Smoke… fire… running… “Help!!!'' Elizabeth hears her mom and brother yell from the house her father is carrying her from… from her house! Their house! The house she's lived in since she was a baby. Her father puts her down. “DON'T move!” He runs back into the house. Her eyes remain dry as the heat evaporates her tears almost instantly, she stares at the fire. She sees a blue flash. Her father does not return. Kobolds and goblins, they sack the town around her as she stares into the fire that consumes her house, her family and the town around them all … Elizabeth just stares in disbelief, meanwhile, a gnome roasts marshmallows in the ash of what is left of everything she's ever loved.
2 weeks later
She didn't leave what was once her home town with much, only a bag of coins; a little melted, and a stuffed animal, oddly and completely unsinged. Elizabeth was 10, she had walked here with a group of newly orphaned kids to this treacherous place and met strange people far removed from her old town.
After only a few days there, you could say she was having quite a culture shock. She soon realized she couldn't make it on her own so… she surrendered and reluctantly went to the orphanage with a few of the others. She didn't blend with them very well, but that didn't matter much, for long. A nobleman soon came to do charity work and scensed magic and potential in her during his charity drive and made sure all other aspiring parents stayed away from her. At the end almost all orphans were adopted except her and before he left he offered her the opportunity to be his apprentice for he was primarily a wizard .
At first she hated even the thought of this because of her bad experiences with magic and it’s creatures as well as her parents warnings against interfering and using magic. But he gave her three days to mull it over and eventually she decided it was the best thing for her to do. She considered that she would be well cared for, and magic couldn't really be that bad. Only the creatures and people who used it. Only good people should have magic.
So she learned slowly with his training, starting with the very basics of collecting materials. “Where are we going, Sir?” she asked, while eating her buttered muffin and soup presented to her by one of the few servants the powerful wizard had. Nepotism kept him from the very top but his prowess in not only magic but speeches in court had gotten many magic schools more funding. “We must go to the shroom forest for the ingredients I need for my next potion” he used as his reply, which left his lips almost before she finished her question.
So they finished breakfast and traveled to the forest early, for it takes a long time, about 9 hours by carriage to get from the capital to the forest. The wizard, Vincent, continued to teach her her first spell for most of the trip which he just called, “Dancing lights”, and she was able to make 7 bursts of dancing lights by the time they’d arrived. “IS that really all you can do?” Vincent said disappointedly. “This is a simple spell, even the least of creatures could learn it! Ugh I’ll expect more when we train again, now, let's gather my ingredients before the sun disappears from the sky!!!”
His outburst was uncalled for and her pride was hurt. She managed to conceal it and just nodded. Then once she had stepped out of ear-shot of him, she muttered “What an unpleasant curmudgeon,I thought I was doing a good job!”
Out of sight of Vincent and where they couldn’t hear each other she was greeted by butterflies who were attracted to the burst of light she’d been creating. They flew around her, their wings creating a soft, melodic hum. Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at their beauty and she reached out to touch one of them. As soon as she did, she felt a jolt of electricity run through her body and then the butterfly disappeared.
Vincent quickly reappeared, as if from the air itself, violently shooing the butterflies away. He turned to Elizabeth, a stern look on his face. "Never touch those, Elizabeth!" He hissed, through clenched teeth. "They may look harmless, but they are powerful creatures!"
Stunned, she had never seen him so genuinely angry, and yet worried. It was unnerving to say the least.
As they walked along in the woods the air slowly became humid and heavy. Soon, the trees started appearing to be shroomish and suddenly they were in a swampy marshland and the path became one of coble instead of dirt. They walked towards a village of mushroom people. They didn't look much like mushrooms, just the top of their heads, where a cap grew like a hat, making them look mushroom-ish. These are the myceli-ites," Vincent said, as they approached the village. "They are the race that live parallel with the mushrooms."
Elizabeth was fascinated as she watched the myceli-ites tend to the mushrooms, a seemingly older mushroom came up to Vincent, “Lord Chancellor Vincent, for what do I owe this honor?”
“Miss Shroomen'', he replied “Worry not, for I am in fact just here for ingredients. Do you still have your blue and black mushrooms?”
Her eyebrows shot up, for just a quick moment that it almost made Elizabeth doubt that she even saw the change in her expression, but, YES! It was there!
“W-why yes we do, just follow me.”
“Stay here Elizabeth!” Vincent said firmly.
Elizabeth nodded obediently and stayed behind as Vincent followed the myceli-ite deeper into the village.
She watched as the mushroom people went about their daily tasks. She felt a sense of curiosity and slight disgust. She didn't care how little these creatures were related to the kobolds and goblins that burned her village or that stupid gnome who almost taunted her. She held a grudge against magical creatures and would certainly never trust them fully again.
As she looked around, she noticed a young myceli-ite girl watching her with interest. The girl had bright blue eyes and a miscellaneous smile. Elizabeth smiles back at her, and the girl ran over to her.
"Hi there!" The girl says excitedly. "I'm Char. and you?”
“Elizabeth” she said, a little startled, after she remembered where she’d been only a little less than a month ago.
“I'm sorry did I startle you” asked Char.
“Yes, but it’s quite alright''.
Char looked up at her with a curious expression.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
Elizabeth shook her head, "No, no I’m not. I'm actually from a different town far away. Well, actually now I live in the capital."
Char's eyes lit up. "Wow, that sounds so cool! I've never been anywhere outside of this forest before."
Elizabeth Ignored a pang of sadness in her chest as she remembered her own home, then giggled “ yeah it's pretty cool they just built a big tower that has something new in it,... I think it's called a clock. I just know it's expensive but Vincent says they are making cheaper ones.
“Who's Vincent?” Char asked.
“Oh well he's my…'' Elizabeth paused, who were they to each other? Is he a friend, a mentor, or was she simply his servant? No, she was no servant and he didn't treat her as kindly as a friend. “He's my mentor,” she firmly stated.
“Oh, okay” Char responded.
As if on cue, Vincent returned with a small pouch. He handed it to Elizabeth and informed her it was time to go. Elizabeth nodded goodbye to Char and swiftly followed Vincent out of the village.
They turned back onto the cobblestone path. “I thought you said we would be collecting ingredients, not trading.”
“I didn't trade” Vincent replied coldly, “Come on, no more questions, we must continue your studies.''
Vincent and Elizabeth headed back to the carriage and started back to the capital.
On the way Vincent and Elizabeth improved her dancing lights trick as it was part of teaching her the basics of charming people.
“Very good, you will need that one around court a lot.” Vincent said smugly.
“W-wait, I get to go to court?” Elizabeth excitedly asks.
“Calm down, tis not nearly as glamorous as you would think.” Vincent flatly responds. “If it was, I wouldn't only be a Chancellor… I’d be more!”
Elizabeth got worried as she saw rage building in his eyes
“It's no party!” Gritting his teeth, he looked at Elizabeth and her fearful expression and his look instantly shifted, “Tomorrow you must be fitted for your court garments, mostly dresses.” He said this with a small smirk. “After you can play dress up.”
This exchange bothered Elizabeth, was he making fun of her?
They rode back to the capitol in silence. She studied for many hours but in the end she drifted off to sleep and Vincent, though willing to continue working with her, saw no point in stressing her powers any further and allowed her to sleep.
Upon arrival he carried her to her bed, “You don't know it yet but you will be the most powerful witch this continent has ever seen.” He smiled as he tucked her in and left to go sleep himself.
not done just seeing how yall like it.

It should be in the style of Spyro/Crash Bandicoot, where the game is a recreation of the original using modern game design and modern aesthetic appeal.
For the look, though. So Rush had a unique thing going for it. It had the player be a 3D model, but everything else was a sprite. Making Sonic and Blaze pop but also letting the world look appealing. This, in turn, makes the bosses stand out due to them being 3D Models too.
To keep that charm but have it work for a modern console, Have the whole thing be 2D hand-drawn animation. I would say like the remake of Wonderboy (Which do check out; the entire game is traditionally animated, and it's beautiful. You can also switch between old NES Image/ Chiptune Music and the new look/Orchestral with a button. ) The benefit is that this is a design style that ages like wine. Look at Wario Land Shake It. That game is 15 years old. It is about three generations behind. The only thing that tells you it's age. It is the fact that being a Wii game, it's standard definition.
The tricky part would be Bosses. A solution would be the Paper Mario route, where the model is 3-D. However, its animations and assets are hand-drawn. This will allow bosses and things like the adventure ocean mode to stay. While not using 3-D models that would stick out jarringly.
Now the fun part. The extras!
Due to the games being recreations minus visual upgrades and noticeable changes needed due to the lack of a duel screen. I'm just going to skip over that. A fun remaster includes extra stuff to incentive beating the game again.
I'm a sucker for the cast, and I think they would be perfect as playable options after a criteria is met. Once a character is unlocked, they can be played in any level that has been beaten. Unless I clarify their gameplay style, assume it would be similar to Sonic/Blaze minus the Boost. All of them should use the boost meter in unique ways. Here's how it would go:

• Group A: The Classics Tails, Amy, Big, and Knuckles.
  • They would be unlocked after Rush.
  • Tails: Plays like Sonic, but his Boost Meter is now a flight meter. You can use the button to propel yourself upwards drastically. He would have a lower top speed, and the trick system would fill his gage slower. Also, he would have a slow descent.
  • Amy: Not quite sure, but incorporate her hammer.
  • Knuckles: He can climb and glide like he usually does for his Boost Meter. Have him be able to rocket in whatever direction he is facing like a torpedo.
  • Big: slowest, but to make him still fun. He can use his Fishing Rod as a tether mechanic to swing across gaps and attack enemies. The boost meter determines how many lines you have to work with.
• Group B: The Dream Era Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and Cream.
• They would be unlocked after Adventure.
  • Shadow: Obvious Sonic clone, but his Boost would be Chaos control instead. Allowing him to pause time for as long as the button is held.
  • Rouge: Knuckles clone, but she has a faster gliding speed/lower climbing speed. Her Boost would be the ability to rocket upwards, similar to Tails.
  • Cream: Tails clone, but slower with a faster glide-like decent. Her Boost would be calling Cheese to create a shield around her, protecting her from all obstacles, including pitfalls. It would require a full boost meter and acts like a consumable. (I'm trying to think of something worth using but not broken)
  • Omega: He can Boost, but his Boost would work the opposite of Sonic and Blaze instead of being a meter that goes down. It goes up with the idea that if you overheat him. You can't boost again until he completely cools down and significantly slows.
• Group C: The Modern Crew. Charmy, Espio, Vector, and Silver.
• Unlocked after beating Colors DS (yes, I count it as a Rush title)
  • Charmy: I'm still determining. I want it so he can fly indefinitely but so he's also not broken.
  • Espio: Ability to walk/run up vertical walls without a slope. The boost trigger would be a grapple. Unlike Big, there is no limit to the length. However, it acts as a consumable. Meaning the player would only have at most 2 for consecutive use.
  • Vector: His Boost trigger will be a mid-air dash in any direction. It can be charged using the meter. The longer it's charged and the more the meter is used, the farther he'll go. It can be charged mid-air. I will also add that he can freely swim in the water and won't lose speed.
  • Silver: Blaze Clone but slower and with a more extended hover. Short Boost gauge, but can be used mid-air without falling.
• Group D: The Hidden Gems
• Secret Characters that would require challenges or outside thinking to unlock: Marine, Jet/Wave/Storm, Metal, Whisper, and Tangle.
  • Marine: I don't know; I really don't care about her. Fans of her would like the chance to use her. She can freely swim without losing speed.
  • Jet/Wave/Storm: Direct clones with only looks being a difference. All unlocked at once. Gameplay would be an infinite snowboarding gimmick. To avoid soft locks, they would be able to dismount. They would be very slow. They are slower than Big off their boards. Boards will increasingly get faster if they do not hit an obstacle. The boost button instead acts as a break.
  • Metal Sonic: Sonic clone but with Omegas boost gauge instead.
  • Whisper: I should clarify that in the Color Levels. Any character can use the wisp stuff. It's not a Sonic-only thing. Whisper, however, can fire her gun in any level to recreate a wisp action. It would require a full gauge, but the player can select any wisp action.
  • Tangle: Her Boost trigger would resemble Vectors but instead act as a slingshot. It can go further and charges faster but can't be charged mid air.

I've been playing all three games for the first time and I'm having a lot of fun.

Respect Potemkin

"Strength in numbers, huh... But you underestimate the conviction of a Zeppian soldier. With courage in my legs, justice in my fists, and a spirit greater than the tallest mountain... You will now face Potemkin, First Class Guard of the Zepp Republic! I accept your challenge!"

Themes: GG X XX Xrd -STRIVE-
After what seemed to be a near-extinction event in 1999 when an unknown entity attempted to manifest in the real world through technology, the world grew suddenly and violently technophobic. The United Nations imposed a global ban on technology, and with the introduction of magic into the world, it became the new norm for society. The only nation to oppose this mandate to remove all "Black Technology" from society was India, which left the United Nations and used the remaining technology in the world to develop a massive, country-sized airship to leave the terrestrial planet and live in the clouds above the Indian Ocean. This is the Independent Airborne State of Zepp.
Potemkin grew up in Zepp, and due to his extraordinary physical prowess, he was employed as one of Zepp's slave soldiers. Marked with a barcode, fitted with an explosive slave collar to discourage desertion, and used against enemies like a wild bull, Potemkin fought Zepp's foes and even joined the Second Holy Order Selection Tournament at Zepp's bidding so that he could win and wish for suitable territory for Zepp to expand back onto solid ground into. Secretly, though, Potemkin planned to also wish for freedom for his enslaved comrades.
Instead, however, Potemkin was lured into Testament's trap to resurrect Justice, the commander Gear and cause of the Crusades. After winning (this fight isn't canon, Sol beat Justice, but shhh), Potemkin is confronted by his sergeant, a man named Gabriel, who reveals to him that Potemkin can be the figurehead of Gabriel's revolution against the corrupt Zepp empire. With Potemkin's help, Gabriel topples the empire and forms the Neo Zepp Empire, a democratic nation of free men that strives to preserve old technology and pursue peaceful relations with the rest of the world. Potemkin stays on to serve as President Gabriel's elite guard, eager to see this new, noble Zepp thrive and prosper.
Signature Moves
Special Moves

• Potemkin Buster - Potemkin's most devastating move, taught to him by Gabriel. Potemkin Buster is famous in the games for being an incredibly high-damage grab and the defining trait of Potemkin's grappler playstyle.
• Heat Knuckle - Potemkin grabs an enemy out of the air and shoots them point-blank with cannons from his gauntlet, before letting them go in a fiery explosion.
• Hammer Fall - Potemkin charges forward suddenly, with a powerful strike at the end.
• Mega Fist - Potemkin does a forward (or backward) leaping attack, punching down from overhead.
• Slide Head - Potemkin falls to the ground, knocking down enemies nearby with his immense weight.
• FDB - Potemkin uses his huge gauntlets to flick a projectile back at his opponent as an exploding fireball.
• Garuda Impact - Potemkin shoots his opponent with a low attack from his gauntlet cannon.
• ICPM - Potemkin flies across the stage headfirst, like a human missile.
• Trishula - Potemkin fires into the ground with his gauntlets, creating a pillar of flame around him.
• Unbreakable Spirit - Potemkin flexes, ignoring damage from incoming sources. This move has a number of follow-up attacks.
• Nitro Hook - Potemkin grabs his opponent and punches them across the room.
• Graviton Stamp - Potemkin charges forward and strikes his opponent. This move was functionally replaced by Hammer Fall in later games.

Overdrives / Force Breaks

• Heavenly Potemkin Buster - Potemkin leaps into the air and grabs his foe, rocketing them upward until he brings them hurtling back down to earth in a devastating back breaker.
• Giganter Kai - Potemkin generates a wall of energy that travels forward and destroys incoming projectiles. In earlier games, Potemkin can follow up this move by attacking with a pair of flaming fists.
• Gigantic Piston - Potemkin rears back and unleashes a devastating punch.
• Judge Gauntlet - Potemkin knocks his opponent back with a powerful punch.

Instant Kills

• Infernal Tour - Potemkin slams his opponent into the ground from a great height, and then punches them through the planet so that they pop up on the other side.
• Magnum Opera - Potemkin flexes off his slave collar, kisses his fist, and lands a huge punch on his enemy.
• Nuclear Hammer - Potemkin swings with both hands, consuming his enemy in an explosion of blood and fire.

As Instant Kill animations are potentially canon, I'll include them as feats but will mark them where appropriate.
Feats
Mouse over a feat to see its source. Non-Canon story feats are included for completion's sake, but will be marked to tell them apart.
Please note that due to the difficulty of tracking down quality translated sources for some of the older games and media, many of these clips will be presented in the form of fan-translated scripts. Other sources (like the light novels) may be missing entirely, as they have never been translated and I can't read Japanese.
Strength

• [Instant Kill] Punches his opponent through the planet
• Stops a strike from a building-sized Gear and hurls it down a city street
• Staggers Slayer with Hammerfall
• Punches through a wall
• His battle power is comparable to an entire army division

Durability

• Takes hits from Slayer
• Jumps off of the Zepp airship and no-sells the landing
• Dropped out of a Zepp ship in a crate and no-sells the landing
• Survives being in his ship when Complete I-No destroys it
• Trades blows with Chipp Zanuff
• Takes a hit from a Phalanx 9 unit
• Jumps extremely high into the air to damage a foe with the landing, and is unaffected himself
• [Non-Canon] Survives being inside an exploding building
• [Non-Canon] Takes hits from a clone of Justice
• [Non-Canon] Trades blows with A.B.A
• [Non-Canon] Off-screen, survived an attack by "hundreds of Robo-Kys"

Speed

• Dodges an attack from Ky Kiske
• Stops an attack from a huge Gear mid-swing
• Dodges an attack from a Phalanx 9 unit

Miscellaneous

• Potemkin's specialized ship could hold back the flying White House airship temporarily
• In most games Potemkin weighs almost a ton
  • He weighs so much that throwing himself on the ground or falling from a moderate height creates a sizeable crater in the ground
• The Post-War Administration Bureau compares him to a storm that can destroy mountains

Noteworthy Scaling

• Slayer RT
• Chipp Zanuff RT
• Ky Kiske blocks a bullet at extremely close range
• A Phalanx 9 unit fights evenly with Baiken
• Baiken RT

"I do not adapt my strategy to your attacks, and I will not give you time to adapt to mine. Do not waste your time with tricks."

Warning - this is going to sound very cliche. And long. So sorry.
My boyfriend (currently 28) and I (39) have been in a relationship since 2018. He broke up with me in 2020 but we decided to remain good friends and continue to live together and take care of each other throughout the pandemic and then recently rekindled our relationship around February of this year. Over the years we have had our problems here and there, but he has always been like a Samwise Gamgee to me. A year ago, I would have described him as funny, shy, kind, smart and supportive. Now, he is irresponsible, unaccountable, undependable and selfish.
I told him that I would help support him through college as much as I could, I was paying for the majority of the bills, food, gas, car payment, phone, everything for our pets, etc as long as he could at least pay half of rent and half of things that weren't always a necessity. I cosigned on a car, gave him $1k to help with the down payment and pay more than half of the payment each month (which was only supposed to be for a year) and put it in just his name so that not even I would be able to try to take it from him for any reason, because I 100% trusted him at this time. In turn, he was supposed to do things like help more with house chores and maybe make dinner 3 times a week. For the beginning of the first year, this went along ok and then slowly tapered into box after box of hello fresh going bad in my fridge, none of the chores getting done, and me taking 100% care of the cat and cat needs like food, vet, etc.
Over the past year, I have covered 75% of the bills or more, made all of the appointments for all the important necessary things that just happen in life in general, I have been doing it all, plus working, plus making sure to keep up with my own mental health. And even now, he is not working or in school and I do all of the things, but now pay for 100% of everything while he sleeps 100% literally the entire day and is awake on his PC in the spare room all night.
I've been overwhelmed for months. And I know that he is dealing with his own mental health issues and depression, so I try to be extremely understanding and patient, but it's gotten out of hand and I need to know 100% for certain if I am being gas lit. Every time I ask him for help, he has an excuse or acts like I am angry with him or being overbearing or something, but I just want help with daily chores. Or to be acknowledged. Or to have some normalcy. One of the last conversations I had with him about this, he told me "We have this conversation a lot. Maybe you should find someone else?" And it broke me to pieces and I am still healing. I broke down and said, "Why would you say that? You take that back! Why would you say that?!" Sobbing and asked if we were ok like a mad woman and told him I would try to be more understanding of his low functioning depression, despite being so hurt that after everything I do to try to help and support and just love him was just so easily dismissed like it meant nothing. And I continued on doing the same taking care of everything.
Recently, I went away for 4 days to help a friend with her wedding and officiate and he was supposed to stay home and take care of the cat. I messaged him reminders and would ask about how he and the cat were doing and he would confirm they were fine and he had taken care of her needs. I come home, exhausted from helping with the wedding and from trying to clean the house before I left and make sure there were enough groceries, cat food, etc. And the first thing I see is the gross and smelly heap of dishes that sat there since Thursday that he promised he would do (I came home Sunday at 8, left Thursday around 3), and the cat food bowl is empty and her water fountain doesn't have enough water in it to pump anything. I go upstairs to her secondary water source in the bedroom (which I told him to fill and to check BOTH waters daily) and this bowl has no water in it at all.
He hearse moving around the house and wakes up from the spare room and I ask him why things are this way. He told he didn't know that he was supposed to check her water fountain and that she never went into the bedroom for water. How is the bowl empty for one if she never went in there for water?!?!? I am upset and livid, neglecting an animal is a line you do not cross with me, but I am keeping my demeanor calm and in control. He tells me that he will do the dishes and then asks me for a hug. I tell him, "I'm not very happy with you right now. Maybe later or after my shower." And he takes off sad faced, which makes me feel immediately guilty and sad, and does the dishes, afterward going to the spare room and shutting the door. I knock on the door to talk and he tells me not right now. I step away to give him some time.
I come back to him about 30 minutes later, he's laying in bed, I'm crying a bit. I tell him I feel like I don't know who he is anymore, this isn't the man I knew. He tells me that he wants to speak and has the right to feel how he feels. He was more depressed while I was gone and missed me and upset that I did not hug him when I was upset/angry. I explained to him I couldn't, I was too upset. He tells me that he thinks I'm overreacting and her fountain must have just ran out of water today and that she never went into the bedroom (why is that water bowl empty then?!?!). He asks me if something happened while I was gone to make me act this way and he doesn't understand why I am trying to make him feel bad for the cat not having any water. I kept saying "Because she had NO WATER!!" And he kept acting like I was crazy and it wasn't a big deal. Eventually I apologized to him and just went to the bedroom to sob because I think I'm going crazy and having a bipolar (I'm type 2 on that spectrum, my psychs call me "bipolar light") anger issues or an issue with my cptsd, or maybe I didn't get enough sleep and I'm just tired.
He comes into my room and tells me that he guesses he can understand why I reacted the way I did since he didn't do the dishes or make anything look nice for when I came home.
Am I overreacting? Am I going crazy? Am I being gas lit?

I’m getting ready to purchase the add on and was hoping for some feedback. Face rigging, is there anyway to lip sync to audio? I found a tutorial but it seems like the person actually keyframed each movement for each syllable. Is that the best way to do it for something like this? Is there anything similar to adobe character animator? That listens and does the framing for you? Because the actual (from what I can tell) design for the face is 2d and mapped on could you export the face and then do this in character animator? Thank you in advance for yours help!

I'm 20M, was intelligent and considered god gifted. I was always the topper of my class. Got A1 grade in my matriculation exams and 95% in my intermediate exams. I was doing my bachelors in Computer Science at a private university and was considered the best coder of my batch.
I was always severely depressed due to my toxic family and my only goal in life was to become financially independent and leave my toxic household.
But unfortunately, 9 months ago I became extremely psychotic due to severe stress and trauma for which I was shown to a psychiatrist who gave me antipsychotics to numb me down and bring me under control. Worrying about my future, my father decided to show me to a better psychiatrist, who at first gave me light pills and I went out of control after one week and became insanely psychotic and than later was given hard antipsychotics (Resperidone) and benzos which bring me under control and calmed me down. But only after a month later it started showing severe side effects and only in a matter of weeks it killed my brain.
Now for several months, I'm suffering with severe cognitive impairment, severe memory loss (both short and long term), no emotions, complete anhedonia, blank mind, facial paralysis etc and I've become near mentally disabled.
All the things which I studied is gone from my mind. My skill of coding, which I took years to develop is stripped away from me. I'm unable to learn anything or do anything and am simply rotting everyday.
I used to enjoy playing video games, watching anime, movies, tv series, reading, coding, learning about new tech etc. Now I'm unable to do any of those things as my mind simply cannot comprehend or process it. And all I do now is eat, sleep and suffer from my mental pain and failure.
I've shown to multiple psychiatrists, neurologists, homeopathics, therapists and everyone just looted from us and nothing has even given me 1% of relief from my suffering but have instead added more. Just as I was thinking it couldn't get any worse, a homeopathic I was seeing prescribed me antidepressants for no fucking reason and it gave me sexual dysfunction and numbed down my genitals, and it hasn't recovered since.
Everyday is filled with the same suffering and misery. I wake up restless with a complete blank mind, devoid of thoughts and emotions with mental pain.
The worst part is that except for my father, who tried his hardest to cure me and ease my pain, everyone of my toxic family's attitude has remained the same. My psycho mother still screams all day, my toxic brother berates me while having gained more autonomy. Their lives are completely unaffected by my suffering and they now consider me as a burden to them, my mother still curses me, has said me to kill myself as she doesn't want me to be a burden, and calls me psycho outloud to my father when they fight to emotionally black mail him, as my father is the most caring of me.
I keep hiding from everyone, even in my house. I don't even have the courage meet or face anyone of my friends or relatives as I don't want them to think of me as mental ill due to how much of a big stigma it is. I refuse to meet anyone, but sometimes my family forcefully takes me to see relatives and I just go there like a mindless zombie and am unable to talk with them as I can't comprehend what the other is saying or even smile because my face is paralyzed due to damaging effects of the antipsychotics all while realizing that they all are knowing that I've become mentally ill. They ask how's my study is going, I just say it's fine and that I'm on vacation, trying my best not to show that I'm unable to study.
I did everything right, worked my ass off, got good grades, developed skills, helped everyone in need whenever possible. But life still fucked me up in unimaginable ways. I never did anything wrong to anyone, but still received a fate worse than death.
I've lost everything I've ever worked hard for. All my dreams have been shattered. I'll never be able to live an independent life, I'll never be able to fulfill my wishes. I'll never be able to complete my degree, get a job, find love, start a family. I'll never be able to feel joy of life or connect with anyone or anything as I've been completely lobotomized and chemically castrated.
At my age, instead of going to my uni, developing my career, hanging out with my friends and gaining independency, I'm rotting everyday at home, waiting for my death. I see my friends, studying, talking, laughing, posting on social media and showing off their achievements while me, who was at the top is now not even able to comprehend what the other is saying.
Who is to blame? My psychiatrist who gave me wrong dosages of mind altering drugs without ever considering the possible disastrous long term side effects and later gaslighting me? Or my toxic family who always kept me suicidal and depressed.
Everything failed me, no matter how much I tried or worked hard, I always got the short end of the stick, and now there's no hope left for me.
Instead of becoming an independent person, I'll be remembered as a mentally disabled individual to everyone I know or a lunatic who took his own life. Either way, it was all meaningless to begin with. I just wish my death has more meaning than my life.

Grimm returned with an armful of items and got to work. He poured black powder on the ground, forming a large circle, then made an outer ring around the black circle with white powder. He set a handful of items into the inner circle: an hourglass, a ceramic jar filled with rice wine, and a scrap of parchment. He gestured to Benvolio and Walter, having them each stand, positioned like the points of a triangle outside of the outer circle.
“Whatever you do, do not cross into or damage the circle, it can release her spirit.” Grimm spoke solemnly.
Grimm untied the small skull from his belt. He began to recite words which initially sounded like gibberish to Walter. However, after a few seconds of lag, the enchantment on Walter interpreted the words.
“Spirit of the great mage Andromeda Chronos, we request your counsel. Come to us in the light of the stars and the light of the moonlight. We have prepared a drink for you and parchment for your thoughts. We request your presence to venture from the underworld and let your spirit visit us in the land of the living. We seek thy wisdom, oh great and powerful mage.” As Grimm spoke the timber of his voice changed and his voice lowered from its natural baritone to an otherworldly bass.
The cool spring air plummeted in temperature, to the chill of winter. Walter could see his breath. Steam rose off Benvolio’s’ scales. The ground shook, and the campfire they lit began to dim. In fact, the interior of the summoning circle seemed to darken, devoid of the light cast by the fire, the stars, or other sources. The hourglass levitated into the air, turned so the sand was on top, and then landed back on the ground. The ceramic jar lifted into the air, was emptied into the void of darkness, then fell with a light thud. Then, what could only be described as an energy in the air, made its presence known.
Walter’s stomach tensed with anxiety. After Grimm’s warnings he could only imagine what terrible entity might appear. From the darkness appeared a silvery specter. She was small in stature, somewhere between three and four feet tall. Her body was thin, bony. Her spectral clothes appeared to be a comfortable frock and sensible shoes. There was a cane at her side. Her mouth opened in a wide grin, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Her face was flat, and her ears were pointy. A small pair of spectacles sat perched at the edge of her nose. Her hair was hastily gathered up in a messy tangle on the top of her head.
“Well, hello there.” Her voice was gravelly, but her tone musical. She smiled. Despite her vicious-looking teeth, her expression was surprisingly matronly. Oddly enough, she vaguely reminded Walter of his mother.
“Greetings, oh great mage. I am Benvolio, son of Bellissima of the Ashen Mountains. I am honored to make your acquaintance.” Benvolio lowered his snout and curled his tail in front of his body, as though moving an arm in front of oneself when bowing.
“Ah, one of Bellissima’s hatchlings, how delightful.” Andromeda clapped her spectral hands together. “Your mother was a very good friend of mine. Oh, we used to plot such shenanigans. I remember one time a group of ogres tried to intimidate some of the folks in my village. They assumed that because we goblins are small that we are defenseless creatures. You should have seen their expressions when I struck one of them dead with a lightning bolt.” She paused, breaking out into a gleeful cackle. After a minute of laughing to herself, she slapped her knee and wiped away a tear of laughter. “They were most startled indeed, frozen in fear. Then I summoned Bellissima, climbed upon her back and the two of us chased them for a good five or so leagues.”
“Andromeda, if I may be so bold, we require information from you.” Benvolio spoke, hoping to direct the conversation to the matter at hand.
“Ah yes, everyone always wants to learn how to cast my spells or know my fig nut bread recipe. Normally I do not divulge such precious secrets, but as your mother was a dear friend, I suppose I shall oblige your request.” Andromeda smiled.
“Thank you, great mage.” Benvolio replied.
“Well then, grab some parchment and a quill, it starts off with about a handful of chopped nuts, and three handfuls of dried figs.” Andromeda proceeded to rattle off her fig nut bread recipe. Benvolio and the others tried to stop her from speaking but every time they tried to stop her, she would continue as though she didn’t hear them. Walter’s eyes drifted to the hourglass, watching the sands slide down to the bottom. There was still time, but it was limited “And that, dearies, is how you bring warmth and flavor to your home with the alchemy of the humble fig.”
“Excuse me.” Walter spoke up. Andromeda’s eyes darted to him, she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, the mop of hair on her head shifting as she did so. “My name is Walter. Thank you for the recipe. I would very much like to make it for my daughter and grandson back home. For you see, I seem to have stumbled into a strange land far from my own world, and I would very much like to return to my family. Do you have children or grandchildren, Andromeda?”
“Alas, no, I was always too preoccupied with my work to fuss with things like marriage or children. However, I have a godson, Sirris. The poor lad grew up with nothing really, but he had the talent. I enjoyed mentoring him in my twilight years, before I passed. He and Bellissima were my two best students. I recall the heartache I felt when my dear Bellissima was slain by some arrogant humans with enchanted weapons—curse the artificer who armed them. It is unbearable to be parted from your dear ones. I will help you get home to see your family, but first, speaking of my godson, has anyone here heard of my dear young Sirris?”
“He is the Dark Lord of Bythica, he has conquered all seven kingdoms of the northern continent. He is feared and reviled amongst men, one of the greatest evils our world has ever known.” Grimm responded.
“Good for him!” Andromeda smiled. “Such an ambitious boy, I am overjoyed to hear of his triumphs since my passing.” Andromeda clapped her hands together. Grimm’s face showed visible displeasure at the reaction. “Now, back to business, how can I assist with Walter’s return?”
“Great mage, your spell, Locus Cordis. My mother cast it on me the day she was slain. I was whisked away to another land. I was there for a time before the magic brought me back home. I believe the world I was sent to is the same as Walter’s world, it seems no coincidence, then, that a gateway opened, and Walter stumbled into our world.”
“That is certainly no coincidence,” Andromeda confirmed. “Of the portal spells, only Sirris showed a talent for the more difficult spells to create portals to precise gateways. There is Tempus et spatium, but that is not a targeted spell. It sends an individual through time and space for a few months, but it is rather random. I suspect past lives, or some manner of the like, may have something to do with it, but I never did get conclusive results when testing said spell. But Locus Cordis, the words of which are from the language of another world, translates roughly to ‘the place of the heart’. The spell searches across worlds and galaxies until it finds deep emotional connection between the being it is cast on and another entity.”
“Ah yes,” The corners of Benvolio’s mouth turned up in a sad smile. “That is why I was taken to where I was. Loss of a parent. My path crossed with a girl in Illinois who had lost her mother.” Upon these words Walter looked up. Walter reached for his backpack and began to rummage through it. His grandson, Sam, had a habit of stuffing things into his bag. Walter reached into his bag and pulled out a musty, dilapidated old stuffed animal, the shape no longer recognizable. Walter remembered playing with it himself when he was little. However, he could never figure out what sort of animal it was supposed to have been, as it had been in the family for decades. It had been his mother’s prized possession long ago. She had named it Benny after some cherished pet she had. It. Couldn’t. Be.
“Benvolio, does the name Samantha mean anything to you?” Walter asked. Benvolio straightened, his wings extending.
“How do you know that name?” Benvolio asked, intrigued and hopeful. A sad smile washed over Walter’s face.
“It’s my mother’s name,” Walter explained. “My daughter Beth named her son Sam in honor of her.” Walter held up the dilapidated stuffed animal his grandson left in his bag. The red color had faded over the decades, the stuffing falling out of one side. “And I think, just maybe, this thing used to look like a dragon, and she named it Benny after you.”

Please could someone have a look at the short story I wrote below and give it a rough mark out of 40 (or any feedback at all)? The question is from a specimen paper (Don't Ask Jack by Neil Gaiman). Thank you.
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Question: Write a story about a toy that comes to life. [40 marks]
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With a fierce alacrity that fuelled her muscles with a powerful flame, she jolted up from her bed; she knew what she had to do. She felt as if she had been slapped in the face with the Hand of Truth: no longer did she view the world as if afflicted with some type of terminal glaucoma that dimmed her eyes every second. No, now she saw everything as it truly was, and so, flicking the light switch on, she furiously fumbled for the Bible on her bed-side table. "Dust returns to the ground it came from," she sneered mockingly, as she opened the sacred book, tearing to tatters the pages of what she had once revered.
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Now there remained another task, one of much greater importance, yet one which sent a shockwave of spasmodic terror through her body. Her anxiety choked her, but she ignored it; she grabbed the doll, and left the bedroom. Down the stairs she clattered, her heart throbbing like a drum, her legs twitching with adrenaline, her brain aching with angst. Opening the front door, she left the house, not bothering to close the door behind her; perhaps she knew she would return.
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The streets were pitch black, darker even than the curtain of ignorance that blinded the residents of the town; nevertheless, she had lived there long enough now to manoeuvre her way through the litter that had piled up through public carelessness. Beside her, the river tried to follow its course, but it was clogged with plastic bags that slackened its flow, so that it appeared a grey sludge. Its delightful aroma wafted into the woman's nose as she raced across the bridge, into the field. There, at the heart, was a great shed, which had fallen into abeyance in spite of the vehement protestations of the public.
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As she trudged through the tall grass of the fields towards that shed, it manifested itself more clearly. Four windows. A wooden door. A roof of thatch. Moss and weeds in every nook and cranny. A sea of grass encircling it. Its withering state did not deter her: with a frenzied haste, perhaps to make up time the grass had robbed of her, she kicked down the door of the building (if so it may be called). Out of her pockets, she drew a torch, turned it on. With the torch in one hand and the doll in the other, she proceeded to conduct a search of the room. A plywood table, draped in dust. A shelf with countless jars of bolts and nails. Garden tools. Leaves and twigs. Nothing of use. What about under the table? Surely nothing. But regardless, she dived onto the floor, and to her arrant surprise, her face lit up. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, she thought. That was it. The key, the solution, the gateway: a power supply. She hugged the doll, caressed it with affection. She whispered to it, "Oh, darling. I won't be long, I promise. Soon, very soon, we shall speak again."
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But presently she collected her thoughts; now was not the time for sentimentality. Not now. Not at this critical moment. She connected the doll to the power supply with two crocodile clips and switched it on to its maximum voltage. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, she waited, her mouth contorting into a smile at the allusion. But unlike the hubristic doctor, she would love the doll with all her heart; she would take responsibility for it as if it were a precious piece of jewellery of ineffable worth. Pressing her ears against the heart of the doll, she sought to hear a pulse, anything. After what seemed a lifetime to her, there came a lub dub. Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub. She was overcome by a swoon of relief, but instead of falling to the ground, she clutched tightly onto the doll. "My baby, my child," she whispered softly, tears trickling down her face, tears of unadulterated joy. "Thank the Lord!" she cried. Several minutes of silence ensued, during which the woman whispered to the animated doll with affection. Then, after that period had elapsed, she unplugged the doll from the power supply, slowly so as not to cause any harm to it.
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A sigh of relief. The baby doll still breathed; its little heart still pumped; it was still alive. With the utmost degree of care, she took the baby from the plywood table and tore through the door of the shed. To her, neither the maze of grass nor the claggy mud were obstacles: she bolted through the field, over the bridge, down the street, straight into her front door. She slammed the door behind her, and sprinted up the stairs, not checking if anyone had entered the house, not even taking her filthy shoes off. No, into her room she went, gently placing the baby onto her bed. Breathe. She exhaled deeply, knowing now that she was safe, that everything was in order again. It was very late: her watch said five minutes past two. There were probably still some shops open for baby food, but she opted instead to wait tomorrow, fearing what would happen if she were to leave her golden prize alone. Her thoughts drifted back to her infant, and she gazed adoringly at it as it slept there on her bed, as quiet as a doll. She walked over to the bed, and gently stroked it. Oddly, there was no reaction. She spoke softly to it. No reaction. She nuzzled its hair. No reaction. She touched it again. No reaction. Desperately now, she felt its pulse; there was none. A hideous scream came from the woman, piercing through the window, all the way through the neighborhood, through the town, through the country. It must have been heard even in Berlin amidst the celebrations of the Fall.
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The world was indeed godless.

<< The flickering red lights felt like they had a soul of their own. The beat dropped and the boom resounded in every clubber’s soul. The concussion blasts reverberated through the ears of the hundreds of people either yelling "what" at one another or pretending to hear what the other person had actually said and laughing drunkenly. There was a mosh pit of desperate souls holding out their cash at the bar hoping only one of the two bartenders would notice, there was the inevitable drunk dude-bro who wanted to start a fight, and there was a fair share of drunk unconsciousness. The “Rotterdam Club” was Stephen’s favorite place of business. It was wall to wall people dancing erratically and the floor itself had become invisible under a sea of dancing feet. Despite it being hard to navigate through this mass of people, Stephen was like a fish in the water. He squeezed his way through the mass and could notice scattered pairs of interested eyes among the clubbers, some of these guests gave nods or even went out of their way to seek Stephen out. Then, Stephen would listen to their wants, swiftly bury his hand in his bum bag, and nonchalantly exchange a handshake with the customer where money and pills would be exchanged. However, this specific night, Stephen wasn’t feeling right. For the last month, Stephen had been experiencing insomnia due to a series of weird nightmares, strange dreams which seemed to grow intense night after night. And in the last few days, a dark girl was frequently appearing in these dreams, a dark girl with dark omens. At the third hour after midnight, Stephen stopped in the middle of the club as all the clubbers formed a cyclone of drunken dancing, he stood still in the middle. As his eyes were scanning the venue for something interesting, his gaze fell on an intriguing dark silhouette facing away from him. A pale woman with a beautifully twisted aura stood still just like him a few feet in front of him. Finally she turned around and she stared back…as if she knew him, as if he knew her. And Stephen’s mind finally solved the puzzle as this girl’s image erupted in his stream of fractured memories…The girl in his nightmares, in his dreams, the dark omen, the goth girl who dies holding his hand. And for that moment…time stopped. >>
Hey, I’m looking for a semi-literate partner to roleplay with. The story will take place in a rather big city which hides a few esoteric secrets. The vibe would be something in the middle between Stephen King-esque grittiness, Lovecraftian existential dread, and the interpersonal horror of The World of Darkness universe in addition to some Silent Hill bizarreries. Therefore, the themes of this story will be tied to esoteric thriller mysteries, interpersonal horror, and unattainable (toxic?) love which is my favorite thing to write/read about.
If this genre of horror, thriller, and dark low fantasy interests you. If stories of secret witch covens, underground cults, esoteric beings, and half-dead gods and demons entices you, or if you’re, just like me, a hardcore Silent Hill fan, then this RP might be real fun and a nice writing exercise in the genre for you. So, come join me and let’s dive deep into this city’s intricate web of enigmas. A city where a girl recently died in mysterious conditions, where a boy is struggling with hallucinations of another world, where a man with glowing eyes is driving around at night hunting, where a veteran of war is following the possible trail of a murder cult, and where a school teacher is struggling to hide her true nature and true potential, all the while desperately and madly falling in love with each other in a world that cannot allow it.
I play in third person and use ref pics. I would like my partner to be able to create and manage multiple “NPC” characters since I will be doing the same. Also I would like my partner to have autonomy and to create plotlines as they wish. I am not a GM so please don’t expect that of me. I do not have any clear ideas of where the story goes for now, I only have my character kinda figured out but I’m sure that we can come up with something good if we put both our visions together. Please message me only if you have a character in mind with a brief bio and a ref pic.

Inspiration can be a fickle thing. The muses may guide our hearts towards a particular passion, but they don’t always stick around to see us through it. As a child, Kousei Arima felt a natural attraction to the piano. He could play music by ear, was a gifted mimic, and had boat loads of potential to one day dominate the instrument. With the help and encouragement of a family friend, Kousei’s mom set him on his desired path, but life as a pianist was harder than he thought. Rather than playing for fun and expressing himself through music, she wanted him to be able to make a living through his music, so she went as hard on her little pianist as possible, going as far as to beat and abuse him if he underperformed or tried to play a piece in his own way. By the time the terminal illness she’d hid from him took it’s toll on her, his passion was gone, replaced with the cold, robotic delivery of one who could deliver a piece perfectly, but found no more joy in doing so. He lost his mother, along with his ability to hear the notes he was playing.
Two years later and about three feet taller(I’ll GET to that), Kousei still tinkers around with the piano, but hasn’t played it seriously, to the chagrin of all who enjoyed his work, or just hate to see him so incomplete. It’s at this point, like all down-trodden men who’ve lost their luster for life, that along comes that one girl to bring color back into his world. Her name is Kaori Miyazono, and she’s a violinist who cares nothing for rules or convention, finding childish but somehow wise joy in every aspect of life, and with this one chance meeting, Kousei finds a new muse… A capricious, cheerful beauty whose revisionist musical performances instantly connect with the crowds she plays for, and whom seems singularly obsessed with performing alongside Kousei, and helping him to relaunch the career that he’d so recently abandoned. But her dedication to helping him to overcome his tragedy hides a secret tragedy of her own, and one simple lie she told back in April will live on to define their relationship as they change each others lives through mutual inspiration.
I haven’t seen everything that’s been produced by A-1 pictures, but I honestly can’t remember seeing anything they’ve done that looked outright bad. Sure, Sword Art Online and From the New world looked a little sloppy at times, resorting to broken character models to show fluid motion at reduced costs, but if that’s the worst they can do, then they could do a lot worse. They seem to take a lot of care with their work, putting an admirable amount of effort into quality control, like letting a low budget get the better of them would be an insult to their pride or something, and if that observation is correct, then I like the way they think. I’ve noticed that they generally have a penchant for putting a lot of energy into special effects, and then using just enough budget saving tricks to compensate without going overboard or letting it become noticeable. Key frames are well drawn and pleasing to the eye, and they feature a little more than just flapping mouths, with occasional shifts in posture to keep the characters expressive.
Of course, there don’t need to be special effects in a show about musicians, right? Wrong. Not only are special textures like water given special treatment, but we often get visual representations of the emotions brought out by a piece of music, which use environmental and 3D effects to keep our attention during the sequence, especially towards the end when Kousei and Kaori are playing together in a fantasy sequence, and the camera liberally revolves around a beautifully 3D animated piano. The characters also have a lot of inner monologuing that’s shown to us in artistic fashion, reminiscent of His and Hers Circumstances, but what I found the most impressive was the actual animation of the characters playing their instruments on stage. I can’t confirm this, but I have heard from a few people that A-1 pictures used a technique similar to rotoscoping, and I feel no justification for doubting this rumor, as every movement of the performing musicians, from fingers on the keys to the way the bow’s movements perfectly matches the music of the violin.
It would be so easy to get away with having a still image on screen while only the performers arms moved, and more intense note being played offscreen while only the audience’s frozen faces of adoration are showcased, but as I said, that would be an insult to A-1. Kousei, Kaori and several others put their entire bodies into their performances, losing themselves in it, and you feel every drop of their adrenaline. Character designs are beautifully polished and easy on the eyes, with it’s only major departure from reality being that the musician characters look a little more distinctive and exuberant than non-musicians, like Kousei’s friends. Well, okay, there is one other unrealistic detail that bothered me a bit… The difference in height between 14 year old characters and themselves at 12 is fucking insane. My jaw dropped when they said that Kousei quit the piano at 12, because he was so short that when he sat on the bench his feet didn’t even touch the ground. I could have sworn he was, like, 6 or something. It’s my only real issue with the visuals, but it’s still a pretty jarring one.
The music of the series… Do I even have to say it? It’s a series about musicians, and you can’t do something like that if you don’t have the knowledge or resources to pull it off, and they seriously pulled it off. Not only is it full of classical music, you can tell the difference in the way these pieces are being played, and the music that is meant to inspire and astound people does exactly that to the audience as well as the characters. From what I gather, Yuna Shinohara, a decorated Japanese violinist who was only 21 at the time, played the music for Kaori, and her wealth of training and experience did not go to waste. I can’t find as much information on Eriko Kawachi, who played all of the piano pieces, which is unfortunate. The show’s actual soundtrack was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and while it isn’t as memorable or powerful as the character-based performances, it’s still solid and well-orchestrated, so it’s a shame it gets overlooked in favor of the insert tunes.
The English dub was produced by Aniplex, and features a lot of newer actors from this decade, alongside a few industry veterans. I’d like to say these newcomers step up and use this show as a platform to make a name for themselves, but I’d be stretching the truth a bit, mostly on account of the many loops that Your Lie’s text throws them for. Their performances were not consistent, which is a direct result of their material not being consistent, and I don’t really think it was fair for them to be thrown into something this eclectic. For the most part, they do a fine job voicing the characters while nothing’s really happening. It’s just characters talking to each other, sounding like natural teenagers going about their lives. Where they really shine is during dramatic scenes, and ho boy are there a lot of dramatic scenes in this anime. There’s a lot of pain, insecurities, confusion, all of that fun adolescent stuff, but with a much harsher but still believable edge to it once you realize the kind of real life circumstances that they’re dealing with.
While some of these issues may be worthy of an eyeroll from the viewer… Most of the characters who are in love with Kousei fall into this category… They’re going through issues that you probably had to deal with as well, and you can scoff at it from your seat as a grown up, or laugh at how silly it is for this obvious harem to try and be something more, they’re feeling something you’ve felt at some point, whether you remember it or not, and they damn well make you feel it. The exception, where several otherwise amazing actors begin to falter… Is with the gag humor, when the characters go SD Chibi for exaggerated reactions, and I don’t think they were ready to transition the specific roles they were playing into it. Max Mittelman, for example, is one of the best voice actors to come out of the 2010’s, and even though he hasn’t been acting long, his voice control and dramatic chops have landed him plenty of leading roles. He can do comedy under the right circumstances… You’d know what these circumstances are if you’ve seen One Punch Man… But he sounds horrible during the gag jokes.
It’s even worse for Erica Lindbeck, who had a tough job playing such a nuanced character as Kaori, whose happy-go-lucky persona hides a darker interior, and she does a great job of it, but the gag scenes just make her sound like a despicable asshole. Smaller characters face the same issue, albeit on a smaller scale, but the few veterans are able to navigate the minefield a lot more skillfully, like Wendee Lee(Who, in all fairness, never has to do a gag scene), Stephanie Sheh and Carrie Keranen. They have the experience to stretch their roles beyond the appropriate tones, which comes in handy here. The adaptive script is loose, but still accurate enough, and changes the vernacular so everyone sounds more like contemporary English, without ever sacrificing the intent of the text. They make a handful of charming and character-appropriate references, like occasional nods to Charlie Brown and The Phantom of the Opera, although they also use the phrase ‘as you know’ a few too many times. They probably should have changes some of the text, as a lot of it, when translated, sounds weird coming from 14 year olds.
Okay, so, here we are again. It wasn’t too long ago that I was calling out modern anime fans for letting their emotions cloud their judgement, saying that they often give perfect scores to any anime that makes them cry. Seriously, you could give a critic a massage, a home cooked meal and the best sex of their life and you’d still be working harder for a 10/10 than most anime do. Back in 2016, I’d just uploaded my reviews of Clannad and Clannad Afterstory, and I asked social media to recommend an anime that had genuine feels… nothing manipulative, nothing manufactured, nothing too formulaic, just an anime that would touch me emotionally and make me cry with sincerity. The overwhelming answer was Your Lie in April, a show I’d been avoiding due to all of the hype. I finally gave it a watch, and did it stand up as a heartfelt masterpiece, or did it offer the same old same old? Well, to be honest,it’s a little of both. My feelings on this show were mixed the first time around, and the second viewing hasn’t changed that.
Unfortunately, Your Lie doesn’t get off to a great start. The first thing we see is a foul ball hitting our man character in the head, lying on the floor and bleeding with what has to be a serious concussion, but not only does he heal immediately, but he shares the blame for the broken window the ball flew through. That’s not just bad, that’s disturbingly bad. It sets an early precedent for him being a sad sack with no will of his own, which I guess is kind of accurate, but it also makes his closest friend look like a monster for taking advantage of it(Trust me, this feeling is only gonna get worse.) I try to move past this, but almost immediately, it becomes apparent that all three of Kousei’s friends are some of my least favorite cliches in anime history. His two primary friends are Tsubaki and Watari, and they are… Respectively… A childhood friend who’s hopelessly in love with the main character, and a girl crazy guy who exists to make the main character feel desirable in comparison. I am so sick and tired of these two archetypes being stuck in orbit around at least half of the main characters in the medium.
And Kaori’s worse, because she’s a trope that I usually don’t see in anime, and I’m not complaining about that. She’s happy-go-lucky, she’s childish, she’s an enlightened soul who’s able to see all of the simple joy in life, and she comes out of nowhere to dedicate her life to dragging the main male character out of the slumps. She is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is to sexism what the Magical Negro trope is to racism. Granted, she deconstructs the trope a little bit, as she actually has a backstory and a reason to help Kousei, but she makes up for that small silver lining by taking the “Life begins at man” trope to a new extreme, as “Life begins AND ENDS at man.” I’ll give her this, she IS the reason I kept watching the series, as I was entranced by her violin performance in episode 2, and she made me want to keep watching so I could hear more of her work, which sounded even better when she played with Kousei. On top of that, she plays an important… Dare I say instrumental… Role in Your Lie’s deeper themes.
Your Lie in April is a story about inspiration, and it attacks this concept from every possible angle. As annoying and cliched as his friends may be, Kousei is a good character who has a great arc that deals with this theme. He begins as a child, having fun doing something that he’s gifted at, until he stops doing it for fun and starts doing it as a future career, being forced to perfect it and take it seriously by his mother, who pushes him to the point of abuse. She controls his life, making everything he does revolve around the piano, even taking away his cat and abandoning it somewhere so it can’t scratch his hands. He loses the ability to hear the notes he’s playing, and quits altogether to avoid his mother’s tyranny along with the intense pressure she put on him for not being good enough. On the surface, this is a very mature look at child abuse and the way it can have long term psychological effects on the developing mind, such as Kousei’s performance anxiety, and especially the fact that cats pose a trigger for him(And I mean the actual definition of trigger, not the bullshit internet definition), and the abuse in question is realistic, rather than cartoony or melodramatic.
Below the surface, this is a story for anyone who’s ever lost their passion for something they once loved. The idea that expressive and interpretive music is frowned upon, and only literal performances are acceptable in competition, which is enforced by both the competition committee and Kousei’s mother, gives an understandable reason for his loss of inspiration. His music was becoming routine, and pointless. I don’t think his inability to hear the notes he’s playing is realistic at all, but it’s symbolic for that loss of passion. When your work becomes routine, it becomes repetitive, and it finally becomes robotic. When your hobby becomes work, you fall out of love with it, which is why Kaori coming into his life was such a major turning point for him. She showed him that there was another way to play. She inspires him, breathing new life into his abilities, and helps him to separate his passion from the pain and sadness that he’d come to associate it with, and it changes his life in so many ways… He starts playing again, he comes out of his shell, and he even begins teaching a younger pianist… That he winds up inspiring her in return.
They also make an argument that you play even better when you’re playing for other people, and while I’ve never personally agreed with that, they make a compelling case. Your own music, your own performances, are not your only legacy. The music you inspire others with is just as important, as your work also lives on through their work. They make a great point when they say that it’s hard to play the piano when you compare yourself to Beethoven, but it’s not nearly as hard when you remember that Beethoven was once just like you, a rookie trying his best to measure up to the greats who inspired HIM. It’s a shame they had to resort to a manic pixie dream girl in order to pull this off, but it’s largely forgivable, especially considering certain reveals that happen in the final episode. So yeah, this is not a shallow series. There is meat to the story, and something meaningful that you can get out of watching it. I’d be happy to say that the series was also executed well, but sadly, this is where things start to break down.
The text of the series, for example, is severely lacking. The idea of inspiration and Kousei’s character arc are well written and exactly as subtle as it needs to be, but the other subplots… The romantic ones in particular… Are annoyingly obvious, and frankly, kind of arbitrary. I mentioned Tsubaki as a ‘childhood friend’ earlier, and while this should instantly telegraph that she’ll never get her guy… They never fucking do… She does absolutely nothing else to justify her presence. Everything about her revolves around her love for Kousei and why he won’t respond to it. Every aspect of her life ties in somehow to her love for him, and since it amounts to nothing, she could have been written out in the first half of the series. I won’t go into too much detail about the other romantic subplot, or how it offers Watari his only relevance to the plot(although he does have a few moments relating to the theme), but they commit one other huge mistake… They use constant, and I mean constant, voice over narration from the characters as they explain their feelings to the audience. It’s lame, it’s tedious, and it seems to be trying it’s best to keep YOU from thinking too hard about what you’re watching, because it doesn’t want the pointless teenage melodrama to lose it’s effect.
Another huge problem is the gag humor, which feels viscerally inappropriate and out of place. It makes the heavier themes of the show harder to swallow, and not just on an aesthetic level. For example: We see Kousei sustain head injuries during two of these gags, that result in him lying on the floor and bleeding out. We also see Kaori hit him right in the crown of the head with an axe kick, driving her heel down into his skull. Now, if these instances didn’t cause any lasting damage, and the people doing it are supposed to be seen as likable, how am I supposed to feel when his mother beats him in the head with her cane? I’ve seen him shrug off shit like that before, so I don’t care. Am I supposed to feel different because of the tone of the scenes? This isn’t the fucking Looney Toons. Hell, even the Looney Toons had consistency. I can’t be expected to believe that a portion of the material shown to me doesn’t count just because the writer was making a joke. That’s disgusting. I’ve complained about Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood making this mistake, but Your Lie is just as bad.
And then you have the plot, which did not work for me at all. Like, I said the themes were strong in this series, but they suffered one major setback. Kousei’s mother physically abused him and forced him to play music the way she wanted him to, all because she thought it was in his best interest. His friends, however, do exactly the same thing. Sure, they might not take away his beloved pet, but they still harass him, assault him, chase him, break into his room and generally act like complete assholes in order to get their way. He warns that his performance might not be good, he falters due to a psychological breakdown, Kaori has Tsubaki and Watari start roundhouse kicking him, and HE apologizes. How are they any different than his mother? Because it’s supposed to be comedic? I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the interactions he has with his friends make me cringe, with their only justifications being ‘comedy,’ and the fact that they just happened to wind up being right. So the ends justify the means.
And then you have Kaori’s entire plot, which… Okay, I’m going to try not to go into spoilers, but if you’ve seen the show, you know damn well what I’m talking about. And this is the big one, the one that makes everybody praise the show out the wazoo, so I’ll try to be gentle. At the end of episode 4, Kaori faints on stage. At that moment, even though I was trying to enjoy the series despite it’s flaws, I couldn’t help it. I knew where this was going. I said, “Oh fuck, she’s gonna (censored), isn’t she?” I am dead serious about that. The beginning of the fifth episode featured her in the hospital, and folks, I predicted everything. I knew what was going to happen to her, i knew she was keeping it secret, I knew that it was going to be kept deliberately vague all the way to the end, I knew I’d never hear her play again(outside of maybe a dream or fantasy sequence), I knew what her backstory and connection to Kousei was going to be.
Knowing this stuff in advance took a huge damper off of the emotional impact of literally any point of the show. Granted, I did make one prediction that wasn’t true. I predicted we’d never meet her parents, which I wish had turned out true, because her parents are… Brace yourself for this… They’re Nagisa’s parents from Clannad. They are literally that. They own a pastry shop, they’re wacky and over-the-top, they live in said shop, and… Well, there’s one other spoiler connection, but that, along with a painful firefly sequence, made your Lie feel TERRIBLE at foreshadowing. I found myself, in both moments, shouting at my TV screen, “Okay, I get it, she’s gonna (censored), shut the fuck up about it!” So did the big bad tragedy work on me? No, of course it didn’t. The only part I got choked up at was a late scene when a cat died at a vet’s office, because it brought up painful memories for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something here, and it does make the experience a rewarding one, but it just couldn’t stick the landing.
Your Lie in April is available as a Rightstuf Exclusive, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price is offensively high. Even on sale as part of the site’s holiday deals, it’ll still costed 130 dollars for each HALF of the series, down from 160 dollars regular price. Used copies on ebay go for as low as 60 dollars for each HALF, and I can not recommend you pay that much for an overrated series. You can watch it for free on Netflix, but if you absolutely need a physical copy, I’d actually go against my better judgement and recommend the Malaysian bootlegs on Ebay, which do come with a dub for a fraction of the official price. The manga is available from Kodansha comics, and volume 1 even comes with a sweet exclusive cover if you get it from Loot Crate. The live action movie is probably available stateside, but from what I’ve heard about it, I don’t care enough to check.
Your Lie in April isn’t a great anime, but it’s also not a terrible one. So, overall, is it good or bad? Well, to be honest, I didn’t enjoy the vast majority of it. I found the gag humor annoying and in bad taste, I found the comedic violence way too similar to some of the tragic material, there are too many cliches, and I caught on to some of the more important plot points way too early to fall for them. Having said that, I can’t say the experience was a bad one. The themes of Kousei’s character arc resonated very strongly with me, as someone who’s currently falling out of love with a long time hobby, and while I found his friends to be wholly unlikeable, his piano rivals were much more interesting, and I actually want to see more of him interacting with them. The final tragedy would have been a lot stronger if it hadn’t been so obvious, or if it at least had a proper explanation, and you can’t possibly deny that the audio and visual production went beyond top notch. It had a lot of problems, but honestly, it’s an okay show. It doesn’t live up to the hype, but it’s worth checking out. I’m being generous here, but I’ll give Your Lie in April a 6/10.

A day late but we're here, my little cheeto eaters! Remember as always to grab your bingo cards and let's get our little long weekend slumber party going. This whole fucking thing is FORTY MINUTES LONG, you're all lucky that my sibling who was supposed to spend the day chilling at my place has apparently forgotten that plan.
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• There's a new opening style than all her other vlogs. Not sure if that's because of Morgan but also I don't care enough to go hunt down exactly which influencer she cribbed this style from. It features a lot of horse butts. Also her using her phone in bed, which I thought she didn't do because she's mindful.
  • The music she uses is this song, which is DEFINITELY not copyright-free, so have fun learning how actual copyright law works, Paige! The lyrics playing over the are "there are times when/it feels right to/run away, run away/when you ask the same old questions/every day, every day/Why do I set the stage?/Why do I find my place on the pedestal?", because I guess Paige went to the Love is Blind school of "make sure the lyrics of whatever song you use are really, REALLY literal"
• Giveaway winners! Congrats to the three people who won a pile of Paige's old garbage! Don't worry though, if you didn't win her trash, she'll be doing a lot more of these because she "appreciates [us] guys so much" and "wants us to experience some of the things that I'm so grateful to get".
  • Nothing says grateful like giving away your extras to strangers and instead of doing anything to promote them like you were supposed to in return for getting them for free, using the existence of this stuff as a way to leverage yourself up on the algorithm.
    • There's also Dairy Boy in the giveaways, of course, because no one's buying it organically.
• She explains moving Louie, it's the same stuff she said on Instagram. Weirdly horses are like the only animal I've never gotten super obsessed with, so I have no idea how BS this is, but it's almost word-for-word her IG explanation, so it's the same level of BS that was. She does word this though as it being a "charity project" and "passion project" she "donated to", because there was a dearth I guess of places to keep your horse in the rich people part of Connecticut.
  • She has to first run to get a grazing muzzle so Louie doesn't overeat in the pasture. This sets off my internal bad animal treatment alarms in a huge way, but again, don't know enough about horses to know if this is warranted.
• Just kidding! Don't let Paige into a Tractor Supply unsupervised, she's too much of a ~country girl~ to not come out with "so much shit". She also got this beef jerky that looked "so good". It's Iowa Smokehouse beef jerky.
  • It apparently looked good because all she had for breakfast was coffee. Why she only had coffee I'm not sure, since it's not like she didn't have the time to get something better. Coffee and beef jerky for breakfast sure is a choice, and one I'm sure her intestines didn't make her pay for later. This summer is all about ~hot girl indigestion~.
  • Story time! This looks like "legit, real beef jerky", which Paige knows because when Paige was in boarding school she stayed with a family who had a lot of cows and they made their own beef jerky, which Paige was of course intimately involved in, I'm sure. Anyway this makes her have such high standards, which is why she loves when somewhere like Tractor Supply (an enormous fucking chain, Paige) or a "local country mart" sells jerky because it's always better.
    • Fun fact that took me less than thirty seconds to Google, this "real" beef jerky is also available on Amazon
• More of the same definitely not copyrighted song as she packs up Louie's stuff and moves him. There's a lot of woman laughing alone with salad shots as she packs up and pretends to talk to... someone and "carry stuff" (ie: stand around touching her own body awkwardly)
• Some weird things about this whole sequence - 1) the "farm" she moves Louie to appears to have very poor, dilapidated fencing, red flag for me. 2) Paige is wearing a white shirt and then a white cardigan the entire time while DEALING WITH A HORSE and it never gets stained or dirty, which tells me she did fuck all, 3) the only guy with her is this big bald much older man who I assume is the guy starting this venture, meaning he's almost certainly who films her cantering around on Louie without her wearing a helmet laughing, which is so unbearably awkward. Like imagine asking a random older dude to film you doing that in a pure white sweater, 4) when Paige brushes Louie he sheds SO MUCH. Is that bad? It feels bad. When a dog sheds that much, even in the spring, it usually means no one's been brushing it regularly, 5) Louie has such a dip in his back and it makes me wince every time, especially when Paige shows him next to another horse. I don't know what that's from, but I hate it and it doesn't look comfortable for him.
• Nance and Baloo are at home when Paige gets back so she's just going to "throw on a little outfit" and they're going to go out for Mother's Day in Brooklyn. Paige really, really didn't want to go into the city because I guess she's suuuuch a country girl (nice, Paige) but she's doing it for her mom and to see her sister
  • Oh my god she DOESN'T CHANGE HER SHIRT FROM THE BARN, she wears a white henley, what look like blue pajama pants, and a leather coat.
  • Nance steals some of Paige's clothes (how I don't know since they're totally different sizes) and according to Paige is"slaying the boots", a phrase I will pay actual cash money to never hear Paige say again
• Next morning, return of the out of focus camera, though it may have been by accident this time because it stays out of focus. Anyway serious business Paige with her serious business glasses is starting the day with some "desk work". Is that a thing? A phrase? What the fuck is "desk work"? Has anyone who actually does work at a desk ever called it that?
  • When she's in Europe it's definitely harder for her to sit and do computer work even though she has a laptop but starting the day on her desktop at the same time as her "whole team" (WHO) it really makes a difference for them being all on the same page.
    • Okay so my actual job in real life is doing shipping and order management for a small creative goods company. I know very intimately what goes into product development, order fulfillment, etc, and Paige is just straight up saying nonsense. Like I paused and gave serious thought to what possibly she could be talking about, and I don't know what all this "work" is. If she was making everything in-house that's one thing, but that's not work she could possibly be doing or overseeing from Europe. But if she's outsourcing stuff, having it sent to a warehouse, and, then paying someone to ship it out for her, I guess she's doing... development? But that makes no sense because again, she outsources everything. She isn't doing wholesale, there isn't a lot to arrange for pop-ups if everything is outsourced and pre-made and she's only supposedly having one this summer, she only has eight products so the website maintenance is pretty easy, as is accounting, and she only really sells stuff around a drop which she does maybe twice a year.......... like genuinely I'm baffled here. It's my job to do this exact same thing every day with products that aren't jeans or sweatshirts or whatever and I'm so, confused about what her "work" is.
    • Allegedly they're on the "final push" for so many big projects and you know what, if any of these projects involve Paige actually doing anything besides feeling three different samples of denim swatches or deciding which vendor she's going to outsource oven mitts to and saying "I like this" or "I don't like that", I will issue her an apology. I feel safe in the idea that I won't have to issue her an apology, but I will keep on on offer in the off-chance I'm wrong.
    • She just finished making a line sheet (genuine lol once I looked up what that was) and apparently we are going to freeeeak out when we see her new merch - sorry, elevated lifstyle products.
    • It's denim. She's been working on denim. She shows us the final washes but it's in direct sunlight so it's all blown out and out of focus so they look mostly white? But she got the "perfect color". IDK, it's a light wash. I prefer dark wash, actually. It's a lot more flattering and forgiving. But we've already determined my aesthetic and Paige's aesthetic are not the same aesthetic. She's nobly pushed back production six months because she refused to do a full run unless the wash was absolutely perfect. It was so expensive but she needed to love love love the denim, because it's really what she's passionate about and what she wants to do, she wants to be the best denim brand out there. You know, because she's hand-making this denim herself, not just sending instructions to low-wage Chinese workers while being afforded the privilege to fuss over the perceived quality for six months because she has parents who are willing to flush money down the toilet on this. Also, for the record, but denim is like... a choice? Like what is the vision, exactly, because every clothing retailer has some version of denim and people are already super married to their faves, so how exactly is this business model working for her, here. And it doesn't look like stretch denim either, which means it's going to fit a very, very narrow group of body types. Like speaking from ample experience crying in GAP dressing rooms over my "freakish" (read, not built like a popsicle stick) as a teenager in a time before jeggings, jeans are not forgiving and easily worn by everyone. The thing about what Paige is doing so far is that it's universal enough. You don't have to really tailor an oversized sweatshirt or trucker hat to fit you. Everyone can make room for another overpriced candle. But denim??? IDK girl, you do you.
• Paige makes Olivia a latte. Olivia comes in and say it's story time about coffee. Paige asks if she should turn off the camera for this and Olivia says no so Paige continues to film herself preening while Olivia tells her a story about how messy she is frothing milk. Paige spends the entire time interrupting her to go "no! No! No! No!"
  • They look at buttons and rivets and embossed leather patches for the back, and then sweatpants leg panel samples. Baloo hangs out with them and Paige tells him he's stinky. She eats toast.
    • WHAT IS THE POINT OF ANY OF THIS. She's not DESIGNING anything, she's just doing that thing like, you know when you're choosing your racer in Mario Kart and there are a couple hundred variations of wheels and chassis and you just choose the unique combos you want to put together? She's doing that but with generic clothing. I've been jokingly referring to her stuff as "elevated Zazzle" but this isn't even Zazzle because Zazzle you UPLOAD ACTUAL ARTWORK TO. Why is she re-inventing the wheel? What improvements does she think she's making TO A PROVERBIAL WHEEL.
• Not sponsored showing off gifting time! It's not in focus at all so we can't really see any of the products (professional!). One of the products she mentions is that she's friends with CYNTHIA ROWLEY'S DAUGHTER who has nepo baby'd her way into dropping oven mitts and aprons that look like Strawberry Shortcake's rejects. Like they're cute, but they're again little strawberries on white. Like tell me none of you silver spoon-ass bitches cook without telling me by making WHITE OVEN MITTS. Those will turn yellowish and burnt after, what a single batch of brownies? Taking a piece of toast out?
  • This haul includes her tennis Tommy bag. Not sure how she got it since she brags about it being "sold out everywhere even Poshmark and depop"
  • There is sooooooo much of this free bullshit. How does she even get this much free bullshit. Why do companies waste so much money sending this to people like Paige who don't fucking care and openly give it away. What is the point of an influencer. IDK at this point I'm spiraling, this vlog is like a third of the way through and nothing has happened.
• Paige unpacks with Nance. She has so many clothes and I don't think she's worn any of them. Full disclosure that this was the point I actually got annoyed and had to take a break and play some video games for fifteen minutes because while growing up comfortably or on the upper end of middle class in a generational wealth type of town has taught me a lot of patience for people with too much money, there is at some point a limit to how conspicuous over-consumption and waste I can handle, and that point for me came when I saw how many sweaters Paige has that look like they've never been worn. And the on top of this she has a giant suitcase of stuff she's going to depop! The environment? Never heard of her.
• Paige is going to get groceries. She's needed Nance's help to do all the hard stuff she's had to do today like going grocery shopping and having soooo many clothes. She goes to Trader Joe's, then goes to a horse shop and of course buys MORE SHIT SHE DOESN'T NEED. I'm not condoning what the French did when they invented the guillotine, like that was really violent and horrible, but the point is that the longer I watch this vlog the more I'm understanding their motivations.
• Paige goes on a sunset ride with her friend Lauren, this song plays in the background as a flagrant copyright violation, I realize at this point that there's no way this video is going to stay up without Youtube copyright striking it so I have to be extra detailed for posterity and we still have so much to go and this is going to take forever. Louie's back still looks horrible and as someone with inherited lordosis, I feel for him.
• Tommy facetime! He says exactly one sentence and catches a tiny fish, for those of you keeping track on your Bingo cards.
• Nance is still over Paige's house when Paige gets back because she never leaves. Paige is wearing old Dairy Boy sweats. At this point when I scrolled down to press the play button again I realized that Nance has posted a comment about how proud she is of Paige within seconds of the video being uploaded. I live with my mother and sometimes I still need her help on stuff like yelling at health insurance until they cover stuff for me and even I am confused by how codependent their relationship is. Like doesn't Nance have her own house? A husband? Other children? Paige has spent this entire vlog needing Nance's help to do everything from grocery shopping to folding laundry and acting like a teenager. It's a rich text for a therapist to one day unpack.
  • It's Taco Monday, this is just a dumb and boring version of Paige performing the white people taco night song. Also bewildering, Paige seemingly DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO MAKE TACO STUFF. It involves almost no cooking! She even bought the spices pre-packaged! She needs Nance's help on this too!
  • Undisclosed new cooking knife brand product placement. They are amazed that it............slices.
    • OH NO SHE SAYS SLAYING WITH BOOTS AGAIN ABOUT THE KNIFE END THIS MISERY
  • Ahahhahah the reason they're so impressed is because they've apparently been cooking with unsharpened knives. Like Paige didn't know you could sharpen knives. A master chef, ladies and gentlemen!
• Oh god we're only halfway through. Paige wakes up the next morning. She got so freckly yesterday (read: she's courting melanoma and is going to age like a raisin). She's going to go play tennis at a club in Greenwich her parents are members at (Note, she shows the logo which means you can spend five seconds googling to discover it's this club. Membership is invite only and it's gauche apparently to discuss how much membership costs, but the estimate is EIGHTY GRAND A YEAR. To be clear, that is nearly THREE TIMES the average American household income. Paige is the child of people who spend more in one year to play tennis a few times a week than most people do getting fucking doctorates, which clears up a few things for me: one, I've never gotten those texts where she casually demands Morgan Wallen pay her back tens of thousands of dollars like it's $50, but I guess to her it is like $50, and two, why everything about Paige and how she acts towards people and money in this video is a million times more effective at radicalizing people on economic policy than anything Bernie Sanders has ever lain awake at night dreaming of.
  • Camera going in and out of focus during this explanation.
  • Ah she's doing it with her mom. Again. Heaven forbid Paige breathe without Nance.
  • Oh also she has to shoot an ad in the tennis dress, but she definitely likes and would go to play tennis anyway.
• More unboxing undisclosed adver- I mean PR.
  • I'm so serious, tthe flagrant wealth being thrown around in this video and the amount of free stuff a trust fund baby with absolutely no merits or skills whatsoever is getting because she has 300K followers on Instagram that she probably bought half of is like the best argument for socialism I have ever seen.
• .Paige gets dressed in the third outfit of the day to go to the dentist. The pants are pointedly too big on her so they don't stay up in the waist and create this weird enormous kangaroo pouch around her crotch. She pairs that with a toddler sized medium t-shirt for a football team she's probably never heard of, a choker that looks like something a boy band member in the early 2000's would wear but out of fake pearls, and cowboy boots. It's... the look sure is looking, let's just say that.
• Paige opines on how much she prefers to do vlogs at home, but don't worry, she won't stop doing travel vlogs for us! (Oh thank goodness, where would we be without the insights we get from them.) She feels like they add variety to her channel (what, no, we LOVE coming with you to the barn to watch you ride without a helmet over unsourced music! five times a vlog!). Sometimes she feels like there's this pressure to show us as much as she can, which explains why all we see in her travel vlogs is hotel room bathrooms, tennis matches, and the tops of various tabletops in restaurants. Anyway she feels like there's pressure because in reality she's there for Tommy. Which we KNOW, that's the entire PROBLEM, Paige. If you were HONEST about the fact that being a WAG on tour sucks and you don't get to actually see the places you're pretending to really go and immerse yourself in, we WOULD HAVE FEWER COMPLAINTS AND YOU'D FEEL LESS ANXIETY, the problem is that you have to keep compulsively lying about how cultured you are and how you really ~got a feel~ for the location. Just stop lying!!! Stop!!! Lying!!! Challenge!!!!! The anxiety you feel and the reason you have to monitor this subreddit comes from your CONSTANT LYING.
  • Ugh she would NEVER have gone to ROME if it weren't for Tommy. I think this is a ploy for authenticity but boy is it coming across as privileged.
    • I do think in her own Paige way though this entire monologue she has is about something I've noticed her talking around a lot - I think she's afraid if she stops travelling and being a WAG no one will care about her. I think she's terrified of doing what makes her happy, which is being home, hanging out with her mom, riding her horses, and spending her parents' money. But if she just let herself do the things she actually liked and stopped trying to always pretend to be cooler and more interesting than she is, no one would keep paying attention to her, because it's not like she has a sparkling personality or wit or unique point of view. Like I'm an interesting person to talk to, but if I tried to make a vlog of my life it would be pretty boring. I work a 9-5 M-F job and the most interesting part of my life is when I go to a concert or craft fair on the weekend or one of my neighbors goes out of town and I watch their cat. It's not riveting, but I also don't need to be doing fascinating things in order to be or feel like an interesting person. But people like Paige who need to always be travelling and going to events and flaunting how busy they are are often really sad and empty people. They're not doing any of the little mundane things that make people happy and spending time connecting with the people around them, they're just always moving around because they're afraid if they stop for five seconds, people will see that the only thing they have going for them is all that movement and travelling. I think Paige is constantly torn between the anxiety that comes with constant travel and isolation and putting herself on display and removing herself from the things that bring her a sense of calm and security, and the anxiety that if she allows herself to feel calm and secure, she'll lose the attention she craves. IDK seems like a thing she shouldn't keep indirectly admitting to in vlogs, seems to kind of undercut half of her material, but what do I know.
  • Also she really is going to positively contribute to Tommy and his life and career, ie: she needs to go home and feels comforted by home because that's where her mom and Amanda wait on her hand and foot and everything is about her, which she misses when she's with Tommy because when she's on tour with Tommy she has to accept that he's the center of attention and she's not.
  • Her home vlogs have been performing the best, like, significantly. Since she probably buys views and comments, this just means she likes them better and therefore buys more engagement for them.
  • Apparently her analytics are telling her that 30% of her views are coming from the "explore" feature, which she says is YouTube rewarding her for being consistent, and, uh. No. Not how that works.
    • I mean yes if you buy engagement it will put you in the algorithm more, but this is the time in the video where she accidentally self-owns. If you're an actual channel getting actual views from people who actually enjoy watching you, then VERY LITTLE of your viewership should be coming from the "explore" feature, MOST of it should be coming from subscribers or regular viewers or people who watch similar content. That's how the majority of people watch YouTube or find new videos to watch. But if fully a third of your viewers are coming from what's essentially a randomizer button, that pretty much confirms Paige is buying views and/or that a lot of viewers leave after a minute or two. Because if her content was good on its own, people would see it and subscribe, and then she wouldn't need to rely on the "explore" feature. But if she, as she says, is consistently getting a third of her viewership from that feature, than that means that a third of people are just randomly watching whatever YouTube puts in front of them and not engaging with her at all, meaning the ONLY POSSIBLE explanation is that she's essentially buying enough engagement to keep appearing on the explore page, but buying the opportunity to be put in front of people isn't actually getting her a larger audience because what she's serving them is a warmed-over turd.
  • Anyway Paige is counting on you not knowing the extreme basics and trusting that she "knows someone who used to work at YouTube who told her that's how the algorithm works"
    • Um if you don't know about social media - no one who works at YouTube or any social media company knows how their algorithm works unless they're the ones writing it, and if they do know, they're not going to tell you because that's extremely valuable, proprietary information and also there's like a lot of papers and NDAs and non-competes they'd be breaking if they did. They're telling you to upload consistently because it's good FOR THE MEDIA COMPANY. The company is trading in being a content hub, so they need people to consistently be uploading content, ie: raising the value of their site in a way they don't have to pay for. That's the entire business model of every. Single. Digital media platform. Heck, that's how most dating apps work too. The product is data. They want you to be giving them free product.
  • "I don't know, like I don't like doing things just for social media anymore?" HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH
    • And a week later you spent a weekend attending influencer parties in the Hamptons for....... what exactly. The scintillating conversation?????
    • She's very quick to say that's not the case if she has to shoot an ad! Loves shooting ads! Please keep sending her free stuff!
    • God this is taking me multiple hours but at this point I've sunk too much time in and also am convinced this won't stay up for copyright issues, so I'm taking a break to like, stretch and clean the bathroom, anything to get me moving and listening to my own thoughts which are in complete sentences.
• I'm back after cleaning the bathroom. I've been at this so long that my sibling has shown up. But I only have ten minutes to go and I REFUSE TO GIVE UP. This whole completely unhinged and unintentionally revealing rant has approximately a trillion uses of the word "like" is from 21:00 to 26:00 and if you want to watch it you can. I probably should have transcribed it for a full AP Lit level analysis, but I'm tired. If we're lucky, when Paige tries to re-upload this with copyright-free music, she'll have kept that in there.
• Paige ordered a shed! She's so excited!
• The fence looks mildly less jacked up when they go back. Paige is brushing Louie constantly in this video. Fourth time I think we've seen her do this. I feel like there's a lot more to horse care than brushing them and she only shows us this part because it looks aesthetic and she doesn't do any of the actual hard or necessary parts like shoveling horse shit, but what do I know.
  • This sequence uses unsourced but definitely copyright song number three!
  • Fun fact: Paige is the same fake brown color as Louie's dappled neck. Aw, you know how pets eventually look like their owners? Cute.
  • Shout out to Paige's friend (perhaps Amanda? Olivia? Can't keep the preppy brunettes straight anymore) who actually wears a helmet riding.
• Next day, we open with a bit of this song (not sourced, copyright infringement number four, possibly more that at this point I no longer notice tbh). Paige puts on boots to go to the new shed and realizes the vlog is going to be so long because she's never done a whole week at a time before. Because I've made it this far, I'm the best. (Aw.)
  • Paige calls Tommy to wish him happy birthday and films it, which seems... odd. Especially since she doesn't film it in a way where he can see she's filming.
  • Paige gets tea for breakfast (nutritious) and a coffee for the guy at the barn we must have seen earlier. His name is Aaron. I could do some google sleuthing and find him probably, but I don't care. Paige met him going on trail rides at her old barn. Do middle aged men usually hang out at barns doing trail rides? Just scoping out young idiots with disposable income? The whole thing seems sus. Apparently he has like seven kids.
  • Paige never realized how expensive pre-made sheds were, but it's a local business that makes it by hand! I assume the local business is called Costco And Sons.
  • More uncredited The Shins plays as Paige only loads the shed with blankets and nothing heavy or unpicturesque.
  • Another Tractor Supply run, at this point they're who really should be sponsoring Paige
  • Paige goes to say goodbye to Louie and he HIDES FROM HER IN THE WOODS
    • Girl.
    • Oh my god no wonder he's mad at her, they've been staying somewhere WITHOUT A STRUCTURE. He's been sleeping OUTSIDE. It got into the 40's every night in New England last week!!!
• Out of focus Paige talking about how she had suuuuuch a long day "running errands". Olivia didn't get to join Paige on her little horse girl excursions because she had to be at the warehouse and onboarding a new DB employee. Anyway Paloma is in town now
  • Paige learns that apparently you're supposed to be washing veggies as she prepares things to grill. PAIGE HAS BEEN COOKING THIS WHOLE TIME NOT WASHING VEGGIES. I.......... I am going to need to be sedated after this.
• Paige exfoliates and puts on a definitely not sponsored face mask
  • She's wearing skiing pajamas. In case we forgot she was a skier. Did you know she was a skier????
    • PSYCH, these are from previous ads with PJ Place but actually she really likes these and this one ISN'T an ad she just loves the product so much
• Paige is doing her makeup! We're at the end stretch! I'm almost there!
  • She took a day off of vlogging to go see her grandparents, but immediately segues into her Ulta trip. Because of her stupid grandparents, she didn't get to go to the barn, frankly how can she survive in these conditions.
  • Dairy Boy phone case plug! She was soooo specific about what she likes in phone cases and definitely didn't just choose between Zazzle, Redbubble, or (insert other brand here)
    • It's a shitty thin cover that looks like it protects your phone from approximately nothing and should cost $10 but I estimate she'll sell it for at least $40
    • Of course because Paige was so super particular about the details and business-minded when it comes to quality it took a long time to make........phone cases.......
  • Tommy calls and says hi
  • Paige rambles about her day and makes coffee. Tommy sent her peonies because he's "so cute". We see the phone cases and they're weird and ugly. More "gifting" (undisclosed advertising) that came in the mail
• Paige makes pickled red onions, every time she does it she changes the recipe a little bit even though she totally has a recipe and isn't googling. She starts pickling carrots which she says are going to "go bad soon" (that takes like six months, how do carrots even go bad?) She also does it in a water glass which, good luck ever drinking from that again without it tasting like vinegar.
• And then with no warning, it cuts off. That took me three and a half hours. It's been a journey and I hate it. If there is ever a vlog this long, I'm doing it in segments across multiple days because I'm exhausted by this much wealth and inanity. Time to go touch grass, start dinner, wash my vegetables before I do so. You know. The little things.

I was hoping that someone could make me a ref sheet and a PFP of my main oc for my YouTube/Twitch I know this is a free art request but I do apologize for not being able to pay but I'd appreciate anyone willing to draw them for me.
Extra info about the character: • Nonbinary • Ghost • They are the Child of Lady Death • Wears a dragon mask (since I myself am a faceless content creator) • Is a raccoon hybrid • The thing around their waist is supposed to be a corset • They have stickers on their face (optional)
If you have any more questions just DM me on Reddit or Discord Willow_Tree#9409 or just ask in the comments

It was at midnight exactly when everyone who was awake promptly passed out.
It wasn't an instant 'fall to the ground like a corpse' mass unconsciousness. It was just this sudden and intense state of exhaustion that made it impossible to stay awake.
Ours was a mining town, averaging around 70,000 population, and recently being hit by recession that made finding work a pain in the ass. And with the mine running dry, it was all we could do to keep afloat.
I was out for a stroll when the exhaustion hit, I was crossing the street when this oppressively heavy state of exhaustion just hit me. I panicked, of course, thinking that I was having a stroke or something, desperately trying to get to the other side of the crosswalk.
Then darkness.
It was the sunlight that woke me up, I squinted in the hellishly bright light and fumbled around for my sunglasses. Why I kept sunglasses on my person in the dead of night was because I was that kind of asshole who wanted to look cool. My mileage definitely varied on that front, but it was at least an attempt.
Still, when I managed to find them, confused as to why I was on hot asphalt, I put them on, only for them to immediately fall off. I was forced to open my eyes, and that's when I saw my hands.
At first, I thought it was the mother of all sunburns, being so bright red, but when the sound came out of my mouth, I knew something had gone terribly wrong. First and foremost, I was covered in bright red scales, I had these short, sharp claws at the end of my hands, on top of which my feet were utterly fucked up, and I had a tail.
I scrambled for my phone, wondering if it would even register my touch, Thankfully, it did.
You know those memes where someone takes a picture of an animal, and it looks really fucking funny? Guess whose first picture was like that. I turned on the camera, flipped the camera so I could see myself on the screen, and accidentally took a picture as my new snout filled the screen.
I tried to get up, but I realized that my clothes were too big, and that I had gone from a solid 6 feet and dropped to a measly three. Bear in mind, the average height of a person with dwarfism is a solid four, and I know this because I did an entire project on it in ninth grade.
I had no idea what the hell I was, if I was the only person like this, and I was forced to use my XL shirt to cover my otherwise naked body, tearing the shit out of it with my new feet claws, and being faced with the reality that being a three-foot lizard meant I had to crawl through my dog door.
Thankfully, Brutus didn't even seem phased, he just walked up to me, tail wagging, and very much wanting to be pet, which I did, very carefully. I needed something pure and wholesome in the world to keep me from going insane.
That was around six AM.
Now, googling 'Help, I've turned into a three foot lizard' didn't help at all, and I sure as shit didn't want to walk all of the way to my parent's house and potentially freak them out, but I did have my brother.
James is a furry, I'll just say it flat out. Like, an absolute turbo furry. It had taken me time to get used to the idea that he liked furry characters, and I knew a lot of the art he liked dealt with this kind of situation.
I was desperate, and I needed someone on my side. When I called him, it rang and then went to voicemail, and I proceeded to continuously call him, because he will eventually wake up. I got ready to call him again when a notification came up saying he wanted to FaceTime.
I braced myself for his inevitable squeeing when he saw I'd been transformed into a tiny little lizard.
I didn't expect him to be one as well.
Of course, he was the one who was fucking ecstatic, and it took me a lot of attempts to get him to listen to me, which he eventually did.
"Bro." I said, the words slipping out of my mouth weird. I had to carefully enunciate, moving a tongue that was completely alien to me inside of a mouth that didn't work the way I was used to. "What the thuck ith going on?" I asked. "Do you haff any idea what ith going on."
It was painful, really. Of course my brother spoke fluently. It didn't occur to me until he was halfway through his diatribe about TF triggers that I said, "Hey, wait, you're speaking another language." I paused. "I'm speaking another language!"
Like, it all translated into English for me, but we were very much speaking a language that was full of sibilants and yips, yaps, and naks.
"Oh, yeah. That's Yipyak." He said.
"What the fuck is a Yipyak, and if this is some sort of deez nuts joke, I'm going over there and clawing you."
So he explained that we were both Kobolds, creatures from Dungeons and Dragons, and our native language was Draconic, more specifically a pidgin language known as Yipyak.
"Alright, scholar of the Kobolds, what do we do about this situation, because people are going to freak out."
"Brother." He said. "There's no way in hell it's just us."
Part of me knew he was right, but I absolutely did not want to believe it.
Naturally, people gathered around the Town Hall.
The screaming started around eight AM, as people woke up to find themselves turned into Kobolds. Some of them were screaming in joy, others were as horrified as I was, but that wasn't the worst part.
Only half of us were Kobolds.
Mom and Dad picked us up, because they could reach the pedals. They were, of course, very concerned, but they helped us out because they loved us.
Most of the people who arrived who had been turned into Kobolds had to make due with shirts hiked up to their waists and tied off with a belt, the rest just stood around. Naked. There was one weirdo who just made a loincloth and was looking very proud of himself.
Weirdly enough, I actually kind of wanted one.
So, there we were, engaging in what was effectively a cultural exchange between the nerds and furries and the rest of us normal folk. Really, the only explanation as to how and why this happened was. "Fucked if we know, but it has knock-on implications for the rest of the universe."
The Humans- wow, that was a thought I just had, and not one I could just not have- The Humans were of course upset that this had happened and that our entire town was facing a crisis that we didn't know how to deal with.
But the furries had hypotheses.
First, the facts as we knew them. Exactly half of our population had been transformed. The only people who transformed were the D&D nerds and the furries, with the rest being directly related. The transformation only seemed to only effect family members in the same generation, which is why a husband and wife were Kobolds, but their kids weren't. Finally, there was nothing like this happening anywhere else in the world.
Therefore, the hypotheses were thus:
A. Some sort of wild magic surge triggered the transformation. And yes, magic was real because some of us could use it. Me included.
B. The D&D universe actually existed and was bleeding into reality. This excited the D&D players, because it meant they could go on an adventure.
C. There was a Dragon somewhere, maybe in the mine, and it wanted minions. Nobody liked this idea. Well, nobody said they liked it. I felt weirdly okay with it.
D. This was just Some Weird Shit, so let's just move on.
Naturally, someone leaked what happened, the government came, and, well, that's when we discovered that anyone entering the town limits had a roughly 50/50 chance of getting instantly turned into a Kobold. We also determined we could leave, but the way was blockaded because nobody wanted this to spread.
To the government's credit, they didn't take away our civil liberties to dissect us, they just showed up, brought scientists, and started trying to figure out what was going on.
The rest of us just had to adjust.
We couldn't really live in our own houses anymore, I mean, they're not even built for people with Dwarfism, it was even worse for us because we couldn't even reach the counter. So we just did the best we could. Some carpenters got together and started building houses that were proportional to our size. Kitchen appliances weren't going to be of any real help, so we just had to make due with houses that didn't have any electricity, but at least worked well with space heaters.
One of the best things about these houses was that they were quick to make and were easy to navigate. Some of the people built medieval-style housing, which I found myself increasingly attracted to as a place to live. Some of the D&D players were part of something called the Society of Creative Anachronism, and they hand made a lot of clothes that, for whatever reason, my stupid little Kobold brain liked, so here I was in a thatch-roofed house proportional to my size in medieval clothing that I could not fathom why I liked it.
In fact, I'm beginning to hate who I used to be.
The first sign that I was experiencing a dislike of my Human body was when I saw a picture of me and just got angry. Like, I smashed the frame against the floor and tore the thing to shreds before I got a hold of myself.
I catch myself only talking in Yipyak, and being annoyed when I have to switch to English. Not to mention, I've begun practicing magic. I can't explain how it works, I just know it works, it's helped me keep the place clean.
I know how to cast six of these spells, though, two of them exhaust me. The D&D nerds identified them as 'Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Mending, Firebolt, Detect Magic, and Magic Missile.' Basically, the power do to a lot or really minor effects, the ability to create a magic hand that does whatever I want it to, the ability to fix some things, and the ability to throw fire at something- all at will. As well as the ability to see magic and the ability to throw magic at something that will always hit.
A lot of utility.
So with Detect Magic, I was able to determine that the town was surrounded in a cylindrical magic field, I actually took the time to help mark the border so people wouldn't accidentally become a Kobold. Other things I was able to figure out was that it was a '9th level' spell with Transmutation.
"Oh, that's Mass Polymorph! But that spell only effects ten creatures."
"Well, whatever it is, it's made a hell of a mess of things." I said.
Well, something came out of the mine earlier today, it was a giant fucking rat, and I used Magic Missile to kill it. I was halfway through skinning it when I realized I was skinning it, and that I had never skinned an animal before. I kept at it, and brought it to the warren.
The warren?
Yeah, that word fits.
I have these weird moments of self-awareness where I suddenly remember what life used to be like, and how much I had changed. How much the others changed. Some of them had changed their names , and I realized with a start that I didn't want my name anymore.
But there's another one that's just on the tip of my tongue.
Ruuk.
A Kobold came up to me, wanting some help with something. He said my old name and all I could say in response was, "My name is Ruuk."
He didn't even question it, and immediately started using it. I helped out with what he needed- he'd broken his hoe and needed it fixed, which I obliged.
It struck me, as we hit our first year of this, that I didn't want to go back to being a Human.
​
[Navigation for 'Dragon Rising'- [1] [2]]

Let's get the pictures/voice clip out of the way immediately so you know if I'm your type or not right? And to treat you with my adorable kitty.
Me rambling (Apologies for any lip smacking sounds): https://voca.ro/1kLnOwDOgAE8
I'm not as serious as I look, I swear: https://imgur.com/a/CBLxCCx
Nothing like a cat butt on your head while trying to sleep: https://imgur.com/kA3iiVV
Face sniffer extraordinaire: https://imgur.com/AClSOtd
Just a pic of the cute kitty: https://imgur.com/a/TDQvhYz
ANYWAY. I'm Michael. I'm a single guy from New York (Not the city) looking for love or at least someone that will play games with me(PC). I'd ideally like someone that's empathetic, is into gaming(Not a must), animals, and voice chatting. I've noticed over the years that it's difficult to find people that put effort into communication, so it'd be nice to find someone that does.
To describe myself? I'd say I'm empathetic, easy going, talkative, competitive, and direct. I say how I feel and focus on communicating with my partner the best I can. As a partner; I'm nurturing, considerate, and affectionate. I want to make YOU happy because that would make me happy. My love languages would be all of them. I don't know how people can pick just a few. I like to do everything for the person I'm with.
When I'm not gaming; I like to exercise, play tag with my cat, watch horror movies, go for walks,, sing to myself, and practice doing voices cus that's fun for me.
Anywho, The games I'm currently playing (I'm open to most games tbh, so if you don't play these, that's okay!):

• Honkai Star Rail
  
• Overwatch 2
  
• Path of Exile
  
• League of Legends
  
• Fortnite (No build only)
  
• Diablo soon
  
• Teamfight Tactics
  

But yeah if you're looking for someone that's emotionally available, can cook, won't ghost you, and will spam you with pics of a very cute orange cat, I'm your guy. So, if my face appeals to you, send a message (if it isn't buggy) and tell me a bit about yourself! We might not fall in love or anything but I'll probably make you laugh at least once.
Thanks for reading 🙂

How to avoid them? No matter the model, no matter the settings, face is always distorted. Anime/cartoon models look awful, photoreal models look okay-ish, but clearly not as they are advertised. It's worth adding that when image is rendering and is blurry it looks fine, distortions appear once it's done.
I'm using up to date stable diffusion web ui.

ChocoPro 313: Best Bros Birthday Bash While we’re no longer “Under the Apple Tree” (since Mei’s Anniversary Show is now in the history books), ChocoPro isn’t letting the festivities end just yet! Just like in ages long past, the Best Bros will get one of the roughest birthday presents imaginable: a tag team gauntlet! ChocoPro is known for its solid tag division and intense team attacks, due to the rules of the promotion: Team pins & attacks are legal! If you're looking for a good time tomorrow, this episode will probably be wild all the way through with a chaotic variety of combinations presented. Can the Best Bros survive five different teams? Will we see an appearance from the new Trainee? Let’s Go, ChocoPro!
🍫 CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK! ChocoPro 313 🍫 Best Bros Birthday Bash (Special Tag Gauntlet)! It airs TOMORROW at 6 am EDT / 3 am PDT / 11 am BST / 7 pm JST, Live and Free on YouTube!
This link will be updated with a direct one when available

Don't forget to Adjust Your Volume, Wrestling is Loud!

Change the stage, escape the normal! ChocoPro is built different. Find out why wrestlers like it so much: Discover a new home on the bleeding edge. (This is not your regular wrestling show.) Join us for this episode, or check out the back catalog of 17 wonderful Seasons on the Gatoh Move ChocoPro YouTube channel...260+ episodes with stories and pro-wrestling like you've never seen. New to the promotion? It features a roster of skilled veterans, rising stars, and wonderful guests fighting in the ChocoPro Arena: Ichigaya Chocolate Square. Subscribe for more content than just the live matches! (AEW Watch Alongs, Discussions, Interviews, Food Challenges, etc) Even if you can't catch it live, don't sweat it! It will still be available on the channel.

Best Bros (Mei Suruga 🍎 & Baliyan Akki ♠️)

VS

Sayaka 👗 & Miya Yotsuba 🍀 , Kaori Yoneyama 🍚 & Minoru Fujita 🐦, EGG TART (Chie Koishikawa 🏵️ & Hagane Shinno ⚔️), Black Comaneci (Tokiko “Otoki” Kirihara 💃 & Antonio Honda 🍯), UMA (Sayaka Obihiro 💙 & kojio 🏰)

Best Bros Birthday Special Tag Gauntlet

We're going to be celebrating the birthdays of both the Best Bros once again! (Both of them were actually born on the same day: May 30th! Keep in mind, we're half a day behind Japan's time zone!) Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga are team with unrivaled chemistry, a pair of rivals turned partners that have risen to the top of the tag division of Ichigaya (in a string of spectacular bouts) and have even taken down some powerful guests! Mei Suruga is a pin specialist and submission connoisseur (not to mention a total goblin), having recently celebrated her Fifth Anniversary (and the appearance of her second Trainee!). Mei is incredibly gifted at pro-wrestling, undoubtedly destined for greatness in the Joshi scene...though she has her eyes set on a different prize: popularity across the world! Baliyan Akki is the Ace of the promotion, a breezy elite level technician who excels at everything that is put in front of him. The way he strings techniques together is truly breath taking. He is at the top of the food chain for a reason, and it is only a matter of time before he holds a belt again! The way these two different mentalities flow together creates a perfect synergy in the ring. Even with their excellent team attacks, individual specializations, and boundless creativity, they will still be in for a brutal challenge.
Just like most celebrations in the Chocolate Square, this one will be quite violent! While there isn’t the threat of a mystery team this time, the random order of enemies makes it hard to prepare. Can they take down five of ChocoPro’s great teams in one go? Can they beat their old score? Will Mei bite someone? Tune in to find out! They will be facing (in no particular order) in 10 minute bouts:
Sayaka & Miya Yotsuba in a first time pairing! Smiling Violence and Ichigaya’s Lucky Charms are both know for their powerful striking ability and tend to compete with one another on how hard they can hit! How will the Bros endure both of the Chocolate Square’s Heavy Hitters in one match?
Kaori Yoneyama & Minoru Fujita, Two of the most frequent guests of the promotion! These two crafty veterans have both held gold in Gatoh Move and together should be an absolute menace. Buckle up for some high technical ability and dirty tricks!
EGG TART (Chie Koishikawa & Hagane Shinno) are one of the longest rivals of the Best Bros! With the speedhouse striker “Ace of the Fourth Generation” Chie and the merciless “Cold Killer” and Super Asia Champ Hagane, this will probably be one of the highest threats in the gauntlet. Expect some spice here!
Black Comaneci (Tokiko “Otoki” Kirihara & Antonio Honda) are entirely unpredictable and could very well show up in a form we’ve never seen. Though this team favors comedic antics, it should be noted that most of the comedy comes in the form of brutal slapstick and shocking weapons. It should be noted that Tokiko kicks very hard. Comaneci!
UMA (Sayaka Obihiro & kojio) represent the invading Monsters in this one. Can the charismatic veteran and the mysterious dark hero utilize their own unnatural chemistry against the Birthday Bros? These two have been impressing with their ability to adapt and overcome setbacks. Also, they are monsters.
Good Luck, Best Bros...and Happy Birthday!
Come and see the wild creativity that produced Two of the Seven AEW Women's World Champions! (Both of which have appeared on ChocoPro!) You'll be wondering if you're seeing future champs, as well. ChocoPro is the Frontier of Pro Wrestling! Match after match of hard hitting, chaotic, fun bouts with a friendly online audience. We're quickly growing, and you're welcome to come along!
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions:

“What is this?”

ChocoPro is a free online promotion run by AEW's Emi Sakura, that takes place in the legendary Ichigaya Chocolate Square! It features a steady pace of live Episode releases, fan interaction, season long story arcs, and much more! A place where the turnbuckles are replaced with 14th floor windows, the ropes are often replaced with fans, unforgiving walls provide creative avenues for skills otherwise unthinkable, and you can take solace in knowing that the referees usually do nothing. While it might be a shocking change at first, the intensity and storytelling will leave you wanting more.

“Why are they fighting in ____?”

Short answer is that it is a cost effective, unique venue with a better availability schedule and allows the roster access for training. Emi Sakura has been using this place for a long time, and you might be surprised at some of the names that have used it (even outside of ChocoPro!). There are a few in-ring Episodes and Gatoh Move has in ring shows with crowds on the YouTube channel. Think of it like the Hart Dungeon but as a promotion, if that helps!

”What are the rules?”

While special match stipulations will usually be explained before the respective matches, the general rules of ChocoPro are simple. Pins only count on the Chocolate Mat and are not broken by the edge or Wall. Submissions usually only count on the Chocolate Mat, and ARE broken by reaching the edge or wall (sometimes ceiling...). Double pins and Double submissions are legal (and encouraged) in ChocoPro Tag matches, meaning cohesive teams will always have the advantage! Count Outs only exist if specified, since many matches stray from the comfort of the Chocolate Square into the streets (and the rest of the building itself!) There is a Time Limit for each bout (based on card placement and importance) and the Referee has discretion (even if they tend to do nothing most of the time!). Every Ref is different, some have different levels of bias and speed.

“How can I support them?”

Watch the show! Even if you can't see it live, the views matter! Like & Subscribe! You can join the Channel's membership for different tiers of perks...but also, you can buy single episode Sponsorship, Digital autographed photos, and more on their shop site as well as purchase shirts from PWTees (which features some great options!) If you'd like to donate or purchase a main wall sponsorship, you can via Paypal or Patreon...and don't forget to cheer for your favorites! (especially if you want to do a superchat!)

”How come there aren’t a lot of comments on the threads?”

ChocoPro is a YouTube show, meaning the discourse happens live...in the chat! Those that comment in the threads on here tend to do so in order to help new viewers that might be intimidated by the fast moving chat. Don’t be afraid to just dive in though, the community is friendly.

“Why are you posting this here? / Are you paid for this?”

This is a wrestling forum, and I'm trying to broaden the horizons of others! There is a lot of good wrestling out there...Plus growing the fan base means more people for me to joke around with! I honestly do believe this is what a lot of fans are looking for, even if it is too different for some! But different tastes are good. Variety is the spice of life. This is a labor of love (it really doesn't take that long) considering how much work they do to put on so many shows...for free!
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me on here or on Twitter, where I’m probably a bit tired! ChocoPro is a Gauntlet again!
Season Tracker: We're 13/18 into Season 18! (Each Season is usually around 18 episodes)

How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno!!

Extra Info and Links

ANN MAL Anilist Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Schedule

Episode	Title	Date	Episode	Title	Date
EP 01	["ROCKER-KUN / KUMATANDER NO. 2"]()	June 13th	EP 8	["COITSU NATE LUNA D/Pero-Lilion"]()	June 20th
EP 02	["DASH-TAN / 1-7-6 PROTECTIVE GEAR"]()	June 14th	EP 9	["JIGATIGHTS / SQ-WATER"]()	June 21st
EP 03	["THE KILT HIDE / GARAKUTAN"]()	June 15th	EP 10	["KANCHIKAN / REPARA-TE"]()	June 22nd
EP 04	["UENO NO. 13 / The SummonStat"]()	June 16th	EP 11	["INVISI-BLOOMER / THE REAR-SKIRT"]()	June 23rd
EP 05	["THE P-SPECTER / THE PE RESERVER"]()	June 17th	EP 12	["GAN-Q / BALLET-TAN"]()	June 24th
EP 06	["II UMBRELLA / E-Q BOOSTER"]()	June 18th	Completed	["Series Discussion"]()	June 25th
EP 07	["PANTY ROTI / THE GATCHA-PORTER"]()	June 19th

Synopsis:
"Ueno-san, you're cringe"
As the head of her middle school's science club, it's only fitting that Ueno is also a brilliant inventor. With devices that can convert any liquid into drinkable water, deodorize the most foul smells, or even generate dark matter to be used as a means of concealment, it seems like nothing is beyond Ueno's capabilities. However, she doesn't invent these devices for the advancement of mankind. Rather, the one force that motivates her is love, the only phenomenon she can't quite figure out.
Ueno is head over heels for Tanaka, her nonchalant fellow club member. Yet, because she is too nervous to confess her love and he is too oblivious to notice her affection, her love life is completely stagnant. In Ueno's mind, if she could just expose him to perverted situations, then surely he'd get flustered and fall for her, right? Assisted by her stone-faced classmate and dedicated wingwoman Yamashita, Ueno employs her many inventions on Tanaka in a lewd manner in hopes that he may one day understand how she feels.

Why should you watch it?

I mean, isn't the answer obvious? How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno is a ten volume manga from Tugeneko, a 4koma specialist who has a history of slice of life comedies in Care to Caret and Swim Team, the slice of life about girls going about their day to day lives in swimsuits. Anyway, the bloke has a history of questionably lewd comedies and that's right up our Rewatch Group's tastes! This one is even heavily inspired by Doraemon. We all grew up with Doraemon right?
Ueno itself ran from 2015 to 2022 and got itself a neat little 15 minute comedy skit anime in 2019, which is what we'll be watching this month. It's not long, pretty comfy, and will be loaded with more questionable content than you can shake a phallic looking stick at. The anime came from our friends as Lesprit, famous for some weird capybara anime? and the director, Tomohiro Tsukimisato, did... rockman? He worked on one of the Battle Network anime and on Kirakira Kirari. And Tanuki to Kitsune.
It stars Yu Serizawa who everyone here loves as Shera from Demon Lord, as Ueno and features Miku Ito singing our banger op! There is also an English dub available but I'm sure my rewatchers are too cultured to watch a dub, RIGHT!? It has a nice cast tho. Hillary Haig as Ueno, Monika Rial as Yamashita. It also has "Patty Cakes" playing Mizuna. There's no way that's right? XD
So, if I haven't convinced you to watch Ueno yet then please sample a couple extra cultured clips that will explain the show better than looking at its iffy cast history~ We have a highlight clip from Nekomanscer lovingly referring to Ueno as The Pee Drinking Anime. The phone charging scene~ And of course the tights smelling scene. We've got so much more! Aaand this is my birthday rewatch so you're all obligated to come~ 12 episodes, 15 minute runtime, lifetime of trauma! Let's fucking gooo!
The series is available to steam on HiDive, Crunchyroll, and I think a lot of them are on YouTube right now too!

Fun Stuff

Simple and clean!! We've got our normal Questions of the Day, although I may cut down the number depending on how much actually happens each episode. We will have Comments of the Day!! I'll be stealing highlights from whoever leaves the most interesting insights day to day. I only accept comments coming from watchers who have replied to three other rewatchers however!! Don't be shy, we're all in the same boat here. I also have one final section... that will more than likely flop again but I'm gonna beat this dead horse until it works!
Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"
In this section I will be posting a preview pic of the following episode. Your challenge is to dedicate a small write up about the "thematic" purpose of said scene~ The best submission will get a dedicated spot in our patented Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene winner's corner!!"
So to be clear, check the preview that I will be posting each day, be sure to write an extra addidum or quip filled monologue about that particular scene/screenshot, and include it in your post! For examples please check out Ichigo Mashimaro and Kodomo no Jikan or Kunoichi Tsubaki! Just to be clear this section is made for a bit of fun. If you don't understand it, please check with me and I'll explain it further. I'm gonna make this a thing if its the last thing I do!!
[Weekly reminder]() [24H Reminder]()

Dates, times and plans

I plan for the rewatch to begin on Tuesday the 13th of June at 22:00 UTC, 17:00 EST 16:00 CST, 15:00 MST, 14:00 PST So 10pm UK time. We will be doing one episode per day with a series discussion to wrap up.
And so! You must drink my urine, HelioA!!

TLJ release in July. TFA will Release in June. TROS I cant say yet.
Last week I announced The Force Awakens and why I am re-editing this trilogy, this week it is time for The Last Jedi. This is probably my favorite Star Wars movie, but it also has way more changes than TFA. Mostly small things to keep the tone consistent throughout the movie, but certain parts have been changed a lot. The focus in this movie is much more on Kylo Ren and Rey. Finn and Rose are not gone, but do slow the movie down less. The resistance plot is mostly the same, there was not much wrong with it in my opinion, but Hux is no longer a joke in my version. Palpatine teases are prominent, and at the end of the movie you are sure he is back, so his appearance in TROS doesn't come out of nowhere. Some deleted scenes are back in the movie, and the movie has had some colour grading to match TFA and TROS.
Here are the first 10 minutes of my edit of The Last Jedi showing all "Opening scene" changes.
This is Rey's vision of her dark future
This is Lukes vision of Kylo Ren
And here is the changelist for the whole movie:
​

• Opening scene:

Matching opening logo's with Prequel and Original movies
Removed Lines “We caught them in the middle of their evacuation. I got my orders from Supreme Leader Snoke himself, this is where we snuff out the resistance once and for all”, we know this and it is unnecessary this makes room for a deleted scene that makes the whole scene flow more smoothly
Added Deleted scene “ Poe finding out the First Order found them and is going to do something about it”, this little scene makes Poe’s actions more understandable
Removed Hux and Poe jokes, It slows everything down, it isn’t funny, and hux should be taken seriously, like in the last movie
Removed Line “ah he’s insane”, classic villain underestimating his opponent like a joke, gone
Removed concerned look on Hux’ face, It looks like he is very incompetent and is played off as a joke
Removed BB-8 water pipe jokes
Removed line “Wipe that nervous expression off your face 3PO”, slows the scene down too much, now they just look annoyed at each other
BB-8 fixes the X-wing in one try
Fixed audio of Poe’s X-wing firing twice, while showing it once
Quickened the pace a bit with Poe talking to Paige
Cut Paige looking at the dead man in the fighter, they are in a hurry and she should immediately reach for the detonator
Cut the weird look on Hux’ face as the resistance jumps too lightspeed, removal of Hux being a joke
Completely recut the short scene after the resistance jumps to lightspeed, Hux gets the message of Snoke contacting him, and he is confident to take the call. The hologram part is removed
Added see a short vision/flashback of the last thing Finn remembers and that wakes him up
Added a wipe to the Ahch-to scene
​

• Ahch-to arrival:

Added scene from TFA of Rey searching for Luke, added Porg sounds, removed some birds flying, my edit of TFA ended with Rey jumping to lightspeed
New transition from end of TFA to Luke throwing the saber away
Music is changed when Luke throws the saber away, now it is not played off as a joke as much
​

• Snoke scene and Ahch-to island sequence:

Changed opening dialogue from Snoke to Hux to cut reference to the hologram scene which was cut
Added Snoke’s theme from TFA
Snoke’s eyes get red when angry or uses the force
Cut joke “no one is from nowhere”, it is not nowhere, it is where the Empire lost its final battle, only Rey sees it as nowhere
Added deleted scene of Luke mourning / rethinking his decisions
​

• First Order attacks resistance:

Added deleted scene with Finn and Poe, Finn explains why he runs off, Finn and Poe are friends, and it is just a great scene
Removed line “They found us”, it is used during the deleted scene in the opening scene
Removed lines Ackbar “we need to what?” and Leia’s lines, Admiral Ackbar now gives the orders
Added Kylo Ren’s theme as the bridge is blown up, it adds to the consequences of having chosen the dark side and makes it more intense
Added new music during Hux’ scene following, tension is increased a bit
Added engine sound to the bridge scenes on the Supremacy, feels more like a big battle ship
​

• Luke in falcon and Finn meeting Rose:

Quick cut to remove R2D2 turning around twice
Removed Line “wow, you too”, now she is just impressed with him and Finn looks so proud of it, it is funnier than him nodding thanks to her response
Removed joke of “I cant feel my teeth”
Added wipe from Finn Rose and Poe to the sun on Ahch-to
​

• From Luke’s lesson until Canto Bight arrival:

Added one wipe
Canto Bight arrival and Rey’s second lesson (and third)
Removed Burping joke alien with BB-8
Added new sequence montage of Canto Bight like the Cantina in a new hope using deleted material
Removed Rose talking about war and rich people, Finn know how terrible it is, she now just talks about the abuse and her past
Added deleted scene with third lesson and caretaker village, it is a great scene with great lessons for both luke and rey
Changed the reflection of Rey’s lightsaber in deleted scene from red to blue
​

• Resistance Ship destroyed and Canto bight escape:

Added Supremacy engine sound
Shortened BB-8 meeting DJ
Rearranged some shots with the fathiers to make the animal cruelty message just a little bit less on the nose
Removed line “ YEAAHH WOHOOO GO GO GO” from the kid
Trimmed the fathier chase from 02:00 to 1:30 removing the yelling woman, the cup of tea, the part in the alley and removed the line “Come on”, because why would Finn expect them to let them escape in their ship
Removed the interaction about it being worth it to destroy the town, rose now just releases the last fathier
​

• Ahch to from Luke reaching out to Leia to Yoda’s scene:

Added a force vision for Rey while falling in the Dark Side cave, revealing parts of her dark side and hints of Palpatine
Added a silhouette of Palpatine before the mirror reveals Rey herself (Credits to Hal9000)
Added a vision showing what Luke saw in Kylo Ren, showing Snoke parallel to Palpatine hinting at something of course, and showing Kylo Ren’s evil deeds
Coruscant added in deleted scene in vision
Darth vader breathing during flashback
​

• Supremacy infiltration and throne room:

Removed line “Do it” from rose, it is said a couple of times this movie (referring to the meme), and it isn’t necessary here, it also adds to roses annoyance to remove it
Added a wipe
Added the Supremacy engine sound
Removed the First Order officer noticing a disturbance and not saying anything
Added a short bit of a deleted scene of Finn fixing DJ’s and Rose’s disguises, it is a nice moment showing their tension and "friendship"
Added a hologram of Palpatine disappearing when the elevator doors open, this improves the connection to TROS
Added Snoke’s theme from TFA when they enter the throne room
​

• Finn Rose and DJ getting caught until Crait:

Removed line from Snoke “I breached your minds”, it doesn’t make sense with the dyad and continuing the connections in TROS
Snokes eyes turn red when he is angry or uses the force
Removed Hux slapping Finn, it looks like a joke and Hux staring at Finn is much more intimidating
Added some smoke leaving Snoke’s body after he died, adding some mystery around him
Removed the disappearing blade completely
Removed Lines “They are dead in the Jakku desert”, it doesn’t make sense with the TROS story
Added supremacy engine sound
Removed line “pathetic”, it makes Hux seem a bit more stupid, he feels confident now
Removed line “Fire on that cruiser”, yes Hux looks concerned, but he doesn’t lose control, he still feels in control, it is just the other officer that completely loses his mind now
Added a Wilhelm scream
Tightened Finn and Rose looking at each other while under fire up, the joke with BB-8 stands on itself we don’t need them reacting too
Removed line “Let’s go chrome dome”, Finn immediately attacks Phasma after her line “You are a bug in the system”
Removed line “Hey” before striking Phasma down, his sudden confidence comes out of nowhere and the next line I removed is “Rebel scum” because in my version he looks frightened at her without the cockiness, just silence, no need to fill this scene with a couple of one-liners
Added wipe to crait
​

• Crait battle until credits:

Removed line “WHoo I like this” from rey, she just fought snoke and Kylo ren and 8 guards, it doesn’t feel like she should be having the time of her life now
Removed line “All fighters”, Hux should not make dumb decisions, let kylo ren be emotional and make bad decisions
Removed lines “Concentrate all fire on the speeders”, Hux should NOT be a joke
Removed Finn and Rose kiss, it doesn’t go anywhere in TROS and comes out of nowhere in this movie
The plate that projection luke sits on doesn’t move anymore
Fixed a continuity error during battle of luke and kylo
Removed a spot that annoyed me on the sun that luke looks upon
Added a sequence when Rey closes the door on Kylo where Palpatine reaches out to Kylo Ren to find him (I don’t know where I got the original footage from, I just knew someone did it, so if anyone recognises it, please tell me)
And that’s it for TLJ! Current changelist of TROS will release next monday.