Board 8 > Arria played Umineko again (blind) (play/readthrough) SPOILERS WELCOME

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WARNING THAT THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR ALL OF UMINEKO IN THIS TOPIC STARTING IN THIS POST. YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE SPOILERS TAGS UNLESS YOU'RE SPOILING A DIFFERENT STORY. DO NOT READ THIS TOPIC IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED UMINEKO

The topic so far:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_59jGjel11RPbTsaryatO8ROumfZEKxngJmgGcQSmlo/edit?usp=sharing


Then the final roll call, and on to murder time!

The scene where Genji gave Natsuhi the key to Kinzo’s room and then the talk about Natsuhi wearing the One Winged Eagle on her heart. First of all, Arria was pleased to see Genji give Natushi the key. She thought that was a nice action from him and something of a ‘social link up’ (we’ve both been playing Persona 5, so there might be more Persona jokes coming). In the scene afterward with Kinzo, she realized that he was acting differently. She questioned if he had a brain tumor or some other medical issue with his brain that would cause a personality change. She also wonders whether he’s being kind here because he genuinely believes that his kids are shit and Natsuhi would make a better daughter, or if he’s being kind as a way to ‘ease her upcoming death’. She then mentions a line from Game of Thrones where someone said something about calming and petting a lamb and then killing it without it being able to see the knife.

Of course, I see the scene as Natsuhi talking to herself and making herself feel important even though no one else likes her. We like you, Natsuhi!

Then we find the murders happened. She didn’t expect the level of gore that was described. “I thought it would be about here on a level of gore” (hand by her breast). “It jumped to here really quick” (hand to her head). She thought it was dumb that they opened the creepy door to begin with, but of course that’s necessary in these kinds of stories. “If this were real life, we’d get everyone together and wait until the cops are able to handle everything. ‘If one person has to pee, we’re all peeing together.’” And of course she figured Shannon would be dead because she raised so many death flags. This scene with George is touching. I also notice that only Hideyoshi touched/investigated Shannon’s body, so more evidence that it’s fake and Hideyoshi is in on the plan. Arria also went genre-savvy for a moment and complained about people stepping all over in the evidence and I told her that later on the game will acknowledge that. I didn’t know if they would do so here, but sure enough in a few more lines, Eva told everyone that we’d all fucked up by stepping in the scene.

Arria asked me to remind her of where everyone was at last night. This was what I came up with:

Krauss, Rudolf, Kyrie, Rosa were discussing inheritance bullshit in the parlor (mansion)
Natsuhi went to bed and put a scorpion charm over her door. In the morning, it was bloody (mansion)
Eva and Hideyoshi went to their rooms in the (mansion)
Gohda and Shannon were assigned to work in the (mansion)
Kumasawa was asleep in the (mansion)
Kinzo was in his study (mansion)
Battler, George, Jessica, and Maria were sleeping in the (guesthouse)
Genji and Kanon were assigned to the (guesthouse)
Nanjo was apparently being a walrus on the (beach). We don’t know where he was (?)

And her character rankings thus far!

Kyrie
Natsuhi
Rosa
Genji
Rudolf
Shannon
George
Nanjo
Kinzo
Eva
Jessica
Battler
Hideyoshi
Krauss
Kumasawa
Kanon
Gohda
Maria
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Day 3 (4/19/17)

A: “You know how fucking pissed I’ll be if Maria is the only one to survive this bullshit? At this point I just want to see how horribly she dies!”

Kanon is expressionless. A: “He’s a chair bent on revenge. ‘Next time on Syfy.’ No! I’m not judging the terrible shit that’s on Syfy!” We then talk for a moment about how most of SyFy’s shows have cool premises and then turn to shit. I actually don’t watch much on the SyFy channel so I can’t really offer an opinion, but I know she’s watched a handful of shows on it.

Hideyoshi is fidgeting, mumbling about demons and shit, and asking Nanjo questions. She suspect that he might be the murderer, because he’s not acting shocked by it. Also thinks that he may have killed Shannon because he knew George was going to marry her. And he killed the other adults/spouses who were in the way of Eva getting the inheritance. Gohda could have been an accident. Oh, he was with Shannon. That’s why he got his dumb ass killed. And Kyrie was with Rudolf. She was collateral damage. And the reason he specifically left half of Shannon’s face was to let it known that he wanted her dead. Same with Krauss. He wanted to ensure everyone knew that he was dead so Eva would be the next in line. Well, Jessica is the next to die! Regarding Shannon’s ring: it was described as very expensive, and she thinks that even with George being 23, Hideyoshi would likely know about a purchase such as that. He probably knew George was going to propose, didn’t want his son marrying a servant, and killed her for that reason.

“Really, bitch? This is not the time! Maybe you should be – I don’t know – making sure your son isn’t drooling on the carpet!” As Eva and Natsuhi bitch over stupid shit.

They go to the murder scene. Now she wonders if Eva is helping Hideyoshi. She describes what she thinks happened. Those two killed the siblings/Kyrie in the dining room. Krauss was first, shot from the side. Then the others ran away and shot from behind. Later they killed Shannon from the side, then Gohda as he ran. Then those two disfigured the faces to disguise the method of death. “They’ll be searching for a lawn mower, not a gun.”

She says she will laugh if at any point Nanjo is the murderer because her headcanon will be that they were all murdered by a walrus.

Hideyoshi gets everyone out of the room. A: “Because I don’t want you to find my empty shell cases.”

She then considers if guns are feasible for this setting because she’s aware that Japan is big on its anti-gun laws, and she asked if it was like that in 1986. I told her that guns do play a role in this story (as she’ll see very soon. I didn’t think this would be a spoiler. I told her that Kinzo has a gun collection.) She was then curious what kind of guns they were, but I told her to wait until she read it because I’m not a big gun nut so I couldn’t describe the guns very well. (And besides, I would be tempted to describe them as bunny girls).

Jessica, grieving, flips out on Maria. A: “Wow, that uh… overdoing it a little, sweet heart. That is not how you tell someone their parent is dead.” Then Maria gets creepy and asks if six people died. A: “It bothers me that she asked how many.”
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Yay it's back!!!
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Kinzo goes missing and I tell her that the water droplet sound effect means his profile has been updated. She laughed at the way it described him. “He comes back when he’s hungry… usually. They don’t have a grandfather. They have a cat.” When it says Kinzo wouldn’t leave except for a good reason, A: “Yeah, his lazy ass butler didn’t get him his absinthe. Where’s my booze!?”

“Natsuhi, check for your ring. Either Kinzo left on his own – I doubt it – or someone pickpocketed your key and snuck in to kill him.”

The kids are left alone with Eva, Hideyoshi, and Nanjo. “Oh no, you’re leaving them with the murderer, an accomplice, and a walrus. I thought Battler would be the last to die each time, but I’m starting to doubt his ability to stay alive.”

She felt sad when George talked about losing Shannon. It was a touching scene. Poor guy.

Suspicion started to play. I get flashbacks to the anime. I told Arria how people now kinda hate that song for how it got overplayed in the anime.

“I’m gonna laugh my ass off if the killer is like, the boat driver from chapter 1.1. No motive or anything. He’ll just pop up suddenly! ‘I’m sick of ferrying you fucks to your crazy wizard grandfather’s island every year.’”

She thinks that Eva and Hideyoshi did it, and they were going to kill Jessica as one of the six, but chose only those in the mansion as it would be easier. They were going to kill Natsuhi as well, but her room was locked and they couldn’t get it, so they went with someone else.

Then Eva suggests that the murderer had to be someone with something to gain. A: “Dude” (motions her hand over Eva’s sprite). Yeah, Eva is very suspicious.

And then Battler pretty much says everything we’ve been thinking about how Eva is the most suspicious one here. A: “Well, that was handed to us.”

She still suspects Hideyoshi. A: “Say Eva is caught and sent to jail. Then they get a divorce and the money is split. Half of the inheritance is still significant.”

“Holy fuck on a bun.” Maria puts on her freaky face. “Her voice is entirely different and she’s not saying ‘uu’ anymore!”
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We wonder if this discussion about the magic circle and the bible is accurate. Neither of us are very religious, so I can’t say for sure. We look up the bible verse and it’s some stuff about servants and sacrifices. She now suspects Kanon.

She mentions the music here being awesome and creepy (It’s Fishy Aroma), so I played the lyrical version for her. Since it’s Japanese, she didn’t really get any of the meaning of things like red text and blue text or blade and barrier.

She said that maybe Beatrice trapped them on the island with the storm and then decided to let them fuck around and kill on their own. She compared it to an episode of the Twilight Zone, or Under the Dome.

“I’m gonna laugh if we’ve been dissecting this scientifically this whole time and it actually is magic. Well fuck all that thinking and logic!”

She thinks that Maria is possessed. “Maybe even possessed by something that has nothing to do with this bullshit. ‘Your dad is actually Satan. That’s why we don’t talk about it.’”

There’s a strange scene between Genji, Kanon, and Kumasawa. Kanon says he was sad to see Shannon’s body in such a state. At first I thought this was a false scene, but then Battler showed up and said he’d heard everything thus far. So why did Kanon say it at all? I’m not entirely sure I understood the deeper meaning. Was Kumasawa not aware of the plots going on? Maybe Kanon said it for her.

The servants pretend they can see Beatrice behind Battler. Arria wonders why Kumasawa is in on it. “She doesn’t wear the bird, does she?” “No, but she’s a silly old woman. She likes to tell spooky stories and play along. Remember on the boat?” “Okay, I get your point.” Later… “There’s going to be something terrifying behind him.” Then Maria appears… “I wasn’t wrong.”

Then Battler argues against Maria. A: “I don’t know if you’re particularly stupid, or particularly smart.”

“Please kill her. Beatrice, murderer, random island hobo, someone kill this freaky brat!”

Then the discussion of Maria’s dual personality comes up and the cousins talk about how kids acts. It gets into talking about chuunibyou (the game doesn’t use those exact words, but Arria and I talked about what a chuuni was). We were both chuuni to a degree in middle/high school… and we still kinda are as adults. I mean, we probably wouldn’t watch anime or play the games we do if we weren't a little bit chuuni.

“This whole house is one big ‘nod and grin’” as they say no one actually believes in Beatrice, but we pretend for the sake of Grandfather.

“That’s an oddly specific denial.” When Genji specifies there are no hidden passageways/hidden doors in Kinzo’s study. “In mystery novels, you sometimes need oddly specific details.” “We have no hidden doors in Grandfather’s room. However, there is a hidden door in the basement and in the third floor parlor room! We keep the dog in that one, though.’”

Nighteyes (I think? Some of these songs sound similar to me) starts to play when things get crazy and there’s a cut-in scene. Looks pretty cool. “Dear God…” was all Arria said, though she startled backward a bit.
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And Battler gets a finger-point cut-in already! Good for him!

She sides with Battler’s point of view that Kinzo is just fucking with them. He hid himself and is no running around freely. Because he’s crazy.

When Jessica started to cough violently, she thought that she was poisoned. “And now there’s really no one else to get in Eva’s way of the inheritance.”

Eva is about to leave the parlor room. A: “I hope Kinzo shows up dead in your room. (imitating Eva): ‘come on, Hideyoshi, let’s go have sex on the – AAAAAAAHHHHH’”

“That is perhaps the freakiest math equation I’ve ever seen.” Talking about the 19 > X > 18 part.

She is imagining this scene with the servants in her special way. A walrus approached Genji with a pawn in its mouth, wanting to play chess.

Eva and Hideyoshi have their scene together. It’s quite nice. Made Eva and Hideyoshi both a little more human and sympathetic. And now that they seem ‘close’, Arria is certain they will die next. Also when they talk about going on vacation. “They’re guilty and fleeing the country.” When they started to get cuddly, she thought that was cute. “They’re putting up so many death flags, though.”

She got wide-eyed and sat back when the next blood pattern appeared on Eva and Hideyoshi’s door.

She realized that Kinzo could have written all these letters months ago so the fact that his ring disappeared means nothing.

Eva and Hideyoshi are found dead. There’s a cut-in of Hideyoshi in the bath that I hadn’t seen before. It shows the stake pretty clearly. Arria said it makes him looks like a unicorn horn. “He died and became a magical narwhal.”

“Considering the scene we just had with Hideyoshi, I think he died a happy man!” We both feel it’s pretty obvious that they had sex.

Battler says that he’s gonna kill the culprit when he gets his hands on him. A: “You’re not even old enough to drink. What are you gonna do?”

As soon as the ‘burnt smell’ appears, she thinks it means we’re going to find Kinzo.

The cousins are standing in front of Beatrice’s portrait. A: “Now I’m thinking of Scooby-Doo. Like, what if there are eye holes in the portrait? Or the knight statue blows a poison dart at them?”

Battler stats ‘tapping’ Maria when she does something creepy. A: “She’s had this coming a long time.” She also thinks that ANYWHERE would be a better place to have this conversation than right in front of Beatrice’s portrait.

There are two entrances to the boiler room. This is outright said here. Wasn’t that part of the solution to episode 2’s closed room circle?

“Oooh, butterflies.”

“I’m not furniture any more. I’m the zero on your roulette.” I forgot how badass that line was. And then a line about waiting another thousand years in hell for another summoner. She was also impressed by Kanon’s "sudden growth of a ball sack."

Then there was some flashing, some odd noises that sounded like pots and pans getting hit, then ahaha.wav. Arria was sufficiently freaked out. A: “Things that are ‘okay’” (holds her thumb and finger in an O) “the last five seconds” (holds her other hand away from the O).

In any case, what the hell is Yasu doing here? Obviously he’s not dying… did he injure himself on purpose for the sake of carrying out the riddles? Battler sees Kanon/Yasu bleeding, so we can’t say this is a fantasy scene.
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We find Kinzo’s burnt corpse. “As a woman, I understand that it can be tempting to tell a man who’s stalking you to ‘go to hell’, but Beatrice, you’re taking it a little too far.”

There’s a joke about whether Kinzo is rare or well done (it makes sense in context. It was about judging the time of the murder), and Arria said “That’s fucking twisted.” And she sounded so disgusted as she said it. Here I thought she was the most twisted person I knew… but Beatrice might have her beat.

Jessica shows interest in Kanon, which up until this point hadn’t been obvious. Arria said that she suspected there was something between them. Then Jessica beats Maria “I approve of this.”

The characters talk about being optimistic. A: “Honestly, you’re all too optimistic at this point. But that’s metagame.” I’m pretty sure she’s unaware that Umineko has a literal metagame, so this amuses me personally.

She’s planning how they should hold watches throughout the night. She’s going into a lot of detail, comparing who would be best to put with who and to make sure no one ‘suspicious’ is ever alone with other suspicious people.

During the discussion about going into Kinzo’s room, she mentions that we still hadn’t figured out the source of the horrible smell. She thinks it may be a poison that Kinzo (and possibly Genji) has built up a resistance to over time. It may cause them to die/hallucinate/etc.

Flashback to Kyrie teaching Battler about chessboard thinking. A: “There are some people for which using a strategy doesn’t work. Like me. We think ‘move the pretty horsie!’ whether that’s a good idea or not!”

Oh god Battler made a joke about how if Kinzo were obsessed with pop idols, he’d have his room full of idol posters. That fucking mental image, man…
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While I was typing this, she looked up ‘diseases that make you smell sweet’ lol. And apparently rats can smell schizophrenia? Apparently some old studies suggest this, but I didn’t see anything recent. She also found a form of diabetes and lactic acidosis, which also includes respiratory failure. She’s going with that last one since we saw Kinzo coughing.

They mention that Kinzo was trying to revive Beatrice with black magic. A: “That’s a bad idea. Best case scenario: you’re still a crazy fuck. Worst case scenario: grey cloaks (Dresden Files reference. Wardens a.k.a. grey cloaks, are people who hunt magicians who perform illegal magic such as revivals).” She then goes on about how reviving the dead is always a bad idea in fiction. “No one is happy when a necromancer tries to raise a family!”

Battler finally notices that the murders are following the riddle We both roll our eyes. A: “Took you long enough.”

System0 plays, but it lacks the Star Trek quote, so I have her listen to the version on Youtube with it. She was a big Star Trek fan as a kid so I knew she’d recognize it immediately. Her face as she listened was a bit of ‘what the fuck’ and ‘wait, I recognize this.’

Natsuhi stands to shoot Maria. A: “Please, let my favorite character shoot my least favorite! I would be very pleased by that. Please, Author-sama!” K: “Oh, is Natsuhi your favorite now?” A: “Well, she’s alive. Kyrie needs to live longer and get more screentime.”

The group is separated. “So we need three more murders, and there’s four people in each group. Great.”

The magic circle that looks like a triforce. “Beatrice is Zelda confirmed.”

In that instant, we decided to chase out all the suspicious people. A: “That sums up a lot of shit in human history. Entire wars have been fought for that reason.”

Natsuhi said that she would become the worst kind of demon to protect Jessica. Arria said that is her favorite line so far. A: “This is what every parent should strive to be.”
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I finished hanging out with Arria again today. We didn't get to read much because there were some distractions, but she wanted to say hello to everyone. I know Mega Mana is here. Don't know if the other regulars have found this topic yet. I don't want to look like an attention whore by summoning them here either. >_>
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Eerieka posted...

Natsuhi said that she would become the worst kind of demon to protect Jessica. Arria said that is her favorite line so far.

nice. I noticed this topic earlier but I forgot to tag it, which led to me forgetting to read the updates until now. it feels a bit too late to post my responses comments but I did read through the whole thing. I am still enjoying this topic series!
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MariaTaylor posted...

Eerieka posted...

Natsuhi said that she would become the worst kind of demon to protect Jessica. Arria said that is her favorite line so far.

nice. I noticed this topic earlier but I forgot to tag it, which led to me forgetting to read the updates until now. it feels a bit too late to post my responses comments but I did read through the whole thing. I am still enjoying this topic series!

No, post anything you feel like saying. Arria wants to read everything after she's finished (and I am saving relevant comments in my own word doc so even if the topic purges, they'll be saved for us.) If it's not something that's a spoiler, I tell her next time we meet. if it's a spoiler, I tell her that she can read it when she's done. :)
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I just remembered I forgot to upload more. Was going to after my last post lol

She literally got goosebumps when Maria started singing over the phone lol. Yeah, she’s freaking out pretty hard. Arria is the kind of person who’s very susceptible to jump scares and she keep thinking something scary will happen. I told her the game doesn’t have jump scares. The closest thing is that freaky picture of evil-grinning Maria which I gave her fair warning about.

She said Natsuhi is pretty badass when she has the duel. She’s really scared now! Jesus, girl, calm down. She said the next time we play we should sit on the other couch that’s up against the wall (currently we’re on a couch with its back to the dining room). She keeps thinking that something (or someone) will sneak up behind her. I told her that episode 1 is probably the scariest of all the games because we don’t know who/what Beatrice is here, but we’ll understand her better in future episodes.

Then the conclusion screen with Bring the Fate plays. She said she liked this piece a lot. I like Bring the Fate, but I’m more into the fast and exciting songs like the zts ‘big’ songs. Guess I should add now, even though I haven’t read Umineko in ages, I regularly listen to its soundtrack so I know a lot of its music when I hear it. She also mentioned liking Fishy Aroma (and I had her listen to the lyrical version). I asked if she liked Goldenslaughterer, but it plays during intense moments when she’s more focused on the story so she couldn’t remember it. I think after some time has passed and we’ve listened to more, I’ll have her go through the songs we’ve heard so far and decide on what she likes best.

Unfortunately it’s getting late and we both have school early tomorrow morning so we won’t be able to start the Tea Parties in this session. Which is gonna be awkward when the first thing she reads next time is basically the conclusion and characters saying thanks for playing.
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Yeees!!! Tag.
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thanks for playing!
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I actually have a little bit more from our most recent meeting day. Everything up to the last post was from a day in April. She has finished both tea parties and dabbled a little bit into episode 2 on May 13th, but we didn't get very far because we kept getting distracted by various things.

Anyway, do share any random comments you have so that I can amuse Arria with them later. Also, feel free to comment about my statements. It's been a long time since I read Umineko the first time so I don't remember everything 100%. My own interpretation of events might be flawed. I'd like to hear other peoples' interpretation of events.

Also: favorite song from Ep 1?
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Day 4 (5/13/17)

I asked her for her thoughts on things few weeks after they happened. She thinks Maria is suspicious as fuck still, and is probably involved somehow, but is not the culprit straight up. She believes in a 19th person, or that Kinzo faked his own death.

K: How do you feel about Beatrice at this point?
A: I don’t have enough information to really have an idea of her.
K: I mean how do you feel about her. Scary? Friendly?
A: She’s creepy as fuck.
K: How do you think she’ll be in future episodes.
A: I think she’s going to a tsundere. Or maybe a yandere, god save us.

Alright, here we are at the tea party.

Maria appears in the tea party. A: “NO! Nobody likes you! Shut your whore mouth! Go away!”

Battler said something about Shannon doing a good job. A: “She did a good job at triggering all the death flags. The only one she didn’t trigger was being pregnant!” I snicker to myself, knowing that there’s no possible way for Shannon to be pregnant. It just so happens that Arria shared a picture with me earlier today (knowing we were gonna read Umineko).

Battler talks about licking wounds. A: “You can’t lick Shannon’s wounds! Only George can!” Then Battler makes a licky licky noise. A: “I tried to stop him.”

Anyway, I had a look on my face at that point that suggested to her that Shannon was pregnant, and she took that to mean she was. K: “I’m just gonna shut my mouth.” Because otherwise I’ll let it slip that Shannon is a man.

A: “19th person could have been the corpse burned beyond recognition. If Kinzo was running around in a blonde wig and dress, it wouldn’t shock me.”

Then they talk about Eva and Hideyoshi’s room. A: “Well, there could be a secret room! Genji was very specific about Kinzo’s room not having any hidden doors. Didn’t say anything about Eva and Hideyoshi’s room having a secret entrance.”
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We then talk about how some buildings in the old days, when they were being built, had ‘fake ceilings’ that were big enough for the technicians to get in and do wiring. A: “When we read about hidden passageways, we think of bookcases and flipping fireplaces, but it could be something as simple as this. A small corner of the ceiling might give way to a small passage that’s just big enough to take you to the next room over.”

A: “Is this actually happening then? What in the world…”
K: “Yeah, this is purgatorio. I may have been yapping at you when it came up on screen.”

She really likes the idea of Kinzo being dressed up as Beatrice and fooling Maria with it. She “likes” it in the sense it makes her laugh; she doesn’t actually believe this happened. A: “I hope he’s wearing some half-assed dress like in the portrait and a stripper wig and heels. (imitating Maria): Oh Beatrice! What a big Adam’s apple you have!” Then I add: “What a big beard you have!” Then she says: “Maria wouldn’t even notice if he had stubble.”

The line about Shannon’s death not being pretty. A: “I’ve been around too many murderers.” Also Shannon mentions that it didn’t hurt. A: “Is that a hint?” K: “It could just mean it was so fast that she didn’t feel anything.” Whew, deflected…. I think she’s still suspicious, though. “Or maybe her face was blasted off after her death.”

A: “I’m waiting for everything to go wrong.” Literally said that just before Battler said that something is wrong and that we stopped thinking. Then the ticking clock. Have I mentioned that Arria is freaked out by the ticking clock? Any time it starts, she assumes the worst.
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I ask her what she’s thinking after Battler has argued with everyone for a bit. “I’m thinking Battler is somehow the only sane one left. Every one is going (hypnotized voice) ‘the witch… the witch…’” Then Maria makes a comparison to this situation being like the middle ages when people couldn’t explain how the Earth spun. A: “No! This is the exact opposite! Battler wants to explain this shit!”

A: “Didn’t I make this theory? That someone wasn’t dead and just pretended to be?” K: “I think so.” Then they talk about how Nanjo confirmed everyone to be dead. A: “He’s a walrus! We can’t trust his medical opinion. ‘what do you think, Nanjo?’ ‘grunt’ ‘yup, they’re dead.’”

A: “No forensic investigator goes to the scene and says ‘a witch did it!’”

Game: The foolish and short-tempered Battler tried to force his ignorance on the others and yelled at him.
A: “Wow! Narrator just got creepy!”
Game: At the time, the wise Maria laughed and pointed out….
A: “Wow! Creepy narrator got ever creepier!”

A: “Because normal people in this century have a block in their head that says ‘magic isn’t real.’ We don’t see a crushed car and think ‘it was a stegosaurus being ridden by two assholes.’ Nope, it was explosives again.”

A: “The entrance to the tea party should have a sign that just says ‘one of us, one of us’”
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I really love this Nanjo is a walrus thing, it's great and hilarious.

Also, ask her who of the cast she'd date.
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Got a response from her already (and I think she's in class right now. Bad Arria!)

"Kyrie, Genji, and Rudolf in that order. With mild interest into Eva as she seems to be a dominatrix."
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Eerieka posted...

With mild interest into Eva as she seems to be a dominatrix.

I see

Arria was concerned that she might come across as being too perverted and thought I should censor some of the things she says. I told her that we're all pretty open to stuff like that. I pointed out that one of her readers (MariaTaylor) is ranking 100 fetishes and I plan to have her read that topic when I see her next time lol.

Also tcaz, Arria and I did get sushi the next time we met after that time she said she wanted mackerel. The place we went to is kinda 'artsy' and the mackerel sushi was put in a cup in a sort of artsy way. I think she took a picture of it. I'll try to get the picture.
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I mean she's reading a series where people are generally okay with Battler I don't think she has to worry about people judging her about being perverted

And nice

Eerieka posted...

ranking 100 fetishes and I plan to have her read that topic when I see her next time lol.

hell yes

love to see what she thinks about that morally bankrupt topic
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Haha yeah, we are not judgmental here. There was a topic where someone (Sess?) detailed his experience at an Asian massage parlor that ends with him licking the masseuse's...yeah I'll leave that to her imagination.
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So now we get to Battler being Battler and denying magic and she’s really digging it. Maria says something about how he needs to believe or the magic won’t work. “No! Keep being Battler! Stop this nonsense!”

I told her how some people compared Umineko to ‘the strongest atheist arguing against God why he’s not real’ and she liked that a lot. Got a laugh out of her.

She mentioned off hand that she likes the ‘turn the chessboard over’ phrase and she’s started using it in real life. She used it at work one time, then she thinks it’s a simpler way of something her teacher tried to tell her. Her teacher phrased it as something like this: “You just fucked something up with the computer. How do you hide it?”

Then Beatrice appears. Oh boy. She gets a cut-in scene! A: “Oh, so we’re pretending this is a thing.”

Then we get her sprite. And she changes to the original sprite for fun, visibly and horribly shudders. K: “Every time, Arria. Every time you look at the original sprites, you flip out.” A: “I thought it wouldn’t be so bad this time.” K: “To be fair, the original Beatrice sprite had some great facial expressions. The new sprites have some good expressions too, though, so I’m pleased with that.”

“There’s a little voice in my head trying to remind me that I like blonde haired and blue eyed characters! Namely males. I’d like to remind that voice it refers to Death Knights (WoW) and ONLY Death Knights and ONLY males. Time to put Arthas and Darien back in their box.”
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To clarify, I think what Arria was trying to get across in that last paragraph was that she's trying not to fall in love with Beatrice immediately. I, uh... I don't think it'll work. I think Arria is going to love Beatrice, especially the end of episode 2. :) No idea if she'll continue to like her once we hit Chiru.

I'm also very curious how she'll react once Erika shows up. Which I know is a long ways off, but still... I think I mentioned it before, but my name irl is Erika so we may have some jokes about that. I think Arria will hate her, then hate her so much that it turns back around into a twisted form of love. Anyway, I've always had a problem with people (real or fictional) having my name. Like... I can't just say 'Erika'. I always have to say 'that other Erika'. I don't know if anyone else has this problem with their names. It's like I have a mental block that I can be the only Erika in the world.
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there's a really popular character who has my name and it does feel a bit weird at times.

Erika is great
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Oh, you can change the sprites anytime? I didn't know that. That's neat.

About that name, that's kinda funny x) There aren't that many fictional Erika that I know of, but I see what you mean. My name is quite rare in fiction thankfully (?).
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MariaTaylor posted...

there's a really popular character who has my name and it does feel a bit weird at times.

Erika is great

A popular character in Umineko with your name, or in fiction in general? I mean, just cuz you're screen name says Maria doesn't mean I'm going to assume your name is Maria. But now I am curious~

Raka_Putra posted...

Oh, you can change the sprites anytime? I didn't know that. That's neat.

About that name, that's kinda funny x) There aren't that many fictional Erika that I know of, but I see what you mean. My name is quite rare in fiction thankfully (?).

Yeah, we can swap the sprites between the PS3 sprites and the original Ryukishi sprites. We can also change the text from the new Steam translation to the original Japanese, which comes in handy occasionally when we want to see what the original text said. I know a smidgin of Japanese. It's more of a curiosity thing to me. For instance, when we want to see how certain characters write their name or if I'm curious about the kanji in a certain word.

There are a handful more Erikas in anime since my name is common in Japan, despite traditionally being through of as having Scandinavian origins. Off the top of my head, there's an Erika in Durarara, Pretty Cure, Girls und Panzer, Strike Witches, Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji, Kaichou wa Maid Sama, and a gym leader in Pokemon.

Raka, aren't you from Malaysia or Indonesia or someplace like that? I don't even know what sorts of names are from those places.
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A: “Is she an author avatar?”
K: “No, that comes later.”
I figured it would be safe to say a throwaway line like that to Arria who will forget it in five seconds.

“Oh I am really liking this!” As Battler starts to argue with Beatrice. Well, I think its safe to say she’ll like the rest of Umineko for a while…

A: “I like that she’s using the old school pipe. I like those.”
K: “I think it’s also supposed to be her magic wand.”

Beatrice has a line about making Battler surrender to her. A: “I like that sentence! I really love that sentence! I feel like this is the kind of line that should be in the bedroom with consenting adults.” Then she clicks to the line about licking toes. “I am no longer the most perverted person in this room! That’s hard to do. I’m not a foot fetishist, but there are undertones here that I like.”

A: “I need to point out a logical error. You can’t be talking TO a person and denying they exist at the same time. Nope! No Beatrice here! I don’t see a Beatrice!”
K: “This is a problem a lot of people have with Umineko at the beginning. It’s not pointed out well, but I’ll explain it as I understand it. The idea is that Battler cannot accept that witches were real in HIS world. In the real world, on the island. This is heaven or hell or purgatory or whatever, and he’s okay with accepting whatever lives here.”
A: “Oooh, that makes a lot more sense.”
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Eerieka posted...

A popular character in Umineko with your name, or in fiction in general? I mean, just cuz you're screen name says Maria doesn't mean I'm going to assume your name is Maria. But now I am curious~

not from Umineko. way more popular. something that most people would know.

and my real name is not Maria. :^]

Eerieka posted...

Beatrice has a line about making Battler surrender to her. A: “I like that sentence! I really love that sentence! I feel like this is the kind of line that should be in the bedroom with consenting adults.” Then she clicks to the line about licking toes. “I am no longer the most perverted person in this room! That’s hard to do. I’m not a foot fetishist, but there are undertones here that I like.”

lol
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Eerieka posted...

Off the top of my head, there's an Erika in Durarara, Pretty Cure, Girls und Panzer, Strike Witches, Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji, Kaichou wa Maid Sama, and a gym leader in Pokemon.

Also one of the main characters from FE: Sacred Stones is Erika (well technically was localized as Eirika with an extra random i, but its pronounced the same way...)

So yeah there's a good few

MariaTaylor posted...

Eerieka posted...

A popular character in Umineko with your name, or in fiction in general? I mean, just cuz you're screen name says Maria doesn't mean I'm going to assume your name is Maria. But now I am curious~

not from Umineko. way more popular. something that most people would know.

and my real name is not Maria. :^]

In that case, I have no chance of guessing. There are too many popular things. D:


tcaz2 posted...

Eerieka posted...

Off the top of my head, there's an Erika in Durarara, Pretty Cure, Girls und Panzer, Strike Witches, Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji, Kaichou wa Maid Sama, and a gym leader in Pokemon.

Also one of the main characters from FE: Sacred Stones is Erika (well technically was localized as Eirika with an extra random i, but its pronounced the same way...)

So yeah there's a good few

Ah, I didn't know her name was originally Erika. I played FE:SS way back when it first came out and I hadn't started learning Japanese at the time. I assumed her name was supposed to be pronounced in some special way. That's neat to know!
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Nintendo does a lot of weird name changes for Fire Emblem.

Some of them are like 'okay whatever' like that one and then some are just arbitrary and weird like changing a 'Stella' to an 'Astrid' because ???

I always said Eye-Reeka, even though I knew it was probably wrong. also what's up with la'arachel or whatever. is that what her real name is supposed to be or did they change that too? and if so... why....
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According to the wiki her name was Larchel in Japanese.

But yeah that name is a mess

tcaz2 posted...

Nintendo does a lot of weird name changes for Fire Emblem.

Some of them are like 'okay whatever' like that one and then some are just arbitrary and weird like changing a 'Stella' to an 'Astrid' because ???

Hrm. Well Stella = star. Maybe they were going for Aster, which is a flower and also means star, then changed it to Astrid for funsies? That is a strange change. I didn't know her name was originally Stella, either.

Come to think of it, Arria would probably really like Astrid if she played Fire Emblem... I know she played FE Heroes lately, but more to give her something to do at work when she's bored and only has her phone to keep her company. It's funny to me because she'll sometimes send me pictures of Fire Emblem characters and be like "I like him!" And I'll be like "yes, that's Jakob. He was my first Fates husbando."

MariaTaylor posted...

I always said Eye-Reeka, even though I knew it was probably wrong. also what's up with la'arachel or whatever. is that what her real name is supposed to be or did they change that too? and if so... why....

And now I'm curious enough to look it up and find out.

L'arachel - R%u0101cheru. Hell, could have just changed her name to Rachel. Maybe that wasn't UNIQUE AND FANTASY enough for Nintendo.

edit: fuck you GameFAQs. it's a long 'ra' then cheru.
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Yeah I'm from Indonesia and Raka is also part of my real name. Malay names are still uncommon in media and...most other countries outside of Indonesia/Malaysia/Singapore, so yeah, no wonder.

I really like that Aria is liking the premise of Umineko...and the perverse bits lol. There are more where it came from.
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I only know one person irl with an Indonesian name - a girl I go to school with. She's pretty much my basis for what an Indonesian name should sound like lol.

Oh, and good ol' Batman bin Suparman

I am eagerly awaiting Arria reading the end of Ep 2. That will be fuuuuun.
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Beatrice summons Beelzebub and Asmodeus to fly through the door. I always get Beelzebub and Belphegor mixed up, so I had to look up which one was which. Beelze is Gluttony, and we both knew offhand that Asmodeus was lust. Sadly no sprites of the girls. Would have been nice. I guess Ryukishi didn’t draw them until Ep 2.

Game: maybe Shannon had a toothache
Arria FLIPPED out. “WHAT KIND OF FUCKING TOOTHACHE IS THAT? Narrator has been drinking! It’s obviously not a fucking toothache! I’ll have some of what Narrator has been having.”

Battler: “What is that red stuff?”
Arria puts her hands out. “Ketchup, jackass.”
Game: then the stupid dunce Battler realized…
Arria spread her arms again: “Thank you, drunk narrator.”
Game: something about milk and black tea
Arria: “I take it back. The narrator isn’t drunk. He’s stoned.”

George and Jessica are turned into piles of meat. Arria liked how Jessica, in her final moments here, told Battler to deny the witch. And Jesus, Marina Inoue sounds like she’s dying in real life here. Good job, lady.

Ooooh, she’s getting really into it! As the tea party reaches the conclusion, she starts to see how much more awesome Battler and Beatrice are. She wanted to change the character ranking. This is where things stand as of now:

Kyrie
Natsuhi
Rosa
Genji
(new!): Beatrice
Rudolf
(Battler got placed here just now)
Shannon
George
Nanjo
Kinzo
Eva
Jessica
(Battler was here initially)
Hideyoshi
Krauss
Kumasawa
Kanon
Gohda
Maria
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I always thought that bit was funny cuz it was like, oh Shannons head exploded, how rude of her

The toothache part was referring to how her face exploded, wasn't it? xD

I'm glad she likes it, since I know some people just get baffled and frustrated by the Tea Party.

I only know one person irl with an Indonesian name - a girl I go to school with. She's pretty much my basis for what an Indonesian name should sound like lol.

Oh what was her name? And where do you live, I assume in the US?
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Lol yeah, that was in reference to how Shannon was in pain, and then she exploded.

I live in the US, yes. My classmate... hmm, I don't know if I want to say her full name in case she decides to google her name or something and wonders why the fuck she's being mentioned on a video game message board. Her last name (she has two, but she mostly just uses one) is Sumagpang.
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Now we’re at the ????? The tea party of those who are not human

A: “I like this background. (imitating Persona's Igor): Welcome to the velvet room!”

Bernkastel appears. A: “Oh, you’re new.”

A: Is SHE the author avatar?
K: (thinking: damn it, you were supposed to forget that!) “No, not her. She’s the author avatar’s cat.”
Best thing is, Arria doesn’t know how serious I am.

She’s somewhat familiar with Higurashi, but she didn’t watch/read the whole thing. I explain the entire Bernkastel-Rika thing to her. I try to use computer terms because that’s what she knows best, but I likely fucked it all up lol. She also asked about Fragments, which I just said were names for the alternate universes.

K: “She might be a character in the profile screen now.”
Then she sees the execution button. A: “What the fuck? We can execute them?”
K: “Click it and find out.”
She shudders again when reading their messages.


A: “I think this is happening in the creator’s mind.”


A: Is she talking to me?
K: Yes
A: This is so meta
K: You have no idea…
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It's only going to get more meta from now on. xD

Why'd you explain the Bernkastel thing so early? Not that it would mean a lot to her since she hasn't watched it completely, but the revelation of what made Bern like this is kinda a big thing, no?
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She'll probably never read/watch all of Higurashi. I told her stuff about Bern that people who experienced Higurashi would already know, just to get her caught up. Nothing spoilery for Umineko.
---

Ah, I see.
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I do appreciate your input, Raka. If you think I'm saying too much, let me know and I'll try to tone it down later. With Arria, sometimes I feel like I need to throw her a bone to keep her interested, but I do so at the risk of spoiling important details. It's a difficult balance to achieve. I think I mentioned this already, but I told her already how (at least in the first four episodes) only things Battler sees can be taken as 100% literally happening. Even though that's a spoiler I wouldn't normally say to people, I think Arria needed a hint like that so she wouldn't feel 'cheated' later on. I know feeling betrayed and trolled is some of the fun of Umineko, and I guarantee you Arria will experience some of that, but I didn't want her to feel so utterly betrayed that she loses interest.
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And Episode 2

Shannon: I hear Japanese are the only people to go to aquariums and think of how delicious they look
A: No! No you’re not! Me and my husband have both thought that. Especially eel. *slurp* yummy eel.
George: Americans and Italian!
A: I get Americans, but Italians?
K: Well, their boot projects into the sea. Maybe they eat a lot of seafood?
A: We’re eating shrimp scampi tonight. I’m going to shut up now.

She thinks Shannon looks cute in her new dress, but George “looks like he walked out of a disco. And what’s with the dog tags, dude?” At least it doesn’t say Tomitake Flash.

Game: the word buffet can make any boy’s heart race
A: No, honey, it can make anyone’s inner fat kid’s heart race. We all have an inner fat kid.
K: George’s original sprite was sorta chubby. People in real life made fun of him for being fat
A: (changes to the original sprites) “Aww, we have a fat kid. How cute.”

George says his stomach is hurting “It’s not your stomach that’s hurting, but it IS something that Shannon can help you with!”

Oh lord. I can’t take this scene seriously, knowing what I know about Shannon. Arria thinks this is all cute and fluffy and I’m like… yeah, there’s ain’t gonna be any sex happening. She wanted to find a picture to express her feelings, and this was it:

Arria: http://iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/1329054948876.gif
Kira: (thinking, not gonna say this out loud in front of her lol) https://tinyurl.com/l3vbyuu
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