Raguna Blade's Writing

Luffy counting the Straw Hats on his fingers is a really strong visual on its own, but I find it especially poignant because one of the last things Luffy saw before Ace died was his blood on his hands, an image that's haunted him ever since he regained consciousness

Sparkle on!

It’s Monopoly Mermaid Monday!

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Character A: *Accidentally spills something on her shirt and it leaves a stain*

*Looks around to see if anyone noticed.*

*Takes a few steps to the side, moving along the static background texture causing the stain to ‘slide’ away and not be visible anymore*

[later in the episode, a completely different scene with completely different framing]

Character A: *Walks along with the rest of the cast across the screen into the same spot on the screen where she was when she spilled on her shirt. The stain was on the same spot in the background texture this whole time she just happened to avoid it throughout the episode til now. This causes the stain to ‘slide’ onto her shirt again, but shes further from the ‘camera’ now so the stain covers way more of her shirt.*

Character B: *Points the stain out and laughs at her for managing to get such a huge stain on her clothes*

Character A: *Gets embarrassed and defensive saying it’s the shot composition’s fault*

Character C: *Looks up and scolds the animator for not doing the cast’s laundry between scenes*

Faceless animator from off screen: *Tries to make excuses about not having time and trying to meet the episode deadline*

Character C: *Crosses her arms and turns her head away, says she’s disappointed in them*

Offscreen animator’s giant hand: *Reluctantly grabs the static clothing texture and pulls it away*

Character A: *Her shirt clothing texture is replaced with blank white void. She gets embarrassed and tries to cover herself up as if she was naked*

[Cut to short live action sequence of the disembodied hand of the animator throwing the static texture cloth into the washing machine, adding stain remover and starting the machine.]

[Time passes. Cut to disembodied hand tapping its fingers impatiently right before the washing machine dings complete. The hand throws it in the dryer. Resumes tapping impatiently]

[Time Passes. Cut to disembodied hand seemingly being asleep, then the dryer dings waking them up. Hand takes texture out of the dryer. Starts bringing the texture back to the set.]

Character C, offscreen: *Shouts at the animator demanding they iron it too*

[Cut to disembodied hand frantically ironing the texture.]

[Cut back to animated scene with main cast still at the same scene. Character A is still embarrassed and trying to cover herself up. Character B is asleep and loudly cartoonishly snoring. Character C is looking up at where ‘the animator’ is, impatiently tapping her foot and scowling]

Disembodied Hand: *Frantically tries to put the texture back in place. Accidentally puts it on upside down.*

Character C, scowling: *Raises an eyebrow*

Disembodied hand: *Frantically rearranges the texture and finally gets it in place correctly*

Character C, eyebrow still raised: *Asks if they’re forgetting something*

Disembodied hand, ‘standing’ on the ‘ground’ of the scene with its middle and ring finger posed as legs and its pointer and pinky as arms: *Goes into dogeza pose and desperately apologizes*

Character C: *Accepts apology, but gives a threatening warning not to let it happen again*

Disembodied hand: *’Runs’ offscreen frantically*