost no energy right now.

“How’d it go with Y/N?” Juyeon asked when Eric got back to their hotel suite. He didn’t miss that Eric’s eyes were looking puffy.

“I told her I loved her and she said that she thought it was just a casual thing. She’s also apparently been hooking up with Miles since I came back from hiatus,” he replied.

“So you thought y’all were exclusive and she didn’t,” Kevin said.

“Pretty much,” Eric replied.

“Did you tell her that you wanted to be exclusive or more than just fuckbuddies?” Jacob asked.

“Why am I the one being interrogated here?” he glared at the other three.

“I mean, you can’t expect someone to just know that you want more,” Kevin said.

“I sent her flowers for her birthday. We would text for hours. She knew I couldn’t take her out on dates, but she seemed okay with it,” Eric said.

“But you never talked about any kind of exclusive relationship,” Jacob continued.

“How is this my fault?” Eric demanded.

“No one is saying it’s your fault. They’re just saying you can’t expect someone to know you want something without saying it. Right?” Juyeon looked at the other two.

“Exactly,” Kevin agreed.

“I’m gonna go lie down,” Eric told them. Juyeon followed him.

“Can I help you?” Eric asked when he realized the older man was behind him.

“I thought you’d want some company right now,” Juyeon replied. Eric looked like he was going to refuse then stepped back to let Juyeon in the room.

“Thanks,” Eric said quietly. He curled up on the bed and Juyeon nested himself behind Eric.

“I know it hurts. Kevin and Jacob weren’t trying to make you feel bad,” Juyeon said.

“They did,” Eric said curtly.

“Kind of ironic that the couple that knew they were in love without saying anything are telling someone that they need to communicate their feelings,” Juyeon hooked his chin over Eric’s shoulder. The younger man nested deeper into Juyeon’s chest.

“Maybe I didn’t really love her,” he said.

“Maybe. You’re the only one who will ever know that,” Juyeon told him.

“Has that ever happened to you?” Eric rolled over to look at Juyeon.

“I told someone they loved me and they didn’t say it back?” Juyeon asked.

“Yeah,” Eric nodded, rolling over to look at Juyeon.

“I did. It hurt pretty bad at the time. In retrospect I don’t think I actually loved him,” Juyeon replied, brushing a hair out of Eric’s eyes.

“Can I kiss you?” Eric asked, his brown eyes still slightly red from earlier.

“Are you asking because you want to kiss me or because you just had your heart broken?” Juyeon asked.

“I want to kiss you. I want to see what it’s like to kiss someone I know cares about me,” Eric replied.

“Y/N didn’t care about you?” Juyeon questioned.

“She did, but I know how you feel about me. Like Jacob and Kevin know how they feel about each other,” Eric answered. “I know you feel more for me than just a friend or band mate.”

“Was I that obvious?” Juyeon bit his lip.

“Showing up in my bed in just your underwear when you knew I was in the shower was my first clue,” Eric smiled.

“I do feel more for you than just friends, but I didn’t want to interfere,” Juyeon replied.

“Now there’s no one to interfere with. So kiss me?” Eric asked again. Juyeon pressed his lips against Eric’s, a vision that had haunted his dreams for years. Now it was real. He was kissing the boy he fell in love with almost as soon as they’d met. Through every hookup or short term fuck buddy, it had always been Eric. Juyeon swore he’d never say anything because he knew Eric was seeing someone else. He poured every ounce of love he felt for the younger man into the kiss.

“Wow,” Eric said when they finally parted.

“Wow?” Juyeon repeated.

“So that’s what it feels like to kiss someone who loves you,” Eric told him.

“I’ve loved you for longer than you’ll ever know, Eric Sohn,” Juyeon kissed him again.

“I think I love you too, Lee Juyeon,” Eric grinned.

#just fucking write 2k24 #the boyz fanfic #the boyz juric #juric

7 notes · View notes

generation1point5 · 9 months

Text

Providentius: Reflections

At 15, I was inducted into the Hierarchy Navy. I served for a year alongside friends and family, our lifelong bonds having reached their peak in the crucible of our shared experiences as fresh recruits, and at the end of that period we went through aptitude tests that would determine the path for the remainder of our service. Almost everyone I had known in my life at that time, whom I had called kin, tested into the Combat Engineer Corps. I was selected to be part of the Officer program. Overnight, I had lost a number of my closest friends, and never saw them again.

Some of them had stared at me as if I were a stranger to them their whole life. One to whom I thought I had been particularly close almost seemed betrayed by the news, as if I had any choice in the path that was given to me. I had no answer to their hurt, nor to my own.

“You are destined for greater things than they,” my father claimed. I did not believe him then, and I do not believe him now.

“You aren’t Modalius. Not really. You can wear the markings of one all you like, but you don’t look like one, much less act like one. Your dad just married into the clan, and everyone knows the Chronols do it for the politics. Don’t bother trying to be like one. You’ll just tarnish the name.”

These words were hardly said to my face; even by then, I was a head taller than most of the others in my class, and had been accustomed to my strength. They were exchanged between others whom I had called kin, in whispers and rumors. It was only later, with many years of retrospect, when I learned that being Modalius was nothing worth boasting about; an engineer’s life was a quiet one, without prestige or any sort of glory or weight to be found with responsibility. In truth, the words of my father were not without merit. To be the exceptional person who occupied a position of prestige would have been seen by most others as a step up, of escaping from humble circumstances into a position of glory.

But all I felt was profound solitude.

Fenriux, ever by my side, swore that day he would remain with me, to follow in the same footsteps as I had, despite my best attempts to dissuade him. He took that as poorly as I had taken the loss of everyone else. For as long as I could remember, Fenriux had stuck by my side, and I had not yet learned to appreciate it. At the time, I had considered it an effort on his part to win from Praetorious an approval that he had never been given. Having lived in my shadow for so long, I thought he would have grown tired of its owner; at the time, I had thought that he was merely attempting to mimic me in an effort to one day eclipse my accomplishments with his own.

***

Drill Instructor Pisax was less charitable than any other authority figure I had known up until that point. He was even more cruel to Fenriux. It did not matter that we were taller and stronger than all the others in our class; even when it came to sparring, we were beaten down handedly by his ruthless experience and skill. He intended to show us that we were no different nor better than any of our peers, and he had accomplished that just about as well as he had fostered resentment between me and my sibling. He had made it obvious, and spite could only maintain Fenriux’s grit and loyalty for so long.

It was not long before we had become the top two contenders for the best close-quarters combatants in our class, and thereafter we fought each other in a series of bitter bouts. No matter how much he studied and practiced, Fenriux had never bested me in the ring. He could never get accustomed to fighting on the ground as I had; it was a simple matter of intercepting his strikes and kicks, and bringing the fight down to the floor. No matter what he tried, I knew Fenriux too well; I could read every tell, every deception. We had been at this since we were kids, after all.

Soon after, Pisax had made me an example for others to follow; Fenriux, the example to avoid. Though Fenriux had an even keener observation than I, his knowledge and acumen were never fully reflected in the test scores we came away with. We were first and second in our class. Shortly thereafter, we stopped talking to each other. When our class graduated, we were assigned to different ships on different fleets. I did not see him again until many years later.

Having experienced it in this manner for so long, I did not consider success (as I had come to understand it) as anything special. I had followed the mold set out for me from the beginning. By that time, I had left my hopes and my dreams behind many years ago. The Hierarchy had found its place for me, and from that day forwards I was molded into the role it had set out to make me fit. I had met every expectation, every bar, no matter how high it was raised. Never once did I think to turn against what had been prepared for me. It was a plan placed into motion before I had even become aware of it. Praetorius made sure of it.

***

Even a meritocracy has its politics. The argument that all people earn their way to power and responsibility can just as easily be reversed to justify all the people in power having earned their way there. So it was (and is) with the Chronol family. Their pride in their biotics is a subtle one; normally, the discovery of such a gift is rewarded with the privilege of serving within the highly specialized, and highly segregated, Cabal units. But saying the right words to the right people allows one to avoid such a fate. It was not difficult for Praetorius to convince my superiors that his progeny’s true worth was beyond that of any Cabal; after all, what use has a titan for the power of gravity when his muscle alone could suffice? I had grown to be as imposing and as mighty as my forebears, having only the markings of the Modalius as my claim to their heritage as well.

Both Fenriux and I avoided the Cabal’s life. It carried benefits and detriments all its own; we were more openly accepted within our circles, and yet I cannot help but feel permanently stunted for not having proper training to make full use of them. My capabilities for grasping the finer elements of control are lost to me; all I can use them for are brute applications of raw power. Fenriux fared better: had he been allowed to use his own, I am sure he would have bested me on at least a few occasions when we had faced each other in the ring.

To this day, I would consider Fenriux superior in all matters pertaining to biotics. Much of it was self-taught, but I am sure that he has taken the knowledge of many others in his journey towards mastery. In the days and years since our separation, he has truly grown into himself. He is self-assured and confident; we rarely see eye-to-eye on many matters, but I trust his judgment nonetheless. He truly seems comfortable in the areas of expertise he has carved for himself, and we have found again a working rhythm that covers many of our weaknesses with the other’s strengths.

If every turian had such an opportunity as we had, I would think that the Hierarchy would benefit immensely from it. Biotics are more than their powers, however prominent. They are no different from you or I, and people foremost. I am proud to be such an example, if it means one day that others could receive similar treatment.

***

Life in service to the Navy does not leave much time for reflection or regrets. There is always a new duty station, new tasks to complete, objectives to accomplish. I served in those early years as a midshipman, until I eventually came to command a frigate in the fleet I served in.

Ascension through the ranks comes with time as much as it does dedication, and in those years I had grown close to many of my peers that I had served alongside, a new comradery that I had not experienced in all the time I had spent training to be an officer. It was easy to forget about rank and station when everyone was working together to keep the ship intact during fleet engagements or fending off a boarding operation.

I could never understand the upper rank’s propensity to isolate themselves from the enlisted, when the destruction of the ship we all served on would not distinguish between the leaders and the people serving them. Oftentimes it was the people who worked their duty station the longest that knew better than the officers assigned to rule over them. In that time, I had learned as much about the crew as I had myself, and I did not resolve to be the kind of leader who simply delegated orders and would expect obedience for commands that I myself would not wish to be subject to. Neither would I shy from the danger that they put themselves in on my behalf.

In retrospect, it was easy to see how I had become a very literal bulwark for my men, serving alongside them in as much a physical capacity as an authoritative one. Not only had it felt natural to me with my own inclinations and traits, but it was something that I felt was sorely needed in an era where the expectation that the soldier is to die on the orders of his superior when it is required of him. It is something I have kept with me, no matter what title or rank I hold. And I believe my service record and accomplishments speak for themselves on that matter.

***

Pioneer

Mission Cheer

Without Fear

These were the words spoken to the gathered kin who had returned from their years of service. Fenriux was with me that day. One and all, we were recognized as fully fledged members of the Modalius line, and I was happy to be counted among their number. Gone was the stigma of my youth; the Modalius are far more pragmatic than the stories some of their more conservative branches might offer their children. They take people of all backgrounds, all skills, and absorb them into their own. They are a resourceful people, unscrupulous and willing to adopt anyone possessing any quality, be it wealth, prestige, or talent, to contribute to their ambitions. Above all, the Modalius are industrious, and while their innovative tradition stretches back to the days of antiquity, they are not incapable of adapting to the times. Among a people of engineers and shipbuilders, there are yet among them pilots, bodyguards, marines of the Hierarchy. I knew then that I was as much heir to that same legacy as peers with whom I shared neither blood relations nor talents with. The people united in that room that day were connected by creed, not by blood.

To this day, I wear the starbird with pride, not because it is my only sense of identity, but because I believe in its mission, and the people who work alongside me to that end. The Home Defense Fleets have more turians who hail from the Modalius lineage than any other, but many of my people are yet found all over the Hierarchy, and beyond. I would readily recognize them as Modalius as I would those who serve alongside me, bearing the same markings as I. By blood or by creed, we have found a union in which we gain strength.

It was only after that day that I recognized Praetorius having his own place in that lineage, despite hailing from a far more prestigious family. It was not purely for legal relations; he had understood his place in the Modalius to be altogether different from most who had adopted the starbird, as the melding of two mighty peoples in the Hierarchy towards something greater than anything that had come before. As I have said before, I do not believe in that vision. I simply believe that I can make the most of what I have been given, and where I now find myself. That is enough for me. For all of the faults in the system, it is not wholly irredeemable; there is capacity for advocacy, for improvement, and I am well-positioned now to help put such plans into motion. That is a vision that I strive towards. It is not the grandest of ambitions, but I have no need for one; I am content with where I have come from, and where I can go with it. It is about far more than what I have brought from my past. There is a future there beyond all my past regrets and mistakes. I can face them honestly, without reservation.

I do not consider myself a teacher for what I have learned over my many years of life and service; what I have seen and learned in my life is not merely a lesson to be learned. For some it is a warning; for others, a reminder of all their failures and regrets, still others might see it merely as a tale by which they can see themselves in a new light. But for me, it is simply a part of myself that I take to heart.

#writing spiel

21 notes · View notes

kdrama-movies-more · 7 months

Text

I wouldn't actually say the shaman had "no" motive. His motive for killing his wife was plain and simple and very old school. Si-a died for the same reason in a way. It's basically "Beyond Evil". Everything after that is him rolling with it with this newfound power. Fun as he said. And that I think pretty much had to do ironically with Moon's fatal flaw or how Moon and the police are narratively used. He ain't the real MC but it makes a lot more sense.

TLDR:-

The wife and Si-a's death were the same ol', same ol'...

He more or less confesses his reason he gets off on watching the memories fade from his victim's eyes which is extremely creepy

However there was an order and method behind each victim

The key clue was Park Seung-gil and the real start of the serial murder

The shaman has pretty much been playing det. Moon from the word go

It is all about the thrill of the chase + manipulating someone(ironically something he does as a professional shaman- reads people and convinces them to be swayed by his manipulative hints)

Moon thought out the serial murder connection-> fear and panic with the police announcement-> the shaman's ritual foments more unrest and paranoia and the theatrics were put on especially for the detective duo-> Gwang-sik's copycat murder to free Ae-ran led to the third victim-> Moon's skulking in the shaman's house led to Cha Ju-man being the target and the framing of Dr. Jung-> he invited Bong over to make him tofu after she saw his memory(few montages were sus) aka he has tried to lure Ye-bun out alone so he could kill her except after that there was no need as she lost her credibility since the local cops were taken off the case-> he would have killed Seon-woo as soon as he found the knife anyway

He also hadn't given up on his shaman business and used the situation to his advantage

The Shaman pretty much is playing mind games with Moon and Ye-bun, twisting the psychological knife...

Nah I'm giving him way too much credit...

Ironically the one common factor from the beginning was that all the murders are connected to Moon and Ye-bun's cases and he was just tormenting Moon- playing with him. Since the weightage is kept between the three leads and Moon already got to monologue and express his guilt over his failure I doubt there'll be more specific rubbing of salt in wounds.

I may be wrong about this though:-

Like Ye-bun and Gwang-sik he too has used his power throughout but he also used his charlatan acting chops to keep up his bumbling act. Eg: him guessing Ok-hui has a crush on Moon but giving a vague answer that doesn't really explain how he knew it was Moon exactly. Except it was obvious in retrospect that he saw it in her memory.

And his power is the most powerful being purely eye contact plus he doesn't have the hair loss drawback

Ye-bun got "used" by the nutjob detective to solve crimes and also used it for her job with the animals. Gwang-sik the middle aged bachelor used it to date somewhat dubiously but found himself someone he loved and wanted to marry and take care of and vice versa. Both him and Ae-ran were a lil bit ditzy and cute.

The shaman- as he said initially, inspired by seeing Ye-bun he went to Australia to meet his family. Possibly with hopeful intentions, may even have thought he'd use his powers there not necessarily for evil. What happened is from then on.

He had this nature that he would have killed his wife if he discovered her affair even without psychometry. He gave his background briefly and that's enough. He's a truly awful and dangerous person. I won't say psycho since KDramas are so bad with psychology...psychopaths in every kdrama...

His next victim was Si-a and fresh from his cucked rage heres this girl with a "bad character" messing around with men and being shallow and what not. Beyond Evil reference2.

The shaman could have seen that Bong and Moon saved Si-a and were playing at being a detective duo in her memories. The first victim was Moon's first big case in Mujin and it was a girl Ye-bun saved.

It is Seung-gil who broke the pattern for every suspect in Mujin anyway. And he is the key I guess?

The boy was a delinquent who got "set on the right path" by Moon for over 3 years and then got targeted by Moon's nemesis and used against him to betray the man twice.

Nobody but Moon Jang-yeol or Baek Soon-gil would have had a reason to kill Park Seung-gil in the first place. It was that simple. As much as what he did could count as betrayal, both Moon and Seung-gil still seemed to have a complicated brotherhood with Moon shielding Seung-gil from arrest and Seung-gil trying to protect his hyung and the nun by trying to walk a tightrope with Baek.

He had already seen something briefly from Moon's eyes when Moon interviewed him about the panty thief that very day and rifled through his house. Plus each time they met before that. Everyone in Mujin knew this new detective is a mad dog chasing its own tail with various cases some of which he's making up along the way. And he was a Javert who had Ali arrested.

And then by fate a "bone" came from Seoul right into the Shaman's hands and he could throw this bone for the mad dog to chase.

At that point Si-a's body was not even discovered and could have been washed out further or for longer since he threw her in the sea. There was no point in killing someone so closely tied to the hotblooded detective with whom he has no real connection other than just one- the thrill of wanting to be chased while manipulating the whole scenario. He keeps taking a dig at Moon every time after the reveal in an attempt to torment/have the upper hand.

It is Moon who soon after its discovery tied the two murders together and called it a serial murder essentially giving the Shaman a hobby to pursue as the Mujin Rain Poncho killer or essentially like a truly bad noir detective he was culpable in that he made the wind blow and then on out the criminal rode it playing mind games with this ttorai detective.

In the hospital Moon is wary of Seon-woo talking of how he was stabbed near the spleen which by his naturally suspicious nature he probes about. Moon has also probed other people the same way too. Except this case the shaman was there and seems to have noted this. Moon was also wary of Gwang-sik in the room on that note(he frowns about why Gwang-sik came to visit when neither knew the other at that point). During the dog live burial case det. Moon had aired his view on what killers do normally in front of the shaman and this description loosely fit Seon-woo perfectly which the shaman would have known. "Killers come back to some place they are familiar with - hometown, parent's grave, etc"

The Shaman chose to kill Seung-gil who on the surface betrayed someone's trust but deep down had a complicated relation with that very person who was a hardass about the law. However he chose deliberately or on a whim someone personally related to Moon, someone that would make the man throw himself into a big murder case he was desperate to get to go back to Seoul for. Except it's cruel because Seung-gil was a part of the reason he was desperate to go back. Killing Seung-gil was pretty much an invitation to make Moon and Ye-bun pursue the killer aka himself. And mess with them as he liked.

Another literal tragic case of "it matters who you meet in life" as the Shaman said. Seung-gil's tragedy was his hyung- first Baek targets him and then a soon to be serial killer kills the kid because he was tied to his hyung. In fact the whole "people met in life" of all the people Ye-bun informed the shaman the most early on regarding her power and its progress.

In this episode when Seung-gil goes up the elevator the Shaman's eyes meet Seung-gil's. If the shaman only saw Moon's or Ye-bun's memory he'd know Seung-gil betrayed and stabbed Moon. Unless he wanted to keep Moon alive and assumed the kid came to finish the job? Except he's not all that attached to this weirdo cop and if he didn't want to be arrested in the future about his wife or Si-a having him dead would be better. More likely, heres some gangster from Seoul no one will miss?

He's just playing games.

Except it's two friends/brothers(?) with a complicated relation and Moon didn't report Seung-gil despite knowing him would be clear to the shaman and so it doesn't make sense why he'd think he'd kill for betrayal in this case especially since he sees a lot of memories. He much more likely is reading Moon's memory of the keyword betrayal on the police board which to Moon would rationalize why Seung-gil was targeted and fit the common motive except the Shaman doesn't mean it. And there really was no good reason for Park Seung-gil's untimely death not even with the use of psychometry since he never got to see tht final memory other than the availability of means and opportunity.

Then we get to the ritual the shaman got to put on because the police turning it into a serial murder caused panic in society. The shaman makes sure the meeting allocates funds for his ritual and shoots down every suggestion of CCTVs.

The shaman only starts his dog and pony show when he sees Moon and Bong come to the site. And him going "Hyung, it hurts" looking straight into Moon's eyes making him flinch was just twisting a knife into him.

And then he further fueled Moon's paranoia about suspecting the townpeople which he and Ye-bun were just discussing a few minutes ago while cleverly saying something that is a confession. "The person who killed me is here"

As in, he's definitely messing with them.

This is the point where Moon not suspecting the shaman who talked in the same way Seung-gil talked to him is a major failing. It should have stuck with him as suspicious instead of seeing only the bumbling eccentric of a shaman who gets things right by guesswork.

Not to mention the shaman seemed like a Mujin resident but was actually partly an outsider too. Aka fit the profile. His background check not raising any flags is a plot hole. Big plot hole. Especially since det. Moon checked out the profiles of not just Cha Ju-man, Seon-woo, the grandpa but...this man freaking ran a background check on the onion farmer who went nowhere near Bong that night!!!

Ji-suk I believe died in place of Ae-ran. And frankly it wouldn't have mattered which of the two it was since both fit the red herring motive "betrayal" for the plot. Gwang-sik got the idea to commit a copycat killing to save Ae-ran from her situation using the general air of panic that had gripped the town ever since a serial killer was announced to be on the loose. The shaman didn't mind there being a copycat. It brought him even more revenue. This spiraled when the shaman who was reaping great fortune is shocked out of his wits that Ae-ran is alive. But even though he tries to make it right it is Ji-suk who came for the delivery.

Now we come to Cha Ju-man. The shaman goes to kill him after Moon breaks into their house and the shaman reads him "you suspect Seon-woo". So he uses that single-minded grudge Seon-woo has against Cha Ju-man which was a clue the police were holding on to and this for no other reason than throwing Moon another bone to make him suspect Seon-woo even more. He definitely looks down on Moon for being straightforward(?) and predictable.

Dr Jung was simply at wrong place, wrong time. The shaman was fond of the old man but he couldn't be caught just yet now could he? Cold and cruel just like what Cha Ju-man did to Bong's mom. Tragic again about people not knowing the nature of those they think they know. Ye-bun defending the Shaman when Moon wants to keep him on the suspect list too all because she absolutely won't believe he would kill her grandfather who was kind to him. He killed the old man to keep from getting found out and despite what he tells Bong he would have killed her too if there was a way he'd get caught because of her.

Moon who was paranoid to a hysterical pitch by then about Seon-woo and Cha Ju-man runs to the scene to find himself being right about Cha Ju-man being the next target. All according to keikaku!

He's by now also got his captain into suspecting and focusing on Seon-woo as the Shaman intends because of that connection being fresh in their minds because the Captain was investigating Cha Ju-man's misdeeds. Literally he read det. Moon's psychology perfectly.

Gwang-sik was the one who checked out the memory during the prawn festival, and somehow gets suspicious of him and goes off to investigate solo without informing anyone else. The whole sunglassses trick thing was a plot hole again foreshadowed during his ritual in the mountain but the plot begs for suspension of disbelief... especially with the number of times the rain poncho killer got hit on the head and its as if his hood and sunglasses ought have been secured with superglue...

After he kills Gwang-sik he was looking for the opportunity to kill Ye-bun since a lot of his memory montages is full of Ye-bun. His memory montages also betray a lot of his crimes which Ye-bun skipped through because she didn't suspect him. The time the shaman invites Ye-bun to cook his tofu for him on that note...could be sinister...

He also gets the opportunity to frame Seon-woo for good since det. Moon had cornered Seon-woo and Seon-woo's natural antipathy about the police all of whom were in his opinion viewing him suspiciously(I'll side with det. Kang here tho. Man is cold and rational and he wasn't all that unapproachable unless it was about things like psychics, showed no hositility to Seon-woo and he was professional enough he wouldn't have taken his maddog colleague's side over his own understanding) saved him from being found out last moment and the possibility he'd be selected as the culprit instead since they live in the same house played into it. So basically he also read Seon-woo's psych to a t. The police take the shaman into confidence and he is their trusted inside man but the lad took his knife! Again the police procedure going off key since they never got a warrant to check his shed? Really?

But the biggest is the Australian police- Korean woman is found murdered, her son who was raised in Australia and most likely went to school there is missing, the husband entered and left the country with said son in a hurry...and not a peep?

#behind your touch #kdrama #speculation..#i still don't get the backstory of Seung-gil and Moon and the way the preview was as excited as I am to see Baek I know its going to be som #short action stuff not much plot the way there are too many things going on

13 notes · View notes

jariktig · 2 months

Note

Hello there! If you have time I have a lot of asks!!! (If you wish I'm including the wips)

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

💡How many WIPs do you currently have?

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

I don't think I have properly outre headcanons of my very own; I mostly take other people's (your M has a Thing for electricity; for example, or the purely brilliant one about autobot/decepticon scientific conventions and administrative systems having diverged so far they're mutually more-or-less inoperable) and wander off in slightly tangential directions from those... That said, some of my small silly things include:

In any post-war universe there is a cadre of unfortunate bureaucrats whose job it is to deliver the policy the canonical leaders create; some of them are going to have to give MegOP (or whichever ntuple of canon characters you care to imagine running the place; other ships are definitely available) the Talk on why it is not kind to one's staff to frag in the office.

In any poet!Megatron variation, he really ought to write formal as well as free verse, and to communicate just as deceptively/manipulatively in that format as he does in spoken or written prose...

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

Yes, in that they're planned in; no, in that I've not yet got any to a publishable state. Which answers the second question, I guess...

💡How many WIPs do you currently have?

Depends a bit on how you count them. More than a dozen, anyway.

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

How very much harder fiction is than non-fiction, given where I'm starting from in terms of practice. Which is blindingly obvious in retrospect, but it totally threw me to start with. Also decepti-thots' advice about reading widely, which I think is the thing that has helped me most by sheer good luck.

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

I suspect this is much like commissioning art/prompting fic/etc, in that people's responses to one's ideas are always not what one expected and absolutely brilliant. So whatever generates the most interesting response, I guess. If forced to say something more specific - any of the Jazz/Megatron stuff I've not yet actually posted, because that would create more propaganda for my cause...

5 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 8 months

Text

Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space Retrospective: Ice Station Santa (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy freelance police and welcome back! For those just tuning in for the better part of the year i've been taking a look at Sam and Max: Save the World courtsey of patron WeirdKev27, falling more in love with this franchise and these games each chapter. If you'd like to catch up, I've put links to each review into one masterpost

RIGHT HERE

So with season 2's production.. I don't have a lot. I tried but most articles I could find from the time are "Sam and Max Season 2 is happening and it's better than ever" and not much else.

It makes sense: Season 1 was Telltale Games big coming out party: while it wasn't the first game they made, that would be....

It was their big breakout success. So while season 1 was proving themselves by this point Telltale was a big name, Sam and Max were once again big names, and the episodic model had worked. So it's not a huge suprise that season 2's production was more: Let's do it all again but bigger and better!

So for season 2 the models are slightly more expressive, there's more mini games and the originals had widescreen support back when that was a feature. '

So what actually happens in this sequel? Well a lot so join me under the cut as our heroes take on a bloated hairy pagan god to save christmas, embark in a rigged trivia night, traumatize bosco for fun and profit, and run over some muppets. In other words it's another day at the office and i'm glad to be back.

We open season 2 with our heroes returning from a case, some time after season 1 which is said explictly to be last year, only to get a nasty suprise. A giant robot smashing up the place

It's not that souless abomination but the maimtron 5000. With our heroes assuming it's their goldfish plotting max's death, that old chestnut, we head outside for the first puzzle.. well okay we're SUPPOSED to head outside but I choose to instead dick around the office. The trophy closet continues to grow and i'm happy to see a jar of bliss join the stuff. It's not a big or flashy trophy granted, it's not a melted ted-e-bear heard or a whole human being. There's some nice new touches to the office too: the photos from hit the road and bad day on the moon are replaced with ones from season 1. IT's a nice little touch that helps vary up the office and allows it to feel refreshed while still recycling the set from last game.

The biggest and best addition though is some stuff swiped from Ted.E Bears charred ruins. I get the feeling they WANTED to include these last season but it simply wasn't fesable. At any rate you now have a mounted mafia anamatronic head over the desk and the wack a rat game is now free to play any time in your office. I did again, because I had fun and it's even more fun when you just touch the screen.

So we walk out onto main street.. and quickly get our first of many status quo shake ups for the season: Sybil's is thrown through the air and lands squarely between your business and boscos where the space for rent used to be. Or on top of it more likely. It's also teling just how used I got to Sam and Max's street that I know it like the back of my arm hair. Thankfully she's not inside but it was still unnerving to see such a key part of the first season tossed aside.

Thankfully the Maimtron himself... is pure comic gold. He's waxing lyrical incarnate, quoting countless pop songs. My faviorite bits from him are giving his number as "6875309" and "All the cops in the donut shops say way oh way oh". That one's more for Max's response "That's it no one quotes walk like an egyptian at me and lives!"

However bullets can't do anything against him. Thankfully he has a big wind up dealie on his back so you simply need to ask why do birds suddenly appear every time he is near. I mean the obvious answer as given by Lorne

Is just like me, they long to be, close to you, but since he's in metal box at the bottom of the sea since Max took office, it instead gives you an opening to turn the robot off. The sender turns out to be a hairy pagan god with powers untold. That right it's old saint nick and time for Christmas in late august.

One opening sequence later we're at the north pole and it's here we get some interesting structuring for this episode. For the first act of it you can't leave the north pole. Which was annoying at first as I wanted to see Season 2's settings and what's changed, but in hindsight works perfectly: it keeps you at the pole and thus keeps your options kept there. Likewise apart from a puzzle or two that requires you to go to the north pole, most of act 2 is on main street and the last one is a bit back and forth. It creates a nice gameplay loop without leaving you TOO overwhelmed.

But before we can get to the wonders of Santa's Workshop... we reunite with some old faces. Yes folks, the dreaded dark day of prophecy fortold in the scrolls has come. THE SODA POPPERS HAVE RETURNED

As you can imagine i'm not remotely happy their alive and survivied the great dakota wars with only a removal from office. Their mad about their christmas presents. Specs got.. something, Peepers got a night gown he just dosen' thave the hips for, and Whizzer got Tuberculosis. Same thing Sam got max. It's why they don't do secret santa any more. Those gags are funny, and at the very least Sam and Max are now as visably fed up with them as I am. They also aren't in this one too much and the developers make up for using them at all out of plot necsity by allowing you to throw snowballs full of bleach at them. Repeatedly.

It was one of the best days of my life. Also helping with the strain of these morons and specs returning is a little something from the past. See before I got into this chapter, Kev reminded me of what was INTENDED to be a running gag, but I simply never updated it. Persons of all ages I present the wall of misery

It was supposed to be a runnnig tally of characters I just.. flat out hated in fiction. Not just disliked, not just was mildly annoyed by in one version or another, the ones I CANNOT FUCKING STAND , the ones who truly bring out the rage in me. It ended up largely forgotten due to a combo of two things: my short term memory being shoddy.. and me simply not getting THAT angry that often when reviewing. I try to be fair to a work as much as possible, and prefer to focus on the positive. I"ll still be objective, i'll still come down on a works flaws, but at the end of the day the reason I got into this wasn't to let out my anger issues (which I do have and try hard to control), but to simply look at things I liked or things other people like as fair as possible. I WILL tear into something if it truly pisses me off, see my review of the boys comic, but I generally don't get my hackles up that high that often.

That being said.. as I looked at the wall I realized it had a place for that exact reason. If a character can not just annoy me (as a lot of this prototype do), but really make me hate them, really make it harder to watch an episode or read a scene if their around.. why SHOUDLN'T they get a badge of dishonor for it? Pissing me off is harder and harder these days, so why shouldn't someone get an award for it for somehow pulling that off? So I present to you

With thing one and thing two front and center. Thing three is absent because he's not a carnival of dicks crammed into one character model. If your curious whos who

First Row: Julie Powers (Scott Pilgrim (Comic)) Helen Lovejoy (The Simpsons) Billy Butcher (The Boys (Comic) ) Daisy Duck (Legend of the Three Cablleros Version, the rest are fine) Second Row: Mindy's Mom (Animaniacs Peepers (Guess) Whizzer (Oh come on) Roger Raincomprix (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir) Yivo (Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs) As for what the Soda Poppers have to do puzzle wise...

Yup my anguish, my bringing back and old bit, my pelting them with bleach and possibly elf urine, it all amounted to... well okay you DO get to pelt them all with bleach and possibly blind them for life. I"ll give the developers that. This appearance gets a pass.

So we finally get inside the Workshop to find this is the night santa went crazy, as Santa is holding anyone trying to come into his office at gun point and has been having the elves making more militarilzed toys. And tourture me elmer. Naturally Max loves that last one. He even screams like a real person.

I will say Santa holding everyone at gun point.. is more than a bit unsettling and is very "product of it's time" given the.. well everything that's happened since this chapter happened. While mass shootings happened back then, they weren't nearly as common. and... I need a moment.

Okay back. I didn't even notice it while playing it oddly enough, probably down to it being a product of it's time and my brain treating it that way. Or the situation being silly enough that the horrible crushing reality simply didn't hit me and thus the chapter holds up okay.

It helps the workshop has a genuinely... creepy atmosphere> The music, a more offputting carol of the bells, the lighting it's all more ominous than previous settings. It contributes to the episodes depressing vibe as when we get to town in a bit it's also a bit off. Thankfully this is sam and max so while I was a tad unsettled.. it really didn' tstay that way for long as you can stick your guns to the north pole, talk with the elves on how things hav edeteroriated and how the elves sang a song when they left "It wasn't very happy" and make an elf cry to progress.

Elf Tears make trees grow

So we need to make one of the elves cry. And given this is sam and max it's naturally one of the most darkly hilarious things as the elf WANTS to cry.. but even threatning to rip out his eyes or kill his dog dose'nt work.. I mean the former at least makes sense. You know I forget sometimes how much horrible stuff these games make you do till I sit down and play this month's chapter.. or how much comedy gold you get out of the suffering.

Now we have a pail of elf tears.. .which I didn't even know you could pick up. I assumed growing the tree was what you did to progress. This one's on me for both not using the button to show you everything you can react to.. and on not turning the hint system up. See last game I honestly forgot half the time Max gave you hints, not helped by the fact a majority were just max being max instead of offering any advice. So for this game they instead worked out a better hint system. I mean you can still talk to max for giggles, but instead if you turn it on and the game thinks your stuck, he'll shout out what you specifically need to do. I needed to crank it up to get him to do it, and evne cranked up it's nicely just if you've been idle or wandering around long enough.

Thankfully once Kev told me I could us ether elf tears, I grabbed them and used them on a coinvent little tree outside. This gets us into Santa's Office, but dosen't really fix the problem right away as he still outguns us. And given this is sam and max we're talking about that says a LOT. Thankfully we get our lead in to act 2: an exorcism diagram. It's actually quite simple they simply need a magentic pole, which they have and the four horseman of the apocalypse action figures.

So collecting all 4 is our next goal and we're finally back home. And each area has one of the four horseman.

The first one I encountered, and ironically the last one I grabbed, was Boscos. And boy oh boy was I not prepared. So.. since the end of Save the World Bosco's somehow sunk further down the conspiracy whole. Besides dawning his most hideous disguise yet, himself, he's torn the store apart, taking all the fun and helpful condiments from season one and replacing them with a presumibly useful in the future set of photography equipment. The lights are dim, the security's somehow MORE draconian and bosco himself seems on a shorter fuse. That dosen't mean we can't light it as there's two really fun bits. The first is since bosco is hiding from a group called "T-H-E-M", who i'm not doubting exists since he was at least SOMEWHAT on the money about most of his paranoid delusions, any time someone says them he gives out a high pitched shriek. Props to Oogie Banks for making it so damn hilarious. You can just.. say it over and over ot hear it till Bosco eventually uses the security system on you. Btads is back baby!

You can also ask if he has any, which of course he dosen't this isn't a store.. but the payoff is what makes the joke:

As for bosco's horseman it's in his package

And that joke was ALMOST as subtle as the jokes the game makes. Bosco won't open it because he thinks it has a bomb inside but won't NOT open it because it might have his broom. So once again we have to ruin bosco's life. Id' feel worse but given he's taken trillions of dollars from us simply because he could, let's scar him for life again!

This requires the present machine. You can send random junk to people. We only need to send two gifts for plot progression: a ticking stopwatch to bosco for obvious reasons and a footbath to stinky's diner for reasons i'll get into in a moment.

The watch makes Bosco think the present is a bomb, and while he's disposing of it you can steal from him again. And if he has any problem with it.. them.

Onto our next one at Pimp Le Car, another very 2000's joke but one that holds up as it's just plain funny a custom car place would decide "you know what we need to not get sued by xibit? FRENCH!"

And running Pimp Le Car are The C.O.P.S.

The COPS are like the anti-soda poppers to me: their instantly likeable, made their chapter better by existing and every time they show up gets a smile out of me. And lucky for me Telltale clearly felt the same as their upgraded to Bosco's old role of shopkeep, via their custom car buisness. Their also as funny as ever.

Naturally their task is the best. To get their figure (a free hood ornament) you have to run over as many torture me elmers as possible while they spit out things likes "I have rights" and "I'm an american citzen"

That's 1/4 horseman, but before we go we can also get Stickers

For the desoto. Turns out you can get 5.. I only got one assuming it was a once a chapter thing. It's pretty neat.

Moving on, we have Stinky's Diner, our second new location and our replacement for Sybils. And I have to admit while I miss both Sybils and Bosco's as it was this shakeup was necessary: while the gameplay loop of visiting the duo worked for a game, changing up who does their roll was necessary. Telltales smartly kept both characters, they simply changed up their gimmicks: Sybil's focused on her relationship with Abe LIncoln and Bosco has gone deep down the paranoia rabbit hole.

Stinky's isn't ENTIRELY new, having shown up in Hit the Road as a quick gag and Season 1 as a background feature. Our heroes were mentioned being fond of it's salty order who hoped to cull the weak with his questionable food.

Sadly for our heroes and about a wash for the rest of civlization, Stinky is gone, apparently having passed between games with his daughter taking his place. The boys are suspcious. The fact Stinky is a habitual liar who has rigged her trivia contest so no matter what you answer you loose so she can feel superior doesn't help.

Winning at trivia is a lot of fun and a clever puzzle: the pattern is simple enough: Sybil and Abe are on a date and while their relationship is going fine, the date itself is not great as both want to murder Girl stinky but neither wants to ruin the date for the other, and my boy the Army Bug whose dealing with some ptsd and the recent loss of his father. Poor guy. I'm glad he's here but he needs some bug therapy. Maybe Buster Blaster can branch out

YOU ARE NOT YOUR FATHER

YOU ARE GREAT

YOU CAN DO THIS

GIVE ME 5.50

Since the bug and Sybil always give the same answer, a and d respectively, you simply need to tell abe whose desperate for advice to choose b or c, choose whiche ver one he didn't and you win. Stinky begrudginly gives you your prize.

As for the footbath I mentioned you mail that to Girl Stinky, and she's thankful enough to let you take her old sock.

Note this is just me personally. If your into that, good for you. It's just not for me.

Anyways the sock will be useful later, and the less I have to talk about someone else's dirty sock the better.

So that leaves us with our final horseman to grab, and that takes us back to the start.. the giant robut. Thankfully kev told me when I was stuck to go back there. So Jimmy Two-Teeth and co have turned the robot into a boxing league. Thankfully you can aquire a boxing doll from the north pole and engage in the rat equilvent of punch out.

The boxing mini game is painful. It's main problem is simple: it's a punch out homage.. that isn't designed to work like punch out. So if you say spent a LOT of time playing punchout in college and have all your reflexes for a game tied to this where you assume you can dodge either way when your instead supposed to go the same direction your opponents punching, your gonna have a bad time. Spoiler: I had a bad time. Not helping is the final fight with Jimmy gives him a super punch that can knock you out in one hit. Why they didn't tune this up for the console versions better is beyond me.. and probably time and space.

Our heroes win.. which leads to Jimmy Two Teeth, sad his wife left him, to perch on a ledge and prepare to commit suicide. Honestly i'm suprised this episode didn't have you kick a puppy or 12 at this point. We can't help him yet though, but we CAN help santa. Using a record from his office, we play the summoning chant the friendly demon song!

youtube

Jared Emerson-Johnson continues his hot streak from last season and shame on me for not looking up who was writing and singing these things. Admitely the puzzle itself is frustrating if you don't get it but the solution.. is neat. The beast possesing santa left a bunch of clues around the workshop.. and it turns out it's our old friend Shambling Corproate Presence! I'm so delighted they brought it back.. granted it's just a pink monster.. thing, but it's still neat they brought it back.

Turns out though while this does draw it out Santa actually left out the instructions as a way of fighting from the inside.. and our heroes didn't look on the back. The only way to restrain the thing is the ghosts of christmas past, present and future. And thus we've come to our final act. You have to get the help of the spirits of christmas past , present and future to help. And in a nice and, as you'd expect for this episode, fucked up twist, it's all undoing shit our heroes did. Well for the most part, one is saving them but two are christmases our heroes genuinely ruined.

So first is past, and this is where we help our old friend Jimmy Two Teeth. Kinda. We go back to season 1 and while Christmas Past dosen't care about them kidnapping Leonard for keepsies, they do care about Jimmy's son needing money for his toureets or jimmy's wife about ot leave him. The only way to fix this.. is to kindap jimmy's wife, bring her to him, and then take his boxing glove so his past self can get the tourettes surgery money, fixing the problems we caused in his life with more problems in his life.

Then we have christmas present. Earlier when we got the figure from Stinky, Max pressed it. And since that one was pestlience it summoned the bug's awful family. We throw a snowball at him, it triggers his psd, and this gets the others to leave thinking he's his own dad.

So it's on to our final one which thankfully isn't comitting any crimes. Horay! We simply have to save ourselves from hell in the future. We do so by firing up the sleigh, which has been sitting outside waiting for some coal. And we just so happen to have a terrible persons' sock. We use it to coal up, go rescue ourselves and max hits on his past self suprising no one.

So now we can release the spirits of christmas. They try appealing to the corprate presence's better nature.. and once they get that off their quota beat it. Unfortuantely it goes back into santa.

Fortunately this final boss fight.. is pretty neat. See earlier in the workshop there's a bunch of stuff to play with but none of it comes into play, a tad annoyingly at that.

And while I still contend it was a bit much.. I can't fault telltale for the payoff, as you use all the stuff in santa's workshop to knock him out. The package that brought shambling corprate presence here turned out to be for satan so we send it back.

The problem is who will save christmas? Turns out it's the soda poppers who like me Max wishes were deead but for once turn out useful. WEll okay peepers and specs are, Whizzer's only fucntion is "unrinate on stuff" but frankly it's a funny enough gag he can live till the end of the season. JUST TILL THE END OF THE SEASON. Speaking of great gags our heroes drop off. And why not.. it's only mid november.

Ice Station Santa is a mixed bag for me. There are a lot of great gags shoved in here as usual, the puzzles are mostly fun, and while the first act can be frustrating the atmosphere can't be beat. It's mostly great stuff. The more I wrote about it though the more it became clear that the tone.. is a bit of an issue. Some jokes like making the elf cry or the muppet slaughter are so dark they work, while other bits just .. don't quite land. There's enough of the old sam and max goofiness to make the chapter not get to ounsettling but there's a more mean spirited tone in this one i'm really hoping isn't a trend for this game. Sam and Max works better when it's more over the top insanity and our heroes being over the top callous instead of just depressing. Still i'ts a solid start to the season Next Month..ish: Sam and Max take a vacation! Naturally they have to save the day to actually enjoy it. Thanks for reading.

#sam and max #sam and max beyond time and space #telltale games #skunkape games #sam #max #freelance police #sam and max freelance police #sam x max

9 notes · View notes

a-student-out-of-time · 1 year

Note

Though i am a proponent of the swap theory, at least at this moment, i would like to point out an anternative theory for the prosopagnosia speech.

Firstly, the prosopagnoisa will become relevant in a much later chapter

and secondly, Teruko is Mai Akasaki, or at least in her body. Which is a theory i’ve seen floated around before.

also, unrelated. in looking up Mai’s name to make sure i was spelling it correctly, i noticed some (flavor text? the page descrpitions? idk what they’re called, the text under the individual results in google) that heavily seems to agree with your stance of trust is good, actually.

“It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust no one at all.”

//First of all, thank you for your time and for providing a legit counter-argument. I really enjoy talking about this stuff ^^

//While I agree on the latter point, here's why I don't agree with this theory or that this is setup for later. I'm gonna take a break from theorizing and discuss writing, a subject near and dear to my heart.

//A concept that anyone who wants to tell a mystery is encouraged to learn about is narrative weight, which I've seen defined as "how much or how little attention the story/the narrator is giving to any particular event, situation, setting or emotion."

//Simply put, the more attention something is given in a story, the more important it's going to be. Some examples:

If something is given direct attention for a long-enough period of time, it's a plot point.

If something is given attention for long enough that we remember it, and then it comes back later, it's Chekhov's Gun

If somethings is given attention and then turns out not to be true in the way we were expecting, it's a Red Herring

If something is given attention and changes details that we initially believed about something previously established, it's a retcon

If something is given attention and never receives follow up, it's a forgotten or abandoned story beat

//Narrative weight should, in principle, be proportional to the role something is going to play in a particular story, though not always. Sometimes it's inversely proportional, where something will be given just enough attention that you may remember it, but it seems to slip by in favor of the more obvious examples. Then it turns out to be the key all along.

//That brings me to another concept: breadcrumb storytelling. This is the sort of narrative where you receive pieces of information that lead into one-another, and it's an effective means of keeping someone hooked to learn the answer.

//This is pretty common with serialized stories today, where you have one story leading into another and into another. Some writers specialize in this concept, such as Stephen Moffat, who became both famous and infamous for it on his run of Doctor Who and with Sherlock.

//The problem with breadcrumb storytelling is that it runs the risk of ultimately proving disappointing, and potentially undermining or even ruining the impact of the story in retrospect. I'm sure we've all had that happen, where we were waiting for a big reveal and the landing is badly botched.

//I bring all this up because it disappoints me how the idea of a done-in-one, where things like an episode of a show or a single issue of a comic can tell their own story with the time they're given, has largely fallen out of fashion. Now, people seem to expect there to be some kind of cliffhanger ending or setup for what comes next.

//Yes, one can argue that's necessary for serialized stories, but you can have your cake and eat it too. Small details can serve the main plot of the smaller story and contribute to the larger narrative at the same time. For another DW example, the Bad Wolf and Harold Saxon arcs were there across multiple episodes, but they never actively took time away from the story; they instead came together in the finale episodes.

//All that having been said, I like what Despair Time is doing. Chapter 1 did feel like a done-in-one, where it told a complete story and gave Teruko an arc, and also provided setup for the rest of the story. It really set her apart from other DR and fangan protags for it, and helped to establish the themes of the story, that this is about trust and betrayal.

//That brings me to Mai Akasaki, the mysterious redhead girl. Now, I can completely understand why people would be theorizing about her and what role she plays, and would suggest the prosopagnosia has something to do with it. I'm not going to say that's wrong, because there are so many directions it could go.

//That being said, there's a difference in terms of narrative weight here, and this isn't a case of things being inversely proportional. The reason why I don't think she plays a role in this chapter is because everything we know about Mai, we know from supplementary materials.

//Outside of the ARG on DT's tumblr or the bonus videos on their channel, the only thing we've seen of Mai was a brief flashback after Teruko was stabbed, and a hint that Teruko knew her. Her name hasn't even been said once in the main story yet.

//The secrets motive was definitely an opportunity for them to suggest that someone in the group isn't who they said they were, or was disguised and nobody remembers them, but we haven't gotten any like that, at least compared to the more plausible answers we've received.

//For comparison, Danganronpa Another had a better means of foreshadowing a hidden character. In Chapter 2, they found a yearbook in a locker, which belonged to Hanzo Kisaragi. That not only set up the later appearance of his son, Yamato, but also served to foreshadow early on that they weren't really in Hope's Peak Academy like they believed.

//By comparison, there's still been no hinting toward Mai as of yet. No indication that she's part of the game or that she's here disguised as anybody else, at least not so far. I also find it fairly unlikely that Teruko is actually Mai, because not only does her bad luck plague her in daily life, but we've gotten glimpses of how scarred and injured Teruko's body really is. To me, nothing about it suggests she's not who she says she is.

//I know there's the easy answer that she had her memories and identity erased, but we haven't established a means for that to be possible in this setting. I know I've made that connection in my own AU, but that's for a story I'm telling. DT hasn't confirmed that they have flashback lights, so I can't in good faith say that's a real possibility just yet.

//Here's where the prosopagnosia's narrative weight comes in. See, it did receive some hinting in Chapter 1, but it was small and done as just kind of a funny moment near the beginning, where Teruko couldn't remember who Charles was until Hu pointed out what he looked like.

//In comparison, Chapter 2 involved Teruko having a whole conversation with Veronika about how she thought the protag looked a lot like Teruko, Teruko was confused, and we learned that she really only differentiates people by hair color, eye color and clothes. Veronika then took the opportunity to ask, if she switched all those, would Teruko recognize her? And we got no confirmation as to whether or not she would.

//The reason I'm so insistent about this point is because not only have we not had any follow-up on that yet, but because the only people who investigated the body are the girl who can't recognize faces and the guy who had reasons to half-ass the investigation. And Rose, the only one who could put the issue to bed, didn't even want to see the body.

//There has been very little attention given to Mai so far, but comparatively a lot given to the fact that Teruko cannot differentiate faces. Too much narrative weight for me to feel like this isn't going to play a role in this chapter in particular, the same way the difference between a CD and DVD did last chapter.

//tl;dr version- I think some kind of switch had to take place this chapter and to involve the people here, because I can't see this being about someone who's had no foreshadowing or hinting toward their identity or their presence in the main story as of yet.

//That's just my stance on things as of now, but thank you for offering another possibility. I don't doubt that her prosopagnosia is going to play a major role in things later on, so ultimately, both theories might end up being right : P

#mod talks #mod rambles #a student out of time #danganronpa despair time

18 notes · View notes